"Demons" for the Short Affair Challenge orig. due 2/25/19

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Challenge: The Short Affair

-Prompt Word 1 - Demon

-Prompt Word 2 – Print

-Prompt Colour – Blue

Author: mrua7

Title: "Demons"
Word Count: Approx. 700

Every UNCLE agent seemed to have their own personal demon to battle, sometimes on a daily basis. Not many knew of them, as these sometimes irrational fears or even obsessive addictions were kept well hidden. These people were spies after all and knew how to cloak such proclivities.

With Napoleon Solo it was his fear of open water as he was not a strong swimmer. His thalassophobia stemmed from an incident in his childhood where he almost drowned while weekending at the family cabin near a lake in the New York Catskills. His father rescued him yet the fear of water was permanently embedded in his psyche.

His way of fighting that phobia was to sail on his boat called the Pursang.* Somehow by doing so he felt free of that fear, unless he went overboard, that was another story.  

Napoleon kept his trepidation to himself; it wasn’t in print anywhere, no indication of it in his personnel file. Only Illya knew of it.

Kuryakin, the man perceived by all as a hard hearted Ice Prince, able to do his job without hesitation or at times even without mercy, had his own personal demon as well.

He had his cynophobia, that is the fear of dogs, pretty much any kind except perhaps tiny helpless puppies.

As an orphaned child on the war torn streets of Kiev he was chased by roaming packs of dogs often driven mad by hunger. He learned to stand his ground though, fashioning a spear with which he could defend himself and in the end dog meat made for good eating since he too was hungry.

Still the fear remained.

While during his indoctrination to become a Soviet agent, being set upon by attack dogs was part and parcel of the preparation to enter the world of espionage. Soviet agents were supposed to be fearless; Illya managed to keep up an appearance of courage, but after training with the dogs he would disappear and hide so that no one would see him shaking.

The fear never left him.

Solo was the only one he trusted with that fact. During some of their alcohol fueled discussions their guards would come down; they’d talk to each other until blue in the face about getting over their irrational fears.

It never worked…

There were other agents who had demons with which they had to contend, some drank too much, others were obsessed with performing certain rituals before a mission, or wearing a certain article of clothing while on an assignment...it was for luck, they’d say.

There were fears of heights, fear of flying, claustrophobia, just to name a few; plenty of demons to go around. Of course there were agents who didn’t suffer from any sort of fears other than perhaps dying, as far as anyone knew.

These agents all managed to keep their demons in check as they went forth into the world to do battle with the likes of THRUSH or whatever megalomaniac was trying to destroy civilization.

UNCLE was fully aware their agents weren’t machines, they were human beings who had their flaws and weaknesses but they were trained to overcome whatever confronted them, whether it was the enemy or the enemy within each of them.

Alexander Waverly sat alone in his conference room reading through dozens of personnel files in order to make a decision on which agents to possibly send to their deaths. That was the demon with which he had to contend. Such decisions were never easy, but he made them nonetheless.

All he could do was hope they would succeed in their missions and return home safe and sound.

He looked up and noticed the small horseshoe hung above his door was dangling sideways. One of the nails holding it in place must have given way. That wouldn’t do at all; he couldn’t chance any of the luck falling out of it.

Flicking a switch, he spoke into a microphone. “Miss Rogers, please send someone up from maintenance with a ladder, some nails and a hammer.”

“Yes sir, right away Mister Waverly. Is everything all right?”

“It will be once maintenance arrives, thank you.”


* The Pursang was the name given to Solo's yacht by St. Crispins

Comments

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this well thought and well written story, with its solid characters.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was fast. Then again it was a pretty short piece. Thank you as always for your kind review. :D

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

I'd take a fear of water or dogs over Waverly's demons any day. At least Napoleon and Illya can try and avoid theirs. The Old Man has to face his head on. Excellent work, Cuz!

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Thanks cuz! That is a very apt conclusion regarding Waverly's demon.

Amazingly this story just poured out of me this morning with no revisions. As soon as I finished it, I posted it. The muse is being very cooperative, thank goodness.