Pinapple 27, Pomegranate 15, FOTD
Author: Casey
Story: Nothing is Ever Easy universe, Post NIEE
Challenges: FOTD (gazump: To cheat (a house buyer) by raising the price, at the time a contract is to be signed, over the amount originally agreed upon.), Pineapple 27 (shoot the messenger), Pomegranate 15 (withdrawal)
Toppings & Extras: Caramel (superCaramel), Hot Fudge (Leigh), Sprinkles, Gummy Bunnies (Origfic Bingo: Imminent Catastrophe), Cherry (general dearth of dialogue)
Word Count: 1,402
Rating: PG
Summary: Leigh fights stupidity with fire.
Notes: So, in case it wasn’t becoming obvious, I’m aiming for the week of FOTDs. This one started out not my friend, but, well, welcome to Leigh's head. So have some weirdly plausible strangely not-crack, thanks to Marina. This also got strangely involved.
Leigh looked around the small, three room house and nodded. It was everything she needed and even a little more. Complete with its own bedroom and then separated living room and kitchen, it was downright opulent to what she had been living in. It was time for a change and she had little fear that the KIN brats would catch up with her any time soon. With the power change up in the KIN approaching, they had plenty of other things on their minds beside catching her, especially with the fact she’d been laying low on purpose.
The ad for the place had given a decent price. Not too high to try and trick her into thinking it was nicer than it was or to turn her off, but not so low she felt she needed to worry about cockroaches or ants in the wall.
She turned to the current owner. “Ad said three hundred. I’ll give you three fifty if I can pay now and move in tomorrow.” She figured that wouldn’t be an issue. There wasn’t any furniture currently in the place and she would have no problem moving her few possessions in the following morning.
The man’s expression crinkled. “Shouldn’t your husband be makin’ that decision, Miss…?” He was obviously expecting a name and Leigh had known she would need to provide one.
“Campbell,” she said, with a smirk.
The man seemed to miss her expression or thought it a smile. “Or your father? Tis not right for a young lady to be living on her own.”
Leigh’s face tightened as she regarded the man coldly. “I will repeat my offer for three fifty, sir. I see you have the contract right there. Let us both sign it, you can have your money and be on your way and everyone will be happy.”
His back stiffened as he jerked himself as much upright as possible, which was pathetically little, since the top of his head still only came up to her chin. Leigh didn’t consider herself all that tall either, so that made this little shrimp quite small indeed. “That is not the way a proper young lady-”
“Buddy, if you call me a proper young lady one more time, you will regret it instantly,” she said, fingers curling around a small, comforting bulge in her pocket.
The man frowned, staring at her as his mouth worked without sound for at least a minute. Finally, “I’m afraid the ad lied, Miss Campbell. The actual price of the house is six hundred.”
It was all Leigh could do to keep her jaw from dropping at the sheer…whatever of that change. He had just doubled the price because he…
Her fingers gripped the box, but she resisted the urge to use it. She was not the wanton killer that KIN made her out to be and she would not break that record now. She was years from that and it would stay that way.
“Very well,” she said frostily. “I shall take my money elsewhere.” Leigh spun on her heel and disappeared out the front door.
**
That evening, she crouched just inside the bushes about a hundred yards from the front of the house. The man was just doing what she suspected was the last survey of the house before he returned to wherever it was he slept now. He set the lantern down on the ground outside the front door, never scanning the bushes, and secured the door shut.
As if vandals would want that place.
She smirked. In a few hours, no one would want that place.
Leigh admitted to herself that this particular move was entirely selfish and definitely did not enter under the category of ‘keeping quiet and laying low,’ but she was furious and the best way to cut the adrenaline to her anger was to burn something. The owner had ever so nicely volunteered his conveniently empty house.
Whistling to himself, the owner picked up his lantern and set off into town.
After leaving earlier, Leigh had taken the afternoon to scout out the area. She wanted to make sure there was no chance that the embers and flames would reach the other houses in the small town or spread to the woods. The last thing she wanted on her hands was more death or massive amounts of destruction. Not here.
Luckily, she had picked a house on the outskirts of town, which was actually what she was looking for in a new dwelling, and there had been a wet spring. She had no qualms about being able to adequately protect the surroundings.
She silently counted to fifty, just to make sure the area stayed quiet, before rising to her feet and slipping forward, sticking to the shadows without difficulty. Kneeling by the front door, she pulled her pack off her back and set it gently in front of her, riffling through by feel more than sight. Leigh pulled out a small bag and reached in, running her fingers through the ground up stone.
She smiled in the darkness before straightening and systematically working her way around the house, leaving a small trail of the balsic stone, so very lovely and explosive, around the perimeter of the house, right where the walls reached the ground. Once she had reached her pack again, she rolled the small bag up and stuffed it back inside. This time, she fished in her pocket, pulling out her trusty box of matches - the same thing she had been clutching earlier.
Leigh set them on the ground next to her pack and then eyed the house. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one had noticed her attention, she pulled a small case out of her pocket and selected from it a thin lockpick, which she used to undo the lock and let herself in. Once inside, she looked around the dark room, letting her eyes adjust to the yet further dark. She held up a round object she had snagged from her pack on the way in and grinned. It had taken some work, and a lot of trial and error, but she had designed her own miniature landmines. They were similar in structure, she knew, to the mines that the army sometimes used, since she had happily liberated a few once when she had chanced upon an army caravan. Leigh had then used those to copy the design in a smaller case.
She admitted freely, mostly to herself because she didn’t talk about her trade with many other than the occasional taunts to the KIN crowd, that she shouldn’t be using one, that it was overkill, but what the heck. She hadn’t gotten a good opportunity yet and this was guaranteed to be harmless, or well, as harmless as any small explosive could be.
Leigh planted it as close to the center of the house as she could around walls and primed it before slipping back outside. Now, she picked up the matchbox, removed a match and lit it. Watching it hiss to life for a moment, she casually tossed it on top of the balsic stone. Sometimes she would have placed it, just for accuracy’s sake, but she had no desire to burn her fingers this time, even with the small jar of the burn cream she and her grandmother had developed so long ago as the last item in her pack.
Unconcerned by the fire already raging around the house and licking at the wooden frame, she carefully repacked her bag, shouldered it and then headed for the woods again to watch her work.
By dawn, the fun was over. The house was a still smoldering ruin. The man was a gibbering mess (and deservedly so). And she was fairly certain news would reach KIN within a few days, since some inspired wannabe hero had bounded into the dying fire and found remnants of her little mine, which had set the whole town into a confused uproar. It was actually kind of funny to watch. Certainly one of the best times Leigh had had in recent memory. The theories that had abounded afterwards still made her giggle as she rode out of town.
She wanted a smaller house anyway, she now thought, maybe just two rooms and in a slightly larger town. The place two days down the road, according to her map, sounded perfect.
Story: Nothing is Ever Easy universe, Post NIEE
Challenges: FOTD (gazump: To cheat (a house buyer) by raising the price, at the time a contract is to be signed, over the amount originally agreed upon.), Pineapple 27 (shoot the messenger), Pomegranate 15 (withdrawal)
Toppings & Extras: Caramel (superCaramel), Hot Fudge (Leigh), Sprinkles, Gummy Bunnies (Origfic Bingo: Imminent Catastrophe), Cherry (general dearth of dialogue)
Word Count: 1,402
Rating: PG
Summary: Leigh fights stupidity with fire.
Notes: So, in case it wasn’t becoming obvious, I’m aiming for the week of FOTDs. This one started out not my friend, but, well, welcome to Leigh's head. So have some weirdly plausible strangely not-crack, thanks to Marina. This also got strangely involved.
Leigh looked around the small, three room house and nodded. It was everything she needed and even a little more. Complete with its own bedroom and then separated living room and kitchen, it was downright opulent to what she had been living in. It was time for a change and she had little fear that the KIN brats would catch up with her any time soon. With the power change up in the KIN approaching, they had plenty of other things on their minds beside catching her, especially with the fact she’d been laying low on purpose.
The ad for the place had given a decent price. Not too high to try and trick her into thinking it was nicer than it was or to turn her off, but not so low she felt she needed to worry about cockroaches or ants in the wall.
She turned to the current owner. “Ad said three hundred. I’ll give you three fifty if I can pay now and move in tomorrow.” She figured that wouldn’t be an issue. There wasn’t any furniture currently in the place and she would have no problem moving her few possessions in the following morning.
The man’s expression crinkled. “Shouldn’t your husband be makin’ that decision, Miss…?” He was obviously expecting a name and Leigh had known she would need to provide one.
“Campbell,” she said, with a smirk.
The man seemed to miss her expression or thought it a smile. “Or your father? Tis not right for a young lady to be living on her own.”
Leigh’s face tightened as she regarded the man coldly. “I will repeat my offer for three fifty, sir. I see you have the contract right there. Let us both sign it, you can have your money and be on your way and everyone will be happy.”
His back stiffened as he jerked himself as much upright as possible, which was pathetically little, since the top of his head still only came up to her chin. Leigh didn’t consider herself all that tall either, so that made this little shrimp quite small indeed. “That is not the way a proper young lady-”
“Buddy, if you call me a proper young lady one more time, you will regret it instantly,” she said, fingers curling around a small, comforting bulge in her pocket.
The man frowned, staring at her as his mouth worked without sound for at least a minute. Finally, “I’m afraid the ad lied, Miss Campbell. The actual price of the house is six hundred.”
It was all Leigh could do to keep her jaw from dropping at the sheer…whatever of that change. He had just doubled the price because he…
Her fingers gripped the box, but she resisted the urge to use it. She was not the wanton killer that KIN made her out to be and she would not break that record now. She was years from that and it would stay that way.
“Very well,” she said frostily. “I shall take my money elsewhere.” Leigh spun on her heel and disappeared out the front door.
**
That evening, she crouched just inside the bushes about a hundred yards from the front of the house. The man was just doing what she suspected was the last survey of the house before he returned to wherever it was he slept now. He set the lantern down on the ground outside the front door, never scanning the bushes, and secured the door shut.
As if vandals would want that place.
She smirked. In a few hours, no one would want that place.
Leigh admitted to herself that this particular move was entirely selfish and definitely did not enter under the category of ‘keeping quiet and laying low,’ but she was furious and the best way to cut the adrenaline to her anger was to burn something. The owner had ever so nicely volunteered his conveniently empty house.
Whistling to himself, the owner picked up his lantern and set off into town.
After leaving earlier, Leigh had taken the afternoon to scout out the area. She wanted to make sure there was no chance that the embers and flames would reach the other houses in the small town or spread to the woods. The last thing she wanted on her hands was more death or massive amounts of destruction. Not here.
Luckily, she had picked a house on the outskirts of town, which was actually what she was looking for in a new dwelling, and there had been a wet spring. She had no qualms about being able to adequately protect the surroundings.
She silently counted to fifty, just to make sure the area stayed quiet, before rising to her feet and slipping forward, sticking to the shadows without difficulty. Kneeling by the front door, she pulled her pack off her back and set it gently in front of her, riffling through by feel more than sight. Leigh pulled out a small bag and reached in, running her fingers through the ground up stone.
She smiled in the darkness before straightening and systematically working her way around the house, leaving a small trail of the balsic stone, so very lovely and explosive, around the perimeter of the house, right where the walls reached the ground. Once she had reached her pack again, she rolled the small bag up and stuffed it back inside. This time, she fished in her pocket, pulling out her trusty box of matches - the same thing she had been clutching earlier.
Leigh set them on the ground next to her pack and then eyed the house. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one had noticed her attention, she pulled a small case out of her pocket and selected from it a thin lockpick, which she used to undo the lock and let herself in. Once inside, she looked around the dark room, letting her eyes adjust to the yet further dark. She held up a round object she had snagged from her pack on the way in and grinned. It had taken some work, and a lot of trial and error, but she had designed her own miniature landmines. They were similar in structure, she knew, to the mines that the army sometimes used, since she had happily liberated a few once when she had chanced upon an army caravan. Leigh had then used those to copy the design in a smaller case.
She admitted freely, mostly to herself because she didn’t talk about her trade with many other than the occasional taunts to the KIN crowd, that she shouldn’t be using one, that it was overkill, but what the heck. She hadn’t gotten a good opportunity yet and this was guaranteed to be harmless, or well, as harmless as any small explosive could be.
Leigh planted it as close to the center of the house as she could around walls and primed it before slipping back outside. Now, she picked up the matchbox, removed a match and lit it. Watching it hiss to life for a moment, she casually tossed it on top of the balsic stone. Sometimes she would have placed it, just for accuracy’s sake, but she had no desire to burn her fingers this time, even with the small jar of the burn cream she and her grandmother had developed so long ago as the last item in her pack.
Unconcerned by the fire already raging around the house and licking at the wooden frame, she carefully repacked her bag, shouldered it and then headed for the woods again to watch her work.
By dawn, the fun was over. The house was a still smoldering ruin. The man was a gibbering mess (and deservedly so). And she was fairly certain news would reach KIN within a few days, since some inspired wannabe hero had bounded into the dying fire and found remnants of her little mine, which had set the whole town into a confused uproar. It was actually kind of funny to watch. Certainly one of the best times Leigh had had in recent memory. The theories that had abounded afterwards still made her giggle as she rode out of town.
She wanted a smaller house anyway, she now thought, maybe just two rooms and in a slightly larger town. The place two days down the road, according to her map, sounded perfect.