Tales of the Arcane - 0316

The Arcane Light’s

  TALES OF THE ARCANE

  Contributions by:

  Teeko

  LC Schwartz

  Cover art by: LC Schwartz

  The Arcane Light’s

  TALES OF THE ARCANE

  Copyright © 2016 by LC Schwartz

  Thank you for downloading this ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favorite ebook retailer to discover other works by these authors. Thank you for your support.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters are productions of the

  authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  The Tale of Mr. Eric Garner - by Teeko

  Casefile: The Butterfly (Chapter 5) - by LC Schwartz

  The Teeko Tales

  THE TALE OF MR. ERIC GARNER

  by Teeko

  The Detective looked at the man at the opposite side of the table in the small interrogation room. The man’s name was Eric Garner and he was a familiar sight as he had been here far too many times before. It seemed Mr. Garner had a knack for being at the wrong place at the wrong time but it had never been possible to prove his involvement in any crimes - until now.

  "Let me see if I got this straight.” The Detective started as he stood up. “You're peacefully walking past "Mortimer's furs and coats" on your way home from the pub when a…”

  He paused for a few seconds to emphasise how ridiculous the following statement was.

  "...a goblin looking creature carrying a dozen fur coats breaks out through the window of the store?”

  He paused for another second and then repeated “goblin-looking” while making quotation marks in front of him with his hands.

  Mr. Garner smiled sheepishly and shrugged, realising how unlikely his story sounded.

  The Detective frowned and started to slowly walk around the table as he continued.

  “Then a woman dressed in red hotpants, a black corset, a red leather coat and knee high high-heeled boots, with…” The Detective again made quotation marks with his hands. “... ‘Wolverine’ claws on her hands, shows up from nowhere and attacks this…” Yet again the Detective made quotation marks. “...goblin-creature... who drops all the fur coats on you?”

  He stopped and gave his suspect a look. Mr. Garner could do nothing but answer with another sheepish smile.

  The Detective finished his summary as he completed the full circle around the table.

  “The woman shreds the…” Yet again the Detective makes quotation marks. “...goblin to pieces and then sets off on her merry way, leaving you standing in a heap of fur coats?”

  The Detective slammed his fists down hard on the table, which made Mr. Garner jump where he sat on the chair. He then leaned in towards Mr. Garner and raised his voice.

  “Mr. Garner! Do you take me for a complete fool?”

  Mr. Garner was highly uncomfortable by the situation and it clearly showed. Squirming in his seat he made an attempt to defend his story.

  “No sir! Of course not sir! But that's exactly what happened sir! I swear it's the truthiest truth ever!”

  The Detective gave Mr. Garner a look of mixed disbelief and disgust.

  “Truthiest?” The Detective sighed at the criminal abuse of the English language and sat down on his chair again, as if he needed to recover from the assault of sheer stupidity thrown at him from the man he interrogated. After taking a deep breath, he continued.

  “Well then, let’s for a second assume that I believe your story. Could you please enlighten me on what happened with the ‘pieces’ of the shredded... goblin?” Again his hands got busy doing quotation signs to mark the words.

  “There was nothing on the ground except you, a dozen fur coats, and broken glass from the window."

  Mr. Garner swallowed hard as he realized his answer would sound just as unlikely as the rest. But it was the truth, so what else could he say?

  “It... it vaporized!”

  He tried to sound convincing, but his voice failed him and he was met with another look of disbelief from the Detective.

  “Vaporized?”

  Mr. Garner made another attempt to sound convincing, backing his words with vivid gestures.

  “Yes, vaporized! As the woman ran away the pieces on the ground just went... poof... like in a cloud of smoke... with the foulest smell I've ever smelt. But in a few seconds it was all gone.”

  The Detective sighed and his voice made it obvious he wasn’t believing any of this.

  “Well isn't that convenient...”

  There was a firm knock on the door before it opened and a policewoman stepped in with an apologetic look on her face.

  “Pardon me sir, but we just received orders to let Mr. Garner go.”

  The Detective couldn’t believe his ears. Clearly annoyed, he turned to the woman.

  “What? Orders? Whose orders?”

  The policewoman, even more apologetic, shared what little knowledge on the matter that she had.

  “Apparently from higher up than anyone wants to talk about, sir.”

  The Detective dismissed the messenger. She closed the door behind her after leaving. After lots of cursing and grumbling he turned to Mr. Garner again.

  “Well well Mr. Garner. It seems you've acquired some new friends in high places since last time you were here. I wouldn't count myself too lucky though, if I were you. Those kind of friends tend to demand far more in return compared to what they give...”

  ------------------------

  Mr. Garner happily stepped out onto the pavement. He had been a guest at the local police station many times, but never before had he been allowed to leave this quickly. He chuckled to himself over the fact that when he for once had told the truth, they didn't believe him.

  Though he couldn't really blame them; if he hadn't been there and seen it with his own two eyes, he wouldn't have believed it either. As a matter of fact, he wasn't quite sure he could really believe what he had seen. But he had neither been high, nor especially drunk, so it must have actually happened.

  Something almost equally hard to believe was the fact that some high-and-mighties had given orders for his release. As happy as he was that it got him out quickly, as worried was he about what it could mean. He didn't know any high-and-mighties, he never had. He had been at the bottom of the food chain his entire life. He must have stumbled into something big. And that usually meant problems.

  It was early morning. Even though the big city never really sleeps, this part of it hadn't quite woken up yet. The street was almost empty.

  As Mr. Garner started walking away from the police station, deep in thought, a long black car came driving down the street. It slowed down as it came up alongside the lone pedestrian and stopped a short distance in front of him. The back door opened and out stepped a giant of a man, some 6'6'' tall and almost as wide. Dressed in a dark tailored suit, he adjusted his tie as he stepped into Mr. Garner's way. The big man interrupted Mr. Garner in his thoughts with a deep, authoritative voice; suggesting that he takes a seat in the car.

  Mr. Garner's instincts told him to turn around and run away. That had kept him alive on many occasions. But curiosity got the better of him. Could this be his mysterious benefactors? Surely it had to be! He tried to peek into the limousine before deciding what to do, but it was too dark inside for him to see anything.

  With slight hesitation, Mr. Garner followed the big man's suggestion and stepped into the limousine. The big man closed the car door behind him and stayed outside, somewhat to Mr. Garner's re
lief. He wasn't quite sure how that huge man would fit into the vehicle and he absolutely hated riding in the back seat with someone taking up way too much space. The interior was quite spacious though, with a small round table in the middle and comfortable leather seats for at least a couple people on either side of the table. Mr. Garner sat down in the seat facing forward.

  The foolish Mr. Garner. He should have trusted his instincts…

  ----------------------------------

  As the car door shut behind him, Mr. Garner realised he wasn’t alone. There was someone in the seat opposite him. Although it was too dark to see who it could be, it was clear it was a man, dressed in an expensive tailored suit.

  A male voice, serious, but calm and kind of welcoming, spoke up.

  “Mr. Garner I presume?”

  Mr. Garner tried to not sound nervous or reveal his curiosity.

  “Yes, that's... that's me. Who... who are you?”

  The voice replied immediately, but still in the calm, welcoming tone.

  “You do not need to worry about that Mr. Garner. Our time together is limited however, so I'll get straight to the point.”

  Mr. Garner swallowed loudly, still nervous and curious but at least a bit relieved by the assurance this apparently wouldn’t take too much time.

  “Oh-OK”

  The calm voice continued.

  “It has come to my attention that you had an interesting encounter during the night-time hours.”

  Of course! This was about that goblin, Mr. Garner thought to himself. Had he stumbled upon a government cover-up about fairytale creatures living among us? Or was it perhaps some failed scientific experiment on the run? Whatever it was however, Mr. Garner knew he was in way over his head and that scared him. But at the same time, he was also excited. It certainly wasn’t everyday he stumbled onto things like this!

  “Oh yeah! That goblin thing...”

  Another immediate reply interrupted him, and this time a slight tone of annoyance could be heard in the voice.

  “Mr. Garner, that was a ghoul and I couldn't care less about such an insignificant creature. The woman that ended its miserable existence however; that's a completely different story.”

  So this wasn’t about the goblin after all? Mr. Garner was puzzled.

  “Wha-... The chick in the leather coat and hotpants?”

  The reply was instant, and to Mr. Garner’s relief, the voice was calm again.

  “What can you tell me about her?”

  Mr. Garner started to think. Pretty women he saw every day, even if they usually weren’t wearing huge metal claws on their hands. But goblins he had never seen before. Or what was it the man had called it? Ghoul? Whatever it was, the creature was what had got his attention in all the commotion.

  “Uhm... well... she just kinda appeared out of nowhere. I guess I was kinda too busy staring at the gob…” Mr. Garner quickly corrected himself. “Ghoul?”

  “What a pity.”

  The man’s voice revealed disappointment over the answer. Mr. Garner thought harder on what he could say to please him.

  “Then... uhm... everything went so fast. She started swinging at the gob…” Quickly he corrected himself again. “Ghoul! ...with those long claws on her hands and shredded it to pieces!”

  “Did you get a good look at her? Please describe her as detailed as you can.”

  Mr. Garner seemed to have piqued the man’s curiosity.

  “Oh... uhm... She was kinda short. Looked Chinese or something.”

  “Chinese? Not Japanese?”

  A hint of curiosity could be heard in the man’s voice, but Mr. Garner paid no attention to that.

  “Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, whatever. They all look the same, those Asian rice farme-…”

  The man leaned forward from the shadows, revealing his Asian facial features. Mr. Garner realized he once again had put his foot in a bucket of shit and quickly attempted to repair any damage done.

  “Oh! Uhm... I'm sorry sir... I didn't mean any...”

  To Mr. Garner’s relief, the man interrupted him in the same calm tone of voice as before.

  “Of course you didn't. But now get on with your description. Time's ticking.”

  Mr. Garner tried to collect his thoughts. Feeling lucky he got out of that blunder without harm.

  “Uhm... she was fit. Black hair; not long, not short. Ended a bit above her shoulders. She had dark glasses! Uhm... she had a long leather coat. Red. Some crazy short red hotpants. A black corset that showed off her tummy. Not an ounce of extra fat there I can tell ya'... and... uhm... some hot cleavage... And those boots! Up to her knees they went. High heeled. I can't understand how she could run away so fast in those heels.”

  “Did she have any markings? Symbols? Jewellery?”

  The man didn’t sound too impressed or interested in Mr. Garner’s description of the woman’s clothing.

  “Uhm... now that you mention it. She had some kind of cross in her cleav... uhm... around her neck.”

  “A cross you say? What kind of cross?”

  That hint of curiosity was again in the man’s voice. Mr. Garner thought hard about how to describe it.

  “Oh... uhmm... it wasn't like those you'll see in churches. It had a circle around its centre, I think.”

  “Did it look like this?”

  The man loosened his tie and pulled out a silver chain from under his shirt. Attached to it was a silver cross with a circle surrounding its center.

  “Whoa! Yeah! Exactly! Exactly like that! What, she's run away from your secret club or something?”

  Mr. Garner had let his curiosity get the better of him as that question slipped out over his lips — but he was immediately told his place by the other man.

  “Mr. Garner, it's not your place to ask questions here.”

  Only slight annoyance was heard in the man’s voice, but it was enough to remind Mr. Garner that he was out in very deep water; and to better be careful to not screw up any more.

  “Oh. Sorry sir...”

  The man interrupted Mr. Garner’s apologies, seemingly eager to get on with the questioning.

  “Did she say anything to you? What did she do other than shredding the ghoul?”

  “Uhm... didn't say a beep she did. Don't think she even looked at me. And she didn't do anything else. It was... like... bam she's there, those claws in a flying frenzy, and then boom she's gone down the street!”

  “Flying frenzy?”

  The phrase had clearly caught the man’s attention, but he quickly collected himself and continued in that calm voice.

  “Did she look frenzied during the attack? Calm? Focused?"

  “Uhm... I... uhhh…”

  All these questions started to become tiring for Mr. Garner now. He really hadn’t that good memory of what actually had happened. But he still tried his best to answer.

  “I think she kinda looked like in some battle frenzy as she slaughtered that gob-…” Again he quickly corrected himself. “Ghoul! Couldn't see her eyes under those glasses but that look on her face showed serious business. And how she swung those claws... It wasn't like when the bitches at the pub starts swinging at ya' all sissy like, you know.”

  “Yes, thank you. That is quite enough.”

  The man sounded content, to Mr. Garner’s relief.

  “Glad to help sir…”

  Mr. Garner was interrupted when his interviewer suddenly launched forward and caught Mr. Garner’s throat in a firm grip with his hands. The man didn’t look all that strong, but his grip around Mr. Garner’s throat was solid as a vise.

  “Oy! Wait! For fuck's sa-... Hey, lea-…”

  The poor Mr. Garner did his best to protest and try to break free, but to no avail. The other man’s grip tightened. Before long, Mr. Garner felt his consciousness slip away.

  -------------------------------------

  Mr. Garner was never seen again.

  His body was dumped from the black limousine into an empty side alley
in a less savoury area of the city. It was soon picked up by John and John of the cleanup crew. They did what they usually do: throw the body to the pigs.

  Mr. Garner was no saint and some would probably say he deserved what he got. Still, this would not have happened had he not crossed paths with the Secret World.

  But such is the nature of the Secret World. When it spills over into the ordinary lives of ordinary citizens unaware of its existence; their lives either cease being ordinary; or more commonly, their lives cease completely.

  Silken Whispers

  CASEFILE: THE BUTTERFLY

  by LC Schwartz