Hello again lovely readers! I'm back from my hiatus! Or rather, the combination of being busy, as life tends to get, lazy, and not taking the time to write.
I will attempt to do better...
Today, I have another random story for you! As a fan of the supernatural and fantasy-inspired, I thought it might be fun to play around with it a little bit. Enjoy!
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| Just a little inspiration for the story overall... |
It actually works out pretty well to be deaf in my line of
work. The position of executive assistant to a tribe of banshees tends to have
a lot of turn-over amongst the hearing. Well, that and the ensuing madness
tends to keep one from being able to perform basic job functions... Luckily for
me, I don’t have that problem. The hearing, that is. Well, not the madness
either.
Also, the perks to handling the affairs of a supernatural
business and keeping everything quiet – no pun intended – are rather luxurious.
Travel expenses covered. And not cheap motels either, we’re talking The Ritz
here. Rare, mystical and expensive holiday bonuses and gifts, especially on the
demon holidays. Being raised Catholic doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a pagan
holiday gift every now and then, does it?
Plus the banshees are almost exclusively female and more
interested in luring their male victims – achem – I mean, clients. So sexual
harassment is pretty much a non-issue. Not too bad for my first job out of
college.
Faedra approached and signed, ‘Ready Julie?’ I nodded. Board meeting time. I grabbed my laptop and my phone. The ‘listening’ app was an invaluable technology for my line of work. While I could read lips probably better than most, I’m not exactly fluent in the seven tongues of Faerie. And Ancient Demonic was an absolute bitch to try and conjugate into English. On top of that, when you have a dozen representatives of the various supernatural clans at the monthly board meeting fighting over this client contract, that revenue chart, the other upcoming ritual sacrifice… let’s just say having a translating app that tracks the conversation is a complete life-saver for taking accurate meeting minutes.
It was halfway through the meeting that it happened. I looked up from typing to see the beings around me looking around and up at the ceiling, true terror in their eyes. And when you see a Garthurian warlord, all grizzled stony skin and razor tusks, with fear in his eyes… I’m not gonna lie. It makes you pee your pants a little. And that’s when the lights went out. The alarm I couldn’t hear had an emergency light that glowed red, creating crimson shadowy monsters of the party. Like my nightmares needed any more fuel to work with…
Everything happened at once. Most of the creatures flung themselves up from the table, preparing for battle and looking toward the door. I was in shock, sitting unmoving in my chair, hands still poised over the keyboard, pale in the blue-white glow of the screen. The fey underlings ran out through the board room doors only to be mowed down by some kind of glowing gold orbs. Their lithe muscled bodies shook with the impact as if they had grabbed hold of an industrial-grade electric fence. They fell, lifeless, to the floor, sections of their limbs crumbling to dust.
You know how they show fairies in the movies as these tiny cute little girls with pixie wings and delicate features? Well, real faeries aren’t like that at all. There’s a reason many of the supernatural creatures I’ve run up against use them as bodyguards. They’re tough. And more than a little bit scary. I tend to give any creatures that can take down a full-grown Fangor beast with their bare hands and without breaking a sweat, a large berth. But the glowy orb thingies took them out just like that!? If I couldn’t move before, I was definitely frozen now. I was finding it hard to take full breaths. I felt lightheaded. Is this what hyperventilating is?
The half dozen banshee executives around me, as one, took
stance, opened their maws to inhuman proportions and the next thing I knew, the
frosted glass walls of the board room were blasted outward in millions of
shards of glittering projectiles. God, I was glad I couldn’t hear that.
I saw movement in the darkness of the room beyond. Dozens of
them. Countless shadows moving in contorting jerks, skittering across the floor
and up the walls. I saw a flash of a few figures in flowing robes in the
hallways beyond.
Xandrathil turned to me. ‘Get under the table, child!’ she signed. She grabbed my arm and pulled me with her. She ripped back the carpet under the table to reveal a heavy wooden trapdoor with carved runes. I could tell they were of goblin-make but I couldn’t read them. Maybe my translator… damn it! I forgot my phone! I looked up to grab for it but it was too late. The trap door was hauled open and Xandrathil was pushing me down inside. She forced a scroll of parchment and something small, round and hard into my hand, squeezing it closed. I stared into her violet eyes, bewildered. She gave me a hard look and mouthed the word ‘Go!’ And then I felt a boom there was darkness as the door closed above my head.
I stood frozen for a moment on the stone stairs, heart
pounding in my head. What the fuck!?
The adrenaline seized me and I pushed against the door. They couldn’t abandon me like this! What was I supposed to do!? The wooden door may as well have been a stone ceiling above me. Absolutely unyielding. Then I felt it. A horrible shuddering rumble above me. Then a blast knocked me sideways to the dirt floor below. My entire body hit hard, my head only slightly cushioned by shoulder as my arm contorted out. I felt a snap. Fire shot through my elbow and lanced up my arm. The pain was intense but brief as the blackness ebbed across my vision and swallowed me whole.
I’m not sure how long it was before I woke. It couldn’t have been too long, but my mouth felt dry. I sneezed out dirt and sat up, my left arm throbbing. I made to move it but the pain in my elbow made me cry out. I tenderly touched it, finding the parchment and… what was it? A stone?... still in my right hand.
It was too dark to read the inscription on the parchment. Not too dark to see it’s outline in my hand though. The stone, or whatever it was, was pitch black. Even in so little light, it shone like a glob of oil in my palm. I rubbed my thumb over its surface. It was completely smooth except for some scratch markings around the bottom edge. How strange. I stuffed it and the paper in the small front pocket of my slacks, pressed tight against my hipbone.
Looking up, I could see a dim glow of light at the end of what seemed to be a narrow dirt tunnel I was in. I took a shuddering breath, forcing back the tears threatening to come. I swallowed hard and embraced my resolve. I can’t go back. I can only move forward. Just move forward, Julie. I braced my broken arm as best I could, stood up, though hunched in the cramped tunnel, and stalked forward. Well, I thought, I guess there was one good thing about this… at least I got my lunch break today…
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed my little story snippet!
Feel free if you want to leave any comments below, I'd love to hear your feedback!
