Black Disc
MOTE Week 6, 2026
This week on MOTE, I was prompted by Fiona Grey: His head rang with the impact.
—
He was just a normal man having a normal day. He had been to work, and then out to a meal with his girlfriend before heading home to his flat.
It was a trip that he had made many times before. He been taking his girlfriend out for a meal after work several times a week for a couple of months.
Tonight, he walked through the dark alleyways of the town, along a route he knew well, and everything looked exactly as it always did. Or it did until he turned one of the last corners.
There was a dark shape against the wall to his left. He ignored it. It wasn’t common for vagrants to venture into this part of town, but occasionally they did, and they generally minded their own business when they did.
The shape moved, coalescing into the figure of a man. He still didn’t care. Vagrants didn’t bother residents – they knew that the Constables couldn’t be bothered should vagrants be injured.
Suddenly, the man moved, and moved quickly. Before he could react a pipe appeared in the vagrant’s hand and was swung at his head.
He wasn’t expecting anything, his reactions were too slow. The pipe connected with his head. He fell, his head ringing with the impact.
But he didn’t stay down. That would not be sensible, it would be only inviting further trouble. He rolled, and came back up, removing his two daggers from their hidden sheaths as he did so.
His head was still ringing. He expected he’d have a concussion, but for now that didn’t matter. If there was one thing that he’d learnt in his former life before he left the family business, it was that it was better to put the enemy down than let them put you down.
The vagrant approached, swinging the pipe across his face, before coming back for a backhand swing.
He didn’t let it connect. He put up his right arm to block the blow, stepping forwards and stabbing with his left hand.
The vagrant didn’t look like he expected this; he staggered backwards, dropping the bar.
He didn’t let up. He stepped forwards, and struck quickly with both daggers. To make sure, he struck once more to the chest with both blades.
The vagrant fell to the ground, and didn’t move.
He wiped his daggers against the vagrant’s clothing – he would clean them properly once he got home. Then he sheathed his blades before searching the vagrant.
He wasn’t expecting to find anything. Vagrants tended to have no identification, no paperwork of any kind upon them. Yet he came up with something.
He recognised it. How could he not? He used to issue them before he left the family business. It was a black disc. It had his name on it – the target. It had his cousin’s name on it – the issuer.
He took the disc, and made the rest of the journey back to his flat. There he took out his phone and tapped in a number he’d not used for years from memory.
His cousin answered the phone within two rings. “I thought you didn’t want anything to do with us.”
“What are you doing, putting out a contract on my life? You promised me that I could leave and live my life without fear.”
“What did you think we’d do? Did you think you could marry into a rival family and have no consequences?”
He was getting angry. “Did you even bother to do your homework! Lethlin isn’t a part of her family’s business. She was ostracised for not wanting to join up.”
“That’s what she told you. You believed her?”
“Of course not. I checked with my contacts. They confirmed it.”
“I don’t care. You dump her, or I’ll put out another disc.”
He hung up. It was the last straw. If his family weren’t going to relent, they would have to pay. He would make them regret the day they tried to get between him and his true love.
—
My offering this week went to nother Mike.
I invite you all to head over to MOTE, and read what everyone comes up with. I’m looking forwards to reading them all.