Day thirty - Josh

Charles did what he knew he had to.

He held his hand up to his mouth, put the soft flesh between his thumb and forefinger between his sharp front teeth, and ripped it open. 

He needed his blood for what came next.

Abigail’s tattoo was etched through with blood of sunkissed vampires, along with gold flakes. That much she would have known from the ceremony, as would all Herants upon accepting the tattoo and saying their oaths. The gold in the tattoo was what he was going to use but he needed to activate it.

The blood was welling up between his fingers, and as the Kelpie King, his healing would be quick. He dipped his right forefinger in the deep red liquid that poured forth, almost a purple, and reaching up beneath his shirt, traced the blood over the tattoo, muttering the appropriate words.

He would have to time it correctly, yet this was where his supernatural and magical training would come into play. Charles had to partition his mind, creating a link to the gold flakes in Abigail’s tattoo while also operating a complicated magical incantation in the other half of his mind that would open the neverending portal through which he was about to pull Belinda and the Everdark. 

The Everdark. He had hoped to never hear those words again and yet She and her kingdom of Pips, the creatures she sent forth from that dark hive of hers whenever it ruptured into our reality almost like malignant bees, would never leave this reality alone. 

The Everdark hated the light. As old as Time and Space itself, perhaps even older, the entity that was the Everdark only had one purpose - consume. As it did, it somehow manifested physical creatures like the Pips that would come into this reality and well, consume it. It was all rather quite simple and straightforward.

The Everdark wanted to end everything and the Herants, along with others in this world, were sworn to never let that happen. Partitioning his mind in two, Charles maintained the connection to Abigail’s gold while also beginning to work the magic necessary to create the portal. Somehow the prophecy of the Everdark’s power, as much as they tried to stifle it, wouldn’t be completely stamped out of existence. 

The last time the Everdark worked through this world, it had promised salvation and glory, immortality, pleasure, and riches beyond imagination, if they only helped the Everdark break through into this world. Once in this world, wherever there was darkness or shadow, wherever there was night and lack of daylight, so would the Everdark hold sway. 

And it was hungry. The Pips were an example of the ravenous ferocity with which the Everdark consumed worlds. As Tess stood by watching him, jaw agape, he heard the distinctive pop of the portal opening and he would do his best to time it correctly. Charles held the pocketwatch out in his open palm, knowing that as soon as he spoke the last word on one side of that mental partition, the portal would open and the pocketwatch would be sucked through. 

When that happened, he had to also finish the last word of the incantation that would pull Abigail out of the pocketwatch. In that briefest of moments, he could only hope the love he had for his daughter and the pull he had to her and the gold would allow for her to come through at the very right moment.

And with a sign of resignation he’d heaved countless times before, Charles wrapped his mind around losing his daughter - again - and contemplating the end of everything, the apocalypse that would consume all worlds. 

Again.

He did it. 

Just like that, with no fanfare, he finished the first incantation, the one to align the spirit trap in that Herant family heirloom with the oubliette of the neverending portal, as well as the one to pull Abigail to him.

First a snap, then a pop, and then a bang. That’s how it went, and while there was no crackle, the strength of the light and sound that resonated when the pocketwatch hit the portal caused Charles to lose his sight, pulling his hands instinctively up in front of his eyes. 

A nano-second later, Charles was knocked over by a body-sized force (a daughter-sized force, actually) that hit him in the stomach. Still blinded, he fell to the ground as Tess yelled, and before he could catch his breath, a second force fell on top of him.

Charles knew his daughter immediately but could only see brief glimpses of waving limbs through his clearing vision, and he heard the distinctive yell of his daughter. Thank the gods, she was alive, pulled from the spirit trap. 

But she wasn’t alone.

He knew the voice that intertwined with all the others. 

Charles stumbled to his feet, his vision finally clearing to see Abigail rolling on the ground with…

Belinda.

Before he could say anything, Belinda was on top of Abigail was alarming speed. All guidelines around the Fae included zero contact, zero engagement, and that included the physical kind. They were not only magicians of almost inconceivable power, they were known throughout most worlds as perhaps the fiercest warriors.

They’d positioned themselves quite nicely at the top of the food chain for a reason. 

He’d suspected currents were amiss beneath the surface of the Council but he had no idea how amiss. Charles suspected there were moles but he would never have thought Belinda would be one of them.

How had this happened? How could Belinda, of all members of the Council, be on the side of the Everdark? How could she be here now, positioned atop Abigail with her claws against her throat? Against his daughter’s throat?

Against her niece’s?

Charles did the only thing he could think of in the morning, consequences be damned. He curled the energy of the Earth’s core into his right hand, releasing what was affectionately referred to the family as the “Herant Hand Grenade” at Belinda.

The ball of red, fiery ectoplasm hit her square in the chest, knocking her backward. She yelled, but the ectoplasm did what it was supposed to. It began to spread like a giant red spider on her chest, pulling her to the ground. Charles knew the spell and the fireplasm would be strong enough to contain a member of the Fae, but he knew it wouldn’t be for long. 

Hopefully long enough to save Abigail.

Maybe even the world.

Abigail was coughing, hands on her throat, Tess at her side. 

Belinda, pinned to the ground, was shrieking. 

Charles quickly darted to first Abigail, seeing that Tess had her sitting up and color returning to her face, he closed in on the real problem: Belinda. 

He went to her, kneeling down, putting his hands on top of that red, gelatinous cage of fiery power that pinned a member of the High Council to the ground. He only had seconds.

Pouring energy into the cage, he glanced back quickly as he felt Tess and Abigail stand behind his shoulders. He could feel Abigail’s fury - her mother’s fury - pour off her. He knew she would want retribution, but she had no idea what she was risking. What all of this meant. 

Charles came to the conclusion easily that the portal now contained the Everdark. A small miracle that, yet being the nature of the portal it was, if anyone ever came into possession of Charles and his mind, they would have a connection to that portal and the Everdark. He’d eventually have to do something about that.

Eventually. 

“Why?” was all he could ask Belinda, as her eyes blazed up at him with an incredible fury. “How could you help the Everdark?” Charles felt Abigail’s hand on his shoulder, her fingers gripping down gently, giving him strength. She would follow his lead, but he had no idea where to go in this situation. Everything that could be going wrong was going wrong. 

Belinda, spitting words out from behind clenched teeth, kept darting her eyes back and foth between Charles and Abigail. Charles knew the truth, the truth hid so long ago from Abigail, and Belinda knew the truth.

Only Abigail didn’t.

“You fool!” Belinda seethed. “You have no idea what you’ve done. You have no idea what you’ve lost.” She bucked and writhed beneath the red cage of supernatural plasma. Charles could feel it weaken, buckling beneath the sheer force of her magic and rage. 

“The Everdark,” Belinda said and paused. She looked up at Abigail. 

“The Everdark was going to bring her back, Charles.” Belinda’s eyes met his own and filled with a sudden, intense ocean of sadness.

“The Everdark was going to bring back Samantha.”

Charles buckled under the words, he falling from his knee to the ground fully. He felt his hand fall from the cage, it beginning to flicker in and out of existence. Belinda was almost free, but it didn’t matter. 

Samantha. 

“Dad?” Abigail said, hand again on his shoulder as she dropped to her knee beside him. “Dad? What’s she talking about?” Abigail asked with a strained voice and an urgency he could understand.

Abigail recognized her mother’s name.

The legend of Samantha Herant and her disappearance still rang through the halls and annals of every grand supernatural and magical social circle. Perhaps the greatest scandal of the last thousand years, when Charles Herant’s wife went missing, the worlds were upended.

Most especially Belinda’s world. 

Samantha’s sister. Charle’s sister-in-law. Abigail’s aunt.

Abigail was three years old when her mother went missing. For a grand princess of the Fae to just disappear almost brought the worlds to war, yet no direct evidence of any particular wrongdoing by any particular group was ever uncovered or brought forth. Samantha Herant, daughter of King Therannys, was one of the most beloved members of any court, perhaps ever. 

Her disappearance was all the more shocking because of the fierce love peoples of all races and worlds held for her. Those who knew her loved her and those who didn’t wished for the chance. 

Abigail couldn’t know who she was and anyone who knew of her existence: Belinda, Charles, and King Therannys. Once the King was assassinated, only Belinda and Charles knew of Abigail’s true lineage and bloodline.

“Dad? What’s she talking about? Is she talking about…Mom?”

Belinda looked up at her, not waiting for Charles’ permission.

“Yes, Abigail. Your Mom, Samantha Herant.” Belinda coughed and settled into her restraints, what was left of them anyway. 

“Your Mother Samantha was the Princess Heir to the mighty Unseeling Court, daughter of our Father, King Therranys. After the assassination of our father, the High Court was created, as a way to appease the lesser courts and diminish the calls of revolt and mutiny that was beginning to foment.” 

Belinda closed her eyes and sighed.

“No one knows who you are, Abigail, other than your father and I.” Belinda opened her eyes, staring almost into Abigail’s soul. 

“If people knew you were alive, the daughter of Princess Samantha, every single court, house, and grand hall in all of the worlds that matter would rise up against the High Council and appoint you leader. I was going to avoid all that, as the Everdark was going to bring back your mother.”

Belinda looked at Charles, almost as if the debate about the Everdark was one that stood long between them. Perhaps it had. “Charles, the Everdark was going to bring back Samantha.” 

Belinda looked at Abigail and sighed, the years of secrecy crashing down around all their heads.

“You’re a fairy princess, Abigail. Perhaps the most important person, the most important creature, in all the worlds.”

Belinda paused, considering her next words carefully.

“And now you’ve got to run for your life.” 

Day twenty-nine - Maria

Sitting on his throne of mud and sphagnum, Charles Herrant felt a sudden warmth pass over his solar plexus. The family tattoo that all of his lineage over the past 300 years bore was known to itch terribly when in the presence of the evil darkness which was the vampire. This sensation though was unknown to him. It must somehow be related. There would be no pips here in faerie surely and he was filled instantly with morbid curiosity. Abby. What had she gotten herself into now?

—-

Abigail and the Everdark shared the strange space within the spirit trap. All of her training, her on the ground experience, hell just her upbringing in a magical family had led her to this moment. She had trapped and removed from the mortal plane so many spirits, exterminated so many pips, she had never really paused to consider their morality. They had been pests not cohabitants. But here she was now faced with the Everdark. It wasn’t lying to her- ever since Abigail was a small child she could reach out with her intuition and sense an ill intent. The Everdark was not ill intentioned, it wasn’t well intentioned either. It struck Abigail that it was rather like a computer in a way, aloof and logical. She couldn’t pretend to know what the ancestors’ went through to trap the Everdark or what they’re motives truly had been. What she did know is that her morality was telling her that this being had the right to its autonomy. If anything she felt a bit skeptical-had the actions of her ancestors done more harm than good? Would restoring the Everdark’s freedom return some balance that was lacking? Her tattoo continued to pulse warmly. The pips existence were connected to the Everdark somehow. How long had they existed in the world? Had her family somehow been responsible for their existence by containing the Everdark?

She faced the swirling shadow. It had its own dark beauty she could see. She closed her eyes and imagined the hands of the pocket watch ticking away towards twelve o’clock. Just a few seconds more and the trap would open.

—-

The first sensation Tess had was an intense ringing in her ears. She opened her eyes and startled- the strange faces of Jared and Paltis staring down at her. “Is it dead?” Paltis asked nonchalantly.

Jared hoisted Tess up by her armpits. “I’m ok I’m ok don’t get any nasty ideas!” Tess exclaimed. She looked around them. The golden doors were nowhere to be seen and neither was Abigail. The mass of excavation equipment flung like tonka toys away from the site of the dig. “Words. Explanation. Now!” Tess demanded of the two Fae who were altogether too unfazed by all of this.

“It would appear Herant the Younger has encased herself, the entire Everdark, and Belinda as well in her cunning little watch. Impressive. I suppose that takes care of that then. I must away to my kingdom once more.” Tess picked up the watch. It radiated with a strange pulsing power.

“No way you are just leaving- you owe us. Abigail and I rescued you from that weird sauna. You would still be there if it wasn’t for us. Besides, this thing isn’t going to hold for much longer and when it lets loose we are all going to be screwed. You and your kingdom included.”

Tess was interrupted by a loud cawing. They watched as the inky black crow flitted down onto Paltis’s shoulder. Paltis reached up to stroke its chest and it chortled away in her ear. “I cannot say I do not welcome the coming of the Everdark. I do not in fact know exactly what it is myself. Jared and I have existed for many ages of this earth and I cannot recall a time when darkness and light have not been vying for dominion. Belinda and those who have aligned themselves with Darkstar seem to be making many assumptions about this being or are privy to that which we know not.”

Jared let out a sigh. “This mortal realm grates at me. Let’s all away to my lair, I will take up my crown and we will investigate further. I will be at my full strength there. We must ascertain if Belinda and Jilliup acted alone in this or if there are more council members who have crossed me.” Tess’s brow furrowed. “Abigail’s father is acting in your place. If anyone knows how to deal with this spirit trap it would be him. He made it after all.” Paltis nodded slightly. “I am willing to follow this course of events.” Jared arched an eyebrow with a smile that somehow felt threatening and at the same time intoxicating. He drew a circle in the humid swamp air with a taloned finger opening a portal once again and bowed to Tess in invitation. “After you”.

The three, four? including the odd corvid, found themselves in front of the throne of the Kelpie King, Charles Herant presiding. He lept up as he saw them. “Tess! Where is Abby! Something is very very wrong.” His gaze passed over the other beings in the room and he let out a short hysterical laugh when he saw the Kelpie King. “Gods she brought him right to me that brilliant girl!” Tess held the watch aloft like it was a rotten banana. “THIS is urgent Mr. Herant. Abigail is inside it herself and she’s got an egomaniacal fae and all of the Everdark in there with her!” Without warning the pace of ticking the spirit trap had maintained rose alarmingly. Tess tossed the trap to Charles who quickly flung it open to observe the face. “We have…seconds before this trap goes, before the Everdark is released.” Jared stepped forward. “I can open a portal that is unending. It would be like an oubliette. Whatever falls into it would be forever traveling and lost to time. You could throw your trap into it.”

Tess whirled “No! Abigail is IN there what part of that are you not getting??” Charles was frozen as the seconds ticked away. “Perhaps there is a way to allow the trap to open and save Abby. My tattoo, symbol of my family and our cause against evil- Abby bears the same mark. It is also present on the Amulet I know she still bares- If I can create a link to her it just might work.”

 👍 LIIKE THIS POST for Jared to open a never ending portal to toss the trap in

❤️LOVE THIS POST for Charles to allow the trap to open releasing the Everdark upon the world

POLL RESULTS:  1❤️ 8👍

Day Twenty-eight - Leani

Blackness poured from the doors like ink spilled from its well. The two men were swallowed by it. Abigail saw their mouths open but their yells never reached her ears. Despite all her training, despite the spells and lessons her father taught her, Abigail reacted on instinct and instinct alone. If the trap could contain something as powerful as fae, maybe it could contain something bigger.

As hard as she could, she threw the spirit trap through the doors and into the Everdark.

The two magics collided and for a brief moment, time stood still. All around, rocks began to float and Abigail herself felt as though she were weightless. Then, an explosion of arcana and energy sent her flying backward. She landed with a heavy thud, striking her head and losing consciousness within seconds.

She came to surrounded by darkness. It was unclear how long she had been out or even where she was. At first, she thought she was hallucinating but the throbbing in her temple told her otherwise.

Abigail was no longer in the swamp. She could no longer see the portal or anything else for that matter, only the wide expanse of night.

“Tess? Tess! Where are you?!” she called. It was like the dark swallowed her voice as well. The sound left her lips through puffs of smoke and no response came back.

She started to panic. Terror set in and Abigail’s breathing came out in ragged gasps. She tried to run but with nothing but darkness in sight, it felt like she was locked in a nightmare, running without going anywhere.

“Hello?! ANYONE?!”

Nothing. More smoke. Louder silence. The only thing she heard was the rapid beating of her heart. And then—

“Who are you child and why have you disturbed me?”

The voice that reached her ears was soft and gentle, not what she would have expected in a place like…wherever she was.

“I am Abigail Herant, daughter of Charles Herant,” she said to no one. “And who are you?”

“I am the Everdark.” Through the darkness, a shape emerged shadowed in gray. She could see no features or face, only the figure of something vaguely humanoid. “I have been asleep for centuries and now I am awake. Why?”

“Someone wanted to set you loose on the mortal world,” Abigail said, her eyes tracking the figure now there was at least something to focus on. Yet, every time she did, the shape moved, and changed, always staying at just the edge of her peripheral vision. Like the shadow people that tended to disappear the second you focused on them. “I tried to stop her. I threw a trap.”

“So that’s where we are.”

Abigail’s stomach sank. “We?” Shit, the two powerful magics must have collided and she got caught in the pull. Her plan worked but it seemed she was trapped as well.

“Yes, we. Though, I don’t imagine this prison will hold for very long. Not with both of us here.”

“Just both? There should be three.”

“Is there?” After a beat of silence, the being responded. “Ah yes, there is. A powerful being at that. A fae with a very long list of demands.” The voice sounded amused.

Abigail wasn’t sure how she felt about the being in front of her. Their voice calmed her, made her feel like she did when she woke in the middle of the night, and the darkness lulled her back to sleep.

“Don’t listen to her,” she said. “That fae wants to use you to wipe out humanity. She wants to plunge the world into endless night.”

“And what about you? What you do want to use me for?”

“I don’t want to use you for anything.”

“But you want to contain me, don’t you? Put me back in my prison?”

Did she want to? A moment ago she would have said ‘hell yeah’ but now she wasn’t so sure. “Should I?” she asked.

Abigail couldn’t see a face or where the voice came from, yet she heard a soft sigh. “The dark is neither dangerous nor good. The dark is just the dark. It’s what one does with the dark that determines its intent.”

“Then who locked you away? And why?”

“Those who did not understand and were afraid. They fought to control me and when they could not, they banished me and threw away the key. What will you do, child? Will you follow in their footsteps?”

Abigail considered their words, her mind spinning. There was no precedent for this. Everything she had been taught and knew about magic couldn’t even begin to explain what, or who, the Everdark was.

“What will you do if you’re free?” she asked. “What will happen?”

“That entirely depends on you.”

“Me? Why me?”

Abigail felt her tattoo flare and she gasped but not out of pain. Out of surprise. Because it didn’t hurt or itch. It felt warm, comforting even. She lifted her shirt to look and saw it glowing white, so bright in contrast to the darkness that she had to look away.

“Because you wear their mark,” the Everdark said.

Realization dawned on Abigail. “Wait, you mean my family did this to you? My ancestors locked you away?” she asked.

“They called themselves protectors and I do not fault them for their fear. But our time in your trap is limited and the magic will be breaking any moment. Decide soon, Abigail Herant. What will you have me do?”

“What’ll happen when the trap breaks?”

“You, me, and your prisoner will be spat out into the mortal plane and you will lose your chance to seal me away again. For once I am free I cannot be contained.”

“And then?”

There was silence. Abigail got the sense that the being was considering her words just as she had considered their’s. “I do not know. It has been so long since I was free I cannot remember what I did before my slumber,” they said. “I suppose I will have to relearn the world. It has been some time since I’ve seen it.”

“If I were to contain you, how? It sounds like it took a number of Herants to do it and I’m just me.”

“You can command me to return. I am tied to the prison and you are tied to its creation. I will yield to you above others.”

“So then what? You just go back in your cage and stay there?”

“Unless I am disturbed once more.”

Abigail tried to process what she was hearing. How the hell was she supposed to decide? She sensed no malice or ill-intent from the Everdark and it was not lost on her that Belinda was apparently trying to control it and was finding no success. But could she do what her ancestors did? Could she seal this being away? It wasn’t endless darkness. It had a consciousness, it could think and speak.

It wasn’t a mindless entity.

What the hell should she do?

 👍LIKE THIS POST for Abigail to command the Everdark back to its cage.

 ❤️ LOVE THIS POST for Abigail to let the Everdark decide for themselves.

POLL RESULTS:  2❤️ 1👍

Day Twenty-seven - Isaac

"Come on!!" Abigail yelled, half her body hanging out the portal.

Paltis threw herself through the open portal as the Pips' attention turned to Jilliup's prone form. The last thing Abigail saw was the mass of vampiric vermin descend on Jilliup.

She wondered what would happen when they tried to eat a powerful faerie...

She looked around at the group surrounding her on the other side. Paltis looking rather tired and annoyed. The true Kelpie King still coming to terms with being fully conscious. An entirely unconscious Tess.

And they were all standing in the council room in the fae realm.

Paltis bowed to the king. "It is good to see you again."

The Kelpie King nodded. "Indeed. That cult of the Everdark really had me for a bit. I should have seen the betrayal coming from a mile away."

Paltis nodded. "Jilliiup's betrayal was certainly a surprise."

The King shook his head. "Not just Jilliup. Belinda!"

"Oh? Did I truly surprise you, Jared?"

Everyone jumped as Belinda emerged from the shadows, a dagger in hand.

"The Everdark shall be opened. And, as it is about to be opened, this charade can end. I shall end you all and it shall herald the new age! The new age of eternal night, when the creatures of the secret dark finally rule over the pathetic mortals!"

Abigail, Paltis, and the King backed away. "I don't get it, though," Abigail's fingers ran over the spirit trap as she slowly placed it on the ground, "Why? Why get involved with Darkstar?"

Belinda laughed wildly. "Get involved? Fool! I am the CEO! I've long maneuvered myself to be lead of the council, to be in a place to imprison the King, to be in a place where I could uncover the Gates."

Paltis arched an eyebrow. "I take it you were the one that murdered the last head of Council. I'd be impressed, if this wasn't going to lead to the end of the mortal world. No mortals means no more hunting. And that is not ideal."

Belinda rolled her eyes. "Ugh. I am so tired of you and your dark and spooky aesthetic. You want real dark and spooky? You're about to meet it from the Everdark. My human thralls open it as we speak. First, though, I shall use this cursed dagger to end the life of the King."

"I don't think so, you spooky bitch!"

Belinda whirled around to see Tess holding the spirit trap. She held it, whispering the words that Abigail had taught her. It lit up as she through it at Belinda, capturing her.

Abigail sighed. "Tess, you deserve a raise."

Tess smiled. "I know."

The King opened another portal. "We don't have time. We have to stop the opening of the Everdark!"

The four rushed through, emerging at the dig site across from the possessed puppy home. In the hole, two men in black suits were pulling on the brass doors at the bottom.

"No! Stop!" Yelled out Abigail.

But it was too late. The doors opened. And out poured the dark.

👍 LIIKE THIS POST to have Abigail pull Tess back through the portal

❤️LOVE THIS POST to have Abigail throw the spirit trap containing Belinda at the dark

POLL RESULTS:  4 ❤️ 4👍

Day Twenty-six - Angie

“What is it, what are you thinking?” Tess asked, pacing in a circle.

“We’re going to release Jilliup and trap the Kelpie King. Abigail walked to the furthest corner of the room, “Jilliup should be incapacitated in here.” Abigail avoided eye contact with Tess, knowing her face would unintentionally emphasize the operative word.

“Should? Should? You mean you’re not sure?” Tess’ stopped pacing and held onto the wall for support.

“Just make sure that door stays open.” Abigail pointed to the jean jacket holding the door open, “There’s no door handle on the inside.”

Abigail placed the pocket watch on the ground. The sigil circle began to glow, faintly. The hot wet air began circle within the room, creating a pulsating, low frequency hum. As the sigil circle began to glow brighter, the hum grew louder. For a fleeting moment, a high-pitched tone pierced through the hum. Knowing that speaking while opening a spirit trap was not advised, Tess and Abigail relied on facial expressions to ask each other- Did you hear that? Tess quickly averted her eyes and stared through the crack in the down, eyes fixed on the endless hallway, wondering where Paltis was.

FOCUS, Abigail thought. Focus. She used her magic to push the sigil circle to the opposite corner and opened the pocket watch. Jilliup slowly faded into view, laying in the fetal position in the middle of the circle.

Abigail clutched her chest. The itch became a familiar unbearable burn. She could feel the burn spread to her legs. The vamps were getting closer, the burn means they had zeroed in on her. Abigail fell to her knees as the burning sensation took over her feet. The burn would continue to take over until she fought them. As much as she hated to admit it, she wished her father was there to fight them with her.

From down the hallway came deafening, reverberant screeching. Abigail and Tess both jumped, nearly out of their own skin. As Abigail began to guide the sigil circle to surround the Kelpie King she realized that screeching was Paltis.

Paltis was being chased by vamps.

The screeching grew louder, cutting through the hum. The Kelpie King, now in the middle of the glowing circle of sigils, bolted to attention. He was awake and standing, but seemed to move in slow motion. He slowly turned to look at Abigail, then Tess, then Jilliup. The air and hum slowed to a halt. Now only the screeching could be heard. He turned his head toward the sound of the screeching.

Tess, still looking out the door, started yelling in frenzied babble “I can see them! HOLY SHIT, I can see them! They are after Paltis, they are coming right towards us! They…” Tess fainted.

“We will never escape that way. Come with me.” The Kelpie King said, raising his left hand. He drew a circle in the air. Blue smoke followed his finger, creating a portal in the wall of the sauna prison.

 👍 LIIKE THIS POST to have Abigail and Tess to escape through the Kelpie King’s portal

❤️LOVE THIS POST to have Abigail go fight the vamps in the hallway

POLL RESULTS:  1❤️ 4👍

Day Twenty-five - Isaac

The almost blinding lights of the hallway the trio found themselves in emitted a constant and obnoxious buzz. Honestly the amount of stimulus was going to send Abigail over the edge. Her tattoo was going to singe her skin off, Tess kept on shuffling her feet anxiously, and now, oh gods not now- the pocket watch spirit trap holding Jilliup began to tick slowly. She knew this meant it’s power was waning. It would get progressively faster and faster the closer it came to releasing the foxy villian.

Abigail stared down the hallway- something wasn’t right about it. The longer she stared, squinting trying to make out the end, the longer it seemed to get. It appeared to be infinite. Was this just another glamour? Was it a trap in its own way forcing whoever walked down it to be stuck in the corridor for all eternity? And the doors, just doors and doors forever. This whole mission was going topsy turvy. What an initiation for Tess.

Turning her head ever so slightly towards Paltis, Abigail could see the strange figure squinting, grimacing. It was time to make a move. Grabbing Tess by the elbow, and clutching her pocket with the spirit trap she took off like a shot down the hall. If they could shake the terrifying elder they could maybe finally take a moment to breathe and to THINK damnit about what needed to be done. Paltis let out a blood curdling wail of frustration. Abigail’s gamble had paid off for once- she couldn’t follow them here. The unknown reason why simultaneously filled her with hope and dread.

They sped down the corridor, doors by the multitude on either side of them. The doors appeared to be quite plain at first glance, of a standard industrial type with a levered handle and a small metal plate etched with what normally would be a number or a name. Abigail found as she tried to read the plate that her focus would shift and the letters and numbers became jumbled, making it an impossibility.

 “I feel like I’m in one of my own anxiety dreams” Tess chuckled. She always infused humor into a difficult situation- a great gift that. Just like in a dream where you don’t know which room the math test is being given in, they’d have to pick a door and hope to hide out for a moment, get their heads screwed on straight.

Abigail reached out for one of the handles to her left. It was locked. Well shit this wasn’t going to be as easy as she imagined. “We’ll have to keep on trying them and quickly Tess!” They frantically made their way down the hallway jiggling door handle after door handle and coming up short. Had they fallen into a trap after all? Staring down the direction they had come from it was now impossible to see the other end of the corridor- it had the same infinite appearance. It felt like a trap, it felt like a prison. “I think we are coming at this from the wrong angle. Focus. We require focus.” Abigail went still. She chose a door and put her hand upon the handle, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She imagined the thing she most hoped to find behind the door. The thing that would give her the answers she needed. “Behind this door is the true Kelpie King” she murmured. The door opened.

With a gasp Abigail fell into the doorway, Tess at her heels. The air was wet and hot like they were in a sauna. Abigail ran her hands along the wall and felt soft wood, the smell of cedar filled her nose. They were in a sauna? What the hell?

“Ohhhhh now we are talking! Great choice boss we can hang out in here for a while.” Abigail slammed her foot into the door just before it was about to slam shut. “I think we almost were in here for all eternity”. She said wiping her brow. She removed Jilliup from her pocket and took off her jean jacket. She balled it up, shoving it into the door to hold it open. The pocket watch was ticking about once a half second now.

 Through the mist Abigail was able to make out what looked like a male figure lying prone on one what she could see now were long benches. Looking perfectly peaceful and wrapped in a rather luxurious towel was who she could only assume was the main man- the Kelpie King. “Well would you look at that.” Tess sauntered over towards him clearly admiring his lengthy physique. Without thinking she grabbed his wrist. Abigail hissed. Tess lifted his hand up and dropped it comically- totally limp. “I think he’s unconscious boss. What now?”

Abigail looked down at the pocket watch in her hand. This sauna was clearly a very effective prison even though it was a comfy one. She could try and switch out Jilliup for the Kelpie king in the spirit trap and leave her in this prison- a risky endeavor. Who knows if they would be able to fight her off long enough to get out themselves. Or she could give up the watch all together- useful family heirloom that it was, and Jilliup would find herself in this sauna when it finally gave out. They perhaps could carry the Kelpie King out together and revive him….

 👍 LIIKE THIS POST for Abigail to attempt to switch the inhabitants of the spirit trap

❤️ LOVE THIS POST for Abigail to leave the spirit trap and Jilliup in the sauna prison

POLL RESULTS:  0❤️ 7👍

Day Twenty-four - Leani

Abigail has learned a lot over the years and the one thing that has always stuck was to be wary of the fae and their intentions. There were a lot of unknowns, a lot of moving pieces that she couldn’t see. With Dark Star, Everdark, Kelpie Kings, Pips…all of these seemingly random events were crossing paths, clearly not as random as she first thought.

The arrival of both Jilliup and Paltis was proof of that. Abigail needed answers and she was tired of only having more questions.

“Hello? Are you guys still there?” Tess asked. “I asked if I could open my eyes yet.”

“Only if you want to see a dead body,” Paltis said without a trace of remorse. “Excuse me, two dead bodies.”

“I’ll keep them closed. In fact, I’m just going to turn and face the wall with my eyes closed. Safer that way.

Abigail highly doubted they were safe. Paltis had her gaze still fixated on her, waiting for Abigail to hand over the trap.

Yeah, there was no way that was going to happen. She didn’t trust Paltis, especially not after witnessing her murder two men in cold blood. Not that they were innocent men but they probably didn’t deserve such brutal ends. There was only one person Abigail would even consider giving the trap to and that was her father. And even that gave her reservations.

She found it convenient that as soon as the agent started speaking, Paltis quickly shut him up. Had he really been trying to break out of her control or had she wanted him to stop talking? Abigail guessed it was the latter. And where did that bird go?

“Sorry, I can’t,” she said. “It’s attuned to my energy and can only be opened by me during a specific ceremony under the light of the new moon.” The lie tumbled from her lips effortlessly that even she was impressed with herself.

Paltis’ eyes narrowed. “Really?” she asked in a flat tone. “How convenient.”

“Magic is a fickle thing.”

Tess cracked an eye open and glanced at Abigail. But she was smart enough to know that her boss was lying for a reason and kept her mouth shut. Paltis stood in silence for a moment before she let out a big sigh.

“I love the moon but it can really mess up the flow of things, can’t it?” she said. “Well, if that’s the case, I guess I’ll just have to hold onto both of you and the watch for the time being.”

Tess made a noise of distress, the fear in her evident by the way her body shuddered.

“Except we’ve made no deals with you nor have we given you our names or consumed anything you offered, so you can’t,” Abigail reminded Paltis.

“Sadly, that’s true,” Paltis agreed. “Which only leaves one option. We must travel together until this mess is all sorted out. Forgive me, but there is no way I can let you out of my sight knowing that you have a fae in your possession.”

Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Somehow that sounded worse. But Abigail was out of ideas and the tattoo was itching bad enough that her shirt irritated it every time she moved, no matter how slight it was. Having Paltis tag along was the lesser of two evils.

“Great, because there is a nest of Pips around that need taken care of, and with you, we should have enough firepower,” Abigail said, trying to keep her tone light.

“By all means, lead the way.”

Hating the thought of having Paltis at their backs, yet knowing she was already pushing her luck, Abigail grabbed Tess’s arm and they started back the way they came.

“What are you doing?” Tess asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Keeping us alive. Just follow my lead.”

The hair on the back of Abigail’s neck stood up as she felt Paltis’ stare bearing into the back of her skull. Her tattoo provided a helpful distraction. It was itching to the point of pain, especially now that she was headed in the right direction. After a few twists and turns, Abigail realized the shadows started to recede and there was a light at the end of the long stretch of hallway.

As the shadows hung back, Paltis started to as well. Abigail wondered if her appearance was only contingent on traveling through the shadows. Would she be able to follow them into the light?

Abigail’s tattoo started to burn as the trio came to the end of the hall. The light nearly blinded them and she had to blink a couple of times to adjust. Once she did, she noticed numerous doors lining the walls of a stark white hallway. The Pips were behind one of those doors, she could feel it, but what was behind the others? Could the true king be here? How and why?

She glanced over her shoulder. Paltis hugged the wall, her eyes burning like two bright embers in the shadows that clung to her.

This might be their shot to get away. She didn’t seem keen to follow them into the bright hallway. Though, Abigail wasn’t sure if that was due to necessity, preference, or something else. It would be a gamble to find out.

Next to her, Tess stared with wide eyes, waiting for Abigail to decide what to do.

 👍LIKE THIS POST for Abigail and Tess to make a run for it down the bright hallway.

 ❤️LOVE THIS POST for Abigail to bide her time and hope for clearer means of escape.

POLL RESULTS:  0❤️ 2👍

Day Twenty-three - Isaac

Yeah, she had a sworn oath to slaughter those Pips, but she had an investigation to continue, and the investigation held a lot of immediate problems as stake.

Why the hell did Darkstar have vampires in their headquarters, though?

She followed the pull of the amulet. If it was acting up, it had to be getting weak. Abigail could only imagine how fiercely and elder fae like Jilliup was fighting to get free, and Abigail had to figure out something before she was out. There was no way she could deal with a Pip infestation, a shadow organization tied to some scary sounding otherworld, the rescue of her father, AND a council member ready to outright kill her before she could let the rest of the council know that she was their mole. Well, one of their moles, at least. Abigail had a feeling that Jilliup wasn't the only one.

Tess followed Abigail down the corridor. "You alright, Abigail? You keep touching your belly..."

Abigail sighed. "Yeah, there's vamps in the other direction."

Tess stopped. "Vamps? As in vampires?"

Abigail nodded. "Yeah, little bloodsuckers that also burst out of people's chest. They're the worst, and there always seems to be a nest of them hiding where you least expect it."

Tess frowned. "What does that have to do with your stomach?"

Abigail lifted a finger to her lips as the closed in on. a corner. They could hear some murmuring. She took out a little mirror from her pack to peer around the corner. There was one of the men in black suits, sitting at a desk with his back to her. He spoke in a low voice into the telephone. Abigail strained to hear what was being said...

"Put your hands up."

Abigail and Tess both did as the male voice from behind them demanded. Tess hiccupped. Normally, her weird thing for hiccupping when nervous was low key adorable. It certainly hit a little different as Abigail turned slightly to see another man in a black suit with a gun to Tess' head.

"Agent L, I seem to have apprehended intruders."

The man who was at the desk hung up the phone, stood, and turned to approach the ladies. "Good job, Agent M."

He walked closer, getting a look at the two. "How did two boring mortals like this deal with Jilliup? She was supposed to kill them before she disappeared. I imagine they know her whereabouts. Take them to the back room. Get them to talk, then feed them to the vamps."

Agent M began to nod. Mid nod, he stopped.

Agent L moved closer. "Agent M?"

"Ladies, close your eyes. This will be unpleasant." A woman's voice resounded from an unseen source. Tess shut her eyes tightly. Not Abigail. She wasn't afraid.

It was as if the shadows moved strangely. One second, Agent L had a head. The next second, he didn't. Agent M seemed to drop deeper into a stupor, his gun falling from his hands.

As Agent L's body fell to the ground, a shorter woman was revealed, her dark hair loosely falling onto her shoulders, her red eyes glimmering in the light. She wore a light sundress, which revealed the hooves she had instead of feet.

Recognition crossed Abigail's face. "You're from the council. You're Paltis."

She smiled a toothy smile. "It's good to meet you again. Though, I must say, this does reveal my presence to Darkstar. So much for my investigation."

"Can I look yet?" Tess' voice squeaked.

"Oh, dear, the unpleasantness isn't done." She turned to Agent M, who still stood silent and still. "I have some information to acquire. And I hunger. There are plenty of evil hearted men for me to hunt out there, but they so rarely wander into my domain now a days. There was a time when dark hearted hunters came into my forest regularly..." A strange crow like bird on her shoulder squawked. Was that there the entire time, Abigail thought?

Abigail nodded to the fae woman before her. "I am quite interested in finding out why Darkstar is trying to open the gates to the Everdark. I think that they have the Kelpie King that reigned before my father. They seem like they've been around for a long time. I just don't understand..."

"Hmm..." Paltis' eyes glowed a bright red, "Let me see what this guy knows..."

Agent M's mouth began to move, at first without making a sound. Words began to come out like breathless gasps. "Everdark... Reign of night... In exchange for power... Power to become rulers..."

He began to struggle. "Oh dear," said Paltis, "I'm afraid this one is starting to figure out how to break out of my control. This is so much trickier here in their lair instead of in the presence of my trees." She walked over and kissed him.

This was not the move that Abigail had expected. As Paltis continued to kiss Agent M, his eyes grew wide in horror. He struggled, but began to go limp as his eyes sunk into his face. His skin turned gray and his muscles spasmed until they went very still.

Paltis dropped his very dead body, licking her lips as one does after a very good meal. She turned to Abigail. "What brought you down this hall anyways?"

Abigail frowned. "I have Jilliup trapped. She is definitely one of the traitors. Something was calling her trapped spirit here."

Paltis' face darkened. "I should have recognized that she was a sympathizer of the Everdark. Sometimes the most dangerous predators are the ones you don't expect. Give me her trapped spirit, so I can take her to the Council for justice."

Abigail paused. She noticed that Paltis no longer had a bird on her shoulder. Where the hell did that go? Was Paltis trustworthy? Why would Jilliup try pull her towards Paltis? Or was there something else in the room that was pulling Jilliup in this direction? What was she going to do about the horde of Pips down the hall? Could Abigail say no to a Council member? How did Paltis get in there in the first place? How much longer could the spirit trap hold Jilliup?

"Can I open my eyes yet?" Asked Tess.

👍LIKE THIS POST for Abigail to hand the spirit trap containing Jilliup over to Paltis

❤️ LOVE THIS POST for Abigail to think of a distraction or an excuse to hold on to the spirit trap until she knows who she can trust

POLL RESULTS:  5❤️ 4👍

Day Twenty-two - Josh

Day 22 of "THE PERPLEXING PATH OF ABIGAIL HERANT" - a new social media choose-your-own-adventure from myself, Angie Low-Ryder, Maria Neal, Leani Lopez, and Isaac Vars! Read away and be sure to participate every day of the month!
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why was it always the stairs that went downstairs?

Downstairs, underground, was never a good place to be. Abigail had only come back from underground and wasn’t eager to go back. Yet what good were the offices going to be? Above ground, with paper-thin doors easy to break through? No evil shell corporation worth its salt would keep anything of value aboveground. 

“Down the rabbit hole,” Abigail muttered, causing Tess to peer at her quizzically. They were indeed late for a very important date but it was one Abigail wished she didn’t have to attend in the first place.

Her tattoo was starting to itch.

She broke out in a sweat, an instinctual reaction by her body more than anything, though terror ran cold and quick through her veins. 

Her tattoo only itched for one thing, and if it wasn’t her Dad on the line right now, she’d turn and bolt all the way to Antarctica, or at least whenever her tattoo stopped itching, whichever came first. 

She didn’t notice the adrenaline at first, though that was the cause of the sweat. Her throat immediately went dry, her heart was hammering, and she was sweating. 

Of COURSE there would be goddamn vampires here. 

She hated goddamn vampires. 

The tattoo her father gave her, run deep with the ashes of her father’s latest vampire execution, was one of her first introductions into the world of the misaligned and supernatural. Not only was the tattoo’s ink mixed through with the ashes of sun-squashed vampires, but it was also mixed through with minuscule gold flakes.

Her father had asked her three times, as was customary, and in her youthful exuberance, she took the oath. She swore the words of her father and mother, as had countless ancestors behind them. Sworn soldiers committed to their last breaths, committed to fighting the endless parasitic and cancerous scourge that was vampires.

Pips, she called them. 

As in PIP-squeaks. Everyone thinks, before they know any better, that vampires are sexy. They’re not, actually all the way opposite on the dial in fact, and gross. They seem to carry with them a slow rotting process that their thirst for blood staves off. They run in packs, but they’re small, about three feet tall each. 

Literal pipsqueaks and one of the reasons she was so eager to take the oath and swear her life to fighting the infection that was the Pips. Her father, somber and serious as always, explained clearly what they were about, how they were like rats and cockroaches and the worst infection you could imagine. That, once a nest had become established in an area, it was almost impossible to clear it out.

It was best that anything with a pulse clear out of the area, as fast as they could. 

It wasn’t bad that they were small, ran in packs, and would suck you dry in under a minute. No, the worst part was how they reproduced. They’d latch hold of you, most likely a dozen of them but certainly no less than three, and you’d be dead before dawn, as the saying goes. 

While latched upon you, the Pip’s saliva enters the bloodstream of their victim, infecting them. Within the hour, unless your body has been burnt, your chest bursts open, and out crawls a smaller, bloody version of yourself. Somehow, in the transformation and infestation process, the heart muscle is what twists, shapes itself, and breaks free from the chest cavity. 

After finding the nearest source of blood, the Pip then finds the closest hive or creates a new one out of its first victim. With their reproductive cycle worse than radioactive rabbits on steroids and Red Bull, they were the number one threat to humans.

They were, out of all the physical monsters she knew of, the closest thing to humanity’s extinction that was running around on the face of the earth. That’s why her family was sworn to fight them, no matter what was happening in their lives at the moment. Their sacred duty was to stop everything and combat their presence, no matter what happened.

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was the first time they’d had to burn a city down, or most of it anyway, to stop the spread of the swarm. 

Chicago was the first, but not the last. 

For over 500 years had the Herant family been so foresworn. 

The tattoo was itching, throbbing from its place on her solar plexus. It would itch and pull at her until she found any sight of the swarm. And so long as she was in the presence of them and they were anything but ash, the tattoo would itch. 

For a brief moment, she thought this may be unrelated to her current mission, that somehow she’d stumbled upon an infestation, confusion setting in right behind the alarm of the situation developing as it had, and so quickly. She thought it was unrelated until, that is, the amulet with Jilliup tucked away inside seemed to be pulling in the same direction as her tattoo was pulling her.

Down a rabbit hole indeed, and she put one foot in front of the other, with Tess close behind. They’d only gone down two flights of stairs before they ended at a single, metal door. 

The door pushed inward, and they found themselves in a hallway. Suddenly, everything changed. Instead of pulling her in the same direction, she could feel like she was made up of two magnets - the first, her tattoo, now pulling her to the right.

Then, the spirit trap pocketwatch that held Jilliup was now pulling her to the left. 

She and Tess could only go in one direction.

And they certainly weren’t splitting up.

👍 LIIKE THIS POST to have Abigail and Tess go left, the direction Jilliup's amulet is pulling them
❤️LOVE THIS POST to have them go right, in the direction Abigail's tattoo is pulling them

POLL RESULTS:  2❤️ 13👍

Day Twenty-one - Angie

Abigail, in a fog of indecision, stared at the rods. Her mind looking for any indication of guidance. She looked to the car wash. They had one of those dancing windsocks with a “GRAND OPENING” sign at it’s base. A queue of cars flowed out of their lot and onto the street. Abigail then looked towards the strip mall. Windows were boarded up. The parking lot had abandoned cars, old tires, a few shopping carts.. then something caught Abigail’s eye.

“What? What is it?” Tess asked, taking note of Abigail’s shift in attention.

“Watch…” Abigail pointed towards the strip mall.

They watched a thick fog roll into the parking lot around the strip mall. Fat white fingers stretched around the building and melted out and filled the parking lot.

“Oo, that’s kind of weird, huh?” Tess stood next to Abigail, trying to position herself to be able to see exactly what Abigail was seeing.

“It’s low land there, so fog makes sense… except it’s late in the morning for it to be rolling in now. But… that’s not the weirdest part.” Abigail started walking towards the strip mall. “Look at the fence.”

There was an old chain link fence surrounding the parking lot. Some sections were missing, one section looked as if a tree had fallen onto it. The fog, however, stayed within the fence line.

“Why does it just stop there like that? Is there glass or something…” Tess questioning trailed off as Abigail picked up her pace.

After a short but too-quick-for-Tess walk, they arrived to the entrance of the parking lot of the strip mall. There was no gate to the fence where the driveway turned into the parking lot.

“Should we climb it?” Tess asked in an almost too excited tone.

Abigail picked up an acorn and tossed it up, attempting to get it over the fence. The acorn’s trajectory was perfect, arching to the other side, but when it reached the plane of the fence, it burst into a tiny flame and dissolved in a puff of smoke.

“WHAT IS THAT?”, Tess leapt away from the fence.

“A forcefield. Someone, or something is protecting that building.” Abigail said as she began to walk the perimeter of the fence. They turned two corners and arrived to the back of the strip mall. It was wooded back there, if you could call it that. Most of the trees were dead or about to be. Trash mixed with branches and brush made walking more difficult. After wading through, they came a pay phone booth. The light inside flickered.

“What in 1993 is that?” Tess picked up an acorn and threw it into the open doors of the phone booth. It went through and hit the floor. Both shrugged and walked into the phonebooth. Cramped inside, they faced each other with inches between their faces.

“Want some gum?” Tess pulled out a stick of gum from her back pocket, handing it to Abigail before she had a chance to answer.

“I’ll take the hint.” Abigail let out a laugh as she popped the gum in her mouth.

“Ok, so… why are we in here again?” Tess asked, looking around like a nervous cat.

Abigail realized they made that decision without thinking. “I think this must be… what we’re supposed to do.” Abigail grabbed her amulet, thinking it must be what was guiding them. Abigail picked up the phone, “There’s a dial tone… it’s in service?”, making both a statement and forming a question at the same time. “I don’t know what to dial. I have a feeling this isn’t connected to a phone company.” Abigail began pressing buttons. After 6 buttons a voice announced “Attempt one of two fail. Please try again.”

“It said attempt one of two failed. I don’t know what will happen if we fail again.” Abigail began to think of all the 6 letter wards she could spell with the alpha numeric numbers.

“Wait! Wait… what about the code on the postcard? Try that.” Tess pulled the post card out of her bag and handed it to Abigail. As this action took place, the flickering light in the phone booth steadied and grew very bright.

Could it really be that easy, Abigail wondered, rubbing the amulet between her fingers. “Or maybe not, maybe it’s a word we’re supposed to figure out.” The light in the phone booth dimmed and returned to flickering. “Ok, well, I think that’s a good enough sign.” Abigail pressed in the code from the postcard. 3 for D, 7 for S, 3 for F, 4-2-7. The voice announced “Attempt 2 of 2 Successful”. The doors of the phone booth folded in. “That’s weir….” As Tess spoke, the entire phone booth shot into the ground like an elevator, but at warp speed, so it felt more like falling. And just as fast as it started moving, it stopped, and the doors folded open.

Before them was what looked to be a maze of cement hallways. Along the hallways were old photos of various construction projects over the years. Below each frame was a small plaque with a year engraved into it.

Abigail read the first plaque, “1399” The photo was of a lake surrounded by excavators with the Dark Star logo.

“How did they have that machinery in 1399? When were cameras invented? This can’t be the right year.” As Tess began walking down the hall to read more of the plaques, they heard the sound of muffled voices. They both froze. The voices began to get louder, indicating whoever it was getting closer. Abigail and Tess ran down the hallway until they reached two stairways, each with a sign over the doorway.

“To Office or To warehouse?” Tess asked Abigail as she read the signs.

 👍To have them take the stairs to the Dark Star Office

 ❤️To have them take the stairs to the Dark Star Warehouse

POLL RESULTS: 2 ❤️ 1 👍

Day Twenty - Maria

Abigail slowly came back to the world. The light filtered through the blinds in her office casting a striped pattern over her face. A long stream of drool hung from the side of her mouth. She rubbed her eyes and smacked her lips. She was going to need more than the weeny bottle of water from her emergency kit. The woefully inadequate amount of sleep really underscored the exhaustion that had ground its way into her bones over the past 48 hours or so.

She sat up and scanned the room. Tess was nowhere to be seen. Her eyes fell upon the briefcase and then the spirit trap. It looked to be intact. Phew. It was meant to be a temporary thing and she was unsure how long it would contain a being of great power like Jilliup. It was an ingenious piece of equipment that her father had invented and held the spirit in an “in between” place. To the casual observer it looked to be nothing more than a silver pocket watch. It would have to do for now. The briefcase was another matter. Also completely innocuous looking, it was a portal into the fae realm. It would have to be secured somehow to keep any unsuspecting dopes from opening it. She slipped the pocket watch (and Jilliup) into her jacket pocket and ran her thumb over it’s surface. It felt warm and satiny to the touch. She thought of her father’s work she had taken up and allowed herself a brief moment to feel the hope rush in now that she knew he was alive. She was still pissed though, she’d allow that to mingle with the hope. What a boon to have captured the Eldrich Elder. She’d be able use her in her “negotiations”. She was feeling powerful and ruthless.

Abigail turned to the postcard with the combination and examined it closely. There was no address or any other text on it at all actually. She let out a sigh- that would have been too easy and gods forbid anything in her life have a feeling of ease to it.

Just then the bell above the door jingled abruptly and Tess busted through the door rear end first, her hands full of what Abigail knew were her favorite donuts from the local shop and two very tall to go cups. The smell of strong coffee filled the room. “Tess what would I do without you” Abigail practically had tears in her eyes.

“Well you’ll never have to find out but after this is all over I’m expecting a raise. If they don’t evict us that is”. Having the electricity and phone cut off and having Specter Detectors tossed out on the street seemed like a cake walk compared to recent events. Abigail knew there was still a way to come out on top- she just needed to get through this big “case”. The biggest of her life.

The two women sat and scarfed down their donuts and caffeine. Even though she wasn’t able to glean any info from the physical remnants Dexter had left behind, Abigail felt sure she would be able to track down the headquarters for Dark Star. She tipped her cup back getting the very last dregs of her coffee, tossed the cup at the overflowing trashcan, and headed towards her desk. It was a monstrosity of oak, fashioned in the days of the arts and crafts movement. One of side drawers opened with a bit of effort and Abigail dug around for a moment before withdrawing one of her most prized tools- her dowsing rods.

From the very beginning of her training she had been a consummate dowser. The pendulum would come alive in her grasp, the rods of various types would easily bend to answer her questions. It was one of the skills she trusted most and she knew with the help of these copper rods she now held, that she would be able to accurately pinpoint Dark Star. Abigail straightened her pants. She should change. It wasn’t that long ago that her socks were dripping with swamp water. Just her socks maybe. “I’m going to be off Tess, I’ve got to track down these hooligans. I’ve got the spirit trap with me- you won’t have to worry about it.”

“Are you kidding me??” Tess scoffed. “There is no way I’m not coming with you on this one. You can’t stop me. This is a big one boss- you are going to need backup.” Abigail didn’t have the energy to argue. She didn’t want to put Tess in danger and she was moved by her bravery and loyalty. Another big sigh. “Alright then let’s move.”

Tess squealed with delight as she watched Abigail follow the the direction the rods were pointing her down the street and away from the office. “This is so exciting! I’m on a real case! Not just someone who is hearing knocking on their walls or getting ectoplasm buildup in their washing machine!” Tess exclaimed. “They are ALL real cases Tess and they all pay the bills.” Abigail swept with ease through the streets of town, the copper rods like reins in her hands, gently guided by an unseen horse. She held the image of the Dark Star Industries logo and the plea in her mind- bring me to Dark Star.

They continued for quite some time until the intrepid paranormal investigators found themselves in a not so familiar part of town. Abigail had been here before on a pretty mundane case years ago and she’d driven through on her way to elsewhere, but the shoddy storefronts had never captured her attention. Suddenly as they approached an intersection the rods did something perplexing. Usually to indicate a yes or to signal that they’d reached the destination desired, the rods would cross each other. At this moment the rods split apart into completely opposite directions. To their left the road headed towards what looked like an abandoned strip mall and to the right what appeared to be a brand spanking new car wash. Were the rods telling her no? Were they indicating that they didn’t know which way to choose? “Well shit. We are going to have to make our own choice.” Abigail muttered.

 👍Like to have Abigail and Tess head towards the strip mall

 ❤️Love to have Abigail and Tess head towards the car wash

POLL RESULTS: 1 ❤️ 6 👍

Day Nineteen - Isaac

There was no way she could rest now. She had to open the briefcase and figure out what was happening. Her fingers ran across the front. Of course there was a lock.

And of course the numbers and letters of the postcard were the right amount and order of numbers and letters to be the code to open the briefcase.

Abigail entered the code, her fingers flipping the letters and numbers into place. Her fingers inched closer to the release button to open the briefcase...

"Boss, shouldn't we open this somewhere else? What if Dexter was supposed to open this up in the office? Maybe that's why he was headed here..."

Abigail shook her head. "No. If this was dangerous, it would have been a suicide mission." Abigail paused. "Unless this is something that wouldn't have hurt him..."

The briefcase popped open. Both Abigail and Tess peered into the briefcase. Neither really knew what to expect, but it wasn't this.

They looked into the impossibly deep briefcase.

"Huh. I wasn't expecting you two to open this on your own."

Both Tess and Abigail swung around to face the voice. There, in the middle of the office, stood Jilliup, the fox eared council member.

All Abigail could think was how she was just too tired for this shit.

"Jilliup, how are you here? I have this entire building warded enough to keep out a faery army."

Jilliup giggled. "Oh, sweet Abigail. You really do need to get some rest. You're not putting it all together yet?"

She moved closer. "Why, Abigail, you just opened a portal from our realm into yours."

Yep. Definitely too tired for this shit. "Okay... Why do you want to get into my office?"

Jilliup smiled. "Oh, you know, getting you off the case. Using you as a way to further control your father. Finally opening the gates to let the hosts of the Everdark finally wipe the land of you meddlesome, destructive mortals. All I needed was a way in. That was Dexter's job. But you did it for us. And now we don't need to uphold our end of the deal with Dexter, as he didn't actually do the job. Really, this is a win win."

"Wow. Monologuing." Abigail sneered. "How very textbook." Abigail lowered her voice. "And do you know the problem with monologuing."

Jilliup stepped closer to hear Abigail as her voice dropped. "What, little girl?"

Suddenly, the room lit up as the circle of sigils underneath Jilliup's feet flared to life.

Abigail grinned. "It gives me time to figure out how to lure you into the back up spirit trap in the room. Sucker."

Jilliup screamed with rage as Tess and Abigail reached down to fold the trap shut. Suddenly, there was only silence.

Abigail sighed. "Well, we figured out at least one of the moles in the Council."

Tess nodded. "Quick thinking. Even though she was adorable, she was scary."

"That's usually how these things go." Abigail flopped down on the couch in the corner of the office. "I'm going to get a few hours of sleep. Then, we figure out what we're going to do next."

Tess nodded, and shut the blinds. "I'll be back in a bit to wake you."

Abigail nodded off as she thought...

What's her next step?

👍LIKE THIS POST for Abigail to head to the Dark Star offices.

❤️ LOVE THIS POST for Abigail to investigate the gates by the swamp

POLL RESULTS: 2 ❤️ 4 👍

Day Eighteen - Leani

There was little time to act. Which had been a theme the past day or two and she was really getting tired of it. Just like she was tired in general.

Gods did she need some sleep.

Abigail ducked out of sight, clutched the amulet around her neck and shut her eyes. Quickly the familiar Latin words she’d learned as a child came spilling out in a rush. What followed was a burst of magic and the explosion of a headache. Opening her eyes, wincing through the early morning light which suddenly felt as blinding as the high noon sun, Abigail glanced around the corner towards Principal Dexter once more.

Tess hadn’t noticed him yet, too busy texting as she walked towards the office door with her key out. In her ears, white earbuds drowned out any chance of hearing someone approach. Abigail would scold her about that later.

Abigail focused on Dexter, pushing her magic toward him. Instantly, he stopped in his tracks as her spell reached his mind. She could feel it connect with his consciousness, and felt her headache flare when she searched for what she needed.

There. That fear from their first meeting.

She drew the image of the spectral kelpie from his head and projected it before his eyes so that he saw the ghastly figure, more terrifying in his imagination than it had ever been in real life.

Abigail watched as he stumbled backward, too frightened to speak or even yell.

“I followed you,” Abigail whispered, knowing her voice would reach his ears even from all the way over here. “I know what you’re doing. Run. Run, now.”

Dexter bolted in the opposite direction, tripping over his feet in the process. His shiny black shoes missed the curb, sending him sprawling onto his hands and knees as the briefcase skidded under Tess’s parked car. He looked for it for about a second but seemed too scared to care. As he scrambled to his feet, he left it behind and sprinted as far away from the spectral image as he could. Abigail couldn’t relax until she felt him leave the radius of her spell. Only then did she drop it, leaning heavily on the wall as the last of her energy gave out.

Tess was blissfully unaware.

She entered the building, humming to herself while Abigail forced her feet to move. With each step it became harder to focus, harder to push. She had nothing left. The last of her energy was spent and her body screamed at her to stop. Pausing to dig Dexter's abandoned briefcase out from under the car, it took everything she had to drag herself into the building.

Tess was in the process of putting her stuff on the desk when Abigail stumbled through the doors. The assistant screamed and her phone went flying. The last thing Abigail heard before she lost consciousness was the sound of her name being called.

The next time she opened her eyes, she was surprised to find herself still on the floor of the office.

Tess’s face appeared overhead and she left out a sigh of relief. “Oh thank the gods you’re alive. Where the hell have you been?”

Abigail’s mouth felt like a desert and she could barely speak. “W-Water.”

“Right! Crap, hold on!”

There was the opening and closing of the desk drawers before Tess returned with Abigail’s emergency kit: a bottle of water, two chocolate covered granola bars, aspirin, and a small bottle of tincture mixed just for such an occasion. With Tess’s help, Abigail consumed everything, feeling slightly more human as she laid back down.

“Why am I on the floor?” she asked.

“You passed out.”

“And you didn’t move me?”

“Who do I look like, Wonder Woman? What the hell makes you think I can carry you?”

Chuckling, Abigail looked at the clock on the wall. She had been out for nearly five hours, way longer than she would have liked. But it couldn’t be helped.

“What happened?” Tess asked. “And where have you been? I’ve called you a hundred times and your phone kept going to voicemail.”

Abigail fished her phone out of her pocket. Hard to tell if it was the Fae trip, the swamp water, or lack of battery but the thing was clearly dead. “It’s a long story,” she said, tossing the useless device off to the side. “Where’s the briefcase?”

Tess pulled the briefcase off the desk. “It’s right here.”

“Did you open it?”

“No. I learned my lesson the last time I opened something mysterious that was brought into this office.”

“Well, they don’t call it Pandora’s box for nothing. Here, give it to me.”

Tess held it out of Abigail’s reach. “Not until you tell me what’s going on! You go missing and then barge in here to scare the crap out of me and collapse. At least give me some answers.”

It couldn’t be helped. Abigail needed help and Tess needed to know what had happened. After a deep sigh, Abigail gave her assistant the shortened version of everything that happened since the last time they saw each other. It was comical how wide Tess’s eyes got. Her eyebrows were so high up, Abigail wondered if they would fly right off her face.

“No wonder you passed out!” Tess said. “How are you even alive?”

“Purely out of spite.”

Abigail slowly sat up, leaning heavily against the desk for support. Something jabbed her through her coat and when she reached into her pocket, she found the postcard that had been left on the table. Flipping it over, the only thing on the back were three letters and three numbers: D-S-F-4-2-7

“What’s that?” Tess asked.

“No idea. They left it on the counter. D. S could be Dark Star. Or this could be gibberish. Give me the briefcase. I want to see what’s so damn important about it.”

“Maybe you should rest some more,” Tess suggested, still not handing it over. “Anything could be in here. You have no idea what you’re up against.”

“You’re right, I don’t. I also don’t have time to play it safe.”

“You can’t help if you’re dead, Abigail. Everything you’re dealing with is otherworldly but you’re still human.”

“I’m well aware.”

“Please, Abigail. Just take a beat. You need it.”

👍LIKE THIS POST for Abigail to rest and recharge.

❤️ LOVE THIS POST for Abigail to open the briefcase right now.

POLL RESULTS: 3 ❤️ 0 👍

Day Seventeen - Angie

The two men sat towards the other end of the counter, far enough away that Abigail could make out what the Dark Star man was doing if she leaned forward. Far enough away that she could just barely make out their conversation. The oscillating fan sitting by the grill allowed for a few seconds of hearing what they were saying before the fan reared its face towards Abigail’s direction, making hearing anything beyond it impossible.

“Not only will I make that problem at the school go away, but I’ll make it so you never have to work a day in your life ever again.” The man in the Dark Star jacket said in a raspy, deep voice. “Once someone opens..” Vrrrrrrrrbbbbbtttt…. the fan cut in. Abigail strained her ears to try and make out the rest of the sentence but failed.

“Sitting on a beach for the rest of my life does sound nice.” Principal Dexter said and paused as the Dark Star man slid something towards him. “That looks perfect. But I’m…” Vrrrrrrrrbbbbbtttt.

From Abigail’s angle she could see the Dark Star man nod, stand up, hand Principal Dexter a briefcase and a business card, and leave. Abigail slowly leaned forward and saw Principal Dexter tuck money under his coffee cup to pay the tab and rise to his feet. She waited for him to exit, and watched him walk away through the window of the diner. Abigail threw money on the table and thanked the waitress. As she walked towards the door to exit, she walked by where the two men were sitting. On the counter was a postcard of a horse running on a beach. She grabbed the postcard, exited the diner and took off after Principal Dexter.

Once on the street, Abigail felt how exposed she was. She wasn’t sure what direction the Dark Star Man went and took inventory of her surroundings. Up ahead she could see Principal Dexter power walking. Every now and then he would stop, and turn around. Each time, Abigail would duck into a door way or alley. After many blocks of power walking and ducking, she was surprised when he suddenly hooked a right and headed down the street where her office was. Abigail picked up her pace and rounded the corner just in time to see Principal Dexter look down at the business card as he looked up at each building and back down to the business card.

“Why is he going to my office?” Abigail muttered to herself. She checked her watch, 4:56 am. She ducked behind a parked car and sat on the curb, shielding herself from Dexter’s line of sight. She watched Tess’ car pass by her and pull into their parking lot. Principal Dexter started walking towards Tess’ car briefcase in hand.

Abigail hadn’t been able to update Tess on everything that had happened. Not knowing what Principal Dexter has up his sleeve, Abigail needed to figure out what to do next.

 👍 To have Abigail create a distraction that would make Dexter think twice about approaching Tess

 ❤️ To have Abigail attempt to intercept Principal Dexter and put her safety at risk

POLL RESULTS: 2 ❤️ 1👍

Day Sixteen - Josh

She would pull at this thread until it unraveled.

Or until she did.

The Council of the Gate.

The Gate of the Everdark.

And then, above ground (and who knows, maybe below ground?) this Dark Star company…

There had to be a common denominator and Abigail was determined to find it. She had to admit to herself, though, that today had been a lot. She’d encountered a haunted school, met a Kelpie named Gwen, dealt with possessed dogs, found herself sucked underground, abducted/coerced by a gnome named Kompis, shrunk to an embarrassing and dangerous size, and then to top it all off was reunited with her father, who was not only ALIVE but the King of the Kelpies.

Goddammit, she was hungry. And she had to pee.

Abigail often marveled at all the movies and books she read, all about intrepid heroes who fought against the forces of darkness, all while seemingly immune to the needs and limitations of the body. She often wondered, as people were fighting and clawing their way through seeming oblivion, what people did about eating.

Or peeing, for that matter.

She was happy for more than one reason that the Council of the Gate dismissed her. While she momentarily considered researching the lore surrounding the Gate of the Everdark, if any existed at all, she simply didn’t have time. She had to find out more about this company that was ransacking the swamp above her head.

Jilliup, the member of the Council with the fox ears, had been the nicest to her. She’d allowed her to present her idea to the council, as spontaneous as it may have been in its creation, yet it was really the only course of action she could take. She couldn’t keep parlaying with the Council, as she knew she’d end up knee-deep (or neck-deep, as the case may be) in some sort of contractual agreement out of which she wouldn’t easily be able to wiggle.

Plus, she had to pee.

She somehow convinced the Council to allow her back to the mortal realm, all in the interest of investigating Dark Star, yet she suspected they were half as tired of her as she was of them. Humans and Fae rarely got along before one or the other got insulted or became lunch - or both. The boundaries existed between the two for good reason and she suspected that it would provide for complicated politics if they made a snack, or even an example, of the daughter of the Kelpie King.
Jilliup exchanged a look with Belinda, who, with a snap of her fingers transported Abigail aboveground, but not before relaying the particulars of their common plight, and subsequently, the agreement they were about to come to.

“You have 48 human hours to stop the intrusion upon the Gate of the Everdark. You, Abigail Herant, are hereby compelled to bring us a satisfactory answer and conclusion to this horrendous intrusion upon our land and sacred gateway. Should you fail in this quest, your father, Charles Malcolm Herant, will be executed - by Red Caps.”

Belinda paused, most likely for dramatic effect.

The Fae and their drama - Abigail had her fill of it about a decade ago.

Belinda continued.

“And you’ll be dessert.”

Abigail could only quickly look at her father, who had a helpless look in his eyes the likes of which she’d never seen, as Belinda snapped her fingers. Not all Fae had the power of teleportation of living creatures and Abigail knew those who did were powerful indeed.

But not as powerful as the damn pressure in her bladder.

As soon as her head stopped spinning (a side-effect of teleportation) Abigail took stock of her surroundings. Back in the swamp, or what was left of it, under a night sky. She could tell by the sliver of moon that had been shaved from it that at least a night had passed, or two, since the Full Moon itself.

Goddamn Fae time.

Abigail scooted behind the excavator she’d seen before, despite being the middle of the night and most likely no one being around, and pulled down her britches, signing in relief as she relieved herself.

Nature had been calling for about an hour and she was more than happy to take the call.

Abigail pulled up her pants, and as she buttoned them, heard the audacious growl of her stomach. She had to eat something or she wouldn’t be much good to anyone. There was only one place she could go.

The Deep Dive.

A 24-hour diner located not too far away, Abigail quickly made her way to her car and found herself speeding to the greasiest of spoons with fervor. Was she hungry for food, or was she hungry for actual human contact? She didn’t know.

She didn’t care.

Abigail glanced at the time on her dashboard.

3:33 AM. She snorted. The Universe, apparently, was in no shortage of irony. It seemed, truly, that it was the force that made the world go 'round.

She pulled into the Deep Dive about 15 minutes later, the harsh glare of the fluorescent lights a welcoming port in her storm. Her stomach rumbled in agreement.

As she stumbled in the bell on the door clanged loudly, letting whoever was working that they had a new customer to feed. The smell of greasy diner food and cheap coffee - her favorite - punched her in the nose like a rowdy neighbor. With little chance that Abigail’s eyes would be bigger than her stomach, she pulled up to the counter and waited for the figure at the end of the counter to notice her.

The waitress, apparently unfazed by someone walking in at 4 in the morning, looked up at her cell phone, sighed, and walked over, menu in hand.

“Coffee?” she asked brusquely.

Abigail replied, perhaps more quickly than was polite, with a “Yes, please,” eager to get the feasting underway. She was about to put the HANG in “hangry.”

As soon as the waitress turned to grab Abigail a mug, the bell on the door rang. Abigail instinctively turned her head, shocked to see two men walk in the door. They didn’t notice her, turning towards the other end of the diner, away from the counter towards the privacy of a booth. The first she didn’t recognize, a construction worker wearing a denim jacket with the Dark Star logo stitched boldly on the back, was followed closely behind by a man she did recognize.

Principle Dexter.

Would the twists and turns of her past few days ever straighten out to an open road?

She doubted it.

Abigail’s suspicious mind immediately went into overdrive. What in Hades was Principle Dexter, the guy who was worried about the spiritual activity at the high school, doing here with a construction worker from Dark Star?

Her stomach growled again.

She had a choice to make.

👍 LIKE THIS POST for Abigail to head right over to Principle Dexter and the construction worker from Dark Star, leaning into the element of surprise

❤️LOVE THIS POST for Abigail to tail Principle Dexter once their breakfast meeting was over

POLL RESULTS: 7 ❤️ 7 👍

Day Fifteen - Isaac

The ever changing landscape of the Fae Realm was starting to give Abigail a headache. It was so damn bright and disorientating. Everything moved and shifted as she and her father left his chambers. It finally settled into what looked like a great cavern with a table surrounded by seven chairs. Upon closer inspection, Abigail could see that the table was deeply rooted into the ground, like an ancient tree. Little evergreen branches shot off the edges of the table here and there.

In each of the seven seats, there sat sinewy, not quite human figures. While a few had some tell of their inhumanity, like cat eyes, horns, or a tail, they all exuded an aura of strangeness. It was as if the simple way that they sat in their bodies seemed to be otherworldly, strange, and slightly predatory.

These were not beings one dealt with lightly.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The sound of the gavel hitting the table resounded in the air. Abigail looked at the figure in the middle, holding the wooden gavel. She had a stern face, long and serious. Her ears were long and elf-like.

"Abigail Herant! You have barged into our world without invitation to speak to the Kelpie King. What is your business here?"

Abigail cleared her throat. "High Council of the Court! I thank you for your welcome."

"There is no welcome here." Sneered a man with twisted ram horns on the far left.

The woman in the middle turned to him disapprovingly. "Balthazar, you will do well to mind your tongue. There is neither welcome nor unwelcome from the Council until we have, as a Council, decided that we welcome this mortal or not. Let it speak."

It took a second for Abigail to register that the it that the central faery woman was referring to was, indeed, Abigail. "If it pleases you, could I have your name?"

The faery woman smiled a smile that was a mix of delight and threat. "You may not have my name, though I respect that you have tried to take it so early in this conversation. You may refer to me as Belinda. To my right is Balthazar, Paltis, and Braefoot. To my left is Grailaya, Zimberbrand, and Jilliup. We are the Council of the Gate, those sworn to guard the places in the world that touch the Gate of the Everdark."

Abigail did a slight bow to each, not so deep to show subservience, but enough to show respect. In Faery situations, one wants to be respectful, but not weak. "I come before you bearing the name of Abigail Herant, daughter of Charles Herant, King of the Kelpies and protector of the realm of mortals."

Belinda threw her head back and laughed. "Protector of the realm of mortals? Oh dear, he no longer holds that title, now that he is of our realm. He is indeed a protector of the Gate now. While he is not part of the Council, it is the job of the Kelpie royalty to serve in this endeavor. And while you have introduced yourself, you have not told us your purpose."

Abigail breathed in. She had to be careful. If there are members of the Council in league with the nefarious scheming to hide the original Kelpie King, potentially be in league with Dark Star (whoever the hell they really are), and might be interested in potentially opening this Gate to the Everdark (whatever the hell that was, potentially the thing that Gwen had warned her about), she didn't want to be too open about the case that she was investigating. On the other hand, lying to Faeries was dangerous at best, outright stupid at worst. She had to use her words carefully.

"I was hired by a local school to investigate some phenomenon that seems to be originating from the swampland. I have seen that there is a lot of incursion and disturbance of the swampland. Is there any way that we can create peace?"

Belinda frowned. "The mortals don't understand what they are disturbing. That swampland is one of ten places in the world with access to the Gate of the Everdark. Should the mortals ever uncover it..."

Abigail started to sweat. "Um... this gate wouldn't happen to look like a brass double door with faces and some writing on it?"

Belinda stood up and, for a moment, Abigail could have sworn she grew taller, her eyes lighting up with a green fire. "WHERE HAVE YOU SEEN THE GATE??"

"Well, I think that they have already uncovered it. The workers will probably notice it tomorrow." Abigail didn't want to include that she had been the one to finish uncovering it in some sort of gate induced trance.

Balthazar shot up. "We must kill every mortal close by. If this is true, we cannot risk them opening the Gate!"

Abigail put her hands out. "Woah, there, Balthzy! Maybe we can hold off on the whole localized genocide thing."

Another Council member silently stood. Her lovely curls worked around her fox ears and otherwise human face. This was the one that Belinda had called Jilliup. "Let us listen to the mortal. She knows her way around their world. Perhaps she can help us protect the gate." Her unearthly blue eyes met Abigail's. "Please, daughter of the Kelpie King, what do you suggest."

Abigail nodded. She had two different plans she could follow. She just had to choose the right one...

👍 LIKE THIS POST for Abigail to organize an environmental protest to protect the swamp as she researches lore about the Everdark

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POLL RESULTS: 6 ❤️ 0 👍

Day Fourteen - Maria

“Abby…Abigail- we will leave the throne and go to my chambers” Charles said in what seemed unnecessarily loud to the room, “as is my right during audience”. Who was he talking to? It appeared they were alone now, even Kompis, who had been the only one to show her kindness, had abandoned her.

Charles took Abigail’s hand. She sneered and tried to withdraw from his touch, still deeply angry. As she felt his hand, strangely cold but still the hand of her father, her anger began to melt to sorrow and her eyes filled with tears.

“Abby PLEASE keep it together you must not cry here!” Charles whispered plaintively. “I’ll reveal all to you momentarily”

Turning from the throne, Charles gathered Abigail closer and somehow folded the air, that was the only way she could describe it, and they both slipped through the gap created by the fold. Intense cold overtook her and Abigail felt that she couldn’t breathe, that her very blood had turned to ice, her eyeballs frozen open in their sockets. As quickly as the feeling began it was over and she was left with the lingering suffering of the that strange short journey.

“Gods do you have to go through that anytime you go anywhere” Abigail asked. “That’s nothing compared to the Equine transformation let me tell you.” Charles pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger and sighed. Seeing that familiar gesture made Abigail’s heart leap in her chest. Her father had changed somehow that was clear, but he was still in there.

 They found themselves in what appeared an opulent chamber but from the corner of the eye showed itself to be mostly a facade. What looked like a four poster canopy bed with crisp white linens and gold leaf on the richly carved wood was in actuality a pallet made of piles of dried seaweed with a threadbare coverlet that someone probably discarded years ago. “THIS is the King’s quarters??” Abigail’s disgust was evident on her face. “Well the Kelpie folk aren’t like us and they don’t really understand what it is we need, just what we appear to desire based on their “research”. I’m constantly reminding them that I need actual food or I’ll die” Charles’ stomach rumbled in agreement.

Abigail’s body went rigid. “Answers. Now.”

Charles looked awkwardly at the floor and his voice became very quiet. “I’m sorry about before Abby, you must understand, human emotions are so powerful, they will draw the attention of the council. As it stands I am only a fly buzzing around their periphery. An annoyance. But if they are to fully see the power we have that could change and quickly. My intent is to try and get through this term of mine with little incident. Put my head down, get through it, and return to my human life. To you and our family. Seeing you now, seeing your reaction, perhaps that isn’t possible. Perhaps there isn’t any coming back to the way things were before”.

Slightly stunned, Abigail blurted out into the room that was honestly too chilly and too damp “I still don’t understand. You. Are. The Kelpie King?! How did this happen? You’re talking about it like it’s jury duty!”

“Well it is in a way. You see when the actual Kelpie King disappeared, the Kelpies were unable to come to an agreement upon who would be predecessor. There was a lot of squabbling and the Council of Eldrich Elders as punishment for their behavior, and because it’s just the sort of wicked fun they like to have, decreed that a human would serve as their king for an allotted term. You couldn’t know Abby, none of you could. I couldn’t risk you coming to look for me.” Charles’ expression suddenly went flat as if something had dawned on him.

“Well how long is the term??” Abigail asked exasperated.

“One hundred years”.

“WHAT?! Yes I’d say there’s no coming back to your human life after that!!”

“Well I’m working on it Abbie!” Charles pulled at his thick brown hair making it stick up on end. “If the actual Kelpie King can be found then I can get the hell out of here.”

Abigail sunk onto a gorgeous and puffy looking overstuffed armchair only to find that it was a pile of old oyster shells. “Ugh. How were you selected for this anyway. None of this makes sense.” Charles came closer and put a hand on her shoulder. “I am so sorry pumpkin. None of this went down the way it was supposed to. When I was summoned by the council- I thought they were hiring me for a job. I thought I was being enlisted to find the true king. It was a trap. I now believe there are those on the council and in the Kelpie court who do not want him to be found. I believe he was removed from his station forcibly and in secret. I only have one lead it might be a dead end.”

Abigail tried her best to take it in. It was all too much and she began to cry those ugly tears that are a mix of anger and sorrow. She raked her hands through the shell pile despondently.

“You have to go home Abbie. Kompis will take you. His people have always been friends to our family. The gnomes can help keep you safe.”

“What’s your lead dad. I have to know.” Abigail put on her most serious face.

“This all has to do with what may or may not be a human company- something called Dark Star Industries.”

A sharp rap on the door broke their reverie. “It’s Gwen. Your audience must come to an end. Your daughter’s presence is requested by the council.”

A look of horror passed between father and daughter. “You can refuse. You can go home with Kompi. You have not eaten of food nor have you partaken of drink here. Go home now and know that I miss you right down to my bones and that I’m trying my best to figure out how to get back to you.” Charles clutched Abigail’s shoulders.

With resolve, Abigail stood.

“I am going to find out about Dark Star Industries if it’s the last thing I do.”

👍 LIKE THIS POST for Abigail to return home with Kompi

❤️LOVE THIS POST for Abigail to stand before the Council

POLL RESULTS: 5 ❤️ 4 👍

Day Thirteen - Leani

Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

“A quest? I’m already on a quest!” she exclaims, feeling only slightly like Shrek. Oh gods, she’s looking to restore a swamp. She is Shrek.

“So present gifts instead.”

There is a slew of obscenities she would love to sling at her father right now but given that he’s the Kelpie King, she knew it would be a bad idea. Already everyone is staring expectantly at her, making the heat rise in her cheeks.

She shifts from one foot to the other, adjusting her bag. There is no way she’s going to accept a quest until she knows what the hell is going on and while giving her father gifts after abandoning her makes bile rise in her throat, she doesn’t exactly have a choice in the matter.

This time when she speaks, it’s louder so her tiny voice doesn’t sound so small. “I would present your gifts but I’m currently extremely tiny so…”

The next thing she knows, her father waves his hand and she starts to grow. Kompis lets her go with a squeak as she returns to her normal size. Abigail adjusts her clothes and tries to pull together some semblance of dignity.

With everyone still staring, she sets her backpack down on the ground. This isn’t what she was expecting or planning. She thought she had two damn days to come up with presents for the king, not two seconds.

Then again, now that she knows the king is her flipping dad, she knows exactly what to give him.

“Give me one second.”

Opening the bag wide, she leans all the way down, reaching for two very specific items. When she withdraws, whispers have scattered among the group. One stern look from her father silences them.

“Fine, you want presents. I have presents for you.” Stepping forward, she tosses the items at his feet.

His eyes drift down and a hush falls across the crowd. Everyone is now looking at Charles to see how is going to react. It vaguely occurs to Abigail that she was probably expected to hand him the items with some kind of praise or something for the king. But she’s pissed and while she has to follow faery law, that doesn’t mean she has to like it.

His hand barely moves before the items are rising on their own into his other hand. The first is an old, chipped wand. Though the magic from it has long since faded, its significance never will. It’s an heirloom, a family relic from the first magic user of their family: their ancestor, the original Charles Malcolm Herant.

The second item is a book and Abigail knows her father recognizes it immediately. His hand trails over the worn leather of the family grimoire, cracking open to the first page where the family tree is written in faded ink.

“These are only two gifts,” one of the beefy kelpies snaps. “Are you trying to be so disrespectful?”

“Oh, I have a third gift for you,” Abigail says. From her pocket, she withdraws a necklace. Not the family amulet, no. She’s not giving that up, especially when she doesn’t know what in the hells is going on.

But she doesn’t need to show him the amulet. Because the necklace she tosses to him has more sentimental value.

Charles’s eyes widen as he sees the pendant dangling from her tight fist. He makes no move to take it.

“What’s the matter?” Abigail asks, letting her anger harden her voice. “Don’t you remember the necklace you gave your wife on the day I was born?”

He snatches it out of her hand. There’s silence as he runs his thumb over the center emerald, Abigail’s birthstone, and the Herant Family stone. There is emotion in his gaze but only for a moment before his face twists into a smooth mask of indifference.

“Your gifts have been accepted. You have earned an audience with the Kelpie King.”

“Oh, you are too kind.” Her voice is dripping with sarcasm.

He looks around and speaks to the other kelpies. “You are all dismissed. Leave me and my daughter to our audience.”

Instantly, they start to drift away, leaving Abigail and her father alone. Well, almost alone. The two beefy ones aren’t too far away, eyeing her warily before they take up their posts on either side of the throne. Besides her, she feels a tug on her arm and looks down at Kompis.

“Do you want me to stay or…?” he asks.

She smiles, thinking how incredibly sweet that a gnome has her back. “Considering I have no way to get back to my own realm, I’d really appreciate it.”

“Of course. And if you could put in a good word—”

“I said you are dismissed,” Charles speaks, louder this time, his eyes narrowed at Kompis.

The gnome squeaks and scurries away. Now, it’s just Abigail and her father. She glares daggers at him. It’s not until everyone has scattered that he steps closer, his voice dropping low.

“Abbey, you cannot be here right now. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“What I’VE done? Are you kidding me right now? You’re standing there with a damn crown on your head, making me follow faery laws and you have the nerve to ask me what I’ve done. What have YOU done? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Abbey, I will answer any questions you have, but we can’t do this here. You can’t be here. You shouldn't have brought the relics here. They are watching.”

They? Who the hell are they? And if he’s king, who the hell would he be afraid of?

“I don’t care! I deserve answers. I thought you were dead. I cried for you, I mourned you. And you have the nerve—”

“Abbey! Enough! You need to calm down or I can’t help what will happen to you.”

Anger like never before twists in Abigail’s guts like a knife and she feels the words bubbling in her throat…

 👍 LIKE THIS POST for Abigail to continue telling her father off.

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POLL RESULTS: 4 ❤️ 1 👍

Day Twelve - Isaac

There isn't much to be done in this situation, is there? Here she was, having to put the school kelpie situation on backburner because she was in no way missing a chance to find her long lost father, following a gnome through a magical waterfall that was going to shrink her to access a mythical land filled with things that were most likely going to try and eat her.

Just another day, right?

Abigail held her nose and followed Kompis through the waterfall. It's an odd feeling to, from your point of view, have a waterfall grow in size as you pass through. The dizzying vertigo that she felt slowed to a stop as she fully passed through the waterfall. As promised, the magic of the waterfall only seemed to have affected Abigail. Kompis now towered over her. He didn't say how small she would end up being. It was hard to judge, as Kompis wasn't a big fellow himself, but Abigail guessed that she was now the size of about a mouse.

She looked at the great space that opened up before her. She had truly passed into a different realm. There was no longer a a cavern ceiling. Instead she stood between two long stone walls under a strange purple sky. The sun hung low in the sky, with a strange pink light. Tufts of blue grass dotted the path before her. The walls would have been about waist high, were she her normal size. In her current situation, though, there was no way she could see above them.

"Kompis!" She yelled up to the towering gnome. "How far away is it to get to where my dad is?"

Kompis stroked his beard. "Well, if I carry you, we can get there pretty quick. I didn't realize how... small you'd get. You're the second mortal I've lead through Alice Falls."

"The second?"

Kompis reached down and gently lifted Abigail up so she could see the world beyond the stone wall.

What she saw was simply... alien. The colors of everything was bright, vibrant, and wrong. It was beautiful and utterly strange. Off in the distance, she saw a giant amongst the trees. His tattered clothes looked like they were something taken out of the late 60s. He reached down, grabbed a log, and began to move it to his mouth.

"Is that giant... licking that log?"

Kompis nodded solemnly. "He does that often. He's not a giant, though. That's the first mortal I ever led through Alice Falls. If he was a sensible person before, he's not anymore. Probably a good thing that you chose to go small and not lose your memory."

Abigail shuddered at the thought of ending up like the poor giant hippy that was drooling on trees.

Kompis began moving down the path. Abigail had to close her eyes. Every time that he moved, it was if everything shifted. One second, they were in a forest. Next second, they were in a den of goblins. The next step, they were by a blood red ocean.

"Why does everything keep changing?"

Kompis stopped and looked at her, confused. "What, you don't landphase when you walk? It's way quicker to get where you're going. And, with you in hand, I'm going way quicker. You're like a link to your dad. It's incredibly helpful."

Everything kept shifting and changing, and all Abigail could do was lay back, close her eyes, and wait for this nightmarish trip to be over. Eventually, she felt him slow down. She opened her eyes to take in the now steady scenery.

They stood by a lake that seemed to stretch out forever into the faery twilight. The water was dark and still, like a black mirror. Turning away from the water, to her right, there was a forest, dark and twisted. Before the forest was a great throne made of twisting roots rising from the ground. Before the throne was a stone well.

Something about this seemed familiar, like it was jogging her memory about something that she couldn't quite grasp.

"They will be here soon."

Abigail blinked as Kompis set her down on the sandy shore. "Who's they?"

"Why, the royal retinue, of course." He swept his pointy hat off his head, twirled, and bowed towards the water.

Before she could ask anything else, she spotted some movement off in the horizon. She squinted. It was hard to make out what she was seeing at first, but as they got closer, it became apparent.

Above the water strode a herd of black and white horses. Their manes moved strangely in the dying light as they tossed their heads, a strange fluid motion as if they were under water.

"You'll want to give them a little room." Kompis picked Abigail up as he started to back away.

The horses hit the beach, sand flying. They began circling the well, wildly. All except one. He stood still before the throne. He called out in a very inhuman, yet certainly not equestrian voice as he reared onto his hind legs.

And, quite suddenly, they were no longer the hind legs of a horse, but the legs of a man.

Abigail covered her mouth in shock.

There stood Charles Malcolm Herant. He was more gaunt then she remembered him, but he hadn't aged a year. Upon his head was a crown of twisted wood.

"No way..."

Forms of different shapes and sizes began to come out of the shadows, bearing plates of food and drinks. The other horses began to take a more human shape as they gathered around Charles. She spied Gwen, the kelpie from the school, taking a seat on the ground next to the throne.

"Is... is my dad the Kelpie King?"

Kompis looked at her, confused. "What? How did you not know your father is the Kelpie King?"

Before Abigail could say anything else, a trumpet sounded. Her father stood up and addressed the crowd.

"Friends and followers, thank you for the feast which you have prepared. It smells lovely. It smells..." He frowned as he took in a deep breath. "It smells like mortal. There is a mortal here!!"

Kompis smiled. "Ah, that's our cue!"

"No, not like this..." Abigail looked around wildly. This was going to be how she first saw her dad after all these years? Mouse sized in the hand of a gnome?

Kompis ignored her. "My Lord, I present to you a person of interest. One rather diminutive Abigail Herant."

Charles' face went blank. "Abbie.... Is that you?"

Abigail exhaled, emotion welling up in her tiny body. This was not the reunion that she had planned. "Um... yeah! Is that you wearing a Kelpie Crown?"

"You shouldn't be here, Abbie. This isn't safe..."

"You're seriously going to try to parent me after disappearing for years? Really?" Now, she was angry. Here was the man she had idolized as a kid, who she had thought had died decades ago, now very much alive without much of an explanation as to why she hadn't heard from him. She was confused, she was elated, and she was pissed. And she was most comfortable with being pissed. 

"I think you owe me some answers!"

Two rather beefy kelpies moved in between her and the king. "You demand an audience with the Kelpie King? You need gifts to bring!"

Abigail blinked. "What? He's my dad!"

"I'm sorry, Abbie. Faery law is faery law. You need to present three gifts before demanding audience with the Kelpie King. Or, you can, of course, offer your services in a quest. Which will it be?"

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POLL RESULTS: 3 ❤️ 5 👍

Day Eleven - Josh

Abigail wasn’t going to come this far only to come this far.

Even if this was a trap.

She’d dealt with far worse than an overzealous gnome who may or may not be making lies up to ensnare her in some sort of diabolical plan.

Compared to cavorting around the court of Saturn decked out in peacock feathers, simply to avoid the calamity that would have been Y2K, this was going to be nothing.

“Kompis, I would be absolutely delighted to join you for the Darkest Night,” Abigail said with the prim and poise her grandmother taught her, simply to be able to better parley with the creatures of the Underworld.

Kompis lowered his upraised index finger, Abigail noting the curled yellow nail at the end.

“How splendid, how splendid!” he shouted as he danced back and forth on his two feet. If anyone knew the power of verbal agreements and their weight in the world of the paranormal, it would be gnomes.

“I have a question, Kompis, before we go…” Abigail said.

“Anything!”

“You mentioned the Darkest Night. It will be the Full Moon in about two nights, in the Upperworld. I have a very important mission I’m on and the safety of many children depends on it. Isn’t the Darkest Night the night of the New Moon - the actual darkest night? If so, that’s more than two weeks away.” Abigail knew the moon cycles like she knew Sumerian cuneiform - like the back of her hand.

“Silly girl, silly girl, do you know nothing of the Underworld?” Kompis actually tsk’ed.

“This is the land of Topsy Turvy, child.” Kompis took on a sacred air, as if he was sharing precious knowledge. He very well may have been.

“What’s up is down, what’s wrong is right, what’s in is out, what’s day is night,” Kompis rhymed. “Don’t you know where we are? When it’s your Brightest Night up above, it’s our Darkest Night down here!”

Abigail hadn’t spent much time in the Underworld - it wasn’t ever encouraged, as one had to be as wily as a coyote to make it out without some sort of lifelong obligation to the creatures of the Underworld, if one made it out at all. They were notorious for making offers humans wouldn’t - couldn’t - resist.

“Ah, that’s right,” Abigail said, not missing a beat. “It’s been a dog’s age since I’ve visited your esteemed kingdom.”

Kompis turned down the cavern they were standing in, light from an unknown source dancing along the amethyst walls. The light may have been coming from the stones themselves, as far as Abigail could tell.

“We should go, we should go,” Kompis chimed. He was enthusiastic if he was anything, Abigail trying to grin and bear his saccharine nature. “We have much to do to prepare for the Darkest Night. Malcolm is always tired when he arrives so we make sure he has plenty to eat and drink!”

Just hearing her father’s name brought her heart up into her throat.

As Kompis began skipping down the cavernous path, all Abigail could do was follow him. As they continued to walk, the walls grew taller and the hall they were walking through grew wider. It wasn’t long until the soft roar of noise began to grow, echoing down the path toward her and Kompis.

“What’s that noise?” Abigail asked suspiciously, trying to keep her suspicion out of her voice.

Without turning, Kompis shouted over his shoulder “Wait until you see, you’ll love it!” He seemed to go faster, his excitement apparent. Before Abigail could further question the questionable little gnome, they walked into an even larger cavern.

The most beautiful waterfall she’d ever seen fell from the vaulted ceiling far above her head.

Slightly confused, Abigail took note of the path they were on. There was no way but forward and forward was straight through the waterfall. Before she could ask, Kompis explained.

“Welcome to Alice Falls,” Kompis said somberly. He took off his purple hat and held it to his chest as if he beheld the holiest of places. Perhaps to him, he was.

“You see, Abigail, to get to where we’re going, we have to walk through Alice Falls. We can only get there from here, and we can only get here from there,” Kompis chirped.

“Okay,” Abigail replied, not understanding completely. This was, after all, the world of the Topsy Turvy.

“You should be fair warned, as a citizen of the World Above. Alice Falls are perfectly fine for those of us born in the darkness of the Underworld…but it has a peculiar effect on those from Above. Hence the name, Alice Falls…” Kompis trailed off.

Abigail let her silence be her reply. This was where the other shoe dropped, or so she figured.

“When citizens of the Upperworld walk through the falls, something…happens. Most folks grow larger, much larger. That happens to everyone unless they know the secret,” Kompis was speaking very quietly now.

“If you walk through and plug your nose, you won’t grow larger. You’ll grow smaller.” Kompis looked up at her with somber eyes. “I have to warn you, though. Small humans are delicious to many of our, er, unfriendly citizens of the Underworld. You’ll be a delicacy. A delicate delicacy, in fact, and where we’re going I won’t be able to protect you from most of them.” Kompis paused.

“Growing large causes you to lose your memory. You won’t know who you are, you won’t remember your magical training, and you won’t remember anyone from your past…including your father.”

Kompis looked down at the floor, purple hat clutched in his gnarled hands.

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POLL RESULTS: 3 ❤️ 7 👍