Goldleaf invitations weren't something I knew existed. This one simply requested that I arrive at a nearby coffee shop when they opened. I was sitting there in my wheelchair with my crow on my coat as it began to rain and the remaining snow died.

"Mr. Briar." Private Eye Shale introduced me from behind to his client. I turned my chair around and there were two men there.

"Shale." I acknowledged the man who had shot me over and over again and even killed me. He grinned like the maniac I knew he was and gestured to the older man beside him. In contrast, Samual Monica was dignified, to the unshaved, trenchcoat-wearing private investigator beside him.

"You know me?" Samual Monica had an unwavering gaze, his eyes were red, dark bagged and sleepless.

"You are Samual Monica. John Monica's father." I told him.

"And you are Gaylord Briar. I want you to say what you did. I want you to say it out-loud." Samual Monica spoke with a thirst for justice. He had tasted vengeance and found it bitter. He wanted my confession.

I looked around the coffee shop and noticed our dirtiness and coldness had drawn the attention of everyone. They all had to look away and pretend they weren't an audience as my gaze swept the room. I sighed, I could not leave this moment without satisfying this man, for I wanted to confess to him.

"I murdered your son, John Monica. It was me, I am the one who killed him." I spoke flatly, forcing myself to say the words. He nodded grimly and put one hand on the shoulder of his assassin. Shale was grinning at me and produced a cigarette, which he went ahead and lit right there in the coffee shop.

"You can't smoke in here." The older woman behind the counter said. The two younger female baristas were standing behind her. There was an awkward silence and Shale ignored them and smoked. When she repeated herself louder he glanced at her and let her see his gun and then he looked back at me. "I'm calling the police." I heard her say.

Customers were shuffling out. My crow said things like "Have a nice day." and "See you later." to them in plain English as they passed us. I asked Samual Monica:

"Does it make a difference if it was me?" I asked him suddenly. I felt I had a right to tell him the rest of the story after he'd had me shot and killed. "You left a bullet lodged in my spine; not even fairy magic can help me with it."

"He believes in magic and unicorns and shit." Shale sneered. "That's what he is going to tell you: that your son disturbed some forest deity and he sacrificed him."

"That's what it was? You killed my boy for some pagan god?" Samual Monica spoke slowly, demanding the truth.

"My Lord showed mercy to both your son and to the last of her species. Before man knew the dark forests they belonged to her. She only meant to share and those forests were all taken by men. It is an unfair exchange, one that would not be forgiven if she died." Cory spoke to them in plain English.

"You a ventriloquist?" Shale looked baffled.

"His bird can talk, you idiot." Samual Monica scolded his henchman.

"I can talk." Cory advised the idiot.

"It's just a trick." Private Eye Shale muttered defiantly.

"Who is it talking about?" Samual Monica asked.

"Did your son mention anything strange before he died?" I asked.

"You mean: before you murdered him?" Private Eye Shale interrupted. I said nothing and waited while Samual Monica considered that there was more to the story. He did want the truth and he did want answers. Having me killed hadn't brought back his son and hurting me hadn't taken away his pain.

"He said that she would only kiss him in the woods and that he was going to go buy some hiking boots. I thought he was talking about Maggy. Are you saying that there was another woman?" Samual Monica asked in the same quiet and deliberate way that he spoke.

"Not a woman." I reluctantly said. Both men were frowning at me as I explained in honesty: "She was an ancient creature that looked and behaved as a woman does in order to lure him into privacy. She was feeding on his sentiment, his affection and his good will. When a man offers those things to her she must feed, she is starved for love. What she takes does not refill, she takes too much and a man withers and becomes an uncaring husk. He would have hurt his family, in the end." I swore my whole story with my voice. They knew I believed what I was saying but they did not.

"Prove it." Samual Monica challenged me after he considered me.

"That's right. You are coming with us." Private Eye Shale suddenly had his gun in his hand. He led the way and Samual Monica got behind my wheelchair and pushed me. We went out to the white Lincoln parked out back and I was loaded into the back. Samual Monica was the driver and I guessed it was his vehicle.

"Where are we going?" I asked. I worried they would take me somewhere and kill me.

"Hillcrown Apartments. It was in the woods behind them that his body was found. That's where she is, right? I want to meet her, this creature that ate my son's love." Samual Monica decided.

I looked out the window and thought. Cory beat me to it and said:

"If she is harmed it would invite chaos. She must be the last of her kind and her extinction would ensure an imbalance."

"What does that mean?" Samual Monica wondered.

"This is bigger than us. I knew I had to protect her. I have since then learned about what would happen." I tried to explain. "I can't help you find her. I can't prove it." I decided.

He kept driving until we were in the apartment complex. He found somewhere to park and made me get out. "You are going to do this. You are going to prove this creature is real. If you don't you will die."

"Then kill me. I killed your son to protect her. I am not a hypocrite; if I can help it. If he can die to protect her: then so can I." I refused to cooperate.

Samual Monica stared at me for a long time. Shale must have gestured his impatience because he shook his head at the private investigator. Then he told me what he thought of me:

"You believe all of this. You really would rather die than show me what my son saw. I am ready to believe you. Please, Mr. Briar. I need to know the truth." Samual Monica had some real emotion in his voice and he even dismissed his accomplice. "Just me and you. Please."

My right hand ached and I knew she was already watching us from somewhere. I glanced around and my eyes almost caught a glimpse of a woman in jogging attire. It was only a mist, rising from the fresh rain. I felt the white feather of my crow on my ear as he warned me of something he was seeing. I gulped and said:

"I will show you where he might have died, except I moved him from her lair before I killed him. If she reveals herself you might not even remember her. She can cloud your mind." I warned him.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"You say she feeds on love and that she is starved for it." Samual Monica said thoughtfully. I nodded. We left Private Eye Shale behind and took the paved part of the trails as far as we could. I could go no further and I said to him:

"Cory knows the way. Follow my bird." And I watched them disappear into the small heavily wooded area beyond.

After a time, Cory returned to me. "My Lord, that man is touched by Khurl."

"What could we have expected?" I spoke with regret. I felt sick in my stomach. After a long time he returned. At the same time I saw Private Eye Shale had come looking for us. Samual Monica reached me first. I could tell by the blank look on his face that he had met Khurl. He was not ignorant of what had happened. Somehow, through sheer willpower, he had broken her spell on him and remained conscious while she fed. I couldn't imagine the nightmare he had stayed awake for.

"You are an honest man. After what she did to me, I no longer care about what you did. I know you told me the truth and I had decided that if that was the case: I would somehow forgive you. I can't forgive you, I no longer feel any resentment, no loss, no pain. It was as though my son were nothing to me. You are right, if this is what a man becomes: he could kill without regret." Samual Monica sounded tired but kept talking until he had said all he wanted to say to me. Then he left me there alone and went away with Private Eye Shale.

I sat there for a long time and it started to rain on me. I had carried the burden of what I had done for so long that I could not let go of it. Yet it was over. The police had done nothing and neither had the FBI and now even the father of John Monica was willing to let me go. It was truly over and for that I should have felt relieved. Instead I felt an awful emptiness, a kind of void inside of me, a place without purpose.

Every day I felt the pain of the bullet in my spine. My doctors had told me that I shouldn't be able to feel it, but I could. I knew the bullet well, how it left a part of itself in me. No fairy magic or expensive surgery could get the last of it. It was part of me and I welcomed the suffering it caused me. Or I had, because as long as it hurt I didn't have to accept the pain I had caused.

I wheeled home in the rain with Cory speaking to me in our own hybrid language as we had so long ago. He told me of things that crows notice, their jokes and gossip. When we got home it was getting dark out and the rain had soaked us. Silverbell was in the window watching us wheel up. I didn't see where she had gone when we got inside.

"Where were you? You are totally soaked!" Dr. Leidenfrost fussed over me. Everyone else was asleep already. She stripped me and ran a hot bath for me. While I was in it she came in and got naked and bathed with me, smiling strangely at me, the way she does.

"Heidi, what are you doing?" I found her behavior funny and I was smiling.

"I've not had it since you. It's like we are married. I used to be such a slut. I only want you, but you can't, or so you claim." Dr. Leidenfrost was giggling and telling me her sad story.

"I can still do this." I maneuvered to her and pleased her with my fingers. She kissed me while we were in the bath together, sighing passionately for me. When we were done she said quietly:

"Your fairy plays with the girls." In such a sweet way it made my eyes water. For a moment she seemed so innocent and sincere that I loved her with all my heart. I couldn't help it: I was still desperately in-love with her. We kept our flame hidden, kept quiet around Isidore. I worried slightly that she might have heard us. Would she be unhappy that Dr. Leidenfrost and I had such feelings? I somehow found Isidore to be a mystery, she acted content, but I wondered.

"Her name is Sylvia." I told Dr. Leidenfrost about Silverbell. "She is my protectee."

"I heard the girls laughing again and I saw her. I couldn't breathe. She is your doing, I knew it. I love having a fairy in my home. This is from you. You bring home fairies." Dr. Leidenfrost giggled girlishly. She was in a towel and drained the tub.

I insisted on getting out on my own. Then she insisted I stay with her in her bed. "What about Isidore?"

"She and I have our own thing. I think that you and her are just friends. It is how she feels." Dr. Leidenfrost patted me for my concern and told me like I should know. "And I still love you even if you can't do me. I loved you when we met and I've always loved you. I didn't even know what love was until you were in my life and until we had a baby. That's all you, brother."

"Every night?" I smiled. I did want to sleep beside her.

"Only if you want to. If you won't sleep with me I will sleep alone. I think I have proven that to you." She wanted something from me, although I could not know what.

"Then, not tonight." I decided. I had just had an ordeal and my mind was not at ease. I would have troubled sleep and I did not want the beginning of our new arrangement to start with my nightmares. She seemed to get that there was a reason independent of her that was making me hesitate. She took me to my room and tucked me in and kissed my forehead:

"Sweet dreams, love." Dr. Leidenfrost glimpsed something reflected in my eyes and it made her smile.

"Goodnight, Heidi." I closed my eyes and let her go her way. When she turned out the lights I laid awake. I thought about a shimmering golden card telling me where to meet my killers. I was dreaming before I knew I was asleep.

I stood upon a familiar mountain top. The whole mountain was made entirely of bones. The skies were red and sickly shades of brown and gray. All around the mountain were cities dripping in blood, burning and crumbling into rubble. Cory stood perched on an antler of the skull of a deer. Most of the bones seemed to be human while some were of animals.

"My Lord, this is where chaos spoke." Cory looked around. His gaze settled on another that stood with us.

In tattered robes around his waist, tied with an old cord, barechested he stood. His gaunt face was obscured by the black locks of his hair as the loud wind whipped them. I recognized him as Cain, from my previous encounter.

"I confessed to murder. I was forgiven." I told Cain. "I am no longer like you. This will all change."

"Nothing has changed." Cain spoke in the voice of the dead. The coldness of his tone pierced my breast and silenced me. He gestured all around: "You see that nothing has changed. Why do you insist upon ignorance?"

"Why am I here? What is the point of this vision?" I tried to get a straight answer from the being of chaos before me.

"Isn't this only a dream? Now it is a vision. You are here to learn the truth. As long as you exist in a lie, the lie will prevail. Chaos merely exists as a state from grace. Without the truth, this is where you are. You are damned, fallen, foolish."

"Thanks Cain." I thanked him sarcastically.

"The truth is that you have an opportunity to stop me. I don't want to be stopped, but in your ignorance: you know more. It is better if I tell you. You cannot win if you know how. It is a paradox, a fact of life, a caprice of Creation." Cain growled.

"Win what?" I asked. This made Cain smile ghoulishly.

"Salvation." He showed me his teeth. "As we stand, this is what will come to be. It is mine and it is yours. A little bird told me you don't want this. You want to save the world. The prayers in your heart say otherwise. You would choose Dawn over Dusk, mankind over magic. That is why you are a fool." Cain chastised.

"Show my Lord the New Dawn. There can be such a thing." Cory requested.

"Fool human, look now and see what is a vision. This place is entirely real, see now a vision of what might be instead." Cain moved his hand mystically and uttered words from a language that was not invented by men.

His spell opened a window and I looked and saw the same mountain we stood on was covered in snow and trees. All around us were quaint villages. Mankind had abandoned all unnecessary technology and only used sustainable lifestyles. I watched as they lived this way for so long that the earth replenished itself. They never wavered, always they grew in wisdom and humility. These humans were different than all that had come before, one race blended from all, immune to disease and madness and willing to hunger for a healthier tomorrow. Faith and magic were theirs and they restored the world. There were no unicorns anymore, but Khurl and the few magic creatures that remained had forgiven the humans. A new and honorable covenant existed. It was a vision of the New Dawn.

"This can be?" I asked Cain as the vision faded.

"It could, but it won't. This is what will be, this is what is going to happen. You are not smart enough or brave enough to raise the New Dawn. Your efforts toward it will ensure your failure. Otherwise I would not have shown it to you." Cain said. I wasn't listening to him. I wanted the New Dawn and it was salvation, the alternative to his apocalypse.

"As my Lord speaks to chaos, the advantage still belongs to this thing." Cory tried to warn me. Then he spoke to Cain again and asked:

"If you help us to our own demise then what will become of chaos? How will you exist, without the shadows and the lies? When all has come to be, how will you fare?" Cory interrogated.

"I will not exist in such a world." Cain answered for chaos. "And perhaps it is for the better."

"I cannot tell if you are helping us or not." I complained.

"Help you what? Everything you would do leads to this. I have but one purpose. I cannot contradict myself, all roads lead to my time, the Dusk." Cain laughed at us.

"Yet you tell us things and show us things." I pointed out.

"Isn't this just a dream?" Cain continued to have a good laugh at me.

Darkness all around me and silence, shocked me. Then I relaxed, realizing I was laying in bed alone. I got up and got into my chair and wheeled into Dr. Leidenfrost's room. Her sigh welcomed me to her side. With effort I climbed out of the wheelchair and into her bed. I heard her whisper to me in the night:

"Just one more night with you, and not one less, my love."