The Talon Family
The Kiss of the Witch Doctor
February
Draft_2
By: Chase L. Currie
Gabriel pulled up to the house as Michael and Helbis dashed into the back and she pulled away. “How was dealing with the Voodoo Boys?” Helbis asked.
“They
won’t be hurting anyone anytime soon,” Raphael said with a sly grin. “Paladin
has them all.”
“Good,”
Helbis said.
“We
also found out,” Raphael said, “they had some magic to help them out.”
“Yeah
that makes sense,” Helbis said handing
him the letter. Michael didn’t say a word staring out the window feeling
Gabriel’s eyes on him. She wasn’t talking either, but she was trying her best
to keep him out of combat. She didn’t want him to fight too afraid he would
lose it and hurt someone, although that there might not be a choice coming soon.
“Great,”
Raphael said folding the letter up. “Someone summoned something.”
“Looks
that way,” Helbis said. “The question is where did they do it at?”
“We
might know,” Raphael said. “The leader of the gang said his master live at the
Devil’s house.”
“That
sounds like the last place I want to go,” Helbis said.
“It’s a
house,” he said, “on the street with no
name, but luckily some folks told us where it could be found.”
“I bet
you that’s where these girls are,” Helbis said. “Maybe, we can save them.”
“Let’s
hope,” Raphael said.
“You
going to be okay?” Gabriel asked Michael.
He
looked over at her green eyes in the mirror. He wrinkled
his brow and said, “Yeah, why?”
“You
keep everything under control?” She asked. Raphael and Helbis looked away or
try to become as small as they could in their seats.
“Yes,
of course,” he shot back.
“Really?”
Gabriel barked, “How do I know that? You hurt that man, what is going to happen
when you are fighting someone who is trying to kill us?”
“I’ll
stop them.”
“By
killing them?” She asked.
“No,
never,” he said. “Look, I know what I did, and I won’t do it again. That man
went after someone I loved, and I stop him.”
“Yes,
yes, you did,” she said calmly, “but you don’t seem to understand how close you
were to crossing a line you can’t come back from.”
“Well,
now I know, and I won’t cross it.”
“I hope
so, Michael,” she said, “because you can’t ever cross it. You are too strong to
ever forget that for one moment. You could seriously kill someone and not just
people who attack your loved ones too.”
“I
won’t’, Gabriel,” he said back. He was about to tell her to trust him, but he
knew it would be the wrong move, so he said nothing and sat back.
“I
guess, we’ll find out.”
The
other two didn’t say a word, but Helbis
padded Michael on the leg letting him know she trusts
him. He had never been that mad before in life but knew it was somewhere in
him. His father, Alexander, would tell both of his sons that they had his
angry. His father was a quiet man normally very calm and understanding, but when he got mad, everything changed.
Michael had only ever seen it once in his life. Someone guy almost ran them off
the road, and Alexander dragged the man
out of his car and didn’t stop hitting him until the cops showed up. He didn’t
get a charge, Paladin wouldn’t allow it.
Michael
watched from the back seat locked in fear and knowing that rage was in him. He
made a vow never to lose control like his
father, a vow he was making again in the back of the car now. A vow he would
have to keep for the rest of his life. He would never be able to break it,
again.
“You
never fear the dog barking,” Alexander told him after he came home from the
police station, “you fear the dog not braking because he will bite you. We have
that dog inside of us.” He poked Michael in the center of his chest. “You can
never let him off of the chain because you’ll bite everyone around you.”
Michael
didn’t understand what his father meant then, but
now, he understood far too well. The rage in him was a monster of unbelievable
power, who kill someone in one hit if it wished. He could never let it free
again, ever.
“Are we
ever going to find this place?” Raphael asked breaking the silence in the car.
They had been driving around in the car for over an hour now.
“I went
the way those people told us to go,” Gabriel said.
“Maybe,
they lied?” Helbis asked.
“They
wanted us to stop the sickness,” she said back to her. “It’s just this road has
no name.”
Michael
glanced up at a street sign at least
where it should have been. He turned in his seat noticing most of the signs
were gone but not the poles. “I think we are close,” he said. “Why else try to
hide the names of the roads?”
The
other didn’t notice it because they were staring down at their phones using the
GPS. There was no need to watch for street names. Their GPS was far better than
anything anyone else had on the face of the earth.
“Oh,
man,” Raphael said. “That’s not good.”
They
drove around a little longer until Gabriel gave
up and pulled over. “I’m lost,” she hissed.
“Yes,
we are,” Raphael agreed.
“I hate
magic,” Gabriel said sitting back in her seat.
“Me
too,” Raphael added.
“Hm,
guys?” Helbis said pointing at an old run-down house. “Could that be it?”
They
looked over at the house not sure why she thought it could be the place they were looking for until they saw the
letter sprayed on the front door. “Here lies the Devil.”
“One
way to find out,” Gabriel said opening her door but before she did so, she sent
a coded message to Paladin letting them know she was going to check in with the
hour. If she did not check, they should send a team to find her and her family.
They
all followed their sister stepping out of the car and looking around, no one
was on the street, even the street lights feared to come on. The wind blew cold making them hide their hands in
their pockets as they headed for the door.
“Now it
makes sense,” Helbis said out loud. “How
do you find a lost house?”
“No
idea,” Raphael said.
“You
get lost,” Michael smirked.
“Oh,”
both Gabriel and Raphael said wishing they thought of that before.
They
stopped at the mail of the house studying the black windows waiting for the
wind to not it over and then checked once more to see if anyone was around.
Helbis could see far better than any of them because of her cat-like eyes. She also could feel the pull of
dark magic in the air, but that was from
her magical tattoos, not the scenes of a cat.
“This
place is bad,” she told them all.
“I
could have told you that,” Raphael remarked. “Plan?” He then asked Gabriel.
“Check your weapons,” she told them and they all, but
Michael made sure his stun guns were ready. They each carried a pistol which fires an electric bolt knocking out any foe that
it hit. Michael normally carried one as well but didn’t like using it. He was
far better with his hands than shooting but,
not tonight. Tonight, he had to use the pistol.
“Good,”
Raphael said.
“Also,
good,” Helbis agreed.
“Ready,”
Michael added.
“We
find the girls, saved them,” Gabriel said looking at the house, “and hopefully
stop this sickness, but remember, this house is magic, and it will try to mess
with you.”
“Everyone
stays alive,” Raphael said as they walked toward the house.
(Writer’s Notes: I
have many writing friends who tell me they don’t outline their stories. They
sit down letting their characters led the way, and
I find that odd. I like to plot out my stories and if the plot needs to change
because of the characters needs then so be it, but my stories require a little
more building on my part. I sometimes let the character led the scene and have
done so in this part of the story. I didn’t know what Gabriel was going to say
to Michael and it didn’t start to happen until I started to write which gave us
a strong part of the story or, so I think.
I
have been trying something different with the Talons. I will come up with a
title for the story and then write a plot base on that title. After I write the
synopsis of the story, I jumped into it
with no outline. I enjoy doing this, but
it means I’m having to wing the plot as I go and I’m not sure it’s coming out
the best. You could say I’m using the short stories as a draft instead of
outlines and I would agree.
If
you must know this is the difference I
see in plot and story; the plot is the
movement of the story to get to one event after another, while the story is how the characters react to that
event. You can see this clearly in the talk between Gabriel and Michael. Them
being on a mission to stop some magical plague is nothing new to them, but what
Michael did is the event driving the story. At least that is how I see, and it
is what I do for most of my stories. It is how I work.)
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