“Wait.” Mysticalis grabs your arm in a pleading tone that you’ve yet to have heard come from the unicorn.

You stop, but still hold the arm away from it in such a way that you could continue out of the room at any moment you please.

“I’ve gone against the nature of my people. I’m lost like a child without a moral compass. It all started near here. I couldn’t carry out my mission.” Myst’s head looks down toward the ground in shame.

You shake its arm off of you. “Your people are cold-blooded murderers! There is a system of law for a reason. Now you want to distance yourself from them?”

“It’s true. I’ve never heard stories of any of my people that have done this, but I feel its right to question and to forge a new path. I may have started on a path to the Slayers, but I don’t want to finish that path. Those of my kind that forge themselves as Slayers have no room for questioning, they must destroy, even if on the surface, it seems that they should leave someone be. When the Slayers show, it’s all over for everyone they encounter outside the sanctuaries when their mission starts.”

“What if they come for you? You want to protect me?! You want to keep me close to do it? Yet, if they come for you because you’ve gone against their code... I’m gonna die too.” You raise your hands and throw them to your sides in disbelief, “Did you not think of those consequences? Anyone you touch now could just be marked for death. Where does it end? Where does it end?!”

Mysticalis opens its arms and moves quickly towards you in a strong, deep embrace. Your head leans on its shoulder. It seeks to caress, “It’ll stop with me, I’ll make certain of that. In the meantime, understand, I seek to change the destiny of my people. If we must accept some of the darkness visibly, to not let it creep its corruption into the pores of our souls. You speak of consequences. I can’t help but think of the consequences that my people must be facing.”

“I won’t even pretend to understand everything that you just said. We’re not even on the same page, hell, we’re not even the same species.” You shrug and breathe a deep calming gulp of air.

“Yet still, in some ways, we are fighting for the same thing.” It waits as if giving you the chance to respond. You simply look up and wait for a finality to that statement. “To find a proper place in existence.”

“Well,” you think for a moment, “I certainly feel like I’m drifting, far worse than I ever remember. I’ll look for a proper place of my own with you. This might sound crazy, but I think what I really need right now is to get out of my comfort zone. Think outside of the box.”

Mysticalis and you both sit down and calmly contemplate your next moves.

You are the first to speak, “Most of all, I’d like to get away from all these people that seem to want to kill me. I don’t want my family or friends in danger, as you’ve properly suggested. Let’s go somewhere totally different. Somewhere far away.”

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Mysticalis strokes one upper arm with its hand. It scratches a bit there almost as a dog would scratch an itch, in a quick, mostly inhuman way. “How do you feel about flying?”

You stop for a moment and stare over at Myst, “You... can fly?”

“No no no. I’m no Pegasus.” It laughs and you wonder for a moment if such a thing actually does exist. “I meant by plane. My people have some friends that might be able to help you with what you want.”

“Yeah, what the hell? At this point, I’m game for anything that doesn’t involve death and murder.”

**

Not long after, you find yourself in a cab with your mysterious friend, Myst, riding to JFK on a last minute booking that’ll take you to Northern California. At the end of that journey, you’ve been told, awaits for you a mind-altering, possibly life changing experience.

There’s just something not right about the cab driver. You leer over the edge of his seat and look at his identification taped to the front dashboard. It looks legit and you shrug. It’s something about the way he keeps looking into the rear view. He’s breathing heavy. There is an occasional, unnatural sounding cough from deep within his lungs.

The cough disturbs you enough that you cover your face with your sleeve.

The drive takes longer than you remember, but you do eventually arrive at the airport. You step out, breathing a sigh of relief. You get out your tattered wallet and lean in to pay the cabbie. You immediately hit your head on the roof as you are startled by the appearance of the cabbie. He looks like a bug! You open your eyes and rub the top of your head, throwing the money at the driver.

He lets out a string of curses in a tongue you don’t understand. As he jets off, you stare at him through the windshield. He looks quite normal really. You rub your eyes and shake your head, “Nope.”

Myst is looking at you with its head tilted in concern. “What is it?”

“Nothing. Let’s just get to that plane.”

You quickly make your way through check in and security and wonder how Mysticalis can get through the security scans so easily, what with the big sword and all. It somehow conceals it well beyond the ability of the scanners and the security screeners’ eyes.

Your plane leaves on time.

It’s a bit awkward, but during the flight, you start to hold hands with Myst. It’s weird, but that electric feeling that you get when you make a real connection with a new lover is the same one you are getting now. Your heart is doing back flips.

You look over into Myst’s eyes and it nods at you in acknowledgement and smiles. You can’t help but crack a smile at the happiness and weirdness you are feeling.

**

Your plane touches down and rather than getting a cab or a rental car, Mysticalis alerts you to a man holding up a sign with your name on it.

“Hey there.” The Native American in the jeans and loose fitting fleece addresses you as you walk up. “You’re the one I’m waiting for. Both of you.” He nods to Mysticalis. “My name’s Roger, Roger Carson.”

“Nice to meet you, Roger. So, we’re getting a ride from you I take it?”

“Yep. No cabbie is going to take you as far as we’re going.” Roger says as he motions with an arm towards a set of exit doors.

You get into the passenger seat of an old Oldsmobile. The drive out into the pristine untouched wilderness allows you to breathe easy. You even roll down the window for a while, no paranoia or worry. A large part of the drive is set by a comfortable silence. More than once, you fall asleep and get some well needed rest in the oversized leather seat.

Finally, the road gets a bit bumpier and the turns more frequent as you wind through the countryside.