WeWriWa #3: 22 March 2015

8-Sentence Sunday is hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors.

Okay, so I skipped over my attempted bi-weekly writing posts, but oh well.

This excerpt is from a short story I’m currently working on that I never finished in time for a romance anthology deadline. Below is a blast from the past, where Sheerin puts her talent to good use and faces the repercussions of entering a criminal mind.

Previous excerpts can be found here and here.

The last time Sheerin had sketched a profile had been a disaster. Axel had called her in to help make sense of an abuse victim’s story. The client had evaded most of Axel’s questions and became stone-still silent when asked to describe what happened, but Sheerin had read her mind and gotten the pertinent details. She’d drawn an exact likeness of the man who’d done the deed, felt the thoughts and emotions he had gone through at the time of the attack, and hurried to Axel’s office bathroom. She’d puked several times and spent the next few days huddled under her blanket with a tub of strawberry ice cream and a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Axel hadn’t bothered her to sketch for him since, but he had told her–after she’d gotten out of his bathroom–that the bastard was as good as caught. Sheerin trusted Axel’s word on that note; he’d been furious on her account and on his client’s. And, Sheerin thought, he was probably a little angry at the state of his bathroom soon after her visit.

Story Notes: “Sketch” is a short story of a woman reluctantly working with a private detective in order to find a missing girl. While Sheerin has every opportunity to refuse the current assignment, there is vested interest in finding the girl, for the girl has Sheerin’s brand of skill: one that can pull the thoughts out of pictures.

Further Note: It might help to note that I have spent the last few months watching episode after episode of Criminal Minds…