“Let me paint a story for you.”
“Ooh, I love stories,” Mary laughed, smiling at her date over a shared order of spaghetti and red sauce.
The lights were dim at the rear of the Italian place, for a bunch of reasons besides ambiance. Laura knew those reasons, and that was why she invited Mary out tonight. Eventually, when you like someone, you have to pull the trigger and and actually let them in to your complicated life.
“In the beginning…” Laura started.
Mary nearly spit out her wine. “In the beginning?! I thought you were going to tell me the story of why you dropped out of school or how you came to become a PI… but nope! I get ‘In the beginning!'”
Laura blushed lightly, trying her hardest not to laugh at herself. Mary was good at making her laugh. “It’s true though. Now hush.”
“Yes, boss.” Mary said with a wink, shoveling a spun fork of noodles into her mouth.
“Not at the beginning of time, but at the beginning of where my story matters…” Laura restarted melodramatically. “Human beings became what they are, right? No longer monkeys or knuckle dragger’s or homo-whatever-man, full fledged human beings came to be. They were intelligent in way that was unlike anything that had come before them. This made other, uh, races upset.”
“Hold on,” Mary interrupted again. “Other races?”
“See this is why I wanted to tell you a story, Marigold. I want you to understand me more.” Laura turned serious, lowering the corners of her smile. She took a swallow of the red, swirling her glass, and thinking about how to do this. She had had it all planned out, but of course, life does not follow a plan. “I want you to know who I am.”
“I know you, Laura. At least I know you enough. You know me too,” Mary grinned, her thin lips turning outwards as she smiled widely. “I know my mother would not approve.”
“She would not,” Laura acknowledged with a chuckle. “The story has a point… and I need you to set aside your disbelief for a moment and pretend you believe me.”
“Ok, ok.” Mary tried to look serious. “I will try to pretend.”
“Good enough. These other creatures were living things as well… just way more complex than flesh and blood. They had appendages of folded space-time for wings, and what we would call a halo encircling their multidimensional brains. These were the Precursors. They had names in other religions… any Jew, Christian, or Muslim would call them an Angel. But this is way before those religions were created. The Precursors were much like us, some were good, some were bad, and most fell in-between. They were exotic creatures that lived in a different ‘space’ than the humans, so they could perceive us, but we could only perceive them on occasion.”
“Ok…” Mary raised an eyebrow wondering where this was going.
“I know, I know. Stick with me,” Laura shrugged innocently. “The Precursors were in a weird spot. They knew there was a higher being than them themselves, and here they were seeing lower beings come to a place in development that they thought only they themselves could fill. The Precursors had been supplanted in creation.”
“The higher being… you are talking about God.”
“Sure,” Laura waved it away dismissively. “Anyways, the Precursors get all riled up about it, like really worked up. So they do what any intelligent species should know what not to do. They started a war.”
“Against the humans?” Mary asked with wide eyes.
“Nope. Among themselves. Some thought the creator knew better, others thought the creator was a farce. This battle raged for countless ages, until they came to a truce, kinda. One side agreed to pull themselves to one side of things, and the other side agreed to go to the opposite.”
“Heaven and Hell,” Mary observed. Her profession as a teacher fit her well.
“I guess, not that simple,” Laura dismissed it again. “But this battle had raged for so long and had so many twists and turns, that a huge host of things happened along the way. One, a whole bunch of new things were created or destroyed in the interest of waging this battle, the human race ended up being used as pawns between the two factions, and the last all-out conflict between the two sides happened roughly two thousand years ago.”
“I am not following you,” Mary giggled.
Her wine glass was empty, so Laura poured her more. “Not that important, all the background there is only the prelude. You have to know what happened before to understand what is happening now.”
“What is happening now? Besides you being horrible at romance?”
Laura rose her arms and waved around the restaurant and beyond. “This. All this. Our world that we live in has a deep, complicated history. All those millennia of fighting created supernatural fallout, and the humans are right at the center of it. This modern world we are living in is a bit of a sham. Most will never realize it.”
“Ok. So if I say that I believe your version of the ‘Origin of the Species’,” Mary countered using her teacher voice. “What kind of fallout are we talking about?”
“A little bit of everything. Some good, some bad. Some really bad. Humans are not the only intelligent species on planet Earth, and there is much more than people let on.”
“Like what?”
“Vampires. Werewolves. Ghouls. Fairies. Monsters. Witches. Demons. Angels. A bunch of other stuff that is worse.”
“You are teasing me!” Mary burst. She slapped playfully at Laura’s hand. “Here I thought you are being serious.”
Laura put on her serious face and nodded slowly, choosing to keep her mouth shut. Instead she picked up her wine glass and took a sip.
“You are not serious? I mean, are you serious? I mean we have been dating for two months now and my creepy radar has not gone off once, Laura.”
“Is it pinging right now?” Laura asked honestly.
“Uh… no?”
“It’s about to. I am going to invite Luigi over. He is the owner of this place. Real good guy, and you need to be on your best behavior. You are safe.” Laura spun her beaded bracelet on her wrist, feeling for the calmness spell. She flicked her middle finger across it, and pushed the diffused aura modifier at her date.
Mary sighed slowly as the spell washed over her. “It must be the wine, but I feel safe enough right now. How do you know this Luigi guy?”
“He is a friend that I met in Italy actually. I was backpacking across Europe in my rebellious early college days, and Luigi tried to eat me.”
“Sorry?” Mary’s eyebrows screwed themselves upwards in confusion. “I swear you said that Luigi tried to eat you?”
“Simple mistake really. I was sleeping, he thought I was easy prey. I blew off his arm, he plead for his life, I reattached his arm, he thought I was awesome. He asked for some help, I gave it, and a friendship blossomed from there,” Laura waved the older looking gentleman over from the bar where he was handling some paperwork. Laura stood up and hugged him.
“Mary, this is Luigi. Luigi, this Mary, my date.”
“Ah, Laura, she is as beautiful as you are,” Luigi grinned. His skin crinkled at his eyes, smile lines that seemed to be used often. “Nice to meet you, young Mary.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Luigi? Sorry… That was silly.”
“Luigi is fine. A friend of Laura’s is a friend of mine. Laura told me that she was going to tell you a big thing tonight! That is so exciting!”
“You are acting like she proposed marriage,” Mary smiled nervously.
Luigi looked sideways at Laura. “You bombed her didn’t you?”
Laura shrugged innocently. “Just a little one. It will smooth the edges.”
“Now, Laura. You can’t go around glamoring your dates in my restaurant,” Luigi said.
Mary shook her head, not following the conversation well.
“Mary, Luigi is a ghoul. That is a spirit inhabited shell fashioned from the flesh of other creatures. A bit Frankenstein, a bit ghost, a bit zombie… but they are preternatural hunters. Their spirit transmutes the flesh into a well oiled machine.”
“Oh you are too kind, Ms. Laura,” Luigi effused.
“Frankenstein was the Doctor, his creation was called the Monster. So it would be Frankenstein’s Monster,” Mary corrected calmly.
“She is a teacher,” Laura informed her Ghoul friend. “Luigi, would you mind unrobing your human suit?”
Laura sat back down and held Mary’s hand, calmly attempting to hold her still. She leaned over and whispered into Mary’s ear, “Luigi is really nice, so don’t freak out.”
Luigi looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was looking, and exhaled. One second, a kindly white haired Italian man was standing at the edge of the table, the next, a long limbed white skinned monster with a near snout formed by the massive jaws filled with gleaming white serrated teeth. He tilted his head at Mary with a wink, and then in a moment, he was back to his facade.
“I think I might need to either throw up or pass out,” Mary calmly stated. “I am not sure which. Maybe both.”
“Thank you, my dear Luigi. Let me know when you all have your All Saint’s Feast, I would love to attend again this year,” Laura said as she squeezed Mary’s hand tightly, trying to suffuse calm still.
“Of course, of course, take care of your date, Ms. Samson. You two are beautiful together, I mean it. If you both will excuse me, I have some orders to call in.” Luigi bowed slightly and headed back to the bar.
“That was like a white sallow skinned alligator with arms and legs that would look odd on NBA player,” Mary wondered aloud, mostly to herself. “I mean, that mouth had more teeth than at least three sharks put together. His fingernails were like talons. A bear would be envious.”
“He eats chickens, by the way.” Laura picked up her glass again, letting go of Mary’s hand. She was past the dangerous part of a shock response. Laura thought it went surprisingly well, considering.
Mary’s head went back in surprise. “What?”
“In case you were wondering. He eats live chickens. Just like a human,” Laura tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Except for the live part.”
“Huh, strange.”
It was Laura’s turn, “What?”
“It was weird, don’t get me wrong. If it wasn’t for the wine, I would have screamed. But you holding my hand, I felt entirely at ease. Like I was safer than safe. Then as the Luigi-ghoul did his thing, I realized that I was falling in love with you.”
“Well as much as I want to kiss you right now, I should probably tell you the last part of the big secret,” Laura mused.
“Oh god, you aren’t one of those things are you!?”
“They’re ghouls, and no, I am not one of those. I am a witch.”
“A what?” Mary grinned.
“A witch. A damn good one, too.” Laura declared.
“Oh thank goodness. I was worried for a split second. I can handle a witch.”
“Can you?” Laura smirked salaciously.
Mary smiled back, flicking her tongue across her lower lip. “Without a doubt. Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being real. For being honest. I don’t quite understand what all this,” Mary waved her arms in pantomime of Laura’s earlier explanation. “But I still want to be a part of it. With you.”
Laura leaned forward over the table and kissed her date gently. “I think we should get out of here.”
Mary playacted pure innocence. “Without dessert? What? Are you crazy?”
“Can we get it to go?” Laura inquired, her serious face once again prominent.
Mary laughed.