Quote from Adriana on August 4, 2019, 10:14 pm

I stepped into the room, keeping my gun brandished at my side. Everything bad that ever happened to me, happened because I got cocky. Enough beatings will eventually teach a man to be cautious. Could they beat the stupid out of me? No. But at least now I knew to walk into a dangerous situation with my finger on the trigger.

Everything  seemed part and parcel. Except the totaled vehicle, which tempted me to investigate it first. Hunting vehicles were usually trucks - you couldn't easily fit a deer in the back of a four Sedan.

It could have been something to get a person to and from this location. It was possibly it hit a deer coming in.

I took my time checking the perimeter of the room first - making sure everything was what it seemed. And it was exactly as it seemed. It seemed like a "hunting shed". Except nobody really kept hunting sheds - you never heard things like, "hey, let's go to my hunting shed, I have enough tools to wipe out the forest". For a small town like Reknab Bend, it would in theory be more like, "I've got a cabin in the mountains, lets shoot a couple of pheasants and drink whiskey".

To me, this looked like a place that, should it be discovered, tried its best to be inconspicuous enough to avoid serious questioning. It was ordinarily out of the ordinary, its nature lending it a darker truth.

Satisfied with my analysis, I went over to the Sedan and examined the hood for signs of blood, flesh, skin, antler... then I peered inside the driver side window.

Quote from Mae on August 5, 2019, 12:39 am

Dirt, gravel, mud, wheat; The hood of the sedan was clobbered, but if any culprit was to blame, the only evidence pointed to the earth. The interior smelled like a number of alcoholic beverages, particularly barley beer. Empty, label-shorn bottles lay on the seats and on the floor. A newspaper or two were stuffed into the well used cushion seats, and the steering wheel was worn. A hefty smell of tobacco also came to play about the dashboard, and a few cigarette butts still sat in the ashtray. No sign of violence or intimidation factored in.

Then suddenly, a clear female voice, deep and smooth as caramel cream, echoed through the garage.
"You've got some nerve."

Quote from Adriana on August 5, 2019, 12:12 pm

I looked at the woman through the car windows, but having just entered the doorway, her figure was a silhouette against the light coming in from behind her. I couldn’t make out whether or not she was armed-but assuming my own gunshot alerted her here, it was the safest option to assume she was.

“You’re not Harvey,”  I wanted to say, but decided not to volunteer that I knew who Harvey was.

”Is this your car?” I asked easily, standing straight.

 

Quote from Mae on August 5, 2019, 10:45 pm

"Sure it's mine, sugar." The woman said, casually leaning on the doorway. "Along with what-ever you picked up off the road back there."

Though her figure was a dark silhouette with an almost skin-tight outline, the sun shown through her wild yellow hair and set her outrageous frizz on fire.

The woman in the doorway, though clearly female, was not a woman at all. Armed - she was very likely to be - but not quite in the expected manner.
Having then announced her presence, she came into the garage with a confident stride. She wore a pair of loosely tied sneakers, black leggings, a sleeveless crop top, and a tattered pair of short overalls that didn't reach her mid-thigh. Her neck, ankles, and wrists were bare. Though she was clearly not the owner, she strolled into the garage and leaned her elbows through the sedan's opposite window.

"Well, Blues?" She said, looking into Silas' face with her dark brown eyes. "Am I going to get it back?"

Quote from Adriana on August 6, 2019, 10:11 am

I exhaled slowly as the distance between us was crossed, and Sandy leaned on the car across from me. My tongue was rolling around in my right cheek, my head cocked to the left a hair.

I lowered my eyelids, glancing down at the seat a brief moment, not afraid to show off my best asset- my long, thick eyelashes that made most girls jealous.

When I looked up again, I straighten my neck and tongue and kept myself on the ready.

"Sorry, sweetheart, no.."

I noted her neck, bare of any adornment. Perhaps for the same reason that I decided against the tie. Then I let my gaze linger there for just a moment before drawing it up to her eyes again in an attempt feign interest in other aspects of her character.

"I don't suppose you'd take my number instead?"

I added, a smirk at one corner of my mouth alone. I should have been an actor. I  missed my calling. After all, blondes didn't do anything for me.

Quote from Mae on August 6, 2019, 2:07 pm

"It's only fair," she said with a smile and a one-shouldered shrug. "You have mine. And anyway, it wasn't really nice of you to let me get out of bed this morning just to take my job. Then again, if you hadn't unhinged that door and left your scent about the place, I might never have found you. So, I guess you want me here."

"What do you say, sugar, is it a date?"

Quote from Adriana on August 6, 2019, 3:01 pm

"Your job?"

I sat upright and put both of my arms on the hood on the car, raising my brows.

"Alright-wait-who are you?"

Quote from Mae on August 6, 2019, 4:04 pm

The woman withdrew from the window, and likewise folded her arms under her chin on the top of the sedan.

"You mean you don't recognize my voice?" She said. "I'm the one whose call you intercepted to get here, and I've been waiting on that information for a very long time. It might've been nice to know I'd have company."

Quote from Adriana on August 6, 2019, 4:16 pm

My heart did a somersault.

"I didn't intercept any calls..."

I looked to the doorway, then moved around to the other side of the car and quickly went to the side of the garage, peering out the entrance and keeping my gun close.