Halloween I.F. – “Something Rich and Strange” – Day 13

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Star closed his eyes, trying to breathe through the stinging pain and the weight of exhaustion after that sudden life-or-death race. Distantly, he could hear Georgio calling for medical aid, something like Hey! We got blood over here, yeah?? Don’t know if fairies can get infected, don’t want to find out!

It wasn’t worth answering it. He hissed as one of the overtaxed EMTs, the group of whom must have arrived while he was underwater, came down next to him and lifted his arm, checking the injury.

“I’m fine,” he said, to whatever he was asked. 

“What bit you?”

Star was reluctant to say another nixie, not and maybe get blamed for some of this somehow. He hedged his answers. “I’m not positive. They were humanoid. Sharp teeth.” He could make his teeth sharp too, on whim, a partial transformation into his other form overlaid on this one. “I don’t think it was venomous. I’m not going into the hospital, so don’t ask, I’m otherwise uninjured.”

The EMT said, “It wouldn’t hurt to go in and get checked out, get a tetanus shot,” but it wasn’t like they could force Star to go. 

“I’ve had one in the last five years,” he lied. “I’ll get antibiotics later.” More like he’d get magical healing as a just-in-case, but the details were his to deal with.

With a Hmm, the EMT finished examining the wound. “Little debridement needed, I’ll just—” Those were tweezers. Star closed his eyes. “Bite’s not too deep. I’ll do a surface cleaning, but you want bleeding to stop before they’re irrigated, so I really do suggest going to a professional as soon as possible after this. You’re not the cleanest you’ve ever been.” That was an understatement. The water on the track had been filthy.

“I — ow,” Star complained, as saline water was washed over his wound. He focused, pulling his own magical water over his body and letting it splash down. “I’m clean. There.”

“Ah,” the EMT said, pained and human. “Well, okay, but really consider it, and definitely go if you see signs of infection. Puffiness, redness, warmth, pus, red streaks. I know nobody can tell a fairy what to do, though.” Someone called, and they nodded to Star. “Thanks for your work out there.”

Star hated being thanked, but humans meant well with it every time. He swallowed around the instinctive complaint. “Sure.”

The medic moved away and Georgio moved in. He smelled terrible, wet and sweaty bull, but he refrained from shaking himself. “Yo, what the fuck happened in there?”

What had happened? Why would someone want to drown folks? Or… was it even meant to be this many people pulled in? What if it was just the one, and the others were just coincidental, or even meant to cover up this particular attempted murder? The other nixie had only grabbed one person specifically, after all.

Star wondered if Garrett was the scheduler who had been used by the Suspicious Pair to double-book the lane so they could corner Dom. There was no way to know until he talked to Heronika, of course. Even so, why kill him so publicly—or would it just read as a freak accident if someone wasn’t already suspicious? There was enough damage that it certainly wouldn’t look targeted if someone ended up dying.

And what else would this flooding do? Washing the track out didn’t have any magical effect he could immediately think of, but the water would be standing for some time until they could find a way to pump it. That would provide a potential base for an aquatic creature. It would also take the track out of commission for a while. Would there be a reason to do that? 

He supposed that, if nothing else, it would make it hard to search the area for evidence. Even if it was only the track, not the clubhouse or anywhere else, the area was going to be swarming with cops, maintenance workers, and reporters—

“Shit,” Star muttered. The reporters would definitely be on their way soon, and if he didn’t want to lose a lot of today, he had to get himself gone. “Georgio…”

“Yeaaaaaaaaaaah?”

Slowly, Star looked up at Georgio. Those bullish eyes were concerned, heavy brows drawn down. He’d never liked Georgio, but… well, maybe it was time for that to change. The bull had really pulled his weight around here, and was clearly standing by him now. “Can you help me?”

He gave a brief rundown of the situation to Georgio, hoping it wasn’t too stammered or confused. “I don’t know what they want with me, or with my boss, or with Dom, but they’ve already shown they’re willing to kill,” Star finished, low-voiced and shaky. “I need to investigate, but there’s already people all over the place here, and I was… I guess… a bit of a rescuing hero here so people are gonna try to corner me to talk about it, I bet you anything. I don’t know if I can afford that much time. I should probably try to sneak out. But… there’s work that still needs doing here.”

Georgio let out a rough huff of breath. “This situation’s nuttier than a peanut butter factory,” he grumbled. “Listen, I’m willing, but I’m Vayne’s guy, you know? I need to work with Vayne and with the track out we’re gonna have to figure out what we’re gonna do together. I won’t always be able to jump to help you, but… yeah. I can ask ’round here right now. Check in with Heronika about that guy,” he nodded to where the unconscious Garrett was being bundled onto a stretcher, “see if I can find out anything about the dude in black and what they was doing here today.”

Relieved, Star patted his side. He took his phone out, shaking it and magically drawing every particle of water out from its insides. “Call me if you find anything.”

“I don’t got a phone, dude. I can’t hold shit, yeah?” Georgio said, stamping a hoof. “You call Vayne, or I’ll have him call Dom. Your man Dom has his number and vice-a verse-a. Vayne can hold a phone up for me.”

That would probably work. Star got up, pulling glamour around himself so he would be unnoticeable to anyone who wasn’t immune to fairy glamour; unfortunately, there were many ways to get around it. Putting a certain ointment on their eyelids, looking through an elf-shot stone, turning their clothes inside out and wearing them, even just having greater magics or glamours than himself. Those and other such folk remedies had, Star regretted, a remarkably high rate of success. Still, Georgio swore abruptly, as Star looked like he’d vanished into dew.

Invisible to at least some eyes, Star quickly composed a group message to his friends and relayed what had just happened, then picked his way around groups of gawkers, people in shock, workers, EMTs, police, arriving news agents, beginning to work his way through the clubhouse. His arm throbbed dully.

He got several messages back quickly, all of which felt like potential next steps for him: 

Dom was worried about him and wouldn’t mind company to make sure he was okay and to talk things over. 

Dandelion was with the aforementioned mysterious friend who might be willing to hide Dom, and invited Star over to come meet him and recover there. He sounded very concerned.

And Viv was over at the Twilight Council and had been told about a guy with protection magic, so he could go there to get some of that together for Dom, and maybe some healing for himself.

Which one was the best next step, he wondered.

It also occurred to him that, as much as he trusted Georgio to figure it out, he could try to do a last little bit of poking around the clubhouse while glamoured, though again, there were plenty of ways for him to still be noticed, he couldn’t talk to anyone like this, and it was likely to get too crowded within minutes. It was risky and he wasn’t sure of the reward.

Star hesitated, gazing at his phone, trying to decide who to text back and what to say.

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