Showing posts with label W. Show all posts
Showing posts with label W. Show all posts

Friday, April 26, 2013

A to Z Challenge 2013 - W is for Wails

I'm posting snippets from a story for this year's Challenge.
If you'd like to read the whole tale, please start with A.

W IS FOR WAILS

The monster's fangs plunged into Danielle's upper arm. It flung her up against the ceiling, smashing her into the stucco. It fluttered around them like stage snow.

She screamed. Or at least she thought she did, but all she could hear were Libby's wails.

Danielle summoned her blades back to her, and they emerged from her palms. The serpent threw her against the far wall beside the open closet. The world swam before her eyes, but she'd been hit in the head enough times sparring to know how to push through the pain.

Kill it properly this time. Fenn ordered.

An eerie rattling filled the room.

"I did!" Danielle growled. When the monster struck again, she was ready. Kicking its lower jaw up, she raked her swords along the soft flesh under its head. It didn't deal with pain as well as she did. As it flailed, she loped off its head, and it lost form becoming goo. "Definitely dead."

For three seconds.

"Dammit!" Danielle jumped out of the way and crouched down in front of Libby and Erik. "Libby, you don't have to be afraid any more. I'm here. Your fear is giving the monster power."

"But it's not my monster!" Libby cried. "It's Daddy's!"

Thursday, April 26, 2012

A to Z Challenge - W is for Weakness

This is part of an ongoing story written for the Challenge.
If you're just joining me now, please start with A is for Abby.

W IS FOR WEAKNESS

"I'm not going to make it that easy for you." Burrows laughed and motioned with her hand for them to come at her again.

Demetrius roared and tried to zigzag his way closer to the writer, but with such little space, there was no way his strategy could work. Abby held her ground as he was slapped back again.

"It's just toying with us." Why? What was it up to? Abby knew it was waiting for something. Her usual way to go about it was to think like a child, but Burrows was no child. The monster had grown as the woman had. Yet it was still was a monster. It wanted to kill.

"Toy with this then." Demetrius rammed his club into the desk and sent it into Burrows.

The writer let out a girlish shriek as she was pinned against the wall. Her face contorted into something ugly and unnatural as the beast howled. A dozen tendrils smashed Demetrius into the ceiling and wall. The wood cracked and split as he was repeatedly slammed against it.

Abby cried out and leapt at Burrows. She was thrown against the filing cabinet and landed hard on one shoulder. She didn't drop her swords as she sped to Demetrius and sliced through the tendrils to free him. He slumped to the floor. His breaths coming in shuddering gasps.

"Demetrius, no. Stay with me." Abby laid her swords down to put his head on her lap and brushed his hair back from his handsome face. Her chest was so tight, it hurt to breathe. She used her sleeve to wipe the blood from his eyes. "Please."

"Abby." His whisper was accompanied by a bubble of blood. His hands curled into fists.

"That's right. Don't you dare die on me. Fight. Fight, you stubborn freakin' fae." She couldn't contain her tears nor the trembling of her body.

Suddenly, Demetrius was yanked away and dragged across the floor. Burrows, free from the desk, grinned as he came to rest before her. She put a foot on the side of his face and pressed into it with her heel. He barely had the strength to groan.

"So that's it. Your weakness. I didn't think you were that much into him." The monster's gleeful laugh echoed in the room.

Abby swiped at her cheeks and picked up her swords. Her legs were shaky as she stood up. She wanted to beg, to promise to give the thing whatever it wanted if it let Demetrius go. Her heart couldn't take losing him. She choked back a sob.

"This is what I waited to see. The Fearless isn't so fearless in the end." Burrows stomped on Demetrius' head and there was a crack.

This time, the beast's insane laughter made Abby scream.