Month: December 2018

Chapter 7: I played a wall once. They’re relentless.

The lights were still on when I returned home, past ten. I wished Polly and Alfred a peaceful night together, and opened the door. Sitting in the living room, I saw Jack sitting on the chair, curled up, her arms around her legs, face buried between her knees. She appeared to be sleeping, and the pose almost made me wonder if she’d been waiting up for me. I considered, for a moment, picking her up and carrying her down to the bed. I decided to think better of it, less out of fear of her stabbing me in surprise, and more because I thought it would just weird her out. Instead, I lifted a blanket from the couch and draped it over her, and turned off the light, walking towards the kitchen to see if there was any pizza left in the fridge.

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Paradise by the Dashboard Lights Chapter 4: Red Zeppelin

Morning came. The upside of it was that the sunlight was lessened down in the basement. I rubbed at the side of my head, feeling the incipient headache. I reached out before remembering I hadn’t poured out a bottle of water for myself the night before. I despaired momentarily until my eyes focused enough to find that there was, indeed, a large jug by the bed. I grabbed it gratefully, drank, guzzled the better part of a gallon. I let out a sigh of deep and abiding relief, and leaned back in the downstairs bed.

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Chapter 5: Hey, Pal, Why The Long Face?

Sad things are sadder when contrasted with happy things. This is probably a self-evident statement, but it hits me hard, from time to time. I remembered- of all things- a political comic about an exiled African prince, who was forced to stay at a McDonald’s while dealing with the loss of his family’s kingdom. The comic, of a well-dressed young man holding a burger, with an expression of soft despair on his face, stuck with me. The fast food restaurant seemed to add to the deep poignancy. The absurdity of the contrast heightened the tragedy.

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Paradise by the Dashboard Lights Chapter 2: Jumping Jack Knife

I woke up to the sound of a crashing platter. I sat up immediately, and was upstairs in a few seconds. A petite Asian woman with messy red hair stood across from Roy, holding up a frying pan in a threatening manner. Roy had both hands up, expression innocent and nervous. A metal platter had fallen to the ground between the two of them, and was still rolling.

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Case Files 1: Hulder, Svartalfar, and the King and Queen of Binghamton’s Spring Court.

Hulder           

I had a long, difficult time figuring out what, exactly, fairies are. Undead are straightforward- When you die in a certain way, you may become an undead. The precise details of what decides who becomes undead are still a bit beyond me, but every Undead was once a human, and it’s not such a mystery where the first one came from. Demons, likewise, are a bit less of a mystery, now that I know a couple individuals. An animal who is the focus of attention for a human can become one of them. But fairies… a human can become a fairy, if, before they become an adult, they are raised by a fairy. So where the hell did the first fairy come from?

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