It’s been an…interesting…start to 2020. I spent most of my time this week on a couple of real life challenges, with periodic breaks to catch up with RWA’s implosion. All of which left me feeling grumpy and sad, with zero new words on the page.

So in an attempt to cheer up my Girls and gain a bit of creative momentum, here’s a 500-word story inspired by Elizabeth’s Friday Writing Sprints, in which a character makes an unusual resolution, and featuring the prompt words courage, anchovies, beard, canvas, heaven, honest, hideaway, diva, guru, harlot, fool, garden, pearl, crimson, blossom and smile.

Here goes!

Early Resolution

It must have been the anchovies.

The last Katie could remember, she’d been in a blossom-festooned canvas marquee in a walled garden in a smart part of London. Crimson-robed staff had served exquisite bite-sized nibbles as the Guru spoke passionately of courage, and love, and the path to heaven.

She’d felt a little light-headed. One of the assistants had helped her outside into the fresh air. And now here she was in some mystery hideaway, sprawled on a gold upholstered sofa wearing nothing but a crimson thong and her faux pearl earrings.

At least now she knew what had happened to her sister. Lucy was a gullible idealist, but she was an honest fool, unlike these charlatans.

Were there hidden cameras in this place? Scanners? It seemed all too likely. Katie raked her hands through her hair and dragged them over her face, running her fingers carefully over her earrings. So far, so good.

Voices outside, low but getting louder. Male. At least two.

Decision time.

Press her left earlobe to de-activate the tracker, or the right one to call for immediate assistance?

She lowered her hands and clasped them before her, meditating for five slow breaths in a Guru-approved pose, but she already knew the answer. She’d made her resolution on New Year’s Eve, and she intended to keep it. Lucy was here, somewhere, and sooner or later Katie would find her. She’d eat the anchovies, recite the mantras, play the diva, the harlot, or whatever else it took to find her sister and convince her to leave.

The door opened and Katie blinked as light flooded the room. Lucy stood right there, framed by two burly thugs in crimson man-kinis. Ew. One had flat, dark eyes, buzz-cut hair and a precision-trimmed beard that continued in a sharp line along his lantern jaw. The other boasted an improbable tan and not a single hair on his head, face or musclebound body.

Lucy stepped forward. She’d spent most of her life on one fad diet after another, but now her thong hung loose on bony hips. Her stomach was concave and as she lifted her arms her ribs showed.

“Kate, you have to come with me.” Her sister’s smile was wide, white and unconvincing. Her eyes sent another message entirely.

“I don’t think so.” Katie held out her left hand. “Wouldn’t you rather come with me?”

Lucy’s eyes opened wide. Her head moved fractionally to one side and then the other, indicating the goons in the doorway. Beardy scowled. Baldy sneered.

Katie shrugged.

Lucy’s fake smile shrank to a shaky grin. Small, but heartfelt. She took a step, and then another, until she put her hand in Katie’s. “Sis, you have no idea. I’d give anything to.”

“All right then.” Katie raised her right hand to her ear-ring, pressed hard, and dragged Lucy to safety behind the sofa as the first explosive charge shook the place to its foundations.

***

Whoo! That didn’t fix anything, but I blew stuff up and it made me feel a bit better 🙂 .

I hope you enjoyed it!