Saturday, December 14, 2013

Page 409

--donation bonus (day #21, post 3/5)--
They could all be terrifying, he knew, but the young woman named Nola Pauls was uniquely so. Affectionately so. For whatever reason--or perhaps for none at all--she’d taken an interest in David, often rubbing his large belly and remarking that doing so would grant her various wishes. She was joking, he was fairly certain, though he didn’t know what about it was supposed to be funny. Foreign humor, he figured.

She was not a small woman, and like most of her comrades, she was red of hair. Her pale face, however, held far more freckles than anyone else’s.

“Hey, fat prince!” she said, running up to catch him from behind.

He tried not to wince as he turned to greet her. “Hello, Nola.”

“Look, look!” She kept one hand behind her back and, with the other, held up a lock of a black hair. “Guess who this belongs to!”

Her games always started like this, with something seemingly innocuous. “Allow me a hint?” he asked.

She grinned, showing her uneven teeth. “It’s someone you know.”

“I know a lot of people. Does it belong to one of my brothers?”

“Nope,” she said. “It’s someone who works for you.”

“Is it my tailor?”

“Nope!”

“My driver?”

“Nope, nope! Give up yet?”

“Yes, I give up.”

“It’s your nanny!”

“But I don’t have a nanny.” David tilted his head. “I don’t have children.”

“Oh.” Nola’s face scrunched up. “Well, then who’s this?” She brought her other hand around, and in its grasp was the severed head of a black-haired young woman.

Instinctively, he turned away and closed his eyes, struggling to maintain his composure. He tried to focus on not retching in the middle of the corridor.

“Is she someone else’s nanny?” asked Nola. “I saw her walking around with some fat kids, so I thought she was yours.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know who she is.”

“You sure? I don’t think you got a very good look. C’mon, open your eyes.”

9 comments:

  1. Red hair, freckles, and bad teeth. Not sure how this could get any worse...
    (I kid, I kid)

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  2. I was originally hoping it was going to be that pirate that gave stoker his tattoo.
    Is the red hair an abolish side-effect or do they just recruit a lot of them?

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  3. Nah, it's not a side effect. Stoker and Karkash didn't have red hair. They were both Vaelish, though.

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  4. So where are these schmucks from?

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  5. Abolishtown, Abolishland. Totally coincidental names and not related to Abolish at all.

    Actually, I think I'll keep that secret for a while. Because. Well. I can.

    Will be revealed in due time, of course.

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  6. i believe it was the urban legend of Gingership, you know when they say, Gingers have no soul??? Just, joking, well it could be true still...


    OR, there was some scientific research stated that red haired people are more tolerant to pain (high pain toleration, not to be confused with high pain threshold) than other people. Probably that's why abolish people enjoy beating, either beaten up or beating up people for no clear reason

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  7. Haha. The violent tendencies of these characters have nothing to do with their appearance.

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  8. Huh. Interesting character defining moment right there

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