SILVERWOOD:I HAD TO KILL YOU FIRST

A SILVERWOOD COMIC

BY BETSY STREETER

©2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WWW.BETSYSTREETER.COM

tromindox fifty-four-Z-twelve APPROACHES, SLOWLY. NO NEED TO HURRY. EVERYONE IS FINISHED RUNNING. GAME OVER.

“we’re done here, bounty hunter scum, you’ve lost,” says fifty-four.

kate can’t come up with a response.

“hell of a way to make a living, bounty hunter scum.”

thanks for calling me scum

twice. “it pays the bills,” says kate.

Kate Silverwood, hard-working mother of two, would like nothing more than to lie down, just for a minute.

“i do hope you’ve got a nice in-heritance for your darling chil-dren... looks like they’re going to need it,” says fifty-four. “How old are they, now?”

“what the hell do you care?” says kate. her arm burns; blood runs down into her palm.

silverwood: i had to kill you first ©2013 betsy streeter

“Helen is eleven, henry is six,” says kate. he already knows that. tromin-dox do their research.

“ah, so young.” says fifty-four, “but i’m sure the silverwood clan will come take care of them, won’t they? or maybe the council of portals will gather up all the lost silverwood children, and build them a school. that sounds nice, doesn’t it?”

“are either of your lit-tle ones guild?” asks fifty-four.

“do you think i would tell you if they were?” says kate.

why all the conversa-

tion? is he just try-

ing to keep me talking?

preserve my brain en-

ergy so he can eat it?

“that guild thing has always fascinated me,” says fifty-four. “people who can draw the future, put the unseen down on paper. I knew a guild guy once, could draw the entire schematic of a building from the outside.”

“of course, i ate him, so he doesn’t do that any more.”

©2013 betsy streetersilverwood: i had to kill you first

earlier this afternoon...

“henry!” kate says to her son, “pick up your stuff off the floor. i just stepped on one of your drawings. these are going to get wrecked.”

“mmmmkay,” says henry, without looking up.

“hey helen, there’s lasagna in the fridge. don’t reprogram anything okay? i’ll be back in a while. I have to go to work.”

“helen? what did i just say?”

“something about lasagna mom,” says helen. “no worries.”

“alright i’m going. don’t hack anything helen, I’m serious,” says kate.

helen’s hacking skills reach far beyond her years - meaning, she has the talent minus the judgement in how to (or not to) use it. An eleven-year-old who can tear apart your thermostat, toaster and waffle iron and from them construct a robotic heat-sensing toy-smashing device is not someone you want alone in your apartment for very long

but kate’s got to leave for work.she’s got an assignment.

©2013 betsy streetersilverwood: i had to kill you first | page 4

kate’s device lights up with infor-mation on her target: tromindox fifty-four-z-twelve, responsible for disappearance (read: eating) of nine humans in the last week. this guy is hungry. or, having fun hunting people down. or both.

she drops the device in her pock-et, and heads downtown.

tromindox are not dif-ficult to spot, if you know what to look for. the city provides cover, though. nobody gives a second thought to a disheviled, sickly-look-ing very tall guy on the street.

and so it begins...

“watch where you’re go-ing,” says kate.

“mmmf,” mum-bles fifty-four.

it’s him.

and in that split-second, fifty-four-z-twelve knows he’s been spotted. maybe by an agent, or a bounty hunter, doesn’t matter by whom. his cover is blown.

©2013 betsy streetersilverwood: i had to kill you first | page 5

And, there he goes.

“this one is fast,” thinks kate. “must not have eaten lately or he’d be more sluggish.” it takes a lot of energy for a tromindox to consume a hu-man’s mind. humans fight to the very end, until they finally dis-solve.

kate keeps fifty-four in the corner of her eye...

until he slides down into a storm drain.

“dammit,” thinks kate. “who knows where that thing leads.”

and he’ll be faster, now that he’s not putting all that effort into looking like an ugly hu-man being.

like all hunt-ers, tromindox have to con-serve their en-ergy. digesting, shape-shifting - these things re-quire resourc-es. best plan is to get out of sight, and quick.

kate knows this. it’s what she ex-pects.

©2013 betsy streetersilverwood: i had to kill you first | page 6

“okay, ow,” says kate, gripping her arm. she’s losing a lot of blood. kate heads back the way she came to give herself a minute, regroup.

“so quickly can the hunter be-come the hunted,” says fifty-four. “no one can hear you down here, no one will know where you went, will they.”

“dammit!” says kate. she tries to grab hold of the tromin-dox, but it just sheds parts like a lizard sheds its tail.

seems the strategy is to slow her down with a stealth attack and then run for it.

it might work...

“alright,

squid,

where are

you?”

slash!

©2013 betsy streetersilverwood: i had to kill you first | page 7

“You know, you got me pretty good,” says kate. i thought you might... a strong tromindox like your-self.”

“That’s why i had to kill you first, fifty-four.”

“that’s right, buddy. thou art slain.”

“i dosed you up on the street. you don’t think i just bump into people all the time like that, do you?”

“used the slow-acting stuff. gave you time to get down here and disintegrate in private. nobody wants to see that,” says kate. “too gruesome.”

fifty-four readies a retort... but then his arm falls off.

he rummages frantically with his remaining arm... must alert the oth-ers... but it’s too late.

“bounty... hunter... scum...”

kate can hear the last echoes of the minds of his most recent vic-tims... frightened voices, heard for the final time.

and so we find ourselves at this moment...

©2013 betsy streetersilverwood: i had to kill you first | page 8

kate enters the kill code into her re-cords. payment due. this one should pay pretty well.

kate logs off and heads home. hope-fully homework will be done.

“hey helen, i’m on my way home. yeah, ev-erything’s fine. could you wash up some bandages, though? i kind of cut myself.”

“no, nothing serious. i’ll be okay. thanks.”

the end

“henry!” yells helen. “mom’s coming home....”

“i know,” says henry. “the squid thing got her this time. that’s why she needs the bandages.”

“you gonna show her the drawing you made? of the squid?” asks helen. honestly, that kid is weird. there is no squid.

“only if you show her how you hacked into the building’s alarm system,” says henry.

“fine. don’t show her. i don’t care,” says helen.

and some lasagna will be left.