Weekend Writing Warriors: 7/7

~~~~~***I’ll be out of town for the Fourth weekend, but I will get to everyone I can***~~~~~

This 8-10 sentence blog hop is hosted by The Weekend Writing Warriors. (Click the link for the list of participants, or rules if you want to join!)

Here’s the start of a new WIP–working title “Discovering Gremlins. Seth had a bad day at work–hit his head and saw a monster, which he dismissed as his imagination. That night, a shadow follows him home, and his microwave catches fire–in the morning, he breaks his phone, and his shower sprays water everywhere.

Previous snippet: Deciding not to risk the microwave, he had a much less satisfying shake instead, then headed to the bathroom to shower. Setting the water to its hottest setting, which never got above lukewarm, he hummed as he lathered his body and hair. When he leaned back to rinse, the shower head rattled, and clunked to the floor, water spraying everywhere, suddenly ice cold.

He squealed like an offended hamster, and jumped back, flailing wildly with one hand for the tap, using the other to shield himself, futilely, from the frigid deluge.

Finally, the cold porcelain fell under his fingers, and he twisted. The water slowed, but didn’t stop. Venting his frustration with a few heartfelt epithets, he rinsed off in the cold spray, and made a few more unsuccessful attempts to stem the flow of water. He dried and dressed in the nearest clothes he could find on the floor, and hurried down to maintenance.

After he slammed his fist into the door a few times, it opened.

“What?” the maintenance guy blinked, “Hey, you’re all wet!”

 

 

 

“My water’s busted,” Seth said, “it’s spraying everywhere.”

The maintenance guy swore, and hurried down the hallway. Since he had a key, Seth simply trailed after, and disappeared into his room to finish getting ready for the day over the sounds of clanking and vicious muttering.

He hurried out the door and down the street with what should have been eight minutes to spare, and instead had to run and jump through the closing doors, the car inexplicably early, instead of its usual tardiness.

All the seats were full, so he grabbed a strap and consigned himself to the minor discomfort of standing the whole ride. He listened to a podcast, letting it shut out the world, until he could escape the stifling metal box onto the streets. About halfway through the trip, the car lurched, and emitted a grinding metallic screech that cut through the words cushioning him from reality.

Seth blinked, tapping the pause icon on his cracked screen.

Everyone else was looking around, many with earbuds in their hands, so he hadn’t imagined the noise. He waited, and when nothing happened for a good long moment, he restarted the podcast.

*    *    *

Gremlins have camouflage magic, and a way of making people who catch just a glimpse forget them. This is good for humanity, because they’re powerfully ugly, and react violently to being discovered. But when Seth hits his head and lands on the floor right next to a gremlin, he sees it… and it notices that he’s done so. Things are about to go downhill for Seth.