Casey stared back in shock at the Fae Library’s door. As if looking long and hard enough would force the explanation to appear in place of the closed sign hanging from the handle. The bright red door which had always seemed like a cheery welcoming sight now seemed restrictive. Her feet were frozen to the spot as she was torn between wanting to run over and try to see if there was a crack in the curtain open or she could hear things from the keyhole and knowing it was none of her business and she should go. But…. How could she just go? The answer to all the weirdness happening to her today had just walked through that door? G. Mystery creep extraordinaire. Casey glanced down to her bag, managing to tear her eyes away at last from the door, and looked at the rose which sat at the top of her open bag. It sat there like a physical representation of all her questions, frustrations, and desires to know.

“Curiosity killed the cat Casey Cork.” She muttered to herself, lecturing herself, as she stared at that rose, as if expecting it to answer back. Of course ‘satisfaction brought it back’ is how the diddy continued but the warning is more important than the poem. Her gaze switched back to the door, maybe he just had the wrong address and would be coming out in a second making all her crazy thoughts just her overreacting. But as one minute, then two ticked by she accepted that this was the visitor who Larch had been waiting for. Finally she collapsed to the ground, crouching over the sidewalk, hands burying themselves in her hair on each side of her head. “Arrrrrrrrrrgh! Forget it, forget it, forget it, forget it! Just put it behind you and get on with your life!”

Casey immediately grabbed her bag, glaring at the rose which started to fall out. She shoved it back in roughly, not caring anymore if it got crushed. Slinging her backpack over her shoulder she took off at as fast of a walk as she could. Yet when she got to the end of the street and was about to turn onto the main road she slowed and finally stopped. She couldn’t help but glance back, one final time. The street was empty now, the sun was dipping down making the shadows lengthen and turning her once favorite spot in the world in a foreboding and foreign place. Shuddering in a way that had nothing with the cool air of night that was threading its way through the city Casey turned and left. No longer going as fast as she could, instead she wandered aimlessly through the town, barely paying attention enough to avoid crossing streets when the crosswalks were red.

Who was this G? Why did he keep appearing today? Had it really only been one day? It seemed like a hell of a lot had happened just the past six hours. Weirdness at work, weirdness at Larch’s. All centered around this G guy with his fancy origami and annoying smirks. What was he smiling about the jerk, he hadn’t even shaved properly. And why was she focusing on these petty points?! There was a lot more she should be complaining about in this situation!

Taking a deep breath she tried to clear her mind and reorganize her thoughts. To take a step back and think calmly about everything. It worked to a degree, or at the very least it let some points she hadn’t thought of before come forward.

Hadn’t Larch said he was getting a visit from an old friend? She’d understand it if he said family or something, Larch looked old enough to be either that G guy’s parent or even grandparent. It was hard to tell what age G was but he definitely wasn’t that old. Of course she could be reading too much into the phrase ‘old friend’. Perhaps they met like 3 years ago. That was long enough to be old friends right? It was just her picturing any of Larch’s friends being as old and wrinkled as him with heads full of white hair. Besides, in today’s society if you had money you could make yourself look as young as you like and G obviously had money.

Which made Casey wonder about something else. Why pay so much in cash rather than credit card and then leave a note signed only with the letter ‘G’? Was he incognito? Maybe someone famous hiding from paparazzi or something? She tried to recall his face and imagine it with the hair out of his eyes, a shave, and a good night’s sleep to take care of the bags under his eyes. No, maybe it was just that her imagination was lacking or that she didn’t pay enough attention to TV but he didn’t strike any bells at all. She didn’t remember ever seeing anyone like him before.

Also there was Larch, what was with that huge circle thing on the wall? It looked drawn on rather recently. It seemed too odd to be some kind of new decorating project he was going for, unless the theme was ‘D&D night’. It had been like a magic circle or something, the stereotypical ones you see on cartoons and such. That or some kind of weird da Vinci picture with all those shapes and writing which she couldn’t read. Maybe that was it…

Casey jumped suddenly when something cold touched her nose, breaking through her thoughts. Looking up at the sky her eyes widened as she saw rain beginning to fall down in fat drops, her nose and face quickly becoming a target. Cursing she glanced about and ran for the nearest awning she could find. Normally rain wasn’t a big deal for her but it was nighttime now and the October nights were chilly. Combine with rain and it was a cold waiting to happen. She actually was rather surprised how late it seemed to have become. It seemed like she’d wasted so much time thinking over that stupid G. Thinking up theories at Larch’s, wandering the streets wondering now. The sun was completely gone and while people were still out and about they were all heading indoors now as the rain became harder. It looked like it wouldn’t be ending soon.

Cursing to herself she swung her bag in front of her. She was wearing her long coat, the purple thick fabric reaching down to her knees, but it had no hood and was definitely not waterproof. She didn’t have an umbrella or rain coat with her, the weather report had given no warning of rain at all, but maybe she could user her uniform from work as a shield… The rose stared back at her mockingly when she opened her bag. A little beaten up from her rough treatment of it before but still very much whole and in shape. Reaching out Casey carefully pulled it out and held it up in front of her. It was like a thorn in her side, reminding her of what had happened, digging at her need to know, forcing her to keep thinking about it. Angrily Casey suddenly gripped it tight in her fist, crushing it. She ended up regretting it though, she’d forgotten the thorns.

“PS- Be careful of the thorns.”

Cursing Casey dropped it into the bag, taking a look at the scratches she now had on her hand. But she barely saw them as she noticed what was on the other side of the street. Or rather, who.

G.

Casey didn’t think, didn’t plan, didn’t care. She just moved. Ignoring rain and traffic advisories she ran after him. He was walking along, not even bothering to put the hood to his own jacket up. While what few people were out were looking down and hurrying he strode along as if it were a sunny day, easy going pace and head up as his shaggy hair got plastered down. Casey was running as hard as she could, she was about to catch up to him-

HOOOOOOONK!!!

Casey jumped at the sharp sound of the car horn, car coming to a sudden halt in front of her. She could hear angry noises coming from the car though with the windows and doors shut she couldn’t say specifically what words were said. “Sorry!” She called waving as she turned her attention back to in front of her and crossed the rest of the street. She glanced about wildly, trying to figure out where he’d gone. She wasn’t going to have him just disappear once again. She’d go crazy if she didn’t catch up to him. There! She saw that stupid black hair, no longer looking greasy since it was all just soaked. She started running again, this time paying a little more attention to traffic.

For awhile she chased him through the city blocks, a continuous cycle of almost catching up, losing sight of him, and finding him again and taking off. She got so close it was frustrating. And as the rain got harder it became almost impossible to see, the rain becoming a wall of water it was falling so hard. But at this point all she had to do was find any person since no one was out anymore, they had all taken refuge. So it didn’t make much of a difference as they moved into the town’s public park.

Gasping hard Casey’s running stuttered to a stop. She had a terrible stitch in her side and she was completely soaked down to the bone, even her underclothes were sopping wet. It was hard for her to catch her breath, her lungs heaving. Legs were sore from all the strain she’d put on them. Overall, she was in crap condition. To top it off: She’d lost G. She looked and looked but unlike before when she’d always managed to catch a glimpse of him now he was nowhere to be seen. If there wasn’t already rain pouring down her cheeks she might have cried tears of pure frustration. She was such an idiot, out running through the city at night, in the rain! After some weird guy she saw a few times today. What the hell? She wasn’t normally this completely- “STUPID!” She shouted out her frustration in the empty park, nothing but the sound of rain answering her back.

She suddenly swung her backpack in front of her, like her it was soaked through. Opening it she glared down at the stupid rose, still sitting there on top mocking her. It was losing shape though being soaked. She pulled it out, the softened wet napkin material meaning the thorns had lost all their edge. Holding it up she ripped it in half, the soaked paper tearing easily. So she stood there, standing in the rain breathing hard holding two halves of a useless napkin. That was what her day had accomplished! She was standing in the middle of the park wet, cold, and exhausted holding a stupid napkin!

“Didn’t I tell you to be careful of the thorns?” A voice behind her made Casey jump out of her skin. She turned so fast her feet got tangled with each other and she fell to the ground, landing hard on her butt. Pushing aside wet strands of hair from her eyes she looked up, noting that the rain was lessening rapidly, at the speaker. G.

He stood leaning against a tree, standing in its cover and while she stared up at him the rain ceased. He was as soaking wet as her, but unlike her he didn’t seem to mind in the slightest. His black hair completely covered his eyes, the wet bangs reaching down to the bottom of his nose in length, the rest plastered to his shoulders. She couldn’t see his eyes, but his lips were curled in a smirk, just the same as all those hours again back at the booth in Grand Galley. 

It really pissed her off.

He walked toward to her and leaned over, offering her a hand. Casey scowled at him and rather than take his hand she instead slapped the slop which was left of the rose into his gloved hand. “Here! Returning that to you.” She said angrily as she forced herself up to her feet on her own. It made her feel all more ticked off when he started to laugh.

“Returning it? A little worse for wear wouldn’t you say?” He asked jovially, his free hand over his mouth as if trying to keep in more laughter. Casey was too tired and too annoyed to be civil or mature.

“You don’t like it make yourself a new one!” She snapped.

“Now, now. Easy there. It was a gift you know, no need to return it.” He said snickering.

“Well whoever asked you for a gift, rather than that, what the hell was that?! How come no one could remember you? How come the computer itself seemed to have forgot about your order?! Why were you visiting Larch?! Who the hell are you and why do you keep messing with me?!” Casey shouted having completely lost her cool now. All the questions and frustrations just poured out into loud and angry words. It was lucky it had been raining so hard, it meant there was no one anywhere close enough to hear her outburst.

“Are you sure you really want to know all that Casey?” The man said in a teasing voice, toying with her like a cat and a cornered mouse.

“Don’t use my name so familiarly! You won’t even tell me yours!” Casey shot back, hoping that maybe by provoking him she’d get some information from him. He just smiled in reply.

“I’m afraid that to get the answers you want you’ll need to be willing to change your whole life, change your world you could say.” G said laughing as if enjoying some private joke. He held up his hand, the one which she’d slapped soggy napkin into. “What was it you said earlier? ‘Humans can accept anything after a certain point’ or something like that? Well Casey tell me, can you accept this?”

Suddenly the sopping wet napkin, soaked almost to the point of disintegration, burst into flames. The fire burned strongly and swiftly, it took only a few second for all there to be left was some gray ash against his black glove which was still extended out to her. Casey stared at that glove like it was some kind of dangerous creature waiting to attack her. Her mind was running through explanations in the back of her head. He’d soaked it in gasoline when she gave it back to him, there was a lighter inside the glove, it was perfectly logically for a wet napkin to spontaneously combust, happened all the time right? But she wasn’t really paying these thoughts any mind. They were background noise to the overwhelming emotion of shock running through her. A shock which only seemed to amuse G. He stuck his hands in his pocket and grinned at her like a kid. “What do you say Casey, want to run away with me?”

RATE THIS CHAPTER!

Author guidance for This story

Descent is not originally what I called this story, and originally it was actually a roleplay forum which I'd created and never took off. But for a long time the characters here have been with me so I'm letting them have their adventure since to be perfectly blunt it is a good story about social unrest and inequality, redemption and discovery, and above all magic.

updated Oct 13 '11 by Betwixt