This is an excerpt of my writing just to give people a taste of my flow. I guess this snippet is only a small representative, though, because a majority of my work is in first person, and this one is in third. It belongs to the third book of the series I am working on, and this is the only section of the book that I have gone through tremendous amounts of effort to revise. For some reason, I just like the way the scene turned out.
Anyway, enjoy!
“They say your father killed her,” Min said.
“Not
that night, but I suspect he went back for her later," Blake said as he nibbled on the edge of his bottle.
“Why? What changed him?” Mineau clenched the white sand beneath her palms, letting it slide through her fingers before picking up another handful. The sound of the waves lapping the shore resonated throughout the open air before fading out into everything else. She tried not to sound too curious, but she couldn't help it. Besides, she didn't know if it even was curiosity, or just the fire in her heart.
“The
curse changed him,” Blake said.
"What
curse?"
Mineau's leaned forward toward Blake, the salty ocean air evading her nostrils as she did. As if he'd already anticipated
that she was not educated on the subject, his sigh in response clarified his expectation of this. "A curse older than anyone alive, I'm afraid. I have no doubt the truth behind the story is skewed,
but what I know about it now is the sapphire holds...
power."
"Of course it does,"
Mineau said. "Haven't you tried using it? It's indestructible."
"Nothing is indestructible--and of course I haven't tried using it. If I had, I would not be sitting here insisting that such a thing needs to be destroyed," Blake
said.
Mineau offered him a doubtful look.
She knew better at this point than to continue arguing, yet she couldn't help
but wonder why he thought it possessed evil. "For
argument's sake, I'll agree. Now, the legend?"
Blake sat back against the chair, a
smile peeking out from the sides of his mouth as he stretched his arms back and brushed against his dark hair curling around his ears.
"I'll only tell you because I like you. What I know is that any man
who touches the sapphire becomes enslaved to it. It compels them to go to some cliffs
where a cove is placed in exactly the middle. In there, men insert the sapphire in the silver stone. Once he does, he is rewarded with infinite treasure for the rest of his days."
Mineau nodded her head, staring at the incoming tide nearing closer to their feet.
"Infinite treasure is a curse?"
"You should
know as well as I do that no great thing comes without a price. A
man must choose to give up all emotion in exchange for the life of
riches."
"That's a paradox if I've ever
heard one. Wouldn't a sacrifice of emotion eliminate desire for
riches?"
Blake chuckled,
shaking his head. "You've never met a psychopath."
"No. It's that I don't believe in
the curse," she said.
"Start believing, sweetheart." He paused, rubbing his tongue against the top of his mouth, tasting the salt of the air mixed with a fruity remain from something earlier. Then, after considering his next words, he said, "I've seen it happen with
my own eyes. The only way to stop the curse is to
kill them. They acquire riches out of their own
insanity, not because of what the curse promised.”
"Then why would anyone choose to lose emotion?" she asked.
"When you
touch that sapphire with bare hands, your mind is not your own
anymore. The gem makes decisions for you. Take it from someone
who's seen it," Blake said, then he leaned down to grab the near bottle of rum
sitting in the sand in front of him, listening to the cackle of the fire as he ran his finger on the lip of the bottle. He drank the last small swig before continuing. "I had to kill my own
father."
With that, he threw the empty bottle out into the sea.
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