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lilladyevaBethel, Maine. It was a quiet town, population under three thousand. In the past month they had twenty-five people had fallen asleep and not woken up. The doctors were calling it the dream plague, all of the people were trapped in a REM sleep and unable to wake. It sounded like dark magic which made it my area. I walked through the hospital, breezing past doctors, nurses and other personnel. Nobody asked me any questions, I was prepared but no one stopped me. Not enough people were affected by the plague for the CDC to get involved. There was one guard but he was fooled by my fake id.
I got to the room with some of the coma victims, no one was around. The patients here did not have a lot of needs and people were nervous about it being contagious. Beds were lined up in the room, patients sleeping inside them. In the center of the room there sat a man, cross legged on the floor. I looked at him, he was wearing pink scrubs and blue sneakers. He had dark shaggy hair and sleeve tattoos on his arms. His eyes were shut and he looked like he was in some sort of trance.
“Well, hello, what’s this?” I said.
There was no response. I approached he did not move. I cast a spell and wrapped him in arcane chains. Sure he was secure I decided to wake him up. I shook him roughly by the shoulder, his eyes snapped open and he struggled against his bonds. He mumbled into the gag.
“Alright mate, we’re going to have a little chat you and I and you are going to tell me what you’re doing here. Got it?” I asked.
He struggled more briefly and he nodded. I removed the gag and the man immediately spit at me. I was briefly surprised, I stepped back and tried to wipe my face. At that moment I was attacked. A flash of black fur leapt out at me and went for my throat. I stumbled onto my back, the creature attacking me. I held up my arm in front of my face and I felt a row of teeth clamp down. I cried out in pain. I whipped my arm back and kicked and the creature skidded back across the room.
I stood up and looked at it, it was a fox, a little black fox. I approached it fireball at the ready.
“Alright, you’re going to tell me what you did to these people.” I said.
“What I did? What did you do?” The fox asked, it stood up and backed into a corner growling and panting.
There was a pause as the both of us processed what was going on. “So you didn’t do this?” I asked.
“No, I was trying to figure out who did.” It said.
“Me too.” I said.
The fox transformed back into a man. There was no shift, just one moment there was a fox and the next, it was a man.
“Sorry for attacking you, I thought you were responsible.” He said.
“Same here.” I said.
He held out a hand. “My name’s Joshua, but you can call me Little Fox.” He said.
I shook it. “John.” I said.
He approached one of the sleeping patients, a young girl and stroked the hair out of her face. “They are trapped in nightmares, really dark nightmares. I can tell their dreams are tainted but I can’t get at it, I’m not strong enough.”
“What do you mean tainted?” I asked.
“You’re a mage right? How much do you know about fairies?” He asked.
I shrugged. “Creatures from another dimension, I don’t know much about them.” I said.
“Well, I’m a bit on an expert, this is fairy magic. Something is making these people fall asleep and not wake up. Something is controlling their dreams.” He said.
I looked over at the sleeping girl. I placed my hand on her forehead and reached my consciousness into her. There was magic there, I guessed the fairy magic was the force I felt, wild and strange, but there was dark magic there too. Underneath it all, it was a familiar ache that magic, something strange was going on.
“Well, you’re not wrong, but there’s dark magic at work here too.” I said.
“Really?” he asked, he sounded surprised. “We should probably talk then. But not here, come on.” He approached the door of the room and swung it open. It did not lead into the hospital hallway, but into a posh room with full couches and bean bag chairs and soft cushions on the floor and velvet curtains hanging from the ceiling.
“Come on.” He said and he entered inside. The moment he crossed the threshold I could see him change, just slightly. He now wore a fox head cowl, his hands were black and he had a poofy tail. I cautiously entered in after him and he shut the door behind me.
“Have a seat.” He said gesturing to the chairs and couches. I settled on a seat on a couch and he sat across from me.
“So how much do you know about changelings?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I know they’re fairy creatures from another dimension.” I said.
“Well, not exactly.” He said. “I mean it’s true we are fairy creatures from another dimension, but it’s important to know that we started off as human. Every one of us was a human kidnapped by one of the Fae. We were changed by them, tortured, and there are many of us around, those that escaped. I am one of them.”
“Ah,” I said, “Hence the expertise in fairy magic.”
“Well sort of, my father was the real expert in dream magic, but…” Little Fox sighed, “But he’s missing now and then the dream plague started and I think the two are connected. I think whoever took my father is using him to start this plague and I need to stop it.”
“Well there’s dark magic involved so that means there’s another magician, or a demon involved in all of this. “ I said.
“I’ve never met a magician before, I mean I’ve heard of them but I’ve never actually met one.” He said.
“Well pleasure being your first.” I said.
He smiled, it was a small smile and a little sad, but it was a smile. “Thanks.” He said, and leaned back. “I should probably take you back to my parents’ house; that was where he was before he disappeared. We could probably look for clues there.”
“Sounds as good a plan as any,” I responded.
“Right, come on.” He said. He went to the door and opened it again, this time it led to a dark bedroom. There was a small bed in the corner and some drawers and some Batman posters hanging on the wall. It looked very neat and unlived in. “This was my room. They haven’t changed it.” He explained as he stepped out.
As he stepped out the fox cowl vanished, along with the tail and his flesh returned to normal. “Hold on, I should probably let my mom know we are here.” He said. “Mom!” he called out.
“Little Fox is that you?” a voice responded. It was female and it was wet, as if she had been crying. A figure appeared at the door of the room. A tall Asian woman, her eyes were wet and red. She reached out and hugged Little Fox. “What did you find out?” she asked, “Oh and who is this?” she said upon seeing me.
“Mom, this is John. I ran into him in the hospital. He’s going to help.” He said.
“He’s human.” She said, her tone accusatory.
“I know mom, but he’s a mage and he said that there’s dark magic involved. So we could use his help.” He said.
She looked at me, suspiciously. “You know your father knew a mage.” She said.
“He did?” Little Fox asked.
“Yes, he came sniffing around a few years ago, asking a lot of questions.” She said.
“Do you happen to know his name per chance?” I asked.
“Yes,” She said, “Edward Cunningham. I never trusted him.”
“Cunningham, I’m not familiar with that name. Do you perchance know where he is?” I asked.
“No. He always kept to himself. Never knew where he came from. Tim was always too nice to him I thought.” She said.
“A simple locator spell should do the trick.” I said.
I rummaged through my pockets and found a pin. I muttered the incantation and placed the pin inside. It rotated once and then settled on a location.
“Found it.” I said, “It should be nearby.”
Little Fox and his mother exchanged a glance. “Go,” she said. “I will stay here with your brother, stay safe.” She said and she gave Little Fox one last hug.
He led me down a set of stairs and down to the front door of the house. This time we were led outside. He led me to the driveway and to the green truck in the driveway.
“My car’s still at the hospital, so we can take my dad’s truck. He doesn’t need it right now.” Little Fox said.
He unlocked the truck and crawled inside. I opened the passenger side and climbed in. I kept the locator spell up.
“Alright, just tell me what direction to go.” He said. “Oh do you mind if I smoke?” he asked pulling a cigarette out of his pocket.
“Not at all,” I said, “I’d have one myself but I’ve got to keep the locator spell running.”
He nodded and lit the cigarette, opened the window and then pulled out of the driveway. We drove in silence, every once in a while I would call out a direction, left or right. We slowly made our way through the sleepy town. After a while of driving we arrived at a log cabin some ways out in the wood. The needle pointed dead ahead.
“This is it.” I said. He pulled into the long gravel driveway.
“Right, so are we doing this stealth-like or…?” Little Fox asked.
“Nah mate.” I said, “We run this straight.” I knocked on the door, there was no response.
“Well, that’s one response.” I said and peered through the window.
Little Fox knelt down and pulled a lockpick out of his pocket and went to work on the lock. It was under a minute before there was a ping and the door sprung open. I nodded at Little Fox and I walked into the house. He came in behind me. We walked through the house, it was small and cramped and dusty. It barely looked lived in at all.
“Edward!” I called, “I just wanted to have a little chat.”
“He can’t hear you.” Little Fox said. I looked over and Little Fox had opened a door. There was a staircase leading down. I could tell just by the feel of the place that it wasn’t anywhere on earth.
“It goes to the hedge, just like my place, it’s like a pocket dimension between worlds. Kind of a safe house, if he’s doing anything it will be in here.” Little Fox said. He entered through the doorway first, his cowl and tail reappearing as he did so. I followed behind. We entered into what looked like a secret office. There were shelves of books set up and desks, tables and several comfortable chairs.
“Over here.” Little Fox called and I followed his voice. It led to a backroom, a bedroom and lying on the bed was a man. He was dressed formally in a suit and tie, his long hair tied back into a ponytail. His eyes closed peacefully, he was asleep. Surrounding him was the blackest aura I had ever seen. Little Fox reached out to touch him and I grabbed his hand and yanked him back, hard. He looked at me in surprise.
“Dark magic, don’t touch him.” I said. “We’ll have to break it before we can get him out.”
“You will be doing no such thing.” A voice said.
The two of us looked up and we saw a man standing in the doorway wielding a gun. He was medium height, thin, and balding with white hair and grey eyes. He pointed his weapon at us menacingly, I had doubts that he even knew how to use it properly but I wasn’t about to push it. I held my hands up, Little Fox did the same.
“I had you two pegged the moment you stepped inside. You set off my alarms.” The man explained, his arm was shaky and he looked nervous.
“Easy now mate.” I said, trying to keep my voice level. I took a step toward him and he pointed the barrel toward me.
“Don’t move another ARGH!” He was going to give me orders but he was cut short because Little Fox had pounced on him and wrestled him to the ground. There was a loud bang as a gun shot rang out. I ducked for cover, no one appeared to be shot, there was a hole in the ceiling but the two were still wrestling over the gun. I was just trying to keep out of the way. There was a clang and the gun clattered across the floor. I picked it up and pointed it at our assailant as he lay panting on the ground
“It’s no good.” He said, “There’s no way for you to undo that spell. The only way to stop it is to kill him and you don’t want to do that do you?” he asked staring at Little Fox. Little Fox punched him in the face and the man cried out. Little Fox reared his hand back to punch again when the man grabbed him. He just reached out a hand and grabbed his fist and squeezed. Little Fox cried out in pain and I could hear his bones snap. The man stood up and he picked up Little Fox’s body as easily as if he was a doll. He wrapped his hands around Little Fox’s neck and he began to squeeze.
Little Fox gasped for breath, only feebly able to fight back. I steadied the pistol and fired once, twice, three times into the man’s back. No good, the bullets ricocheted, he’d put up a damn shield and I knew where he was getting the power. He was using this man, this changeling as a battery and drawing through him all the power in those sleeping people. Like this he was more powerful than me, he was near unstoppable. The only way to stop him now was to kill the battery.
I paused for a moment, not savoring the idea that I was going to kill the man I had been sent to save. I looked over at Little Fox, he was dying, breathing his last breath. The man would finish him and move onto me next. It was now or never. I looked at the sleeping man, still shrouded in dark magic and I made a decision. I aimed the gun and fired, straight at his head.
The effect was instantaneous. The shroud dropped immediately and the man’s strength failed. Little Fox kicked back against him and scattered him against the wall. Then he fell to the ground and took a deep breath. He began coughing.
“No!” The man cried. “What did you do? What did you do?”
When Little Fox caught his breath he pushed me aside. He approached the man and punched him square in the jaw. The man fell like a stack of bricks. The moment he fell Little Fox was on him pounding his head into the ground. I turned away, I wasn’t going to stop him but that didn’t mean I wanted to watch. When he finished he stood up and walked past me to the body of his father. He stood there silent for a moment, looking at the body. It was a mess, there was a giant fucking hole in his head because of me. Little Fox gently touched what was left of his face. I put my hand on his shoulder, hoping to be of some comfort. He fell forward, collapsing onto the corpse, sobbing.
I left my hand there for a moment, and waited for him to be done. It took several minutes before he calmed and composed himself. He stood across the room looking dispassionately at the body now. He smoked a cigarette to calm his nerves.
“I don’t blame you.” He said, not looking at me. “You did what you had to do. This was my mission and I came unprepared, the fault is mine.”
“Sorry.” I said automatically, people were usually blaming me for something, I don’t know how to react when they’re not.
“No.” Little Fox said, “You’re not.” And then he began to walk away, up and out of the strange space. I followed.
“I can’t let my mother see him, not like that. It’s better if he stays where he is for now. I can detach the hollow from the house, no one will ever know it was there.” He said.
“Reasonable.” I answered.
“Is there any place you need to go?” he asked.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean I picked you up at the hospital and dragged you back here. Is there any place you need me to bring you? I would rather do it now. I need to clear my head before I talk to my mom.” He said.
“Ah, yeah, you can drop me off at my motel if you like.” I answered. I gave him the address.
We drove a little of the way in silence and then he just started talking. I think he needed to get it off of his chest. “He raised me ever since I was twelve. I had just stumbled out of that other world, no memory of who I was or where I had come from and he took me in. I was pretty messed up and he straightened me out, well as much as he could, as much as anyone could. He was just like that, he helped everybody. Him and my mom, they adopted my brother too, he was six when he escaped. One of the really young ones, he got lucky, most of them never escape, too young. That’s the thing about changelings, can’t have babies. You can’t get your family back and you can’t make a new one, so you make do with what’s around you, or who.” He said.
“Noble sentiment,” I said following along. “It sounds like your dad was a good man.”
“One of the best.” He said with a smile. “Thanks.” He said.
“For what?” I asked.
“For listening, for helping with this.” He answered.
“Sorry it all went to shit.” I said.
He sighed. “It happens. I’ll deal with it. Here we are.” He said, “Motel 6”
He had pulled into the parking lot outside of my motel. “This is my stop then.” I said as I got out. “Cheers mate.” He waved at me briefly and pulled off.
I sighed and poured myself into my room. Another mission bullocksed up by yours truly. I fell asleep that night and woke up feeling little cheerier. Watched the news, all those folks at the hospital woke up. The crisis was over. Maybe I didn’t bullocks it up completely after all.
I got to the room with some of the coma victims, no one was around. The patients here did not have a lot of needs and people were nervous about it being contagious. Beds were lined up in the room, patients sleeping inside them. In the center of the room there sat a man, cross legged on the floor. I looked at him, he was wearing pink scrubs and blue sneakers. He had dark shaggy hair and sleeve tattoos on his arms. His eyes were shut and he looked like he was in some sort of trance.
“Well, hello, what’s this?” I said.
There was no response. I approached he did not move. I cast a spell and wrapped him in arcane chains. Sure he was secure I decided to wake him up. I shook him roughly by the shoulder, his eyes snapped open and he struggled against his bonds. He mumbled into the gag.
“Alright mate, we’re going to have a little chat you and I and you are going to tell me what you’re doing here. Got it?” I asked.
He struggled more briefly and he nodded. I removed the gag and the man immediately spit at me. I was briefly surprised, I stepped back and tried to wipe my face. At that moment I was attacked. A flash of black fur leapt out at me and went for my throat. I stumbled onto my back, the creature attacking me. I held up my arm in front of my face and I felt a row of teeth clamp down. I cried out in pain. I whipped my arm back and kicked and the creature skidded back across the room.
I stood up and looked at it, it was a fox, a little black fox. I approached it fireball at the ready.
“Alright, you’re going to tell me what you did to these people.” I said.
“What I did? What did you do?” The fox asked, it stood up and backed into a corner growling and panting.
There was a pause as the both of us processed what was going on. “So you didn’t do this?” I asked.
“No, I was trying to figure out who did.” It said.
“Me too.” I said.
The fox transformed back into a man. There was no shift, just one moment there was a fox and the next, it was a man.
“Sorry for attacking you, I thought you were responsible.” He said.
“Same here.” I said.
He held out a hand. “My name’s Joshua, but you can call me Little Fox.” He said.
I shook it. “John.” I said.
He approached one of the sleeping patients, a young girl and stroked the hair out of her face. “They are trapped in nightmares, really dark nightmares. I can tell their dreams are tainted but I can’t get at it, I’m not strong enough.”
“What do you mean tainted?” I asked.
“You’re a mage right? How much do you know about fairies?” He asked.
I shrugged. “Creatures from another dimension, I don’t know much about them.” I said.
“Well, I’m a bit on an expert, this is fairy magic. Something is making these people fall asleep and not wake up. Something is controlling their dreams.” He said.
I looked over at the sleeping girl. I placed my hand on her forehead and reached my consciousness into her. There was magic there, I guessed the fairy magic was the force I felt, wild and strange, but there was dark magic there too. Underneath it all, it was a familiar ache that magic, something strange was going on.
“Well, you’re not wrong, but there’s dark magic at work here too.” I said.
“Really?” he asked, he sounded surprised. “We should probably talk then. But not here, come on.” He approached the door of the room and swung it open. It did not lead into the hospital hallway, but into a posh room with full couches and bean bag chairs and soft cushions on the floor and velvet curtains hanging from the ceiling.
“Come on.” He said and he entered inside. The moment he crossed the threshold I could see him change, just slightly. He now wore a fox head cowl, his hands were black and he had a poofy tail. I cautiously entered in after him and he shut the door behind me.
“Have a seat.” He said gesturing to the chairs and couches. I settled on a seat on a couch and he sat across from me.
“So how much do you know about changelings?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I know they’re fairy creatures from another dimension.” I said.
“Well, not exactly.” He said. “I mean it’s true we are fairy creatures from another dimension, but it’s important to know that we started off as human. Every one of us was a human kidnapped by one of the Fae. We were changed by them, tortured, and there are many of us around, those that escaped. I am one of them.”
“Ah,” I said, “Hence the expertise in fairy magic.”
“Well sort of, my father was the real expert in dream magic, but…” Little Fox sighed, “But he’s missing now and then the dream plague started and I think the two are connected. I think whoever took my father is using him to start this plague and I need to stop it.”
“Well there’s dark magic involved so that means there’s another magician, or a demon involved in all of this. “ I said.
“I’ve never met a magician before, I mean I’ve heard of them but I’ve never actually met one.” He said.
“Well pleasure being your first.” I said.
He smiled, it was a small smile and a little sad, but it was a smile. “Thanks.” He said, and leaned back. “I should probably take you back to my parents’ house; that was where he was before he disappeared. We could probably look for clues there.”
“Sounds as good a plan as any,” I responded.
“Right, come on.” He said. He went to the door and opened it again, this time it led to a dark bedroom. There was a small bed in the corner and some drawers and some Batman posters hanging on the wall. It looked very neat and unlived in. “This was my room. They haven’t changed it.” He explained as he stepped out.
As he stepped out the fox cowl vanished, along with the tail and his flesh returned to normal. “Hold on, I should probably let my mom know we are here.” He said. “Mom!” he called out.
“Little Fox is that you?” a voice responded. It was female and it was wet, as if she had been crying. A figure appeared at the door of the room. A tall Asian woman, her eyes were wet and red. She reached out and hugged Little Fox. “What did you find out?” she asked, “Oh and who is this?” she said upon seeing me.
“Mom, this is John. I ran into him in the hospital. He’s going to help.” He said.
“He’s human.” She said, her tone accusatory.
“I know mom, but he’s a mage and he said that there’s dark magic involved. So we could use his help.” He said.
She looked at me, suspiciously. “You know your father knew a mage.” She said.
“He did?” Little Fox asked.
“Yes, he came sniffing around a few years ago, asking a lot of questions.” She said.
“Do you happen to know his name per chance?” I asked.
“Yes,” She said, “Edward Cunningham. I never trusted him.”
“Cunningham, I’m not familiar with that name. Do you perchance know where he is?” I asked.
“No. He always kept to himself. Never knew where he came from. Tim was always too nice to him I thought.” She said.
“A simple locator spell should do the trick.” I said.
I rummaged through my pockets and found a pin. I muttered the incantation and placed the pin inside. It rotated once and then settled on a location.
“Found it.” I said, “It should be nearby.”
Little Fox and his mother exchanged a glance. “Go,” she said. “I will stay here with your brother, stay safe.” She said and she gave Little Fox one last hug.
He led me down a set of stairs and down to the front door of the house. This time we were led outside. He led me to the driveway and to the green truck in the driveway.
“My car’s still at the hospital, so we can take my dad’s truck. He doesn’t need it right now.” Little Fox said.
He unlocked the truck and crawled inside. I opened the passenger side and climbed in. I kept the locator spell up.
“Alright, just tell me what direction to go.” He said. “Oh do you mind if I smoke?” he asked pulling a cigarette out of his pocket.
“Not at all,” I said, “I’d have one myself but I’ve got to keep the locator spell running.”
He nodded and lit the cigarette, opened the window and then pulled out of the driveway. We drove in silence, every once in a while I would call out a direction, left or right. We slowly made our way through the sleepy town. After a while of driving we arrived at a log cabin some ways out in the wood. The needle pointed dead ahead.
“This is it.” I said. He pulled into the long gravel driveway.
“Right, so are we doing this stealth-like or…?” Little Fox asked.
“Nah mate.” I said, “We run this straight.” I knocked on the door, there was no response.
“Well, that’s one response.” I said and peered through the window.
Little Fox knelt down and pulled a lockpick out of his pocket and went to work on the lock. It was under a minute before there was a ping and the door sprung open. I nodded at Little Fox and I walked into the house. He came in behind me. We walked through the house, it was small and cramped and dusty. It barely looked lived in at all.
“Edward!” I called, “I just wanted to have a little chat.”
“He can’t hear you.” Little Fox said. I looked over and Little Fox had opened a door. There was a staircase leading down. I could tell just by the feel of the place that it wasn’t anywhere on earth.
“It goes to the hedge, just like my place, it’s like a pocket dimension between worlds. Kind of a safe house, if he’s doing anything it will be in here.” Little Fox said. He entered through the doorway first, his cowl and tail reappearing as he did so. I followed behind. We entered into what looked like a secret office. There were shelves of books set up and desks, tables and several comfortable chairs.
“Over here.” Little Fox called and I followed his voice. It led to a backroom, a bedroom and lying on the bed was a man. He was dressed formally in a suit and tie, his long hair tied back into a ponytail. His eyes closed peacefully, he was asleep. Surrounding him was the blackest aura I had ever seen. Little Fox reached out to touch him and I grabbed his hand and yanked him back, hard. He looked at me in surprise.
“Dark magic, don’t touch him.” I said. “We’ll have to break it before we can get him out.”
“You will be doing no such thing.” A voice said.
The two of us looked up and we saw a man standing in the doorway wielding a gun. He was medium height, thin, and balding with white hair and grey eyes. He pointed his weapon at us menacingly, I had doubts that he even knew how to use it properly but I wasn’t about to push it. I held my hands up, Little Fox did the same.
“I had you two pegged the moment you stepped inside. You set off my alarms.” The man explained, his arm was shaky and he looked nervous.
“Easy now mate.” I said, trying to keep my voice level. I took a step toward him and he pointed the barrel toward me.
“Don’t move another ARGH!” He was going to give me orders but he was cut short because Little Fox had pounced on him and wrestled him to the ground. There was a loud bang as a gun shot rang out. I ducked for cover, no one appeared to be shot, there was a hole in the ceiling but the two were still wrestling over the gun. I was just trying to keep out of the way. There was a clang and the gun clattered across the floor. I picked it up and pointed it at our assailant as he lay panting on the ground
“It’s no good.” He said, “There’s no way for you to undo that spell. The only way to stop it is to kill him and you don’t want to do that do you?” he asked staring at Little Fox. Little Fox punched him in the face and the man cried out. Little Fox reared his hand back to punch again when the man grabbed him. He just reached out a hand and grabbed his fist and squeezed. Little Fox cried out in pain and I could hear his bones snap. The man stood up and he picked up Little Fox’s body as easily as if he was a doll. He wrapped his hands around Little Fox’s neck and he began to squeeze.
Little Fox gasped for breath, only feebly able to fight back. I steadied the pistol and fired once, twice, three times into the man’s back. No good, the bullets ricocheted, he’d put up a damn shield and I knew where he was getting the power. He was using this man, this changeling as a battery and drawing through him all the power in those sleeping people. Like this he was more powerful than me, he was near unstoppable. The only way to stop him now was to kill the battery.
I paused for a moment, not savoring the idea that I was going to kill the man I had been sent to save. I looked over at Little Fox, he was dying, breathing his last breath. The man would finish him and move onto me next. It was now or never. I looked at the sleeping man, still shrouded in dark magic and I made a decision. I aimed the gun and fired, straight at his head.
The effect was instantaneous. The shroud dropped immediately and the man’s strength failed. Little Fox kicked back against him and scattered him against the wall. Then he fell to the ground and took a deep breath. He began coughing.
“No!” The man cried. “What did you do? What did you do?”
When Little Fox caught his breath he pushed me aside. He approached the man and punched him square in the jaw. The man fell like a stack of bricks. The moment he fell Little Fox was on him pounding his head into the ground. I turned away, I wasn’t going to stop him but that didn’t mean I wanted to watch. When he finished he stood up and walked past me to the body of his father. He stood there silent for a moment, looking at the body. It was a mess, there was a giant fucking hole in his head because of me. Little Fox gently touched what was left of his face. I put my hand on his shoulder, hoping to be of some comfort. He fell forward, collapsing onto the corpse, sobbing.
I left my hand there for a moment, and waited for him to be done. It took several minutes before he calmed and composed himself. He stood across the room looking dispassionately at the body now. He smoked a cigarette to calm his nerves.
“I don’t blame you.” He said, not looking at me. “You did what you had to do. This was my mission and I came unprepared, the fault is mine.”
“Sorry.” I said automatically, people were usually blaming me for something, I don’t know how to react when they’re not.
“No.” Little Fox said, “You’re not.” And then he began to walk away, up and out of the strange space. I followed.
“I can’t let my mother see him, not like that. It’s better if he stays where he is for now. I can detach the hollow from the house, no one will ever know it was there.” He said.
“Reasonable.” I answered.
“Is there any place you need to go?” he asked.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean I picked you up at the hospital and dragged you back here. Is there any place you need me to bring you? I would rather do it now. I need to clear my head before I talk to my mom.” He said.
“Ah, yeah, you can drop me off at my motel if you like.” I answered. I gave him the address.
We drove a little of the way in silence and then he just started talking. I think he needed to get it off of his chest. “He raised me ever since I was twelve. I had just stumbled out of that other world, no memory of who I was or where I had come from and he took me in. I was pretty messed up and he straightened me out, well as much as he could, as much as anyone could. He was just like that, he helped everybody. Him and my mom, they adopted my brother too, he was six when he escaped. One of the really young ones, he got lucky, most of them never escape, too young. That’s the thing about changelings, can’t have babies. You can’t get your family back and you can’t make a new one, so you make do with what’s around you, or who.” He said.
“Noble sentiment,” I said following along. “It sounds like your dad was a good man.”
“One of the best.” He said with a smile. “Thanks.” He said.
“For what?” I asked.
“For listening, for helping with this.” He answered.
“Sorry it all went to shit.” I said.
He sighed. “It happens. I’ll deal with it. Here we are.” He said, “Motel 6”
He had pulled into the parking lot outside of my motel. “This is my stop then.” I said as I got out. “Cheers mate.” He waved at me briefly and pulled off.
I sighed and poured myself into my room. Another mission bullocksed up by yours truly. I fell asleep that night and woke up feeling little cheerier. Watched the news, all those folks at the hospital woke up. The crisis was over. Maybe I didn’t bullocks it up completely after all.
