“Whoa, that is a weird day,” Carmen agrees. “Did Greg print out your paper for you?”
“Yeah right,” Holly snorts. “Things have just been strange since yesterday. But maybe I’m reading too much into things.”
“Strange things happen all the time, Hol.” Carmen gives her a meaningful look. “But if you say something is going on, then I believe you.”
“I don’t know what I’m saying. Maybe I just need more sleep.” Holly rubs her fingers over the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know. I wasn’t even hung over this morning. Shouldn’t I feel something after drinking a whole bottle of wine in a few hours?”
“Hol, count your blessings. My freaking head is like the percussion section of the marching band right now,” Carmen groans, “so get me some greasy food and let’s go back to your place and talk this out.”
“I have to work,” Holly protests.
“At four, same as me,” Carmen argues. “C’mon girl, you’ve got time.”
“I have essays to grade, and a paper to start researching and who knows what I’m forgetting right now.”
Carmen turns to face her, puts her tiny hands on Holly’s shoulders, and says, “Holly Chamberlain, you need to take a break. You are literally driving yourself insane. And, we really need to talk.”
Holly feels herself nodding her agreement. “Okay, Carmen.”
“Good. Now what are we eating?” Carmen grins and sizes up the food trucks.
“Definitely the BBQ pork.” Holly gestures toward the truck on the far right, her favorite. She buys two sandwiches and hands one to Carmen. “You wanna walk?”
“How far is it?” Carmen asks through a mouthful.
“Just a few blocks, maybe ten minutes.” Holly knows it’s more like twelve but really would rather walk in the fresh air.
“Sure, why not?” Carmen shrugs. “This is delicious, Hol.”
“Right? It’s my go-to when I have a jam-packed day,” Holly explains. “I’ve learned all the great eats from here to work and then some.”
“So, not a cook?”
“I love to cook but I don’t exactly have time for real meals these days, unless I visit Mom.”
Carmen says something that comes out garbled because of the mouth full of BBQ. She chews it, swallows and tries again. “Why would you cook if you can eat like this?”
“Because I like it?” Holly takes a bite of her own sandwich, not the best she’s had from that truck but not the worst either.
“So, you said this weird stuff started yesterday?” Carmen asks as she chucks her empty wrapper into a nearby recycling bin.
Holly finishes chewing and swallows. She frowns and thinks back to when it first started. “I suppose it was right before work when I thought I saw my old boyfriend across the street. I haven’t thought about him in years and all of a sudden, he was there. Or, he wasn’t. I don’t know. Then time got weird at work and I felt strange.”
Carmen nods encouragingly. “So this boyfriend was special, huh?”
“I haven’t seen him in eight years, Carmen.” Holly tries to end the discussion. She does not want to talk about Tristan now.
“So what? Special is special, there are no time limits on it.” Carmen tucks her hair behind her ears, there’s a bit of a hop in her step now.
“I don’t really want to talk about that, Carmen.” Holly focuses on her sandwich.
“That’s fine. But we really need to talk about it at some point.” Carmen changes the subject. “So how far is your house?”
“Next block up.” Holly polishes off her sandwich and crushes the wrapper into a ball. “Where’d you go last night?”
“Here and there,” Carmen answers evasively. “It was a good night.”
Holly leads the way up the steps to her house. “This is it.”
“Nice.” Carmen sounds impressed. “How do you swing the rent on a place like this?”
“I couldn’t if it weren’t for Greg paying half,” Holly fiddles with the stubborn lock, “and I still have to work at the coffee shop to supplement what I get as a TA and from scholarships. Didn’t you ever wonder why I pick up so many extra shifts?”
“I just thought you enjoyed working with me,” Carmen teases.
“That too,” Holly concedes. “It seems strange I haven’t had you over before now.”
“Well, it’s not like you have a lot of time to hang out.”
Holly pushes the door open and steps in. “I’m sorry. It’s just hard balancing everything. I feel like Greg is more of a roommate than a boyfriend these days. I have to check in with Mom every week since my siblings are too busy with their own lives. Plus, working at the coffee shop and my TA responsibilities and the few classes I have left to graduate.” Holly sighs and drops her keys in the bowl.
“I get it, Hol.” Carmen pats her on the arm. “But you have to take care of yourself, too. Let’s just hang out for a few hours until you have to work, okay?”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right.” Holly drops her bag, kicks her shoes off and leads the way into the living room. “What the hell?”
“What’s wrong?” Carmen pops up by her side.
“It’s clean,” Holly sputters. “It was a wreck in here when I left this morning.”
“So, Greg cleaned up for you, that’s good, right?” Carmen plops in the couch and tucks her feet up under her.
“No, Greg is at class,” Holly mutters. Her essays are stacked neatly on the coffee table in two piles, her pen rests on top of the one stack. No clothes strewn about, no wine glass or bottle in sight, and, even more confusing, it smells like lavender. “Seriously, what the hell?”
“Maybe the house elves stopped by and cleaned up for you,” Carmen teases. “C’mon, Hol, why are you complaining?”
“I’m not complaining, I’m just confused.” Holly settles on the couch opposite her friend and pulls her knees up to her chest. “Am I going insane?”
“No, you are not going insane.” Carmen shakes her head. “I’m sure there is a perfectly good explanation for what’s going on. We just have to figure it out. Let’s go back over your morning, ‘kay?”
“Yeah. Okay.” Holly sounds unsure. “I woke up late, because apparently I fell asleep on the couch. Greg woke me up. He was standing over me, kind of yelling at me.”
“Why would he yell at you?” Carmen asks.
“I was dreaming about another guy,” Holly answers carefully. “He apparently didn’t like it. I told him it was all a misunderstanding. I think he believed me before he left. But, things have been bland between us lately. I mean, I just don’t know what we are anymore. He doesn’t make me feel anything special.”
“Whoa.” Carmen puts her hands up. “I think we are getting to the root of at least some of your problems. I mean, clearly your relationship is in the toilet.”
Holly sighs. She knows. “But that’s not what’s causing me to see my childhood friend, have sex dreams about another man, or have a magically cleaned up house.”
Carmen contemplates this. “No, relationship issues don’t generally lead to a clean house but they could explain why you are conjuring up old friends and sex dreams. Your subconscious is trying to tell you something, girl.”
“When did you become a therapist?” Holly teases.
“I study dreams, you know that,” Carmen answers simply. “There’s clearly something going on with you to explain a lot of this. It also explains why our little dance party didn’t help you yesterday.”
“Huh? It helped me a lot.”
“Not the way it should have.” Carmen bites her lip. “You know how I said we really need to talk….well….it’s time we have that talk.”
“What did you do, Carmen?” Holly fears the answer, her mind rolling through the horrible things her friend could have done to warrant this conversation.
“Holly, there are things in this world that we can’t explain, do you agree?” Carmen begins; she doesn’t wait for confirmation. “There are also things that some peopl
e can’t explain because they don’t want to see the explanation. Does that make sense?”
“No.” Holly shakes her head.
Carmen pinches the bridge of her nose. “Okay. Here goes. You know how people call me a gypsy?”
“Yeah, all the time.” Holly nods. “It definitely has something to do with the clothes but you’re your lackadaisical approach to nearly everything…”
Carmen raises a hand to silence her. “What if I am something they just don’t have a name for?”
“You’re freaking me out a little,” Holly admits.
“I wasn’t going to tell you any of this – like ever,” Carmen continues, her words pouring out in a wave. “We aren’t supposed to, it’s a thing, but something is happening to you and I need to help you through it which won’t work if you don’t know that I’m here to help you.
“Please believe me, Hol, I’m your friend and I will help you if you let me but you need to know about what the world is really like and the only way to do that it is to show you who I really am.”
Carmen smiles, puts her hands over her face and shakes her head back and forth. She pushes her hands toward her hairline, runs them over her hair, and sets them in her lap.
Holly stares. She can’t help it. She pinches herself in the arm. Nothing happens.
“Hol, say something, will you?” Carmen’s voice almost tinkles, like tiny bells.
Holly opens her mouth but closes it again. Words are failing her most miserably. She just stares at her friend whose normally petite features, bronze skin, and jet black hair have melted into something far more beautiful and exotic. Her nose is longer, her cheek bones higher, her skin smooth and almost silvery in tone. Her hair cascades past her shoulders in waves of bronze and copper.
“Holly, tell me you aren’t having a stroke.” Carmen’s lips move, forming words that Holly hears and processes but can’t quite respond to. “Hol, c’mon. I’m easy to take, there are other things that are…..well….not so much.”
“What.” Holly forms one word, no inflection, no intonation of any kind, more of a whispered statement. She blinks and rubs her eyes. Carmen still resembles a fairy from The Lord of the Rings, down to the pointed ears.
“I knew if I just told you that, you wouldn’t believe me.” Carmen’s lips break into a smile that makes her even more beautiful. “I’m an elf.”
“Like Legolas?” Holly asks numbly. Her brain isn’t working quite right.
Carmen laughs. It sounds different than before, like the best choir in the world singing in perfect tune. “Not really, I’m not good with a bow.”
“Mmhmm.” Holly exhales loudly. “This is a lot to process, Carmen. Wait, that’s really not your name, is it?”
“Nope.” Carmen keeps smiling at her. It’s almost unsettling. “It’s a little more difficult to say and there’s no real translation to your tongue.”
“I see,” Holly manages.
“Hol, I’m one of the good guys. I promise.” Carmen draws a slender finger over her heart to make the sign of a cross. “I’m going to protect you.”
“Protect me?” Holly’s ears perk up. “From what?”
“We don’t know yet,” Carmen frowns, even beautiful in sorrow, “but something is clouding your life and it’s not supposed to be there. You’ve suffered enough loss; my people do not wish to see you suffer any more.”
“People suffer.” Holly shrugs. “Why am I special?”
Carmen smiles again, her silvery eyes sparkle. “Because you are kind. Unfailingly so. You befriended me when you had no reason to. You do not treat me differently, though others see there is something strange about me.”
“It’s what people do,” Holly argues. “Lots of people are nice.”
“No, Holly,” Carmen shakes her head, “people are not nice. You just don’t see it because it’s not in your heart to see it. There is ugliness and cruelty in this world but you choose to be kind. It is because of that kindness that we are interested in your life.”
“I see.” Holly doesn’t know what to say. Is she really kind? She thinks back to her actions and doesn’t feel especially giving.
“You are, Holly,” Carmen says gently. “The fact that you don’t realize how kind you are should speak to the truth of what I say.”
“So what else is real? What is it you need to protect me from?” Holly’s words are finally catching up with her thoughts.
“First, we don’t know exactly what is threatening you.” Carmen seems to relax, satisfied that Holly is accepting what she’s saying. “As for your other question, I don’t really know where to start. Maybe it’s better if you ask and I tell you if they’re real or not. We can make it a game.”
“A game?” Holly asks.
“Yeah, why not?” Carmen grins. She shakes her head back and forth and returns to the face Holly has always known. “We can play on the way to work.”
“Um. Okay,” Holly responds, uncertainly.
**
“So, vampires, shape-shifters, and werewolves are all real.” Holly counts off on her fingers as the bus carries them toward Westlake. Everything looks different now.
“Yep. There are actually several species of Weres, all canines or felines.” Carmen says this as nonchalantly as she would discuss the weather.
“Huh.” Holly doesn’t even know what else to ask about. Those are the big ones, right? “Ooh, how about witches?”
“Myth. Witchcraft is a thing but humans cannot practice it,” Carmen explains. “There is light magic and dark magic but only people with magic in their blood can practice it.”
“I see.” Holly doesn’t really see, but she’s not ready for the nitty-gritty yet.
“Humans who claim witchcraft are either liars or half-breeds. It is rare, but some supernats can reproduce with humans and even though it is frowned upon, it is not illegal.”
“Wait, there are laws and stuff?” Holly adjusts her bag as the bus turns a corner a little too sharply.
“Of course, silly.” Carmen chuckles. “How else do we keep ourselves secret? Could you imagine what would happen if every human in the world found out about us? Do you know what I had to do in order to get permission to show you? To tell you?”
“I haven’t had time to think about that, I guess I didn’t realize.”
“Holly, it’s fine. It was just a lot of paperwork and I had to get a few elders to speak to your kindness.” Carmen brushes it off but Holly gets the idea there was more to it. “In the end, the Council concurred that you are a human worth helping.”
“Should I write them a thank you note?” Holly asks sarcastically.
“There’s the Holly I know and love.” Carmen elbows her in the side playfully. “You’re taking this better than they hoped. I knew you’d be alright.”
“Well, I just realized I am not actually losing my mind if this is all true so I’m motivated to believe you. Plus, I’ve always believed there was something else out there, why would elves and vampires and shape-shifters be so shocking?”
“Fair enough.” Carmen nodded approvingly.
“So you’ve been watching over me all these years?” Holly asks the question that’s been nagging at her.
“No, not really,” Carmen answers. “I met you how many years ago? Six? We became friends naturally. Everything changed about six months ago. That’s when I noticed the clouds and started intervening. Our dance parties were my attempts to push them away.”
“I see.” Holly thinks back over the past six months. “So, it didn’t start with my Dad’s accident.”
Carmen’s face falls. “No, it was after that. Though I really am sorry about your Dad. I was then, too.”
“I know.” Holly looks out the window, watching as they pull into Westlake Station. “It just would have made sense. Nothing else has happened since then.”
“It could be the most innocuous thing, Hol,” Carmen explains as they deboard. “You may have no idea what altered your course. Honestly, it’s not worth sorting
that part out. Now we just have to figure out how to stop whatever is happening.”
“How do we do that?” Holly asks as they push through the unusually heavy crowd.
“We watch you.”
“So you’re going to stay with me every second of every day until you save me?” Holly asks incredulously.
“Don’t be silly.” Carmen shakes her head. “The sprites and gargoyles have been helping for weeks and they will continue to do so.”
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