by Blythe Baker
“The truth about what?” Lucan said. “That a monster attacked Mitch?”
“Well, that, and that we are Gifted – ”
“No,” Lucan said, cutting me off. “Absolutely not.”
“But – ” I said.
“Marianne, do you even hear yourself?” he asked. “Most of us spend our whole lives keeping the secret of the Gifted from those who are not of our kind. And even then, the secret still gets out sometimes. If Sheriff Garland were to know – ”
“Then he’d understand so much more about what’s been happening around here in Faerywood Falls,” I said, interrupting him, my eyes narrowing. “If we had his support, then he’d be able to protect us better – ”
“Marianne, I understand the desire for openness,” Lucan said. “But I really don’t think it’s best to tell him.”
“But I do,” I said. “Look, he’s seen a lot in the last few months. If he’d known about the Gifted, a lot more would make sense to him, and with the monster on the loose killing people, I think it’s best if he understands the reasoning behind why it’s after me like it is.”
“What if he doesn’t believe you?” Lucan asked, pleading with me. “What if he decides you belong in a mental hospital?”
“He wouldn’t think that,” I said.
“Are you certain?” Lucan asked.
My hesitation was enough to make Lucan sigh.
We pulled into the parking lot, and the knots in my stomach twisted and tightened even more. “Whatever we decide when we get in there, we have to tell him about Mitch,” I said.
“Have you come up with a good story to tell him why it happened?” Lucan asked as he put the car in park and shut off the engine.
“…I’m still working on that part,” I said as I climbed out into the cold night.
The police station was busy for eight o’clock at night on a Monday; there were cars in every parking spot, and before we’d even stepped inside, I could see the silhouettes of a lot of different people through the windows, most of whom were not wearing the police standard uniforms.
Warm air rushed over us as we hurried inside, alarms blaring to let the officers know someone had come in. The bullet proof glass was covered in handprints and smeared with who knew what sort of bodily fluids.
We opened more doors and found ourselves in a waiting room of sorts, almost like at the emergency room at the hospital. Every chair was full; one woman was sobbing into a tissue; a tall, scruffy man was staring blankly into the distance, a distinct bruise appearing over his eye; a boy who couldn’t have been older than eighteen or so was holding a gauzy bandage over a wound in his arm.
We hurried to the reception desk.
“We need to see Sheriff Garland,” I said, almost breathlessly, brushing some hair out of my mouth. “Please.”
The woman behind the counter stared coolly up at us. “I’m sorry, the Sheriff is very busy. You’ll have to wait to speak with Officer Mitchell like the rest of – ”
“I’m a friend of the Sheriff’s,” I said. “Please, just call him and tell him that – ”
“Marianne Huffler…”
I looked up, the acid in my stomach churning…and found myself staring at Deputy Morris.
He leaned against the wall beside the desk, and a malicious grin spread across his face.
It was hard to miss the belt he wore, and the holsters that hung from it…both of which held a pistol.
“Deputy Morris,” I said, my eyes narrowing.
“Good call, Martha. Don’t let her through,” Deputy Morris said with a sidelong look at the woman behind the desk. “She’s on the definite no go list.” His eyes widened and he gave her a “You know what to do” sort of look.
The woman looked up at me, and then at Lucan who was standing behind me. “But isn’t that the owner of the bank?” she asked, her eyes widening.
Deputy Morris shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Just because he’s rich doesn’t mean he’s above the law. If he’s with her, he’s automatically out.”
I glared at him. “Are you kidding me?” I asked. “Look, I really don’t know what you have against me, but this is serious. I need to see Sheriff Garland. Now.”
I hoped that for once, just this one time, he’d be able to understand the desperation in my eyes. I hated to stoop to begging, but if that was what would give him the satisfaction he was looking for…
His grin widened. “No.”
My stomach dropped.
“Now, listen here,” Lucan said, stepping out beside me. “I will not allow you to treat her this way. This community has always had a wonderful relationship with the police station. Your service has been greatly appreciated by everyone in Faerywood Falls. But you cannot dismiss a request so easily, especially when the lady has something of importance to share with the Sheriff.”
Deputy Morris shrugged again. “It doesn’t matter what you want or how good of a relationship we have or whatever. It doesn’t matter. Got it?”
My hands balled into fists. “Why?” I asked.
“I thought that would be obvious,” he said. “You have no business being here. You aren’t a consultant, and you definitely aren’t an officer. So I don’t see why you think you should somehow surpass all the other fine people behind you, who also have problems, and skip to the front of the line? And not only that, but you think that you have some sort of special privileges here and can see the Sheriff at the drop of a hat? No, no, no…that’s not how these things work.”
His condescending tone was making me grit my teeth.
“But you don’t understand. It’s important – ”
Deputy Morris screwed up his face in disgust. “With you, it’s always important, always needing attention right this very minute.”
“Deputy, do you really wish to speak so freely with so many witnesses present?” Lucan asked, a dangerous tone in his voice. “Reputation still holds a great deal of weight in Faerywood Falls…”
Deputy Morris waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t care. Because you know what? I’m considering reporting Sheriff Garland to the state for negligence and illegal practices.”
My stomach dropped. “…What?”
Deputy Morris chuckled. “Yeah. Because he’s been a little too soft, a little too lenient for academy standards. Any association he has with you is deeply inappropriate and unprofessional.”
Whispers from the other people waiting in the front room met my ears, and my face flushed red. “You’re insinuating things that aren’t true,” I said.
Deputy Morris held his hands out, palm upward. “Who cares? It doesn’t matter if that’s what they think.”
“Um, yes it does,” I said. “Because that’s a lie.”
“Not the fact that he’s been taking advice and help from some civilian,” Deputy Morris said. “Which is wrong.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. He was, in fact, right. At least partially. But Sheriff Garland and I sort of were required to join forces, time and again. How could I explain to him that it just happened? And the sheriff needed me, because of the Gifted being involved in almost every single case…
“See? Even you can’t defend it,” Deputy Morris said.
No. I couldn’t.
I looked helplessly up at Lucan.
The last thing I wanted was to put Sheriff Garland in danger. If he were to lose his job, I’d lose my connection with the law enforcement in town, and therefore, the ability to help piece together the answers to the crimes that kept happening locally, all of which had involved a Gifted in some capacity.
And if he were to be displaced in some way, and Deputy Morris were to take over…things would quickly spiral downward in Faerywood Falls.
That wouldn’t end well for anyone.
“Now, you can feel free to sit and wait for your turn for Officer Mitchell to hear your tale of woe,” Deputy Morris said smugly. “Or feel free to leave. That option works just as well.”
Fuming, I turned on my heel and stormed out of
the station.
“Marianne,” Lucan said, hurrying to catch up with me as soon as we were outside. “Marianne…”
I dissolved into tears where I stopped, and I swiftly felt his arms around me, pulling me in close to him.
“It’s alright…” he said, stroking my hair. “I’m sorry, Marianne. That man is wretched, and he deserves to be fired.”
“I don’t even care about that,” I said, crying into his wool jacket. “I’m just upset about Mitch…”
The truth was, Deputy Morris had made me angry. He’d hurt me, and humiliated me. But more than anything, I needed to be strong so I could protect Sheriff Garland.
“I’ll report the death for you, okay?” Lucan said. “I’ll call when I get home.”
I just nodded. I didn’t think I could handle describing Mitch’s body to the police anyways.
“Come on, Marianne…” Lucan said. “I’ll get you home and make you some tea. Alright?”
I didn’t answer, but let him walk me over to the car and help me inside.
Numbness washed over me, leeching the stinging sorrow from my heart.
“I’m sorry I ever wanted to go there…” I told Lucan as we drove away.
“You don’t need to apologize,” Lucan said. “If I’d known we were going to run into such a difficult stumbling block, I would have come better prepared. If that man ever thinks he is going to get good service anywhere in this town again…”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m sure anyone who spends five seconds with him knows what an awful person he really is…”
“Poor Sheriff Garland,” Lucan said. “Does he know what Deputy Morris is threatening?”
“I’m sure he does,” I said. “That’s why I haven’t heard from him lately.”
Lucan’s jaw clenched as we drove. “This just keeps getting more and more difficult, doesn’t it?”
“You don’t have to remind me…” I said.
He was right, though. Everywhere we turned, we were running into obstacles.
First it was the council. Then it was the monster killing Mitch. Now I was cut off from the help of the authorities.
“We have to find a way to fix this,” I said. “We don’t have time to waste.”
7
Without the help of the authorities, I was going to be on my own when it came to figuring out how to deal with the monster.
“It’s attacking people I know in order to get to me,” I said to Lucan after he dropped me back off at my cabin that night. “I think it’s trying to throw me off my guard.”
“I’d really feel better if you came to stay with me at the estate,” Lucan said. “What if it attacks you here when you’re all alone in the middle of the night?”
A chill ran down my spine, but the same lightning that crackled beneath my feet when I was in the council hall flickered inside me again. “I’ll be fine. I am not going to let that monster get the better of me.”
I appreciated Lucan’s offer, though, and had seriously considered it. But now was not the time to run…and more than anything, I didn’t want to put him or the other shape shifters in danger. Who knew what sort of destruction the monster could cause to a whole house full of them? It could be a bloodbath…and it would be all my fault.
“The monster is after me,” I said. “Anyone standing in its way is going to be nothing more than a distraction, and who knows what it’ll do.”
Lucan reluctantly left me that night, and even though I knew that he was only a phone call away, I immediately wished he’d stayed with me.
The fear alone kept me awake the entire night.
When dawn came, all I could think of was Mitch.
“It’s my fault that his wife got the most horrific phone call she’ll ever receive last night…” I said to Athena as I lay curled up in a ball on my bed. “If he hadn’t known me, the monster wouldn’t have had any reason to target him. It’s awful.”
You can’t blame yourself, she said.
“But he was so frightened when I talked to him on the phone…” I said. “To think he died like that…”
It was almost impossible to brush the thoughts of his face from my mind, of the way his body was mangled in the front seat the way it was…
It made my stomach turn over.
“The only thing I can do is warn all the people in my life,” I said. “They all need to be careful now.”
That’s true, Athena said. And I think you need to start preparing for the fight you saw when you touched that shard of crystal.
I looked over at the coffee table. The clock still sat there, with the chunk of milky, pearl-like crystal nestled in the open hidden compartment.
“I have no idea when that’s supposed to happen,” I said. “It didn’t tell me.”
It doesn’t matter, Athena said. It can’t be long from now, can it?
My heart raced, thundering against my ribs. “But I…I’m not ready for a fight like that.”
I think you’re more ready than you think, Athena said.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
I know you, Athena said. I know how strong you are.
I reached out and scratched her behind the ears. “I appreciate your vote of confidence,” I said.
I stared up at the ceiling, my thoughts chasing themselves around in circles.
“Well…if that’s where all this is going, I need to make sure others around me are prepared, too,” I said, sitting up.
And that meant starting with my family, first.
I went up to the Lodge and found Aunt Candace, and told her that I needed to speak to her and Bliss about something. Aunt Candace’s face paled, but I was glad she didn’t drill me with questions as we went up to her office where we wouldn’t be disturbed by any of the guests.
“What is all this about?” Aunt Candace asked as she closed the door behind us.
I held up a finger, asking her to wait, as I set my phone down on the desk. I turned it on speakerphone and a dial tone echoed around the room.
“Hey, Marianne,” Bliss said.
“Hi, Bliss,” I said. “I’ve got you on speaker here with your mom.”
“Whoa, is everything okay?” Bliss asked.
“Yeah, I’d like to know the same thing,” Aunt Candace said, folding her arms and giving me a very stern, motherly look.
I laid both my hands, palms flat, on the desk on either side of my cell phone, and made eye contact with Aunt Candace.
“The monster that Dante Fain is chasing is after me now,” I said.
Aunt Candace gasped.
“How do you know?” Bliss asked.
“Because it told me,” I said.
“Told you?” Aunt Candace asked, laying a hand over her heart. “It can speak?”
“Apparently it can now,” I said. My throat grew tight and my eyes welled with tears. “…And it killed a friend of mine.”
Aunt Candance moved closer and wrapped an arm around my shoulder.
“Who?” Bliss asked.
I rubbed my eyes, regaining control of myself. “His name was Mitch. I met him when we went to those paranormal meetings. The ones headed up by Harriet Bennet? The woman whose sister tried to kill me?”
Bliss let out a long, heavy sigh, and Aunt Candace just rubbed my back with her hand.
“He called me last night, telling me he saw something strange at work. Mitch was the guy who didn’t believe in any of the paranormal stuff. He thought it was all in people’s imaginations. But when I heard the tone in his voice last night…I think he saw the monster. I think it chased him.” I took a shuddering breath. Why was this so much harder to talk about the day after it happened? “He asked me to meet with him so we could talk about it, and when I got there, he – ”
“It’s okay, sweetheart…” Aunt Candace said.
I slammed my palm against the desk. “It’s not fair,” I said. “Mitch never did anything to anyone. He was a soldier. He served his country. He had a wife and kids who he loved more than
his own life. It’s just…not fair…”
Aunt Candace and Bliss gave me a few minutes to cry. I needed to. The pain I carried with me was too great. I was in too much shock the night before, but now that I’d had some time to cool down, everything seemed so much more grim and dark.
“And then the monster appeared,” I said, ignoring the urge to hiccup. “And it spoke to me. It called me Light.”
I then told them about what I’d discovered when I went to the Hollow, and what Zara had told me.
“Wait, you sneaked into the Hollow?” Bliss asked. “That’s gutsy.”
“Yeah, well, they weren’t exactly happy about it…” I said.
I explained how the forest’s acceptance of me meant that I was now what was called a Light, a faery chosen by the forest to protect against the darkness, the monster that manifested itself as the challenger to the Light.
“The monster told me that it and I were one in the same, just two different sides of the same coin,” I said. “I’ve been wrestling with that. It’s almost as if the monster is an anti-faery, the opposite of me. It said that neither of us can exist without the other.”
“That does make sense, though,” Bliss said. “If a darkness like that rises up, then it only makes sense that a similar power would rise up to meet it. It’s the classic good versus evil fight, right?”
“But why does it have to be Marianne?” Aunt Candace asked. “Why couldn’t it have been someone else?”
“Would you rather the monster run around as it pleased?” Bliss asked. “Because without Marianne, that’s what it sounds like would happen.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Aunt Candace said with a huff, folding her arms. “I’m just saying that I wish it didn’t have to be Marianne.”
“She’s the only faery around, Mom,” Bliss said.
“Yeah, but I’m with your mom…” I said. “I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask to be a faery. I didn’t ask to be the one who kept stumbling upon all these deaths, all these twisted and dark people that could only see murder as a viable option. I didn’t ask to be chased by this murderous beast, and I didn’t ask to be the one to have to face it in the end.”