Day Twenty Five-- A Whole Lot of Ass Biting is Going On

After the end of the day I will have reached 42,000 words. This is the point where the sun is supposed to emerge from the clouds and I am supposed to have some kind of vision for how to wrap this whole thing up. Not so, sadly. I have no idea what's doing on. Sadly, my penchant for saying nothing but using a lot of words has gotten me to a point where I should be closing this out but I'm not. I have very serious concerns that I will reach the 50,000 word mark and I won't have solved anything.

This excerpt is long, but I needed to include the whole thing--you'll see why. Sort of. Heather and I got together on Saturday to do some power writing, where we would write without talking for ten minute stretches. We did three of those stretches and I managed to write about 1,400 words! The funny thing about it is that when you sit down to write without thinking, a whole lot of things can happen that you didn't anticipate. I wrote myself into several corners that will be difficult to get out of. Take, for example, the third voice that appears here. I have no idea who it is. Hopefully I will by November 30th.

To give you some background, Chloe and Cole are staking out Buns of Steel. They just saw a guy go through the back door who looks like Hagrid. The name Phil is of relevance because that is the name of the person that Chloe found in Juliet's address book with the Kicking Around the Browns picture in it-- this Phil Mason (named after Phil Kessel and Mason Raymond) said that he was Juliet's boyfriend. Also, the first line was inspired by Indigo.

“You wouldn’t know liminality if it bit you in the ass!” Dallas shouted to the Hagrid-like man. Hagrid looked as if he had been wounded by the words.

“That’s rich, coming from you!” Hagrid roared back. He had an accent that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Was it British? New Zealand? Australia? She felt terribly uncultured, but now wasn’t quite the time to lament that.

“What’s liminality?” Cole whispered to Chloe, causing Dallas and Hagrid to sharply turn their heads in their direction. Chloe ducked quickly, and motioned with a finger over her lips to Cole to be quiet. It was quite the relief, as she did not want to have to explain what liminality is to a layperson such as Cole.

Dallas and Hagrid stared towards the window for a minute, likely debating in their minds as to whether they should go outside to investigate. Luckily for Cole and Chloe, they evidently decided not to. Chloe lifted her ear closer to the window so she could hear, but didn’t dare look in.

“You haven’t held up your end of the bargain,” Hagrid said in a quieter voice that was somehow more menacing than his booming yell.

“I told you,” Dallas said, “I need more time.”

“I’ve given you time,” Hagrid complained, “and I have given you cronuts. When am I going to start benefiting from all of my hard work?”

“Soon, I promise.”

“You wouldn’t know a promise if it bit you in the ass,” Hagrid sneered.

“Why are so many things biting people in the ass? It’s a strange thing to continually bring up,” a third voice that seemed to come from nowhere said. The third voice was speakin’ the truth. People usually take note when something is biting them in the ass.

Chloe hadn’t seen a third person in the room when she had looked in moments ago; perhaps he was obscured by the wall, or maybe he had quietly entered and the men hadn’t verbally acknowledged it. The addition of a third voice was quite the twist; she had no idea who this person was, or why he was there.

Dallas and Hagrid laughed nervously. It was clear that whoever owned this third voice had power over the other two, and this scared Chloe. She couldn’t imagine what someone would have to look like to strike fear in the heart of someone who appeared to be half giant.

“I guess I never thought of it that way,” Dallas said, obviously trying to appease the third voice.

“I don’t need you!” the third voice said.

There was silence, until he likely cracked a smile and they all laughed. The scene would probably make more sense if Chloe could see what was happening, but she had a strange suspicion that it probably would not make much more sense even then.

“Are you getting this,” she whispered into Cole’s ear, enjoying the scent of his cologne. She relished the opportunity to be close to him, but she pulled herself away so as to not be distracted from their mission.

“Yes,” he said back in her ear. She could feel his eyelashes on her temple, and the heat of his breath as he spoke. It was an intimate moment that both were sad to not continue. “In the sense that I hear it, but not in the sense that I understand it.”

“Welcome to this investigation.”

They turned away from each other sadly to listen through the window.

“Things will be a lot easier once a certain baker is out of our hair,” Dallas drawled. Chloe’s blood ran cold. Who were they talking about? Her? Juliet? Someone else?
“Has any progress been made on that?” the third voice said coldly. She was trying to imagine the voice that might go along with it—he was probably tall, sallow-faced, with slits for eyes. She realized that she was describing Voldemort, which made her feel incredibly foolish. It was not likely that Voldemort was behind this, but then again, she couldn’t see through the window to eliminate him as a suspect. She felt very bad about herself indeed that she was apparently adding Voldemort to the list of suspects.

“We are very close,” said Hagrid.

“That sounds like an easy thing to say,” said the third voice, “but when will I see results, Phil?”

Chloe nearly fell off of the box. Had she really heard the name Phil? Was it the Phil that she had spoken with over the phone? The Phil who was supposedly Chloe’s boyfriend? The one who said that he was going to go to the police? The one that she had been worried about all day, thinking that she was responsible for him currently swimming with the fishes? Or was it an entirely different Phil? Is that a popular name? Did the voice sound like his? She had spoken with him three days ago, which felt like so long ago, and she could hardly remember. She made eye contact with Cole, and the look on his face indicated that he too understood the importance of the name that they had just heard. They exchanged confused glances, then returned to their intent listening.

“Soon,” the man she now knew was called Phil responded.

“When is soon?”

“In the next few days. We are working on some things.”

“Some things? Your vague language is making me think that you are hiding something, which is likely the fact that you do not have control over the situation, as you have made me to believe,” third voice said coldly.

Chloe was trying to work up the courage to look through the window, but as the third voice continued talking, she lost her nerve. His voice chilled her to the bone; it was cold and heartless.
“I’m sorry that I am being vague,” Phil said. “It isn’t because I haven’t made progress. It’s because things are still tentative and I do not want to say something that will come back to bite me in the…” Hagrid stopped short. “That will not come to pass.”

“We’ve got this under control,” Dallas said, suddenly taking Hagrid’s side. It was strange to hear the reversal; clearly Dallas was influencing Phil/Hagrid, but the third voice clearly influenced them both. They both seemed to cower when he spoke.

“I am growing impatient.”

“We understand,” Dallas said. “You don’t need to worry. We’ve come through before, haven’t we?”

“Quebec was fruitful for us,” the third voice said. “You both did very well. I was pleased with your efforts.”

Quebec? What was the significance of Quebec? What had happened there? Chloe and Cole once again exchanged glances, terrified to speak and give away their presence.
She heard Phil/Hagrid and Dallas sigh with relief. She practically sighed along with them; she was not eager to hear anyone being killed, which was strangely how it felt in the air. Chloe did not think that she would be able to recognize the feeling that someone was going to die, but it was coursing through her. She was scared.

“But I do not want you to think that because you were successful there that I will mindlessly accept your words now. I haven’t gotten to where I am by accepting people’s words or by honouring my loyalties.”

“Of course, sir,” they both murmured.

Jesus, Chloe thought. They were calling him “sir.” This guy was clearly terrifyingly powerful.

“I want to see some progress by tomorrow. Do not disappoint me,” they heard a door close. The third voice had unceremoniously left, apparently through the front door. They had never seen his face.
“Fuck,” Dallas said, sighing with simultaneous relief and exhaustion. “I sure as fuck hope that you were telling the truth there.”

“I was,” Phil said, obviously lying. It was sad that they could tell through a slightly opened window how poor of a liar he was.

“Phil,” Dallas moaned. “You said that you had taken care of things. I don’t want this to come back and bite us in the ass.”

They both paused.

“The phrase is really ruined when you stop and think about it,” Dallas lamented.

“Yeah.”