FEZZES VERSUS ROSIE! [A Battle Between Two (Maybe) Authors!]

Prompt #1: "There had never been a worse time to sneeze."

Voting is: Open

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Story #1:

There had never been a worse time to sneeze.

       I felt the tickle grow in my nose and wedged myself further back into the closet, disrupting more dust. The muted sound of footsteps pacing came under the closet door, and I held my breath, scared that the sound of my breathing would give my position away. Internally I was cursing myself for being so proud. Why couldn’t you have left this alone? You knew this assignment was too dangerous but you didn’t turn it down, you idiot! God, I have to sneeze!

       I pinched my nose and let out a tiny, quiet, pathetic excuse for a sneeze, hoping that the person on the other side of the door wouldn’t hear me. The pacing stopped and suddenly a shadow blocked out the light sliding in under the door. The doorknob jiggled as they moved to open it, and I felt my palms start sweating and heard my heart pounding. The next second a familiar sensation came over me.

       I closed my eyes and shivered at a chill that felt like a single raindrop slowly making its way from my head down to my feet, and my muscles all tensed of their own accord. There was a sharp tug on my chest as if someone had tied a piece of string to my diaphragm and was trying to drag me around by it.

       Moments after the door to my hiding spot was yanked open, revealing the scarred and broken face of a man who had the build of an Ex-Marine. His eyes drifted to me, and I breathed in involuntarily, only letting it out when his eyes continued to move past me, seeing nothing where I stood.

       “What is it?” A voice called from behind the man standing in front of me. He turned to face the speaker.

       “Thought I heard something,” He shook his head. “Damn plumbing.” He left the door slightly open as he walked away, and I took the opportunity to slip out behind him before it shut.  The room that the closet connected to was a marble and stainless steel palace. Based on looks alone, it was probably worth more than some smaller cities. The paintings on the walls looked like originals, and the whole place exuded the vibe that said ‘Hey, look at me! I have enough money to buy North America! Isn’t that awesome!?’ Needless to say, I hated it.

       I spied an open window and started to inch my invisible self on over so that I could book it out of there and report what I had heard to Headquarters when the a voice called out- “Leaving so soon?” The owner of the first voice rose from his couch in front of a floor to ceiling television and was staring at me. Impossible. I froze. “Yes, you over by the window. Did you think you could get out of here so easily? I’m not blind you know.” Ex-Marine man looked around in confusion.

       “Uh, boss? There’s nobody in the room except us,” 

       “Don’t be daft Hastings. There’s a girl standing over there by the window! Oh look at how shocked she looks Hastings! Isn’t that adorable?” Quickly, I checked my cloak. It seemed fine and the cold sensation was still there, but how could this man see me? “Oh I wish I could take a picture of your expression right now girl, but that’d be bad business. Hastings,” He gestured in my direction. “Kill her.” The K-word was enough to get my feet moving. Hastings was still blind to my position, but now he was blind and holding a semi automatic machine gun. Just because I was cloaked it didn’t mean that I was immune to being shot. That’s just Superman, folks. I ran over to the window and slipped through it, landing on the fire escape. I stumbled once or twice out of shock while I took the stairs two at a time up to the roof. Wait till HQ heard about this. They’re going to have a field day.