Hollow World Book 2 Chapter 5

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Clink. Clink. Clink.

He stood up, the coin placed in the mouth of his latest ward, Tiffany. She had been part of Graham’s army, one of the many that had died burning the apartments to the ground. His gaze shifted to the next corpse, Gabriel, and then the next, Nathan, and then Jasmine, and then… the list went on. All had been sacrificed in the Ancients War. Graham was right though, The Pennyman thought. This was how you started a war.

His duties done at the complex, nearly seventy obols placed in the mouths of the dead, he began his walk again, finding himself outside of a seedy motel off a side street in Amarillo. Sam sat behind the wheel of the modified electric car, the engine still running. Sam did not notice The Pennyman as he slid through the darkness towards the man that lay dead in the main foyer.

Crack! The report of a shotgun filled the lifeless room as Gina came in from a back hallway. Her back was to The Pennyman, and he did his best to ignore her, tending to Jeffrey.

The shotgun fired again, lighting up the room briefly. Sensing that his job at the motel was not done, The Pennyman picked up his bag, the telltale clink startling Gina, who turned, and reflexively fired.

The bullet rocked the weathered man’s body, but he kept going. Another round slammed into his chest as she fired again. The impact forced him back a step, but he quickly resumed his walk, and when Gina rose the shotgun to fire a third time, a hollow click was the only sound that greeted her.

“Shit,” she said as another person appeared at the doorway that The Pennyman was moving towards. Gina shifted her grip on the gun and swung it, clubbing the woman in the head, downing her, only to have her replaced by a much larger man, filling the doorway. He warded off the the axe-like blow Gina aimed at him with an arm.

The Pennyman watched as the man, arm now hanging useless at his side, stepped further into the room, to be replaced in the doorway by a small girl. Evelyn was her name, and the gun in her hand bore the name Colt. Two shots fired, and Gina fell to the ground.

“Hey, everything ok in here?” Sam yelled from the broken glass doors, a flashlight in hand. Sweeping the room, the beam first fell upon the form of The Pennyman, then upon the large man standing over the prone form of Gina, and finally upon Evelyn.

The young girl stood transfixed, staring at the spreading pool of blood that was leaking from her victim.

A quick shot from Sam knocked the obese man down and he turned to fire at Evelyn, but could not bring himself to pull the trigger. He ran out of the motel and The Pennyman heard the telltale sound of screeching tires as Sam fled.

The Pennyman knelt over the now lifeless form of Gina. The casualties were beginning to mount, the war was here.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

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