1: A Bright Flash of Red Light

"I'm taking the trash out!" Zaria called out over the sound of the dishwashers. She did not bother waiting for a reply before grabbing the two over-filled garbage bags with both hands and bumping the door bar with her butt. With a click, the door opened, and she pivoted outward with it, dragging the two bags with her.

The night air was crisp. The humidity of the day was dispelled with the heavy rain that fell during the dinner rush. She stepped around a puddle and directly into the mushy remains of a half eaten burger.

"Oh man, Beth didn't put down the dumpster lid, did she?" Zaria groaned as she asked the air around her the rhetorical question. Rounding the corner to the back of the building, she could see several raccoons fighting over leftovers that they were digging from a torn open garbage bag. She yelled at them, and they scattered, leaving behind a mess that she knew she would be blamed for. The extra couple of bucks an hour was nice, but the amount of crap that she had to take as the night supervisor had her reconsidering if it was worth it. She chucked her own bags up into the open dumpster and went back toward the door to grab a push broom that was kept outside for situations just like this one.

Around toward the front of the building, she could hear car doors opening and closing as the last of the customers headed home for the night. Hopefully Beth, her night server, was locking the front doors behind them so that nobody else tried to walk in. It didn't matter if there were clearly marked hours on the front door and a giant red closed sign lit up in the window. If the door was unlocked, somebody would try to enter and insist they be served. She really didn't want to have to deal with calling the sheriff on some angry drunk dude tonight. It always took them so long to respond. Beth would probably remember, she hoped, so Zaria started sweeping up the waste that was strewn about the back path.

The only reason Beth always 'forgot' to close the dumpster was that she hated getting close enough to it that she might accidentally bump into the smelly, oozing receptacle. Zaria bet that if she looked around, she would find a pole or something in the grass nearby that could be used to push the lid up without touching it. She didn't look for it, though. There was no point. She would just give Beth another talk about it. There was no point in writing her up or making her come out and clean up the mess. Her parents were the richest in the county. The owners would side with the little princess and tell Zaria to just take out the trash herself from now on. Like she didn't have so many other things to do on busy nights.

Zaria pushed the garbage into a plastic crate before picking the crate up and upending it into the dumpster. Then she reached up from the back of the dumpster and balanced on the tips of her toes while she stretched to reach the dumpster lid to smack it forward and down for the night. At only 162 centimeters, everything was a reach, but you figured out how to make things work. It was either that or 'forget' to do things, and half of the evening and night staff were already doing that. She sighed again and walked back toward the building to put the broom back for the next night. It would probably be needed again then.

As she approached the corner leading around to the door, there was a loud thumping sound from somewhere behind her. It sounded like something large hitting the dumpster. She turned back around, broom raised up defensively in front of her. A memory rose unbidden. Last year, during the senior camping trip, Bobby Showalter had sworn that he saw a bear in the woods behind her house once while walking along. She didn't bother asking why he was in the woods behind her house. Bobby was a pervert and was always trying to find some way to get her to leap into his arms. It might have worked. He was, after all, pretty cute with his honey blonde hair and bright green eyes. Plus he played on all the sports teams at their little high school. However, when they were in second grade, he told her she looked like a midget black Stacy doll, so she held a grudge for the next ten years.

Her gramma had taught her well the importance of holding grudges. That woman still had her ex-husband's favorite shirt and refused to give it back. Instead, she took pictures of it under her dog's night crate covered in hair along with her hand, giving him the finger and sending them to him on their anniversary every year. Bastard shouldn't have cheated on her, she explained once.

There was no wet snuffling sound that she expected to hear from bears. In movies, bears always made that sound or a growly roar sound. But there was no sound at all after that thump.

"Get your ass back inside, girl. You've seen the horror movies. You gonna die first if you stay out here." She muttered to herself, backing toward the side of the building with the broom held in front of her like a kendo sword. What were those called again? Yeah, a shinai. "You hear nothing, you see nothing, probably a raccoon. A big freaking, hopped up on steroids raccoon."

Just as her back hit the corner of the building, there was a sound like a raspy growl behind her, and she turned with a start.

Her brain tried to explain what she saw in front of her during the second it took her to react. Glowing yellow eyes looked out from a head that was vaguely bear shaped but seemed to be made of smoke. It was almost the same height as her, but easily twice the width, and it was poised as thought it were about to leap. While her brain tried to understand what she was seeing, her body took over and brought the improvised sword down on its head, hard. At least, she tried to. There was a little resistance, but the broom handle passed through as easily as if it were pushing down through a big pile of oatmeal before hitting the ground below. The creature bellowed and reared back as though in pain. She did not hesitate and took off for the other side of the building, running toward the dumpster. She was hoping to put it between her and the nightmare that was still shrieking behind her. As she approached the dumpster, she saw the whole thing shaking and the lids flying open and slamming against the back fence. She raised her pole again and brought it down on the thing that was jumping out, skidding to a stop in confusion when the shape let out a very human sounding yell of pain. A tall man, dressed all in flowing black, fell the rest of the way out of the dumpster, landing on the pavement below with a grunt.

"Why the hell are you in my dumpster," she yelled, grabbing the lanky man's arm and yanking him along with her. Behind, she could hear the sounds of the monster coming close, fast, and she wanted to get away. The man stumbled and went down, and she turned without hesitating, putting herself between him and that which approached them.

"Get up and run, you idiot," she yelled over her shoulder, her hands shaking as she held the puny looking stick up in front of her. A burst of crimson light streaked past her, hitting the creature directly on it's head and it flew backward, tumbling across the ground before coming to a stop back where she first saw it. She looked back at the man to see him dusting his...robes?...off, his fingers still glowing a little. Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.

"You can faint now," a thick voice came from his lips, reminding her of maple syrup. Sweet and thick, and just a little sticky, like you wanted to keep listening. She shook her head and turned sideways to keep an eye on both him and the creature that was fidgeting as though it would get up any second.

"You...it...why do you want me to faint?" she ended incredulously. Without answering, he strode past her toward the heap of nightmare, bringing his hands up and forming a sword of fire that he used to slice down toward its head. When the creature did not rise, he stuck his hand into the misty mass and pulled something out. He held it up in front of his face while examining it, and Zaria moved closer out of curiosity.

It looked like one of those new age healing crystals, the kind you were supposed to wear around your neck so you wouldn't get sick. Her friend Irene was really into the whole thing and gifted her things like that for her birthday every year.

As he turned it in his hand, it seemed to glow, but instead of lighting up the area around, it was as if it was pulling the surrounding light into it. Zaria shook her head, and when that didn't make the image make more sense, she rubbed her eyes as well.

"What's that?" She asked him, reaching out to touch it. He pulled it away, sliding it into a pouch tied to his belt.

"Don't touch things if you don't know what they are," he admonished her with a stern look.

She scowled at him and placed a hand on her hip. "Well, you touched it, so it can't be that dangerous. What was that thing? And why were you in my dumpster?"

He brushed past her, ignoring her questions. She looked back at the creature, but it seemed to be becoming more insubstantial with each passing second. No longer worried about it, she instead followed the strange man, yelling at him to get his attention. "Hey! I was asking you questions! Are you just going to walk away?"

He stopped and turned back to her with a frown. His hands began to glow again as he drew some kind of symbol in the air. "You imagined everything. You bumped your head while doing your task. None of it was real." The symbol glowed for a moment before fading away, but he was already turning to leave again.

"And then, what? I imagined you telling me that I imagined it? Were you trying to hypnotize me?" Common sense finally won out, and she stopped her feet from their journey closer to him.

He stopped mid turn and looked back at her curiously. "You can still remember me?"

She started to back away, her brain realizing that she was alone with a strange person who could make fire swords appear out of thin air. Her mouth, however, kept going. "How can I not remember you? You are literally right here in front of me."

He held his hand up again, and thin strands like ribbons fluttered in the air for a moment before shooting out and wrapping around her. "Uhm..." she let go of her broom handle with one hand and grabbed on to the ribbons, pulling them up and over her head. "You know what, I think I did imagine it, so I am going to just head back inside now. In fact, who am I even talking to? Must have hit my head harder than I thought. Yep, just going to go now..."

Zaria let her eyes slide off of him like feet on ice and casually turned to walk back toward the back door of the restaurant. The ribbons wrapped around her again, but she held her breath and kept walking. They fell off with no resistance.

"Wait," a voice called from behind her. A hand grabbed her and spun her around so suddenly that she let out a shriek. The hand on her shoulder was like iron, and she struggled uselessly trying to move it off of her. He held her face still and stared into her eyes, but let go after a moment with a dismissive noise. "You have no magic," he announced and turned away, already drawing another symbol in the air in front of him.

A streak of something moved through the darkness beyond the dumpster, knocking into him as he finished drawing the circle in the air. Zaria felt his body hit her, and she was falling, her body crumpling beneath his weight. There was a flash of bright red light and a grunt of pain, and then she hit water.