I missed six-sentence Sunday, so just for fun, how about a random excerpt from the WIP for Teaser Tuesday? This is just a page or so from the first chapter of my latest project:
I
watched and waited. It was hard to imagine such a joyful group of people
becoming violent enough to kill each other, or try to. A small dark man covered
in tattoos entered the bar from around a corner and he looked as happy as the
others, but he stood out like a beetle in a beehive. His longish hair was wavy
and black, and he wore a crown of woven fern leaves called a palapalai that dancers wore in Polynesian shows at
the hotels in Waikiki. He even wore the ankle and wrist bracelets made from the
same leaves, and a simple loin cloth wrapped around his hips covered just enough
to be legal. Very strange.
I
squinted at the odd little guy who smiled and strode around the room, joining
in the laughter and patting backs in a familiar way that had me thinking he
knew these people, but they didn't seem to notice him. The second he touched
them, their smiles were replaced with scowls of rage. One by one, each bar
patron turned on the other with ugly snarls and strained neck cords as they
appeared to scream and yell. They were pissed. At what? Only the guy in the
Polynesian dance outfit knew. He was the one who got the fight ball rolling.
Women
yanked hair and wrestled one another to the floor, their manicured nails like
claws that raked skin and drew blood. Men threw punches and beer bottles. The
two dead guys came to blows, resulting in one slamming a chair over the head of
the other. When the chair-thrower landed on top of his opponent to finish him
off with his fists, he ended up with a knife in his chest.
The
tattooed man surveyed his handy work, his grin wide with crooked teeth and his
black eyes flickering with joy. He was having a great old time, totally
oblivious to the horror of pain and rage around him. He seemed to feed on his
own entertainment.
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