So engrossed she was in the chapter that she didn’t notice when her relief came in.\u00a0 She waved to her, and then headed for he last class of the day, Mass Communications.\u00a0 Here they would talk about TV and what it meant for Western culture.\u00a0 Though she didn’t like to watch TV, she had to pick one day to watch and one channel to watch and write in a journal about each episode.\u00a0 She had picked Sunday prime time, watching A&E.\u00a0 It was not exactly her cup of tea, but it was either that or PBS.<\/p>\n
After that class, she got on the bus to head home.\u00a0 About halfway down Commonwealth Avenue, she remembered something.\u00a0 It tugged on the edge of her consciousness, making her look through her notebooks to find something she wrote down.\u00a0 She found on the back of her Comp notebook, the words, “Black duster.”\u00a0 She remembered the boy with the brown duster in her Algebra class, but couldn’t remember anything else.<\/p>\n
She decided that she needed new music, so she got off the bus at Fry’s, a local CD shop.\u00a0 They usually had the college alternative music that she found herself growing to like, but they also had a good selection of country, which she had been brought up with.\u00a0 She went inside, and started pawing through the used CD rack, looking for old Loretta Switt or the Sex Pistols.<\/p>\n
Someone came up to her side, and she looked up, startled.\u00a0 It was the young man in the black duster from the bus.\u00a0 “Hi,” he said, and plucked a CD from the rack.<\/p>\n
“Are you stalking me?” she demanded.<\/p>\n
“I want to apologize for earlier.”<\/p>\n
That memory came flooding back.\u00a0 “What were you doing?”<\/p>\n
The young man pocketed the CD.<\/p>\n
“You are a thief!”<\/p>\n
“Shhh.\u00a0 Do you want to draw attention to yourself?”<\/p>\n
“You’re going to walk out of here with that, aren’t you?”<\/p>\n
“Maybe, maybe not.\u00a0 I wanted to show you what I found.”\u00a0 He went in the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a woman’s silver ring with dark blue and light blue stones in it.\u00a0 “This is what drew that man to the store, time and time again.\u00a0 It was his favorite piece.”<\/p>\n
She looked at the ring.\u00a0 It looked simple enough, split in half down the middle with the two stones set inside.\u00a0 “Why?”<\/p>\n
“Why do you like the music you do?\u00a0 Who knows.”\u00a0 He pocketed the ring.\u00a0 “Once I cleansed the ring, he was able to go to his final rest.”<\/p>\n
“What?”<\/p>\n
“Let’s go get some coffee, and I promise to explain everything.”<\/p>\n
“I was planning on eating dinner – ”<\/p>\n
“Then I’ll take you to the pizza place right next door.”\u00a0 He smiled.\u00a0 “It’ll be a date.”<\/p>\n
“I don’t date thieves.”<\/p>\n
He sighed, and put the CD back.\u00a0 “Spoilsport.\u00a0 C’mon, my treat.\u00a0 And I’ll explain everything.”<\/p>\n
She crossed her arms in front of her and regarded him for a minute.\u00a0 “What’s your name?”<\/p>\n
“Daniel,” he said.\u00a0 “Will you come with me?”<\/p>\n
She frowned, and followed him.<\/p>\n
They walked out of the CD shop and next door to the pizza restaurant.\u00a0 He ordered four slices of pepperoni, though she had often eaten a large pizza all on her own.\u00a0 He got her a Pepsi, though she preferred Diet Coke, and they sat across from each other in a booth.<\/p>\n
“First of all,” he said, after biting into the pizza, “I told you I’m a mage.”<\/p>\n
“Yes,” she said, eating the pizza ravenously.\u00a0 “You make rabbits pop out of hats.”<\/p>\n
“No, that’s a magician.\u00a0 I’m a mage, which means I do all sorts of magic.\u00a0 I would have gotten that CD for you without setting off any alarms.\u00a0 You do know that they put anti-theft devices in those CD’s, right?”<\/p>\n
“I kind of thought they did,” she said, finishing up the first slice of pizza.\u00a0 He still hadn’t finished even half of his.\u00a0 She drank soda to cover up how hungry she was.\u00a0 “What do you mean you ‘cleansed’ the ring?”<\/p>\n
He sat forward, warming to his subject.\u00a0 “When ghosts are around, it’s usually because they’re tethered here because of something or someone.\u00a0 Ghosts are people’s souls, who have something here they have to finish, or do, or like or love.\u00a0 Loved ones can have other souls follow them for life; sometimes they’re stuck in a certain place because something happened to them there.\u00a0 Or, like this ring, it’s something that they loved and wanted to be tied to forever.”<\/p>\n
“That man was doing that forever?”<\/p>\n
“I don’t know how long ago it was, but that store’s been closed the last thirty years.\u00a0 It was a jewelry store in the 50’s, then a pawn shop, so it could be that he’s been doing it since the 50’s, or since he died.\u00a0 That ring has been there since then.”<\/p>\n
“What are you going to do with the ring?”<\/p>\n
“Sell it at a pawn shop, probably.”<\/p>\n
“Where do you live?”<\/p>\n
Daniel ate some pizza.\u00a0 “Ah, that’s where we get into some nitty gritty details, and especially how I know your name.”<\/p>\n
“You said you’d explain everything,” she said, starting in on the second slice, forcing herself to go slow.<\/p>\n
“Yes,” he replied, “and it’s probably going to blow your mind, so don’t freak out until I’m done, all right?”<\/p>\n
“Okay…” she said, and ate pizza while he told her:<\/p>\n
“I am a fairie.\u00a0 I live with my prince in his castle over in Longwood.\u00a0 Many of us help humans, at least those of the Spring Court like myself.\u00a0 The ones of the Fall Court do not, and the ones of the Summer Court could care less, since they are forever entertaining each other.\u00a0 The Winter Court are all dead.\u00a0 Regardless, what we do in the Spring Court is try to keep humans unaware of what happens around them, and we try to help them against the Soul-stealing Vampyrn that exist.\u00a0 That’s where you come in.”<\/p>\n
She had stopped eating her pizza after the first sentence.\u00a0 He paused to eat his pizza and she asked, “Are you done?”<\/p>\n
“Nope,” he said, taking a drink of his soda.\u00a0 “What you do is you see the souls of people, and you can see whether or not someone is Vampyrn.\u00a0 Vampyrn wear other people’s souls like cloaks, and hold onto those souls; that is what gives them power and strength.”\u00a0 He ate the pizza, saying, “Okay, ask away.”<\/p>\n
She had set her pizza down, leaned back in her chair and said, “You expect me to believe that?”<\/p>\n
“It’s the truth.”<\/p>\n
“You don’t look like a fairie.”<\/p>\n
“You’re thinking I’m a pixie.\u00a0 Pixie and fairie are two different things.”<\/p>\n
“What’s this about Courts?”<\/p>\n
“It’s how we align ourselves.\u00a0 Spring Courts are usually helpers of humans, and most of the fairie who walk among human kind are of the Spring Court.\u00a0 Fall Court fairie also walk among humans, but they cause sickness, mental illness, and all sorts of maladies.\u00a0 Summer Court fairies live in the woods, like Longwood Mall, and are very close to the Spring Court.”<\/p>\n
“The Winter Court is dead?”<\/p>\n
“It’s where dead fairie go.\u00a0 They sometimes have some impact on humankind, but it’s mostly in the realm of nightmares and dreams.”<\/p>\n
“What are these Vampyrn?\u00a0 I’ve never heard of them.”<\/p>\n
“That’s what’s supposed to happen,” he said, “You’re not supposed to know about them.”<\/p>\n
“Well why are you telling me?” she demanded.<\/p>\n
“Because if you’re going to help, you need to know what they are.”<\/p>\n
“Who said I was going to help you with anything?”<\/p>\n
Daniel tilted his head, and tried to give her a pleading look.\u00a0 She got that look from her brothers when they begged her for something, so it didn’t work on her.\u00a0 “Please?\u00a0 I’m asking for not only the fairie, but for you humans.”<\/p>\n
“Are there Vampyrn here?\u00a0 Like now?”<\/p>\n
“I don’t know.\u00a0 You would be able to see.”<\/p>\n
“How?”<\/p>\n
“You’d look at a person and see their soul.”<\/p>\n
“Look,” she said, pushing the pizza away, “I’ve never had this happen to me until I saw you.\u00a0 For all I know, you’re doing this to me, you magician.”<\/p>\n
“I’m not a magician – ”<\/p>\n
She got out of the booth.\u00a0 “I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t want to see you again.”<\/p>\n
Daniel got out of the booth, leaving his food there.\u00a0 “Please, look, I’m begging you.\u00a0 Don’t go.”\u00a0 He stood in front of her.<\/p>\n
“I’m not helping you with your crazy scheme.\u00a0 And get out of my way.”<\/p>\n
Daniel sidestepped, and she pushed past him.\u00a0 She felt a little bad for him, being delusional at such a young age, but she couldn’t see herself doing anything to help a thief.\u00a0\u00a0 Fairie.\u00a0 Vampyrn.\u00a0 What the hell was this guy thinking she was, some hick who fell off the turnip truck?\u00a0 She wasn’t going to “help” him; next he was going to ask her for money, or some such things.\u00a0 No, she wasn’t falling for any of that.\u00a0 She wasn’t born yesterday.<\/p>\n
She got back on the bus and headed back down Commonwealth Avenue to her apartment.\u00a0 As she got closer to her apartment, the whole thing seemed like a dream.\u00a0 She pulled out her comp notebook and under the Black Duster, wrote down what had happened, using the words “fairy” and “Vampirin”.\u00a0 She would search the Internet for these terms later.<\/p>\n
Kate got home and it was still light outside, as she walked past the four buildings.\u00a0 At the frat boy’s building, someone tossed beer over the upper porch just moments before she walked in that direction.\u00a0 She ducked close to the house to avoid any more falling debris and found her way back to her house.<\/p>\n
She had no class tomorrow, so she decided to buckle down and study.\u00a0 She went into her room and pulled out her comp book, ready to write a compare-contrast essay for two books that she had read over the summer.\u00a0 Unfortunately she didn’t have the books with her, so she had to rely on her memory, which was pretty shoddy these days.<\/p>\n
She opened her Comp book and turned to the back page, seeing what she had written.\u00a0 She fired up the computer and got on Dig-It, her Internet search site of choice.\u00a0 She looked up fairy, and there, in bright colors, was what she had imagined: a little girl in a gossamer gown with wings.\u00a0 There were different kinds of wings, from pretty thin little paper wings to thick angel wings.\u00a0 Vampirin didn’t show up as anything.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So engrossed she was in the chapter that she didn’t notice when her relief came in.\u00a0 She waved to her, and then headed for he last class of the day, Mass Communications.\u00a0 Here they would talk about TV and what … Continue reading