Near Miss

Chapter Six: Backspace

"It's... someone you... know..." Sylvie muttered under her breath, typing out the final words of her interview with Magdalen. After adding an ellipsis, she leaned back in satisfaction.

Now, of course, she had to actually write the article.

As much as she resented Pandora's condescending attitude and lack of respect, Sylvie also recognized that she wasn't giving her enough credit for all the things she had done to make Sylvie a part of the Gazette. She was no longer just an intern- now, in addition to gathering information, she was allowed to write articles. This one, she suspected, would be rather important; it might even make the front page.

Below the transcript of the interview, Sylvie typed out a headline. Short, descriptive, and snappy, as she had been taught.

LOCAL WOMAN VICTIM OF REPEATED ATTACKS

Attacks? No, that sounded like some kind of animal-related problem. Sylvie backspaced and tried again.

LOCAL WOMAN'S LIFE-THREATENING INCIDEN-

Too long.

LOCAL WOMAN'S BRUSHES WITH DEATH PUZZLE POLICE

Sylvie sighed and leaned back. Were the police confused? She'd like to call Rorie and ask, but Rorie was still in school, and wouldn't know anyway. She had to admit, she didn't know where the police were on this case.

One more time.

LOCAL WOMAN SURVIVES MULTIPLE MURDER ATTEMPTS

It was descriptive, but not interesting, Sylvie thought. Unfortunately, it was also just about as long as the police title, despite containing less information. She decided she'd type just one more, and could decide between the two later.

"SOMEONE'S TRYING TO KILL ME": LOCAL WOMAN SURVIVES MULTIPLE BRUSHES WITH DEATH

Sylvie smiled. It was much longer, but also seemed more likely to catch the attention of their readers.

She hit enter three times before she was satisfied with the amount of space she had to type.

This was a good starting article, of course. It would be best to follow it up with actual information about the suspects, but Sylvie doubted she'd be able to do that today. She glanced at the clock. Nearly two thirty. Writing this article would probably take her most of the next few hours, and given that the publication deadline was at six, she wouldn't have time to write any other interview into the article. She'd have to check it over, and then check over the check-over, and eventually hand it to Pandora, who would edit out all the interesting parts and ask Sylvie to at least try to catch the readers' attention, and-

Sylvie broke off. She needed to concentrate now, so she could spend more time writing.

An outline, she decided. An outline would be a good start.

Magdalen had been right. The first thing to cover in the article would be to interest the readers by explaining how she had been targeted- most people wouldn't find the motivation very interesting, not in comparison to the method of the attempts. Knife, Sylvie typed. Letter bomb. Then she hit enter and went into more detail:

This morning, a letter bomb arrived on Hawk's doorstep, in what quickly became apparent as yet another attempt on her life. Luckily, a high school workshop left her with the know-how to defuse the bomb before it became a threat. After realizing her luck once again, Hawk called the police.

Good. If anyone wanted to edit it, Pandora was free to.

Sylvie hit enter again. Motive, she typed, then backspaced over. She didn't know anything about the motive. Magdalen hadn't answered that question. Sylvie felt that the article would have been much more interesting if she had.