Weekend Writing Warriors: 12/29

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 a WIP–“Discovering Gremlins.” Seth had a bad day at work–hit his head and saw a monster, which he dismissed as his imagination. The next day, he breaks his phone screen, his shower sprays water everywhere, the subway is delayed–after lunch Harry (she of I.T. fame) tells him she can fix his gremlin problem–and sends him to buy an expensive sound system, then wait for her before he enters his apartment. Seth goes in alone, and hears something behind him.

Previous snippet:

“Ceremony is important. You don’t just… toss an apology on the ground. It needs to look proper,” Harry explained, “Stand right there.”

She pointed to a space to her right side, slightly behind her.

Dazed, Seth complied, “How do you know all this?”

“Did it never occur to you how often I.T. people might run into gremlins?” she asked. “The ones that last have the rules passed down to them, from a mentor. My dad was in the field, my grandpa, too. Now, hush.”

Seth shut his mouth, and watched silently as Harry added some sparkling powder in a looping circle around the boxes.

Once she was finished, she crouched down to make small adjustments to the circle of computer parts, nudging a twist of wire to the left, and a computer chip toward the center of the circle. Then she stood, dusted off her hands, and stood behind him, her hand coming to rest on his arm.

Her grip was firm, just shy of painful, a tangible reminder that she’d told him to keep his mouth shut. She said some more of those liquid syllables, and then she unceremoniously shoved him out of his apartment.

Seth dug his heels in. That was it–a weird circle and a few words and his problems were over?

As he’d noticed before, Harry was strong for someone her size, and determined. He ended up outside his door anyway.

“What is wrong with you?” Harry demanded. “Now is not the time to discover a death wish.”

*    *    *

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.