NaNo Day Nine

After me, you think.  The people who are after me.  “I do not even know who the hell these people are.”

“Yeah, well, unfortunately, we’re no closer now than we were before.”  Valpatine clears the screen then starts inputting other information. 

At this point, your mind is completely overloaded.  You still have the headache that has been pounding you all day.  Now you have to deal with this bs.  Cops after you, banks tellers getting snatched, killed at guy in broad daylight in front of a thousand witnesses.  “Hey, do me a favor,” you say to Valpatine.  “Check the police scanners to see how close they are to finding me.  I just need a status update.”

Valpatine turns around in his chair and gives you a look.  Then he reaches out to the other side of the desk and grabs two radios.  He hands them to you with a look like boy, I’m not your bitch.

Understanding him the way you understand yourself, you give Valpatine a half smile and take the radios. You decide to the take the radios and sit down on the gamer’s chair and listen in for any details, but before you could make the few steps to the chair, Valpatine stops you. 

“Hey, catch.”  He tosses you a cell phone that you nearly drop.  He glares at you like you would owe him a new phone should you happen to break it.  “That’s your new phone.  The number is in your address book under ‘Me’.”

“Alright.”

“Anything on the scanner?”

You give him a blank stare.  “I haven’t turned it on yet?”

“Well, what’s taking you so long, champ?  We need to be on the inside, getting information?”

“Thank you, captain obvious.”  You walk away and decide to sit in one of the other swivel chairs instead of the gamer’s chair.  You sit for a moment, sifting through channels.  You hear nothing.  Not a single word of your name.   How odd.   That’s odd.  There’s not even mention of the guy who you killed earlier today.  It is like everything just disappeared.  As if the incidents didn’t happen. 

You take a deep weary sigh.  Something is just not right about this whole thing. 

Nano and Five-Min update

First, the NaNo update.  I failed.  I feel only slightly bad about this and only because I failed, not really because I didn't complete the word count.  I had a feeling from the beginning that I wouldn't be able to complete this year's NaNo because of what's going on with AFS fundraiser I'm working on.  I just don't like to fail for any reason.  However, I do have the rest of the work that I did up to day 12.  It's less than 20,000 words.  I just couldn't sit down to get to 20,000.  But I like the story (or at least the concept) enough that I may work on it some more at a later time.


Five-Minute projects; these will resume next week.  I don't have much more to add from the NaNo (I think), ergo, I will be posting what's left of that story this week.  And should I find that I have more than a week's worth of writing down, I will just continue to post next Tuesday.  So it'll all work out.

NaNo Day Seven, Part Two

“So, what’s this shit about your wife?” Valpatine asks.

“What? You don’t know?” you ask. “I thought you’re always monitoring the police scanners and FBI radios in case they come looking for you.”

“Well, yeah, of course I do. But I haven’t heard anything about you all day, not until you called me.”

“Really? I thought the cops would have had every boy in town looking for me.”

“Nah, man. I haven’t heard nothing.”

“Huh. That’s interesting.”

“Why? What hell has gone down today, man?”

“Well, I woke up this morning and Mary Jo Lisa Forrest was gone. Then my cousin, Joseph Indiriar tried to kill me, but ended up killing himself with some suicide pill…”

“Whoa! Damn!”

“Yeah. Then the cops came to my house, probably because one of my neighbors called and told them I had driven my car into my house.”

“What? You what?”

You sigh. “It’s a long story. But I’ve been evading police all day.”

“That’s strange. I haven’t heard anything remotely like what you’re talkin’.” He pulls up the gravel driveway and stops at the side of a lonely sad looking house.

You think on that for a second as you and Valpatine get out of the car. “It must be the people who called me earlier,” you say.

“What people?” Valpatine grips his house key and unlocks the door.

“After I fled, like almost right after, I get this call. There’s this crazy sounding old man on the phone and he tells me that ‘they’ took my wife because I failed.” You scoff as you and Valpatine walk inside of his house. “I don’t even know what the hell that means.”

“You failed? Failed at what?”

“Damned if I know. Trust me, if I did know, I would do whatever I had to do make it right if it meant I could see my wife again.”

“Damn, man. I ain’t heard nothing that effed up in my life.”

You both walk to the back of the kitchen where a door has been perfectly camouflaged to look like it is part of the wall. Valpatine pulls the door aside and reveals a flight of steps. You go down first as always so that Valpatine can close and lock the door behind you.

“You know,” you say as you flick a light switch to show the basement mad computer scientist lab for all its glory. “If there were ever a fire in this place, you would not make it out alive.”

Valpatine scoffs at you. “Yeah, right. If there were ever a fire in a place and I survived, I would be going to jail for the rest of my unnatural life for what I’ve got down here. In fact, if there is ever a fire, I hope me and this place are the first to go.”

Yeah, actually, knowing Valpatine, if there were a fire in his house, he would be the arsonist.

“Alright,” he says, sitting down at his desk in one of his spinning office chairs. “The first thing we got to do, is run a trace on that call you received.”

“Wait a minute. The first thing we gotta do is get me a new identity so that I can go look for my wife without the cops sniffing me too hard.”

He holds his hands up. “Hey, hey. Ease up there, tiger. It’s obvious that whoever is after you hasn’t yet gotten the police involved. That’s actually a bad thing because it means they got something far worse in mind. It’s kinda like when you find out they ain’t gonna shoot you for information. You best be worried because they will make you wish you were shot. So we find out who these bastards are and where they are calling you from, then we go from there. In the words of the great immortal Rage Against the Machine, know your enemy.”

That makes sense…you think. Honestly, you didn’t really have a lot of an idea about this bastard was talking about, but it didn’t matter since Valpatine wasn’t doing anything out what ever order he had tasks set up in. That was just his way. There was one thing that you figured you should mention now since you were on the topic of phone calls. “Yeah, um, it’s going to be a little difficult to trace that call.”

“Um, why?”

“I broke my phone.”

He gives you a stare that conveys no emotion whatsoever.

“…Soooo”

“You broke your phone?”

“Yyyyep.”

“And you think that’s enough to stop me?”

“Uuuumm…”

“Boy, don’t you ever insult me that way again.”

You stare at Valpatine as he spins around in his chair to face his flat screen monitor and keyboard. Yeah. You forgot who you were dealing with. As Valpatine begins to let the magic flow from his ten digits you let the sound of rhythmical tapping take your mind off your horrible and horribly confusing day. You sit down at one of the gamer’s chairs that Valpatine has in his basement (because where ever Val is, there is a game console of some kind) and try to relax. But it’s hard. All you can think about is your wife and the times you shared together.

You remember the time she surprised you with dinner in the park for your anniversary. She took special care to make all of your favorites, rare steak with A-1, mashed potatoes seasoned with sage and fresh garlic, buttered green beans and snow peas. Damn that was a good night. An awesome night, in fact. And you felt like an ass because you two had been fighting earlier that day and you really didn’t deserve for her to be so kind to you. But she was. And you, like the ass that you were, had completely forgotten that it was your anniversary. You were so busy being fuming that it had slipped your mind.

But everything turned out to be great and you did make up for the next day by taking her on an impromptu hot air balloon ride. She was terrified at first, but after a while, she calmed down and really enjoyed being up there with you. She later told you that that experience helped her get over her fear of heights.

Then there was the night you two enjoyed an evening of watching p…

“Hey, man?”

Valpatine’s flat voice jolts you from your moment of nostalgia. “Yeah.”

“Uhm, that call, it was made from inside your house.”

You jump out of your seat and walk over to the monitor and look over Valpatines shoulder. “What?”

“Yeah. I checked and rechecked. That call came from inside your house.”

“But, that’s impossible. No one was in there except for the police and Joseph’s dead body.”

“Yeah, well, it has been my experience, that nothing is impossible.”

“So, if the call came from my house and there was no one in there but cops and Joseph…”

“Then that means that at least one person working for the police is also working for the people who are after you.”

NaNo Day Seven: Part One

What the hell is this? And it is funny, for as shocked as you are that Lindsey is not only a part of what has been happening to you, but is also willing to help you, you are also not surprised considering the fact that your cousin was also in on it. It makes you wonder who else is out to get you.

“We have to go back,” you tell Valpatine.

“What?” he asks you as if you have never said something crazy before.

“We have to go back to the bank.”

“What? Why?”

“Well, not to the bank, to the pizza place across the bank.”

“What? I feel the need to remind you that you just waxed a dude in broad daylight, in front of a gang of mo fo’s, and then just took off. In front of a cop, too, no less…”

“Val, will you please just turn the pos around?” you yell, having lost a large amount of patience with Valpatine. “This lady is going to help me find my wife.”

“What the hell? What’s wrong with your wife?”

“She’s missing. Some people took her either this morning or last night. I do not know. But this lady at the bank said she can help me, but we have to get there now.” You look at your watch and sigh. “…30 minutes ago. God, please let her still be there.”

After what feels like an eternity, you and Valpatine finally make it to the bank. You jump out of the car, leaving Val to drive around until either he finds parking or you’re ready to go. Traffic doesn’t exist to you as you sprint across the street to the pizza place, honking horns and swearers be damned.

You rush inside the pizza place and look around for Lindsey. Lindsey isn’t there, nor is there anyone who even looks like her. Shit. Okay. It’s okay. Obviously, Lindsey wanted to meet with you during her lunch break. She must have only had a thirty minute lunch and you’re thirty five minutes late. She must have gone back to work. Not a problem. You dodge a few cars and buses and get back to the bank across the street. You rush into the bank. You don’t see Lindsey, but you guess she must just be returning from her lunch. She probably hasn’t made it back from the lounge yet. You decide to stand around and wait for her.

“Excuse me, sir, may I help you?” asks a woman dressed in a pants suit. She seems very polite, as she is just doing her job, but hell, who knows what anyone is doing these days.

You smile at the woman and say, “I’m just waiting for Lindsey. Any word on when she’ll be back?”

“Um, I’m not sure. Let me find out for you. Just a moment please.”

She walked away from you to go to one of the tellers. As she goes from being a full size woman to a miniature in the distance, you begin to get a bad feeling about this. Maybe you should not be here. Afterall, you did just kill a man. Yeah, he attacked you first, but then you drove off in your friend’s car. Seems like that would be grounds for arrest, not to mention the lovely scene back your house this morning. Surely, the cops would be looking for you like you were at the top of the wanted list.

The look on the lady’s face is not encouraging as she walks back to you. She seems confused. “Well,” she says. “It seems Lindsey has not yet returned from lunch. May I leave her a message?”

“Well, wait, um, she’s at lunch. Does she usually take an hour or a half hour?”

“Usually, Lindsey takes a half hour, but I guess today she must have taken an hour. She probably had some things she needed to take care of.”

Yeah, right. Things to take of like your wife had things to take care of.

“But, I mean, I can leave her a message for when she gets back if you would like.”

You shake your head. “No, that’s okay. I’ll come back later.”

“Oh, okay. Well, have a good day, Mr. Jacob.” She smiles as you walk away.

Shit! You say to yourself once you’re outside. They got her. Somehow they must have known that Lindsey was going to help you find your wife and they got to her before you did. Damn it. If only you had gotten that note sooner. DAMN IT!

You keep walking, waiting for Valpatine to circle back around and pick you up. You are lost in thought, trying to decide what your next move is going to be. Clearly, these assholes have people everywhere who see every damn thing, including extremely inconspicuous notes handed down in handshakes.

The double honking of a car horn brings you back to your cold reality. Valpatine pulls up the sidewalk like a maniac and you think damn doesn’t anyone know how to drive in this city? You place your fingers underneath the car door handle and pause. That lady back at the bank. She called you by your name. Son of a bitch, how did she know your name?

“Yo, we need to go,” Vapatine yells at you. “I need to change this car’s plates. Come on let’s get a move on.”

You get in the car feeling even more confused.

“What happened? You don’t look too happy. I take it bank girl couldn’t help you after all or what?”

“The lady at the bank,” you mumble half to yourself and half to Val.

“Yeah, did she help you or not?” he peels off into traffic like it’s a race track that he owns.

“No. Not Lindsey. Another lady. I’ve never met before. She knew by my name.”

“So?”

“So, I never told her my name.”

“Well, you banked there for a thousand years. It only makes sense that she would know it.”

You think about that for a second. Yeah, it makes sense, but you just don’t believe it. There was something in her eyes and in her tone that seemed more sinister than just happening to know your name because you were a regular customer. You think back on your conversation and how you left her. Then you take a much needed breath. Maybe val was right for once in his life. Maybe you were just remembering something that wasn’t there.

On the way back to the Valpatine’s place, as he bobbed and weaved through traffic, you decided that the next thing you need to do is get a cell phone. Valpatine always has spares at his place that he rigs for different reasons. You know he’ll let you have one; you don’t even have to ask. You kind of regret destroying your phone earlier today. For all you know, your wife’s kidnappers could have been trying to contact you all day, but you haven’t been available. Although, if what you suspect is true, that these bastards really are everywhere, then if they wanted to contact you, they could without any problem.

Valpatine’s home reminds you of an iceberg. On the surface, he lives in a cozy two bedroom house out in the business district. The kitchen is disgusting cute with all of its Hello Kitty style. The living room is made for a single nerd of Valpatine’s type. It is holds every video game console made in the last 20 years. The bookshelves runneth over with games of varying genres. Across from the flat screen hd tv that you’re sure he stole from someone, is a gamer’s chair and a sofa. There is no dining room in this house. Valpatine eats in the living room anyway. And with no family and hardly any friends, he doesn’t have a use for a dining room table.

But all of that is on the surface. Underneath Valpatine’s house is like a tekky oasis. It took him years to build and he had to dig out part of the basement to make it much, much wider than the house. But damn if it wasn’t worth the effort he put into it. There were computers that you are sure are contraband in most states. The hard drives full of information illegally obtained for any number of governments, including the United States of America. Valpatine was in and out of people’s personal files more times than he was in and out of jail.

But the things that were important to you right now were the credit card and driver’s license makers. You needed a new identity quickly. At least if you got pulled over, all you had to do was show your id to the cops and they would most likely let you go. You could always pull the I’ve just got one of those faces card.

What happened to NaNo day Six?

Well, i'll tell you what happened. I got caught up in the task of reorganizing my room (because it is still a complete mess after moving) and it took far longer than i thought it would. by the time i finally got around to working on my daily NaNo, it was like 9pm cst and i was wiped out. i managed to type 477 words before my eyes starting burning, forcing me to concede defeat.

Honestly, i did feel a little bad. but i slept so good that it complete wiped away whatever guilt i may have been feeling post knock-out time.

but, so, since i went to sleep early, i woke up early (like 1ish). while i'm sure this had something to do with the time change (daylight savings time anyone?) that still puts me awake since like 2. either way, i am awake. i did take a moment to lay down and dream up storylines for my novel, The Demon Cleaner, but after a while i realized that i was not going to get any sleep anytime soon.

knowing that i have a busy day ahead for this great sunday day of mine (I have to perm my hair; i have a meeting to go to for NaNoWriMo; i have to retype my syllabus for my students and decide what i'm teaching them about poetry tomorrow) i decided to go ahead a be productive and catch up on my word count for yesterday. I feel like that was a smart move on my part.

I also think that, while i'm up, i may as well work on my word count for today also to that i don't have to worry about that later. I am going to post what i did for yesterday's count and today's but i'm going to do them in separate posts so that they're not completely overwhelming.

to all of my readers, thank you for reading and leave a comment to say hello. i would love to hear from you. Cheers.

NaNoWriMo Day Five

With images of your wife being tortured flashing in your head, you take a deep breath to gather energy for one last push. You push Calvin off of you enough so that you can move him to the side. Once Calvin has fallen, you flatten you hand like a blade and hit Calvin in the side of his neck. Calvin buckles under the pain, and chokes from the blow, giving you a chance to crawl from underneath him.

While Calvin is grabbing at his neck, trying to breathe, you knee him in the face and knock him out. Deciding that Calvin’s knife could prove useful later, you pick it up. You hop over Calvin’s sleeping body and grab your bag off the ground. You place the knife in the bag and stroll out of the alley, whistling as if nothing happened.

The one block walk to the Westin happens without incident, thank God. But as you walk up the six stairs, you notice that everyone is staring at you like you dropped down from outer space. At first you ignore them and dare someone to say something to you, but when you see your reflection through the lobby doors right before they open, you suddenly feel a little sheepish. You look like hell. Your little spat with Calvin turned your casual jeans and t-shirt look into a hot mess. And you smell.

Damn it. You did not want to go in there looking like this. And carrying a big bag of money? Someone would call the cops for sure. That would be all you needed to make your day even more spectacular. However, you can’t just turn around and walk out; that, too, would look far too obvious. Instead you play it cool and walk up to the receptionist. “Excuse me,” you say to her, completely acting as you are oblivious to the fact that she has her nose up at your stench of garbage and pee.

“Yes, sir, how may I help you?” she asks in a friendly courteous manner expected of all front desk personnel.

You smile politely and ask, “May I use your telephone for a moment please?”

She smiles politely back and says, “I’m sorry, sir, but the phone is really only for hotel guests and personnel.”

“I understand,” you say, moving closer to her so that she can get a good whiff of alley cologne. “However, if I could just use for a couple of minutes to make a quick local phone call, I’ll be out of your hair.

She hesitates for a few seconds before conceding to the fact that you wreak and if giving you the phone (which no doubt she will disinfect as soon as you leave) will get you the hell out of here, well it was one small step for mankind. “Here you go,” she says, sitting the old fashioned ringer on the counter before backing away. “Press nine to get out.” Before you know it, she has disappeared, as has everyone else as the counter. Good. You would rather make this phone call in private anyway.

You dial seven digits and wait.

“Hello,” a man says on the other end.

“Hey, V?”

“I’m sorry,” he says fasicsiously. “I don’t understand what you are saying to me.”

“Valpatine, I need your help. You have to come get me. I’m at the Westin on fifth.”

“Whoa, slow down there, killer,” Valpatine says and then he laughs at you as if he just made a joke at your expense that you did not get. “How soon do you need a pick up?”

“Now.”

“Alrighty. I’ll be right there.”

You hang up the phone and take a deep breath. Dominic Valenz, aka Val, aka Valpatine, aka Valium, aka your crazy as hell friend. God only know where you would be without him. By that same coin, God only know where you would be had you never met him. If Valpatine wasn’t getting thrown out of bars he was working on out running the law on any given day. He lived completely off the grid. No credit cards, no cell phone, no Facebook, nothing. Probably the best thing the man ever did in his life was introduce you to your wife.

In a pinch, however, there was no one better or more reliable. Considering the fact that there were only three people in the whole world whom Valpatine considered a friend, you felt fortunate to know him. It was actually a better thing than you realized that you were calling him. Now, instead of going to Best Buy to buy all of the stuff you would be needing in order to make those credit cards and ids, you could just do it at his house. You were actually starting to feel pretty good about this whole deal. Things seemed like they could be starting to look up.

You decide to wait outside on the hotel steps. You walk outside. Before you can even begin to sit down, you hear a very familiar, very unwelcomed voice.

“He’s about yay tall…”

You turn your head in the direction of the voice to see Calvin talking to the doorman, giving the doorman what is at first a very vague description of you. Six feet tall, dark hair, green eyes, muscular. Like really, Calvin. He has just described 10’s of thousands of people in this city. But then he drops the words dressed in a t-shirt and jeans and most likely looks like hell rent over and carrying a big ass bag.

Alright, now you have a problem. Trying not to make a scene you casually walk down the steps, hoping either you get out of sight before the doorman spots you or that Valpatine gets his happy ass here soon. You curse yourself with every step you take. You knew you should have just killed the bastard and put out of your misery. But no. you had to be nice. You had to try to spare the idiot’s life. Well, thank you karma for making that mistake come back fast. Good Lord, some people just really need to learn to let shit go.

“Excuse me, sir,” you hear the doorman yell. But you ignore him. However, you do not ignore the sound of footsteps pounding down the steps after you. You take off the down stairs, trying to get out of view of the public. This time things with Calvin were going to get nasty.

Calvin must have rolled down the stairs like a donut, because he caught up to you before you get out of sight, and tackled you to the ground. The taste of chalk and salt invaded your tongue as you made out with the sidewalk. This is unbelievable, you think as you wish you had placed that knife in your pocket instead on in your bag. Damn it all to hell.

New Jersey picks up your head and proceeds to bash your face into the pavement, not caring even a little that people are watching and gasping, calling the police, taking pictures and video on their droids.

“Hey,” someone yells. “Hands in the air and get off of him.”

Calvin takes his hands off of you. You turn to see a cop pointing a gun at Calvin. “Get off of him, sir. Now.”

“Officer, you don’t understand,” Calvin says as if he is going to try to reason with the cop. Has that ever worked for anyone in history? Ever?

“And I don’t care to understand,” the officer said. “Understand this. You have five seconds to get off of him before I shoot you.”

Calvin finally gets off of you. You stand up as the officer asks if you’re okay. You nod that you’re fine. Calvin is standing next to you with his hands behind his head. The clock is ticking on when Val is going to get his ass here. He doesn’t live that far away, but all of these minutes were turning into hours.

Without a single warning, Calvin attacks you. You parry the blow, breaking his arm in the process. When he falls to his knees in front of you, you break his neck and push his dead body away from you in disgust. In front of everyone. The dead weight of Calvin's head makes him hit the ground hard, cracking his skull.

Oh shit. He was dead. You killed him. So, this is how your life was going to end, huh? It kind of sucks. You look at the officer. He is still holding his gun, but he has yet to say anything. That doesn’t stop his mouth from moving though.

You also remain speechless amid the deafening silence that follows when someone is killed right in front of a crowd of people whom, you are sure, have never seen anything like this in their lives. Damn it all. Where the hell is…

Screeching tires answer your question.

“Get in,” Valpatine yells through the rolled down passenger window.

“Hey, freeze,” Mr. law enforcers yells when he realizes that you are about to make a getaway.

Yeah, like that is going to happen, you think as you quickly snatch up you bag and jump into Val’s car as he speeds off. Welp, you’ll never be allowed to show your face around there again. You just killed a guy and then took off.

“What the hell just happened?” Valpatine asks you as he cuts across traffic like he’s trying out for a stunt driver position on a movie set.

You energy drained and enthusiasm for life swallowed with the breaking of a bone, you shake your head. You tally up your dead. Two dead bodies, one missing wife, cops all over you, weird people calling you…you look at the clock on the dashboard. 11:30 am. It wasn’t even lunch time, yet. “I have no idea,” you say to Valpatine. You couldn’t wait to see what the next hour would bring. And you could forget about getting that money out of your bank account by any legal means. You were going to have to break into that sucker, either physically or electronically, that latter of the two being your preference.

Oh, and speaking of banks…you remember the teller gave you a note that you had yet to read. You pull it out of your pocket and unfold it. Your heart stops as the words come together. “I’m sorry about your wife. Meet me at the pizza place across the street in an hour. I may be able to help you.”