Balloon City, Chapter 4

Alright, so yes, this is Balloon City. The good news is, I finally broke out of my writer's block! Whoohoo! Yeah!
Okay, whatever.
The bad news is, I'm not really sure that I like this chapter. :( I really need feedback! I'm desperate!
Anyhow, I hope that you enjoy it, and if you don't, please feel free to say so!

Au revoir!



Balloon City
Chapter 4


   Professor Des Roches didn't like these impromptu meetings. He always came out feeling grumpy and depressed. It was always, “ Is I done yet? No? When will be done? Your bill is due on Friday. You better make sure that it's paid.”
   He always felt drained after these high-speed interrogations, and Minato was well used to getting snapped at to go home, when the professor would drop in later. He was not prepared for the sight which met his eyes as he stepped into the lab.
   Minato and Meggie were in the machine room. The machine room. Meggie's math problems lay unchanged on her table, and Minato had carelessly left a box of easily broken test tubes on a table, half off of the edge. Both teens were sitting on the floor, wide, stupid expressions on their faces, that instantly turned guilty as he came in. Minato leapt to his feet, and ran his hand through his dark hair, in a nervous manner.
   “ Professor! Uh, h-how was it?”
   Des Roches didn't answer. He glared at Minato, and found that it was impossible to keep the snap out of his voice. “ What are you doing, Minato?”
   Minato looked somewhat scared (rare on the boy's usually expressionless countenance), and swallowed hard. “ Meggie wished to see the machine. I didn't think there was anything wrong with me showing her,” he said bravely, staring hard at Des Roches.
   Like that was any kind of excuse, Des Roches thought, Blame it all on Meggie.
   “ I think there's something wrong with it, sir.” Minato continued.
   “ If there's something wrong with it, it's because you were playing on it.” Des Roches snapped.
   “ No this was different!” Minato said. Meggie was by his side now, and nodded her agreement.
   Des Roches looked at them, tiredly. “ In what way, Minato?” he asked, a little less irritatedly.
   “ There were balloons and weird airship things! And a lot of strange people around!” Meggie said.
   Minato nodded. “ It all happened when I was wearing the ring my father gave me before he left. Once I pulled it off, everything disappeared.” He held out the ring on his palm, for the professor to see.
   Des Roches' eyes greedily, took in the sight. It was a thick ring, possibly made out of gold(although he couldn't be sure) and on the side there was a small symbol – an eagle, with an arrow through its heart. All in one second, before Minato could protest, Des Roches snatched the ring, and pocketed it. He glared at Minato's stunned expression.
   “ Professor?” Minato dared to say.
   “ Get out.”
   “ What?”
   “ Go home, Minato!” Des Roches said angrily. “ And don't come back.”
   Minato was silent for a moment. And then, “ You're firing me?”
   Des Roches glared at him. “ What do you think?”
   Minato just looked at him. “ Give me my ring back. And I'll leave.”
   “ Leave! Get out of my lab!” Des Roches said, refusing to meet Minato's eyes.
   Minato's dark eyes flashed in anger, his fists clenched. “ You can't do that! I could report you to the police!”
   Des Roches' mouth twisted into a cruel smile. “ You really think that they'd arrest me for just doing my job? GO HOME!”
   Minato stared at him, with a mixture of anger and horror, and then turned without another word and left, the door banging shut behind him.
   Meggie watched him go.


                                                                            *


   “ So I got a new black dress at J.C. Penny. And some new eye shadow. Jeff says that I look prettiest in black. You know Meggie, I think he really likes me! Oh, and I -”
   Meggie wasn't even listening to her mother's stream of chatter. Her mind was elsewhere, dazed at Professor Des Roches' sudden, apparently evil turn. After Minato left, the night before, Des Roches had shooed her out, and locked up the lab for the night. He acted perfectly kind and gentle around her, but there was still that underlying, bad feeling about it all. He had fired Minato without reason, and had stolen something that was special to him. Meggie felt all wrong. The world was awry. She wasn't even sure about what was right and what was wrong anymore.”
   “ Meggie, are you even listening to me?”
   Meggie jumped, and gazed up into her mother's face, startled. “ What?”
   Clarissa put her hands on her hips. “ I didn't think so! Goodness, child! What on earth could possibly keep you so intent?!”
   Meggie blinked. “ Uh, um. Nothing?”
   Clarissa shook her head, and flounced away. “ I'm going to see a movie with Jeff tonight, and then I'll be home,” she called over her shoulder.
   “ Okay.” Meggie said. That was alright with her. She had a job to do tonight.


                                                                              *


   “ I'm done, professor.”
   Des Roches looked up at Meggie. “ Ah. Thanks.” He took the stash of papers and looked them over, before setting them off to the side.
   Meggie stood for a moment, thinking. Then she spoke. “ How much longer until the project is done?”
   Des Roches glanced up her again, in a way that said, “ Oh. You're still there, are you?”. “ It's a very complex job, Meggie. Anything could go wrong.”
   “ But supposing everything went perfectly? About when would you be most likely to finish it?”
   Des Roches looked thoughtful. “ Maybe in a month.”
   Meggie nodded thoughtfully, and walked away.
   “ You wanted something else, didn't you?”
   Meggie started at the professor's voice. She turned and fixed him in a cool gaze. “ Yes. Why did you fire Minato like that?”
   Des Roches stared at her, without a word.
   “ Why won't you answer me? Do you admit then, that it was nasty, and stupid, and that it was wrong of you to steal that ring from him?” Meggie demanded, feeling a sudden buildup of anger, as the unfairness of it all rushed to mind. Her face flushed as she realized how bold she was being.
   The professor's eyes flashed. “ You take a great interest in that young man's concerns.” He rose suddenly, his chair scraping across the floor behind him.
   Meggie took a step back, intimidated, and startled by this show of anger. “ Just answer me!” she cried, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
   “ Miss Earlson, I suggest you stay out of that boy's business, and get back to your own life. This world is a very dangerous place, you could wind up further in then you could ever get out.” Des Roches turned away from her and walked back to the machine room.
   Meggie's cheeks smoldered.


                                                                              *


   Meggie opened her locker, with a sigh. She had eventually seen the sense in the professor's words, although she still didn't agree with his methods. Did Minato even know why he'd been fired? She grabbed her bento box and thermos, and then closed her locker. Just as she turned around, she nearly collided with Aramis Rock. “ Oh!” she cried, and felt her face flush red.
   The guy didn't even notice, just glanced at her slightly, and walked on. His eyes were on Chloe Martinez. Chloe saw him, and made a shocked face, and then wiggled her hips in a suggestive manner. Meggie turned away in disgust and hurt, and walked quickly to the cafeteria. She found an empty table, and sat down at it, feeling rather lonely, and having a little bit of a pity-party. She'd been ignored by the school's cutest guy. What was more pitiable then that? She nibbled her sandwich mournfully, and didn't even notice when another person sat down at the table, in the chair across from her.
   “ Meggie!”
   Meggie jumped out of her pity-party and lifted her startled gaze to the boy who had appeared there. He was wearing a jacket, with the hood up, partially covering his face. She gulped down a bite of sandwich, and attempted to talk. “ Huh?” was all she could manage.
   The boy's teeth gleamed into a smile behind the shadows of his hood. “ Minato?”
   Meggie stared at him. “ Minato?”
   “ Yeah, it's me. Listen, I need you to find out where the professor has my ring, and get it away from him. He can't have it!” Minato said fiercely.
   Meggie looked at him. “ What do I have to do?”

Writer's Block...

Sorry people! Dealing with a dreadful case of writer's block. At least for Balloon City. I seem to be coming out of the wilderness with some of my other stories though! :)

I wrote an execution scene. It's sad. I was feeling sad and moody.
Here it is.


Prologue


   The bells tolled mournfully. Kaito Hamasaki stared around in anguish as the crowd parted around the cart in which he was being carried. So this is how a dying man felt. His ears rang with the nasty shouts being hurtled at him from all directions. Tears pricked his eyes, and for a minute his vision seemed to blur and he saw his wife, and his three children, their faces sad. He saw his only daughter Oceana; her pretty little smile, and deep brown eyes, sparkling. He saw his eldest son, Ira, with his dark brows furrowed over his soft, blue eyes, full of worry and stress. And he saw his younger son, Darer, his blue-gray eyes full of mischief, a smile tugging at his lips. Finally, he saw his wife; the beautiful Antasilkian woman, now long dead. Her brown hair wisped gently around her fair-skinned face, a touch of color in her cheeks, and a provocative smile on her lips; her blue-gray eyes, just like Darer's – full of mischief. 
   And then suddenly, Kaito was back in the square, walking up those accursed steps, and laying his head on the chopping block. As he watched the executioner raise that cruel, sharp ax – the ax that could shatter the closest bonds of family - he thought once more, about what would become of his children. There was nothing he could do for them now. His three children, aged fifteen, twelve, and ten, would be left their own. 
   A tear slipped out of Kaito's eye and his heart rate skyrocketed as the ax seemed to come down in slow motion. Sweat beaded on his brow. It another second, it was all over. 


                                                                            *


   John Faliano walked back to his house, beaten and crestfallen, and slipped inside. The twelve-year-old boy leapt to his feet and stared at him; his large, blue-gray eyes filled with fear and anxiety – daring John to tell him, and yet wishing that he wouldn't. The girl stared too. 
   John glanced at them, his gaze flitting between both pairs of wide, worried eyes. “ I'm sorry, Darer, Oceana, I...” he faltered and found that he had to look away from the kids. He didn't want to say the words, but he had to. “ I couldn't save him.”
   Oceana started to cry softly, her chin quivering, trying desperately to hold it back and be brave. Darer couldn't speak. He couldn't cry. His chest ached as though a sword had been thrust into it, but he couldn't find the tears to relieve his pain. How would he tell Ira? Ira was still at sea, a young mid-shipman, and until he returned, Darer and Oceana would be alone. Unless they stayed with their uncle that is. Darer had to get word to him. 
   He had vague idea of someone giving him a hug, and he heard voices though he couldn't make out the words. Someone knocked at the door, snapping him out of his thoughts, and John answered it. Yorick Harding entered. 
   “ I've come to collect my niece and nephew.” Yorick said. Not, “I'm going to take my niece and nephew in for now”. “Collect”, as though Darer and Oceana were part of his weekly pay. 
   John stared at him, and then turned to the kids. 
  Oceana choked back a sob, and hid her face in Darer's shirt.
  Darer just gave a slight nod, although inwardly he was full of despair, and then took his younger sister's hand in his own and followed his uncle, ready for his new life. 


Yeah. Sorry. :)
It's the prologue for my romance/adventure novel, that is turning into something really sad, and less romantic. To be honest, I haven't even a clue about who the girl is, yet, I only have the boy! :)
I need to do some brainstorming...