Day 82 Writing Short Stories

Sisters

To kill a monster takes more than courage, more than determination; it needs a good partner. She had always had someone who would back her up in any situation. It was her sister, who was the smartest person in the known West. Her wit and expertise with bombs and guns made her the best ally a girl could hope for.

She let her eyes rest on the eaten carcasses and the protruding bones. It was a big one.

“We need more than guns,” her sister said.

“Yeah,” she let out between her teeth.

They had done this more than once. They killed monsters for a living, going from one bounty to another: human or monster, they didn’t care as long as the thing was bad. It was what their grandfather had taught them to do. It was all they knew since their parents died, killed by the beast they were now hunting: Ek Chapat. A monster that took everyone wandering into the desert without the right kind of protection. Like her parents had done, taking the whole family with them in search of a better life.

The creature was a gigantic, centipede-like being with human heads and teeth that tore into the flesh of the careless. Its skin was poisonous, hence the burn marks on her legs that had stretched thin and painful as she had grown older.

“Bombs then?” she asked.

“Yeah, bombs.”

“I will be the usual bait, and you do your magic,” she said.

“Essie,” her sister said.

“Yeah?”

“No foolish things.”

“No, Bernice. I have my guns, and I will run if needed.” She put on her goggles and hopped off her horse.

She advanced in the middle of the carcasses, listening as her baby sister rode away, behind the sand hills to ready her bombs.

Essie made sure she was as loud as she could be as she led her horse down the path. Daisy was a good one. She knew how to play these situations. The horse had nerves of steel. Together they got past the first corpses, and the air got really stagnant. Pregnant with what was about to come.

She licked her lips as she listened to the sand slowly roll down the dunes. The hissing was low, but she had good ears, and she knew that Ek Chapat was coming. You rarely saw them before they were upon you, but she had killed enough of them to know the signs.

And there it was. Its bluish flesh stinking up the air more than the carcasses did. Its red legs moved fast over the dunes, rushing towards her. She stood her ground and let Daisy go. The horse knew where to run, where to wait, and how long to wait.

Daisy was gone, and she lifted her gun. The Ek Chapat was getting closer, and she could feel its pulsing breath from all of its seven heads. Its teeth rattled with anticipation.

Essie took her shot. It only pissed off the monster. She took another one, making sure it would come closer. It was almost upon her, and she heard Bernice shout, “Duck!”

She rolled to her right side, as they had played this thing so many times, but the Ek Chapat feet grasped her and started pulling her towards its seven mouths.

“Fuck!” she let out, glancing over her shoulder and seeing her sister standing there with her cannon already ready and fired. The huge bomb was arcing its way toward her.

She drew her gun and aimed at the thing’s leg, holding on to her. She shot the wrong one, only making the creature draw her faster towards it.

Essie took another aim, shutting her right eye and squeezing her finger hard before releasing.

Ek Chapat screamed as the leg came off. Essie got to her feet and ran as fast as she could, jumping behind a horse’s corpse, and heard the bomb come down. Sand flew over her, along with poisonous flesh that took chunks out of her hat and melted patterns on her leather jacket.

Bernice rushed to her and dragged her up behind the dead horse.

“Are you okay?” her baby sister asked, patting her down like a suspect.

“Right as rain,” Essie said, favoring her left leg. Ek Chapat had burned through her trousers, but that was okay too. Bernice would have the right kind of salve to ease the pain.

—

Oh, this was a good one. I liked writing this one enormously. I’m still trying to get more interaction and connection between characters, and I had fun writing two sisters in a Western setting. What I got today was a contemporary western about overcoming a monster, written in the third person. It was all one could hope for. Not that I thought so when I saw the random number generator choose Western. But overcoming the monster made it all worthwhile. Holy space cows, I love writing about monsters too much.

Thank you for reading! Have an exciting day and see you tomorrow ❤