The work-in-progress meme.

Turn to page 123 in your work-in-progress. (If you haven’t gotten to page 123 yet, then turn to page 23. If you haven’t gotten there yet, then get busy and write page 23.) Count down four sentences and then instead of just the fifth sentence, give us the whole paragraph.

From Poison Sleep, closest thing to a work-in-progress I have right now. Turned out to be kind of a long paragraph:

"Yep," Marla said. "It was 'the fell port,' meaning 'fell' as in 'dire, sinister, evil,' you know? A little settlement was lost, you're right, just a trading post, but whatever nasty thing killed all those people disappeared or went underground or something when more people settled here." They made it all the way downstairs, to the dance floor, and Marla took Ted down a short corridor, past the bathrooms, to what looked like a locked utility closet. She began sorting through her keys. It was a magically variable lock, and the correct key changed every day. "But it kept its reputation as a place where weird forces converged, and there were stories of witches' sabbats, weird rituals, places where no grass would grow. Things like that." She found the right key and opened the door, revealing a space that looked like a broom closet until she pressed the doorjamb in the right places to make the illusion of disinfectant and mops disappear. Ted gasped, and Marla grinned. "This club was built on top of one of those places where no grass would grow, a dead zone. Specifically, the room right in front of us is over that spot." The room itself was nondescript, decorated with just a conference table, a few chairs, and a bright light bulb hanging from the ceiling. "It's funny, because people think places like that are dangerous, but it's actually the place where you're safest from magic. You can't cast spells there -- it's like trying to light a wet match, it just doesn't work. It's also impossible to magically eavesdrop in here, or use clairvoyance to see inside, or find someone hidden here using magical divination. It's pretty sweet. We do dangerous business here, have sit downs, things like that."