When Your Novel Strikes Back

by Heather Lawson

  Chapter the Thirteenth – It’s A Filler!

  The seagulls woke everyone the next morning, they were perched on all of the window sills and they were cawing, loudly.

  “Get out of it!” Heather shouted, swinging a pillow in the general direction of the window.

  The seagulls took off for a few moments before settling back down on the sill the moment Heather stopped swinging. She narrowed her eyes at them.

  “Where’s the laptop? I’m writing seagulls out of existence!”

  “I think it was left on the table downstairs yesterday,” Ayesha mumbled, her head still buried under her duvet.

  Heather left the room and ventured down the stairs again, padding across the cold wooden floor towards the table where the laptop was resting. She flipped it open and pushed the power button. Nothing happened. She tried again and still nothing happened.

  “Guys! We have a problem!” she shouted up the stairs.

  She waited as the other three filed down the stairs, looking rather tired and shabby. Dan was the last down the stairs, the girls were sitting on the couch, almost falling asleep again, when he plodded down the steps.

  “What took you so long?” Heather asked when he finally stood in front of them.

  He stretched and then opened one eye mid-stretch to look at them.

  “I got dressed,” he said, lowering his arms. “Didn’t think you’d want to see me in my undies.”

  “He’s got a point there,” Ally said.

  “What’s this all about anyway?” Dan asked, sitting on the chair next to the sofa.

  “The laptop isn’t working,” Heather replied, showing them.

  “How can it not be working?!” Ayesha asked. “It was fine yesterday!”

  “Did you bring the power cable for it?” Dan asked, rubbing some sleep from his eyes.

  Ally, Heather and Ayesha looked at each other. Dan stopped rubbing his eyes, noticed the look that they were passing between them and laughed.

  “I’ll take that as a no then,” he said.

  “So what do we do now then, smart guy?” Ayesha asked, turning on Dan.

  “Beats me, this is your problem now.”

  “I thought you were meant to be here to help us!”

  “Yeah and look where that got me so far!”

  “Guys! Seriously, quit arguing,” Ally cut in.

  “Let’s just think about this for a second,” Heather said. “Where is the power cable?”

  “It’s probably back at your place,” Dan said. “That is where you had it plugged in to start with.”

  “He’s right,” Heather said, thinking back to when the laptop had been a computer.

  “So how do we get it?” Ayesha asked.

  “We find out exactly where we are and we walk there,” Heather replied. “I guess.”

  “Okay…” Ally said, thinking things over. “So, we go out and see who we can ask.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Heather said.

  “Can we take things for the beach?” Ayesha cut in. “Just in case we want to relax a little?”

  “Sure, why not?”

  “Yay!”

  Ayesha ran to the cupboards in the house, looking for some buckets and spades and other things that they could take with them to the beach. She came back, her arms completely full, with several things to choose from. Ally took a small bucket and spade, Ayesha grabbed the beach umbrella, Dan took the beach ball and Heather grabbed the blankets.

  “Alright, let’s get ready and we’ll meet back here in ten minutes,” Heather said, placing the blankets by the door.

  They all headed up the stairs again to get ready. The girls headed into their room and started picking out outfits that they thought would suit the occasion, Dan went into his room, grabbed the first clothes he could see and threw them on. He was waiting by the door for the girls for twenty minutes before they finally came back down the stairs.

  He had thrown on a t-shirt and some jeans with sandals instead of his usual boots. The girls were all wearing vests or light t-shirts and shorts or a skirt with flip flops. He waited for them to join him and then opened the door for them.

  “Alright, let’s go find out where we are,” Heather said, picking up the blankets and heading out the door again.

  They set off down the beach, soaking in the sunshine and allowing the warm sand to brush against their feet.

  “Fish and chips! Let’s get some,” Ally shouted, pointing to a little burger truck parked in a car park not far from them.

  They ran over to it, deciding it was best to get something to eat before they forgot. They were clamouring over one another to get to the front of the line. The man running the van greeted them with a smile.

  “Welcome! Today is free food day!” he said.

  “Wow! That’s lucky for us,” Ally said, sneaking in front of Ayesha and Dan.

  They all got their food and then started to walk along the beach again. They walked in silence for a while when Dan suddenly remembered something.

  “Why didn’t we ask that guy where we are?”

  His question was met with blank stares from the others. They looked at each other, trying to work out how they had managed to forget that they were meant to be asking directions. They continued to walk along the beach in silence, stopping to rest at a picnic area where they could eat their food without balancing it in their hands.

  “There’s going to be more people along the beach, we’ll just ask them,” Ayesha said, throwing another chip into her mouth. “It’s not like the beach will be deserted.”

  “I don’t know, there doesn’t seem to be anyone else arou—” Heather began but was interrupted when sand was thrown all over their table.

  “Hey! What’s going on?!” Ally shouted. “My food is ruined!”

  The group turned to see where the sand had come from and noticed someone familiar standing not so far away from them.

  “Seriously?!” Heather shouted.

  Wax was standing in the middle of a wooden drawbridge that was attached to an exceedingly large sandcastle. He had what looked like blueprints in his hand and was ordering his minions to dig. The sand that had been thrown onto their table had come from a minion closer to them who was trying to dig a moat around the castle.

  “Hey! Idiot! What’s the big idea?!” Heather shouted, shoving the minion who had thrown the sand over their food backwards so he fell into the hole he had been digging.

  “Oh come on!” Wax shouted as he noticed them walking towards him. “Can’t I enjoy a holiday in peace?”

  “You’re the one who started it!” Ayesha said, brandishing her beach umbrella in Wax’s direction. “We were having a nice meal over there until your minion threw sand over it!”

  “Well I’m just standing here minding my own business,” Wax said, flicking the blueprints and ignoring the group. “What my minions do is none of my concern, unless they stop working.”

  “We’ll just see about that!” Ayesha said, stepping forward.

  Wax’s eyes grew larger as he saw Ayesha approaching with her oversized umbrella, he withdrew into the castle with some of his minions and raised the drawbridge that he had been standing on. The group moved to the front of the castle and stared up at the larger building.

  “You coward!” Ayesha shouted.

  “I am not a coward!” Wax’s voice drifted down to them.

  They searched the castle, looking for where he had hidden himself. Heather spotted him standing on one of the turrets at the very top. She nudged the others and pointed to him.

  “I am a clever villain who has his victims exactly where he wants them,” Wax continued. “Fire!”