Fantasy

There was no escape, and you’ll never guess what happened next

Hey Readers,

How are you? We had quite the adventure this week, and some of it was nonfictional for a change. What happened?

First, this is Ran, Sarn’s son from the Curse Breaker series, and I’ll be your narrator for today. No pressure, right? 😉 I’ll get to the book news and the bookish prizes after I fill you in on what happened.

Picture this. It’s a rainy night, and our faithful, Scribe, Melinda, is at her pc working away on the end of Curse Breaker Trapped, when a message arrives from her neighbors on the other side of the building:

Neighbor: Hi, Melinda are you still up? Something big is going on at building 7.

Melinda: What’s happening at building 7?

Neighbor: You can see it from behind us. Go outside and come to our patio. There are tons of police and Swat.

Melinda: Really?

(She’s lived in this area for years, and nothing like this has ever happened before, so I was skeptical too. –Ran, interrupting as always because I have a lot to say.)

Neighbor: And forensics are here. I tried calling the board to let them know, but no one answered.

Melinda: I’m coming. I just need shoes.

Neighbor: Okay. Come from the back of the building. Another police with gloves just arrived. 😨

(This is where I enter the story. I couldn’t let my intrepid Scribe head into the unknown alone, so I rounded up some characters, and we escorted her through the rain. The air was so moist that night, it was like walking through a wet washcloth, and that wasn’t fun. I might be fictional, but I do sweat! – Ran, interrupting again because I can.)

Ran: I don’t see anything interesting.

(We stood on Melinda’s neighbor’s patio at the other end of the building, and it overlooked the parking lot of building 7 and the last 6 apartments in it. Below us, NY state troopers, county cops and guys in black windbreakers with SWAT and Forensics milled went in and out of the last door in building 7.

There was a SWAT truck parked right under where we stood in the rain, and many of the residents of the building were also in the parking lot. We found out later that the police had asked everyone to leave for their safety until the problem was resolved. We could just barely see them through the trees growing on the side of the hill below us.

Melinda waited a while and chatted with her neighbors who were filming everything on their phones, then left to make some calls. At that time, we didn’t know what was going on, but since the tragedy that claimed lives in Buffalo, NY is at the other end of the state from where were, we didn’t think this had any connection to it.

Our hearts go out to the families who lost loved ones in that tragic shooting. No one should get hurt or die while trying to shop for groceries for their families. 😦 We extend our deepest condolences to them and wish there was more we could do other than to pray for them and for justice.

Back to our drama, which pales in comparison to what they suffered. But we try to have a story every week, even if it’s just us, characters, goofing around and getting in the way of our books. And this is a true story with a good ending, so I must share it.

Okay, we’re in the rain, and we’re clammy, and no one is enjoying that. Nothing is happening that we can see, except for what we noted above, and the Scribe is restless. She bids her neighbors good night, and I wonder how to get her back to the scene she had almost finished before this happened.

But Melinda is not just a Scribe, so she has other priorities than my unfinished scene. Upon reaching her apartment, she immediately calls her parents and her neighbor. I pace and do my best to serve sad puppy dog eyes and miserable character.

Melinda is a softy, so she ends the call with her neighbor and heads to the pc, but a message slides in before she can start writing.)

Neighbor: If it’s a bomb, we’ll head to my mother-in-law’s house. My husband’s going down to talk to the police to see if we need to evacuate.

Melinda: What? Do you really think it’s a bomb?

Neighbor: It’s not a bomb. It’s a hostage situation. Hubs is there now.

Melinda: Okay. Keep me informed!

(And I think I’ll get some more writing out of my Scribe, but alas, no because another message appeared. –Ran, interrupting because I need to be in the story somewhere.)

Neighbor: Go outside the hostage and negotiations truck is here.

Melinda: Is anything else happening? Also, I called my next-door neighbor and let her know about this.

Neighbor: I don’t know. Hubs is still down there, and my daughter is crying. She got scared when the hostage and negotiations truck arrived.

(Before Melinda could reply, another message appeared, and I knew the Scribe wouldn’t write anymore that night. Not when we were part of a real-life story now that wasn’t mine. So I gave up asking for any more page time. –Ran)

Neighbor: Hubs says there is a guy in an apartment with his girlfriend, and he is trying to kill her. He put something behind his door and is not letting the police inside, and he won’t talk to them. Now, he’s threatening to kill himself. Wait, someone’s coming out. I think it’s him.

Melinda: The guy who wants to kill her?

Neighbor: Yes, we are recording. Come over now.

(We trooped over in the rain using the flashlight app on the Scribe’s phone to see. But when we got there, it was all over, thankfully, and no one was hurt. We found out later, a tenant in building 7 had a toxic on and off relationship with a guy, according to her upstairs neighbor. There was a domestic violence call to the police that rainy night, and that’s when the guy barricaded them in her apartment and threatened to kill her.

The hostage negotiators rolled in, and the police got her out safely, and then it was just the guy, and he threatened to kill himself. They talked him down and took him away in cuffs. I hope the tenant gets counseling and stays away from him in the future.

And that was our crazy adventure this week. Thankfully, it ended peacefully, but it was tense for a while since we didn’t know what was happening.

Now for some book news. A draft of Curse Breaker Trapped is almost done. Like we’re at 95% on it. There are just one or two scenes that need to be added, and then, it’s off to editing, and we can start planning some kind of release date for it. It will clock in at around 90,000 words.

Its sequel, Curse Breaker Revealed, may cross the 100,000-word mark since it’s sitting at 84,000 words right now, and I estimate there are 5-10 chapters that have not been written yet. I couldn’t reach the Scribe for a comment on that. She’s hiding from me, so she may disagree with my estimate.

And finally, the bookish prizes. Paranormal fantasy author, Lily Luchesi, lost her mother this week after a short battle with the cancerous tumor doctors found a few weeks ago. The indie author community stepped up to donate reader and author prizes for an auction to raise money for Lilly. There are lots of books to bid on and all kinds of things from jewelry to baked goods to hand-made creatures.

Melinda also donated some of our books to the auction, and we hope you’ll scroll through and bid on anything that appeals to you. Share it with your friends too. The Auction ends on Tuesday, so please head over as soon as you can.

Take me to the Auction!

If you view it on your phone, you may need to click the discussion tab, then find somewhere to change the viewing options to view all to see the items. There were over 131 items as of yesterday.

And that’s it for this week. We hope you have a great week and keep in your thoughts all those who lost someone or are hurting right now.

–This is Ran and my Scribe, Melinda, signing off. We’ll be back next week with a lot more about Curse Breaker Trapped.


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