Interactive Story - Part One

The fair haired woman entered the sun lit lobby, wound her way through the crowd of hotel patrons and found her way to the small bar. There she found Ross Gable sitting at a table by himself and engrossed in his glass of whisky. She made a beeline to his table and

A. embraced him tightly, 'I missed you terribly.'
B. slapped him hard across his chiseled jaw, 'How dare you!'
C. sat opposite him, 'The bomb is planted. Now where is the diamond?'
D. other

Vote or offer another alternative in the comments section.

Alistaire Short - Justice or Revenge?

The campfire crackled into the night echoing through the trees. The moon was full and helped the fire to light the small clearing where the sorcerer sat warming himself. A wooden plate lay at his feet displaying bones and the unwanted gristle of his dinner. As the sorcerer started to yawn in contentment he heard a faint sound from the woods ahead of him. He stood slowly and stirred his magic from within, ready to defend himself. The sound grew louder until finally the sorcerer recognised it as someone stomping through the underbrush. Eventually the heavy footed stranger entered the clearing.

'Hello. I saw your campfire through the trees. Might I warm myself by it for a while before continuing on my way?'

The sorcerer lowered his hands. 'Of course. What might your name be?'

The man came closer and lowered himself upon an overturned log, 'My name is Alistaire. I thank you for your kindness. Not many these days would allow a stranger to share their fire. Distrusting times. It saddens me.'

'Believe me,' started the sorcerer, 'If I thought you were a threat to me, you would not be here.'

Alistaire smiled, 'I am unsure of how to take that. I am thankful to be by your fire but your underestimation of my prowess in battle wounds me. Tell me, what is your name? I should like to know before I kill you.'

The sorcerer's deep laugh rang out through the clearing. He took a long draught from his waterskin before offering it to his strange companion who declined it with a smile. 'I like you. You make me laugh. Well, my would-be killer, my name is Drogone. Now, how are you going to kill me?'

The thief continued to smile, 'Now is not the time for how. Now is the time for why. Why would I want to kill you? Not just to prove I can. What good would that do? You'd be dead.'

Drogone laughed again. This time he laughed so hard he coughed for several minutes. When he drank more water to ease his aching throat Alistaire continued.

'No, I won't kill you for that reason. I'll kill you for what you did when you passed through my town seven nights ago. You remember don't you? The small town nestled in the hills. Very small. You took the girl that night.'

Drogone's eyes went wide and the smile fell from his face. 'How? How did you know it was me?'

'No, no. Like I said. This is not the time for how. You took the girl. She was barely eighteen and the last blood family I had. You took her and did unspeakable things to her. For what? For a spell to lengthen your life? To add a few years to your life you took the life of my sister.'

'You must be thinking of someone else. But even if it was me, how would you kill me? I am a powerful sorcerer. You couldn't possibly get past my magic to kill me.'

Alistaire straightened. 'You want the how now, do you? Okay. I know it was you because I've been following you ever since you left my town. I saw you use her heart in your ritual to extend your life. I've been following and watching for days.'

'Impossible,' Drogone stood, 'I would have spotted you, heard you at least.'

'No. You wouldn't have. I've studied the way of the thief all my life. I was even teaching my sister. She didn't have the aptitude for stealth or hand to hand combat but, my word, she had a talent for poisons. Oh,' he looked Dragone dead in the eyes, 'You were asking how I could get past your magic to kill you? My, my. You must have been thirsty.'

Drogone clutched his throat and fell to his knees. 'My sister had just perfected that poison last month. She liked the way it had no smell or taste. I don't use poisons usually but in this case I thought I'd make an exception.'

Alistaire Short - It's my treasure!

The sun had fallen behind the hills many an hour ago and torches now provided the light to the thieves' hideout. It's design was crude. The wall surrounding the thieves' fort-like hideout was constructed with sharpened logs and proved no challenge for Alistaire to scale. Dropping to the ground inside the wall, the honourable thief scanned the courtyard he found himself in. Several wooden buildings curved around one side of the courtyard opposite the large, closed gate. Tens of torches lit almost every corner of the fort and six sentries patrolled the interior.

'This is going to be harder than I expected,' Alistaire thought. Though no sooner had he mused it, he saw a man emerge from one of the buildings. He wore black leathers and a curious steel helm barely concealing his long orange hair. He looked exactly how the witness described him.

Alistaire's eyes narrowed, 'That's the no good, son of a mule that robbed me.'

The robber traversed the courtyard, unaware of the thief crouched in the shadows, and approached the central structure. While the ginger robber worked at unlocking the structure's door, Alistaire noticed a gap in the sentries' movements and rushed to take advantage. He waved a hand, extinguishing several torches from a distance, and ran silently behind a sentry towards the central building.

'It must be a treasury of some kind,' he thought. 'None of the other buildings have locks on the doors.' He reached the side of the building and peered around the corner at the ginger burglar as he unlocked the door and swung it wide open. Alistaire gestured and magically produced the sound of rustling grass on the other side of the robber, who's head swung towards the noise as quickly as a frightened dog. He took a tentative step toward the noise then stopped and yelled at one of his sentries, 'I heard something over there.' He pointed, 'Check it out.' Satisfied that the sentries would handle it he stepped into the treasury, closing the door behind him.

'Greetings.' Startled, the robber spun from the door towards the voice. There was someone in his treasury. Impossible. Yet there he was, standing next to his very large, wooden chest. Alistaire stepped forward, 'Two days ago you broke into my home and availed yourself of my coin purse. My rather large and heavy coin purse.' Ginger cautiously stepped backwards, Alistaire continued, 'Now, that purse represents an awful lot of time and effort traipsing through caves and dungeons, fighting men and monsters and collecting my just rewards. Imagine how much that coin purse means to me. Now add my considerable lust for money.' His voice turned cold, 'Consider what I would do to the man who took it from me.'

The robber reached for his side, grasping at air. 'Looking for this?' Alistaire held up an ornate dagger. 'It just fell into my hands. Here, allow me to return it to it's rightful owner.' With a violent swing the hilt of the dagger struck the man's temple and he fell in a heap. The shealthed dagger was then dropped on the burglar's unconscious form.

Rounding on the chest, Alistaire pulled a lockpick from a pocket and within moments the chest was open. The robber must have had a busy week for the chest was brimming with gold and a smattering of jewels. Alistaire rooted around in the chest for a few minutes before finding his beloved coin purse. He pocketed it, gave the ginger a swift kick for good measure then left. He could already taste his celebratory ale.

The Fallen - Chapter One - Part One

"Your boss keeps very weird hours, Paul."

"Yeah, but he pays me very well for only a few hours of actual work a week so I can forgive that."

"From what you've told me he's a bit creepy. I mean, he messages you at nine at night to bring him blood? Who does that?"

The two twenty-two years olds turned away from the well-lit street and followed their shadows down a dark alleyway.

"Greg, he's an eccentric hematologist. Nothing more." Paul held up the medical cooler. "It's not like he called me over to drain my blood."

"He's probably just trying to gain your trust so one day you'll walk straight into his clutches." A smirk broke out across Greg's face, growing wider the more he tried to suppress it.

Paul punched him in the arm, "You're such a douche. Now you've got me all jumpy."

His friend backed into the shadows slowly, "What if he is here right now?" The pitch of his voice raised slightly. "What if he is preparing to jump out at you any second?"

"Dude, seriously. This is not funny."

Greg's voice was but a whisper, "What if your eccentric hematologist wanted to study your blood? All of it."

He jumped out of the shadows with a roar. Paul just stared at him, "Have you finished?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

They continued to walk down the alley.

"Look, there it is."

Greg scanned the building in the distance. "There's no lights on."

"Yeah there is. The fourth floor. That's his apartment."

Greg looked at Paul. "He lives above his laboratory? Now that's creepy."

"Come on, I'm running late."

Paul walked briskly towards the lab. "No way dude," said Greg, "I'm not going anywhere near there."

Paul turned, "Stop being a girl. It's fine. I've been here several times before."

A low moan echoed through the alleyway. Paul and Greg tried to see where it was coming from, eventually spotting a figure separating itself from the shadows. It shambled slowly towards them. It looked like a young man, very pale in the face with torn and dirtied clothing. Greg started backing away and stepped on some glass. As it shattered the shambling thing snapped it's head up in the direction of the sound. The man's lips parted in a wicked smile revealing eerily white teeth. He ran towards Greg with such speed that he couldn't react before the teeth sunk into his neck. Greg screamed in pain and fear. Paul stood there stunned for a minute before racing to his friend's aid. He attempted to pull the monster from his friend but it's strength was too much. That's when he ran for help.