“Up The Wall”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Prompt: “Someone’s climbing up the side of a building…” — suggested by E. L. Stew

“Shush,” I whisper down at her.

The moonlight reflects off her face as she peers up at me. I can tell that she’s grmpy by her slightly furrowed brow. Oh well, she can be grumpy at me later. There’s no time for that right now anyway.

“Come on,” I call, nodding upward. “We need to go higher.”

She rolls her eyes but follows me up. I wish I could be as sure about my footing as she is. I mean honestly, I’m pretty sure I would’ve fallen off near the bottom if not for my special equipment.

We continue climbing in silence, pausing every once in a while to check that we’re high enough, only to discover that we’ve still got a ways to go.

My entire body is burning when we finally reach the height we need. She climbs up next to me and double checks our altitude.

“What, you don’t trust me?” I mutter.

She just shoots me another dirty look before starting to get out our equipment.

I silently help her set up. My body moves by itself, having done this thousands of times before.

When we’re finally finished, I grab the telescope and adjust the focus. I can hear her fiddling with her part of the equipment.

I take a deep breath as I look around at the ground beneath us. He should be arriving soon…

There. He walks into view, his hands in his pockets as he goes.

I sigh. Sometimes I wish I could be so ignorant.

Unfortunately, my line of work doesn’t allow that.

I position the little cross over him.

“Ready,” I whisper down to her.

She fires. I watch as the man goes down, silently and swiftly.

We pack up for the long descent.

Final Comments: Not really sure what to say about this one…

Overall Rating: 😳