The two emo characters unite...beware of soon-to-follow awesomeness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Tired, disheveled, breathless, and entirely humiliated, Jacolinn Peraux finally staggered into the nearest town.
His body quivered madly as he lurched toward the nearest phone booth, wishing for a walking stick. He thought he’d heard on the news that Fangus Klot – the greatest gladiator in the empire, and a great crowd-pleaser – had been executed for treason, but suddenly Klot was right there, stealing his car and escaping for the outer edge of the empire!
The injustice of it all stung at Jacolinn almost as much as his tired legs. Never the most exercised Vamp of them all, being separated from his car and thrown out on the side of the road, forced to walk twenty miles, the entrepreneur was fuming and distraught and exhausted all at once.
He ignored the multitude of stares that came from the Vamps driving down the road, as he entered the phone booth. Jacolinn groped about for the phone for a moment before finally getting a good grasp on the thing – not before he muttered “Darn thing! Must’ve been a klutz who designed all this!”
He lifted the phone and pushed the SEND button. “This is Jacolinn Peraux,” he said, trying to keep the exhausted tremble out of his voice as much as was possible. “Entrepreneur. I need to speak to Emperor Essir.”
The voice of the redirector on the other end was astounded. “The emperor? I’m afraid –”
“I was attacked a few hours ago,” Jacolinn said. “By Fangus Klot.”
“Impossible. He was executed several days ago.”
Jacolinn punched the glass of the phone booth, and instantly regretted it. “But I saw him, with my two very eyes! He –”
“Could you be certain you weren’t drinking, sir?”
“Blast you people!” Jacolinn exploded unintentionally, and then immediately said, “Sorry. But he looked like Fangus Klot, he told me he was Fangus Klot, and he threw me out of the car and left me there.”
“How could he jump into a speeding car and throw you out? Are you really, really, really sure you weren’t drinking, sir?”
“Of course I wasn’t drinking!!” The tired Vamp was too angry for civility. “He hitchhiked for a ways, then sprang on me and –”
Infuriatingly, the line on the other end interrupted. “We’ll send the emperor a notice of your call. Thank you.”
“But—!!” The line beeped and went dead.
Jacolinn stared in shock at the phone he was holding for a moment. Fools! They thought he was drunk and making all this up? How dare they accuse him, a respectable Vamp, of telling lies to the emperor!
Tired and disappointed, he slumped forward across the machine and sighed – and immediately leapt back in surprise, as an automated voice said, “That will be two pounds sixpence, please.”
The Vamp feared that he would have no money, after his encounter with Klot, but was pleased to find slightly over that amount, and fed it quickly into the machine. “Stupid receptionist,” he muttered, and turned around.
His heart nearly stopped.
Standing just outside the phone booth doors were Fangus Klot and a strange, three-legged, two-armed being wearing a battered hat. Both of them were staring at him, both had their arms folded across their chests, both looked angry.
Both of them looked as if they were ready to kill.
Klot reached out one hand – straight through the glass of the phone booth – and grabbed Jacolinn around the neck. As the Vamp squealed in shock and pain, trying to get the gladiator to let go of his throat, the other being whipped out a pistol and pulled the trigger.
Jacolinn knew nothing more, for the rest of his existence – which was entirely no time at all.
* * *
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Master of ellipsis...
Last edited by Lord Stanley; 10-27-2010 at 04:54 PM..
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