Fairy Dust and Starbucks Cups
Chapter 4
I've tried to make the transitions between scenes smoother, but I just can't find a way that flows naturally. But thank you very much for the advice. I ALWAYS need advice, criticism, etc.
My new year's resolution is to write at least 500 words/day so I can update more. I'll never get anything done if I sit around and wait for inspiration to strike. Got a twoshot almost ready to put up. It features the extremely under-appreciated Amir!
Hikari shrieked, then couldn't breathe for a minute, her heart thudding double-time and adrenaline coursing. She felt her legs tremble and give out, and she slid to the floor in the coal-blackness. A hand, warm and sweat-salty shot up from its grip on her coat and felt its way to her mouth, muffling her.
She heard several footsteps, heels clacking smartly on hardwood, and a chorus of rustling clothing, noise from moving chains.
Her captor unwound its grip from her waist, half-stepped back, but kept the hand over her mouth.
Hikari heard the lock click on the door, and dimly, a light flicked on in the distance.
"Is it her?" A soft voice, distinctly feminine, called from a ways off.
Hikari's mouth went dry, and she felt her face heat, sweat building on the back of her neck.
She saw dimly a figure in an armchair across the room, in the coffee shop that was never open.
The dim light reflected silver off the lady's hair, but her face was shaded in the gloom and her clothes were dark.
"Why are the lights off, anyway, Wizard? Couldn't you have just sat her down and talked it over with her?"
"Then… turn on the lights and do it… yourself." A much quieter, smoother voice, deep in the darkness, sounded from above her. She could feel the vibrations in her captor's chest. "It was halfway your plan, anyway…"
Hikari's captor released her and mumbled something quiet in reply.
She heard more clicking footsteps, and the lights came on all at once, burning bright.
Hikari was blind for a moment, then saw the weird man from the other night looking down at her with a nonchalant expression, as if he hadn't just attempted to abduct her. He was wearing the same purple overcoat with the weird patterns from the other night. Chains and crystals on woven strings, charms from every culture hung suspended over his chest, clicking together as he moved.
The lady leaning on the wall opposite them was glaring, irate, at the Wizard, hands on her hips in a childishly irritated pose. No one seemed to know what to say.
"Have a seat." Wizard's voice sounded from above her, deep and resounding, and she stood up on mechanically shaky legs and hoisted herself onto a couch.
The lady with the white hair sat across from her, slim and pale in her dark clothes, and the Wizard took his place in a dusty aqua-blue armchair in between them.
"We're really not bad people... We don't usually kidnap, I swear." The lady seemed to struggle for words, to further her defence, but gave up.
"You can call me Witch."
Hilarious glanced at her. "You have a real name?"
"Witch." She repeated, her smile having hardened slightly.
"We're here today because Wizard here is too damn pathetic to just sit someone down and talk to them about what we do." She tossed another withering look at him, to which he sighed, exasperated.
"So, normally, we're pretty safe 'cause no one really believes that we're actually magical, but we have a bit of a situation that we need your help with. Y'see, we work for an organization called MASCA, and we think that there are some rather… funny goings-on that need inspection. "
Witch drummed her plum-painted fingertips on her crossed legs and smiled slightly, picking at a loose grey thread on her leggings.
Wizard rolled his eyes.
"Couldn't you get someone else? I-is this even legal?" Hikari glanced at the door, and back at the pair. She felt like crying, her hands trembling. She tucked them in her sleeves.
"I mean, did it have to be… me? I don't have any special skills, and I'm not, um, wanted for anything. Y'know, by the cops?"
She had gone hot, and her palms were sweaty. She knew that Wizard was suspicious. She should've kept the damn umbrella.
Hikari's gaze dropped to her lap. The Witch's beastlike yellow-orange eyes held their stare.
"We think that... based on your qualities and talents... You would be best for this task..." Wizard spoke in his usual somber way, glancing out the window at the dusk sky.
"You work with plants...?"
Hikari nodded, hesitant.
"We can't tell you much, but... We need you to help a certain... tree..."
His deep voice trailed off at the end of his sentence, as if he was almost embarrassed to finish the thought.
They had abducted her for the sake of a tree? Just a tree? No drugs, no murder, no illegal trading of goods, just a plant.
Was it a drug tree? An illegal plant?
Witch had begun glaring at him again with her unnatural yellow-orange eyes, and crossed her arms over her chest.
"I wanted to tell it, idiot! Hurry and get it over with before we have to wipe her mind." Witch's scowl deepened and she tossed her long cobweb hair.
"We... can't tell you too much... It'd be unwise to refuse, as Witch said... We're not supposed to exist. And you're not supposed to know about us..." The Wizard took up the explaining, folding his long hands casually over his knees. A coffee cup Hikari hadn't noticed before sat abandoned on a side-table, ghosts of vapour curling off and dissolving in the chilly, dim room.
His odd-eyed stare somehow made her self-conscious, so she avoided eye contact, floundering about in her thoughts. How much memory would they wipe? Would she be able to go in living normally? Would it simply be a matter of forgetting the whole 'magic' incident?
"Oh, no. If we did it like that, you'd have nothing to lose. Why would you help us if you didn't have a motive? If you refuse, we'll remove every memory since you were fifteen years of age. You won't remember the location of your home, your job, how to drive... I suggest you work with us, dear." Witch piped up, false cheer in her voice. Was it just a lucky guess or had the mysterious pair been monitoring her thoughts the whole time? Hikari wasn't sure that her skepticism of magic could survive around these freaks.
"A pure soul like yours is a rare thing. Shame to see it go to such a waste… A great witch like me, I could put it to good use. How 'bout it? You should feel honoured that we're even offering such an opportunity!" The witch had leaned forward, supporting her elbows on her knees.
Wizard was watching her still, having remembered the coffee that had presumably been sitting there since the threesome sat down. She felt a pounding begin in her head, a newborn headache blooming in her temples.
He swallowed, placed the cup back on the table with a heavy, final thunk of porcelain.
Dry-throated, the pressure weighed on Hikari as she thought. Those were some of the most important years of her life, the establishment of her career, her schooling, her family memories, her old friends... It was a lot of history to lose.
"I guess... so. I'll do it."
"You'll do it?" The wizard had closed his eyes, and it seemed oddly final to her.
"Yeah... uh...yes. I agree."
"Excellent! Now we can talk business..."
Hikari blinked, her head suddenly feeling much clearer, almost free of the fuzzy, muddled pain she'd been experiencing earlier. Was it just the relief of the close of the stressful situation, or had they been influencing her? She had no idea what the two were capable of, or what their little organization was up against.
I have the next chapter mostly done. I wanted to make Hikari relatively normal without being an airhead or a Mary-Sue, but I still feel like I fell a bit short. Having never been in a situation like this, I find it (naturally) rather difficult to portray.
Been reading quite a bit of Cormac McCarthy's work lately. Violent. Highly recommended though, if you don't mind that sort of thing.
Thanks as always for your critique and support!