Happy Accidents

1082 words

Rated PG; violence, unsettling imagery

Prompt: Set your story in a library, after hours.

The crow is blasted off its place. It’s like a piñata bursting. The only difference might be instead of candy, it rains feathers and organs. It’s like confetti. If confetti were an invaluable bird that will cause outrage when morning comes and someone enters the library to find this murder scene. 

I cringe and turn to Dara. They’re frozen in shock. They take a deep breath and stare at their hands. The nails are singed from the latest attack they made. They start shaking violently, and Dara falls to their knees. They knock on the hardwood floor. Now They’re breathing heavily and might be gasping for air they don’t need.

“Calm down,” I say.

My voice is relatively steady. I’m feeling quite jittery. The blood that was splattered on my face is not helping

“I destroyed Perry.” Dara gulps.

Yes, they did. It’s very important to the city. It was perfectly safe in its lit glass cage, on a pedestal, before we snuck into the library. Now, what’s left of it will have to be scraped off the walls, carpet, and our bodies. I’ll be the first to admit it’s not a pretty sight.

“It will be fine. . .just don’t fire any other spells in here.”

Dara is not listening to me. They are going to their dark place. The air surrounding us turns black--which is slightly better than the previous red. Spirits form from them and start chanting. They grow heeled boots and sharp teeth, They start busting and screaming. One of them lunges for me. 

I kick wildly as it sinks its teeth into my face. It grabs my legs and keeps me suspended upside down. I spit in its face. It hisses and sizzles. While it’s distracted, I punch it in the mouth. It moans and drops me. I try to crawl in between its shadow legs. It notices me. It takes my shoulder and shoves me violently away.

I collide with Dara’s back. They don’t notice. They keep whispering things as bubbles trap us. A big sphere closes over our heads. We’re stuck in the same place, too close to be together. Anoxia is taking hold of us. I grab Dara’s head and turn her around.

“Dara.” 

I try to remain level-headed. That is who I must be. 

Dara’s eyes open. They see me and widen. The bubble gets tighter, pushing my face into her neck. I struggle to free myself because I think it’s choking Dara, but it’s not working. The bubble is closing down on us. We’re as close as we can be without fusing into one person.

“Hey!”

A hoarse voice. A white flashlight beam. Dara snaps awake. The bubble pops. All the blackness is vacuumed up into the netherworld, swirling and as it goes. I wish the crow innards would go with it, but no luck. 

It’s a guard. There’s a guard? When was there a guard before? Getting in here was too easy. I thought a lock was all the city used to protect these books and the bird. In hindsight, that seems ridiculous. I hear their boots on the floor a few yards away. Once they turn left, they’ll see us entangled and Perry everywhere. 

Dara pulls themselves out from under me and grabs my hand. I stumble my feet, tripping over what might be a heart. I take a few deep breaths as they guide us in between bookshelves and downstairs. They pull me over carpets and past reading corners. Completely devoid of people.

We make it to the mens’ bathroom downstairs. Dara takes me in and kicks the door closed. I flick my wrist and it locks.

“What do we do know?” I hope I’m disguising my voice well.

Dara scratches their nose.

“We go through the portal.”

“What?”

Dara takes me to the handicap stall. They open the door. 

Dara walks straight to the wall and presses her hand against it.

“Ouvrir.”

A circle grows from their handprint. It’s blue, black, and purple, like a big bruise. It grows until It’s three metres tall, and reaches the ceiling of the bathroom.

“I asked Beau to install one.” 

I stare at it and smile. Of course, they did something so amazing.

“I forgive you.”

Dara frowns. “Master-”

I wave my hand. “There’s no time to reprimand you for something that turned out to be extremely useful.”

I don’t think I did that good of a job of hiding my awe, because Dara grins.

“Okay. Then, after you.”

I close my eyes and jump. I feel as the portal catches me. It takes me and tosses me wherever Beau programmed it to.

I land on soft ground. I open my eyes and feel the corners of my mouth reaching upwards. I’m standing in a field of grass, with pink and yellow tulips sprinkled everywhere. The air smells of rain. I look up and see the stars paying no attention to me. That’s normal, though. They were always a bit pretentious. It’s a half-moon. I didn’t look to the sky when we entered the library, but now I’m entranced.

On the edges of the field, I see a forest. Faint outlines of trees occupy the outer area of my vision. Their branches might be calling to me. If Levitate about a metre off the ground, I see a farmhouse on a hill, painted blue and green. Next to it is a house where the lights are out.

I fall back down to the ground and don’t mind that my back gets wet. It’s actually a bit nice after running.

Dara comes after me, and lands in front of me. They look down and squint. 

“Master?”

I sit up. I pat the spot next to me. 

“Come, sit down. It’s very relaxing. Don't call me master, either.”

Dara hesitantly takes her place next to me. They cross their legs and observe the landscape.

“This is prettier at night.”

“You’re very pretty too.”

I bite my lip to stop myself from gasping. That has to be the worst folly I’ve made all night.

Dara turns to me and widens their eyes, but only for a second. Then, they start to relax. They put their hand on my knee.

“I think you’re pretty, too.”

They lean forward and press their lips to mine as humans do. A kiss, it's called. A spark of electricity runs up and down my spine. I put my hand on their cheek. 

Suddenly I’m not so sad that Perry died.

Author's Note: What? Some of my stories can have happy endings.