Secrets & Shadows

Poor Ghost was ‘bagged and tagged’ as they say and was taken to the mortuary at the police station for an autopsy. At the station Eddy was called. He and I were taken into separate questioning rooms to put everything on record that happened this evening up to now. Logically, I told them everything that I knew. Hopefully Eddy did too.

“Mr. Frost, this is, obviously, a very unusual situation,” Green told me for what seemed to be the hundredth time. He took a deep breath and rubbed his hand on his bald head. “This also isn’t the first time we had something like this,” Green admitted.

“It’s not?” I said furrowing my brow. “What other ‘weird things’ did you have?”

“Do you remember a few years ago there were people appearing in their home’s dead and mummified?”

“Yeah I remember seeing that in the news. It was pretty messed up,” I said. I rubbed my arms and began to pick and chew at my nails.

A while back the local witch, who happens to be a good friend of mine, got herself into a huge amount of trouble with the Magic Council as well as her own Grand Coven of Witches. She got wrapped up into some dark magic and had stolen the youth of several people which resulted in their deaths. The Grand Coven sentenced her to house arrest for the rest of her days. I had attended the trial, as had many other magic users of various degrees, as a character witness.

“Well, we tried to investigate those cases,” Green explained. “But we never found any evidence, so it’s sitting in the cold case file. Probably forever.”

‘That is probably a good thing,’ I thought to myself. “So what’s your point, detective?” I asked, shrugging my shoulders. “What do you want from me?”

“We want to hire you to look into all the weird shit we’re starting to get around town,” Green said.

I stared at him like a deer in the headlights for a moment. “I’m sorry, can you say that again? I had something ridiculous in my ear.”

“You heard me, Frost,” He said sternly. “This has been debated here for quite a while by the higher ups. I lied when I said that a rookie tonight recommended you. We’ve had our eye on you.” I was kinda shocked to hear that I was the talk around the proverbial watercooler.

“So is this where you tell me you want me in the Avengers’ Initiative?” I said jokingly. The detective gave me a stern look telling me he didn’t think that it was very funny. Well, screw him, that was freaking comedy gold!

“You’re the only one in town who deals in the paranormal. You’ve helped a lot of people get peace of mind. And my superiors seem to think that you’d be able to help us out as well with your…,” Green paused looking for the right words. “Unique investigative stills.”

“You sure, detective?” I asked. “I’m not exactly police material. I specialize in finding and banishing supernatural and paranormal things that go bump in the night. I’m no good at finding and arresting flesh and blood killers.”

Detective Green assured me that everything would work out in the end and he would give me a short and brief crash course on being a PI before I left and also offered to check up on me to make sure everything was alright. We worked out my pay, my retainer fees and filled out all the boring paperwork that goes with it. I gave Detective Green Eddy’s card along with one of my own and he gave me one of his.

After all was said and done, selling myself and services to the Kaw City PD, Green told me, “Remember, if you need anything or change your mind just give me a call.”

I dragged my feet out onto the stoop of the police station. Between the questioning and the talk with Green it was already well into the night by the time we were done. Eddy had left at some point during the whole mess, I didn’t see him leave. I was exhausted and my eyelids felt like they had lead weights on them. “Puck?” I called out after leaving the station. I had no idea where he had gone. I hadn’t seen him since I was questioned. With all that was going on I kinda lost track of him. “Puck?” I called again with slight panic. Puck came as an orange blur in front of me.

“Aye, Sir?” He asked.

“Where were you? I thought you got lost or something,” I said, scolding him slightly.

“Just checking out a bunch of stuff,” He said. “Never seen the human peacekeepers at work in their building. Doesn’t seem like they do much in there though.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “What time is it? I need a drink after all that,” I said sitting on the stoop with my face in my hands. I didn’t really care to look around to find out for myself.

Puck flew over to a nearby bank and came back. “The bank over there says 12:03”. He read off the numbers individually since he couldn’t really tell time aside from the time of day; morning, noon and night was about it for him.

“Ugh,” I grunted. I needed a drink. “Let’s head over to The Tavern. The kind detective reminded me that we are overdue for a visit.”

“Yay!” Puck exclaimed. “That’s the place that has Faery Mead!”

* * *

The Tavern was the name of the town’s oldest bar. It used to be a speakeasy back during prohibition. The bar belonged to the witch that Detective Green had mentioned before, Cassandra. She, in fact, has probably been the only owner of that bar since it opened. Benefits of having a long lifespan.

We drove towards The Tavern making pretty good time, since there wasn’t a lot of traffic in the wee hours of the morning. It was a hole-in-the-wall place with a thick painted sign, which was weather worn and faded, above a short staircase that went down into the basement of the building to which it was attached. If anything, it was probably the original sign, for as beat up as it was. The front door was tall and made of red oak and was therefore stupidly heavy and sturdy.

We pulled up to the curb right in front. As we got out a rather stately raven sat perched on the sign and glared at us. It was Nevermore, Cassandra’s witch’s familiar. She wasn’t the best at picking out imaginative names for pets or familiars.

Ignoring the raven, we headed down the stairs to the basement entrance. Puck and I had barely made it down the stairs when I heard a faint voice through the thick door.

“Come on in, Lance. It’s a slow night,” a dark sultry voice called through the barrier. As a witch Cassandra has the ability to sense the magic signature of other magic users, so this wasn’t much of a surprise to me or Puck. Though, it was nice to hear her voice after so long.

I heaved the door open with surprising ease and fluidity. I walked in and the door swung shut as smooth as it opened and silently closed.

The bar was dark and a little dank. Small wooden tables and chairs were scattered throughout the floor in no particular order. The overall aesthetic fits the name of the establishment. Candles on the tables cast small ghostly shadows on the surface while lights on the walls, mimicking torches, dimly lit the rest of the open room. It was small and quiet. This also happened to be Cassandra’s home. She had a small apartment in the back where she lived and practiced her witchy magic. Every now and again, when I visited her more often, I would always ask if I could watch her do her rituals. Wizards and sorcerers rarely get to see witches at work since their rituals are usually done in secret and are, typically, extremely private affairs.

“Lance!” A few people grouped at the far end of the bar held up their mugs or glass bottles in greeting.

“Oh, shut up you damned drunks. This isn’t some sitcom!” Cassandra chastised them. I honestly had no idea who those people were. And they did look pretty hammered. “How’s it going, babe?” Asked Cassandra. “Long time no see.”

No one could correctly place Cassandra’s age. (Another one of the many benefits of being a magic user.) Though she said she was somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 years. She was average height for a woman, attractive physique which was accentuated with her bar wench outfit. The long wavy, raven hair, which touched the small of her back, framed her bright, entrancing green eyes.

“As good as it can, I suppose,” I said leaning on the bar top.

As I mentioned before, Cassandra and I met when I wandered into her bar a few years ago and we quickly developed a very close friendship. She was the only other magic user in town when I first moved here and, as far as I know, she still is. At least I hope she is. We hung out and helped each other quite frequently with various needs now and again. And no, none of those needs. She would help me with a client or two and I would help with security at her bar, until she was put under house arrest. Business for her had been pretty slow since then so I haven’t been around for a while.

“Well, you’re not dead so you can’t be doing that bad,” she remarked. “What do you need, hun?”

I filled her in on the general situation as she grabbed me a beer and poured a tiny bit of Fae Mead for Puck into a thimble. He went straight for it and happily sipped at it with a grin which spread from ear to ear as he sat on the bar top. Puck hadn’t been this quiet and content for ages.

“So, from the appearance of the body in question it sounds a bit like what you had done when you had your...incident,” I said.

“I hope you’re not accusing me,” Cassandra snapped as her stare burned through me. A green flame sparked and flickered in her eyes. “Are you?”

“What!?” I said as I tried to not spit out my drink. “No! I was trying to ask if you know any other witches in the area that might be in the same situation you were in.”

“Oh,” She said, calming down. Cassandra blinked hard. The flame left and her eyes returned to normal. She reached behind the bar and opened a bottle of beer and began drinking with me. “Nope. I’m the only wicked witch within a hundred mile radius. Grand Coven made sure of that,” she said with disdain.

“That’s actually very comforting to know,” I said truthfully. “I remember seeing what happened in the news when you went AWOL for a little while.” Cassandra was avoiding my gaze as she drew on her beer.

“I also remember your trial between the Magic Council and The Grand Coven. You were pretty lucky you didn’t die right then and there.”

“They might as well have killed me and be done with it,” Cassandra said, muttering, drawing again on the beer bottle. I could see the small group of people on the end of the bar flinch from the corner of my eye. Cassandra hiked up her long skirt and lifted a shapely leg onto the bartop and showed me her ankle. Around it hovered an intensely complex magic circle, violet in color, filled with some very complex runes. Most of which I had never seen before.

“Whoa! What is that?” I asked, examining it from a distance. “I haven’t seen anything like it before.”

“You wouldn’t have,” Cassandra started. “It’s an ancient witch’s spell that takes a lot of magic to produce and is nearly impossible to break. It’s the magical equivalent of an ankle monitor. Not only does it tell The Grand Coven where I am, it limits my powers. I can’t even step outside my bar! I leave out the front door and end up coming in through the backdoor.” I could tell she was starting to rant at this point. I took a large draw of my beer and listened intently as she spoke.

“Just watch,” She began to make her way to the front door, after opening it and stepping outside she vanished! She came back through the kitchen, where the back door was located, about a minute later. “See?”

She began to tear up in frustration, “I can’t do wandless magic anymore, I can hardly do my normal rituals and I can barely even do a damned Tarot reading accurately,” she ranted.

’Now there was an idea’, I thought. ’Why not let Cassandra try to do a Tarot card reading on me? Maybe she can figure out what I should do.’ “You’ve been holding that in for a while, huh?” I asked.

She sniffled and carefully wiped away her tears with her fingertips so as to not disturb her makeup. “Yeah. It felt good to finally let that out. Thank you for listening.”

“Of course,” I said. “What kind of friend would I be if you couldn’t rant at me? Also, speaking of tarot readings; would you mind if I asked you to do a reading for me? Like whether or not I should accept this offer from the police department and help them out? See what might come of it?”

Cassandra chugged the rest of her beer to finish it. She cast a downward look, her hair hiding her face while she contemplated. She looked back up at me. “Yeah I guess. I’ll be right back. But only because it’s for you.”

She walked into her office and came back right away with a very old deck of Tarot cards. She expertly shuffled them. Had I not known better, I would have thought her a crafty casino dealer. She placed the deck on the bartop and asked me to push some magic into my left hand and cut the deck. I did so and gave it back to her. She said that by embedding a little of my own magic into the cards they would tell her what I needed to know. Otherwise the cards may just appear at random and not have any meaning. Cassandra gave it one more quick shuffle after receiving the deck.

She laid out five cards all face down. Cassandra flipped a card over and looked thoughtfully. “The Six of Coins,” she said. “It appears you’ve been dwelling on finances.” She turned over the next card, ‘The Fool’, which was facing upside down. “You’re currently worried about what might happen.” She flipped the next card, ‘The World’. “The best that will come out of it is that you’ll be successful and get acclaim for your achievements.” The next card revealed was ’The Tower. “The worst that could happen…,” she paused and pointed to the card. It’s an image of a tower crumbling under its own weight due from the inferno within. “Isn’t that great, we will leave it at that.” Talk about ominous things. She turned the fifth card, ‘The Death’. “Hmm. Now that’s odd,” she said thoughtfully.

I looked at the card. Death. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know much about Tarot and it kinda freaked me out a bit. “What’s it mean? I might die?” I nervously chewed my lip and took a long draw off my beer.

Cassandra rolled her eyes. “No, you idiot. Now shut up and let me think. This last card is the potential result of it all,” She scanned her cards and looked back at ‘The Death’. As if she was having a deep mental conversation with the scythe wielding skeleton on the card. “It appears either way there will be a change, I’m just not sure what kind.”

“So what’s that all mean?” I asked.

“It means that the future is unwritten. You make your own destiny. Your mind already has the decision, you just need to listen to it.” Cassandra picked up her cards and looked at me deeply with a worried look on her face. “Whatever your decision is, Lance.” she took my face into her slender hands. “Please be careful. Based on the cards the future is unclear. I’m worried something bad might happen to you. Just because I can’t see the exact future doesn’t mean I can’t feel, in my gut, something bad will happen to you,” She began to tear up a bit again. I had no idea she felt this way or this close to me. I mean we were about as close as two friends could get but this was new.

“You’ve stuck beside me for a while now and even defended me despite everything,” she said tearfully. “From what you told me about this incident, it seems like it could be really dangerous. I just want to be sure you stay safe. You’re my friend. You’re special to me.”

I smiled a little at her and took her hands in mine as I walked behind the bar. “I’ll be safe. Don’t worry.” I said as I looked at her bright green eyes. I’m not sure how long we looked at each other, but we began to lean in closer to each other and we shared a small affectionate kiss.

We broke the kiss and before I knew what was going on Cassandra put her fingers in my mouth and grabbed my freaking tongue! “Do I have your word that you’ll be safe, Lance? Tell me!” She was trying her best to look tough but I could see the heartache in her eyes.

I nodded, “Yeth, you hab my worb!” I managed to say. “Now can you pleath let go?” She released my tongue and I rolled it in my mouth to help alleviate the pain. Cassandra had a smile on her face, evidently pleased with herself. “You really are a wicked witch.”

* * *

After Puck and I finished a couple more drinks and our talk with Cassandra, we decided it was time we headed home. We left with the assurance to Cassandra that we would be careful and safe. Once reaching the street, I quickly realized that I was a tad too tipsy to drive. Since it wasn’t very far from home I decided to walk and pick up the car tomorrow. Puck sat on my shoulder and quickly started to doze off. I picked him up and carefully placed him in my jacket pocket for him to curl up.

About halfway home the street lights began to flicker and dim. Looking on I saw a dark figure near the end of the sidewalk at the corner of the street. Figuring it was probably just a member of the transient population I ignored them and continued walking.

I felt a rush of wind come towards me, looked and saw as the figure melted into the ground and began to move towards me like a living shadow.

“What the fuck?” I said in confusion. I wasn’t entirely sure if what I saw was real or the alcohol and fatigue sitting in. The shadow advanced towards me. I side-stepped as best as I could to get out of the way, but it followed. Every step I made it was there right at my heels. I flicked my thumb like a Zippo lighter and a lick of flame appeared above it. Taking a deep breath and channeling some magic, I aimed at the shadow and blew a short burst of air at the flame as it roared into a miniature flame thrower. The effect looked something like those Polynesian fire breathers.

The shadow continuously dodged my movements and my fire. With some fancy boxing footwork I was finally able to gain some distance from the shadow. It stopped and manifested itself back as a three dimensional figure in front of me. Pushing more magic into my hands I clapped them together and slowly spread them apart producing a small ball of pure white light about the size of a baseball. This seemed to anger it and it slithered off into the night.

“What the hell was that?” I said to no one in particular. The experience was sobering and I no longer felt the woosy tipsiness from before. I peeked into my pocket to check on Puck, he was still sound asleep.

I continued walking, constantly looking over my shoulder, trying to keep myself grounded and ease my mind from going into panic mode.

“Asphodel, belladonna, cinnamon, dittany,” I began my exercise to help calm my mind by thinking of something else. In this case, a list of ingredients on my spice rack for potions in alphabetical order. Rarely did I have to get past ‘D’. So once my mind was still, I then changed gears and began to think of what that thing was.