The Bogue's Creative Copy Challenge

CCC #89

delphiusbogue — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:25:19 +0000

Two adults on an underpowered motorcycle was a joke. We finallygave up that charade about 3 blocks from her apartment. She was pissed about losing her stuff but I pointed out that we could move faster with only small bags to carry.
She seemed placated, baby pink lipstick beginning to shimmer in the sunlight that was striking her luscious lips. As my eyes lingered, my mind wandered. What was happening to me?
I was losing my edge, the razor sharp awareness that cops need in order to stay alive. I needed to find the apothecary and see if he had a treacle to steel me against the wiles of this minx I was involved with now.
I shook my head to get focused again. I would be dead soon enough if I could not think. We wandered the streets, eyes constantly searching, wary of any stranger reaching into his coat, or anyone who seemed to pay too much attention to myself or Lola.
“So, “I began, “just where the hell are we headed too?”
“I dunno.” She said. “There are way too many people after you to just run. I guess they are after me too. What do you think we should do?”
“Go after the ones holding the contract.” I said.
She looked horrified. “Look, “ I said, “It isn’t like I can just wave a magic wand and make all of this go away. That mother#@&!er Mueller is going down just like Cabrese did.”
“How do you hope to do that?” she asked.
“Bloody, very bloody.” I replied. “We have to be prepared to shoot them all. We have to be prepared to die.”
“I don’t know if I am ready to die. Not for you anyway.” She said.
“They are after you for failing to kill me and still being alive.” I said. “They can’t let you live with your knowledge and not being effective.”
She looked dejected. “This plan is freakin’ bananas.” She said. “My brain must be pureed. Let’s go get him. But I need more guns.”
My heart skipped a beat or two. This girl was…wow. “Gun shop?’ I asked. She nodded and we took off toward Nick’s Firearms. He owed me a favor or two and it is funny how background checks can get lost or misdated.

CCC #89 Short Piece

delphiusbogue — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:23:00 +0000

This is continued from challenge #63. Bah.
“Do you need an apothecary?” I asked.
“What a minx you want.” She said.
Her sad smile found a way to puree my emotions.
Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.
Her luscious lips quivered.
Silence lingered.
“You think I am bananas” I said to break the silence.
“I wish you had a wand to wave or a treacle to apply and make this hurt go away.” She said.
“Motherfricker” I whispered to myself as I stepped closer and enfolded her in my arms.

CCC #88

delphiusbogue — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:09:17 +0000

There was actually glee in her eyes in the aftermath of karma. They had sent 3 men to her place thinking that they could overcome her for failing to kill me. They didn’t count on me.
It was all over in a moment, 2 shots from me, one from her, 3 bodies. I was checking pockets for cash or keys when another shot rang out behind me. I rolled and spun with my pistol appearing in my hand. I came within nanoseconds of shooting Lola.
Apparently, one of the thugs had been playing possum, and she was ready. What a woman, could I trust her? The bed session had been stress, could it last? Could I have another partner after Jack?
She was confident now. “We could just stay here, now that they think they got us.” She said. “How long do you think it will be before these guys are missed and they send someone to check it out?” I asked. She was trying to think up a reply when one of the men’s pockets began to ring. And then another vibrated. Our time was up.
I had to coax her back to her suitcase and get her the hell out of that apartment. It was about to get even hotter in here. I thought I could hear a siren far off in the distance.
I stopped long enough to search the last guy as we were leaving. Keys, a cell phone and a Cuban cigar were the only things in his pockets. These turkey’s didn’t even have the decency to shoot .45’s so I could restock my ammunition. I kicked the last thug before I turned and left the apartment.
“How about some chili cheese fries?” she asked. Strange how her brain worked but I said “OK. Do you have a car? I noticed mine was kind of shot up.” “Sorry about that.” She said. “I couldn’t have you getting away.” She flashed me a small smile that made the loss of my battered Camaro not such a bad thing. “My car is over there.” She pointed to a pile of shattered glass and chrome on the pavement. More explicative’s came over the stolen car.
I did still have the keys in my hand, taken from a dead assassin. What would he be driving? I looked around and the only thing that I could see was a crappy assed motorcycle leaning against the drainpipe of her apartment building.
The key fit the ignition and I shook my head. “We have to lose most of your stuff there.” I said. She nodded seeing the logic. Her gun, ammunition, knife and some other small things went into a knapsack that she was wearing. I was very confused when the discard pile grew by an feather boa and a nursing bra.

CCC #87

delphiusbogue — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:03:42 +0000

We both jumped and drew pistols at the same time. Something or more likely someone had just entered the front door to Lola’s apartment, and they were uninvited. I looked at her with a new appreciation as she threw on her clothes. This vivacious creature was letting loose such a string of bawdy prose, that it was a travesty I was the only one around to enjoy it.
A moment later we met at the door to the bedroom, both dressed and ready to kill. She was furious that someone had violated her sanctum. I knew how she felt, it was her doing the same thing to me just yesterday.
Glassware began to break in the other room. That was just cause to exacerbate her foul mood. Lola began to mutter darker and more violent curses at the heathen intruders. “I want to eviscerate those bastards with that set of antlers in the front room.” She said.
“They are nothing but squalor,” I said. “But it is better to incinerate them with gunfire. Intestines are nasty things.” I pulled open the door as silently as I could and followed my .45 from the room, Lola a heartbeat behind.

CCC #86

delphiusbogue — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 18:58:44 +0000

The next 3 hours were particularly fabulous. What started out as spontaneous became synergized and fabled. It was an intense elevator of emotion. I drifted off to sleep, Lola comfortably entwined in one arm, my .45 nestled under my pillow.
I dreamed. I was a wizard. I was Merlin himself, gazing into a crystal ball trying to see my future. I saw two different futures; they both involved Lola. In the first, I was riding off into the happily ever after on Pegasus from the stories, in the other, I woke up next to Medusa.
Eventually, the morning came, and Lola was just Lola…..

CCC #85

delphiusbogue — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 18:53:59 +0000

An hour later we were at her place. She was rapidly packing a suitcase. I was vapid, just trying to skulk until it was time to leave. But in the end, I wax quixotic and leap to the assistance of fair damsel in need.
I went to help Lola finish her packing. We needed to be gone, like now. I found her in the bedroom of her modest apartment. The facetious comment on my lips misfired when I saw how she was dressed. Or undressed was more like it.
“I was wondering when you would get in here.” She cooed at me. I wasn’t sure how in the space of about 3 hours, she had gone from trying to kill me to trying, and succeeding, to bedazzle me.
“What is this?” I asked somewhat breathlessly as I stepped into the room. “Shut your mouth and come here.” She said seductively. I totally forgot about the danger waiting for us in the autumn night. She was just so….perfect for me, at least for now. There was this one freckle….

CCC #84

delphiusbogue — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:47:50 +0000

I don’t know why I was not nervous. Perhaps my ability to prognosticate about the events to come had inflateed my ego to the point I was going to have problems.
“Get down!” I whispered loudly to Lola, realizing the gaffe I was making. She was an assassin. She would already be down. If not trying to kill me herself. I know it was hard to believe, but I am far from infallible.
Suddenly she slid next to me. She was a panoply in the weak light from the stove. Hair moving just so over fine features, smooth skin, taught tendons in her neck. The way her breasts pushed against the fabric as she twisted. Damn it, not now! I yelled in my head.
“Give me my gun back.” She said. “Why so you can finish me yourself?” I asked. “No you fool, there are two of them, I want you around for a while longer.” Came her reply.
“I don’t know if I can trust you.” I said drawing her pistol from my belt. Her soft lips brushed my cheek as she breathed, “You have too.” And took her weapon. She rolled to the other side of the doorway and waited. Soon enough two people entered my house. Both had guns. One was smaller, obviously another woman. The other was a large man.
The woman stood akimbo, framed in the light coming from the doorway. “We know you are here Stamper. Come out!” She shouted. I had the shot. I fired. The woman went down. At the same time I heard 2 quiet coughs from Lola’s pistol and a groan as the man went down. I went to him first. He was dead. His life juice leaking onto my floor.
I went to the woman who was gasping for breath and dying as well. I had hit her in the lower abdomen as well as the chest. The putrid smell told me I had pierced intestines. Lola came up behind me and gagged slightly at the stench.
I didn’t even bother to question the woman. I tried to put another round in her head but the extractor on my .45 had jammed. Lola leveled her pistol and fired into the woman’s forehead.
“We have to leave now.” I said. “You can’t go anywhere but with me now. They will be hunting you too.” I cleared the jam and snapped another round into the chamber. She looked sad. “I know.” She said. “I just have to get some things from home.” “Me too.” I said and headed for my bedroom and the duffle bag on the floor by the bed. Lola followed behind me, her shock at the situation fading into determination.
Strangely, I didn’t feel the least bit threatened by her anymore. Maybe I was getting soft. Maybe the thought of something soft dissolved my apprehensions.

CCC #83

delphiusbogue — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:45:45 +0000

My hand was trembling as I dropped the pieces of sassafrass root into the ebullient water to make tea. I had seen Lola in the dim light of the kitchen stove. She was incredible. She was vivacious, and just begging to be….wait, this was the same woman who was ready to kill me not 2 hours past.
This was tourturous but I had to maintain passivity. Who knew where this was going. She sat down as gracefully as a cat in one of the worn kitchen chairs. I knew that her own passivity was probably an act though, she struck me as a real dynamo.
Finally the tea was ready and I poured into two cups, offering her the choice as well as the bear full of honey. She took a cup and the honey and began to prepare her drink. “You know what would go great in this?” she asked. I looked at her quizzically. “Burbon.” She said. Awesome I thought as I smiled and reached behind me for the bottle.
I turned back and she was looking over her shoulder, suddenly tense. What I wouldn’t give to be nibbling on those…”Somebody’s here.” She said. Freaking bastards. Give me at least a moment or two with this girl. I rolled out of the chair and slipped on something causing my butt to plonk on the linoleum.

CCC #82

delphiusbogue — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:41:15 +0000

“So, Lola, tell me who you work for.” I said.
“No one.” She replied. “I am freelance. I have worked for Marconi, Cabrese, Smithson, Mueller, and Cassano.”
“Sounds like a scumbag law firm.” I said “What was this tonight? Just a hit or your night to be a debutante?”
Her green eyes blazed beneath those too long lashes. “They said you were a badass. A real steely killer who singlehandedly brought about the denouement of Cabrese’s empire in a bloodbath. Is that true?”
I sniggered. “Well you are educated, I’ll give you that.” I was niggardly with praise, but sometimes I could come through. “The truth is, Cabrese had it coming. He killed my partner, my brother in law and my best friend. He had to die.” I tried not to sound sanctimonious but it didn’t work very well.
“What made you so disillusioned with the human race?” She asked.
“I have seen what depths humans can sink to.” I said quietly. “Are you going to keep trying to kill me?”
“I don’t know there is much point anymore.” She said. “You intrigue me. You can live for a while.”
I smiled dangerously. “If you try to run, or cross me at any time I won’t hesitate putting a bullet from your own gun in the back of your skull and leaving you in an alley for the rodents. Do you understand?”
She nodded, the slightest fear touching those big green eyes as her tongue flicked out to wet her sensuous lower lip as it began to quiver. I looked away quickly and announced, “I am going to have some sassafrass tea and then I am going to get the hell out of this house. Come and join me.”
I turned and left the room before my breath could catch again at the sight of her. She followed slowly behind.

CCC #81

delphiusbogue — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:39:14 +0000

My silenced pistol barked once, and then again. A furrow appeared across her bare forearms just above her gloves. She dropped her pistol as the blood began to flow from the wounds. I wasn’t sure what had made me not terminate her life right there.
That wasn’t like me. I shot to kill. I didn’t vacillate when my life was in danger. But there was something about her…Dark and mysterious, resplendent in black leather pants and a black cotton shirt. I was enchanted to say the least.
She cried out in pain, or maybe terror as she turned and looked down the barrel of my still smoking pistol. Then she just collapsed. Fainted. Or was it a ruse? I walked slowly towards her, my pistol still tracking the door and her crumpled form. No one else was here I realized as I reached her.
She had collapsed onto her right side facing me. I could not see any weapon near her, just corpulent drops of blood escaping her arms and puddling on the floor. I turned her over to her back with the toe of my shoe. She was out cold. I nodded to myself and holstered my weapon. I picked up hers and stuck it in my belt as I went to the bathroom for first aid supplies.
An hour had passed. Her wounds were cleaned and bandaged. She didn’t wake up through all of it, even the peroxide in the furrows didn’t bring her around. It was like those junkies I had dealt with on the force. Hopped up on everything from Cocaine to ketamine and dead to the world.
Her heartbeat, however was as strong as it needed to be. I pulled a chair to the side of the bed and waited for her to wake up, the sharp quinine bite of the tonic water I was drinking on my lips, my pistol at the ready in my lap.
Eventually, she opened her eyes. They were green and rimmed by long lashes. No. Focus! I can’t get caught up like that. I had to don my cloak of steel and get some answers from her.
“Not very opulent around here is it?” She asked.
“Who sent you?” I asked in reply.
“Doesn’t matter does it? There are so many gunning for you.” She said.
I couldn’t argue. “Are they coming here?” I asked.
“Yep.” She said. “We all know where you live. I thought I was going to be first.”
“You were.” I said. “I was waiting. What is the prize?”
“$500,000 and a name. Hard to pass that up.” She said.
I shrugged in agreement trying to figure out where to move next. “Who are you?” I asked.
“What do you care, you are just going to kill me anyway.” She said.
“I am just curious.” I said trying not to notice the tendrils of brunette that fell across the sharp line of her jaw to the softness of her long neck.
“I’m not going to tell you.” She said. “You may as well kill me now.”
“I don’t think I will just yet.” I said. “But I to call you something. I can make something up, something exotic with a great backstory. Your name is Lola, you were a showgirl. Or maybe an Irene, destined to end up a dowager in the big old house with all of the cats. Or maybe..”
She interrupted. “My name is Lola. How did you know?”
“Lucky guess.” I said. “Lucky guess.”