Culling

Part I • Chapter XII

I needed to ask.

"Are you my fairy godmother?" I got up and dusted myself off, hopeful for her answer. Finally, things were going to go my way. Magic was real, and with everything else that had happened in my life lately, it would not shock me to find out that fairies were real as well.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" From the look of horrified disgust on her face at my question, I was now pretty sure that she wasn't. "I'm not your fucking fairy godmother, what are you like six? Listen to me, I'm only going to explain this to you once. I hate hanging around here, it's a drag and you are boring. I'm a spirit."

The spirit girl began to pace back and forth in front of me as she continued her story. "Derrick was my twin brother, I died when we were five and I've been stuck here in limbo ever since. Aging in appearance as I would have if I lived, but I'm dead. What do you think will happen after I'm dead for like five hundred years, I don't even want to know. This is unacceptable. Do you hear me? It fucking sucks. It especially sucks because Derrick's been all harping over my best friend-"

This certainly was great storybook material, I was definitely dreaming. "Who was your best friend?" I asked the ghost girl, she had gotten a sad expression on her face when she mentioned her friend.

She blinked at me. "Maro, of course."

Maro? 

Hold on, I think I might have remembered something about her. "Aren't you the girl that used to push me into the grass, snooped through my personal stuff and stole my clothes any time you snuck over to see my brother? Danielle or something?"

She put her hand to her chest, as if to say 'Who me?', before she waved me off nonchalantly and continued. "Yeah, sorry about that." 

She didn't sound very sorry. 

"Now listen. I need to move on, I'm literally going crazy here. I just want to go to the light, but there's no light to be found. I'm trapped! Know what I mean?" 

No, I really didn't - but I nodded anyway.

Danielle resumed pacing. "You all are in the Capital now with prime location and opportunity, I need you and my loser brother to figure out how I died. He owes me. I know you'll do it because Maro always said you were too nice and that you are a nosy punk."

Too nice? Maybe, but I couldn't just leave her trapped in nothingness. Of course I would help! 

I nodded empathetically. 

Wait...

"Figure out how you died? You just said you died when you were five right? Then wouldn't it have been because of your blood, magic, or something."

Danielle scoffed and stopped pacing. "That's what they said, but I don't know. You'd think that if that were the case I'd have no trouble moving on then, wouldn't I? What do I know, I'm not a doctor and I was five. All I know is that one day Derrick, Maro and I were happy as could be and the day after that was my birthday and then I'm dead. 

Maybe if you find out that it was a natural causes thing I can move on, but who knows. My brother is the most boring person ever, even more than you, and I'm tired of stalking him. Listen twerp, I hate being nice about this-"

She was being nice?

"- but I really could use your help. I've been trying to reach out to Derrick and Maro for years but I haven't been able to contact them. No one else is nice enough or has enough umph to do anything. I know that Hendricks has you on his payroll now, so you'll have access to information you normally would not have. So I'm stuck asking for your assistance. Plus, if you ignore me I'll haunt your ass."