Tuesday Tales: Writing Stiff by Flossie Benton Rogers

Tuesday Tales is a weekly blog featuring diverse authors who post excerpts from their WIPs based on word and picture prompts. Today’s prompt is stiff, and the snippet is from a work in progress temporarily called Soul Double. Please visit the other fabulous authors at Tuesday Tales.

She shrugged and marched to the beach buggy, avoiding his penetrating stare. “We may have skipped a few ‘getting to know you’ steps, Mr. Marson—Rhade, but I hardly think it warrants more than a passing comment. Like the sign in the tiki hut said—service with a smile.”

He climbed into the vehicle, his knees practically crushed to his chin in the small space. He didn’t say anything further about the matter, but his sidelong glance told her volumes. Well, he wouldn’t be human if he wasn’t suspicious of her behavior. To keep him from disappearing, she had all but kidnapped him on the pretext of filling his belly.

A ripple of self-ridicule juddered through her. Human? This was the God of War scrunched up in her beach buggy. She walked a fine line between manipulative playacting and ending up as skewered as a knife thrower’s assistant.

She pressed the start button on the vehicle. The ruts of the baked sand made the wheel feel stiff as she turned it to head toward Ernesto’s.

The establishment in question emanated a shabby chic vibe that rivaled her tiki hut. Ernesto’s lean-to, however, had been in the same spot for decades and was even more the real deal. A foresworn fae who preferred a simple beach life to gallivanting around dimensions, Ernesto understood her need for a relatively normal life on the human plane. Her friend’s broad smile and manic pats on her back as they arrived belied his grumbled words about midday grilling.

He served Rhade’s food with coffee and obvious curiosity about Resa’s hungry new pal. She sighed in relief when he didn’t pull her out back to answer a barrage of questions. He left and returned in a few moments with her usual order—a basket of cream cheese fingers and sweet iced tea. “For you, little one.” Her stomach growled.

“Gee, thanks, Ernesto. I didn’t realize I was famished.” She took a big swallow of tea and dug into the hot treats. After a few bites, she observed Rhade’s blissful countenance, brought on no doubt by Ernesto’s bacon and eggs. She held up a cheese finger. “Here, try one.”

He downed half a finger in one bite and grunted in approval. She shoved the basket closer to him. “Help yourself.”

A piercing scream sounded outside. For a split second no one moved. Her heart thudding, Resa scrambled to her feet and surged toward the door. Rhade beat her to it and strong armed her to stay behind him. Ernesto hovered close by, visibly trembling and chewing on his apron.

Rhade swung open the door. She peered outside beneath his arm just as a gray hued creature swiveled its head their way. It looked like a man from whom all liquid had been siphoned out. Tattered clothes hung off his shrunken body, and his eyes shone like fathomless vats of coal dust. A rusty sword hung at his waist. He held a limp woman by the arms but now tossed her to the ground and took a listing step toward the open door.

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Cheers & Happy Reading!
Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic with Paranormal Fantasy Romance