Secrets & Shadows

I woke up the next morning, from a dreamless sleep, feeling like I drank way too much the night before. Magic hangovers are the worst. It was the worst hangover I had ever felt. Trips over to Faewild tended to wreak havoc on one’s body. I looked out into the kitchen and saw that the clock said it was noon already.

“Shit!” I said as I bolted up, now shocked to wide awake, from my couch and ran over to my phone to call Detective Green back. I dialed him up and waited as his desk phone rang. I flinched at every ring the phone made despite my anticipating each agonizing tone to assault my ear drum.

“Kaw City Police, this is Detective Green, how may I help you?” Green said in his best professional ‘phone voice’.

“Detective it’s me, Lance,” I said a bit out of breath.

“Frost! It’s about time you called me back,” Green said sternly. “We have a situation.”

“Talking about all the new bodies I saw on the news before I passed out from exhaustion last night?” I said casually as if they were no big deal.

“That’s exactly why I’ve been trying to call you. There were ten bodies found last night. Each one looks like the initial body we called you on the other day. Think you might want to stop by to make sure this isn’t a team of people doing this rather than the one person we assume?” he asked. “Speaking from experience, this is way too many bodies to be just one person.” Green’s voice was so deep and resounding that each word was drilling into my aching head. “I thought you might be able to do what you did the other night to figure stuff out for yourself. What do you say?” Green finished.

I attempted to think for a moment, the hangover migraine was not a huge help. Having a large collection of bodies for Puck to check could probably help in finding some kind of lead we didn’t have before. “Yeah, I could do that. I’ll be over soon. I just need to take a lot of headache meds and grab a few other things.”

“As long as you promise that you’re not going to be sacrificing any goats or anything,” Green said laughing.

“Darn and I had just traded three of my best chickens for a good sacrificing goat,” I retorted back and we both shared a laugh. Hey, just because I was in an excruciating amount of pain, didn’t mean I couldn’t be witty and sarcastic. I got some food and coffee and an unhealthy amount of ibuprofen in me before Puck and I were out the door.

We drove over as fast as we could and got to the police station shortly after 1pm, no thanks to lunchtime rush hour. We walked in and attempted to make our way to the Detective’s desk. It was a horrible experience getting in there without an officer to vouch for you. Had to pass through three metal detectors, empty my pockets to be scanned twice, and suffered a couple pat downs as well before being allowed to go into the building proper.

“Took you long enough,” Green remarked once we arrived. It looked like he had been working hard. His tie was loosened along with the top button on his dress shirt and his sleeves were rolled up revealing enormous forearms with a, I thought cliche, marine crest tattooed on his right arm. “C’mon, let’s get to the ME’s office.” We all took a long walk to the basement and to the Medical examiner’s autopsy room, Puck followed close behind. I don’t think he was really paying attention to what we were doing or where we were since he looked like he was flying in his sleep. I didn’t think he was that tired. Maybe he was just bored and behaving for once. Weird.

It was difficult talking low enough so the other officers didn’t hear what we were talking about, but loud enough where we could hear each other in the busy hallways. Officers, suspects in handcuffs, and other personnel crowded the already cramped hallway. How did anyone get around in this place? Puck took the literal high road and buzzed above the whole gaggle of people. He was casually cruising above us yawing left and right sleepily. The good Detective and I on the other hand, felt like salmon going upstream.

“So, do these victims have anything in common with each other?” I asked as we walked.

“That’s another weird thing. They don’t,” Green said. He wasn’t using his usual booming voice, but the quieter one still. “But, I’ve handled things like that before, that’s not always as weird as it might seem.“.

“Out of the blue question, but were you a marine, Detective?” I asked. “I noticed the tattoo on your arm.”

“Sure was,” he said casually. “It has always been a dream of mine since I was a kid. Got in early and did twelve years which included three tours to various parts of the Middle East as an MP before I was medically discharged.”

“What happened?”

“IED took my right leg below the knee.” He paused our walk momentarily to lift his pant leg and showed me his prosthetic. It was a very nice piece of equipment. One of the nicer options some people get when they are offered one.

I looked in awe. “Wow, I had no idea. I’m sorry that happened to you.”

“I’m not,” Green said with a certainty and poise you would expect from a Marine. “It hasn’t held me back, and I’ve never let it,” he smiled warmly at me.

We kept walking and making other awkward small talk until we finally got down to the furthest corner of the police station basement where the ME’s exam room was located.

“I called in a favor with the ME. So we got the room to ourselves for a little while. Just do your thing,” Green said as we approached the door.

“Thanks, Detective. Do you think I can be left alone for a few while I, ‘do that voodoo that I do so well?’” I asked. I needed a good amount of time alone to have Puck check out all these bodies.

Green looked a little uneasy, “Yeah alright. But make it quick. I could get in a lot of trouble leaving you alone here.” Green showed me all the lockers with the victims in them and left to guard the room.

“Alright, Puck,” I said. “Let’s get to work.”

“What are we looking for again, sir?” Puck asked as he yawned. Finally waking up. “I forget.” He fluttered over and sat on an empty exam table. The Medical Examiner’s room pretty much looked like what you see on TV. A couple long sinks to wash bodies after external exams and forensics have been taken. The cold metal exam table sat empty, save for housing Puck’s butt. The surgical, sharp and pointy instruments lay next to the table and gave me the chills just thinking about them. I don’t know what it is about surgical equipment that makes me feel uneasy. Maybe it’s the cold and calculating person it takes to use it on a cadaver. Or maybe it’s just too many horror movies.

“I need you to look for any residual magic on these bodies, Puck. Just like we did on the first body the other day,” I instructed.

“Okie-doke!” he said as I pulled out all the victims of their lockers, one-by-one, and let the faery do his work. Puck carefully fluttered over each of the bodies doing his examination while I pretended to do my own, in case Green peeked in to check on me.

While looking over all the bodies I noticed Green was right. None of the bodies were anywhere close to each other in appearance, except for the fact that they were all adults and all had similar bite marks as Ghost. Some were older, some were in their early twenties. Pretty even mix of men and women, short, tall, fit, thin, fat. A few of them had been autopsied, the unsettling Y cut on their torsos had been stitched up. Something told me that I would have to get a stronger stomach eventually.

“Frost!” Green whispered loudly as he peeked his head into the room. “You just about done?”

“Barely started, Detective. Patience,” I said coolly. Truth be told I was worried Puck was taking a bit too long with the bodies. His orange glow still slowly passed over each one as he tried to sense any similar feelings to these victims as Ghost.

“Eep!” Puck suddenly stopped and squeaked and bolted back to me and hid himself in my jacket.

“What is it? What’s gotten into you?” I said. Puck was hiding inside my coat and moving around so I couldn’t grab or catch him. I was swatting and groping at my jacket trying to not look like a raving lunatic.

“It’s the same as before but,” Puck said, still moving. He had taken a position behind my back, inside my jacket, poking his head out from the collar.

“But what?” I pried.

“It’s stronger and darker. But, it was definitely from the same thing. That Abyss Walker, Mara told us about,” whispered Puck. He was visibly shaking with fear. I had never seen Puck so frightened and had no idea that this thing was so feared. He flew into my pocket and cowered there.

“Time’s up, Frost. Gotta get out of here,” Green popped his head in to tell us. I pushed all the bodies back into their lockers and locked them, made sure we left everything the way it was when we came in, and we casually walked out and back towards the Detective’s desk upstairs.

“Did you find anything out that would help?” Green asked as we walked nonchalantly.

Puck was still shivering in my inside jacket pocket. “Yeah. We-, I mean, I did,” I said. My imagination began to run wild showing me mental images of what this thing did exactly, how it did it. I began to get lost in thought.

Green cocked an eyebrow. “And?” he said. His ear lingering on an answer. “What was it?”

“Oh, right,” I got my mind back on track. “It was the same thing that killed Ghost, our first victim. But it’s getting stronger and more brave,” I explained. The mental images from before were still lingering in my imagination.

“You know what did it?” he asked.

“Kind of,” I said, apprehensively. “It’s a bit hard to explain and I’m not sure you would be interested or believe it. Just know that it’s something very dangerous.” We traversed the labyrinth that is the police station and finally got to his desk. We sat on either side of it and spoke a little quieter so no one would overhear. We were practically whispering.

“Do we know what it looks like at least?” He took his hand and rubbed it on his shaved bald head. He was getting desperate for some kind of answer. The exhaustion on his face showed more than it did when I had initially come in earlier.

“I haven’t the foggiest idea what it could look like,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ve been told it’s parasitic and it can end up looking like anybody or any living thing. I assume it’s a person based on the bite marks. But, this person who could be possessed might not even know what’s happening to them. It’s like ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, everyone is a potential enemy.”

“Great, so we have nothing to go on then?” Green said, exasperated.

I looked left and right and around with my eyes. “Uh, right!” I gave my best shit-eating grin and looked at the detective. That definitely didn’t help his deteriorating mood.

“Look, Frost,” the detective said sternly, wiping the smile off of my face. “If you’re not going to help, we will just figure this out on our own.”

“Okay, okay, sorry,” I said, holding my hands up in surrender. “All I know, right now, is that this thing is dangerous, and needs to be stopped as fast as we can.”

“That much is obvious,” Green said frustrated and sighed. “Anything I can tell the press and the public on how to stay safe, if we need to say anything?”

I thought hard about this. I honestly wasn’t sure if there was anything that could be said without inciting panic. “Just tell everyone to travel in groups, don’t stay out late, and stay in well lit areas as much as possible.”

“So just give them the idea that there’s a boogie man out to get you, right?” Green asked.

“Yeah, that’s about the size of it,” I admitted.

Green sighed again, “Alright, I’ll see what I can do. It’s not going to be easy to pass this along.” I started to get up so Puck and I could get out of there. “But, Frost?” Green said sternly again. His deep voice commanded respect.

I flinched like a child whose parents just used their middle name, “Yes, detective?”

“Make sure you follow your own advice. Stay safe out there. We’re a little lost without you. We’re not even that far into anything yet, but you’re under my watch. So be careful.”

I looked at him closely and solemnly gave him a nod, “This is going to sound really old fashioned, Detective, but you have my word. I’ll be careful,” I got to be careful with this ‘giving my word’ out to everyone lately. It’s going to get me into trouble one of these days.

After we got out of the police station I got to my car and carefully took Puck out of my jacket. It seemed that he had calmed down and was ready to give me a bit more detail. “Were you afraid of this thing that much, Puck?” I asked placing him on the dash of the car.

Puck looked up at me like a hurt puppy. “You have no idea how evil this thing is, sir. Neither did I until just now. There was so much darkness and malice,” Puck looked so serious as he told me what he experienced. He sat with knees to his chest with his arms wrapped around his legs. I’d never seen him this way. Puck looked so defeated. Like he saw that there was no hope and had already thrown in the towel. He was always so happy and giddy like any of the small faery folk. But, to see him be so grave really had me worried.

“It’s alright, buddy,” I said, trying to reassure him. “You won’t have to do that again.” I sat him down in the passenger seat and buckled myself up and began to drive aimlessly around town.

After driving around town for a while to calm Puck down and get his mind off all bad things, we headed over to the hotel Sexy Little Voodoo Dolls were held up in. We drove up to the lavish hotel and went through the ridiculous lobby and up the gold elevators again to Eddy’s door and knocked a few times.

“What?! What the hell is it now!?” When Eddy answered the door he was not his usually froggy-looking self. He was in his boxer shorts and a white tank with what remained of his hair disheveled, even his mustache looked unkempt. He was looking angry and his voice was getting hoarse. He stumbled out and he looked like he was pretty drunk and pointed a gun in my general direction.

“Whoa, Eddy! Don’t shoot! It’s just me!” I said, holding my hands up. I got half a step closer and shoved his gun hand up with my right hand, slid under his arm, grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm and dropped him to the ground. He dropped the gun on the way down and I kicked it a few feet behind me. “Woo-saa, dude. Let’s talk this through. I’m going to let you go now alright?” Eddy grunted and nodded as he slowly stumbled up. I went and grabbed the gun and shoved in the waistband of my pants behind my back and made sure the safety was on. Not the safest place for it, but I had to make due. “Now, what’s going on that you think you need a gun, Eddy?”

“I’m down another band member that’s what!” I saw Eddy taking some over-the-counter meds in the bathroom and washed it down with some whiskey from the mini-bar.

I stood stunned for a moment before shaking my head, “First off, Eddy,” I said, grabbing the miniature whiskey bottle and finished it for him and murmured a spell on the mini bar to keep it locked. “Don’t take meds and alcohol. Second, what the hell do you mean by another band member? What happened?”

Eddy gave a frustrated sigh, “Thorn is gone. Just gone! She went out last night for a smoke and she never came back! We looked everywhere and couldn’t find her. She won’t answer her phone, nothing!”

“Ok, I know you didn’t tell the police about Ghost, Eddy. But, please tell me you told someone about this?” I pleaded.

“Are you fucking crazy!? Of course I didn’t! My reputation is going to be ruined if I let this get out! This needs to be fixed-,” the back on my hand connected with the side of Eddy’s froggy face to shut him up. I took him by the collar of his tank-top wife beater shirt and got in close to his disgusting face with his whiskey breath.

“Look here,” I said in a low voice. I was pissed. How can someone be so careless as to not care about their own clients? Let alone just for the fact that someone close to them was missing? “You remember Detective Green, right? Black gentleman, about the size of a mountain? You guys talked at the station the other day,” Eddy nodded. “Well I’m going to tell him that you’re obstructing his investigation by not reporting a missing person who could be involved in the same situation that happened with Ghost and a bunch of other people. He’s going to arrest you. He’s going to put you in a jail cell, probably charging you as an accessory in whatever is going down. If you don’t want that to happen, then I suggest that you better get on the phone with him now, before I do or you’ll find yourself a little more frog-like.”

“Alright, alright! Fine!”

“Now just so I can check your work, what’s her actual name?” I asked. I’d heard rumors of her actual name, but it was never officially released to the public.

“W-Wendy McGovern!” Eddy stammered.

I let go of Eddy and he promptly went to his cell phone to dial out to the detective. Eddy expelled a frustrated grunt, “it’s not going through.” Of course it wasn’t, I was there. I looked towards the band’s room that was attached to Eddy’s. “Keep trying until you get through you frog-faced asshole!” I slammed the adjacent door as I passed through it to the band’s room. Eddy should be able to call now.

I turned and looked at a shocked and morose Siren and Grunt. “Yeah, sorry about what you might have heard in there. But it needed to be done,” I took the gun out of my pants. I discharged the magazine and removed the slide and placed the pieces on the desk in the room. “That’s Eddy’s. I’d keep it out of his reach for a while until he’s sobered up,” I looked back up at the two remaining band members of Sexy Little Voodoo Dolls and saw that Siren had been crying for a while. Her eyes were puffy and I could see the dried tears on her face. Grunt wasn’t looking much better. The large drummer was carefully holding on to Siren in his lap as if he was afraid she would break apart like a china doll. Siren buried her face into his chest and sobbed.

“I’m sorry about Thorn,” I said. It’s a phrase I hate saying; “sorry” when someone is gone or missing. It never helped and it didn’t bring them back. But I really didn’t know what else to say.

“I hope she’s alright.” I continued. “The Detective and the police will find her.” It was then I saw a mark on Grunt’s hand. It was the same as Mara’s secretary and the same one that was on Ghost. I made a mental note of this as I let them cry out what they needed to.

“I’m sorry about that, Mr. Frost,” Siren sniffled. Even when she cried her voice was musical. What the unholy hell was this chick?

“It’s alright. It’s pretty understandable after all that’s happened. You both obviously love Thorn very much.”

“We do,” said Grunt. “She’s a member of this family. So I’m sure you can imagine how difficult this is for us.”

“Yeah, I understand,” I said flatly. Thoughts of my mother flooded into my head. Crimson color splashed in my mind with nightmarish beasts behind it. I shook my head to snap myself out of the deep depressing thought.

I made idle small talk with them to help change the subject. I needed their minds off of the obvious depressive situation. It was time to ask the hard questions.

“Have either of you had periods of time where you felt like you weren’t in control of your body? Or maybe have some missing time?” I asked them both.

They both shook their heads. Puck floated over by Siren, silently ogling her with an odd and kinda creepy fascination. It seemed Siren didn’t notice or see him. But I had my doubts. I had to confront her.

“Siren, would you mind if I talked to you in private for a bit?” I gestured for her to join me in the hallway. Grunt started to get up but Siren put her small hand on his shoulder stopping him. She gave him an approving look that it was alright.

We stepped out into the hallway and made sure the door was shut and went to the end of the hall so we wouldn’t be heard.

“What is it that you wanted to talk about, Mr. Frost?” she asked with a sniffle as she looked up at me. Her eyes were still puffy and a bit red from crying.

“Well, it’s about what happened with that ouija board you all had on the bus,” I said. “And what came out of it.” Siren’s face had a look of disappointment and shame upon it. “Only a magic user, and a good one, could have pulled off what you did. I’m rather impressed actually.”

“Oh, that,” Siren said, as if she had just been caught lying. “How did you figure that out?”

“Two things,” I said, holding up two fingers. “First there was the ouija board. Second, I figured out you could at least hear Puck, there was no mistaking that.” I conveniently left out the feeling I got when she said my Name back at my home. If I was correct, and she was someone untrained, I didn’t want that information to fall into potential wrong hands.

“So you could hear me!” Puck interjected.

Siren giggled. “Yes, I can see you little faery. And your name is Puck then is it? You’re really cute, you know that little one? I’ve never seen one of your kind up close before.”

I cleared my throat a bit to get the conversation back on track. “Anyway, you really need to be careful with speaking boards,” I gently scolded her. “You never know what’s on the other side when you look for something random.”

“Sorry about that,” she said looking at the floor.

“Luckily for you,” I said. “It wasn’t anything serious and the spirit went away on its own.”

“I’ll be careful,” Siren said. She moved her attention back to me. “So since you have a faery companion, are you a wizard then?”

I chuckled. “No, I’m a sorcerer. Still requires some studying but it’s more or less managing the magic, rather than creating it like a wizard.”

“I’m not sure what you could classify me as,” she said casually, shrugging her shoulders. “I’ve just been able to do simple magic willingly.” There was something else about her but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I’m sure it was nothing and I was just being paranoid. Then I had an idea: with everything that’s happened, she needed to relax. She’s been cooped up inside this hotel for days and she needed to get out.

“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “Come with me for a while. Let me take you out for a drink.”

“A drink?” I could tell she felt very disquieted about the idea. “I don’t know,” she started to fidget in place with anxiety.

“It’s alright,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You’re with a sorcerer. I can handle anything that comes our way. Plus I know a safe place.” That seemed to make her feel better and she beamed with confidence.

“Okay I suppose!” she said cheerfully. Man that voice of hers is something else. We went back into the room where we explained to Grunt what was going on. He seemed iffy about it at first, but Siren gently touched his cheek and reassured him that she would be fine and he acquiesced. She got herself dressed in an adorable gothic lolita outfit of black and white with lace and frills all over. It came with a fitting corset and skirt that reached just a bit higher than mid-thigh. Her hair was down, framing her face. She wore black thigh-high stockings with cat ears and faces at the top which were just barely visible under her skirt. She added an inch or two to her height with her pair of black Mary Jane shoes. All in all, with basic makeup and outfit, Puck and I were waiting for about an hour. Grunt got bored of waiting and decided to take a nap. We didn’t bother him, but left a note in case he woke up before we came back. We checked in on Eddy and I told him I’m acting as Siren’s bodyguard while we go out.

“Like hell are you going out after what happened with Thorn!” I pushed Eddy back down on his bed, he was still a bit drunk from earlier.

“We weren’t asking, Eddy,” I told him. “She will be safe with me. I’ll bring her back in one piece.” We walked out to my car, Puck flying ahead of us and beating us there.

“Oh, this is your car?” Siren said with a bit of a dissatisfied tone.

“Sure is!” I exclaimed. “You’ll find that the more magic you wield, the more and more you find that you need something more simple.” She seemed happy with the answer and got in. Puck, being used to the front of the car, and wanting to make a new friend, sat on the dash in front of Siren making idle conversation.

After driving around the town for a bit we got to Cassandra’s Tavern in the late afternoon. Hey, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right?

“You’re sure this is a safe place to be, Mr. Frost?” Siren asked as we got out of the car. She looked the place up and down, left and right curious about it.

“It’s the absolute safest place for magic users like us,” I said as we walked down the steps to the front door. Cassandra’s familiar cawed at us as we passed under the sign. As soon as we reached the bottom a voice came almost clear as day from the other side.

“Frost! Move!” Cassandra’s voice commanded. I stepped aside out of the door’s path holding Siren back with my arm as we pressed our backs to the wall. I put a quick protective charm in front of Siren to shield her from whatever was about to happen. The door flung open as if it didn’t weigh anything at all. A day drunk came, literally, flying through the threshold. Followed by a green ball of fire, about the size of a softball, hitting the drunkard in the ass and lighting the seat of his pants ablaze. He squirmed along the ground trying to put it out and attempted to run off up the stairs. A few people ran out after him.

“See?” I gestured showing Siren my point. “Perfectly safe!” I said with genuine sincerity. Her face didn’t match the tone of the situation.

We walked in and sat down at the now empty bar. Cassandra had the biggest scowl on her face that I had ever seen since I knew her. “Damn, Cassandra. What’d that guy ever do to you?”

“He grabbed my ass,” Cassandra said with a growl. Siren and I both grimaced at that notion.

“What was wrong with that?” asked Puck. “Did that human do the mating ritual wrong?” Cassandra looked at him and snapped her fingers. Puck’s hair erupted in green fire. He let out an ear-piercing wail as he flew around the bar in a green and orange blur before finding a glass of beer left on the table and diving in, extinguishing the flames. Lucily the fire didn’t burn much of his hair.

“Oh, poor Puck,” Siren lamented.

“Don’t feel sorry for him,” I said. “Otherwise he won’t learn.” I brought my attention back to Cassandra who had cooled down considerably after setting Puck’s hair ablaze.

“So, Lance,” Cassandra began. “Who’s this then? She’s cute,” she checked out Siren and gave a wicked smile.

I motioned between the two women. “Siren this is Cassandra, she’s a witch currently under house arrest. Cassandra, this is Siren. She’s kind of my client right now with that situation I told you about the other day. She’s also a newly admitted magic user.”

“Right,” Cassandra said with suspicion. “So what are you guys drinking?”

“Just a beer, I don’t care what. What about you, Siren?” I said nudging her with my elbow.

“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t really drink at all,” Siren said defensively.

“Nonsense,” Said Cassandra. “You’re in my bar and you’re with my friend so you’re drinking for free today. Whatcha want, Cutie?”

“I guess I’ll have what Mr. Frost is having, please,” Siren said shyly.

“Ooh, so formal and polite. Definitely a change for the better around here,” Cassandra mused as she poured us two beers from the tap.

We sat around and drank for a while making small talk and mostly making fun of Puck’s antics. Cassandra’s place is usually pretty dark, dank and quiet. So it was pretty out of the ordinary to have a few people sharing stories and laughing together. Though there weren’t any windows in the whole place, the room seemed to brighten up with everyone having a good time. I didn’t know how many beers we each drank. I paced myself pretty well as I’m not a big beer drinker, but I did like to savor the taste. Siren on the other hand was pounding them back one after the other. For her tiny body, I wasn’t sure where exactly she was putting it all. Surely that corset she was wearing wasn’t helping anything.

“Cassandra, what time is it?” I asked. Without missing a beat Siren looked a little ‘green around the gills’, as they say, turned to the side and let out everything she drank. “Time to go home, apparently,” I said. I saw the old analog clock on the wall and I strained my eyes to see it in the low lit room. It said it was about 10:00 PM. We stayed there all afternoon and all evening. Time flies when you’re having fun right?

“Oh you poor creature,” Cassandra said. “Let’s get you to the washroom and get you cleaned up.” She came from around the bar, helped Siren down off the stool. She put her arms around her slender shoulders and guided her to the bathroom.

“Well I suppose that’s the end of that, eh Puck?” Puck didn’t respond. I turned to look around for him, “Puck?” Puck was passed out under a napkin on the bar after having a few thimbles full of faery mead. I gently picked him up and placed him in my coat pocket, as is tradition at this point. Cassandra returned a little while later with Siren in tow, still looking sicker than a dog.

“Take this lightweight home, hon. She’s done,” said Cassandra, handing her off to me. Siren hung off my arm as I held her close to keep her from falling over. “And don’t you think of doing anything with her!” Cassandra said in a scolding tone.

“How could you think that of me, Cassandra!?” I ejected. “I’m not that much of a creep!”

Cassandra smiled, “I’m just teasing hun. Sorry!”

“It’s alright,” I said. Siren was just about passed out drunk so I picked her up princess style in my arms, said goodbye to Cassandra and went out to the car. I placed her down in the front seat gently. I took Puck out of my pocket and placed him gently on her lap and made sure their seatbelt was on. I drove Siren back to the hotel. By the time we got back Siren was awake and feeling a bit better. She still wanted to go lay down and go to bed. I brought her as far as the elevators as she carried Puck in her hands.

“I can take it from here, Mr. Frost. I’ll be okay,” She said. She gave me a peck on the cheek to put my mind at ease that she was fine.

Siren offered me Puck, I carefully took him from her hands and placed him back in my jacket pocket. I got in and started the car. Well, at least I tried to. All I got was a click. “Great,” I told myself. “Sounds like the battery died or something else fried.” I admitted defeat after unsuccessfully trying to find someone to give me a jump and began walking home. I wasn’t too happy as it was about five or so miles to get home at about 10:30 at night.

I was nearly halfway home. The street lights were burned out and there wasn’t any traffic around me, and it was dark. Like, nearly pitch black dark. I thought this was pretty suspect as I kept walking, reaching out with my senses. I couldn’t make anything odd out in the darkness. I made it about another block or so, in the thick black void of the street, when something knocked me down to the ground from behind, hard.

I was careful to land on the side where Puck wasn’t so as to not hurt him. With this going on he was still snoozing off his booze in my pocket. I got up to try and see who had hit me. The instant I was back up on my feet I was knocked down again. My face hit the pavement this time and I could taste blood in my mouth. I spat and focused my magic to the soles of my feet and imagined them as cinder blocks, to keep me from being knocked down. A neat little spell I came up with that I may or may not have used to cheat a bit during some friendly kickboxing sparring. With my magic being centered at my cinder block feet, I used that opportunity to feel out for anything that was nearby, increasing my sense’s sensitivity.

‘Behind me again,’ I thought to myself. I divided my focus from my feet to my hand. A small orange ball of light, looking like a golf ball sized sun, formed just above my palm thanks to my focus ring. The fireball’s heat was radiating out, this thing had to get launched quickly before I burned my hand. I could only guess where my attacker might be. I pointed the miniature sun in my palm to the area where my magical senses told me where my attacker could be. Winding up my arm like a pitcher I threw it away, hopefully in the right direction. After traveling for about twenty feet or so the fireball let out a small explosion, lighting the area just a little. The darkness was so thick, it was as if it was a living thing.

I had missed my attacker but I could see where they were now, though I could barely make them out. I moved in that direction to confront my assailant. This, in retrospect, was not the smartest thing I had ever done. After a couple seconds I realized I wasn’t running anymore. I had been lifted up off the ground! I had no idea how high up I was, it could have been one foot or ten. I had no way of knowing in the pitch black.

Once this new information passed across my mind I found myself being slammed against the nearest wall. I could feel that something was holding me up to the wall, but I couldn’t make out who or what was doing it. A pressure began to press down on my whole body. It felt like an elephant was being pushed against me. The feeling kept building up on me. I thought I was about to be pulp against the wall. Popped like a zit. I realized that, though my body was pressed against the wall, my hands and arms were still free! Even if they were a bit limp and tingly from the initial blow onto the wall. I tried to focus on what magic I could put into my hands. This was probably going to be a bit messy.

As I focused as best I could, my hair started to stand on end. The air started to get thicker. The space around my outstretched hands flashed and cracked and popped. Whiffs of ozone crept across my nostrils. I grabbed onto whatever was holding me down and released the electric charge I had built up. Light flashed, electricity arched and snapped loudly. Luckily, all of this raw electricity was being channeled and grounded through whatever it was that I had grabbed. Otherwise a really nasty lightning bolt would have shot out at whatever direction would be the least resistance with me looking like a Dark Side Jedi. And knowing my luck, it wouldn’t be in the direction I wanted. There was then a deafening clap of thunder and then silence. I realized that I was still being pressed into the wall and whatever was holding onto me was still there.

“Well that can’t be good,” I struggled to say.

Whatever I had grabbed and released a shit ton of energy into, didn’t seem to phase it. ′Shit,′ I thought. ′I guess this is how it ends then. With a big squish.’

In my final moments with Puck still in my pocket, not sure if he was hurt or even still alive, a few gunshots rang out and the darkness wavered. I felt the pressure on my body release and my feet hit the ground quickly. I guess I wasn’t too high up. I started to see my surroundings, and what was attacking me, better as a few more gunshots rang out. I looked around and saw my savior, Detective Green!

“Frost!” he shouted. “You alright?”

“Yeah, I think so,” I said as I focused another orange ball of light to my palm and let it loose towards the shadowy figure in front of me. It flew towards my enemy and exploded on impact. No damage again. It ran off behind an alleyway and disappeared. I felt for Puck in my pocket and took him out. He was in one piece and started to stir. He sat up and yawned and stretched.

“Did I miss something?” he said sleepily.

“Nope, nothing at all, buddy,” I laughed relieved. “We just almost died, that’s all.”

“Oh good,” Puck said as he hovered around my head, taking in our surroundings.

“Frost, what the hell was that? What did you do with the electricity and the exploding? And who are you talking to?” Green demanded as he marched up towards me trying to keep a professional police officer demeanor. I had forgotten for a moment that he was there.

“That, detective,” I began. “Is what we are after. At least I think it is.”

“You think!?” he spurted. “How do you not know?” He began to put his gun away, his arms akimbo.

“Well, it’s complicated. There isn’t really any information on the thing in question. So all I have are speculative suggestions and vague historical references.”

“How the hell are we supposed to deal with that!?”

“Not easily. Honestly. And I told you that you wouldn’t believe me anyway.”

“Okay,” Green said, calming down. “I’m going to need some real answers, Frost. Now and on record.”

Well, time to bring a mundane person into the weird world of magic. ’Better buckle up, Buttercup,’ I thought to myself as I took a deep breath and got ready to explain just about everything I knew.