A Night
It was a cool late August night; black silence swallowed all windows of the narrow, empty street a peculiar man hurried into. His clothes recalled films set in the 18th century France, but his ageless young face would have fit a man of any era, who had a strong suspicion of being followed. His fears came to life a moment later, when a green beam flashed before him, transforming into a tall, masked person with unnaturally fluorescent green eyes. No sooner had the Frenchman realized he was facing a Fulgor, than the Fulgor grabbed his neck and pressed him against a brick wall.
“What do you want from me?” The Frenchmen asked in surrender and disgust.
The attacker grinned, flashing sharp canines. “Your help.”
“You have an interesting way of asking for help.”
The Fulgor seemed rather surprised at this fearless tone. Everyone dreaded his kind. Had he found a suicidal one? His grip loosened. “There was no one to teach me good manners.”
The Frenchman coughed and rubbed his neck. “Clearly. I doubt you came to learn good manners though. Etiquette is lost on your people.”
“The Night King has found Sliné’s daughter.”
“Sliné’s daughter is dead.”
“She certainly isn’t. I hate playing her into the Council’s hands, but she will need training and I would like you to be her teacher.”
“I didn’t teach my previous student to run away with a Fulgor, you know.”
“I can assure you, I have no intentions of having her run off with me. You did teach your previous student to disrespect the Council and the twelve though. You don’t like them. I detest them.”
“I don’t have a say in who they assign the new student to. Also, they haven’t entrusted me with any since the massacre. If such an important person is found, I doubt anyone will choose me for her.”
“You are the best of the Council. Use that fact to your advantage.”
The Frenchman pondered, then looked straight into his enemy’s eyes. “I will. But I will never let you touch her, so that’s not much help for you. Now let me go on my way.”
With this the victim, who wasn’t quite a victim anymore, went home; and the Fulgor, smiling to himself, watched him walk away. Oh, you say that now.
Just how fast can a girl like her disappear? The Fulgor wondered days later, unfazed by the hail bouncing off of his hood, as he hurried along the empty streets. He had let her out of his sight for a moment, and she was already in a different city, and within that city, she could be anywhere. The night raged with a furious storm which shook the area; hail and lightning rained down from the pitch black sky and the wind tore trees out of the ground by their roots. Huge houses were humbled, and the citizens, the lily-livered cowards, locked themselves up in their homes, pulling curtains tight, and shaking in their beds.
This Fulgor-man, however, marched to a different drum. The rumble of thunder couldn’t scare him. Suddenly he whirled around, and as he did, a glass-like spear appeared in his hand. A man in a dark green coat stepped before him, holding a scythe. They both stood watching, each waiting for the other to make the first move.
The man in the green coat moved first, lifting his scythe high. At seven and a half feet he towered over his opponent, who was 6 foot 4 himself. The masked man easily dodged the scythe and instead of fighting back, disappeared in a green beam. His opponent stood there in fury, glaring at where the other had disappeared. Before long, human-like, turquoise-eyed creatures gathered around him.
“Why didn’t you kill him?” One squeaked in an annoying voice.
“Here is the Bastard – here is the girl.” The man in the green coat replied with a smirk. “The girl must be in the city. Find her!” He ordered. The creatures scurried to do his bidding, and the man vanished.
The Fulgor ran down the other streets in the city, peeking through windows. He was sure that the girl he sought was nearby, and since his encounter with the scythed one, he realized that he wasn’t alone in this thought.
The lights were still on in one ground floor apartment. A little girl sat at the table, watching the treacherous storm through the window with worry. When the tall, hooded black figure ran by, catching her eye; the girl ran into her parents’ room with trembling lips and tear-filled eyes seeking her mother’s comfort.
“Don’t be afraid, sweetheart, I’ve locked the doors.” Her mom said half asleep. “It must have been a dream.”
“He had terrifying eyes!” The child cried. “He stared at me with them. I saw him for real! I promise! Why don’t you believe me?”
“Go to sleep, darling, he must be far away by now.”
But the little girl didn’t want to leave the safety of her parents’ room, so she curled up at the foot of the bed, covering her eyes.
Outside the creatures scurried here and there with their black daggers drawn, their ancient armor clinking as they ran. They looked into apartments as they rushed by, sometimes even rattling the doorknobs before moving on.
“What does this bitch even look like?” A creature asked, bored with their endless pursuit, stabbing a passing cat.
“She’s a brunette on the verge of adulthood.”
“What else? We can’t just murder all the 18-year-old brunettes in the city.”
“How fun would that be!” A third one chimed in. “I hate humans. They’re disgusting.”
“She’s not human, but a goddess, so I imagine her with pointed ears like Lady Phenatha’s.” One said, quickening his pace.
“I don’t care about them anymore!” Enna jerked awake in her aunt’s shabby ground floor apartment. Her nightmares made her wake up in cold sweat. She got out of bed and slipped into her clothes; the fear taking her over greater than any before. I must run away! She told herself. If I turn out to be wrong, I might end up in an asylum. She settled matter-of-factly as she put her cap and jacket on. She glanced at her bulky suitcase lying on the floor and shook her head. It would have slowed her down during her escape. Enna wasn’t sure if she was sane; she wanted to believe that everything she saw wasn’t real, that it was only in her mind, but she couldn’t build her life upon that hope. An asylum is better than death, she decided and on this final note stepped outside and looked around. No one was in sight. She hesitated for a moment, unsure of which direction would be safer.
They might have surrounded me already and are waiting for me everywhere, she thought, picking the closest corner. When she remembered a short, poorly lit street nearby with old cardboard boxes to hide behind, her initial fast walk transformed into a run. Not the most athletic of girls, she found this exertion difficult, and if it wasn’t for the adrenalin speeding her along, she would have dropped dead in a doorway. Panting, she stopped for a moment and glanced behind. She saw no one, but couldn’t shake the feeling she wasn’t alone, so she swallowed and kept running. Unbeknownst to Enna, the masked man lurked just around the corner, watching her. He crept behind her, keeping a good distance between them.
The creatures piled into a narrow street filled with damp cardboard boxes and flipped each box upside down, just in case.
“I think humans actually live in those.” One pointed at a 10-story-high concrete building and just as he said that, a desperate groan pierced their ears.
“Then what is this?” Another snapped. Curled up in a box, a dirty old man cuddled a bottle. Looking up, poor thing beheld strange humanoids with bright snake eyes glaring at him through the fat raindrops.
“I knew this day would come.” He surrendered. “Take me!”
“It’s not you we came for.” A creature dismissed him.
“I can be of help to you!” The homeless man insisted. “I know all you’d ever want to know about our civilization.”
“We don’t care about your civilization. We are here to move someone, who doesn’t belong here.”
“You came to overthrow our government? That’s wonderful! Please, please let me help you!” The man rejoiced.
The others demanded a translation and then urged their translator to ask the man something, to which the creature turned back to the stranger and posed a question:
“Have you met a 17-18-year-old brunette girl that might not be human?”
“There’s one that comes here now and again.” The homeless man admitted, pointing at a door. “That’s the apartment she visits to babysit the child living there. She’s a little darker than most Hungarians and is way too kind to be human.”
“That proves nothing.”
“If you understood our civilization, which, as I have mentioned, I would love to describe to you, you’d realize that it does.” The old man shrugged and took a gulp from his bottle.
The young girl Enna babysat at times calmed down at last and gathered enough courage to go back into the kitchen to quench her thirst. When she heard a scraping sound around the doorframe, her heart skipped a beat. The door opened and wild-eyed creatures clad in ancient armor entered the flat. The girl ran towards the bedroom, screaming. Her mother protested in a sleepy voice, but when she saw the creatures behind her daughter, she immediately fainted. The father was not expected to return from the countryside until the next morning, so little Anna was alone. She forced strength on herself when one creature grabbed her arm, even though her whole body was shaking.
“A young brunette comes here now and then, right?” He asked with an unsavory smile. Even though he didn’t look like any monster from stories she’d read, Anna knew there was something terrible about him. She wondered if it was the evilness of his mind showing on the outside.
What did Enna get herself into? Anna wondered. The creature’s grip tightened around her arm, and she groaned.
“Sometimes!” She shouted, shaking. The intruders looked at each other; then the one who had spoken before translated what she said into a gruff, simple-minded language before he continued his interrogation.
“Where does she live?”
Anna pondered. She didn’t want Enna to fall into these people’s hands, but was afraid for her own life; she was too young to make appropriate evaluations. After the pain in her arms became unbearable, she gave them Enna’s address, praying she wouldn’t be home. She also gave the longest directions she could think of, so she could to call Enna and warn her before they arrived. Once in possession of the information they desired, the creatures left the apartment.
Just as they left Anna’s street, Enna arrived at the other end and hid behind a box. Crouching down Enna noticed Anna’s door standing wide open. The sight surprised her, and she snuck closer to investigate. Just then she noticed someone moving a box next to her. She jumped up in terror and turned toward the figure reeking of urine and alcohol.
“Goodness, Rezső, you scared me!” She gasped. “I have no money with me right now.”
“They’ve been in there.” Rezső nodded, ignoring her comment.
“Who?”
“Snake-eyed creatures looking for a non-human girl.”
“You need to stop drinking, sir!” Enna sighed. For a moment she wondered if she was just as crazy as this poor old man, who had always believed in aliens and would enjoy explaining the proof of his conspiracies to strangers. On the other hand, Anna’s door was open and it shouldn’t have been open at that time of night. When she reached the door and stepped into the topsy-turvy apartment, she found Anna crying and bleeding, holding the phone to her ear.
No wonder nobody answers the phone at this time of night, Enna thought, walking up to her.
“Anna, what happened?” She queried, forgetting her own problems for a second.
Speechless, Anna ran to Enna and jumped up into her arms. After she pulled herself together, Anna told Enna everything that had happened. For some reason, the thing that stuck out the most in Anna’s memory was the hooded man who stared in at her, the one who had never even touched her.
“How is your mom?” Enna asked, still processing everything she had just heard.
“I suspect she fainted. After I woke her up, she freaked out and passed out again. Now she’s sleeping.” Anna’s extraordinary composure given the circumstances amazed Enna.
“I’m afraid the creatures will come back here when they realize that I’m not at home.” Enna declared, standing up. “We need to leave.”
“What about my mom?” Anna asked, her cheeks red.
“I’ll wake her up. She should come with us.”
In spite of all their loud efforts to wake her, Anna’s mother continued sleeping.
“I hate to say this, but I’m afraid we need to leave her here,” Enna said turning to face Anna, hoping she would understand. Anna’s eyes were huge when she nodded her agreement. Anna shrugged into her coat and they left the apartment. Rezső trotted behind them for a while, then slipped under a bus stop, yawning, and finished his bottle.
The ease with which Anna kept up with Enna belayed the tiredness of the older girl. All Enna could think of was that they needed to leave the district as soon as possible; but the storm convinced bus and car drivers to stay at home, so all the girls could do was continue to run along the cold, dark streets.
I wish dawn was here. Anna thought as if it was natural that these kinds of creatures must disappear at the first pink rays of the sun. Reaching exhaustion, the two girls collapsed in front of a door to catch their breaths.
“Why are they chasing you?” Anna asked with a yawn, laying her head on Enna’s shoulders.
“I have no idea,” Enna confessed. “Until now they only appeared in my dreams and would always dissolve when I woke up, so I convinced myself they weren’t real. Today it felt different, so I left home.”
“And – where are we going now?” Asked Anna, her voice filled with sleep.
“Wherever our feet take us.” Enna shrugged.
“There’s someone there!” Anna popped her head, pointing to the corner of the street. “He’s wearing a long jacket; I saw the corner of it.”
“I saw nothing. It might be your imagination.” Enna said, soothing Anna, whose declaration had put her on edge again.
“No, he’s there! His eyes flashed.” Anna protested. “It’s the green-eyed one! Oh my goodness, it’s the green-eyed one!” Anna jumped up in a panic; Enna pulled her back down to the stoop.
“Don’t worry. I’m here with you.” Enna’s smile was genuine and filled with encouragement.
“If you saw him you’d be afraid as well,” Anna objected, dropping the issue; but she refused to take her eyes off the corner where the hypnotizing eyes flashed again and again.
Upon hearing a dreadful noise coming from a neighboring street, Enna jumped up, taking Anna by the hand to make sure she didn’t fall behind and raced toward the street where Anna had seen the green-eyed man.
“No, not that way!” Anna begged. “We’re going out of the frying pan into the fire.”
But Enna paid her no attention, and following her instincts, pulled Anna after her. A green beam flashed in the alley for a split second, but by the time they got there, everything was dark and empty.
“Didn’t I tell you?” Enna asked running straight ahead.
Anna, however, could no longer keep the pace. “Go on alone!” She panted. “They’re only after you.”
“Nonsense. There’s an empty house over there. Its doors are always unlocked. We can hide inside.”
They rushed to the building and up the stairs. By the time their pursuers reached the right street, the girls were already sitting on the roof in relative safety. The Quémitans moved on.
The green beam appeared two more times making Enna wonder if the Northern Lights had ever before been sighted in Hungary. After a while, without realizing it, they both dozed off until Enna’s phone alarm wakened them; the alarm reminding her to catch the bus. The darkness had scattered, chased away by the sun’s warm rays that shone down upon their faces.
“See, we survived.” Enna winked at Anna. “I will leave you now. Go home and message me about your mother! They might not have gone back to her – it may have all been a bad dream.”
