Reading Time: < 1 minute

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Fearless – A web novel

Chapter 13 – Erotica bizarro LTD

Ahead of my warden and oaf guard, I stepped out in the corridor. The gothic chamber was apparently the last room and the door opened up from a dead end corridor. There were three doors on the left, one on the right; open and ready for me. The three on my left were closed but details like that has never stopped me before. I grabbed the handle on the first door; securely locked. I moved on to the second, grabbed it and pulled. Two down, one to go. I heard steps behind me. Short hurried paces coming after me, but I ignored it. The third door opened niceley and I stepped through. Before I could close the door behind me, the dwarf stood in the way, glaring at me. I shrugged and looked around the small room that could be nothing but a control room for film or TV.

Cameras of every size and style, every age, seemed to crowd a huge cabinet on the far wall, next to a window that revealed nothing through tightly closed blinds. Metal barrs, stands I assumed, piles of gear I wouldn’t even know how to start explaining. Just stuff, and everywhere electronics. Knobs and buttons, mixers and microphones stacked on an overflowing row of shelves. Monitors, computer towers, cables, a couple of chairs and more than one regular keyboard. Abandoned styro foam cups, Skavenged bags of junk food and wrappers, and assorted scraps of paper, and the odd pen littered the big desk and linoleum flooring. Nothing seemed to be running, noone sat at the controls, nothing hummed and buzzed. It nonetheless looked like someone had been there not five minutes ago. Curious and curioser.

Garphy opened his yap to say something but he shut up and sighed as I spotted a pile of what looked like magazines and DVD cases on a shelf. I peeked at the top item, hiked up my brows, and picked it up with two fingers.

“Dames and dungeons?”, I picked up another one. “Succubus taming 101?” I picked up a glossy magazine and tried to open it. I had to settle with the title page and I held it up for Garphy to see. “Little people, giant dicks?” I grinned and dropped the sticky pages on the floor, watching Garphy’s backside as he disappeared through the door with a grunt and huff. I looked with more care around the room. A plaque above the desk read: “Erotica bizarro Production LTD”

“Oooh, makes perfect sense.” I looked at the two sleeze films in my hand, turned them over. True enough. Production Erotica Bizarro was the head behind the masterpieces I was holding. I thought about the shackles and the earthen floor. Pondering what scenes may have been shot in that environment made my head ache. I wasn’t stranger to a bit kinky, but dungeone orgies? Nah, not my cup of cum…. Pardon me, that was supposed to be tea wasn’t it? I sighed, took one more quick look around for anything that may be of use to me, found nothing obvious, and stepped out in the corridor again. Dinky caught my eye. “You didn’t.” I said to him. He stared at me for a long moment. Then his jaw dropped and his eyes grew enormous when understanding hit him. I was referring to the two movies I still held in one hand. He finally stammered something that sounded like denial. Very strongly emphasized denial. He shook his head violently and shut up, while trying not to look at the one breast peeking out of the loosely draped blanket. I stared hard at him for one more moment. I believed him. Or, but that thought was too horrific to contemplate, I wanted to believe him.

Garphy cleared his throat and I turned to him, passed him the dvd cases, and headed for the open door.

And the bath was truly marvellous. Long, hot, and gratifying. When the water turned a bit chilly, I drained some and topped up the huge tub, listening to the mutterings and complaints on the other side of the bathroom door. In all honesty, most of the mutterings came out of the dwarf. Dinky was out there too I was sure, blushing, trying to get over the fact that I was naked. Truly though, it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen me that way. He was the one charged with terrifying me, didn’t work but that’s beside the point, and tender me up a bit for the real thing. I didn’t get it. Dinky Meyers, the breath from hell, the giant oaf, the friendly puppy. He had been so sweet, and then that broadfooted puppet showed up and he had been flung back into reality, afraid of Garphy, wary of me. There was something very wrong with this whole scenario, besides the obvious wrongness of kidnapping and stolen money, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I pondered lightly on the problem as I lay soaking, scrubbing nails and massaging cleaners into every strand of hair, I splashed and scrubbed, wile grinning all to my self. Oh, I know it wasn’t truly funny. But it was. Lack of true fear wil do that to a person.

Wrinkled like a proone and perfectly free from stink and stiffness, I dried myself off, wrapped a soft towel around my hair, and stepped out in the huge bedroom. The The shock from going from dark stone and dirt to satin, glitter, and carpet one could hide ones feet in, hadn’t quite abandoned me. The room was huge; rather longer than it was wide. The far end sported a large window and a massive four poster bed, both draped in dark red velvet, matching the darker red of the carpet. The bed certainly took pride of place and sided with highly polished nightstands it was nothing less than impressive.

It was when I had first walked in there, seen the absurd bed, and turned from the monstrosity to see what was behind me; the half of the room from where I had entered that I had thought I had gone totally nuts. The carpet was the same, the rest of the room was fundamentally different. I faced two double beds standing side by side, a chair and small desk, no windows; only a door on the left leading to the corridor and another on the right standing open into a bathroom. There was no doubt about it. The scene couldnt have been mistaken for anything other than a medium prized hotel room in any hotel in any country. There was a TV mounted on the wall, a phone and notepad on the desk, and a sign hanging on the doorknob. I turned around and took a closer look at the walls as I scanned the transition from motel to the King’s quarters. The room was cut in half. A non-descript beige turned into dark wooden panelling and exclusive trim, stipled ceiling. “Wow.” I breathed.

Suddenly and without a sound, Garphy came up to me. He had peered up at me, looking more like an inquisitive little pug than anything human. “A penny for your thoughts precious lady? He said and for the first time I felt something oddly like true curiosity about the creature next to me. His mood swings were just one of the many facets of this uncut jewel of mystery. I had no reason whatsoever to make it easy on them. But I couldn’t for the life of me muster any ill will toward either one of them. Not even after threatening my friend. I looked around one more time but my mind felt like a puddle of mud and it turned too slow to be functional. “I’ll give you all of my thoughts for absolutely free little fella, but unfortunately I’m fresh out of think.”

Garphy chuckled. “This way MiLady.” He turned and wabbled off to the two normal beds where dinky had already occupied one. “Take your time.” He told me without looking at me further. Okey. I thought and dropped the blanket where I stood.

Presently I looked around the room. Garphy was out, getting me something to wear. I hoped that he understood my simple instructions; size five, shoes size six, underwear, jeans, t-shirt, sweater. Anything would be better than the ratty stuff I had worn when getting into bed last night. I’m not picky. The clothes hadn’t arrived yet though and I couldn’t help it. Naked as a newborn babe again, I kept running my hand through my hair. It was as if I had never been clean before.
Smooth and silky. My skin was too, but I had enough self control to keep my hands off my skin at least. Or did I? Glancing at the bottle of lotion on the nightstand, I decided I didn’t. And why would I? I squirted a generous amount into my hand and looked at my watcher.

I was alone with my thoughts and Dinky. At the moment, those two things were one and the same though. He lay on the second of the two twin sized beds, chewing frantically on something that spread its smel throughout the little room, overpowering even the lingering aromas of schampoo and scented bath-salt. Spearmint? I smiled. I sat at the edge of the bed, feet firmly planted in the worn carpet, looking at him while rubbing lotion into my arms, legs, belly, hips. You get the picture. It seemed as if Dinky’s jaws should crack from the constant abuse of the chewing gum, but if his jaws were as strong as his arms I guessed it would be okay. The danger I could see though, was a possible popping out of eyeballs. But he wasn’t looking at me, oh no, dinky wouldn’t look at me before I had stopped being so naked.

Chew, chew, chew, stare into the ceiling. Good for you. I thought. “Why do you do it?” I asked and pulled a foot up to rub lotion on my heel, toes, between my toes. I heard movement and increased jaw activity. He didn’t answer. Finished softening up my foot, I dropped it back to the floor and looked at him. Dinky’s eyes were closed now. “Dinky!” I said, sharply, to get his attention as if I didn’t have it already. He jerked and chewed, opened one eye and rolled the eyeball toard me and shut it tight just as fast.

“He’s not so bad.” Dinky finally said around the huge lump of gum.

“Not so bad huh?” I pondered this for a moment. “Okay, let’s pretend he’s not so bad then. Why do you do it?” I picked up my other foot.

“I don’t know.” He said, barely audible, seriously distorted by the chew, chew, slop, smack. I stood up, grabbed the waste basket and walked over to Dink and held it out to him. “Spit!” I barked. Dinky discarded the gum into the basket. “Good boy.” I said and returned to the other bed.

“So, can you tell me anything? Anything at all?”

Dinky just shook his head and remain stubbornly silent. I thought I’d go around the brick wall he put up. I had to get him to talk. Somehow. I frowned, tried to think. “Why did I have to be naked?” Dinky uttered a choked gurgle and his shovels of hands fisted even harder, the knuckles turned even whiter. Oh, wrong angle. I’d save that one for the goblin. I tried again. “Did he run away from a circus or something? I mean I have nothing against odd looking folks, but I can’t imagine him working in a bank. Can you?”

Dinky’s mouth actually twitched a little bit. Encouraging. “What is he to you anyways?” I asked, casually administering lotion on places I might have missed, studiously avoiding to look at him, I heard a choking sound knew I had caught him looking. I pretended not to notice as I worked my other breast.

Yeah, I know I know. I should be a bit more careful when naked in a room with a giant beast of the male persuation. I didn’t see any reason to be, even if I had been capable. Garphy was no idiot. Before taking off, locking the door behind him, he had fixed Dinky with an icy stare and said. “Don’t touch.” While pointing at me. And Dinky, wel trained as he was, wouldn’t touch. I know that wouldn’t be much of a comfort for most women. But as I have mentioned before, I’m not most women. God knows my mother told me enough times that I wasn’t like other girls, not even remotely like other children, or in any way like other human beings at all. I do think that was a we bit harsh coming from ones mother, but if you knew my mother…

So I added a bit more lotion on my backside with no fear of rape. Hell, Dinky wasn’t capable of contemplating making a pass at me, no less come up with something indecent to say. Poor guy. I can be wicked when I want to be. So far I’ve been an angel, trust me. I was just in the process of devicing a strategy to get Dinky to talk, when something totally different caught my attention. I shouldn’t have been surprised, knowing what this place was, but it struck me how I could have escaped seeing it before. In each corner of the room, neatly inserted into the wall, below a fairly innocent looking decorative trim, were a number of camera lenses. Oh, I’ll be damned. I let my eyes go from one to the other. There were no blinking little lights on any of them, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. But they did look very much like regular semi expensive surveillance cameras; large enough to not be considered hidden, and discrete enough not to bother customers with their constant stare. Interesting. I wondered if anyone sat at the other end of those peeping Samsungs. There hadn’t been anyone in the control room before but again, that didn’t mean anything. I glanced at the oaf and frowned.

“What would happen if I tried to get out of here?”

Dinky didn’t even glance at me. “Can’t.” He mumbled.

“What? Ponzi will give you grief if I disappear?”

Dinky actually jerked. If the gum had still been in his mouth, he would have choked on it. He stared at me. Was that horror? I wasn’t sure. But the giants face paled behind all the facial hair. . His mouth opened. For one excrutiatingly long held breath, he decided however, that he had nothing to say.

I jumped off the bed. “Okay there Big Bubba, you give me no choice.” I took one step and crawled up on the other bed, straddled dinky who lay paralyzed, and started tearing at his leather vest. “If you wont talk, I’ll just have to make it difficult on you. His big hands rose from the bed. I glared at him and held up a hand palm out, “Don’t touch! Your friend said. If you touch me, what’s going to happen to you when he finds out? What if I…” I tugged at his beard, saw his eyes bulge, and felt his entire body tremble in restrained horror. Nah, it was horrified horniness more than anything, but I couldn’t be concerned with that right now. I grabbed the leather thongs holding the leather vest together and undid the top one, then the second. Dinky’s hands flayeled in the air right next to my shoulders. He scooted back a distance, but I held him firmly around the waist with my thighs and his squirming didn’t help. “What if Garphy would come in right now? With your clothes all undone.” I quickly untied the rest of the fastening and tore the vest open. I gripped the t-shirt and ripped it out of the pants, revealing dark curly hair and very cute male nipples peeking out from the furry chest.

“No, stop.” Dinky croaked. “Miss Malone, don’t.”

I ignored the pleading and reached for the belt buckle.

To be continued…

Don’t you just hate that? Well, that is it. Unless i have started writing sometime in the past week or so, this is as far as Marcy and Dinky will take it. Where is the money? Who the hell is Garphy and what is Ponzie up to? Well, i don’t know. I do know That Guy has a secret like no other, Amy might have a sleeve or two up her card which are a few short of a full deck by the way. Speaking of Amy; where the hell is she? Is she really in danger? How come Marcy is so happy about this little roadtrip of hers?

You tell me why don’t you. I do have some of those answers, and a few tidbits up my own sleeve, but will we ever really get to know?

Reading Time: < 1 minute

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Fearless – A web novel

Chapter 12 – Sore spots and numb parts

Garphy the goblin, the wobbly legged future cellmate of some undescribably menacing giant named Tiny, stood up and gestured for Dinky to follow. The unlikely pair stepped out of the cell where I had been strung up and undressed – probably not in that order- for the last unknown number of hours. And then the door clanked shut behind them. “What?” I asked the door as the lock engaged. “What the hell is wrong with you?” There was nothing much I could do though, so I wrapped the blanket tighter around me and tried to find a way to sit on the chair that wouldn’t cramp my legs or numb my ass. There wasn’t. My ass was numb, my legs were stiff, I was smelly, and my feet were cold. Damn my curiosity.

I heard them mumble on the other side of the door, but I didn’t even wonder what they said. Not one bit curious. I stood up and stepped over to the door, pressed my head against it. Promptly something sharp poked me on the cheek and I yelped in pain. Of course the whispering criminals shut up. I heaved a heavy sigh and sat down on the earthen floor and leaned against the door.

After a moment, the mumbling resumed. Very carefully I pressed my head against the door again and listened hard.

Dinky’s rumble travelled through the wood and transformed into muted bass, no way of hearing specific words. He didn’t sound too happy though. Was that a no? Garphy’s reply came quickly though, loud and clear. “You will do as I tell you, little brother. Ponzi don’t need to know.”

Brother? What the hell? No, seriously weird. My mouth fell open and I would have laughed if I could have. No way. It had to be some kind of guy thing, like my man, or son. Dinky had even said he was an only child hadn’t he? Yeah, he had. Damn right he had. I shook my head and tried to focus on the conversation outside again.

Rumble, rumble, indistinct shuffling, and a door opening and closing. But I heard nothing else I could make out. I got to my feet and whinced at the stiffness in joints and muscles. I hadn’t quite noticed it before, but my wrists ached. I glanced at the shackles hanging from the wall and wondered how long I had been hanging there before Dinky made his unforgettable appearance. I was in pain, but not that much; not enough to have been hanging there long. A few minutes at the most. What did that mean? They didn’t seem interested in hurting me. Not primarily in any case.

I sat down on the chair again and tried to figure out what time it was. I had no more luck than before. I couldn’t have been here very long though. I sketched a quick timeline in my head. Amy, home, sleep. Ok, that was Wednesday night. Thursday had been as normal as it gets. With the exception of a mystery container full of money that was. I sighed. In my philosophy of life, curiosity may not kill the clever cat, but a curious human female might just be a different story. If I had just left that damn thing where it was, Amy wouldn’t be my main concern now. If I had only…

I glared despondantly at the piece of spam with its attached fork. Could a dwarf be brought down by a small female wielding a fork? Ram it through the eye? I shuddered. No, that was just too grose even for me. Choked with spam? Have his throat slit by way of photograph paper-cut? Interesting idea, but after some deliberation of reality vs. fiction, I regretfully left the fork where it lay.

My thoughts returned unairingly to the weirdness of it all. Those two brothers? I gave up right away; it was too much to wrap my head around. I would just have to find out some way. I rubbed my wrists and frowned at the door. It was silent out there. Ok, those two didn’t want to hurt me, just scare me. Why bring me here for that? Why not scare the shit out of me at home, leave with the info or the money, and take off. What would be the point of dragging me somewhere else? I was missing something. They seemed to be crooks with some agenda I couldn’t fathom, and with some kind of concience. The fact that I didn’t scare easily hadn’t bothered Dinky any. Such a sweetheart. I pulled up a hand and slapped myself in the face. Not sweet, not sweet, a giant oaf of a bad guy.

I frowned and thought of something I knew normal people would have thought of right away. Those two unquestioningly male specimence had me drugged and unmoving for who knows how long, and as far as I knew, noone had touched me in any way intimate enough to be called sexual. I took a moment to look down on myself, splaying opened the blanket. I poked and prodded the relevant places, but there was nothing there that hadn’t been there before, nothing sore, nothing unusually sticky. The door flew open. Dinky’s eyes travelled from my big grin, down my arm and the open blanket, until they stuck on my hand between my legs. I didn’t know eyes could bulge so, or that skin could turn so pink. “Just making sure.” I said.

“Well certainly miss Malone, a girl can never be careful enough. Now, You might as well drop the blanket. Your bath is waiting.”

I looked around the raw stone, then i looked past the open door where, down the corridor, another door stood open.

Garphy saw my confusion and nodded. “You didn’t think we were going to let you go home for your cleanup did you?” The ugly son-of-a-bitch smiled and bowed from the waist, sweeping an arm out toward the open door.

Well, no I hadn’t really thought about how I would get a bath. I suddenly wished I had asked for something a bit more challenging for my little friend to accomplish. “So, what else do you have here? A five star restaurant and a disco?” I asked as I drew my achy breaky body up to standing.

Garphy shook his head, somewhat regretfully. “Unfortunately not young lady. But you can rest assured that we have everything we need to make you comfortable. And safe.” He added. “Come now. Let us get this show on the road. Poor Dinky here has had quite enough already it seems.”

He was right. Dinky stood still, with an expression on his face I couldn’t quite identify. It was as if somewhere under a mask of absolute absence of brain activity, something was bubbling and churning, ready to boil and burst the skin open with a tremendous crack.

I brushed past him, offering a brilliant smile on the way, and headed toward my bath.

Reading Time: < 1 minute

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Fearless – A web novel

Chapter 11 – making deals

Relatives are relative but criminals are never related where the relative crime is criminally related, relatively speaking.

“Money? Me?” I scratched my scalp and stared blankly at the dwarf. I glanced at the pictures that sat in a pile on the table in front of me and let my jaw drop. I gasped and slapped a hand over my mouth. Somewhat muffled by the hand I asked. “You mean… that?” I gasped again for effect and met Garphy’s dark scowl with a bewildered look. “Money? In that?” I whispered and glanced at dinky. The big oaf avoided my eyes, just kept on inspecting the grains meandering across the small wooden table with much interest. Oh hell, what had I expected? These two were a team, of course. And Dinky did and said what Garphy told him to say or do; without thinking too hard about it no doubt. But was Dinky truly untouchable? I had a feeling that he wasn’t. Then again… I took another look at the little person, still looking at me as a cheating politician looks at the rumour mill headlines; with a mixture of disbelief and pure hate. Was he really scary? Was fear what kept poor Dinky on the leash like a well trained puppy? What was I missing? Or was there something I simply couldn’t grasp due to my lack of understanding of human nature?

Garphy really didn’t seem scary to me. Nor did dinky. Finally I shrugged, deciding to give more thought on Dinky’s loyalties later. When I needed an ally I was sure I could be scarier than a diminished crinkleroot like Garphy any day. For now I said simply. “Nope. Know nothing about any money.”

“Is that so?”

I nodded so hard my hair moved back and forth, stiff and dull it scraped my face. I suddenly longed for a hot bath with lots of bath-salts and bubbles. A bath using all of those wonderful cleaners, scrubbers, moisturizers, stuff that would smell good, and make me soft and all squeaky clean. I stared into nothing for a spell, sighing wistfully. A bath. A hot steaming fragrant bath.

Garphy jerked me out of the tub with a growl. “Don’t play innocent with me young lady.” He stabbed the top picture with a short hard finger, once, twice, each time hitting my photographed backside with a flappy thump.

“Ouch.” I protested. “Watch where you put that thing.” Then I met his eyes. They were very brown, very narrow, and very angry. I wanted to wave him off, just like I would wave away, or even squish any annoying little creature that would dare to crawl on me. And I even lifted my hand and waved it in front of him. “That’s my pretty bum you’re assaulting there, little man. Don’t do that. It’s so rude.”

“You will take us to….”

“Don’t play hard-ass with me, Mini-you.” I interrupted and yawned. A huge luxurious yawn that made my body shiver, my face scrunch up, and my jaws crack.

“Marcy Malone. The money, Miss-”

“Yes yes, sure, what the hell why not.” I was getting seriously tired of that irritating bug of a dwarf. “Fine, the money. I heard you the first time.” I leaned forward, narrowed my eyes, and pulled my lips back in something that might have been a smile, or a grimace, or a final foodstuff-between-teeth check in the rear-view mirror before a job interview. Then I stabbed him in the forehead with my middle finger, once, twice, three times a charm. “I’ll take you to the money, Barfy. On one condition.” I paused and brought my eyebrows up in inquiry, waiting for a reaction.

The thundercloud seemed to ease up a bit as he thought about it. He narrowed his eyes even more and tilted his head to the left, then the right, while drumming the table with his stubby digits. Darumdarum tap tap, darumdarum tap tap. Silence. Then Garphy exhaled and waved his hand. “Name your price Stinky thing.”

I chose not to hear his reference to my quite intrusive stink of unflushed toilet. When it all came down to it, I did stink. I wouldn’t for long though. I would remember his words and at some point the little wobbly-legged criminal would be made to eat them. I nodded. “First. A bath.” I said.

“And second?” Garphy grumbled.

“I’m not sure yet.” I’ll get back to you. Now…” I sat back in the chair and slapped my legs with both palms, eager to go. I smiled. “When are we going? And what are we driving? We have a long way to go.”

I only had one tiny problem I figured. But it wasn’t really anything much to worry bout. I mean, somewhere along the way I was sure I’d figure out where we were going.

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Fearless – A web-serial

Chapter 10 – Bright-eyed and bushy tailed

Wide awake, bright eyed and bushy tailed, I was eating again.

After waking up, I had found myself under a blanket, staring up at dinky’s so very blue eyes, and feeling something large push my face from side to side, rattling my brain. “Marcy? Are you okay, marcy? Wake up marcy?” I waited for a second more until my head cleared, then I blinked and swatted his hand away from my face. Well, I would have if I hadn’t been so carefully tucked in that I couldn’t move my arms. I groaned instead. “Look at me Dinky!” I barked. “Do you see my eyes? If you can see my eyes, that means I’m awake, you idiot.” I started shivering and I realized I was still on the floor. Under a blanket yes, but my tender skin still lay on a somewhat gritty and cool dirt floor. How nice. “Up!” I commanded.

After Dinky backed off , I untangled myself from the blanket and made it to my feet, wobbling just a little as I wrapped myself in the itchy smelly fabric. I heard heavy, but short steps behind me and I turned to Garphy. He looked up at me for a long moment. I looked down at his compressed form, wondering for a moment what he was. Well, hell, I knew what he was but I’d never been able to wrap my head around the politics of it. I frowned at his curious gaze, bowed legs and strong arms. I extended a finger and poked him on the forehead. It wrinkled slightly, but he seemed more surprised than annoyed. “I’ve never seen a dwarf up close before.” I said. That annoyed him. He hrumphed and poked me in the belly. Hard.

“I am a little person. Not a DWARF! I am… I am vertically challenged.” Garphy spat out and a dark cloud settled over his wide face.

“I see that. Hell…” something whofted across my face and I turned aroun by pure instinct stepping back, nearly trampling Garphy in my escape from dinky’s toxic breath. I pulled a corner of the blanket up to cover my nose and mouth with it. He had done his sneaky approach number and stopped close. Too close. I retreated another half step and looked up at him. Garphy huffed and went about some unknown business around the cell but I didn’t mind if he sulked for a bit. Little people shouldn’t sit on high horses. They could fall off and get trampled. And who could blame the horse for stepping on… anyways. Dinky was smiling. It was more of a grin and I had the strong sensation of being in a situation where fear would be appropriate. If I had any. Now I was just trying to protect my mortal flesh, so I scowled and fixed him with my trademark disapproving glare. Thank you mother, for teaching me something I can use. “You.” I said very clearly and with endless patience. “Go. Brush. Teeth.”

Dinky’s smile faltered and the teeth disappeared out of sight. “Good enough.” I said. “Now, keep it closed. Don’t open until Christmas.

“Ok.” Garphy’s voice interrupted the string of other instructions I had lined up for the oaf. “Dinky! Chairs, table, now.” He said., and dinky quickly ducked his head and went to follow orders. He disappeared through the big door and a second later, another door opened. I quickly forgot about him and turned to Garphy again. I nodded at him.

“Vertically challenged huh?”

the little person ignored me. If a hateful stare could be called ignoring me, that is, but how would I know the difference? Jeez, little people with big tempers. I mentally tut tut-ed and took a good look around the cell. It took all of six or seven seconds. Stone and dirt. Chains and a muddy puddle of piss. A big wooden door standing ajar, revealing an empty corridor. Some time later, we sat at a small table that dinky had fetched from one of the other rooms. “So, where am I?” i looked from dinky to Garphy and then back again. I raised my hand and tried to look at both of them at the same time, but there seemed to be something stopping me from taking them in as a pair. My mind had difficulties believeing they both lived in the same univers as me, and they were fast buddies. I’ve had my odd aquaintances and some awkward friendships too, but… I decided not to think about it. It made my head hurt. I concentrated instead on the stone wall behind the two of them. the chain hung peacefully, steel links sparkling softly against the uneven dark stone. the open mannicles grasped at the air, waiting patiently for the next abductee. now that I wasn’t attached to them anymore, I could see the small square protrusion on each metal ring, covering the locking mechanism. Quite advanced stuff for a kidnapping dungeon,– sound activated and all– but what did I know? I mean, if I needed to program my dvd, or electronic coffee maker, I asked someone else to do it. As a rule I got my neighbor to come over; he never complains but there is usually a strange look in his eyes. I think maybe I scare him but I couldn’t be sure.

The flat electronic package on the metal cuffs had something stamped on them. Serial number? Was that “ACMe”? Seriously? I squinted to see better, but all I did was screw up my face and I felt cross-eyed from straining my eyes. Whatever it said was too small to make out. I kept staring anyways just for the hell of it for a while, then I directed my attention to a piece of spam i had finally managed to stab with my fork, waiting for a reply. I narrowed my eyes and glared at the glistening cube of processed pork. It was dead, I was sure of it. that didn’t mean it wouldn’t kill me. I put the fork down on my plate and pulled a healthy dose of root beer down my throat and evacuated the air as soon as the sweet bubbly reached my stomach, stirred around a bit, and separated bubbles from drink. Garphy looked at me but said nothing. dinky, bless his fraidycat ass, blushed and fidgeted with a patch on his vest. . He cleared his throat, about to speak, when his puny companion silenced him with a quick glance.

The little man turned to me again. Dinky is a sweet soul Miss Malone, but he wouldn’t have found his way out of here anymore than you would my dear. He is shall we say…easily influenced. But as I said, he doesn’t have the…“ Garphy stole an affectionate glance at the big oaf and smiled a little. “The imperative astuteness for desired prudence.” Dinky gave Garphy a look. Was that hurt in his eyes? Or just confusion. He grumbled deep in his throat and with a sideways wary glance at me, he pressed his lips together, and grumbled some more for good measure. Garphy patted Dinky’s enormous hand with his tiny one and said. “I didn’t call you stupid, my friend.”

I raised both eyebrows. I had never mastered raising just one. “Yes you did.” I pointed out and patting Dinky’s other hand. “He said you were an idiot. And you are.” I nodded and picked up my fork again. Then I dropped it and pushed the plate away. “Ok, so, you didn’t answer my question, Dwarf. Where exactly is this place? And, what am I doing here?” The dwarf bristled. I could almost see the quills shoot out from his hairy little body, making him even more prickly than before. ”So?” I pushed, ignoring his porky-pine impression.
After a long moment of relaxing deep breaths, he took control of himself, no less prickly though, he straightened up, as tall as he would ever be that was, and pulled an envelope from an inside pocket. He handed it to me. Inside was several blurry photos, I flipped through them, looking at them carefully, making huffy sounds, one single appreciative whistle, and a couple of disgusted grunts before I dropped the pictures on the table. I pointed at the top one. “ I like that one. See how the way I stretch out to pick up that bag makes my ass look? Awesome shot. Too bad they are so blurry, or I’d put that in a frame and send to my mother. It could give her a seizure at least. What do you think?” I looked from the image of me bending down in the process of picking something up from the ground, to Garphy, genuinely interested, but I had a feeling that the perfect shape of my backside wasn’t what he was focused on. And I suddenly knew why I was where I was at the moment.

Garphy gave me a steely stare and sighed. An exasperated strained inhalation, then a very long and calming exhale. It took so long before he breathed again that his face took on a tone of purple. I wondered if I would have to topple him backwards and jump on his chest to get his lungs going again. But then he started breathing and time started. His face returned to almost normal.

“Where is it Miss Malone? Where is my money?”

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Fearless – A web serial

Chapter 9 – Simply magical

The door opened, a frame filled with brilliant light, obscuring anything else. Not nothing, but the something silhouetted by blinding light didn’t start until half way down the opening. Something too small to be a man, too wobbly to be a child, unless it was a very horse legged stumpy child. The little person carried something through the door and kicked it shut with a heal. A very small voice with a huge sound spoke through my amazement and I knew that whatever “the plan” had been, this was not part of it.
“Dinky!” The voice said, “You can turn on the light again my friend. And you don’t need to hit me over the head with that bottle either. Ms Malone here has no wish to watch you bludgeon an innocent little dwarf I am certain. Isn’t that correct Marcy dear?” The silence was complete, the darkness intact. The little person sighed heavily and snapped two fingers. The cell was bright and inescapable once more. I stared at the ugly thing standing next to a dumbfounded Dinky. Oh, that’s just great. An oaf and a dwarf. I really did know how to pick them didn’t I?

“How did you …?” Dinky pointed a limp finger in the general direction of the light bulb in the ceiling, speaking very slowly. I was almost proud of him for not stuttering or slurring which must have been very hard not to do. Judging by his awed expression it was his first ever encounter with something magical.

The dwarf looked at him for a second and then he got it. He snapped his fingers and the light blinked out.
“Oh, you mean that?” He snapped again and the light returned. He smiled and nodded towards me.
“Marcy here can shed some light in the matter I am sure.”

I raised my eyebrows as it dawned on me. I snapped my fingers. It was a bit awkward as they were chained but after a couple of tries I got the right sound out of my numb fingers and the light vanished. A strangled gasp made me pity the fool and I triggered the sound-activated switch with another snap.
“Not magic my dear fellow, only modern gadgets I’m afraid.” He looked at the shining bulb wistfully for a moment and sighed. “For now.” Names Garphy my dear little big fellow and strung up smelly lady.” He made a stiff bow and handed the tray to Dinky. Slightly flushed Dinky took it. Garphy brushed his hands together and walked over to me where he stood silently for a moment, just looking up at me. He frowned and took a closer look at my hands and wrists. He pursed his lips and clapped his hands twice.

The metal around my wrists fell away with a tiny click and a not so tiny metal clamour. My hands fell heavily with a groan and the rest of me followed right behind them. I fell forward on my face, in the dirt. Garphy’s “Oh dear me.” echoed in my head as I blacked out without even snapping my fingers.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Fearless – A web novel

Chapter 8 – Such a clever crew

“Which one of you idiots want to tell me why some little broad walked away with four million of my fucking money? You?” Jake Ponzi stabbed the air in the general direction of Matt Knight. He moved the finger sideways, pointed it at Benny, then Guy. The idiot three kept silent. Matt squirmed in his chair. “Is there something chewing your arse hole or do you have something to say Knight? Well, do you?” Jake glared at Knight for another second before he barked. “Stop moving!”

Matt jerked back and made an effort to sit still. He opened his mouth, closed it, and stared wildly at the floor between his feet. Guy cleared his throat and Jakes head whipped around to face the offender. “What?”

Guy straightened up, looked at Jake. Still dazed and with a splitting headache, Zaffino glanced at Matt before talking. “The cops were coming and…”

“No, they were not, you ignorant piece of shit!” Jake interrupted. “And how the hell would you know. You had a tumble and were snoozing it up good when these imaginary cops showed up. You.” He pointed at Matt again. “You chicken shit stupid waste of air, hearing things in your old age?” Ponzi cupped a hand behind an ear and squinted at Matt. “Oy Sonny, I tink I hear somphing over there. Is dat a meow? Is that a rat farting? Oh noooo, Sonny, dat the poooooolice I reckon. Let’s just drop all the evidence why don’t we? Eh? Let some bitch stroll by and pick up Ponzi’s stuff why don’t we. Eh? Eh?” Jake pulled back, threw his hands out in exasperation, let his glare travel from Guy to Matt until it landed on the third stooge. Benny stood at the short end of Jakes desk, shuffling his feet.

“I told them to move.” Benny said quietly, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets.

“Actually, I …” Zaffino said and fingered the huge bandage at the back of the head and grimaced. The grimace made the cut lip crack open, and wincing made the beautiful new shiner throb. Taking a steadying breath, Guy said. “I heard something. We would have been fine if…”

“If big and ugly here hadn’t dropped four million fucking dollars on the ground and forgot about it?” Jake screamed, spraying saliva over his perfect desk. He turned back to Benny.
“You told them to move?” Jake shot out of his chair, sputtering in fury. “You told them to move?” Suddenly he sank back down in his chair, dropped his head on the desk and covered it with his arms. What he said next could have been anything as he had his mouth pressed to the polished surface. The idiot three were not stupid enough to ask him to repeat it. Only Benny dared to press on.

“I heard em too.” Benny muttered. “And buddy hurt bad and we had to go.”

Jake just shook his head and groaned. “And why, if I may ask,” He said to the mahogany. “Was I not told yesterday?” The tone was mild and deceptively patient.

“Buddy had to go to…”

“We didn’t know until this morning that the load wasn’t all there.” Guy intercepted. “I wasn’t aware that anything had gone wrong with the money until then.”

Matt piped up. “Yeah, we had to go back, Sir. Jake.” He said placatingly. “I surely would have…”

The pipe turned into an off key flute when a fist slammed into the desk, rattling the phone. Jake shook his head. “Shut up.” He tilted his head up and fixed a weary eye on Guy. “And you came straight to me.”

Guy hesitated. “Yeah, sure. When we realized we missed one we went back to see if we had left one downstairs, and then…”

Ponzi held up a hand and sighed deeply. “Ok, so you went back to take a look, and then you came to me.”

Guy coughed. “Well, we kind of figured someone might have… I mean, there were those chicks inside, so we needed to take a look at the video. But he wasn’t there. So we had to come back later. And then when we got it, we called you.”

Ponzi stared blankly at Zaffino. “So you went back, you got the tech to dig out the video for you, and then you came to me.”

It was Guy’s turn to squirm and look away. “Yeah, sure. I just had to stitch my head, that’s all.”

Jake stared at Guy’s shiner for a long moment. “Stitched…” He said. “And what was your colleagues doing as you got your head sown up then?”

“We waited.” Benny blurted out. “Couldn’t leave Buddy, no way.” He shook his head and glanced at Guy.

“You waited.” Jake said quietly. “And while you two pussys held that cunts hand and admired his booboo… Where was the rest of the money?”

Guy looked down, Benny frowned and tried to remember, and Matt opened his mouth but couldn’t think of anything that he could say that wouldn’t make things worse. The silence was interrupted by Jakes forced breathing, the barely audible wheezing from the ventilation, and three very still bodies trying not to breathe at all. “I’ve had about enough of you idiots. I’ll talk turkey with you so clear out the wax right now. I already know you left the van on the hospital parking-lot. Dumb fucking luck you didn’t fucking lose the whole lot before you got it here. Dumb! And in case you morons have a hard time with the language; dumb means stupid, brain dead, slow in the head.“ He sketched a circle in the air at his temple. “I also know…” He pulled open a desk drawer and fished out a photograph. He slammed it down on the desk and turned it the right way for his reluctant audience to see. Then he thumped it with a stiff finger. “Nobody knows this chick. Nobody knows the skank she was with. Isn’t that right Knight?” He glared at Matt, raising his eyebrows.

Matt shook his head. “Never seen them before. I don’t know.”

“Well, I’ll tell you something, that lady there has my money. And you!” He pointed at Guy. “And you!” He pointed at Matt. He let the glance slide past Benny without acknowledging the giant with more than a twitch of his upper lip. He sat back in his chair and looked up; searching for something he knew wasn’t there. Then suddenly his face split into a wide grin and he looked down at the picture of a half drenched figure carrying his money away from his restaurant through the rain and dark. “You will give me one reason not to get ugly. I can be nice.” He nodded and smiled. “You gentlemen will set up a date for me. Find her. Then I want to meet the good lady face to face. Do you piss buckets understand me?” The smile vanished. “Talk to the dwarf. If anyone can locate anyone, it’s that little basterd. Now off you go boys. Don’t come back now you hear.” He slammed his fist down again, this time on top of the picture. “Not without her. Not without my money.”

To be continued…