Below is the full short story, The Chemist’s Robbery, which is a prequel to The Kingdom’s Destruction, the first entry to the Hypnotic Destiny series. Enjoy!
The Chemist’s Robbery
Jump to: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8
Part 1
“Daddy, you can be boring sometimes.”
Karl stared at his daughter while fighting back a chuckle. To Lea, even Elinor the knight battling a fifteen-foot-tall troll was mundane, leading him to wonder how a girl yet to see her tenth birthday could possess such a vivid imagination.
“I will not accept a boring label from someone who dreams of dragons every night.”
“I can’t believe you don’t dream of dragons. They are majestic beings—”
“Which don’t exist. You’re wasting time devoting your attention on a stupid concept.”
“But—”
“You are old enough to start figuring out what you plan to do when you finish school. I was seven when I decided to be a chemist.”
Lea scoffed and jumped off the counter in Karl’s store. “Because you’re weird and boring.”
Karl grabbed a rag and wiped down the spot his daughter had sat on. “Boring enough to own the most successful medicinal shop in the kingdom.”
“I’m tired of talking about you and your boring job. Since my birthday is coming up, do you know what mom is getting me?”
“Do you think I will tell your dad after he ruined the surprise last year?”
Karl glanced back at his wife, Cristina, who had entered the store. Despite her other beautiful features, he was drawn most to her braided ponytail, which she wore every day. Perhaps the style enthralled him because of the efficiency in her reasoning: the technique ensured her hair would not get in her way while working at the hospital.
“I told your dad I was getting you that card game you’ve wanted for months, only to find out he told you the same day.”
Karl chuckled. “Lea can be very persuasive.”
Part 2
“You are also a bad liar,” Cristina said. “Good thing our daughter inherited the same trait or else I would’ve never found out.”
Lea waved her hand. “I’m right here.”
“Not for long. Gather your stuff for school.” Cristina turned toward Karl. “The trials for your proonut worked. The hospital is going ahead with using it.”
“Did they use the exact amount I wrote in my notes?”
“They know better than not to alter any of your numbers. The pulse dropped down to five beats per minute.”
“Exactly as I’d predicted. Tell them I will start production tomorrow. An idea popped up in my head to increase the effectiveness of the pilosella effect to numb the pain while it coagulates the blood.”
Cristina kissed Karl. “I’ll see you after work.”
He watched his wife and child leave and the second the door closed behind them, he placed a bell on the counter and headed into the back room to his lab. Inside, he ran his thumb across the hundreds of glass vials on shelves searching for the components he needed for his experiment. After grabbing a bottle with the red pilosella leaf, one with crystal blue aloe gel, and one with clear ethyl alcohol, he sat at his desk.
With care, he mixed the ingredients into an empty vial, shook it, and placed it down on the table to let it rest.After two hours, he grabbed a small knife and sliced his arm, wincing at the stinging it caused. When blood drew from the wound, he poured a few drops onto the cut.
Part 3
At first, the suffering from the potion outweighed the damage inflicted from the blade. Then his assumption of using the aloe proved correct. The numbness of the ingredient masked the agony from the pilosella. The pain dissipated within five seconds, and the elixir still succeeded in coagulating the blood, closing up the wound—
Glass bottles crashed against the store floor, and Karl dropped the concoction he had created. The potion shattered on the stone, spilling the progress accrued.
Those kids again!
Karl wrote in the notebook on his table to remind him about the lack of pilosella in his inventory, grabbed another bottle of aloe gel, and stormed out of his lab.
What the hell?
Two adults were shoving vials into bags in the far corner of the store. They had concealed their faces under burlap sacks with holes in their eyes.
They’re robbing me!
“Hey!”
Both men turned toward Karl. One dropped his bag and charged at the shop owner, who reached into his pocket for his knife but realized he left it on the table in his lab.
One of the robbers grabbed Karl by his shirt and yanked him over the counter. With only the aloe in his hand, he smashed the bottle against his attacker’s face.
The glass shattered on impact, creating multiple cuts on his lips, but more importantly, the contents spilled inside his mouth.
“What is this—”
The man’s body seized up, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He then dropped straight down, convulsing violently.
Karl scanned the immediate area for something to use on the other robber, but when he failed to find anything useful, he bolted for the exit.
I should catch a knight outside—
Part 4
The other burglar tackled Karl to the floor ten feet away from the door. Smaller and weaker, the shop owner struggled to slip away from under his attacker. A fist raised into the air and crashed down into Karl’s face.
Blood dripped into his mouth from the punch reminding him of the experiment he conducted with the red pilosella. While biting on his lip where it was busted, Karl pressed his thumb on the cut he closed with the chemical.
He then jammed his finger into his attacker’s eye.
The man screamed and fell back while clutching at his face. The aloe mixed with the pilosella meant the reaction would not last long, so Karl jumped up and rushed toward the exit—
A third man, masked and armed, stood in the way.
“Where do you think you’re going?” He pointed a knife at Karl. “We need to get to know you to help us collect what we want.”
The man who was blinded by the pilosella as well as the one who had seized after ingesting the aloe recovered and grabbed Karl from behind. A click of the lock on the front door trapped him with the burglars, who dragged him into his lab. They shoved him down onto the chair and tied his hands up behind him.
Karl’s thoughts attempted to process why they bound him in the first place. If they wanted to only rob the store’s inventory, they could have murdered him or knocked him out. They desired more. What would he possess—
“You want the contents in my safe,” Karl said.
“A smart one here,” the man with the knife said. “Where is it?”
“I’m not telling you. If I do, you’ll kill me.”
Part 5
“I don’t want to. I’ve never killed anyone. I’m trying to secure some money to help my ailing mother. My name is Arthur, what’s yours?”
Karl studied the man’s body language while he spoke. Someone who had never murdered before would fidget while handling a weapon if a chance existed they would use it. Arthur remained calm, while the other two darted their eyes around every few seconds.
“You lie about killing someone before. I believe that you don’t want to, but will if you need to. And my name is Karl.”
Arthur pulled off his burlap mask, and Karl noted the triangle tattoo under the man’s left eye. People serving time for committing one of the unspeakable crimes were marked for all to see in hopes to deter other people from breaking such laws.
“By now, I’m sure I’ve confirmed your suspicion of me killing before. I’m guessing I will need to change my tactic here.”
Arthur touched the point of his knife to Karl’s shoulder and then pushed just enough to bury the blade an inch into the flesh. Karl clenched his jaw to prevent himself from screaming out.
“Now that you’ve seen my face, I must kill you. It depends on you whether I do it fast or…” The knife slid deeper. “Slow.”
Karl weighed his options. If he decided to be stubborn, he would be tortured. The pain did not scare him.
Time did.
Judging by the light pouring in through the window, Cristina would return with Lea in about four hours. Surely, Arthur would kill the two for stumbling into an active crime scene. I can’t have that.
Part 6
While the concept of losing all his money was distressing, it would not hinder the lives of his wife and daughter. Cristina does well enough as a charge nurse in the hospital, and Lea was smart enough to accomplish anything in life.
Karl understood what he needed to do.
“The passcode on the lock to my safe is dragon.”
Arthur smiled. “I knew we could come to an agreement of some kind.” He tilted his head to the side. “Dragons?”
“Stupid concept.” Karl paused for a few moments. “But they mean a lot to me.”
“I’m sorry. I think we would have gotten along—”
The door leading from the store floor burst open.
Elinor, the knight, barged into the room with her sword in her hand.
“Get her!”
The other two men in Arthur’s employ charged. Karl’s mouth gaped when his friend sheathed her weapon behind her back. The best swordster he had ever seen, and she unarmed herself.
She has too much valor for my liking.
Elinor raised her hands up in a fighting stance. One man swung, but the knight ducked and countered with an uppercut landing squarely on his chin. His head jerked, his eyes rolled back, and he dropped to the floor unconscious.
She would still do better with her weapon.
The second man kicked at Elinor, who caught the leg at his thigh and jammed her foot against the back of his knee. With the added pressure of her forearm on his chest, he flew back and slammed his head on the wall, which knocked him out.
Arthur rushed at her with his knife, and for a moment, Karl thought the man would catch her by surprise. Instead, she rolled to her right and popped up with her blade in her hand.
Part 7
“Hey now, you don’t need to be hasty,” Arthur said. “I’m sure we can come to an understanding.”
“Unless it involves you going to prison for the crimes you’ve committed, Arthur Stonegazer, I don’t want to hear anything from you.”
“You recognize who I am, darling. Good detective work.”
“I’ve been tracking you for a whole year now. Eighteen robberies, twenty-six murders, and now you’re caught.”
Karl noted the quickening of Arthur’s breathing rate. He hates that he got apprehended.
“I must understand,” Arthur said. “I take extreme care to plan my… appointments. How did you find me?”
“Karl.”
The name struck the shop owner by surprise. “How did I help you apprehend him if I’ve been here this whole time?”
“You are a creature of habit,” Elinor said. “Everyday at noon, you close your store to have lunch with your wife at the hospital. You didn’t show up, so she asked me to investigate. I realized something was wrong when I saw broken glass on the floor through the window. You wouldn’t have left it alone.”
Arthur glared at Karl. “I got caught because of dumb luck?”
The burglar stabbed toward Karl, but Elinor was faster, and she swung her blade to deflect the attack. Arthur turned toward Elinor and unleashed a barrage of swipes. She parried each one, giving a sense she was trying not to kill the attacker.
After the fifth block, she went on the offensive. A kick pushed him back. A slash knocked the knife out of his hand. When Arthur lunged forward, Karl assumed Elinor had no choice, and she drove her sword into the burglar’s chest.
Karl survived the attempted robbery of his store. I hope I didn’t waste the last of the blue aloe gel on the robber.
Part 8
Two other soldiers entered the shop to carry the unconscious robbers out as well as Arthur’s body while Elinor tended to Karl. She cut the binding off his wrists and allowed him to stand, which helped the blood recirculate in his legs.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yes, why?”
“You almost died back there.”
“I’m fine.” Karl’s gaze gravitated toward the crimson pool Arthur left behind on the floor. “Great, look at the mess.”
“I can bring in someone to clean this up since I caused it?”
“No. Anyone else would likely do a crappy job, so it’s better I do it myself.”
Elinor chuckled. “Of course. It’s your store. Are you excited for your birthday coming up in two days?”
“No more so than I am in any other day. I just hope nothing else bad happens either today or tomorrow.”
THE END
The Kingdom’s Destruction
If you’ve enjoyed The Chemist’s Robbery, read the story it precludes, The Kingdom’s Destruction.
How much would you endure to reach those you love?
The Bear’s Rescue
The Bear’s Rescue is another short story similar to The Chemist’s Robbery. Both serve as a prequel to The Kingdom’s Destruction.
This story stars a knight who gets injured and faces a monstrous threat to his life.
How will the injured knight survive the encounter far away from his fellow soldiers?
This story is available as a thank you gift for those who sign up for my newsletter.
