“Yes,” Puck replied. “And by the way…I actually have read Shakespeare. His character in ‘A Mid-Summer’s Night Dream’ was actually based loosely on me.”
“You knew William Shakespeare?” Agent Davison sputtered.
“Well…I didn’t know him too well,” Puck hesitated, “but yes. We knew of each other.”
There were several more minutes climbing down before Jackson began feeling a little better. It may have been the drop in elevation helping to get more oxygen to his now snarl-encased mind. “Oh, you’ve got to tell me that story some time.”
“Sure,” replied Puck.
“Wait!” and with that the human stopped, forcing the sprite to turn about and pay attention. “Why didn’t you help me when I asked you by name then?”
“You idiot! I was helping you!”
“You were?” Jackson asked, incredulously.
“Of course!” Puck puffed, hands on his hips again. “Do you think you’d have gotten out of there if I hadn’t been cursing that wretched goblin she-devil with a compassion curse the whole time?”
“Oh,” Davison replied.
They continued down the hill and into the outskirts of little Maple Springs. There Puck helped the human get into his black sedan and even sat with him in it until he managed to direct him back to the hotel in the small city below the foothills of Maple Springs. He had disguised himself, as pixies do, as a young woman in the passenger seat. Somehow human stumbled into his room and flopped down on his bed.
Puck took one look up the face of Loafer Mountain before starting the trek on foot back to his home. “Well…that went pretty well for everyone, I think.” He said. And then he bid one last goodnight to the full Devil’s Night moon.
~~~
At about five in the morning, Special Agent Jackson Davison’s eyes popped wide awake. He’d been dreaming of myriads of various faeries, ghosts, invisible beasts floating in from the dark and investigating him up close. But as he slowly braved a look around the room he was relieved to see none of the unseen before him.
Sitting up, Davison turned and noticed through curtains not-quite-closed a little Jogah staring at him vacantly and it startled him. He jumped and nearly uttered a grunt. But it didn’t move and caused no other alarm.
Rising, Jackson went to the window and closed the blinds more fully. As he turned to return to bed and hopefully get enough sleep to decide the whole night was just a bad dream, despite the discomfort he was feeling in his sinuses and just behind his nose and eyeballs, there, upon his bed sat a darkened shadow with flame red eyes glaring at him.
“Hello again, Jackson,” it rasped in a high pitched, grating voice that sounded much like a tree’s branches scraping a window during wind. “Well, you got what you wanted.”
“Tword?” Jackson asked timidly.
“Of course,” it hissed.
“You followed me from Michigan?”
The unpleasant Imp grunted a mild chortle before replying, “I’ve been following you all your life. You’re mine after all.”
An unpleasant, sulfurous stench started filling the room. “I can see you…” Jackson whispered nervously.
“Yes. You can see me again now,” the creature smiled as it rasped its way through the words almost as if it were suffocating on them. It stood and turned down the covers and sheets. “Now we can be friends forever.”
Special Agent Jackson Davison’s Imp had finally returned to its duties as his very own boogey-man.
The End
…For Now
About the Author
P. Edward Auman is rumored to be older than his IPMA file would suggest. He is known in the latter half of the past century at least to have invented various faerie folk detection methods and devices as well as having confirmed, unofficially, that Mars does have water with a probe made with his own funds for only $42,712.83. The thrust engine to propel the probe launched in the Fall of 1973 is also rumored to contain magical artifacts to provide the power. Having made a number of advancements within the IPMA and the globe at large, Dr. Wilhelmina Rheinhart rewarded Edward with his choice of assignments in the IPMA at the turn of the century. He selected the role of IPMA Historian, with the obligation of detailing the events of the Institute for the Preservation of Magical Artifacts and their duly appointed agents. However, the activity for which Eddie is most famously known is his creation of 43 clones to assist him in all of his many ventures. 42 clones survive today, following a mishap with a gene-splice bio-fuel algae agent, to which Eddie responded, “42’s probably good enough. It is the normally accepted answer to the Universe and everything in it anyway.”
Speak Rain – released 1/27/2013
Troll Brother – Children’s/YA Contemporary Fantasy – released 7/6/2013
The Old Silk Hat, A Frosty The Snowman Prequel – An IPMA Short – 12/23/2012
More to come 2013/2014
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