Good morning all. I hope everyone slept well. I had dreams last night where I flunked out of super spy training. I was supposed to descend into a room through the skylight but come how ended up getting tangled in my own lines three feet above the ground. Then the instructor pointed out all of the things I had done wrong. For some reason the spy master instructor was Fran Drescher. No clue why but I thought I’d share so that you too could spend some time baffled by this. And now on with the prompt.
So not where I thought this was going. And not my usual story genres either. huh. maybe it was the dream…
Wednesday, April 12th: Think of this as a test.
“Think of this as a test,” Jay said. He smiled. “Do it and we will know you are with us.”
The threat of what would happen if he didn’t hung over them unspoken. There were snickers from the circle of those around him. Owen knew they watched and waited. He wasn’t like them and had only been allowed in on Charlie’s say so. Now, he had to earn his placement past the initial introduction.
Owen didn’t look around. He didn’t need to. He knew that none here believed him capable of doing what needed to be done. If he were to look he would see the sneers of derision and mocking. He didn’t know if Charlie would have them and didn’t want to see if he did.
Owen held out his hand and Jay smiled wickedly at him as he placed the gun in his palm.
“Let’s see what you can do,” Jay said.
Owen didn’t bother answering. He closed his hand around the gun and turned away. He gripped it tightly and walked out of the house. Inside he tried to control his temper. Charlie brought him here because he thought Owen needed someone. He thought this would be good for him. With Jay and his friends Charlie finally found acceptance and a place to belong. He thought Owen would find the same.
‘But I’m not like Charlie,’ Owen thought. Charlie complained about no one caring, no one wanting him, but in every group he tried to join he was accepted. He was a part of. He only left when he decided he wanted to go somewhere the group didn’t want to go. Then he felt like he was being abandoned and left to find a new group. Then he found Jay and everything clicked. He was one of them.
They were just like him.
‘And he is just like them.’
It was something Owen had to see to really believe. He and Charlie went way back and were often friends for each other when they each needed someone. Owen didn’t mind that Charlie often didn’t get him and Charlie never seemed to mind that Owen didn’t always go where Charlie wanted.
Charlie said this was a group that would accept them both, but he was wrong. They took the darker side of Charlie. If there was anything left of the part Owen was friends with, then it was so deeply buried that it was gone.
Owen left the house and kept going. He headed off towards the area where he knew Jay and the others often shot targets. If anyone asked, he was going there to get in a bit of practice with the unfamiliar gun. He suspected someone was watching him. He knew that they didn’t think there was anything out that way, but there was.
Owen kept going. The point of tonight was to get this gun. He knew there were many bullets shot from this gun. He knew a few of the crimes those bullets would match. He also knew that if he wasn’t chosen for this hit then someone else would. He suspected that someone would be Charlie.
Owen didn’t much like the path Charlie was on, bit he could at least do this. Owen kept moving towards the range, well out of sight of the house. They would look and see where he was going. He kept moving and when he was out of sight, he looked around making sure no one was following him.
He was alone and diverted his path through the trees, coming out on a side street. Here his car was parked. He got in Wiped his prints from the gun and drove to the lake. There in the dark where no one was watching, he hurled the gun as far as he could throw. He then got into the car and kept driving.
Ten til Midnight 