k_a_webb | Kim’s Earth: Lauren: A Change of Ownership (part 4) (Reply)

This entry is part 28 of 28 in the Kim's Earth collection

It seemed like Fenwick was staring at my sword for a very long time, but the ticking of a clock told me that it was for a maximum of a minute. Back when it had all happened I hated clocks, because they were a reminder of everything I had lost, and yet having them around was a reassurance that some little things were still the same, no matter how bad things became. All I could do was stand there, holding my weapon of choice, waiting for him to make some sort of decision. Even though I really had no interest in being the leader of their group I wasn’t going to back down, not when that meant, possibly, becoming one of a strange sort of harem. There were no women around though, only men, so I had no idea, really, of what he was going to do with me.

“Where did you get that from?”

“A friend gave it to me.” I smiled. “The same friend you’re telling me is absolutely fine, but chose not to tell me that you have taken over his block.”

“He is fine.” Fenwick shook his head. “I told him he had the option of staying here, with me in control, or he could leave, and he chose to leave, because he couldn’t accept me taking over his little kingdom.” He bit his lip. “We could always compromise – fighting is such a nasty way of doing things.”

“Yet it was the way you chose to do things.”

“That time I had no choice. He was not a good person. I like to think that I’m different, although I do make mistakes, and getting my goons, as you put it, to grab you off the street was one of them.” Fenwick shrugged. “Making a mistake doesn’t mean that I’m a bad person.”

“Okay, if you want me to believe that then you need to tell me why you took over Woody’s tower block, because until I have a valid reason for that I’m not going to accept any compromise.”

“Woody was someone that I’d heard about and I thought we might be able to work together, as we did, I believed, have the same aims. Both of us wanted to build a community for the people who had survived the injection, the few who’d been able to pay the fine, and the children who’d been left alone by the death of their parents. I came here, alone, to put my proposal to him, knowing that bringing everyone here would be a huge mistake. Then he would think he was under attack and I wasn’t here to do that. So, when I was brought to this very room, I suggested to him that we combine our resources. My luck since the injection has been good enough that I’ve had the time to start up a couple of farms, with the help of the people that I rescued, and I thought he would appreciate that, but his answer wasn’t what I was expecting it to be.”

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.