by D. Levesque
“Oh?” Marrisa says, leaning over to look at him. “Remember to tell my father that. He will love that observation.”
“He will?” Mavin says, standing up straighter, which since he is flying is a feat in itself.
Just then, the elevator dings to tell me we are at my floor, the twelfth floor. Once the door opens, I head to the left to go to my apartment—apartment 1215. Once in front of it, I am about to place my key inside the keyhole when Marrisa holds up her hand and waves Mavin forward. He nods without saying a word, places his tiny hand on the door, and closes his eyes. Ten seconds later, he opens them.
“All clear, no one inside. No Magic inside either,” he tells Marrisa with a nod.
Marrisa looks at me. “Go ahead now. I wanted to make sure.”
Nodding, I unlock the door and step into my apartment. It’s not much, but it’s been home for the last couple of years. It’s a two-bedroom apartment. I used the spare room as an office to study or work in. The kitchen is much bigger than the one Marrisa has. It even has a dining area. The living room isn’t grand, but it has my favorite couch and a large screen television.
“He has a TV!” Mavin says excitedly, zipping into the living room and looking at the large 72-inch television rapturously. “Do you have cable?”
“Yeah. I get it with the rent,” I tell the Fairy with an odd look.
“Gods,” he says, looking around the apartment in awe. “And you get all this space to yourself?”
“Pretty well, since I live alone,” I tell him, perplexed.
“Are you going to call your friend?” Marrisa interrupts us.
“Oh right,” I say, nodding to her. I head over to the couch and pick up the old phone and dial his number. At least the phone has been upgraded since I moved in. It’s not a rotary phone anymore. Mike picks up on the second ring.
“Kevin! Where are you, man! Never mind, you’re calling from your apartment. Dude, where the hell have you been? I went over earlier and tried to knock on your door but there was no answer. One of your neighbors let me in the building.”
“Yeah, sorry, I ended up crashing harder than I thought. I heard something, but I guess I thought it was just a dream,” I tell him with a laugh.
“Jesus. Is something wrong? When you came out for drinks the other day, it felt, to Jim and I, like you had something to say but couldn’t get it out,” Mike says slowly.
“Yeah. There was. Listen, I wanted to let you and Jim know that I have cancer,” I tell him, setting up the story that I will be gone for a bit. “But I got into a program that I leave for tonight. It’s sort of an experimental drug program, and no, I can’t go into it. I signed an NDA for it. So all I can say is that I am heading out tonight.”
“You can’t tell me what company makes it?” Mike asks me suspiciously. “What the hell, Kevin! Why didn’t you ask for my help,” he says but then quickly continues, “Nevermind, dumb question. You never ask for help. Listen, are you going to be all right?” he asks me worriedly.
“Yes. This drug is apparently new, and I can’t tell you what company makes it. This was something that my doctor set up. And don’t you dare contact him, Mike. Sorry. But I will be back in a couple of days.”
“Want me to pick up your mail for you?” Mike asks me, understanding that I don’t want to get into it.
He knows that I would never ask for his family’s help, even in this, as I don’t take handouts. No matter how much I might need them. I might be stubborn, but I have my pride, which for me, is the only thing that’s mine.
“No, I have someone who will be looking after the place while I’m gone,” I tell him, looking at Mavin and giving him a thumbs up. The Fairy gets a big grin and gives me a small thumbs-up back.
“If you’re sure. Listen, when you are back, you let me know, all right? And your work understands?” he says.
Shit! Work. “Yes, all’s good in that department,” I say, not telling him that my job title and workplace changed as of yesterday. Or that I got married. Or that I met a Vampire, a Changeling and oh, that I have a Fairy that’s floating around my apartment peering into everything.
“Good, listen, I’m going to let my parents and Jim know. Jim was all for going to break your door down, so I didn’t bring him with me when I went over earlier. You contact me as soon as you can, got it?”
“Got it. Thanks Mike, and sorry for making you and Jim worry about me,” I tell him.
“Kevin, you are like my brother. You need anything, you ask. No questions. Fucking hell, my parents are going to be pissed at you when they hear that you have cancer and didn’t reach out to them.”
“Shit, can you tell them I’m really sorry?” I ask him, embarrassed at that. I love his parents as if they were my own. They were good friends of my parents before they passed away.
“I’ll do it on one promise,” Mike says.
“What’s that?”
“You tell me everything when you get back.”
“I promise to tell you what I can,” I answer, avoiding the whole truth. I will tell him what I can, but I doubt I’ll be allowed to tell him about the other worlds and creatures.
“Deal. Good luck. Our prayers are with you,” he says quietly.
“Thanks, Mike,” I tell him and hang up the phone.
Marrisa had been watching me throughout the whole call. Once I put the phone back on the receiver, she says, “You know you will be limited on what you can tell him?”
“Yeah,” I tell her with a sigh. “That’s why I said I would tell him what I can.”
“Now, we need to get your clothes. Pack for a week. You will have someone taking care of your laundry while you are gone. Also, I think Mavin has something to ask you,” Marrisa says, pointing to the Fairy.
I look over, and Mavin is blushing and twisting his hands nervously. “Oh?” I ask him.
“So, you know how I am going to be getting your mail?” he says nervously, almost shyly.
“Yeah?”
“Do you think we can watch your place from in here? It would be the best place for us!” he follows up quickly. “We would know if anyone tries to go after you!”
“So it has nothing to do with the fact that I have a 72-inch television with cable and lots of cookies in my pantry?”
“You have cookies?” Mavin says, his eyes opening wide in awe.
“That did it. Now you will never get rid of him,” Marrisa says with a groan, but see she is grinning.
“How many Fairies are we talking about?” I ask him. “I only have so many packages of cookies.”
“Only two of us. So far. How many packages do you have?” Mavin asks me slowly.
“When I left, I think I had ten,” I tell him. Marrisa looks at me oddly.
“What? I have a sweet tooth! I love cookies.”
“Ten packages, he says. Like it’s nothing, he says. My Gods! Please tell me some are chocolate?” Mavin says in a stunned voice.
“What? Of course. I only buy the best. Oreos all the way.”
I look at the Fairy, and he looks back at me, speechless. His tiny mouth is opening and closing, but nothing is coming out.
Marrisa laughs. “I think you’ve hooked him. Oreo cookies seem like crack for Fairies. They can never resist them. And you just told a Fairy who wants to watch your place that you have ten packages,” she says, shaking her head.
“Ten large packages,” I tell her with my own grin. I hear choking sounds, and I look over worriedly at Mavin, but he’s fine. He is just looking at me in shock, his mouth opening and closing faster than earlier, but still nothing is coming out.
“Let’s get your clothes,” Marrisa says, grabbing my arm and dragging me towards my bedroom. “I think you just broke a Fairy.” But she has a big grin on her face as she says it.
“Wait, I need to call my work and tell them I quit,” I tell her, stopping just short of the door.
I go back to my phone and call my manager on his work line, and explain to him that the reason I was quitti
ng was that I had cancer and was going for an experimental drug treatment. I want to cover my bases in case Mike calls him, which knowing Mike he will. Then I tell him that if this drugged works, I want to live my life, so I won’t be coming back either way. After I hang up the phone I head into the bedroom with Marrisa following me, and I can hear Mavin opening my cupboard doors and trying to find the Oreo cookies, which makes me grin and shake my head. So, Fairies like Oreo cookies. Good to know.
Chapter Fifteen
Once I’m done packing a bag with some extra clothing and my toiletry bag, we head back to the Elevator. By the time we leave, Mavin is already snuggled up on the couch on a cushion with four or five Oreo cookies surrounding him.
“You know you made a new best friend, right?” Marrisa tells me with a chuckle. “But did you really need to take a package of the Oreo’s with you?”
“Hey!” I say defensively. “If I leave them, I’m pretty sure there won’t be any left by the time I get back in two weeks. Mavin had already devoured three of them before he set himself up on the couch with another four. How can something so tiny eat so much!”
“True,” she says with a shrug.
“So why are we taking an elevator down if we can portal?” I ask her.
“Because you need to always Portal from the ground floor. If you use a Portal in the air, you will be at the same height when you emerge. Imagine using a Portal on your twelfth floor. Think you can survive a fall from that high?”
“Oh.” I swallow hard at her answer.
“The only race that could survive that drop would Fairies, as they can fly, and maybe a powerful Beast? Which is why you never let a Fairy cast a Portal for you unless they are standing on the ground.”
“Good to know. I’ll make sure to remember that,” I tell her, imagining falling twelve stories to my death. Yeah, not a way I want to die, thank you very much. “Can’t you do Magic to fly?”
“We aren’t sure why, but even though you can use Magic to lift tons of rocks, if you try to lift your own body, it saps you of your Magic pretty fast,” Marrisa says with a shrug. “It’s one of those mysteries that researchers are still trying to figure out.”
“All right. But when I met you, you were floating in the air,” I mention.
“Yes. And used a lot of my power. Trust me,” she says with a scowl.
Once the elevator hits the main floor, we both walk off, and Marrisa looks around quickly. Not seeing anyone, she mumbles something and waves her hand upwards. Looking up, I see the lobby’s security camera.
“What was that?” I ask her, curious as to what Magic she had just done.
“A spell to confuse the cameras. All the other end is getting right now is static bursts,” she says, as she takes out her Portal stone and points it to the side, and suddenly there is the black portal.
She points to it, but before she can say anything, I say, “I know. In.” And I do exactly that. I walk towards the black portal, my insides twisting at not knowing where this one will put us.
Once I’m through, I stop and look around. We are not on Earth anymore, that much I know. This place looks similar to the area that had surrounded the police station, with lots of houses but no cars. However, there are some slight differences. This place has more shops, for instance. Looking closer, I can see the shops are not the type you would find on Earth. These are more like shops you would see in an old village, over 400 years ago. I swear to God that one of them is for candles. The one next to it looks like a tailor’s shop.
I look over at Marrisa in shock. “Did we go back in time?”
“What?” she asks me, sounding confused. She looks around and her face clears up. “Ah. No. Not all worlds are, shall we say, as advanced as Vraka. And not all places on Vraka are interested in using human technology. Remember, human technology has not been around that long, and for it to trickle down to the rest of the worlds, who hate humans, will take longer. I am sure within 40 or 60 years, this place will change.”
I shake my head, perplexed. I guess that makes sense. If you hate a people so much, you wouldn’t necessarily want to use their advanced sciences and tech. Then again, these worlds have Magic, so I am sure they do a lot of stuff that we can’t do on Earth, even with tech.
“This way,” she says, walking towards one of the larger buildings. It looks like an office building from the turn of the century. I look up and count six floors. Marrisa goes walks up on the sidewalk in front of the building and steps to the door, but doesn’t open it. She places her hand on a black stone that is inlaid in the rest of the brickwork next to the door. If I had not been paying attention, I would have missed it. The brick surrounding it is a dark red.
The door, which I notice is not glass but a large, thick metal door covered in engravings, makes a clicking noise, and opens slowly. After a minute, Marrisa grabs it and pulls it open quicker, impatiently.
“This way,” she says again.
Sighing, I follow her, hearing the door close behind me with a resounding finality. Or that is what it seems like to me, at least. Marrisa heads down a hallway to a set of stairs. Without pause, she starts to climb them.
By the time we reach the top, I realize I was right. Six fucking floors. I am so out of shape that I am breathing hard. I mean, I go to the gym now and then, but I don’t do the damn Stairmasters! I lift weights and run on the treadmill. Gym stuff! Usually, it’s only hardcore members and the older ladies who I see on those Stairmasters. My God, I will never make fun of them again!
“Yeah,” Marrisa says, eyeing me clinically. “We need to work on that.” She’s not even breathing hard. Or sweating, unlike me.
I’m about to tell her to go fuck herself when she turns around and heads down the hallway to the last door. Of course, I think, rolling my eyes. With shaky legs, I finally catch up to her, and she knocks on the door after looking at me in annoyance.
Bloody hell, this woman’s emotions are like a damn roller coaster! One minute she’s laughing with me and smiling, being open, the next she’s bitching me out, even if in this case she’s giving me more of a my God can you keep up already look.
“Come in!” I hear a voice bellow behind the door.
Marrisa gives me a warning look. About what, I have no clue. She opens the door and walks in. The room isn’t huge. It’s the size of a typical office, with a large desk and two chairs, both metal and the folding kind. Sitting behind the desk is what makes me stop in my tracks.
It looks exactly like a bear. No wait, is this one of those Beast men again? This one is hairier, though. And much fucking bigger. I mean, I thought the guy I saw in the police precinct was big, but he was a shrimp compared to this guy.
“Marrisa,” the Beast says in a voice so deep that I can almost feel it. “That him?” he asks her, but he is looking at me, and he is glaring.
“Yes. My sister Lori sent over the paperwork, then?”
“Yes. I have to say as a member of the,” he starts, but Marrisa holds up her hand.
“Can it, Bower. This is above our pay grade, and if you say anything to piss my dad off, he will not be happy.”
At that comment, Bower looks over at Marrisa with a snap of his neck, and his eyes widen in surprise.
“Yes. He is my dad’s project and also under his protection. But also, Bower? He’s level 10, untested.”
“What!” Bower bellows in shock. “But he’s a pathetic human!”
“Yes, well. He is now the first human to ever possess Magic, and a powerful one at that. My dad figures he might be level 15.”
Bower looks over at me again, and there is a glint in his eyes. “I can take him now, since he is untested.”
“Sure,” Marrisa says, shrugging. “Go ahead.”
I turn to her in shock, but then Bower’s body is coming up over the desk, and his large hand is reaching out to grab me. Do you know how your brain thinks faster than your actions? Well, in this instance, I thought, ’what the fuck Marrisa’, followed by ‘Bower, for such a lar
ge person, is damn quick’. Then, as his enormous hand starts to wrap around my neck to snap it, I think, ‘well, I was about to die in two weeks originally anyway, wasn’t I?’
But then something unexpected happens. Just as Bower touches me, instead of feeling the force of his hand, which at the speed he was going should have thrown me across the room, Bower is the one that ends up being thrown back. Quite violently. He flies back across the room, over his desk and into the wall behind it. Or more to the point, into the room behind the wall, as he goes right through it. I see someone else’s desk in the other room, and the Beast sitting there gets thrown across the room with him before they land in a heap of bodies.
I look at the destruction in shock. Then I look at Marrisa, and she has a massive grin on her face. “What just happened?”
“Oh, my dad wasn’t dumb. He figured until you have your training, people will try to kill you anyhow, so he put a protective spell around you in that collar.”
Hearing scraping noises and moans of pain, I look through the hole in the wall and see Bower and the other Beast, who looks more like a badger and is much smaller, are getting up slowly.
“What the Gods was that for, Bower!” the smaller Beast yells up at him, and I realize that she’s a female, the anger plain on her face.
“Sorry, Pathy. I promise to get this fixed,” Bower says, shaking his head as if to clear it.
“Yes, you will get this fixed, or I swear I will talk to,” she starts to say, but then she looks at the hole in the wall and sees me and Marrisa. Me staring in shock, Marrisa with an enormous grin on her face. Something must have clicked for her since she looks at Bower, and her glare, if anything, increases a notch to utterly pissed off.
“What did you do, Bower,” she growls. She might be smaller, but Bower’s shoulders hunch down as if expecting a blow.
“He’s human!” Bower says, as if that is a good enough defense.
Pathy puts a hand over her eyes and takes a deep, calming breath or two before she speaks. “Bower. This human is under the protection of Magus Targun. Did you not read that part of the memo I gave you when I said that he would be coming in for his items and his training?”
