Leaving the scene of allegorical shenanigans (which I will not expound upon in public), I drove through the City on my way back to the Cafe-On-Main. Taking side roads, I came across an obstruction. The tread of a very large tire, along with the shredded carcass of a second tire blocked one of the two lanes. It lay right at the turn I needed to make, which would have forced me to drive into oncoming traffic to get around the tires and make the turn.
That’s not safe.
I have lots of time.
Better pull this mess off the road while traffic is clear.
I can’t pull off the road myself, though, as a very steep and very deep ditch runs along my side of the road. There’s no one behind me though, and traffic is quite light, so I just put my hazard lights on and get out of the car. Only now do I see the police officer watching from his vehicle from across the intersection. Something about him gives me a Good Ol’ Boy vibe, and I give no indication that I saw him.
The tires are huge and at least three times my weight. But this is the Dreaming, so I just grab a hold with each hand and slide them off the road onto the only place clear of road and ditch, a shallow gutter at the intersection. I see a third piece of tire is already present. Drag marks imply it was in the road I needed to turn on before being brought to the gutter.
Traffic hazards cleared, I wipe my hands and start for my car. ~whoopwhoop~ I turn around to see the officer had pulled forward, blocking the side road completely, and is exiting the car. Black uniform. Shiny black belts and boots. Black sunglasses. Sneering face.
“I’m gonna have to ticket you for littering. Miss.” He whips out his book. “Take a seat. There.” He points to a safety grill that keeps pedestrians from falling off the side of the road into the ditch. I humor him because I’m curious how this is going to play out. He mistakes my compliance as submission.
He begins lecturing me about the evils of littering, and how my actions have placed many a driver in peril. I look in the ditch and see what resembles human bones. They have gnaw marks on all visible surfaces, and have water stains and sun-bleaching. The officer realizes I’m not listening to him and looks to see what has my attention.
I can hear his sneer shifting into outright disdain. “Keep it up, bitch, and you’ll be in there with the others.”, he whispers.
As he lets his guard down, thinking me meek prey, I use my Sight to see who he really is.
He’s not City Police. The badge he carries is a fake. The car is glamoured. He is glamoured. He bears no Faction marks or tokens upon him. He is a fake policeman that preys on travelers for his personal gain.
If he disappeared, very few would miss him.
“A badge does not an enforcer make.”
Behind me, he blinks. “What?”
“Lions can be killed by their prey.” I’m still holding the bars of the grill. My posture is relaxed. My simple clothing makes it clear I am hiding no weapons.
He takes a step back, recovers his bravado, and steps back forward with a hand on his weapon. “You’re under arrest, bitch.” Under his words, I hear the holster’s clasp being undone.
“Be hospitable to those you happen to meet, lest you meet your better this day.”
“Are you trying to threaten me, nigger? You don’t know your place, and you’re fixing to learn it.”
“A sword cares not what rank you claim.” He didn’t notice the shadows around us were thickening and sealing off the intersection from the rest of the realm.
He tried to pull his service weapon from the holster. The wood stock lifted, but any part of his weapon that was metal had turned into a tar-like substance. Gunpowder spilled from ruptured cartridges. The barrel dripped through the bottom of the holster. “What the hell!”
“A fire can court the wind.” Around me a vicious dust devil spontaneously descended. I had not consciously called it, but I appreciated its presence just the same. To my exposed skin, it was soft and tender, feeling like the brush of downy feathers. It threw stinging sand and pebbles into the officer’s face. I ignored him, and lifted my head so the dust devil could see my very welcoming smile.
“This is devil-work! You’re one of Satan’s whores! Witch! I’ll kill you!” He tried to charge at me, but the dust devil embraced him and stripped him of glamour and clothes. An unprotected and nearly naked man fell to his knees on the hard gravel of the country road. His skin wept from the thousands of friction abrasions the dust devil inflicted with its kiss. “You.. You have no power over me! I’m sealed! SEALED! You can’t hurt me.” He struggled to his feet and turned to run back to his car.
“Not one throne is ever-lasting.” The assembled shadows were now a solid wall of darkness that formed a sealed cylinder around the intersection. High above us, the sun watched without concern as shadows poured from the cylinder walls over the eBay-assembled, home-painted, kitted out car. Everything metal rusted in seconds. Everything combustible burst into flames. In seconds, the vehicle decayed into a pile of rust, ash, and despair.
In the ditch, the dessicated bones began to rattle. From my vantage point, they looked like puppets on an invisible string. Jerking and jumping and moving in random directions.
“I’m… sealed… you can’t….” He stumbled away from the remnant of the car, realized he was stumbling back towards me, and turned to stumble into the middle of the intersection and away from what was frightening him.
I finally turned away from the grill. On seeing him come to a stop at the middle of the intersection, of the crossroads, I allowed myself the pleasure of self-satisfaction and smiled.
The cylinder collapsed inward. First nearly completely sealing off the top so that a thin shaft of sunlight was all that illuminated the ground. The light fell on the man’s face, reflecting off his tears in a pleasing manner. The bottom of the cylinder rushed in like water filling a tank. The shadows flowed around me at first, eager to stake their claim on the man’s flesh. He huddled down as if to dodge them, but their convergence pushed him upright.
“No! NO!” He looks around for escape and sees me still standing there. He starts laughing. “You’ll die too, then!”
I shake my head. My smile deepens.
“You’re human! Like me!” The shadows clung to him, slowing his movements, coating him in darkness that was already beginning to dissolve his body. “I won’t die alone! HAHAHA!”
I shake my head. The shadows rise up around me in wisps. They caress me as they embrace me. They settle over my body and redress me. I keep my smile as I am reformed. I want him to see what I am.
The shadows have covered all of him except for his face. He watches as his scalp is pulled off his skull and his hair is distributed as a keepsake in front of him. “I… I’m sealed… Our Father who art in heaven…” He watches me transform, unable to look away.
His horror is delicious.
My transformation is complete. His death is nearly complete. Only one thing left to say.
“All things come to an end.”
The dome collapses, sealing us into utter darkness. The ground under us gives way and he falls into a darkness that can not be experienced by living mortals, only theorized by the intellect and feared in the depths of the soul.
I blink. The sun shines down with stoic impartiality. It’s a nice day. The tires that had obstructed the roads are gone. As are the bones in the ditch. There is a strange rusty mark on the ground across the side street from me.
A car pulls up behind me. “Miss? Is everything okay?” I turn to see a City Police car, with an officer leaning out of the window.
“Yes, Officer, everything’s okay. It’s a beautiful view, I didn’t mean to take up the road, but the ditch…”
“Ha. Yea. The Super[visor] is supposed to be sealing up this flood ditch. Soon. I hope. Don’t fall in! You might want to get going soon. Some big tent revival just let out and all them folks are gonna come this way.”
I walk to the officer, feeling all the ways he is legitimate and smiling for it. “Thank you, Officer. The light has shifted now, my moment is gone. Thanks for not ticketing me.”
“Aw, shucks, Miss. Some views are well appreciated. I understand.” His face reddened and gave away the real reason he approached from behind me. He suddenly turns serious. “Listen. You sound like you’re out of town. Seems one of the local shits are trying to play being police and suckering folks out of money. You’re alone. Do you have some means of emergency call or exits?”
“I do.”
“Give us a holler if you’re not sure. I’d rather write a few extra pages of paperwork than let something bad happen.”
“I will.”
I smiled genuinely at the officer. He tipped his hat. I entered my car, made the turn, and left for the Cafe-On-Main. In the rear view mirror, I saw a dust devil reach down and pull the officer’s hat off his head. He exited his car muttering expletives and speaking clearly to the dust devil. “So that’s what was so urgent? Nice ass, yes, but still. Oh well. At least she’s safe.”
Yes. I’m safe.