Fae Noir- the Murderer in Blue

by Katelynn Alexandrea

  "Do you think they bought it?" Bailey whispered.

  "DO YOU ALL HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO?" The Captain shouted, before slamming his office door.

  "They bought it. That man deserves an Emmy." I nodded.

  "That part about you daydreaming about the cute chick from uniforms wasn't off the mark, though." Bailey retorted, amused.

  The elevator closed. I smirked, but said nothing.

  "So. What do we do?" Bailey asked.

  "Quickly look up which of Frank's busted perpetrators was released on parole in the past few weeks. The Captain is texting me a list." I said, calmly.

  "And then… harass them?" Bailey asked.

  "Assault on a police officer, attempted murder, breaking and entering, and resisting arrest. I found our fake suspect." I nodded.

  "Who are we going after? I should pretend I know their faces, right?" Bailey asked.

  I handed her my phone.

  "Ooooh. Good call. This guy screams I don't respect women in authority positions." Bailey nodded

  "Remember. We're not actually trying to get him to confess." I said, stepping in to the parkade.

  I froze, and grabbed Bailey's arm.

  The entire area felt wrong. It was charged. Angry. Hateful. And aimed at me, specifically.

  "Hmm? Yeah. I hear you." She said. She frowned, looking at me.

  "Wait." I said, frowning.

  "What is it?" She asked.

  "Something not-"

  Three cars exploded.

  The Captain's, Frank's, and mine.

  "Does your insurance cover that?" Bailey asked, though it was more lip-reading, than hearing that I did, given my ringing head.

  "I really hope so." I muttered. A clever idea struck my mind. "Come on." I added, rushing out of the parkade on foot, blending into the crowd of onlookers.

  "What are we doing?" Bailey asked.

  "We're going to take a bus." I told her.

  There was a silence.

  "Because it will take them some time to deduce we survived that." Bailey guessed. "Where are we going?"

  "To city records. Then, to harass one Francis Bertrand." I smirked. "We might need a cab for the second one. Also, I need to call my insurance company."

  Silly games, terrible prices

  "How did you know?" Bailey asked, as we waited for the bus. It took me more than a few seconds to catch on to the fact that she asked a question.

  "About which?" I blinked, mind blank.

  "The cars." Bailey explained.

  "Oh! Magic." I brushed it off. "Intent leaves a sort of imprint on the surrounding area. The desire to murder is a strong belief that you want your target dead. The parkade had it. I'm slipping, because it was on the roof, too, but I couldn't place it. Something has been impeding my normal magical senses."

  "You saved my life." Bailey said, quietly.

  "Going at this rate, it shouldn't be long to catch up." I joked.

  "Wow. Yeah. Too true. Why do you think he changed methods of attack?" Bailey asked.

  "That one is easy. I must have scared the ever living shit out of him on that rooftop." I replied. "He saw me in my full black winged glory."

  "And you rattled him?" She looked relieved. "That means he might trip up."

  "Or he might keep escalating the body count." I added. "You know. By rigging cars to blow up, and such?"

  "Shouldn't we let the Captain know we're not dead?" Bailey asked.

  "Either my insurance company or the city records office will." I replied, as we got on the bus.

  "Clever." Bailey chuckled.

  I sat next to her.

  She was distractingly close.

  She smelled of berries. Must have been her deodorant.

  I closed my eyes, to enjoy the closeness for what I thought was a moment.

  We missed our stop.

  By three stops.

  Three stops more than a moment.

  It was a bit of a walk, to get back to records, and I took the time to call up my insurance company, pretending like this was part of my don't be followed plan.

  The truth is, I had never been so distracted as I had been in that moment.

  It had been a nice feeling.

  "You alright?" Bailey asked, as we approached the records office.

  "Just occurred to me that we don't have a warrant." I said, blinking.

  "That proposes a problem." Bailey said, with a pause. "And they're not just going to give us the key, are they?"

  "We really made it all the way here, without once thinking about that." I groaned.

  "In fairness, you're probably in shock from the explosion, still." Bailey pointed out. "Or whatever the fairy equivalent of shock from explosions is."

  "Same basic biological function, I think." In fairness, it's not like people routinely tried to shoot, or blow up fairy godmothers. I didn't actually know, one way or the other. "It's not like anybody studies this kind of thing." I added, deciding that saying it out loud would make Bailey understand how bizarre attempting to apply medical practices to Fae was.

  "I guess that's fair." Bailey admitted. "It's not like fairy godmothers routinely get targeted by mob bosses, and the like."

  "Or particularly aggressive murderers." I added. "What now?"

  Bailey blinked. "Bertrand. Francis Bertrand. Right?"

  Part of me wanted to say yes.

  It seemed obvious. Just keep on keeping on.

  That part was silent, when I realized Bailey had a bit of blood coming out of her ear.

  "No." I said, quietly. "I think we should have stayed, and gotten you checked out by the-"

  Bailey fell down on to the ground.

  "-paramedics." I finished.

  I knelt down next to her, and called for an ambulance, trying not to scream. What had I done?

  Somehow, in all of this mess, I had forgotten to look after her.

  And Frank.

  The Ambulance arrived, several minutes later, and I sat there, in the vehicle with her, numb.

  This was my fault.

  "WE'VE GOT NO HEARTBEAT, I'M STARTING CHEST COMPRESSIONS!" The paramedic shouted. "Have the ER Team have a crash cart ready for us!"

  For the very first time in my life, A tear fell from my eye.

  I did this.

  I was so caught up in playing this stupid game, that I forgot to make sure she was okay.

  I was so focused on catching the bad guy, that I forgot to make sure the good ones were still breathing.

  Tracy. Lucy. Jennifer. Tom. Lincoln. Frank. Kevin.

  Those deaths didn't rattle me. I didn't care. I was numb. Uncaring. Black.

  Bailey?

  Bailey was an entirely different mess.

  And I didn't know why.

  Fairy Tale Cliches

  The cliche thing people tell you, while you're waiting there, to hear the news about a loved one, is that time stalls to a standstill.

  Minutes taking hours, and some such nonsense.

  I was numb. The ER staff looked me over, and left me sitting there with some stitches, and a blanket. I was fortunate nobody commented on the odd color of my blood. They probably dismissed it's blackness because of the exlosions. I didn't really care about this fact.

  The Captain stopped by. He said things.

  I couldn't tell you what he said.

  Time wasn't frozen.

  I was.

  Time passed without me paying it any real attention.

  A doctor approached. The Captain guided me to follow the doctor.

  Bailey's family was just leaving.

  I couldn't tell you a detail about their faces. About their voices. I don't know what they said, and I couldn't tell you the tone they spoke in.

  Reality was numbed out.

  Shock was an astonishing thing. I was shivering, but unaware I was cold. I was hungry, but unaware I needed to eat.

  What I was becoming rapidly aware of, though, was that I had no magic left. Nothing.

  I had run out of belief in
myself. Bailey had trusted me so powerfully, and I had failed her so fantastically.

  The Captain sat me down next to Bailey's bed, and nodded to the doctor.

  They both froze, and looked at the floor.

  "What?" I asked.

  "What in the name of-" The Captain asked.

  Four dragonfly-like black wings were on the ground, behind me.

  I placed a hand on my back.

  "Oh." It was all I could think of. "I'll… Clean those up in a minute."

  Reality faded back in. The sheer pain I felt became raw, again. I focused on Bailey's face.

  "What happened?" I asked, quietly.

  "She had a bleed in her brain. She wouldn't have noticed it right away. The pressure would have built up, then forced its way out, while causing massive brain damage, forcing its way in." The doctor said, quietly. "We've reduced the swelling, but… the odds of her waking up aren't very high."

  "We'll give you a minute." The Captain added.

  I nodded, in silence, and then picked up the fallen off wings. How I intended to explain those to anyone was beyond me.

  "I really am the worst fairy godmother." I whispered to her, placing my hand on hers. "I'm so sorry."

  We were quiet. Time passed again. I didn't know what to say.

  I could feel everything about her. Her dreams of getting a pony, when she was 7. Her first kiss. Her hope to be a ballerina. The reason she instead became a cop.

  Everything about her was the single most beautiful thing I'd ever witnessed, and it was fading.

  She was dying. I was directly responsible for this pure, beautiful, innocent person's impending death.

  "I'm sorry." I said, quietly, placing a kiss on her forehead. "You don't deserve this. You deserve every happiness in the world."

  Something changed, with that simple action. A belief Bailey had hidden rose to the surface. A feeling. Something she hadn't wanted me to see.

  I blinked, realizing that it was mirrored in myself.

  "I deserve this." I whispered in her ear. "To never get to hear you say this back."

  The words were there. They burned through my soul like a wildfire, and an unusual twinge caused my heart rate to spike.

  "I was always told that black Fae didn't fall in love. Now, I see the real truth. They shouldn't." I kissed her forehead, then rested mine against hers.

  "But I love you." I added, lips brushing against hers with the words. "And I was so intent on showing off, that I got you killed."

  Beep

  Beep

  Beep

  Beep.

  I looked at the heart rate monitor.

  Her blood pressure was rising.

  I'm not a doctor. I had no idea what that meant.

  Nurses and doctors rushed in, so apparently it wasn't a good thing, I thought.

  Until Bailey's eyes blinked open.

  "What-?" I asked.

  "If this is heaven, there had better be chili cheese dogs here, because I need one." Bailey said, sitting up.

  I looked down, to realize the black wings had vanished.

  "This is impossible." The doctor said, tracing a finger over what had been a cut on her arm. "Everything. Every trace of the explosion is gone."

  Bailey looked up at me, and she tilted her head.

  And she smiled.

  I had to sit down.

  My heart was pounding. My brain was on fire.

  What in the name of Fairy Dust had I done?

  And then, I felt it.

  She knew. She knew how I felt. She had heard me.

  And she winked.

  "I need some air." I said, quietly.

  "We've got to take her for an MRI." The doctor nodded. "But this is IMPOSSIBLE!"

  "It's like magic." I added, dryly. I had a funny laugh going. Couldn't really stop it.

  "Magic isn't real." The doctor dismissed my comments.

  I watched them guide Bailey out, for tests.

  And I laughed harder.

  That was the single, absolute most hilarious joke I'd ever heard.

  "Isn't it?" I asked.

  Nobody heard.

  I took a deep breath, and blinked, not understanding what had just occurred.

  It was magical, however, and I did happen to know some masters of that.

  They were self-obsessed jerks with an overgrown sense of importance just because they were Fae.

  Particularly the Toothy one.

  But, they did know magic.

  The White

  Stepping back into the Fae Woods, after being gone so long felt alien. Strange. Magic was much more prevalent here. It felt wrong. Like I didn't belong here. I didn't, really. I was willing to wager that if I went looking for my pond scum covered home, the pond would probably be gone.

  The woods, themselves, had a reaction to my returning. They had never reacted this way before.

  Flowers bloomed. Trees whose leaves had begun to turn for the fall were suddenly lively and green again.

  There was a sudden collective gasp from the fairies, as I stepped in to the group of them.

  "Azura." The boss fairy said, quietly. "Are you responsible for this?" She seemed bewildered that I was the one approaching them.

  "What am I being blamed for this time?" I asked.

  "We've all been informed by the woods that a white fairy performed an impossible miracle, but there aren't any white Fae." The boss fairy said, evenly.

  "I'm the black fairy, idiot." I chastised her. "I don't even have wings anymore."

  "What are those, then?" She demanded.

  I turned my head over my shoulder, and froze.

  Translucent wings with white star patterns were on my back. I traced one of the stars, in shocked silence.

  "That's not possible." I said, quietly.

  "Azura, what did you do?" The boss fairy asked. "No black fairy has ever done this before."

  "I-" I paused.

  I stopped to think about Bailey. Her belief in me. That I was some valiant hero. That I would always be there to keep her safe. That I would catch this monster, and any other monster I could.

  That I loved her.

  That Bailey loved me.

  I blinked.

  "I prevented an unjust death." I said, quietly. "I reached out with three simple words, and forced Death to return someone who didn't deserve to die."

  Then, I laughed.

  I laughed a disturbing laugh. It had a steady cadence, and I didn't seem to ever need to breathe. It lasted for a few minutes and it seemed to cause distress in the Fae around me.

  "That kind of magic hasn't happened in HUNDREDS OF YEARS!" The boss fairy shouted. "How did you accumulate enough belief for that?"

  I smiled, and took a deep breath, before walking towards the exit of the Fae Woods.

  I didn't need her help. Their help. None of them. The answer to my inquiry was clear, and obvious, and it's realization cleared my head.

  I was the White Fairy, now.

  Guardian of the purest of all magic.

  "Azura!" The boss fairy shouted.

  "The very strongest of magic." I said, calmly, before stepping towards the exit. "Something none of you could ever hope to find, and most of you assuredly don't deserve, but all of you should definitely seek out."

  Nobody tried to stop me, this time.

  Nobody even lifted a wand.

  They knew my future could never be here.

  The woods probably wouldn't have tolerated it anyway.

  The Fae Woods bent to the will of the strongest fairy.

  The boss wasn't that any more.

  The Right Way

  I found Bailey not in her hospital room, but in the lobby. She was holding coffee, and bear claws.

  "Shouldn't you be in bed?" I asked.

  "I'll sleep when I'm dead." Bailey shrugged. "Or, rather, I did."

  "Bailey, I-" I looked down.

  "You're the reason I'm alive." Bailey said, lifting my chin. "Don't blame yourself for other people's actions."


  "How do you know?" I asked.

  "True love's kiss is a classic fairy godmother line." Bailey chuckled. "I could hear you."

  "I figured that part out." I nodded.

  "Azura, you defied death." Bailey handed me one of the coffees. "You looked him straight in the face, and said that he couldn't take me."

  I opened my mouth, then closed it, and shook my head.

  "What? I'm trying to do a romantic speech, here!" Bailey exclaimed.

  "It's just-" I laughed a bit.

  "Azura, don't you laugh at me!" Bailey exclaimed.

  "Well, Death is a woman. She dresses like a librarian. Doesn't even have a scythe, if we're being honest." I laughed.

  Bailey blinked, then shook her head. "I suppose you're going to tell me you know her."

  I nodded. "Most Fae do." I paused. "More than a few wishes I've granted in my time were ensuring they met her before the pain got too overbearing."

  I gave her a smirk. "I also dated her briefly." I added as a joke to deflect the serious implications of granting someone's wish to die.

  Bailey tried to keep a serious face. It lasted 9 seconds.

  "You little shit, I was doing a whole thing." Bailey laughed.

  "I know." I nodded. "And it was sweet. It was. Just factually inaccurate."

  "Azura!" Bailey said, cross.

  "Bailey!" I retorted, in a mocking tone.

  That was all it took. She was laughing again.

  "What now?" Bailey asked.

  "I'm told the tradition is dinner." I said, with an amused look.

  "Not that." Bailey said, dismissively. "I mean about the case."

  I had forgotten. How could I have forgotten about that? I was so stuck in this tiny moment that I had forgotten about the job at hand.

  "Well? What do we do?" Bailey asked.

  I thought back to the star patterns on my wings, then I blinked.

  "We go to internal affairs." I said, evenly.

  "We do?" Bailey looked surprised.

  "We're fighting in the dark, and we're losing, Bailey. We almost Lost. Capital L. We need to do this the right way." I said, quietly. "Before the body toll raises any further."

  Bailey handed me the other bear claw, and nodded.

  "Coffee and a bear claw." I chuckled.

  "A cop's dinner date." Bailey agreed, amused.

  "Let's have it to go." I said, nodding to the door.