I spun in a circle looking for an exit when I noticed other Big Men advancing through the crowd behind me.
Trapped!
My brain screamed at me, which is really less than ideal when you’re desperately trying to come up with a plan of escape on the spur of the moment.
Seconds ticked by. The crowd, oblivious [...]
02
Feb
2010
2010
Category: (Ch. 3) Mr. Right Now
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27
Jan
2010
2010
I had two choices.
I could make a blind run for the Bazaar and its promise of escape.
I could make a blind run for Oracle’s place and hope she would help.
Bazaar, no question.
My legs pumped at zig-zagged through unknown streets, dodging people and a jumble of rough-plank kiosks as I went.
I was disoriented, confused, discombobulated, [...]
Category: (Ch. 3) Mr. Right Now
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25
Jan
2010
2010
The heels belonged to a woman named Bernadette.
She was a sliver of light in an otherwise black state of affairs. Not because she was pretty, because she wasn’t, at least not in a hot-chick sort of way, but because with a simple nod of her head she sent Simon (and his gun) away. [...]
Category: (Ch. 2) The Shambles
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13
Jan
2010
2010
As the evidence will show, I am a bonafide idiot.
I’ll forgo describing the ‘Palace’ except to say that there was nothing palatial about it, and the bit about ‘forbidden delights’…a complete fabrication.
When we arrived at our current location, my benefactor, Simon–the creepy barefoot hunchback–bade me remove all my clothing and personal items and set them [...]
Category: (Ch. 2) The Shambles
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09
Jan
2010
2010
I was moments away from a plan.
I could feel it bubbling its way to the surface when a voice, distinctly not my own, asked me a question.
“I can see by your…position…you are in need of respite, sir. Might I interest you in a visit to the Palace of Forbidden Delights?”
The voice, as it turns out, [...]
Category: (Ch. 2) The Shambles
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09
Dec
2009
2009
OK. So I’m now sitting in the dark with my back against a crumbling building, armed with a stolen kitchen knife, listening to a grinding rumble somewhere in the near distance and hoping it stays there.
Something went seriously wrong.
I was on my way to the Bazaar, could hear its chaos in fact, when I took [...]
Category: (Ch. 2) The Shambles
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06
Dec
2009
2009
I have a headache.
One of those headaches that slowly eats its way through your brain until its right behind your eyes.
Oracle will tell me nothing. I’ve begged, pleaded, threatened, cajoled, and attempted to bribe with what little cash I have in my pockets (turns out, it’s worthless here). Nothing will budge her from her answer.
“All [...]
Category: (Ch. 2) The Shambles
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01
Dec
2009
2009
I had made it out the door and down a rickety set of stairs when Oracle came walking around the side of, what I’ll loosely call, a building. She smiled at me and shoved a steaming cup into my hands, then, urging me to follow, started walking.
She didn’t even bother to ask where I’d been [...]
Category: (Ch. 2) The Shambles
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29
Nov
2009
2009
Oracle lives in a hovel.
Then again, so does everyone else in this place.
In fact, from what I remember of it, Tropolis seems to be entirely made of corrugated tin, rotten planks, and whatever discarded building materials could be nailed together to create a…surprisingly less oppressive picture than it sounds. Of course, I’ve also been beaten [...]
Category: (Ch. 2) The Shambles
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26
Nov
2009
2009
It stinks here.
I mean really stinks–make you want to retch kind of stink. It’s the sort of stink you back away from, and no matter how tightly you clamp your hand over your nose and mouth, it still wriggles its way in, takes up residence in the back of your throat, starts a family and [...]
Category: (Ch. 1) The Legend
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