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Elliot was having a day.
Currently, nearly midnight, she was running, not well, crashing into trash cans and boxes that littered the alley. She could hear it behind her, echoing, its horrible scream bouncing off the brick walls around her. It skittered past the mouth of the alley, clawing at the concrete sidewalks, and lunged towards Elliot.
This all started when Elliot got fired. Well, okay, it was before that. She had been minding her own business, trying to make a little overtime, when her coworker, Zerina, invited her to happy hour. Zerina was the one coworker that Elliot kind of liked, though maybe like was generous, but they interacted way more than any of her other coworkers. The thing was, Elliot was good at hiding, and Zerina always found her.
What Elliot’s coworkers heard was, “You should come to happy hour with us.” But, the thing was, Zerina hadn’t said that at all. What Z had said was, “You’ve watched that Locke video enough. You want to find out what really happened to him?”
It had been as clear as day, but she was certain she had only heard it in her head.
And then they got fired. But, like, what the fuck?
What the fuck, Zerina?
Elliot grabbed a garbage bag off the ground and spun, hurling it at… that thing. It landed on the beast’s head, exploding into a horrible mess, and for a moment the beast wailed, disoriented. And Elliot went unseen.
This was a trick she had learned early in life, that she could be in the middle of a conversation and just… disappear. Not really, she was always there, but the other person would blink, glassy-eyed, and shake their head, and wander off as if they had never been talking to anyone. She could stand in front of people and they’d never see her, not if she didn’t want them to.
Elliot pressed herself against the wall, her ears leveling on her head, and she willed herself unseen.
The beast shook the last of the garbage off and looked around. It bent down into a crouch, shrieking, and then rocketed down the alley, bellowing its terrible call.
Elliot turned and ran has hard as she could back down the alley. And she tripped over the garbage the thing had strewn about, kicking a glass bottle across the asphalt.
The thing dug its claws into the ground, screaming in anger, its glowing eyes locking on to her.
“Oh, come on!” Elliot said. She ran out into the street, hoping at least to put traffic between them. But the barren midnight streets didn’t cooperate. Still, Elliot picked a direction and ran, hoping to find anyone. And then, little by little, she came to a stop. The beast behind her had too.
The night was deadly silent. There was no car noise, no traffic from I-5 or Fifth Avenue or Pike. There was no din of people talking, of the poor lost souls of the streets arguing with themselves. It was just silent.
Something flew overhead, Elliot was sure of it, across the moon. Both she and the demon looked up, catching the shadow of a figure as it circled overhead. It stopped, and descended, and slowly the form of a person came into view. She was red panda, wearing a modest green dress and a shawl around her shoulders. She had white headfur, voluminous and so soft looking, that touched her shoulders. And of course, she sat on a broomstick.
Elliot was so tired.
She processed everything, and remembered the box of toaster pastries under her bed. She wanted nothing more than to go back to her room and sleep, and when she awoke in the morning, she could start looking for jobs, and-
“Elliot?” The person called. She landed in between her and the beast, and watched Elliot carefully.
“Don’t like that,” Elliot said.
“It is Elliot, right?”
Elliot watched the woman. She hopped off her broom, taking it in one hand, turning her entire back to the thing. It snarled and screamed and moved towards her. She only turned, not taking her eyes off of Elliot, and pointed. The thing stopped, hesitating, though it didn’t look like it was sure why.
“Yeah,” Elliot said.
“Are you okay?”
Elliot threw her arms up. “I MEAN!” She motioned to the thing.
“Yeah, that’s understandable.” The woman reached into her bag. “Let’s take care of that, shall we?” And she turned to the thing.
The thing screamed at her, stomping and snarling so loud it rattled the windows up and down the street.
“You,” the woman said. “You know better than that.” She pulled a jar from her bag, but held it at her side.
The thing screeched at her, opening its mouth to reveal just too many teeth. Just way too many.
The woman held the jar in front of her, and again, the thing hesitated.
“Go back to your nest,” she said. The thing opened its mouth again, and before it could so much as squeal, the woman raised the jar and quickly dropped it back down. It clinked, and for the first time Elliot could see it was full of pennies.
The thing shrieked at the sound, stepping back.
“You had your chance,” the woman said. She shook the jar again, and the thing backed up so quickly it slammed into the building behind it, screaming in panic. The woman shook the jar again, for good measure, and the thing bellowed and darted off into the city.
Elliot stood, watching with her mouth agape. “Did you just defeat a monster with a no no jar?”
The woman smiled at her, warm and soft. “Sometimes the best solutions are the most obvious.” She approached Elliot carefully.
“What was that?” Elliot asked.
“Banshee,” the woman said. “They’re not indigenous to the area. Some knob brought them across from Scotland about a decade ago. They usually are shy, but that one seems unusual. Maybe it was hungry.” She stepped closer. “Are you hurt?”
Elliot said, “How do you know my name?”
The woman said, “We’ve had our eye on you for a while.”
“Thanks, that’s a terrifying answer,” Elliot said.
“You know why, though,” the woman said. “There’s a reason it went after you and not some bro up on Capitol Hill.”
Elliot bristled, feeling too many thing to keep them sorted. She tried to speak, but couldn’t find the right words.
Distantly, a siren sounded, and then another, and then the thunder of a helicopter.
“I think I need to go,” the woman said. “When the time comes, when you feel comfortable, we should talk again.”
“How? I don’t know you.”
“You already have a guide. They’re just waiting for you to say the right thing.” She climbed on to her broomstick. “Have a good night!” And she silently darted off into the city.
The sounds of life came crashing back all at once and Elliot shrieked. She looked around, down the street at the approaching police cars, and she started to step off the road. A helicopter swung out from over a building, shining its light down on her. Elliot sighed. She knew how this went — running would only lead to bad outcomes. She waited while the police cars caught up. Guns drawn, they cuffed her, pushed her into the back of a squad car, and took her in.
Elliot was having a day.
[g]