I attended four events the other day, and this was the first.
The facilitator had us do writing sprints: fifteen minutes of just writing, five minutes of talking about it or asking questions or reading what we've got.
What I learned? I can get a page to a page and a half written (single-spaced long-hand) in fifteen minutes, so if I have fifteen minutes, I don't have an excuse to not write.
I continued with the story that I started in the Horror Workshop, which can be found here, and since this was a Speculative Fiction salon, there's a bit of a genre shift from Horror. [15] denotes the end (ish) of a 15-minute sprint. Note that I've typed up what I wrote with minimal edits or proofing
Spencer l'Amoind was in love. Which was wonderful. With a human. Which was bad. He'd Followed lots of women-folk--human, Fae, demon, or whatever you can imagine.
Where he was from, most Hounds referred to women as Females, but he hated that term. It was so objective, and could refer to anything from babies to children to adults, and he wasn't that much of an ass. If you ignored the part about him being a Hound: following, harassing, and often terrorizing women-folk for money.
I mean, a guy's gotta eat, and buy flea-ridden blankets to keep him warm in his rat-infested, rent controlled apartment, which he also had to pay for, somehow, right? And it's not like he thought he was a good guy, even though his mama did. He was a good guy, but his job didn't make him appear so, and if he bought into the whole "you are what you do" thing, then he was not a good guy.
But he wanted to be.
H did have limits. No minors. "Underaged Woman" was the dumbest thing he'd every heard. Those are kids, and he didn't Follow kids. He also didn't rape or kill. One could terrorize just fine without raping or killing.
And Spencer had Terrorized lots of women of all kinds. Fae. Demon. Dragon. Even a Kelpie once, which was hard because he wasn't a great swimmer. Kind of an important skill if you're stalking something that can hold its breath forever.
Demons were his favourite because they were challenging. Dragons, well, he only Stalked and Terrorized one dragon, and he'd almost died. He was successful though, so now the offers kept rolling in, but he wasn't enough money to cover the stupidity of the idea, so, No.
[15]
He was currently following a human.
Humans were the easiest, and he felt bad for how easy. They just had to think, and they were afraid. It was almost not satisfying, and therefore boring, but because it was so easy, it almost made him feel like he wasn't such a bad guy because he didn't have to do the absolutely crazy shit that some of his colleagues went for, like actual rapes and torture and (usually slow) murders.
And this current human was the one that he was in love with. Inconvenient, for sure. Just. So. Inconvenient. He was being paid a moderate sum to make her so afraid to walk home in the dark, so afraid to walk home at any time, that she'd marry the worm paying him to Terrorize her, and she'd stay home, submit, have his babies, etc., etc.
To clarify, Spencer's client wasn't a Worm. Those guys were into Following themselves, and didn't need Hounds. No, his client was just an Alpha-Bro Podcast fan, worm of a human male. Dude wanted a trad-wife, and he wanted this woman as his trad-wife (stupid term), but she was independent and happy living in her clean house with her two cats. He wanted her scared enough to never leave her house. His house. Dude probably wouldn't let her have a choice in where they lived.
Spencer may have known how happy she was with her cats because he was thorough in his preparatory Stalking. Very, very thorough.
Lisa May. Spencer breathed her name, and stubbed a toe on the root of a tree.
She stopped. Again. Held her breath so tightly. He could see that in the set of her shoulders, and in how stiffly she held herself. So still, that Spencer wondered if she was in fact human, and not maybe Fae or part Fae.
Chico made some noise on the other side of her, drawing her focus so that she wouldn't notice Spence getting closer on her left. But still behind her.
She was definitely wary now.
But, was she scared?
Spencer wasn't trying to be noisy, but he also didn't hide his footfalls, giving Chico a chance to climb a nearby tree without being heard. Then they were both silent.
Lisa-May started walking again, and this time with fortitude. Bravery. Not something Spencer expected, but something he appreciated. She was holding herself like she was supposed to be there. Which gave him pause.
And maybe made him fall in love a little bit more.
[15]
Lisa-May kept walking with purpose and intent and belonging. She wound around the tree on the footpath. She started swinging her arms with a bit more animation.
She stubbed her toe on an uplift in the pavement, stumbled, and used the distraction to pull her pepper spray canister from her purse and tuck it into a pocket on her jacket. She loved this jacket for its pockets. For the big, square, hold-everything, easy-to-access pockets on the front. Pockets big enough to hide things. If it had been legal to carry a gun, that's where it would go.
Lisa-May kept walking, pretending that she was ignoring the noises behind her, which were getting closer. They were still being weird, too, like magical beings that could move silently or teleport at will. As she neared the exit to the park, she knew two things to be true.
She had two stalkers.
They never crossed the path behind her.
They never moved, or made noise, at the same time.
The silent one never fell behind, so they could move in silence.
They were getting closer.
Okay, five things. Five things were true. She thought about it some more, but couldn't come up with any more things that were TRUE. Maybe it was only four things that were true. She maybe didn't have two stalkers. She maybe only had one that could fly overhead without a sound to switch sides.
She stopped at the side of the street and debated which way to turn.
Left was the way home. Forward.
Right was back the way she came, albeit sideways and around. Not forward. Not home.
She didn't want to lead whoever, or whatever, was following her home.
But to the right was a sketchy part of town.
Sketchier than walking alone through the dark park by yourself. Sure, there was more lighting, but there were also more people, and while most people would say that more people was a good thing, the "more people" from this part of town tended to do very bad things to other people, especially women walking around alone. It didn't even have to be night. Or dark.
Oh. Oh, for crying out loud. Lisa-May was in the Throes of the whole Bear vs. Man Alone in the Woods debate.
Well, she was not leading anyone to her home.
And she was not walking into a for-sure assault.
[15]
Spencer and Chico were right upon Lisa-May now. They were Right Behind her. Not that she could see them. No one could. Well, except themselves, obviously, because if they couldn't see each other, chaos would ensue.
Spencer could feel the anticipation of scaring Lisa-May., the love of his life (not that she knew that). All she had to do was walk Left.
The love of his life. Why was he scaring the Love of his Life?
"Chico", he mouthed. "Why am I scaring her?"
"Money," Chico mouthed back. He flicked his tail and Suspended them.
"Dude," Chico groaned. "No doubts. We need food. Food costs money. We therefore need money."
Spencer sighed. Nodded.
Chico flicked his tail back the other way and unsuspended them. He flicked his tail too far.
Spencer sneezed.
Lisa-May stiffened. Had she heard the sneeze?
Chico's eyes grew wide in alarm.
Lisa-May turned around. Not left. Not right. But facing back into the park. Looking right at Chico, who'd moved to Spencer's shoulder.
"Squirrel," she said.
Her eyes flicked right.
Her eyes landed on Spencer's face.
"Not a squirrel," she said. "Not a human."
[15, and end of the salon]
There are definitely parts to this that I want to flesh out more. Add more conversation maybe, and more details. Maybe keep the last thing LM said.
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