Take care you lie well

 

Engine thunder preceded the motorcycles. One, two, three, the machines curved into the lot.  The first rider, a big man in a leather coat, unholstered a pistol as he jammed down his kickstand. He took a small glass vial out of his breast pocket.

 

“I warned him.”

 

“True.” The second rider took the vial, sniffed it, then sniffed the air.  “Go up the back. Watch out for Flori.”

 

Upstairs, a young woman not much larger than a child stepped out of a door.  Flori said, “Cal’s down here.” When none of the riders moved, she said to the group’s lone woman, “Leave the men to mind the hall. They’ll catch him if I’m lying. You look at me like I’m the one as stole your drug.”

 

The woman rider walked to the open door and looked in. “She’s speaks truth,” she called to the others.

 

Cal lay on a bed in the small room, his body trapped between human and feline, one giant hand sprouting from his warped body.  “Do you have antidote?” Flori asked. “Or will you murder a cat?”

 

“We don’t kill the helpless.” The woman thumped down a pack and removed a syringe. At her jab, the cat-man yowled, then popped, and Cal lay on the bed fully clothed, and screaming. Flori threw herself across him, but the first rider hauled her up, mindless of how she fumbled with Cal’s jacket as she was dragged off her lover.

 

“Shut up and speak your last.”

 

“But I am helpless,” Cal protested.

 

The rider forced his pistol into Cal’s hand by way of answer, and the woman rider drew another gun out of her pack. Then Flori’s body popped. Before the bikers could react to the enraged gryphon she had become, she flew up, knocking out half the ceiling with one wing.

 

She seized Cal, who snickered and twitched in her talons. “They should know I’m never helpless with you,” he sang as they flew, the animal easily dodging the humans’ gunfire.

__________________________

They’re playing three truths and a lie over at Trifecta this weekend. But I’m a terrible liar and a worse guesser, so I just wrote a story connected to this one in which everyone but Cal is telling the truth. If she continues in this direction, Flori’s little life is not liable to end well. But she refuses to behave.

For my part, my obsession with honesty stems as much from the fact that I can only rarely pull off a lie with any degree of plausibility as it does from personal integrity.

Anyway, I’m gullible, and nearly everyone I know lies better than I do. Scott LOVES to torment me by making some impossible statement in conjunction with say a news article and waiting for me to say “Really… now waaaiit.” It has never backfired on him, and I have only had revenge once that I can think of.

 

About jesterqueen:
Jessie Powell is the Jester Queen. She likes to tell you about her dog, her kids, her fiction, and her blog, but not necessarily in that order.

Comments

Take care you lie well — 25 Comments

    • Cal’s a rather interesting addition. I fear he’s gotten Flori in over her head with this one.

  1. This sounds fun, and poop that I discovered the prompt too late. As if I have time to write anymore. 🙁 (Yeah its bad.)

    Anyway, I need to go back and read the other piece, but I love this story. I hope you write more.
    Hop over and visit SAM’s recent post WavingMy Profile

    • Thanks SAM,

      Always good to see you here. It’s never too late for Trifecta. Oh sure, you may have missed THIS prompt, but they have one going all the time, and every one of them rocks.

    • Thanks Tara,
      I’m a little surprised to see her back. My characters tend to be lawful good or chaotic good. . . Flori here is distinctly chatoic neutral.

  2. I’m a terrible liar, too. I like what you did with the prompt, though – lying in fiction isn’t really lying because none of it’s real anyway. They underestimated Cal and he ended up with the upper hand (thanks to his girl, of course.)
    Hop over and visit jannatwrites’s recent post Three Truths, One Lie, And GraceMy Profile

    • Yes – I hate being characterized as a liar just because I write fiction. Particularly when I can spin a good story and that skill is EXACTLY what gets me into trouble lying. I always have too many details.

  3. I’m gullible, too, in situations that just don’t seem like someone would be lying to me. But let someone try to sell me something … then my mind goes there right away.

    I’ve been feeling stupid for a few weeks now, so I haven’t really understood any of this story’s chapters, but I like your writing style, and I can tell it’s just me. Poor, poor, pitiful me. (To borrow the song title.)

    • Who knows — it might not be you. I love the positive feedback, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes people are afraid to say “hey, I don’t get it” when they see a bunch of people who DID get it commenting. So don’t feel ‘wrong’ just because it didn’t make sense! For that matter, if you have a sense of what’s losing you, that would be awesome!

    • The cat growing the human hand? That comes from this real world news story. Totally creeps me out, but at the same time the real world example gives me hope for people who have lost things that need regrowing.

  4. I liked your story, but I like even more your note at the end about yourself. I am terrible at lying, too, so I can relate. You’ve got to plan a really good revenge on Scott one day!
    Hop over and visit Sandra’s recent post Dear HeadphonesMy Profile

  5. You are so creative. What a clever way to us the prompt. I really liked how you made Flori’s body “pop” to let us know she turned. Great job!
    Hop over and visit Mel’s recent post TRIFEXTRA: CurfewMy Profile

    • I kind of imagine that she’s bending reality, breaking the sound barrier in tiny fragments. So instead of a deafening bang, we get ‘pop’ as her body changes. Glad you enjoyed it!

  6. Wow! This was a neat read. Had NO idea what you were going to do with this. I can’t lie either, which is interesting from fiction writers.
    Hop over and visit kgwaite’s recent post TruthMy Profile

    • I think it’s because we get caught up in the story. My first ever indieink prompt was rough for me, because it was “Tell about your biggest lie” or something like that. Now, I KNOW what my biggest lie is. And so does my husband.

      And we are the only two. So I felt INSTANTLY guilty even though it’s probably something that would be inconsequential to most people. But I haven’t come clean yet, and I’m not EVEN going to give myself away until I am ready to !

    • I’m glad you like her! She’s … really surprising. I’m afraid if she ultimately survives this motorcycle gang, it will be because she loses her innocence and kills them or because Cal dies saving her and cancels the debt, which was his to begin with. And Cal? I don’t know that he’s the ‘saving her’ type. I think Flori is on her own when it comes to him.

  7. I've been known to be very sarcastic, and some including my wife have a hard time knowing if I'm serious. But when it comes to lies, I can't do it, either.

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