Morning all. I hope you had a nice restful weekend. It is currently pouring down buckets here. while we need the rain, it did make me want to curl upo and go back to sleep for just a little bit longer. Still, even without the sun, the day must begin. So let’s get to the first prompt of the week shall we? Timers at the ready? Off we go…
I kind of like this one It seems like there is a lot of room to maneuver with people trying to collect protection money from a wizard. I just have to decide what sort of wizard he is. It could lean comedy or it could be darker. either way I think it might be fun to write.
Monday, May 8th: We are one bag short.
“We are one bag short,” Ivan said. He looked up from the table where the bags were piled up. When they arrived, Al and Jerry placed the box containing all of the collected bags on the table. Jerry handed him the key to the box and after throwing it open, Ivan carefully removed each bag. He took each one out, his enormous hands moving almost delicately as they extracted each bag. He counted each one as he placed it, his lips moving even though he was silent.
“That can’t be” Al said.
“We collected from everyone,” Jerry added. His face turning into a frown.
“Everyone?” a soft voice said from the back of the room. The voice was deep and smooth and flowed out of the shadows like a deadly, but seductive snake. Al and Jerry straightened. They hadn’t realized HE was in the room.
No one knew his name and no one even knew his face as he was always covered and stuck to the shadows when he was in meetings. His face, should one be stupid enough to peer into the shadows to attempt to identify HIM by sight could be seen shrouded with a mask and goggles. Still the mask couldn’t disguise his voice.
Al and Jerry may not have been the brightest of Ivan’s collectors, but they were smart enough not to look to the shadows. After their start of surprise they looked down towards their feet.
“I….I think so,” Al said.
Jerry closed his eyes and mentally walked through their collection process. He remembered the citizens who handed over their protection fee. Some were resigned about it, others clearly hiding anger and others fear, but all handed over their fee.
“No, I don’t think we missed anyone,” Jerry said. His comment came slower than Al’s but it required a more thorough search of recent memory than a knee jerk response and he found that HE never complained about such things.
“What about the man on the hill?” the voice slid out of the shadows.
Al gasped audibly. Jerry, no less shocked managed to contain his reaction. “The old wizard?” he said. “He keeps himself to himself. Doesn’t take clients, so I can’t see as he’d accumulate any coin.”
“No clients?” the voice asked.
“None that I know of,” Jerry said. He heard rumors of course about people sneaking up in the middle of the night, but he kept those rumors buried in his thoughts. He didn’t want to have to go collecting from a wizard, much less threaten such a person. He heard stories of people who crossed them and wanted nothing to do with them.
“Oh I think he sees more clients than you would suppose,” the man in the shadows said. “I want you to pay him a visit. See how his business is run. And if he doesn’t have the coin, perhaps he would like to trade his services, provided he isn’t a complete charlatan.”
Ten til Midnight 