[Warning: Bad Language!]
Welcome Visitors?
Ali sat at the bar in one of the nightclubs (she was a doorwoman
often given work orders for them) down Prince of Wales Road, one of the most
notorious streets in Norwich for drunk and disorderly behaviour and scuffles,
due to the sheer volume of nightclubs and strip clubs down its length. In
recent weeks, due to the students at the University being on their summer
holidays, the street had been relatively quiet, with only minor incidents;
thankfully nothing tabloidworthy for once. This Saturday night...sorry, early
Sunday morning, had been peaceful, for the main part. She'd had to manoeuvre a
group of women, out for their mate's Hen night, out of the club in the very
early hours due to a brawl over one of them shacking up with another's husband
("Alcohol, heh heh heh..." one of the less intoxicated members of the
party had tittered nervously at her as she had escorted them out, "...it's
funny the stories that come out...") but aside from that, all had been
quiet.
One of the perks of working in such a well-known "danger
zone" was that you got to know the proprietors pretty well, and she had
stayed a while, talking to the owner of the club as he locked up for the day.
She was glad she lived so close by, for it meant travel was not a problem, and
the early morning air was refreshing. There was only so long you could survive
the stench of stale vomit, sweat and booze.
"We were talkin' about ya the other day." The owner
commented.
"Who's "we"?" Asked Ali, warily.
"Just me and the other club owners, don'tcha worry!" He
grinned. "What? Who didya think I meant?"
Ignoring his question, Ali asked "What's the gossip?"
with a raised eyebrow.
"Well...we don't seeya working the clubs so often
anymore." He replied. He then realised the implication, and figured Ali
had too, given her pointed expression. "H-hey!" He laughed, raising
his hands. "We don't seeya on the doors so often no more, ‘s all I meant!"
He returned her pointed expression. "So we were wond'rin, what's up with
that? Got a better offer or summin'?"
"This was only ever part-time work, Harry." Ali reminded him. "'Till I could find something a little more permanent."
"And ya have?" Harry pressed for information.
"Perhaps." Replied Ali, unwilling to really divulge
anything else. "For now I'm splitting my time between the two, but we'll
see where the roads lead."
"So whatcha doin' in ya second job?" Harry continued,
trying to squeeze any drop of information from her.
"Ah Harry, if I told you that I'd have to kill you." Ali
replied with a wink, really hoping it would stop the questioning. Harry grinned
and then nodded at her.
"And ya bloody well could, no doubt! Awright, awright, I won't pry. Just remember we'll miss havin' ya on the doors, if ya do go. And don't forget to drop in for a chat’n’drinks!" He nudged her with his elbow.
"I won't, I won't." She replied, with a smile. "But
like I said, it's all up in the air at the mo. I'll let you know what's
happening closer to the time, okay?" Pulling her phone from her pocket,
she checked the time. "Right, I should get home." She commented.
"Almost 6am." Harry nodded.
"Awright. Take care, gal. Seeya next..."
"Wednesday." She nodded in reply.
"Wednesday." He echoed. "Night then!"
Ali strolled out of the doors and began to walk home, thinking
about Harry's questions. What exactly was her
job now? She had almost said "personal protection", given how she had
defended Kitiara on her first day. She had almost said "defending the
light" but that sounded all kinds of holier-than-thou, and while the
Paladins had perhaps got that down to a fine art, she wasn't quite sure she had
the right levels of pomp to get away with it. Then there was "I chase down
things that other people can't see", which could be taken to mean a
treasure hunter or someone who deserved to be sectioned...again...or "I
hunt tall black creatures with pointy ears, trees that want to kill people and
murderers who tear people's faces off", which sounded firstly vaguely
racist, secondly like a woodcutter with a real hatred for the forest and thirdly like someone
who wanted to be Sherlock Holmes but without the smarts. All of which would
also probably get her sectioned once more. She sighed. And then
there was the fact she was technically one of a group of egotistical beings who
fought for "light" and could shoot lightbeams from her hands. She
shook her head. Yeah...there was no real sane way of explaining that at all.
Walking up the steps to her apartment, she smiled, shaking her
head. Her life had become so much stranger than fiction. Sometimes it was hard
to remember the "normal" days.
And it was about to get a whole lot harder.
As she entered the apartment, things seemed a little odd. First of
all, the television was on. Secondly, there seemed to be chattering from the
living room. Thirdly, there was the sound of what seemed to be springs.
Instantly, Ali's mind began to race. The door had been locked, and
there had been no sign of forced entry. Grabbing a broom from the cupboard, she
tiptoed through to the living room.
The TV was playing an old episode of "Bargain Hunt". As
she was about to enter, she heard a high pitched voice shout, exasperatedly
"Why is he taking paper for
that shiny?! That's not a bargin!
That's robbery!"
"Oh no." Ali thought, rolling her eyes. "They’ve let themselves in…” She frowned. At
least last time they’d knocked and waited outside.
"See," another high pitched voice weighed in "If I
were him, I'd have at least asked
for a shiny in return. Maybe even a shiny and a couple more, for good
measure..."
"Nah, nah!" Replied the other, equally excitable,
"A favour. Thass what boss
tells us we should be trading for. Shinies are shiny, but he says favours are
even more shiny."
"Oh yeah..." Replied the second voice. "...favours.
See...this is why I get the delivery jobs...I'm not good at all that rememb'rin
stuff."
Ali put the broom down, and turned the light on. Shocked, high
pitched screams met her ears, and she covered them to protect them from the
onslaught. As she looked at the sofa, two Imps stopped bouncing on it and
looked back at her, holding each other in fright.
"All right." Ali began, her hands on her hips. "How
on Earth did you
two get in
here?"
"We're not gonna tell you that! Thass secret, that is!"
Squeaked the first one. "Unless you want to trade for it...?" It
asked, hopefully.
"No chance." She replied, pointedly. She walked over to
the TV and turned it off. "How long have you two been here...alone?"
She asked, not really wanting the answer.
"Well, your shiny thing there..." The second Imp pointed
at her digital clock, "read 23:51 when we got here. Then it broke."
"Broke?" Ali asked, checking the time against her phone, which was apparently correct.
"Well yeah..." the first one butted in. "...it went to 00:00 and then started counting up again. We didn't touch it! Promise!" It squeaked in protestation.
"I believe you. It's fine. I'll "fix" it later." She replied. "You've been here for six hours! What have you been doing?!" She asked, bemused.
"Looking at the shinies." Replied the Imps in unison.
"If you ever want to trade us..."
"I can guess." She cut across them.
"And then we remembered being told something about
"tee-vees". We had to shake it a bit, but it started to work!"
Added the second. "And then these misleading pictures came on. They said
they were about bargins...but they lied."
"And bouncing on the sofa...?" Ali asked, staring at
them both, as they still stood on the cushions. They looked at her blankly, and
she pointed to where they were stood.
"Ohhhh, thiiiiis!” Replied the second, with dawning
realisation. “Well...that was just by chance. We went to sit on it..." They
demonstrated by sitting on the back of the sofa with their feet dangling onto
the cushion. "But then we realised the floor was bouncy!" The two of them began bouncing again. "So we
figured this must be some sort of enjoyment thing." Replied the second.
"Enjoyment apparently. Um...apparatus." Corrected the first.
"Right..." Sighed Ali, rubbing her temples. "Please
stop...my neighbours are going to get angry otherwise...especially if this has
gone on all night." She paused.
"Hang on..." She stopped, and realised the one question
she had failed to ask. "...Why, exactly, are you here?"
"Oh yeah!" The two Imps squealed in chorus. The second one
held out something in his hand. "Letter, for Ali!"
All the irritation was forgotten. She took the letter from them
gratefully.
"Thank you." She nodded at them thankfully.
"No problem! Anything to go through in the other
direction?" They asked, hopefully.
"Not at the moment, sorry. I'll find you when I have a reply
ready?" She replied, with a small smile. With excited nods, the two Imps
jumped off the sofa. One bowed, the other saluted, and then both of them ran
into the kitchen. Ali hastily followed, but by the time she made it to the
door, they had disappeared into thin air. With a heavy sigh, she shook her
head. Looking at the letter in her hand, she walked slowly to the sofa, and sat
on its edge.
Opening it up, a wave of relief flooded over her. It was Nat,
though it could hardly have been anyone else. She read through it slowly;
deliberately, trying to take in as much information from it as she could.
Halfway through, she reached things that hit her harder emotionally than she
had thought they would.
I don't need to ask you how
you've been. I'm gonna be upfront. I don't like the Paladins. I don't think
that'll ever change. Ali the Paladin I don't know how I'll react to. Ali my
friend? I'm sticking by her through thick and thin. So don't worry about that.
Just know I won't spare ANY Paladin that tries to fuck me over. And I do mean
ANY Paladin.
Ali half-smiled, half-frowned. It
was a better reaction than she had expected. But he had done exactly what the
rest of the NDF had done, and it was beginning to drive her mad. "Ali the
Paladin" and "Ali his friend" were one in the same. It was like Doctor Who, in some regards. She
had new abilities and a new "title" much as the Doctor had a new
face...but what made her innately her didn't
change. In fact, she was more stable than the Doctor, as her personality
remained exactly as it was prior to choosing to walk that path. She saw that
this was a misconception she needed to challenge...and continued to read.
Secondly,
I get the child was a tough decision. I don't know what I'd have done in your
situation. It sucked. THEY NEED TO GET OVER IT. You played a numbers game. It
wasn't a child, it was a number. The majority lived, the minority died. It
happened. If they can't get over it, then they shouldn't be members of the NDF.
Simple. I'm not sure how I feel about your Paladin powers, but if you're using
them for a good end, then I don't give a shit. You don't have a go at someone
who uses a nuke to blow up an asteroid if it saves lives.
She reread the paragraph. And then reread it again. "I get the child was a tough
decision...they need to get over it." It almost circled like a mantra in her
mind. And then...there was a blot on the page. She gulped, and lifted a hand to
her cheek, wiping the tears away.
"The majority lived...you don't have a go at someone
who uses a nuke to blow up an asteroid if it saves lives."
She put the letter next to her and cradled her head in her hands,
sobbing. "He
understands." She
found herself thinking, almost in disbelief. "He understands the choices I had
were no choices at all." She tried to calm herself, taking deep breaths. She smiled
involuntarily as she thought "Caught between the Devil and the
deep blue sea, as my father would have said..." She frowned. “Come on, woman!” She berated herself. “You
cried less at the letters you received on manoeuvres!” Taking a deep
breath, calming herself,
she wiped away the last of her tears, and picked up the letter once more,
reading on.
“I
miss you. It's weird, we only knew each other less than a week, but I'm looking
forward to being lectured by you again when I get back. Maybe we can spend a
day drinking and comparing notes on the Paladins and the Djinn? That's if they
don't have a problem with us talking to each other.”
Ali smiled, though the loneliness she had
been feeling intensified tenfold. She missed him just as much...if not more,
given the way she had alienated herself from the entirety of the NDF. She had
to smile though. "I don't lecture?!" She thought, chastened. The idea of just spending a
day away from the rest of the NDF and comparing knowledge was definitely a
pleasing one, though she hadn't thought about the Paladins' reaction to the two
of them meeting again. They knew she had a friend who she thought was less
doomed than they believed, but she hadn't specifically asked about the
Djinn...in fact, she suddenly realised, she hadn't spoken to the Paladins since
they accepted her...
“I'm
curious about the Smiling Jack situation. I gotta confess...I imagine he's
already been dealt with, but I kinda wish I could destroy him myself. Might
stop the nightmares.
Do
me a favour, if you haven't destroyed him yet. Make him suffer. But more
importantly,
Survive.
I don't know what I'd do if I stopped receiving your letters.”
At the mention of Smiling Jack, Ali
subconsciously tensed. She knew Kitiara was hatching a scheme that placed her
centre stage in a battle with him. Nat's plea for her to survive only cut
deeper because of that. She was terrified. She would never admit it, heavens
no! But it didn't stop the fear from eating away at her. She had been working
on a letter for that exact purpose...her last letter. She glanced over at it
and felt a pang of guilt. How could she tell him she expected to die? Should she tell him, for that matter...?
She finished the letter and stood up.
Taking a deep breath, she walked to the kitchen. She caught sight of herself in
the mirror, and saw the teartracks on her face. She shook her head and walked
on by. It was hardly as if anyone was going to see her. She picked up a small
tealight and some matches, and poured herself a glass of wine. Her mind
digesting everything within the letter, she sat herself back down. Lighting the
tealight, she raised her glass.
"Wish me luck, Nat." She
toasted, hollowly. "I'm damn well going to need it." She thought, as she took a hefty
draught.
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