Everyone else tenses around me – the air shifts as their muscles freeze. The casual atmosphere of our meal has been blasted away, obliterated by a threat as sudden as an alchemy bomb. Hackel presses his match to a candlewick. As soon as the candle flares into life, he tosses the match aside and points his finger back at my face. Lukas makes to move towards me. ‘What are you doing?’ ‘Stay there!’ snaps Hackel. ‘Stay there or I’ll blast her. The reward is for capture or killing; I’ll still get seven hundred for her body.’ ‘You’re supposed to be our guide!’ says Clementine. ‘We paid you all our savings, we did what you told us to do – you can’t just sell us to the authorities.’ ‘Why not? This way I get paid by both sides.’ Hackel grins. ‘Nothing personal, ladies. Just a business transaction, that’s all.’ ‘You thieving scumbag –’ ‘You’re the one travelling with a thief,’ says Hackel, nodding towards Teddy.
What do You think about Chasing The Valley (2012)?
