…she was nothing but the right kind of trouble.
Fiction Experiment: Part 2
An hour later, there was a short knock on the office door and in walked the last man on earth that Arielle wanted to see. She was awake, out of her chair and her wand was out in a heartbeat, pointed squarely at his chest.
“You can turn right around and get the fuck out of here, Pete.” If there really was such a thing as an icy stare, Peter Bailey, rising son of the Boston Baileys, would have been quick frozen by now.
“Ari, please, I’m in trouble and…”
“And I don’t care, Pete. In fact, just hearing that brightens my day,” she growled, “Now go, before I turn you into a real piece of shit.”
“Ari, you might want…”
“Not now, Bob,” she thought back.
Pete was scared, but not scared enough to turn and leave. Arielle noticed that he looked like he hadn’t slept much lately, and when he had, it looked like he’d slept in his suit. His hands were shaking and one of them had a couple of band aids on it. Yeah, he was probably in some bad trouble…but that wasn’t going to get him anywhere with her. Not now, not after all these years.
Pete looked at the wand. He knew she could do any number of terrible things to him…knew he probably deserved it…but he had nowhere else to turn.
“Then go ahead,” he said, slumping against the door. “Because I’m too tired to argue and I’ll probably be dead by tonight anyway.”
She shot him a hateful look and her wand began to glow. “If you won’t get out on your own, I’ll get you out.” She began chanting the Quick Passage spell. The wand tip glowed brighter, shifting from yellow to white.
Pete’s eyes went wide, but he still didn’t move. Arielle decided she’d send him to the top of Mount Tamalpais, to the scenic lookout point. Despite her hatred of him, she didn’t hate him enough to kill him.
“Arie, don’t do it.” Bob said, leaping from the couch onto the desk in front of her.
“Stay out of this, Bob. He’s got it coming.”
The chant was almost completed. The air around Pete was shimmering like the air over a hot street.
“Goodbye, Pete,” she said bitterly.
“Ari, he smells like he’s been Touched!”
Several things happened just then. Arielle whipped her head around to look at Bob. Her wand went cold instantly and Pete, who was halfway through being teleported, reintegrated and fell to the floor, unconscious. The dissipated spell energy caused everything in the room to become electrically charged for an instant, then it was calm and quiet.
“Touched? Pete?” Arielle’s voice was just above a whisper. She absently laid the wand on the desk and sat down, looking Bob square in the eyes.
“It’s not a smell you can forget,” Bob said. “Believe me, I’ve tried. Look, Ari, I know you hate him, but if he has been Touched…well, you have to help him.”
She stared at Bob for a moment, then put her head down on her desk. Suddenly, she felt like a mountain had been laid on her back. This was wrong! She hated Pete and the last thing she wanted to do was talk to him, let alone take him on as a client. This was so fucked up! Still, if he had been Touched, she was bound by her Oath of Sisterhood to help him.
“Ok, Bob, you win. I’ll help the son of a bitch,” she wearily spoke as she reached for the bottle of scotch. “But I’ll be damned if I have to like it.”
She took a long pull on the scotch, then stood up and walked over to a large cabinet. What she needed now was something that would help her find out just how Pete had been Touched. She opened the cabinet and, after a moment of searching, found what she needed.
OK, folks, what item of mystical importance did Ari find? An amulet? A gem? A mirror? Something else?
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