I’ve been writing weekly fiction posts for some time now and I created the Friday Fiction link so that others could join me. It’s difficult to come up with new material week after week though, so I’m widening the remit of this slot to include book reviews. I already have guest author slots and I think it’s great to feature extracts of published work. I will continue with this, so if you are an author and would like to guest on this post, please get in touch.

I read as much as I write and have done book reviews in the past. I know many of you are avid readers too, so I would like to invite you to link up both your fiction pieces and your book reviews. The link is open today, but from now on, will be monthly rather than weekly on the first Friday of every month.

Here’s my fiction extract for this week. It’s based on the prompt, from Sara at mumturnedmom.

Four weeks. It’s been one whole month and no word. She’s gone, but where?
Dillon still couldn’t believe it. How could Kate just vanish like that? It didn’t make sense, but his thoughts were interrupted by a commotion from outside in the street, followed by a loud hammering on the door.

‘DILLON!’
‘What the hell is all that racket?’ his dad said, as he opened the door.
‘Where is he?’ Kate’s mum was standing outside, her face stained with tears. Dillon came up behind his dad to see what was going just as she surged forward, but was grabbed in time by her husband, who was standing behind her.
‘What did you do to her? Tell me. I can’t stand this anymore. I need her back. I need to know where she is.’
‘I don’t know, I really don’t,’ Dillon said, thankful that his dad was with him. Mrs Baxter looked murderous. She obviously didn’t believe him.
‘You must know something. How can you spend all that time with someone and not know anything about where they could have gone to?’

Dillon felt desperate. It was true, he should have known, but Kate had become a stranger to him and he hadn’t even seen her for a whole month before she disappeared.
‘Mrs Baxter I really can’t help you. I told the police everything I know already.’
‘You’re hiding something; I know you are and we’re going to find out what it is. We will get you, don’t you worry, you won’t get away with this.’

The woman is a crazy bitch. Dillon looked up to see that there was a gathering in his street. Everyone was staring in their direction, all of them looking as though they were on the side of the Baxter family, ready to start a war.
‘Come on, I told you this won’t get us anywhere. Let the police do their job. They’ll find our Kate soon enough.’ Mr Baxter tried to console his wife and lead her away, but she was reluctant. She stood staring Dillon down, hoping for what? He didn’t know. Perhaps she thought if she stood there long enough she would break him. But Dillon wouldn’t break. He had nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed off, except perhaps for the way he treated Kate and for pushing her away, but he wasn’t about to tell her parents that. Eventually Mrs Baxter backed down and turned towards her husband to leave. The rest of the gathering watched them walk away before the group dispersed.

‘Had a good look did you?’ his dad said before slamming the door shut. ‘It’s a bloody nuisance this is, that girl doesn’t know the trouble she caused this family. I’ve never known anything like it. The locals are ready to have you hung, dried and quartered.’
‘Don’t I know it? How do you think that makes me feel, Dad?’
‘Sod you, what about the rest of this family? We’re having our name dragged through the mud as well you know. I had a customer back out of a deal this week. Was a great big renovation as well. I can’t afford to lose contracts like that, Dillon.’

Damn it, I didn’t know things were that bad. ‘I’m sorry dad. I don’t know what to say.’
‘You know Moira’s afraid to leave the house at the moment. All the looks and the stares she keeps getting when she’s down the market. She’s a woman of pride, you know.’
‘Mum wouldn’t have minded.’
‘Well your mum isn’t here is she, unfortunately. But I doubt she would have enjoyed any of this. It would have killed her to see the way people are treating you.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ I’m so sorry about all this, I really am. You didn’t deserve the family name to go down this way. ‘I’m going out on my bike.’
‘What at this time of the night. Have you got a death wish?’
‘Something like that.’

Dillon loved his bike. It was a Daytona 675 that he got second hand after months of saving. It was a year after his mum passed away. He was seventeen years old. His mum would have turned in her grave at the thought of her son on a motorbike, Dillon knew that, but the bike saved him and he wasn’t going to give it up for anyone. As the bike roared out of the drive Dillon felt all the stress leave his body. There was nothing could match the adrenaline-spiked thrill that came from speeding through the lanes, combined with the feel of the bike beneath him and knowing that there was very little protecting him should he fall off. That potential danger made him feel alive. No one could bother him; no one knew it was him. He was alone and content and that was the way he preferred.

When he got back home, he felt calmer. Working for his dad’s building renovations company meant that he didn’t get much chance to ride the bike during the day. The current project they were working on was only around the corner, so the bike had to stay in the garage in favour of walking. His other job at a nightclub in town was only ten minutes away. It didn’t give him the same thrill riding that short distance, as going out like that and letting rip did. Feeling pumped up, Dillon did some press-ups and sit-ups in his room, before he was ready to crash for the night.

HERE’S THE LINK FOR ADDING YOUR FICTION/REVIEW POSTS. I LOOK FORWARD TO READING THEM.

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