[Fiction] Friday Challenge #180

[Fiction] Friday Challenge #180 for Nov 5th, 2010

*Your Main Character picks a sliver of glass from their sleeve and gravely inspects it…
(now keep writing)

@jax #theinceptionofchaos continues from challenge 179
*first draft
**jax excerpts may or may not appear in chronological order and may or may not make the final cut.

***

Jax picked a sliver of glass from her sleeve and gravely inspected it. The waiter tut tutted as he swept up the broken medicine vials, 'Now that attitude will never do!'

Blood appeared at the tip of her finger. She put it in her mouth to stop the flow and studied her waiter. He wore a frilly white apron over a severely pressed dress shirt and tailored slacks. His hair flopped annoyingly over one eye and he kept blowing puffs of air from the corner of his mouth in an attempt to shift it.

The silver platter, sans head, crashed against the far wall. Jax dared a peek over the edge of the bed to see where Nix's head rolled to. Under the dust ruffle she caught a glimpse of his soft sandy hair and her stomach did a little flip. This situation could get a little sticky.

The man busily cleaned the tray in a fussy, bordering on obsessive compulsive, kind of way. She considered trying out the self defense Nix taught her back at HQ but then it occurred to her that it hadn't done much good for the master and she never was a very good student.

Finished with the tray he turned to Jax and offered her his hand, 'I like your style. I'm Luca, maybe we could be friends?'
His voice was softer than his build belied and the request sounded more like a little boy's plea to be loved than a fierce captors brainwashing attempt.
'Jax' she croaked. His hand felt like an over sized baseball mitt in her grasp.
'So, what do you say?' he smiled hopefully.
'About what?'
'Friends?'
'Uh-sure?'
'Great!'He clapped his hands like a over excited school girl getting ready to meet her favourite vampire/secret love interest and then daintily perched himself on the edge of her bed. 'I've been waiting for you to wake up for weeks. It's so quiet around here when nothings happening- you're the most exciting thing that has happened all month.'

Confused and still a little groggy from whatever drugs she had been forced fed Jax didn't know what to say so she said nothing. Luca didn't notice, he kept babbling on about how boring his job was and how crazy Aggie (Agnes? she asked and he nodded) could be. Ever since she cut off her arm...
'Wait!' Jax sat up, 'She cut off her arm?'
'Yes!' Luca squealed in delight. Out in the corridor a noise like a chair scraping across tiles cut him off. Luca clamped his hand over his mouth and his eyes darted to the door. Jax held her breath but after a moment, when no-one appeared, Luca relaxed, 'It was drama, drama, drama around here for days after that! You should have seen her, she looked a fright. And poor Gregor, oh the poor baby was in such distress!'
'Gregor was here? After the arm, thing...'
'Ooh, does someone have a bit of a crush?' Luca teased.
'What? No!' Jax looked away, 'No way. I am just interested is all. The last time I saw Gregor he was on my side and he was heading into a building to save our friends. Next thing I know he ambushes me on the job, Agnes is his mother and she knocks me out and I wake up here. God knows how long I've been here and you come in with a head on a plate and want to be my friend!'

'Phew' he fanned his face with his over sized baseball mitt hands and winked, 'don't get your knickers in a knot.' He shuffles about on the bed so he is laying down with his head over the edge. A bit more shuffling occurs and he sits up, Nix's head in his hands. He tosses it between his palms like a basketball.

The vacant eyes roll around in their sockets and Jax gags.
'Stop it!'
Surprised Luca looks at his hands, 'Hmm, sorry.' He puts the head on the platter and covers it over with a starched linen napkin. 'So you have questions?' He asks.
Jax rolls her eyes.
'Ok, shoot. Ask me anything!'

***

or

***


Jax picked a sliver of glass from her sleeve and gravely inspected it. High on adrenalin she giggled at the sight of blood. A warm trickle oozed down her left leg and her head felt hot. The remains of broken window crunched under her feet as she hid behind a swath of bamboo. On top of the giggles her head wouldn't stop spinning and shakes surged through her weak body. All she could do to stay still was think about the boat out at sea waiting to pick her up like a forgotten crab pot.

 The curtain twitched and a red hibiscus dropped to the ground. Luca's signal. She wanted to reach up drag him from behind the broken window  for one last hug but decides that would not be the wisest of moves when making the great escape.

It's now or never. Ducking her head and scurrying like a frightened crab across the sand she plowed into the clear warm water, sending up a flurry of white foam and promptly  froze.

The wild surf scared her, swimming in the ocean was something she would never get used to, too many creatures lurking in the depths waiting to take her as bait. The speck on the horizon, that she could only hope was the boat Triton promised would be waiting for her, seemed impossibly far out to sea. How he  expected her to swim that far out without the aid of a flotation device was beyond her. Clearly he had not heard about the time she sank to the bottom of the pool during the school carnival 50 metre dash.

A shrill whistles cut through her thoughts causing her to throw an anxious glance over her shoulder. The scrubby tropical bush revealed nothing but that was definitely the alarm signal they agreed upon. Jax giggled again imagining the camp Luca putting his fingers to his mouth and producing such a masculine sound.
With a deep breathe and a new found confidence born out of fear of being the head served on a platter to Agnes's next victim, Jax plunged into the surf.

The waves crashed at her feet and sucked the sand out from beneath them. Stumbling to gain her footing she pinched her nose and pitched in head first. The white water rushed around her and dragged her back out to see. She flailed her arms and legs in a pathetic attempt to swim through it and felt relieved as she made some progress. Another wave swallowed her whole, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut. As she did over her head she glimpsed what looked like a box shaped balloon with long dangling tentacles. Her brain seized - the Irukandji!

***

copyright T.Bell 2010