The Art of Destruction

Chapter Two * Stay the Night

Monday July 4, 2016

Ella stared at her laptop with a quizzical look, her legs pulled up around her and the electronic balancing on her knees as she typed slowly at first then faster as the idea picked up. She drew her lips into a fine line as her eyes grew large and excited. The summer breeze came off the lake behind her and through her open window, the curtains ballooning ever so slightly in the draft. Her diamond shaped face sheened with sweat in the summer heat as she concentrated all of her energy to her brain and her fingers, typing furiously as her brain cranked out the new beginning.

Suddenly her excitement faltered and her plump lips pursed in frustration. Her eyelids drooped as she lifted a single finger and held down the backspace button on her keyboard. Everything she'd typed out disappeared letter by letter, with such simple an effort.

She let her head fall back dramatically to rest on the back of the basket chair but hit the hardwood frame instead of the cushion and she yelped in pain – "dammit!" her head lifted just as fast as it had dropped. She closed the laptop angrily. Physically and mentally giving up on her novel. Getting up hastily, she threw the laptop on the chair and walked three steps to the glass sliding door that led out to her wrap around porch on her lake house. Leaving the door open, she stepped out barefoot onto the deck and followed the walkway to the dock out over the lake. Her pitbull ran out after her, tail wagging dangerously fast. "Hey, Dana..." she greeted and placed her hand behind the beige colored dogs head. 

Dana stuck out her tongue and trotted happily beside Ella.

At the end of the dock Ella sat down and hung her legs over the edge. Without needing to be instructed, Dana did the same. "What am I supposed to do Dana? I'm a one hit wonder if I can't get this book going." Her published crime novel became a Best Seller and she was able to pay off all of her student loans and her home, the Lake House. The demand of a sequel was so high she couldn't help but comply. The problem was, she had writers block. She was unhappy. If she was unhappy, she couldn't focus. She pouted her lip as she looked over the sparkling water, why was she unhappy? 

"Do you think I'm a one hit wonder?" Ella glanced down at her best friend who simply looked over at her with big blue puppy eyes, her tongue hanging out and tail wagging wildly. "Yeah, I know you believe in me buddy. I just wish I believed in me." Ella frowned and playfully nudged her companion. Dana bounced back, in response, with a loud and wet lick to the cheek.

Looking back over the lake, Ella leaned back, using her arms to brace her body in a reclined position. The sky was a bright blue. The sun just barely peeking out behind one giant fluffy cloud. She brainstormed ideas about her protagonist's flaws. Considered where the plot was trying to take her. As her mind started to drift to life at work she huffed. Why bother with a book she couldn't write? 

The dock creaked somewhere behind her and Ella felt the hairs on her neck stand on end, Dana growled deep in her chest before she turned around and started barking wildly. Ella mentally kicked herself for not having her firearm on her but turned around expectantly, just in time to see a man come up behind her. She gasped, startled, her eyebrows high on her forehead. Dana continued to bark as she ran down the dock and attacked the man, jumping up and licking his face.

"Benjamin Dyer! You scared the crap out of me!" Ella scolded, despite the smile on her face, as she stood and walked over to the lean man and Dana. Tugging lightly on Dana's pink collar to pull her off her brother, she scolded her canine friend, "Down Dana!"

"It's fine, Ella Dyer, she just misses me!" Ben mocked his sister's use of their last name and laughed as he mushed Dana's face affectionately, scrunching his diamond shaped, face in exaggerated emotion.