So, it’s the day after Christmas. I hope Santa was good to everyone. 😉 We celebrated with family with much good food and laughter. And now it’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for #1lineWed. The Twitter theme today is all about the “Light Bulb Moment” – that instant a character has an epiphany, makes a discovery, decides on a course of action that will change everything. I’ve mentioned that I participate in several flash fiction challenges. I try hard to relate them to a current WIP but soemtimes, the words just come out of the blue. I’ll be sharing our #TooSexyInHisShirt candidate shortly. He’s someone who could be in this scene. Until then, I leave you with this snippet of a book that’s still floating around in Iffy’s convoluted brain. I hope you enjoy.
****
“But I recognized—”
“My handwriting? So what?”
“I’ll tell you what. You lied.”
He arched one infuriating brow, his air of superiority filling the room until I was choking on it. The corner of his mouth—the mouth that had kissed me into submission not a day ago—ticked up just adding to the sardonic expression I was coming to hate. The amusement bled into something…darker, something…hungrier.
“Come here.” His hair fell over his forehead, a dark comma punctuating the sin in his eyes.
I backed up a step. Which was fruitless. I had no place to go and running? The man was a predator and I was his prey. Me running was just a game that whetted his appetite. “Did you kill him?”
His devastating smile could melt panties at twenty paces, then I caught actual humor in his eyes. I’d amused him.
“And if I did?”
He didn’t move but that step I’d backed up? Yeah, I discovered I’d taken it back plus two more. I was within reach now. “What do you want with me?”
Laughing, his long fingers closed around the back of my neck, tugging me into his chest. His other arm anchored my body to his. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Well, yes, it was, considering what thrust against my stomach. It wasn’t much of an epiphany, given my current situation. Still, the part of my brain that struggled to keep me out of this man’s clutches. “Why me?”
“So full of questions. Are you sure you want the answers?” He tilted my head back so he could see my face.
Did I? What would happen if I knew the truth?
****
I suspect this will develop into one of my Moonstruck Mob stories. How about y’all? What epiphany have you had lately? And writers, please share a light-bulb moment your character has. 😉
Silver James 
Ooo and squee!
Since you gave me something unfinished, here’s a snippet from SCIU #4, which has a grand total of 9 pages at the moment. Here’s how it starts. See if you can guess what Ruth’s light-bulb moment is. Hehehe.
After thirty years of hard work and tireless effort, Ruth Harcourt was being put out to pasture. Decades of running things in the background as a secretary with not much more to show for it than a nice retirement package and what she’d managed to save. Oh, Ruth wasn’t complaining. She’d been paid well and she’d lived well. For the last ten years, she’d been one of the highest paid secretaries in the DC area. And when the Serial Crimes Investigation Unit had been created, she’d taken the opportunity for a new adventure in Dallas, following Director Walter Graham and providing him the same services she’d provided every other executive all those years. She was honored.
And now it was over.
As she looked at the lovely cake they’d bought for her retirement party, it almost brought a tear to her eye. And all those young agents giving her gifts and wishing her well, when she’d been so certain they never noticed her in the background.
One such agent walked up to her with her nice young man on her arm. “I just wanted to thank you personally for everything you’ve done for us,” Jace said. A soft laugh left Jace. “And for keeping Graham calm.”
“Oh, I’m sure I didn’t do anything.” Ruth ducked her head. Accepting praise wasn’t something she did well.
“You’re kidding,” the man with her said. “From the way I hear it, we all would’ve been fired ages ago if you weren’t there keeping his coffee full and making sure his reports were typed.”
The three of them laughed, but Ruth was only being polite. Coffee and reports. That was all she’d been good for. While so many others around her dealt with the dregs of humanity. Jace had stopped the Car-b-que killer. And there was Tess, who’d stopped a serial rapist in Michigan, taking time out of her busy schedule to serve cake. So many brave faces crowded the room. Frank, who’d taken over the San Diego office and was stopping killers there. Lynn and her new boyfriend, Ned, both of whom took out that horrible woman who’d been killing old people up in Ohio.
Old people. That’s what I am now. An old person. And that’s what I have to look forward to. Sitting around a nursing home listening to other old people tell stories from their lives while they wait to die. What stories do I have? How I collated a hundred reports for a conference? How I made sure enough Danishes were ordered and enough coffee had been brewed?
She smiled as Jace and Ben walked away. Tess lifted a plate with a thin slice of cake, asking silently if she wanted some. Ruth shook her head. She didn’t want cake. She wanted her life to have had some meaning. For her to have had some small effect on the world after she was gone.
“I can’t believe that guy got away with it,” said a voice from the buzz around her. “She read him his rights. I heard her.”
“Yeah, but the defense attorney got your testimony thrown out and then it was the scumbag’s word against hers.”
Ruth tried to make out who was talking, but she couldn’t discern their identities among the few dozen people around her.
“Better luck next time, eh?”
“There’d better not be a next time. Cuz if any of us catches that asshole again, he’s not going to live to have the case thrown out of court.”
A nervous sort of laughter followed. “Better not let Graham hear you talking like that.”
“Why not? He’d understand the sentiment. Our hands are tied sometimes and all we can do is dream about taking the law into our own hands.” More laughter. “But it’s just a dream. Lighten up, man. It’s not like I’d ever do anything about it, for Christ’s sake.”
“Excuse me, Ruth?” Lynn said from beside her. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
ONLY NINE PAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I’m guessing she might turn vigilante? Or go to law school. 😆
No pressure, but this is another one I’ll be waiting to read when you set it loose in the world!
You ladies rock! Awesome writing.
Thanks, Helen! Glad to see you outside of FB. 😉