Chelsea slumped against the porch, staying out of the crowd. She still felt like she would puke. She wasn’t really watching monster hunters gather excitedly to learn how to use polearms. Instead, all she could see, over and over, like some sick commercial on a loop in her head, was Amber bolting from the car while the words “I love you” stuck in Chelsea’s throat.
The door popped open and two long, dark, furry creatures scurried across the floor in opposite directions.
Chelsea groaned. “Not again.” The nearly forgotten stitches in her arm began to itch as she searched the floor for the dronkes. “You really need a better cage.”
Chelsea breathed in the heady fumes of the oil paints. She had finally finished her reference outline. It had taken months. Much longer than she had spent with Jackson Hawk in real life
Her vision reduced to a slim sliver, Chelsea ignored the shelves digging into her back and tried not to breathe loudly. As she stared into the darkness in the kitchen, doubt wormed into her stomach. It was all well and good to hide in here, but what, exactly, was her plan?
“Where’s your young man?”
Chelsea gasped and jumped at Sister Mary Clarence’s voice. She spun around, heart thumping. “You scared me, sister.”
“Obviously.”
This one time, on twitter, we got into a conversation about the Trojan… and then this happened. *** The humming laptop harmonized with the buzzing neon lights. Their song as soothing to Matty as techno at this point. And he needed some soothing. Being kidnapped, again, does not help the paranoia. The hum of his computer […]
“Close your eyes.”
Chelsea stood and did as commanded, but couldn’t help the snicker as freezing wind made her hair flutter. “Can I trust you?”
From the darkness, Jackson Hawk’s breath rose gooseflesh as it snaked along her neck. “Oh, my little nun, you should know better by now.
As Chelsea raced to her class, one thought kept repeating: My hair is sticking up in the back
“Do you want me to go with you?”
She froze, stuck halfway between wanting company, and not wanting Jackson Hawk anywhere near the clergy who ran her college. She half-feared he’d burst into flame just walking into the chapel.
I don’t have any new writing updates, but I do have this short story…
Words That Burn Like Fire 