That night, upon returning to my home and emptying the contents of a can of soup into my stomach, I fell into a deep sleep. I’m assuming it was deep, because I can’t remember a damn thing about it. What I do know is that upon waking up and rubbing sleep out of my eyes, I found myself facing a fairy. And I would be damned if it turned out to be the same fairy who squeaked a bunch of questions at me as I was leaving my home office yesterday.
And wouldn’t ya know it, Hell must have an opening with my name on it, because it was the same fairy. “Rise and shine sleepyhead!” It spoke to me, though I was a bit too tired to follow, “You got a big day ahead of you, dick!”
I thought it was insulting me, until I remembered that “dick” is how some people refer to my profession. Well, that, and also the amount I usually get paid. On the few occasions when someone asks me that question, that’s usually how I reply.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I muttered, “Don’t you have a boy in green tights to save or something?”
“Nah, I’m not that kinda fairy. Besides, between you and me, I hear they get stockholm syndrome, being trapped in those lanterns for so long.”
“Coffee first, then we talk.” I mumbled, trying to swat the fairy away. My hand moved so slow that even a sloth would have no trouble dodging it, she simply hovered above it, then came back down towards my face.
“You want coffee, I can make it appear right now!” She sang some strange kind of song and then a steaming, hot glass pot of coffee appeared right over my face. I could even make out the lines where the rubber grip ended and the spot on the bottom where it hadn’t been washed properly. “Not like I wanna be here any more than you want me here in the morning, but the boss said I gotta ask you a question.”
That pot of coffee hung over my face like the sword of Damocles, ready to smack my face with a wave of scalding, brownish liquid if the fairy didn’t feel like I had answered her question correctly. “Okay,” I mumbled, my voice no longer weary with sleep but more scared of what this magical creature was capable of. “Okay, what’s your question?”
“Will you come to the aid of your ol’ pal Marcus?”
Marcus. I did owe him a favor after he saved me from a certain psycho stalker who had nearly brought the curtain call down on my life’s story. This psycho had been stalking lighter elven women for several days and cut off their ears, and when I figured out who it was, he would have added me to the body count if not for Marcus. I guess this was how the Fates were going to pay me back for hitting that bum, by throwing a second job my way when I had barely started on my first.
“Okay, sure, I’ll come to his aid.”
“Great! See you at church! Don’t be late!” The fairy made the hot pot of coffee disappear and flew out of the room before I could say anything back. My day had barely started and already I just wanted to go back to bed.
Unfortunately, I had to attend to my first job. So I simply got myself washed and dressed very quickly, and I remembered to strap on my peacemaker before I left this time around. Bad enough I would be dealing with normal cops twice in two days, but now they were a bit on edge with the drow all over the city protesting and even rioting if the news was correct. It made me wonder how far the Blue Shield would extend for this guy.
As my feet hit the street, I felt it was time to get religion. Specifically, the accused cop’s religion. The weekend was almost over, and if the cop was truly repentant about what he’d done–or at least keeping up an appearance of doing so–he’d be seeking some spiritual guidance. As long as he believed in magic, there was one temple in the town that I believed he would appear at. Looks like I was going to visit Marcus a little earlier than expected.
[More than] 30 Days of Creativity 