Short Fiction Blog

Here’s the next part of the story. This one isn’t for a prompt. Hope you like it. I introduced another character!

Upon waking the next night Nathaniel heard commotion in the living room. As he walked through the door to see what was going on a chair narrowly missed his head. Ducking, he ran to the other side of the room where Clarissa was hiding behind the couch.

“What’s going on?” he whispered.

“Rissa is throwing a tantrum,” Clarissa replied.

“What about this time?”

“She’s still upset that Susan went out with Jacob last night. They won’t tell her where they went, so she’s pitching a fit.”

“Why won’t they tell her where they went?”

“Who knows? You know how it is around here. They probably found fertile hunting ground and don’t want to share.”

Nathaniel thought that was very possible. The members of the group weren’t big on sharing. The only odd part was that Susan usually told Rissa everything. He was pretty sure he could find out what was going on.

Staying low, Nathaniel made it out of the living room without getting hit. He was going to see Randy. If anyone knew what was going on, it would be him. He was always in everybody’s business.

Randy was the oldest member of the group. He’d wandered in one day a few years ago. At first everyone was suspicious. They didn’t want an old timer coming in and setting rules and talking about the old ways. They’d got rid of the last person in the group who kept harping on the way things were supposed to be. It was a new generation, and if you didn’t see it that way you didn’t stay around long. Nathaniel shuddered as he thought of the way the group had dealt with the dissenter.

He didn’t have time to dwell on that right now though. Pausing outside a heavy metal door, he pounded until getting a reply.

“Who is it?” the occupant barked.

“It’s Nathaniel. I need to talk with you, Randy.”

The door opened after a few minutes. Randy looked Nathaniel up and down, trying to decide if he wanted to let him in or not. Nathaniel tried not to look at Randy. To say Randy was unkempt was an understatement. He sported shaggy red hair that’s never clean, an orange goatee that’s braided and cinched with a cross, and when he smiled he revealed the only two teeth he had left, which were his fangs.

He must have decided Nathaniel was ok because he pushed the door open and let him enter. He offered Nathaniel a seat, to which he politely declined. The only seating in the room was the bed Randy had just got out of.

“What do you want?” Randy growls.

“There’s a problem with the group. Susan and Jacob are being secretive about where they went last night and it’s driving Rissa crazy. I came to see if you know what’s going on.”

“How would I know? I’m not exactly mister popular around here.”

While this was true, Nathaniel also knew that Randy had a way of finding things out. He wasn’t sure how he did it. He suspected it was a combination of enlisting spies and sneaking around himself that netted the results. Randy had been caught outside Rissa’s room on more than one occasion, which only reinforced this belief.

“You always know what’s going on, Randy. Tell me so I can quiet everyone down. We don’t need this right now, you know that.”

“What if you don’t really want to know what’s going on,” he replied cryptically. “What if it’s something better left alone? Some things shouldn’t be tampered with. You can’t tell those hotheads that though.”

Nathaniel had no idea what Randy was talking about. They already had enough to worry about with the ascension coming soon, they didn’t need any complications. After assuring Randy that he did want to know what was going on, he sat back with a sigh to listen.

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