Midnight Black flattened himself
on the high ledge, growling as he peered down at the car below. Its headlights
made a show of the rain. All four doors opened, spilling light onto the
glistening pavement. Large men climbed out, and one in the back reached inside
and pulled out Jessie. She had a hood over her head, but Blackie would know her
anywhere. The man grabbed her arm and shook her roughly, pulling her around the
car. They all walked inside the building on the other side of the street.
Black slunk along the ledge,
considering his options. The building was wide across the front, and short.
Chances were, he’d see a light come on when they reached their destination.
There. Four floors up from where he lay, in the corner. Time for backup.
#
Karen shifted her grocery bags
into her left hand, along with the unwieldy umbrella, shaking her key ring from around her wrist down into her
right palm. Climbing the steps to her brownstone, she was surprised to see a
familiar figure waiting by the door. She looked around hopefully, but there was
no one else in sight.
As she unlocked the door, Blackie
wound around her ankles, soaking wet and meowing pitifully. “Hi stranger. Come
on, don’t get my legs all wet. What are you doing here?”
The cat followed her in, then ran
up the stairs ahead of her, stopping at her door. “Okay, of course you can come
in. I probably have some tuna.”
Karen unlocked her apartment door
and left her umbrella in the hallway, following Blackie inside. She didn’t bother turning on the light, dropping
her keys on the console table by the door and carrying her grocery bags into
the kitchen. She opened a cabinet door and pushed aside a few cans. “Yes, tuna.
How about it.”
“No time for that, Karen. Jessie’s
in trouble.”
Karen dropped the can with a clatter on the counter and spun
around to stare at Blackie.
TBC?
Dogs in House
|
Eggs
|
Time writing
|
15 minutes
|
April word
count
|
11,790
|
Writing report:
ReplyDeleteNovel editing, Ch28, preview Ch29-33. A lot of info-dump fixing still to come. Also identified delay in events which may help build tension around non-POV character.
TIme: ~50min
Excellent reveal of the talking cat and Karen's reaction! It was only on re-read that I figured out the hopeful looking around was for Jessie, though. Might be a bit too subtle -- perhaps replace 'no one else' with something a mite more specific, like 'the cat's owner' or something else.
ReplyDelete