Short Story

"Ow!" I yelp in pain. My knuckles throbbed, Matt ran quickly to my side. It was obvious he wasn't as far away as I thought.

“YOU ALWAYS DO THIS! I HATE YOU!” she interrupted me. She stomped into her room. She’s lucky there was nothing within my arm’s reach or I would’ve--

"That arrow," said Jingyan. He recalled the moment Mei Changsu threw himself across his back and the force that pressed both of them forward. He'd mistaken the hiss of the arrow as wind and he'd mistaken the sound of flesh being pierced as wet earth under the wheels. "It was meant for me."

A shadow passed over his smug expression. He slid his hips from the desk and his flinty eyes hardened to thin slits. “You’re lying.”

Slowly she began to back away toward back door; she pressed her back against the fly screen and wrapped her hand around the door handle. Footsteps made their way toward their door and a fist banged against the wood, the door ricocheting off the fist and wiggling. Her mother then gasped and slowly walked to the door, wrapping her hand around her belly she opened the door and Djinda darted to hide in the kitchen.

Sunlight leaked from the small hole in the wall. Unlike the ridiculously good weather, ear piercing- screaming, devastated crying and wicked laughter caused goosebumps on Soon-Young’s arms. She lazily rubbed her eyes. Her whole body felt sore- her muscles ached painfully each time she attempted to stand up. Soon-Young blinked her eyes. She wished that she was experiencing a vivid hallucination after what she saw. She realized she wasn’t in home.

“Never seen that man before in my life.” he voiced, tilting his hat down more. Irritated, the female stomped away, heading to the next table. His hazel eyes followed the woman until she ended up at the other end of the bar. After gulping his drink, he faltered to the back door with a concerned look on his face. He prayed that the female distracted herself with the other bar patrons.

She wrapped her fingers around his wrist to stop him. An image flashed of her face, upper lip bloody, color returning to her skin. “I thought you were dead. I saw you get shot.”

“Let me go!” She yanked her arm away from him and rubbed it, “I told you and mom I didn’t want to be here, and you made me go anyway.” She started to walk away

Rafaela placed a heavy hand on her hip. "Did you just interrupt me?" Rafaela scoffed, in disbelief at the disrespect she had just received.

She fell onto the ground; her heel had broken from all of the fighting. She fought a few seconds to regain her composure and ran out the salon door.

“You were able to defeat me last time,” he chuckled as he dug his nails into her arm. “But this time you won't, now that your wand and karate friend are useless.”

“Don’t worry! I’ll have them for you in half an hour!” Rose yelled back. Her job had been killing her lately with all of the new laws that were being passed. So many people needed lawyers because of the immigrants flooding in like flocks of birds, but there just weren’t enough to cover everyone who needed one. She scrambled to find and print all of the vital papers. Her recent case, a factory with carbon emissions exceeding the limit, was having trouble providing her with the necessary information she needed to get their case a court date.

“Hello?” The girl called out as she carefully rubbed the wounds on her face. “I demand to know who took me!” She shouted so suddenly that I jumped and made a gasping noise that drew her attention to me.

"Don 't!" She clutched my arm like a scared cat, her nails bit deep into my skin, and blood to seeped out. "I’m so sorry." She scrabbled to the kitchen to get me a rag and peroxide.