Deadly Drafts - Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Shouts filled Library Meeting Room A. Through the main door and across the cavernous room, three people sat in a triangle around a circular table. Golden dusk slanted across the weekly meeting of the Bakersville Irregulars Writing group. Outside, winter grew weary under Spring's warm breath.

"I should have Hardcastle put you back in solitary for your sloppy similes!" Spit drizzled from Harris lips. Arthur, object of his ire, smirked, arms folded over chest. Kavi, equilateral to the other two at their circular table, rubbed the headache at her temples.

"Pick a point and focus. Breathe."

Harris turned to Kavi. "No one wants to hear about camera flashes like the 'glinting smile of an ages-weary Kraken.' It's bullshit. If we're going to sell our story to publishers, it has to be better than this."

Arthur blew a raspberry. "If bad prose was a crime, you'd be walking the Green Mile."

Deadly Drafts - CH 53

ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR KITE

Warm breath, sweet like fresh vanilla cookies, breathed into Harris' lungs. His whole body inflated. He fizzled with light and energy. Lips pressed to his, firm and soft at the same time.

"I've died," Harris moaned. "The old bastard shot me and I died."

"You better not be dead." A familiar voice defibrillated Harris' heart. "Now that you're a free man."

"Someone..." Harris opened his eyes. "Tell me we're alive."

"We're alive." Kavi sat upright, back to an EMT van, medic checking her vitals. "No need to panic, Kagan, we're good." She smiled. "Pick a point. Breathe. In one, two, three; out one, two, three, four, five, six."

Deadly Drafts - CH 52

A HIGHLEY EFFECTIVE ESCAPE PLAN

"Help!" Sebastian shouted himself hoarse. "Help! I'm in the van! They kidnapped me! The writers and the detective! Anyone, please help!"

Police swarmed the van, wraiths in body armor and helmets. Their shouts puffed into the cold morning. Hardcastle, no helmet and captain’s bars on his Kevlar, led the phalanx.

"Remember," the judge growled, "any funny shit and one of you dies. Oh god!" he writhed, clawing his face. "Please! Please help! They're going to kill me!"

"Out!" Hardcastle boomed through the commotion. "Slow and with your hands up!"

First Kavi and Arthur, then Harris and Alex, all four slid out onto the Bakersville Library green, hands as high as muscle and tendons would stretch. A dozen rifles pointed straight to their racing hearts.