"Excellent! I'm glad we could work things out. Us little guys need to look out for each other after all," the fairy said with a chuckle. "If we can't trust each other, who can we trust?" He continued as he made his way back to the kitchen. A minute later he returned with what looked to be the most gorgeous sandwich Isaac had ever seen. Tears ran down his face as he brought it to his mouth. He inhaled through his nose, bringing all the smells together into one heavenly scent. He bit down and found himself in heaven. It was everything he dreamed and more. Centuries from now, this sandwich would live on in the poems and songs that would be written in its honor. A thousand years and it would spark a holy war between those who say it was made with ham and those who claim it was made with turkey. It was a good sandwich.
Isaac finished wishing that he could have sandwich after sandwich already. "Okay, that was amazing. Now let's get to work. What is it you want me to do exactly?" Isaac said as he stood up and brushed the crumbs off his shirt and pants.
The little cook lead him back through the kitchen to the back door. "Oh, it's nothing to terrible, just some light work." He opened the door and as Isaac moved through the doorway he felt something strange. When he was looking through the doorway, it looked as though it lead to an alley behind the restaurant, but having crossed through, he now found himself standing in what looked to be before a mine. Looking back, he saw the chef closing the back door that then disappeared. The cook smiled. "Here we are! My mine. I hope you are good with a pickaxe."
"Your mine? What? How are we? Where are we? Why is the sky green?"
"A very curious boy! I told you, we are at my mine, and the reason the sky is green is because we aren't in the mortal realm anymore. You're in the fairy world."
"Okay," Isaac responded, deadened to surprise or shock at this point. "Fine, I guess I can do this for an hour. Whatever."
"Oh, that's right. You may what to know that time here is a little different than from where you are from. You see, one hour here is the equivalent of about a decade of your time, so I hope you get used to the idea of staying here pretty quickly because it is going to be quite a while until you get back home. Oh, one final thing," the evil little bastard said as his grin grew wider, "the longer you are here, the more this place will start to change you. By the end you might just be a hollow little shell of yourself begging to stay here because you are now one of us fairies. Now get to work."
"But why me, sir. I still find it hard to believe that there is no one else you can turn to for financial support," Griffon said, avoiding any eye contact. His wings were drooped down, making him look not unlike a depressed dragonfly.
"That's where you are wrong, compadre. I've got no one. Don't think I don't know what all you other supernatural fairytale assholes think of me, not that I can really blame you. There is a lot of blood on these hands, and it will never wash out. I've made peace with that. But right now I'm trying to figure out some things, like why it seems at least one demon has it out for me and why it seems like even more of them took over an entire town. To do that, I need supplies. To get supplies, I need chits. To get chits, I need work and you are all I have going in that department." Azrael bore holes into Griffon's skull with his completely eyeless stare.
"Ok. Fine. I may have a job for you. Wait downstairs in the lobby. Perhaps Ms. Tracy can get you the refreshments she has clearly forgotten about. She will provide you the details once I send them to her. I bid you adieu, sir," Griffon answered as he opened the door back to the hallway.
"Thanks. I really appreciate it. Also, I'm taking this hooch with me. I have never had anything so wonderful. You truly are a connoisseur after my own heart," Azrael stated before pocketing the decanter. Griffon looked a mixture of horrified and anger but said nothing as Azrael walked out the door.
"Hey, slacker! Get moving!" The fairy cook screamed as Isaac stuck down on the rock in front of him. "Put your back in it!"
"You know"...CLANG "It's the micromanaging that really gets to me"...CLANG...."And why, may I ask"... CLANG..."am I the only one you have working?"...CLANG...
"Well..." CLANG "It hasn't been easy"... CLANG..."For us Fairies"... CLANG..."Used to be we could get"... CLANG... "Enough humans for our work" ....CLANG... "Until that psychopath starting killing us"... ..."Why'd you stop?"
"What are you talking about?" Isaac asked.
The fairy looked puzzled, "What? Oh right, duh, you're a human. You wouldn't know about Azrael."
Azrael headed to the address he had been given by the receptionist. She told him that Griffon had come in contact with a client who wanted someone tracked down and Azrael would be perfect for the job. He said it would only take a small amount of time as the Target was already in the city and then Azreal would get his reward. Everything seemed easy enough and while others might take that to mean trouble, Azrael always managed to just assume that any issues that came up could be resolved with a bullet to the head of whomever decided to make things difficult In this way, he was a true optimist.
He finally arrived at what appeared to be a tiny shithole of a hut. It looked like a house had gotten drunk and vomited up a shed. Just looking at it could give a person tetanus. The lot it sat on seemed to be just as awful, with what could only be described as the finest collection of crabgrasses and broken bottles adorning the lawn. The thing that got to Azrael the most was that this waste of space was surrounded by a dilapidated wooden fence with a gate actually keeping anyone from being able to enter, or it would, if it wasn't obviously broken. He swung it open and moved inside the property. Suddenly, he found himself in a palatial estate, full of ostentatious adornments that signified the social and economic status of the owner.
Azrael sighed, "Should have known. Great, more snooty assholes to deal with. At least this hopefully means they are ready to pay good money."
Azrael walked what seemed to be the world's longest driveway before reaching the front door. Instead of having some sort of doorbell or rope or knocker to signal one's arrival, instead there was a person whose job only seemed to be standing beside the door to notify the other staff that a visitor had arrived. Azrael was both sickened and jealous of the flagrant waste of wealth. He was lead inside to what was the entry room of the estate. Azrael swore that the ceiling was so high that he could see clouds. Everything else was pristine and expensive. Every status symbol one might expect seemed to be in the greeting room. What seemed to stick out the most to Azrael however, was that everything seemed to be sized for a human rather than a fairy, something he had noticed at the court as well. He guessed that maybe fairies where a little bit more sensitive to their size than he had always thought.
"Oh, yes, that azrael is an absolute terror!" the fairy exclaimed to Isaac. "For a small time, us fairies were able to kidnap you guys no problem. We would replace you with a fetch and no one would be the wiser. It was a perfect system."
"I'm sure it was" Isaac interjected. He was glad that the fairy seemed to have forgotten that he was supposed to be making him work.He began to look around to see if there was any way he could try to escape.
"Then, suddenly, this guy just shows up and starts killing the crap out of anyone one of us who were trying to enslave you guys. Been that way for thousands of years now. Now, no one tries to enslave you guys anymore. It's really a shame to see such an artform be lost."
"Oh, for sure," Isaac said blankly as he continued to think of what to do.
"Anyway, you better start getting back to work, Human!"
"Oh? Are you sure? I was really enjoying your talking. So fascinating! I mean, what was it like back in the day, you know, with the fetches and whatnot," Isaac stalled.
"Oh yeah, fetches, so cool. All a Fairy needed was some sticks, some yarn, and a pocketful of pixie dust and suddenly they had their own copy of whatever human they were taking."
"Oh, really? Fascinating. Could you show me?" Isaac politely asked.
"Oh, I don't see why not," the Fairy replied.
"Azrael? Is that whom I have the pleasure of addressing," the voice said from behind Azrael, who had taken up a spot on the ridiculously comfortable couch.
"Yes sir, that;s me."
"Good, good," the voice said as it and the body it was attached to moved to sit in the chair before Azrael.It was an elderly fairy, who looked to be about as wrinkled as a particularly elderly raisin. He was wearing a fine, if tiny suit, the kind that a rich stuffed doll might wear to the harvest dance. "I was hoping to meet with you. Griffon told me you were looking for work. I hoped you might be the one to help me after all these years. I have a son, Toni, he is a good boy. The best, He always sought to make his old man proud. I don't know if you know this, but I am a fairy of considerable wealth and power. I am a member of the Summer Court. As my family has been for centuries. Toni knew that someday he too would be such a prestigious member of our community. He started trying to make a name for himself, as all such spirited boys do. Only, the crowd he fell into was not so good. They were the kind of fairies who would try to cut corners. Do things they shouldn't do for the sake of making extra chits, beyond what even most others wouldn't do. They were trafficking humans. Toni, he wanted to make a name for himself, but he didn't know what they were up to, what risk they were taking."
"They got caught," Azrael interjected.
"Yes. They did. It was a bloodbath. Every single one of them was executed. Even Toni. He was just a boy. He didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know what could have, and did happen."
"I'm sure he didn't" Azrael said as he slowly reached for his revolver.
"So, you see then, why you have to die? You killed him after all."
Azrael could here the movement taking place behind him. He counted eight fairies lining up and readying their weapons. They sounded to be machine guns of some kind, of a medium calibur, perhaps thirty bullets to a clip. At about five bullets a second, that would mean six seconds of continuous fire until reload. He held his position on the couch until it seemed that every fairy was ready to fire. As the bullets began to fire, he dove to the ground, flipping the couch to form a barrier between him and the gunmen. As he went, he could see that the old man had also dove out of the way. Bullets tore through the couch as the griffin feathers inside began to fly through the air. Azrael had to simply hope that they wouldn't be able to find him in the flurry of feathers and destroyed upholstery.
Finally six seconds had passed and he sprung up to begin his counter attack. Bullet after bullet fired from his revolver, each one finding a new home in a fairy's head. Unfortunately, his gun only held six bullets, which meant he would be to reload. Quickly he dove back ander cover, changing positions in the hopes it would make it difficult for his attackers to find him. Soon, another barrage began, as bullet after bullet tore through the room. It was in many ways a huge waste of the lavish furniture and adornments for them to end up being shredded to bits.Soon enough, it was about time for the guns to need to reload, as azael sprung up to finish off the remaining gunmen. Each one received a complimentary bullet to the brain. Soon, there was stillness.
"Okay, we got the sticks. We got the twine all wrapped up good. Okay. Now all we need is the pixie dust." the fairy beamed as he showed off the process to Isaac. He reached into a cloth bag and produced a pinch of pinkish powder that he sprinkled onto the vaguely human shaped set of sticks. "Voila! One fetch!"
Isaac was actually impressed to see the sticks transform before his eyes to what looked to be a copy of himself. The resemblance was perfect down to the hair. "Wow, that is really something. And you say he is a prefect copy?"
The fairy nodded, "that's right! He's a perfect copy of you. All the same memories and everything!"
"Cool. Cool. Really cool. Get him!" Isaac shouted as he and his copy jumped at the fairy. In a matter of moments, the two of them had managed to overpower him.
"Wow, this worked out really well," Isaac said to his fetch.
"Yeah, I really couldn't agree more," the fetch replied.
"So how about you get me and my friend here back to our reality, hmm?" I saac demanded of the fairy.
"You suck. I thought we were friends," the fairy replied.
"He's the thing. I don't become friends with my captor. If you are looking to make friends, maybe stop trying to enslave people."
"Yeah!" the fetch emphasized.
The fairy hung his head as he brought the door to the restaurant back before the two Isaacs. "Here you go," he said defeatedly.
Isaac opened the door before turning back to face his former captor, "by the way, I know Azrael. You better watch yourself."
The fairy looked startled by this information as Issac and his fetch crossed back into reality before closing the door to that part of their adventure.
"So, what do you do now?" Isaac asked his fetch as they left the kitchen.
"No idea. I guess I just kind of hang around a while? Maybe go on adventures? Apparently we fetches tend to die young, but hopefully-" BANG
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