Tag: injury

Summer Loll

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Isaac leaned against the fence post that marked both the edge of the neighbors farm and informally the edge of town. He flipped the dagger in his hand, letting it rest on the back of his palm, before throwing it into the air. It spun a full rotation before landing blade first into the soft dirt. He bent down to pick up the dagger and do the same with his other hand. 

His father was more of a show off. When he taught Isaac how to play with blades, he would always do two, or even three rotations in the air before the dagger would bury itself into the ground. Isaac was much more utilitarian with his knife games. 

His father taught him several summers ago, back when Isaac was only maybe six or seven. Isaac wiped the summer sweat from his brow back then just as much as he did now. He hated the drills his father had him do; alternating stance and form at a moment’s notice. Forward grip extended his reach, his father would say, and back handed grip made boxing more lethal. A downward thrust had more force, good for armor or a thick shell, but it made him vulnerable to someone with longer reach. 

Isaac grabbed the dagger, flipped it underhanded, and stabbed it more than inch into the post behind him. 

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The Broken Key Part 1

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Mikaela turned the corner and began to run down the hall, away from the skittering coming fast behind her. She turned around and still could not see…that thing, whatever it was chasing her. She turned back around and realized the hall was stretching away from her. Her breathing grew ragged with exhaustion, and yet the door at the end of the hallway simply grew further and further away, but the skittering, the sound of metal on tile, and then wood, it kept getting closer. She turned back around…

She gasped as she felt wet warmth across her face.

Mikaela woke up to the feeling of her secret stray licking her face. 

“Christ in heaven, Checkov, nearly threw you across the room.” She lifted the cat, easily, despite the pain in her hand, and although Mikaela was still quite young and small, Checkov was even smaller, the best kind of cat to train to hide in a bag under her bed. The next trick was getting him to stay still for even a minute.

Checkov wiggled out of Mikaela’s hands and fell on her chest, mewing once, and licking her face. Mikaela pulled him closer. “Shush boy, don’t want dad to know!” she mumbled with intensity. Intensity undercut by another disarming lick.

“Ugh.” Mikaela set the affectionate boy down on the hardwood of her bedroom floor and gently rolled out of bed. She sneaked towards a large bag next to her dresser. It was just out of sight from the door to her room, and fortunately she was just at the age where her mom didn’t find her sudden interest in privacy strange. 

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Somewhere Only We Knew

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Katie was sitting at the bench in the bus stop close to her house. She checked her phone. No new messages, just the plans from Becca. “Hey, let’s meet at the bus stop after school. 4? It’s close to both of our places so it’s perfect.”

Katie already finished her homework, doing most of it between classes, and finishing up at home before walking to the stop. She didn’t have that far to walk, and Becca’s house was even closer to the bus stop than hers. That was part of the reason why they were going to meet there. 

Katie and Becca were close friends. They’d known each other for years. Becca learned how to bake specifically so she could make treats for Katie. Katie practiced extra hard for soccer so she could impress Becca. Becca even made a bracelet for Katie with a little soccer ball design on the wrist.

Becca was supposed to be there up to half an hour ago so they could go to their secret base. About two months ago Becca found a dried up well in the woods behind her house. When she showed Katie, Katie immediately climbed in it and started to climb down. She remembered reading that you could see the stars in the sky during a sunny day when you were in the bottom of a well.

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