Author’s note: I am consolidating my blog into my website – once the blog looks the way I want it to, you will be referred to the site – but until then, I will continue to post in both places. My new site can be found here: http://mtdecker.com/blog I hope you enjoy this installment of: Yet A(nother) Year in Seattle.
Sunday, June 27, 2066 – Not a good idea
Whenever a law enforcement officer discharges his weapon in some place other than the range, he has to file a use of force report. Whenever a mage or shaman summons spirits in an offensive manner, and it is publicly observed and reported (and said mage or shaman wants to keep on the right side of the law) a use of force report is required.
While this is not required for their friends and families, when they are involved, there’s always paperwork, statements, and investigations.
When a team of would be ‘enforcers’ attacks a gathering of family members, it’s usually the formula for tragedy. Lord knows, the last time something like this happened it was a very bad experience we’d managed to survive due to luck, ingenuity and a lot of plain stubborn.
We learned from that and this time well, let’s just say their remotes were easily downed magically, their mages were confronted physically and their muscle was met with magic and a whole lot of firepower.
They didn’t stand a chance. At least now the Feds have some people to question in regards to Mitchell’s ‘situation.’
Monday June 28, 2066 – Nepotism
Is it really nepotism when you’re hiring ‘family’ because they’re a known quantity and you already trust them with your life? How about if it wasn’t your idea?
Charlie has offered a job in my protection detail/SRT team to Philip. The fact that he’s more than a passable medic in own right helps. And let’s face it when I first met him there was a mutual degree of protection and medical care provided.
Is it really nepotism when they’re accepted as family even if they aren’t legally family?
Part of me says I should object, but the more sensible parts of me are pretty much shouting ‘if he says yes, do not let him go… if he says maybe… give him pleading eyes; if he says no, let Bri give him ‘pouty-face… no one can resist ‘pouty face”.
There is a third voice-the one that says ‘don’t let him endanger himself for you’ but it is way too late to listen to that voice. It’s how he got into the family in the first place.
Is it really nepotism when you know if he takes the job, you can actually go back to doing your job?
Tuesday, June 29, 2066 – The disadvantages of being the little sister.
I have been assured that it is not nepotism, especially since it wasn’t my idea or my final decision. I didn’t even have a real say in the matter. According to Philip “You’re the little sister-so don’t even think I’m going to listen to anything you have to say.”
At least he had the sense not to tell me not to worry.
It’s so not fair. Matt, Al, and even Andy were like that. They’d gang up on me like nobody’s business deciding what I would do if anything. At least with my new family, the infighting is kept to a minimum. To be fair it’s pretty much limited to pranks and creative acts ‘vengeance.’ With the boys, there was usually some degree of bloodshed involved.
I was trying to think of some creative way of getting even with Philip when Nathan headed up to bed. He’d managed to open the bedroom door when there was a faint rumble and the closet door gave way to the pressure of the accumulated stiffed ferret-like toys in the closet.
One minute I was plotting revenge, the next a litter of plush toys came tumbling down the stairs and mom was staring at me.
It is so not fair. There is no way she’s going to believe it wasn’t me.
Wednesday, June 30, 2066 – Thoughts on home.
They say there’s no place like home, but let me tell you there’s no home like home.
I just wish I was there now. Case says next week but let’s face it after the incidents Saturday…
I mean, we’re still filling out paperwork and talking to investigators but a girl can dream. I want my bed, my tub… my cat.
I mean… we do have to work on Bri’s birthday request.
Thursday, July 1, 2066 – on the outside
I’m not sure what’s going on but… even I can feel it. Mom Walker and Jonathan have been talking privately a lot more than I’m used to. Nathan kept eyeing his groupies and Bri just shook her head.
Sometimes I really feel like I need subtitles to figure out what’s going on around here. When I got home from work Mom and Trina were cooking for something very special tomorrow. I was able to figure out that it was for Nathan’s fan club but again-no one’s talking.
So, I’m on the outside looking in and not getting any of it.
Friday, July 2, 2066 – Letting go
Tonight was a flashback to Gwen’s funeral: a celebration of a life cut short. I was trying to figure out who’d died when I felt a cold chill go through me. The gathering was for Dillon and Annie.
I think the only other people who were surprised were the guests of honor. I hadn’t really noticed that Nathan’s odd acceptance wasn’t just dealing graciously with their attention. He knew they hadn’t survived the shootings.
It made me all the more thankful for those people gathered to celebrate their lives, my adopted family. They had cared for these two who had no one else to mark their passing. They eased them into accepting what had happened and together we mourned.
It figures we’d find two people denser than I am and they’re dead. I wish them well.
Saturday, July 3, 2066 – Being ready
I had a long talk with Mom Walker today. I don’t know which bothered me more: the fact that I hadn’t figured out about Nathan’s groupies-how they were always able to get onto the island… the fact that they never went anywhere other than where Nathan was going or the fact that no one told me.
She smiled and shook her head. “Jessica… We were busy working to find a good way to send them on their way… no one told you because they never thought to tell you.”
When I asked why it took so long to send them home she simply told me “they had to be ready.”
I’ve always known that attitude and determination can help you survive something. I never thought about the fact that it could also keep you from accepting you hadn’t: just something more to keep me awake at night.
Copyright 2010 M.T. Decker – 2019 Edit
mtdecker 
MonsterMash Blog Hop
What happens when a bunch of writers decide there isn’t enough FlashFiction in their lives? Why, they issue a challenge – Write a story inspired by Annie Lennox ‘s “No More I Love Yous – 500-700 words – post it on your blog… and share the link.
Here is my Monster Mash-up for the Halloween crowd… for details check out
http://getwordy.com/monstermash-mm2018-blog-hop/#comment-1119
Look Who’s Outside
It started with a whisper, in the dead of night, when no one else was around. I tried to ignore it, but as I’d drift off to sleep, the whispers would turn my dreams into nightmares.
I stopped sleeping.
I was able to function normally for a few days before the lack of sleep began to affect me in ways I’d never expected. Worse, the voices were back.
This time they weren’t whispering, but it was as if everything they said was backward. I could almost understand what they were saying, but for the life of me, I couldn’t.
I was in limbo. I was afraid that if I slept, the voices would make sense and I wasn’t ready for that. I knew that if I understood them, everything would change.
I would stop being me, and the voices would take over. The problem was, the process of fighting it only seemed to accelerate the process. I was at the end of my rope when a friend told me about a sleep study at the University, where I could get paid, and someone would monitor my dreams.
It meant there was a chance for me to receive the messages in a controlled environment.
If anything happened, there would be witnesses.
I knew it wasn’t the best idea, but I was desperate. I was starting to see trees in the middle of the road as I drove, and at dusk, as the shadows lengthened, I swore I saw people jumping out at me as I passed by.
By the time I was called for an interview, I was practically begging them to include me in their project.
Marcia, the woman conducting the interview, seemed interested in my experiences and felt that the perception switch I was experiencing had taken me outside the normal range of human experience.
She kept talking about shamanic journeys and spiritual enlightenment. Honestly, I would have walked away if it wasn’t for the stick-figure of a man who walked through her as we were talking. She kept on talking as if nothing had happened, but the man turned to me and gave me a smile that was as black as the midnight sky.
I
’m not sure, but I think some of that void found its way into her mind. They say she wasn’t the same after talking to me.
One of her associates gave me his card and told me that he would call me, but I saw that space-cold void in his eyes as he spoke, and I knew he was like the stick-man.
I gave up talking to people, retreating into my room, it was safer that way. At least I could keep the shadow-figures from taking anyone else’s souls.
As the days went by, it got harder and harder to think, to remember why I’d locked myself away. I found Marcia’s card and flipped it over.
Office of Unexplained Temporal/Spacial Incursions and Dark Enterprises. I snorted. Thinking that it was a name in need of an acronym, I sounded it out. OUTSIDE.
I swore I would stay in my room, to protect those I loved, but the lack of sleep caused the nightmares to grow worse until I screamed myself unconscious.
The police were there when I woke up, and so was the man who’d given me Marcia’s card. I couldn’t feel any change inside— but the voices were gone.
There are monsters in my room, dark, soulless things that could rend flesh with a thought. They are terrible and fearsome beasts. They are of the OUTSIDE, and the outside is in me. I am the monster that I feared.
With a smile, I turn the lights on and wait for the trick or treaters to come. Something tells me, my treat will do the trick.
637 words (not including the title)
@mishmhem