Remember yesterday when we were talking about violence and all of that fun stuff?
Here’s a chunk from chapter 10 for you. It’s starting to feel weird posting all of this stuff when most of you don’t know what these people look like, or why they’re doing all of this, but I guess that’s part of the fun. We never said these would be stand-alone pieces, did we? But I’m starting to think I’m ruining it. Might be about time to start posting from another WIP.
Note to self: start another WIP.
We’re a long way from the safety of last week’s flower garden now… (warning: there be gore ahead)
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“Would you let me die now?” he asked, after I’d put the last of the food away. He sat on the far side of the fire, shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
“What do you mean?”
“If you saw me injured and dying again, what would you do? You said that if you’d known who I was that day you’d have left me to your friends. Has that changed at all?”
I had no idea what he was getting at. Stupid me. “I still don’t know you very well.”
“Knowing what you know now.”
“I… no. I might still turn you in, but if I saw you hurt like that again, I don’t suppose I could leave you.” I didn’t like the way he was looking at me. Not threatening, exactly, but he looked half-insane in the flickering firelight.
“I believe you.” In one smooth motion he reached into his knapsack, produced a long, dark-bladed knife, and plunged it into his left wrist. I screamed. He gasped, then pulled the knife through the flesh of his arm, twisting it near his elbow. The blade must have been sharper than any I’d ever come across before; it cut through muscle and tendons like they were liquid. Blood gushed from the wound.
“What the hell are you doing?” I yelled, and jumped up from where I had been sitting. Aren held his arm away from the blankets so that his blood poured onto the ground, burning on the fire-baked rocks.
“This is up to you,” he said, speaking as calmly as he had when we first met. “You probably have a few minutes, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t leave it for too long.”
“No.” My legs went weak, and I had to sit down and push with my feet to back away. “You’re crazy.”
“And I’m dead if you can’t manage a repeat performance. I…” He grimaced. “Gods, that hurts.”
I tried to tell myself that he was tricking me, that this was some kind of illusion, but as his eyes became glassy and his breathing shallower it became harder to believe that. “You ass,” I whispered, and he tried to laugh.
“Rowan, I can’t-”
“Shut up.” I picked up the knife and used it to cut into a thin cotton blanket so that I could tear a ragged strip off of it. I dropped the knife and kicked it onto the woods.
He looked at the fabric in my hands. “You don’t need to do that.”
“I said shut up!” I felt sick at the sight and smell of blood. Panicked tears made the world tremble in front of me, but I managed to start wrap the cloth tight around the butchered arm to try and slow the bleeding.
Aren placed his other hand over mine. “Don’t. You can do better than that.”
I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes and tried to clear my head, then grabbed Aren’s injured arm in both hands and squeezed. He yelled. “You deserved that,” I whispered.
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Don’t forget to check out all of the other WIPpeteers’ posts for this week (head over to My Random Muse and click on the link), and to join in if you’d like. The rule is that you post a bit of a work in progress that somehow corresponds to the day’s date (so for today, 10 lines, 10 paragraphs, etc.). Thanks for stopping by!
disregard the prologue 
April 10th, 2013 at 6:30 am
OMG. I’m breathless! What an awesome scene. I actually flinched when he cut himself. I wish there was a button better than “liked”.
The bad thing about WIPpets are trying to avoid spoilers and giving out too much of the story. Also, some things out of context don’t work well. Part of my brain has been given over to coming up with a twist for WIPpets — perhaps more of a prompt challenge? Not necesarily out of a current WIP but a potential WIP? . . . . thinking . . . . thinking . . . .
April 10th, 2013 at 6:34 am
Glad you liked it! You comment made me think, “I think I like him… as MORE than a friend!”
One of these days (weeks) I’m just going to write out the first x-number of sentences from the one that’s been stewing in my brain. There’s a week coming up where I’ve got something kind of spoiler-y planned, so maybe I’ll do that, instead. Fortunately, I have the opening planned– that doesn’t usually happen for me. 🙂
April 10th, 2013 at 5:04 pm
I like where your WIPpetly innovative thinking is heading…!
April 10th, 2013 at 5:08 pm
I’m thinking broad definition of WIP. 🙂 Who says it means Work In Process? Maybe it means Words In Print, or Writing In Pieces, or . . . .
April 10th, 2013 at 5:08 pm
Whales is Paris?
April 10th, 2013 at 5:10 pm
Well we’ve been pretty creative about the dates… so why not take that flexibility and produce a Wildly Inspiring Piece!
April 10th, 2013 at 5:11 pm
Wet Irish Pyramids!
April 10th, 2013 at 7:52 pm
Oooooh, I like that!
April 10th, 2013 at 7:00 am
Yikes, no good on an empty stomach. Wait a minute, probably no better on a full stomach… At least I can’t say you didn’t warn us!!
April 10th, 2013 at 7:03 am
I did! Sorry, though.
April 10th, 2013 at 8:02 am
Great excerpt – now I really want to know what’s going on. Why would he do that? As always, love your writing style – thanks for sharing!
April 10th, 2013 at 8:19 am
He has his reasons. The thing is, even if he gets what he wants and Rowan benefits from it, it was a seriously mean thing to do. I adore Aren, but Rowan’s right. He’s such an ass.
April 10th, 2013 at 9:30 am
Gosh this is tense! Not something you really want to read whilst eating!! But great dialogue and friction between the two characters. I definitely want to know how the plot unfolds from here. 🙂
April 10th, 2013 at 10:36 am
Ouch is an understatement. What an image – very powerful stuff and what a position to put Rowan in.
April 10th, 2013 at 12:04 pm
Eeee! I should have eaten lunch first. Very vivid description!
April 10th, 2013 at 12:05 pm
Wow. I should have put a “finish your lunch” warning instead of a “gore” warning. I’m going to try to take it as a compliment…
April 11th, 2013 at 7:26 am
It is! 🙂 You’re very good at description. Good tension too.
April 10th, 2013 at 1:25 pm
Great scene. Pulled me right in. I too was left wondering why on earth he would do that? Does the MC have some kind of healing powers?
April 10th, 2013 at 1:26 pm
I could tell you, but where’s the fun in that? ^.^
April 10th, 2013 at 1:26 pm
Cliffhangers are good too. 😀
April 10th, 2013 at 1:28 pm
I like them– not at the end of a book, but they’re fun for this. This wasn’t the end of the scene, though. I don’t like to tease outside of these snippets, and the answers tend to come pretty quickly.
(Short answer: he thinks she does. She disagrees)
April 10th, 2013 at 1:33 pm
Well then you know you’ve got your scene working if this is a conclusion I was coming to. Nicely done. 😀
April 10th, 2013 at 5:03 pm
He has a wonderful dose of crazy in there too. Loved it. But I’m getting the sense she needs the motivation… Excellent!
April 10th, 2013 at 5:09 pm
It makes me very happy when these things come through. 🙂
April 10th, 2013 at 6:36 pm
This is horrifying and creepy and yep, made me feel a bit sick, but please know that I mean all of this in the best possible way. (I might have to go and reread last week’s with the nice trees again, though :P).
May 15th, 2013 at 7:28 am
[…] I’ve been working on. You can return to your regularly scheduled breakfasts/lunches/whatever (still sorry about that…). Here’s 15 paragraphs (because dialogue) from a scene that takes place at the top of Cabot […]
July 10th, 2013 at 4:03 pm
As a first time reader, I definitely want to read more! Teh gore didn’t bother me. What was fascinating was how Aren challenged Rowan and drew her right in. Of course, our heroine is not going to let him die, but that ending line shows her spunk. She knows who he is! Well done!
July 10th, 2013 at 6:03 pm
I’m glad it didn’t bother you. 😉