Happy Birthday Kristan =)

Today is your birthday
A day to celebrate you
Remember who you are and where you're going
Breathe deep and feel alive.
Believe in your heart
Have confidence in your mind
And smile.
They say live, laugh, love
Do more and be true
Be you.
-sg-

-Untitled-

I grabbed my robe from the hanger on the back of bedroom door. Glancing at the clock I noted the time. 2:47am. Who would be ringing my doorbell now? I turned on some lights as I went and hushed Shinobi and Björk. Images ran through my head of the time the police woke up me like this, to tell me that Henry had been in an accident. I had hoped never to answer a door to something like that ever again. I peeked through the peep hole and saw Sinead and Sammy, my newborn grandson, standing on the porch. I unlocked the door hurriedly and tore open the screen door as fast as I could.
She stood there, like a skeleton. Blood dripped from her nose and a cut, blossoming with a bruise adorned her right eyebrow. She fell forward onto me and sobbed uncontrollably. I took Sammy from her arms and ushered her inside. She found her way to the den while I calmed Sammy back to sleep and placed him in a crib upstairs. I rushed back down to Sinead and looked worriedly at her face.
“Sinead, what happened? Are you alright? Where are the girls? Are they ok? Where’s Matthew?” I handed her a facecloth I’d grabbed from the linen closet upstairs and dug in the hope chest for a first aid kit. She looked as though she’d run head first into a wall. I dabbed some antiseptic onto her wounds and she shivered at my touch. I had some idea of what had happened. I knew this cringe; I knew the tell-tale signs of abuse. It stirred memories I had tried to conceal for years. I hoped that I was wrong.
“I’m…I’m so sorry Mum. I know it’s terribly late and all, but we had nowhere to go,” her words were barely audible over her sobs.
“It’s perfectly alright darling. You know you’re always welcome here, no matter what time it is. You need to tell me what happened though.”
She looked at me and I could see the hurt and the night’s events play over her face. She told me the girls had gone to a friend’s house and that Matt had gone out with some friends. The house was a mess from the baby and Sinead hadn’t had time to clean up before Matt got home. He had become increasingly quick to violence and she didn’t understand why. She kept the house in order and things were done right so as to avoid any rage from Matt’s part. Tonight, she wasn’t so lucky.
“Matt did…did…this,” she pointed to her battered face and started to sob again. I put a comforting arm around her shoulders and knew no words would wash away tonight’s horrors. She laid her head in my lap and I rocked her back and forth, soothing her as I used to when she was a child. I had to admit I was awe struck and didn’t know what to make of the whole thing. Matt had never been a violent man and had never shown signs of it; then again, neither had Henry. This was the main reason I’d abolished drinking of any form from my household.
“You once told me to watch out for his temper, jokingly. But I never listened and tonight…” she broke off into a heave of tears again and I could only make out a few words. I walked to the kitchen to compose myself. A mother’s instinct would be to hunt down the bastard and kill him, but I knew better. I made tea and brought Sinead a cup and a blanket for her to cuddle under. I knew there was no comforting a beaten woman; knowing what it was like would help.
“Try and tell me what he did, Sinead. I need to know. It’ll help us if we need to get in touch with the police.” I said this last part hesitantly not wanting to send her into shock. I knew that she would be upset if she found out Matt could get arrested for this and that I would try my personal best to get that piece of shit locked away.
“He came home and was so angry about the house being a mess. He took Sammy from me and put him in his crib and the...then…he hit me. He told me I was a bad mother and wife and that I was worthless…and…and…” Her sobs took over again and I laid her back on my lap not wanting to force her more than I should. The fact that the children were ok was a small relief for me; this was not the end of this war. It was only the first battle, the first of many.
***
I walked the tea cups back to the kitchen and placed them in the sink. The clock on the stove flashed 4:33 am. I pulled my robe closer around my body, trying to absorb some heat from the lifeless feeling the conversation with Sinead had left me with. I knew how she felt. I sat at the counter and put my head in my hands. Thoughts of my first years with Henry flooded my mind.
***
I grabbed my suitcase and tore open my dresser drawer.
“I’m leaving you Henry and I don’t care about you any more.” I stuffed blouses into my case, tears streaming down my face.
“You can’t do this Peggie. You know I love you and I’ll change for you.” He dropped to his knees at this statement. Cupping his head in his hands he cried. His fists met the floor and shook the cups in the cabinet.
“You always say that Henry O’Donelly! You always claim you’ll stop drinking, and come home drunk. Hiding whiskey bottles in the god damn sink cabinet. You claim you won’t hit me again. I still pull out cover up to hide the scars and the bruises. I’m sick of your lies and I’m sick of the tears. I’m through with you and this god forsaken hole you’ve made us live in.” I slammed the top of my suitcase shut.
“Peg…I’ve done the best I can for you! I know that I’m not a millionaire or a suave businessman; you know that’s not me. I thought you loved me for who I was. I don’t know what else to fuckin’ do for you.” He walked over and tore my suitcase out of my hands. I fell to the floor, picking up the camisoles and stockings that fell out and sobbed into the mass of fabric in my hands.
Henry knocked the suitcase over to the other side of the room and knelt down in front of me. I quickly skittered away and cowered in a corner of the bed; not our bed…it wasn’t ours any more. Henry stood and shook his head. He moved to the doorway of the bedroom. His white beater was soaked with sweat and his face stained with tears. I couldn’t let him get to me now; I had to leave, for the both of us.
He walked over to me and knelt at the side of the bed.
“Margaret, please…” he wept. “Please, I love you too much. You give me a purpose in this meanin’less world. I’d die for you and I want nothin’ more than to make you happy. I promise,” he over emphasized ‘promise’ and started to cry again. “I will do right by you from now on. I’ll go to church; I’ll get cleaned up and look like a respectable husband. No more whiskey. I’ll get rid of all the drinkin’. Please Maggie, don’t leave me like this. I’m nothin’ with out you.”
I sighed heavily, looking from the small golden ring on my left hand to the broken man on the floor in front of me. I put my legs over the side of the bed. I looked around the room, and sighed again. The suitcase was a wreck next to the dresser, which itself was torn apart. The sheets of the bed were askew from my frightened leap onto it. It was a mess. All of this was; this room; our life; the world.
The lights in the room flickered as the midnight train hammered by. Henry crawled closer to my legs and laid his head on my lap. I could feel the dampness of his face seeping through my skirt. Grabbing my hand, he kissed it and sobbed lowly, something that sounded like “I love you” escaped his lips.
Should I stay? I thought through everything in my head. What if this was like the last time? Would this continue to happen over and over? Could I endure that evil…it could kill me.
I placed a hand on Henry’s head and bent over to kiss it. “If you fail me again Henry O’Donelly, I’ll leave you for good. No negotiating. I’ll be gone and you’ll be alone. Understand?”
“Perfectly,” he said. “I swear to you, I’ll change for the both of us. I swear on my mother’s grave.”
“…three of us,” I corrected. “The three of us.”
“Wait, Peg…you don’t mean?” He looked at my face and then at my midriff. He put a hand on it and then placed his head back on my lap. The tension in the room swirled around like the thick August air. “I’m gonna be a daddy? Can you believe it…?” He smiled, like I hadn’t seen him smile in months.
“The doctor told me yesterday. That’s why I was leaving you. I don’t want my...” I paused. “Our, baby to be brought into a violent world. I won’t have violence littering its life. I can’t.” I wiped a tear away and put my other hand over Henry’s.
“Promise me, one more time. Sincerely, you bet your life on it Henry. Change, for our family, for our baby. I need to hear it one more time.”
He looked me in the eyes and tightened his grip on my hand. “I promise you Margaret Mary O’Donelly.” He leaned up and sealed his promise with a kiss.

Rant

Photo by Kenneth Parker
www.kennethparker.com


Ok; so now that I'm done posting story after story; I'll wait and write a real post about things.

Life sucks. It's busy and tiring and I feel like small weights are crushing me and obstructing me from the real thing.

I have two essays due Thursday, one due tomorrow, a portfolio due next week, and two articles. One due by tomorrow and the other by Sunday.

Please. Shoot. Me.

I guess; of course; life could be worse, but whatever.

I'm lonely. I want to cuddle. I want a lot and I ask for nothing. It's messed up.

I guess that's the life of a graduating senior in college though. Scary.

Fantasy Prompt 5

Instructions: Create a 2 page short short/sketch/section of a story that is based on a classic myth or fairytale.

I was sitting in the library looking through numerous books. It had to be here somewhere; it couldn’t be something that was just a dream. There needed to be something more on the whole thing. I was determined to find anything; a hint, a story, some kind of newspaper article. There had to be something. I closed the large book of stories about Native American legends and then the one next to it about Romanian folktales. I then pulled over the small viewing machine that I borrowed from the library to view newspaper slides. I went through hundreds that night; one right after the other. I was woken up about two hours later, the librarian nudging me to wake up and leave. She told me she’d hold all my books and newspaper articles for me if I wanted to come back in the morning. I told her thanks and grabbed my coat.
I knew that I would find nothing until I really started to delve into things that weren’t in the library. I would have to find something, or someone to talk to. I pulled up my collar as I walked and let the cold air swirl into my lungs. The streets of Boston were never safe at night; but I guess walking down two blocks wasn’t so bad. The street lights were in full bloom and it was comforting to know that cops were patrolling most of the time. I just needed to get home and start pouring over some more resources, basically the internet. That would probably be where I would find the most interesting and even the most believable stories. A lot of people think that stories you see on the internet are all fake; but there can be some truth behind the stupid stories that some people post on there.
I went to bed that night wanting to thinking nothing of the woman screaming the alley way. She was so sad, even if she was a hooker. I guess that her red skirt and tube top had given her away. Or maybe it was the growling hairy figure that haunted my waking thoughts that had really given me the encouragement to find out what it was. I had some clues and they might help. I looked at my list before I slept so it ran through my dreams as well.
1. The color red seems to have some kind of symbolism
2. The creature growled, like a wolf
3. Happened on a Wednesday night
4. Multiple missing persons have been reported in the last month
The list went on and on and it was the only thing that reeled through my head all night. I was sure that I had heard of something like this before. I woke up the next morning to knocking on my door.
“Jimmy? Ah you awake? Come on its Gina! Open the fecking door; you said yous was gonna watch Julia fa me taday,” she pounded on the door again and I could hear Julia in the back ground.
“Ma, whens Uncle Jimmy gonna open the door? I gotta pee and my feets ah hurtin’ me,” I could hear her little hand smack the door as she started to create a ruckus too. “Uncle Jimmy! Open da door!!! I gotta pee and I wanna watch Dora!!”
I slipped on my jeans from the night before; forgetting a shirt and unlocked the door. Gina was a good friend of mine, who got knocked up by some asshole. I took care of Julia for her all the time. She was a good kid and I really liked Gina enough to know that she appreciated it more than she said.
“Hey Gina, how ya doin’?” I leaned over and kissed her cheek. She smiled up at me and I bent down to grab Julia. “Hey there baby girl. You ready fa a great day. I gotta great plan fa taday. We’re gonna hit up the library. Uncle Jim’s got some readin’ ta do.”
“Aww, but Uncle Jimmy, I was gonna watch Dora! And den I was gonna ask yous to read a story to me! I brought ova Little Red Ridding Hood! It’s supposed ta be wicked good,” she grabbed the book out of her book bag and held it up to me. I took the book from her and it dawned on me. I sat down and I looked up at Gina. She shook her head and kissed Julia good bye.
“Don’t you drag her too much inta ya little fairy tale world Jimmy. You know she got a big imagination and she’s just like you and gets really inta things. Dora’s easier…especially compared to da things you like to play around with,” she walked out the door and shut it behind her.
I took out the book again and noticed the Big Bad Wolf on the front and the frightened little girl in the red hood. It wasn’t like I’d never dealt with anything like this before. I mean I was a well read man; a scholar of the supernatural. It was something that I really prided myself on too. I felt Julia tugging on my pant’s leg.
“Uncle Jimmy?”
“Yeah baby girl?”
“I saw dis man walkin’ down the street dis mornin’. He was big and furry and looked like he needed a good hair cut. He even hada tail! But my ma didn’t believe me. I swea, he looked jus like a freakin’ wolf!”
“Watch ya mouth Julia, or there’ll be soap in it da next time you wanna mouth off.”
“Yes Uncle Jimmy…you do believe me though dontcha?”
“Of course baby girl; of course.”
After all one couldn’t hunt the paranormal and supernatural without knowing a bit of the territory first could they?

Fantasy Prompt 4

Instructions: Write a 2 page sketch/outline/short short/ story section that gives the plan for a magic system in a fantasy world. What are the costs? Who can use magic? How is magic thought of/used? You may come up with a political system or a race instead of a magic system.

I walked downtown, and took a left onto Right St. How ironic, I thought to myself. I guess that was all just a big joke, as most things were around here. I pulled up my collar and walked up to the Korean Barbeque and knocked on the back door. A slot slid back, revealing a pair of red eyes.
“Code word?” the voice was deep and raspy, like a chain smoker.
“Bezoar,” I flipped open my Zippo and tapped my pack of Blacks on my wrist. I pulled out one of the cloves out with my lips and lit it. Taking a long drag off of it I looked at my watch. 11:54pm…I only had about 3 hours. I took another long drag off of my clove and tapped my foot impatiently. I really didn’t have time for this. I blew out the exhaust from my lungs and heard the opening of the locks, the sliding of the latch and the turning of the handle.
A large man in a long robe stood in the doorway and blocked my path. He held out his hand and I extended my arm. He pulled the sleeve of my trench coat and nodded seeing the token of acceptance. A searing brand throbbed on my forearm. It burned and was bothersome. He moved out of my way.
“Ms. Halor, anything I can plan for you while you’re shopping?” he bowed his head as I stepped over the threshold. I handed him my coat and shook out my shoulders.
“I guess that you could order a massage with Thisbe and make sure that there’s a cab waiting for me in about an hour. I’ll be done soon.” I put out the clove in the ashtray near the door and walked down the dark hallway. I looked at my watch again and picked up the pace. I needed my fix and time was really running out.
I finally reached the entrance to the Market. The sound of the entire place hit me at once and put on my sunglasses. The shinning lights from the enchanted ceiling would blind a normal human. There were booths, restaurants, and open aired venders selling their wares. I knew where I was going, and let my feet do their thing, leading me there. My first stop was to see Trek. Trek was my connection to my fix. It was the only way to find it. The Market was only known to people whose families have a background of Magique.
I found Trek’s place easily, I’d been here many times before. I turned my neck to the side and cracked it. I pushed back the curtain and entered the opium den and took off my glasses and looked around at who was partaking today. Malaysia was there, and so was Benito. They were sitting in the back corner smoking out of a hookah, and looked up only briefly looked up and then went back to their conversation. I walked up to Trek and threw down a wad of money and a small black bag.
“Trek…I need a hit. A big one, I’ve got things to do and not a lot of time. Hook me up?” I tapped my foot impatiently, my arm itching the whole time.
“Oh, Anissa, hey…I was expecting you,” he looked at the stack of twenties and the bag of gems, “man you really do need a fix huh? Come on let’s go.”
He took my hand and led me into the back. It was clean, despite the outer appearance. It was almost like a tattoo parlor, sterile looking and something you wouldn’t expect to find in a hole like this. I followed Trek into the back and was in the chair waiting before he even got the tourniquet out.
“You really should watch yourself. You’re going to get really addicted and it’s just going to start eating away. You know the stories, the price, everything…yet you still come to get your kicks.” He measured out the correct amount of Magique and tapped the side of the syringe. I braced myself for the initial pain of the needle and then sighed as the viscous fluid flowed from the glass container, into my veins.
My body reacted the way that it always did and I shook a little and gripped the chair tightly. The energy flowed through my veins with the Magique. I felt the rush and opened my eyes. Everything was always so much clearer when you had a hit. This one was good, it would last me at least a good 3 weeks. I’d need it to deal with Christopher.
So many people, like Christopher, didn’t understand Magique. There was a deep seeded need for the world to have Magique. It was something people were born with, even though it had died out. It had to be in your family’s history to actually be used. Magique was not something for learning any more. The Elders had established a way to harness the Magique and made it into a substance that could be manipulated. Stupid teenagers made it the new fad. If you had a Magique bloodline, then you would find a way to get it. Magique was traditionally ingested; but with the world moving as it did, people needed a faster hit. That’s when injecting it started, and that’s when I started getting Magique injected. The times changed and the fads kept coming; first it was injecting, and then huffing it, followed by taking pills, smoking it, and finally tabs.
It was like the drug syndicate that only the privileged knew about, it was something that was kept from normal society, especially after the Hunt. The Hunt was to track down the witches and wizards and kill them for being different. True, some were evil and used Magique for their own selfish purposes. It was a plague on the Earth that needed to be stopped and that’s what some of us were trying to do. That’s why Magique cost so much. That’s why you needed to go underground for it. That’s why I was so intent on harnessing it for a greater purpose. Like getting rid of scum, scum like Christopher.

NOTE: This was continued on and made into a longer story. I will post this later to display what kind of short story it developed into.

Fantasy Prompt 3

Instructions: Write a 2 page sketch/short/section of a story in which a central character or idea is a mythical creature. Try to pick something new and different.

Kimiko Narastka was heading home from work on Friday night. Her apartment was only 20 minutes away from the club on foot and about 10 minutes by taxi on rainy days. It was on the outskirts of the Roppongi district of Tokyo. She had to bring sneakers with her, since the heels she wore for work, were not ideal to walk in, but tonight it has been ‘school girl’ night and so she wore an old school uniform to work, and decided her sneakers would suffice for the outfit. Kimiko worked at the “Happy Grabby Club” in the night life district. “Happy Grabby” (or HG for this story) was a night club and a strip club. It didn’t make her happy where she worked; but it was better than some of the women’s jobs.
She was lucky and was a bartender and waitress. She was the one who walked around in a skimpy outfit and brought business men their drinks. She was harassed constantly, and treated like an object. She wasn’t one of the dancers though; one of the Untouchables. Untouchables were the women who got treated like goddesses. They were highly paid and were expensive just to look at. They wore almost nothing and danced on stage. It was a disgrace, but they liked the pay; it was very good. Kimiko had never wished to be one of the Untouchables; it was sometimes a risky job. Men would become obsessed with them, follow them home, and sometimes rape them if they got the chance.
Life had been good for Kimiko in the last few months. She’d gone to school to become a chemist or a doctor, and this was the result of plummeting economy. She did get paid well too, for what she did, but she had to lie to her family back in Takayama. It was something she hated doing and something that she hoped to get out of as soon as possible. She would go home after working all afternoon and all night and fill out more applications and would then sleep until the start of the next day of work at 3pm. It was a hectic life, and it was tiring, but it was work, and she’d rather be tired than homeless.
She thought about what hospital she would apply to tonight, when she rounded the corner and bumped into a large group of Americans who smelled of sake and cigarette smoke. She kept walking, knowing how to handle most people in this district and instinctively placed her hand in her bag and grasped the canister of mace. This was a gift given to most of the HG workers when they started there. She bowed her head a little in politeness and kept walking through them. She only stopped when one of the drunkards grabbed her short skirt and tugged on it, saying something she wasn’t sure of. They spoke English and she’d only learned so much that she didn’t care to remember. She pulled her skirt out of the man’s hands and when they all stopped she pulled out her canister of mace and held it up. “Please, leave me alone. I just want to go home; I’ll yell and get a police officer over here!” She backed away slowly from them and hoped they spoke or understood Japanese.
Most of the men stopped and walked on their way, but the one who had grabbed her skirt stood there. He was tall and large and very drunk. Kimiko kept the can of mace in front of her and kept backing up. All of a sudden a woman Kimiko knew from the club walked around the corner. She was one of the most beautiful Untouchables. She was tall, for a Japanese woman, and she wore her long black hair like the geisha used to in the old days and kept it tucked away. She had a sun dress on and flat shoes, so as not to add to her height. The most spectacular thing about her was her grey eyes. She almost looked as though she’d stolen them from someone.
“Good evening Narastka,” she bowed her head and looked at the American, “is this man a friend of yours?” Her name was Haruka Oneska, and she was perfect. She walked to Kimiko’s side and stood there, like they were old friends. She patted her shoulder and told the man in English something. She then looked down at Kimiko and told her she could head home and that she’d make sure that the man would find his way as well. I nodded and put my mace away, “Are you sure you’ll be alright Oneska-sama? Do you wish me to stay?” Kimiko did not want to leave her here by herself with this pig of a man. She smiled again and winked and shooed Kimiko off.

立兀泥

Haruka led the drunken American man into a dark alley. She flirted with him and he tried to make his move on her. She put her hand up to stop him and asked him why he would frighten a young girl like that. He chuckled to himself and slumped against the wall. She nodded her head and grabbed the man by his shirt. “Listen to me you filthy son-of-a-bitch. I’m going to teach you and your bastard friends what happens to you if you mess with women here.”
At this she took her hair out of its tucked spot and let it fall down over her shoulders. It shone in the street lights, like obsidian whips, at the tips, hung delicate metal barbs, rusty with dried blood. Her eyes flared up, red and sinister and her face went pale. The man looked in fear at the creature that stood before him. Her fanged mouth was agape in laughter as the man started to scream. She shut him up by wrapping her long, tendril like hair around his throat, instantly muffling his screams. She pulled him up, his feet hanging 3 feet off the ground and stared at him. “Think I’m still funny now? I’m going to enjoy ripping you to pieces.” She said this as she stuck her first barbed curl into his gut, laughing at the macabre waterfall of blood.

立兀泥

The newspapers were livid the next morning, a surprising story awaited everyone.

A mysterious death has been reported this morning. An American’s body has been found in the Roppongi district. A trash man found the American, or what Police assume was the American man that had gone missing last night. He was found in pieces near the night life district. There are still no leads as to who might have done this.

Haruka put the morning’s paper down and picked up her tea cup and sipped it slowly as she chuckled to herself.

Note: The Harionago is the creature that I used here. Like I said, she's a creature who has barbed hair and finds men and laughs at them. If they laugh back at her, she rips them apart with her deadly dreds of doom.

Fantasy Prompt 2

Instructions: Write a 2 page sketch/ short short/section of a story that is set in our world, but has one (and only one) fantastic element.

I gathered all of my stuff into a box and sighed heavily as I left my small cubical. People waved shyly to me as I stalked towards the elevator and my exit. OUT OF ORDER graced the doors and I kicked them angrily. I moved to the left and awkwardly opened the doors to the stairs. Fifteen flights, a stubbed toe and broken picture frame later I reached the lobby to find the elevator repair men getting off of the fixed elevator. I hurriedly walked out the front doors, ignoring the cute secretary saying good bye to me. As I left the building, I turned around to flip it off and spit on the front step. I shuffled off to the back lot to get my car and head home, only to see it getting smashed from behind by none other than Mr. Packard, my old boss, not knowing how to drive his over priced, over loud and ridiculously huge Escalade. I ran over to his window and pounded on it, with my free hand.
“Yes William? Can I help you? I’ve already sent your insurance company your termination papers,” he said rolling his tinted window down.
“For the last time, my name is CEDRIC! Could you not see my car? You just hit it and destroyed my bumper! What are you going to do about it?”
He tapped his ringed finger impatiently on the steering wheel of his gas-guzzler and handed me a $20.00 bill. “Here you go William,” he put the money in my hand and drove away.
“IT’S CEDRIC YOU ASS HOLE!!!!” I screamed as he peeled out of the lot.
I knew it was in vain and so I just kicked my bumper and threw my things in the backseat and pulled out of the parking lot. My bumper scraped the entire way home and I got a ticket for causing a disruption too. Today was the day that one would usually want to just drive their car off a bridge. I knew that when I got home though, my girlfriend would be waiting for me. She would probably complain about me losing my job, the apartment would be a sty and she’d probably be drunk. I sure knew how to pick them.
I parked my car in the small lot next to the apartment building and locked it and took my box of crap up stairs. I found the door locked and so I dug my keys out of my pocket and opened the door. I could hear something coming from the bedroom and my heart sank…she wouldn’t, would she? I confirmed my fears when I opened the bedroom door and there on top of my girlfriend was none other than my boss. I walked out of the room, not even bothering to stop them and I gathered the few things that I really wanted and left. I drove anywhere, and I stopped at a hotel for the night to sleep and collect my thoughts. There weren’t many and I was tired so I fell asleep quickly.
I woke up to the sound of the phone and scrambled for my glasses. I put them on and looked at the clock. It was 4:45am and the warm room had me groggy still. I picked up the receiver and rubbed my eyes under my glasses.
“Hello?” I spoke softly and annoyed into the phone. “Who the hell is calling me this early?”
The voice on the other end of the line was smooth and clear, a woman’s. She was lively and yet soft and she spoke like we’d known each other for years.
“Good morning, Cedric. My name is Charlene. I have important business matters to discuss with you. Would you please meet me at 700 Ashe St. at 9 am today? If you choose not to, I can assure you that you’ll regret it. Please come exactly at that time,” she hung up after those last words and I sat dumbstruck with the phone still in my hand for a few minutes, before hanging back up and laying my head back down. Who would want to meet with me? I hadn’t even put out new applications or resumes yet.
I fell back asleep, setting the cheap hotel alarm clock for 7:30am. I would wake up and shower and all the usual, before going to this meeting. What else did I have to lose? The short dream I had when I slept was strange. I dreamt of winged people, flying all over the city instead of taking busses and driving cars. I was the only one not flying though, the loner and the weirdo among the strangers. It was like it had been and how it would continue to be.
The buzzing of the alarm woke me from my flightless dream and I tumbled out of bed and made for the shower. I scrubbed my face and wondered again if the phone call had just been part of the dream and whether or not I should go. I figured I’d go and check and if it looked like a scam I’d turn right around and stop before I made a fool out of myself. I put on my best suit coat and tied my tie up nice and clean and headed out. I had plenty of time before the meeting, or whatever it was that I needed to get to was, so I stopped for coffee. I went to a café that I’d gone to before, when I worked for the other office and I saw the secretary, Amy sitting at the counter. I sat a few seats away from her and ordered a large decaf and started to sip it. I knew she wouldn’t recognize me, no one ever did and I might as well have been invisible to them.
“Cedric?” I heard her melodic voice address me and I looked over. “It is you, how are you?”
She was always nice, but I thought she was just trying to move up in the company ranks and so I never really noticed anything. I smiled at her and waved shortly. She moved over to sit next to me and the smell she wore was intoxicating. I’d never actually noticed how pretty she was, since I’d only really ever passed her twice a day. She patted my hand and smiled at me again and slipped a piece of paper into my hand.
“Call me sometime ok?” she walked out of the café and got into her car. I smiled too and got up leaving my payment and went to head over to the address the woman had given me. I got in my car and put the piece of paper Amy had given me into my suit pocket and headed over to Ashe St.
I pulled into the parking lot next to the building and was stopped by a valet. He told me that he would take my car and park it for me and to have a nice day. I had never been treated that nicely before, it was refreshing. I walked up to the huge front doors to find a man dressed in a nicely tailored suit and had slick black hair. The building was all polished black stone on the outside, but on the inside it was like walking into a cave. There was a waterfall on the left that fell into a pool that looked like it had gold coins in the bottom and there were stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. Inset lighting came down from everywhere and it was lushly furnished with leather seating everywhere. It was the swankiest cave I’d ever seen. I walked up to the giant polished desk of driftwood and addressed the woman at the front. She looked up at me with a smile and pointed towards some towering doors at the end of lobby without saying a word.
I walked through the doors and was immediately greeted by a slight woman who didn’t even come to my shoulders. She grabbed my arm and spoke as we walked, “Cedric, I’m Charlene; the woman you spoke with on the phone,” I recognized her smooth tone and nodded. “Before we inspect you, we will have you properly dressed and done up.” A group of other women came over and started taking my suit coat and checking it, when I tried to tell them that there was an important number in there, Charlene walked over and took the piece of paper. She took out a slim cell phone and imputed the number into it and closed it, throwing the paper in a nearby fireplace.
For a few moments I felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and they trimmed my hair, put me in a chic suit and equipped it with a silk tie. I’d never looked better and I was lead out of the room to the next one. A small chirping noise reached my ear and I saw Charlene put a hand up to her ear and she started talking in a soft whisper in what didn’t sound like English. She nodded and looked at me quickly and said something else in the foreign tongue, French maybe? I followed without question and I kept up with Charlene through out the entire trip. Each room we went through was different; some were like giant lounges, others full of computers and typewriters. It was almost like going through a casino, each room was different and unique, but all part of the same giant complex. We finally reached a long hallway and Charlene stopped me here.
“I need to check and make sure you’re ready to meet the boss. You wait over there and I’ll call you when I’m ready for you to meet him. Understood?” She didn’t wait for my answer and walked towards the large black steel doors at the other end. About two seconds after she closed the doors a man walked through the ones we’d come through minutes before. He walked over to me, dressed as all the others here and nodded to me.
“If you could have one super power what would it be?” he waited for my answer patiently. I thought about it for a minute and told him that it would be flight. He nodded again and left. From another door in the room a young blonde woman came over to me, dressed in a leather business suit.
“If you had to say what the root of all evil was in the world, but something the world couldn’t do without, what would it be?” she pulled down her suit coat and I told her money was something that we couldn’t do without and it was something ran the world. She turned on her heels and walked away.
I started to get confused, was this an interview or a game of Scategories? I didn’t understand what this had to do with the job, but I would go along with it none the less. I stood up a little to fix my suit coat and another person walked up to me, this time it was Charlene again.
“You’ve passed…come with me Cedric. I want you to understand something. Mr. Alastor is not your normal…boss. He’s a little eccentric if you haven’t noticed. There are some rules you must heed,” we walked across the large hallway as she said this. “One, never look him in the eyes, he hates that; two, if he speaks to you, you may answer, but please don’t ask questions; three, there are some things he may ask you to do and you may wonder if he’s crazy, or something of the sort. Get out now if you think you’ll answer no. Understood?” I nodded and followed her through the gaping doorway.
The room was lit with torches and a large fireplace. There were even more plush leather furnishings around this room and the wall was covered with tapestries and wall hangings. There was a large dark wooden desk in front of the darkly tinted window looking out onto the streets from 20 stories up. A tall standing figure was looking out over the view and turned at the sound of Charlene’s heels.
“Ah, Charlene, is this the fresh blood? Good, you may leave,” he nodded to Charlene, who quickly turned and left the room, closing the heavy doors behind her. “Cedric…my boy, please come and have a seat,” he led me to one of the cushy leather sofas in the corner near the fireplace and had me sit.
When he finally sat I saw his face for the first time and I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from shouting. His skin wasn’t anything like a human’s. Scales covered his face which was pointed and sharply angled. The color was reds and coppers and oranges, like a painting. He had two sharp horns curving out of his forehead and no hair graced his head. He wore a fine suit and designer shoes; the only difference was a hole in his suit trousers that allowed a long dexterous tail to swing around back and forth. I looked at the ground quickly, remembering Annalisa’s rules and waited for him to speak again.
“I know what you’re thinking Cedric. Why would I just have you here without knowing anything about you? Why not find someone who I know is good for my company? Well, that’s not the way I work…as I’m sure you can see, I’m not your typical human, am I?” He laughed at his own joke and sat on the sofa next to me, putting a clawed hand on my shoulder. I could feel the scales through my suit and straightened up a little bit.
“Look at me Cedric…it’s alright,” he waited for me to stare him straight in the face before starting his speech again. “I’m obviously not human and you’re obviously made for more. Together we can achieve this. Do as I ask, complete the tasks that I set before you without question and I’ll make sure that dent in your bumper goes away and you’ll be able to take that nice Amy girl out for a proper dinner next week. I’m Dragon-Born; yes you can Google that, this is my humanoid form. Just because of stories though, doesn’t make me evil. I just like having faithful workers helping me and they get what they deserve. What do you say? Are you in?”
He held out his hand waiting for my acceptance or my refusal. He had a coy smile on his face and a gleam in his eyes. I thought about it and remembered how much I hated being treated like a dog by people, running around doing their errands. I took his hand firmly and shook it; I said humans and he wasn’t a human, was he?