Starlight shone down over the graveyard, reflecting off the gravestones in the night. The moon had long since set.
Calypso danced between them, clutching a medium-sized bottle of Jim Beam that was already half empty.
A small stereo nearby played “Thriller” by Michael Jackson.
“COME OUT, SPIRITS! FINISH THIS!”
She almost tripped over a gravestone.
“Oh yeah. Real clever. Move the gravestones on me.”
She stood there for a moment, wavering slightly.
Finally, she sat down on one of the larger stones and retrieved her small black purse from behind it.
She lit a cigarette.
Then she opened her phone and looked through the long list of NPC humanoids she had interacted with over the years.
Maybe a hundred numbers.
No one to call.
No one calling her.
Nothing left.
Family hates me.
She sat there for a moment, thinking about the impromptu conspiracy sushi date she’d had.
That was different.
Then she thought back to the springs.
That’s happened before.
She hadn’t heard from Bard.
Of course, things were so fucked up that it didn’t really matter at this point.
She’d just been hoping to have someone to complain to about it.
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Maybe someone who would care.
Her phone started ringing.
“Oh my gosh. What the hell? Right now?”
She answered.
“Hello?”
“Hi. I don’t know who you are, but we have Bard Hill here at Holy Cross Hospital.”
Calypso sat upright.
“Wait, what?”
“Yeah. He’s in a bad way, and we can’t seem to find anyone else to contact to let his family know what’s going on. We found your phone number in his phone.”
“He didn’t have someone else to call?”
“No. This was the only number saved.”
Calypso stared into the darkness.
“Holy Cross is in Taos, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Okay. I guess I’ll come that way, then.”
“Thanks.”
The woman on the other end hung up.
Calypso checked the time.
3:33 a.m.
She hid the bottle of Beam in a hollow in a small tree.
Then she started the long walk back through the woods toward where she had parked.
She had meandered all the way into the middle of nowhere.
She couldn’t even remember how to pronounce where she was.
Abiqui?
She used her phone as a flashlight while following the trail away from the graveyard and back toward the road.
She could smell the lake in the air from here.
It would probably take twenty minutes to reach the Bronco.
Halfway there, she heard something.
A guttural growling purr.
Calypso stopped.
She searched the hillside above her.
The trees.
Nothing.
Then movement.
She ran.
Something massive flew past through the trees.
Branches shook violently as it moved from one tree to another.
Then suddenly, impossibly, another tree twenty or thirty feet away shook instead.
Calypso began to panic.
A small cry escaped her.
A powerful rush of wind swept over her from above.
Something sailed through the night.
For an instant, Calypso thought she could make out the shape of some enormous animal.
A long tail.
Maybe.
It was too dark beneath the trees to see clearly.
As it passed overhead, a single drop landed on her chest.
Calypso aimed the flashlight down while she ran.
Blood.
Ahead, she finally saw the Bronco.
Several trees shook in rapid succession.
One snapped entirely and crashed into the darkness.
Then the forest went silent.
Nothing remained except Calypso’s breathing, her soft cries, and the heavy rhythm of her footsteps as she ran the final distance to the car.
She yanked the door open and climbed inside.
Safe.
Calypso started the engine and stomped on the gas.
The Bronco tore through the darkness.
She nearly hit a boulder and swung hard around it.
The whiskey felt like it had almost completely worn off during the last ten minutes.
Some time later, she opened a can of Coke as she sped down the road.
She had wiped the large drop of blood from her chest.
Her body shook uncontrollably.
Calypso lit a cigarette and continued toward the highway.
Eventually, the shaking eased.
It took several uneven hours before she finally reached Taos.
The first strange light of morning was beginning to appear when Calypso walked into Holy Cross Hospital.
Tucked beneath the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
In an enchanted realm far away.
Called Taos, New Mexico.