Story: Assignment Changes

[nsfwords]

This fill was inspired by a prompt from ysabetwordsmith at the February 2021 Crowdfunding Creative Jam of "Teamwork is power." 861 words, this is the 5th story snippet in the OtherWorldy series which now has a landing page HERE. CW: Brief mention of Rape/Murder as part of an investigation.

Assignment Changes

The side entrance to the 4th District Library, local gateway to the hidden location of the OtherWorldly Council, was tucked tight between a chain-link privacy fence and the library’s Western wall. Rough block masonry stood only a foot from the fence, forcing Carnelle to do a tricky sidestep down the narrow path to the locked wooden door to avoid scraping her shoulder blades on either the wall or the fence. Knocking angrily three times upon the planks resulted in an intense shimmering haze engulfing the door, like heat on the road, before it swung inwards and Carnelle stepped within the Hall of the OtherWorldly Council.

The gateway was quick, efficient, and to any human eyes would simply look like an inconvenient side entrance to a busy library. Door swinging itself shut behind her, Carnelle sighed in instant relief at having finally escaped the brutal gaze of the Sun. She stood on bland gray carpeting, covering a long narrow hallway, devoid of décor, and behind her the wooden door had disappeared, replaced with blank white wall. Taking a steadying breath, and swiping sweat from her face one last time, she looked forward towards the silent figure who always stood at the far end of the long plain hall. Cloaked in a midnight velvet robe, only their bleached bone hands visible, their was only a moments pause before the Doorman strode to one bare section of wall about three quarters down the hall. Knocking softly, three times, upon the cheaply painted drywall a second gateway appeared. The Doorman pulled open a simple oak door, banded in copper and brass, and gestured Carnelle within.

Stepping through the portal, Carnelle found that the glade within remained just the same as the night she’d met with the Council and they had first tasked her with the Hunt for the child killer. The moon hung overhead, waning crescent, and Seven figures rested, hooded, on simple wooden thrones in a circle around a crackling bonfire. No OtherWorldly beings knew exactly who made up the ruling Council at any given time, although rumors abounded, so Carnelle didn’t bother to focus on the individual members. Instead, her gaze was drawn to the dense outline of a man, wreathed in pale golden light, that already stood before the Council. His voice carried like a drift of whispers caught on the wind to where she stood just inside the clearing, gateway door once again closing itself behind her.

“I’m uncertain of my ability to really help with this.”

“You’ll be of great benefit, Costa, if you can truly shift the focus of your offerings as we’ve requested.” The Council spoke as one voice, female overlapping male, cracked bass overlain by smooth soprano, age and youth twisted into one another.

“I’m sure, with some practice, I can change to attract a dreamer of the type you need me to visit.”

“Carnelle.” The abrupt acknowledgement of the Council pulled her forward uneasily and she ran her gaze over the Seven.

“Yeah. Here – gods, that was brutal, with the Sun.” She grimaced, but continued, “Next time, lets meet after dark? Better for everyone, comfier.”

“We required your presence immediately. We have considered the progress of your Hunt and realized we did you a great disservice assigning you to complete this mission alone. With a partner…”

“I’ve always Hunted alone,” she tried to interject, but the Council continued over her, their voice swallowing and silencing her objection.

“…we believe you will be a much more formidable force. Meet Costa, son of Somnus, who will join your Hunt. We are certain that the formation of this partnership will resolve the delay in locating the human responsible for the degradations against our OtherWorldly Kin.”

“How will a Dream help me Hunt a killer?” She demanded roughly.

The man cleared his throat roughly, the swathe of golden light coalescing around a dark central outline of a human body, until it pulled in tight and coalesced into his second skin, the human guise that obscured his OtherWorldly nature. Living amongst the humans Carnelle wore her second skin almost exclusively and she rarely contemplated an existence where her true form was the norm. The opposite seemed true for the Somnia, as the skin took a long time to settle into the body of a young man in his twenties, left ear and left lower lip pierced, and stark white hair drifting over tawny freckled skin. Modern, but not very polished in execution, as his eyes were still especially large and liquid, unlike a normal man.

“The Council believe I will be able to hunt his dreams, as you hunt his lusts. Perhaps together we can even look for both at once.” Costa seemed earnest and eager.

“His dreams of raping and murdering OtherWorldly children, those dreams? Can your wispy ass even handle dreams that dark?” Carnelle demanded.

“I’m used to causing people’s bad dreams. Its not like they can infect me with them. Besides, isn’t it unfortunately true that what you've described are this man’s good dreams?” He shot back.

“Gross.” Carnelle sneered. This was exactly the sort of thing she’d worried the Council would consider a great idea – fuckin’ teamwork.