I know it's not Tuesday, but I still wanted to do this. I missed this week's Teaser Tuesday and Psychology of Character thing and Web Fiction Wednesday. I didn't do in my mailbox because I haven't finished the books I had from the week before and the library is under construction and everything is all rearranged and scary so I can't find any books. I have an HIV/AIDS Summit to help plan for my internship this week and some workshops to do at the local high schools, so needless to say, things have been really hectic. I promise to get caught up and even ahead because school starts in two weeks and it's going to be insane.
At any rate this weeks teaser comes from Sex, Drugs, and Steampunk, a story about a girl in a small town with an extraordinary talent and a boy with a deadly secret. (a better summary coming soon). I hope you enjoy it. It's loosely edited, so if there are mistakes, I'm sorry. This is a first draft so naturally things will be revised when I finish. And now without further adieu:
Alessandra wasn't sure what she was going to find when she walked into The Last Resort. She had been there plenty of times to meet clients and people who wanted her specific set of skills. It wasn't that she was unfamiliar with the place, she knew the owner, Donte, and his beautiful wife, Luna, and their two year old son. If something was about to happen, they'd look out for her.
Alessandra looked at the paper, reading the scrawled description. The note had been attached to the collar of a black cat with purple eyes. Alessandra glanced around. She wasn't exactly sure who she was looking for. Curly brown hair, incredibly handsome, tall, lean,etc... all the pompous description of a client she knew she was going to dislike.
Alessandra looked up and saw a a young man sitting in the corner. He had shaggy brown hair that was in definite need of a good scrubbing and a cut. His thick bangs hung in front of his eyes, so she wasn't sure what color they were. They looked light, perhaps light gray or blue.
He wore a newsboy cap, a black shirt, and gray trousers, all in various states of disrepair. Around his neck was a black fur like a silk scarf. It looked odd on a young man, but when Alessandra noticed the moving tail and the flicking ears, she realized it was a cat. The same black cat who had delivered the letter.
"You must be Alessandra," the man said with a grin. Underneath his curly bangs, she could see his eyes. They were crystal blue, his gaze was unwavering.
"And you are?"
"Noah."
"No last name?"
He shrugged.
Weirdo.
His accent sounded foreign, but she couldn't place the country. Moraa, perhaps? Why he was here in Acapella, on the other side of the Atheria, was anyone's guess.
The waitress, Daisy, came over. "Hi, Aless. It's nice to see you."
"It's nice to see you too," Alessandra said, though it wasn't really the case. She liked Daisy well enough, but she was a little airheaded. Daisy turned to Noah.
"Well, would you two like to order?" Daisy asked.
He rattled off a list of food in that weird accent. The young man ordered at least four dishes and large pitchers of alcohol as well.
"I hate when guys order for me," Alessandra grumbled.
"Oh... you wanted something too?"
"I'll have the dumplings and the noodles with a milk tea," Alessandra said. It was her usual, she wasn't even sure why Daisy had asked. Alessandra watched Daisy leave and then turned to Noah.
"So, what do you want?"
"I want you to fix something for me," he said. "That's what you do right? You fix things."
"Yeah, that's what I do," she said with a smug grin. She was good at what she did, but mostly she was because she had cheap prices and a lot of time on her hand. The town was small, so most people knew who she was and the kind of work she did. They let her do small jobs around the house and worked her way up from there. Just today she had to fix six steam generators. "So what did you want fixed? Why did you have to be so skeevy about it?"
"Skeevy?"
"You had a black cat deliver this letter to me, then you meet me at Last Resort, why couldn't you just approach me like a normal person?"
"Drinks!" Daisy called out, setting down the pitcher of alcohol and her milk tea. Noah grabbed the pitcher and chugged. Alessandra took a sip of her milk tea. He didn't approach her like a normal person because he wasn't a normal person. He set the pitcher down and licked his lips.
"What do you know about magic?"
"Not much."
"Good, that's good," he said, drinking more of his drink. "Gosh, this tinkerberry beer is good."
"Will you stop drinking and tell me what you want?"
"It's my arm," he said in a whisper. Alessandra leaned in just to hear him. She glanced at his arm, which hung limply at his side. She hadn't notice that he didn't use his left hand.
"What's wrong with your arm?" Alessandra asked, wondering why he was whispering.
"It's all wonky," he said.
"I'm not a doctor," Alessandra said.
"I know," he smirked. "You're a mechanic."
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