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lho-arts · 2 months ago

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A Day at the Fair

This is a short story featuring two characters from my comic, Rachel (a human) and Kiko (a demon, and Rachel's girlfriend). So far Rachel has no idea that Kiko's a demon.

Takes place sometime before the elves appear, but after Rachel starts working at the farm.

Comic available here: https://bsky.app/profile/lho-comics.bsky.social

Rachel parked her car and sat in silence, contemplating the day ahead of her. The building she was about to enter was a standard village hall, no different to the kind she took yoga classes at, but today would try her in ways no pose could. Today she would be entering an alien world, amongst people and practices she could never understand.

She steeled herself. Nobody ever said journalism was going to be easy.

'A fair! I love a fair!'

The other woman in the car was almost bouncing with excitement. Rachel snorted; at least her girlfriend was having fun.

'It's not a real fair; there's not even ice cream.'

Kiko picked up the flyer that had brought them there, and read off the title. '"Psychic Fair". See it's a fair, it'll be fun. I can get some incense, you can write your article, we can have a reading or two, and…' her eyes flicked over the paper. 'Oooh, there's a tombola.'

'Do you… believe in this?' Though Rachel had called it a bullshit assignment when Kiko first saw the flyer, she hadn't asked her girlfriend what she thought about it. She hoped Kiko was just excited because it was called a fair, she didn't think she could date anybody who was too involved in mysticism.

'Nah, but it's fun. They're…' She paused, as if searching for the word. 'They're performers, actors. It's… learning, to see how they work and what they say.'

'What they make up to try and fool the gullible, you mean?'

'Well, yeah.' Kiko leaned over and rested a hand on her thigh. 'But don't you want to want to know what they think you want to hear? Don't you want to be told you'll marry a tall, dark, handsome man and have a dozen babies with him?'

The absurdity managed to loosen Rachel up. 'Will he be a billionaire and buy me a company to work at?'

'Only if you don't want to be a house wife organising his dinner parties.'

'What about you? Who will you marry?'

Kiko grinned. 'A muscly blonde who can sweep me off my feet, like in Lex- Tom's romance novels.'

'Fabio!?' Rachel hooted with laughter. She'd seen the old Mills and Boons in the office, and had caught Kiko flipping through them occasionally.

Kiko opened the door to the car and stepped out with a short comment.

'Him, or you'd do.'

Rachel's laughter choked off with a cough as her mind crashed. They hadn't been dating for long. It had been uttered so casually, but they had only been dating a short time. She must have been joking; it wasn't even legal yet.

She shook her brain back to life as Kiko opened the driver's door. 'Thank you.' Rachel said, slightly surprised by the chivalry. She tucked her phone into her jeans, took a step to walk away, then stopped as Kiko stayed standing by the car.

'Did you forget something?'

Kiko looked down at the car, a small frown on her face, then back up at her. 'Don't you need a notepad and camera? Or a… a tape recorder, and microphone?'

Rachel held up her phone. 'I've got everything I need here.'

Kiko's face fell. 'I forgot about that.'

Rachel couldn't blame her for forgetting. Smart phones were still new, and Kiko was happy with a flip phone, borrowing Rachel's phone when she wanted to take a photo or video. She hooked arms with her girlfriend and they started the short walk towards the hall together.

'Did you have a smart phone in Japan?'

'I had a flip phone with so many straps it barely fit in my pocket.' She bumped into Rachel's side. 'We should find a gacha machine and get matching straps!'

They reached the event hall as Rachel was deciding whether to ask what straps or gacha machines were first. A cluster of women by the entrance were talking about their readings, and more women were entering and leaving the hall. Rachel and Kiko slipped past the group and into the hall. A busy stall selling coffee and cake stood by the entrance, and beyond the crowd Rachel glimpsed a few stalls selling incense, crystals, cards, and other psychic paraphernalia, but most tables held a woman (almost all were women) proffering psychic services. Their banners held the usual mysticism; tarot, palmistry and astrologers, but also aura cleansing, coffee readings, and thing Rachel couldn't guess at. Between the tables was a large scattering of people (again, mostly women) mingling, chatting, queuing, and seated at tables getting various readings.

There were more women here than at the lesbian bars she had visited.

'Do you know anything about this?' She asked Kiko, hoping the woman's earlier explanation had been based on experience.

'A bit, but the practices I know might be different to what they do now.' Kiko looked around the hall, then pointed to a table. 'I could do with some incense, let's visit the stalls first.'

While Kiko was sniffing incense sticks, Rachel looked around the venue. She needed to interview psychics and customers for the article, but she also needed to keep it brief for the word limit. Her gaze fell on a crystal vendor at a nearby stall; she'd had a friend at Uni who used crystals, so Rachel felt on a slightly more solid footing interviewing somebody about it.

She turned back to see Kiko picking up and putting down incense in a huff.

'Anything you like?'

Kiko put down the incense with a sneer. 'This shit's all fake. If I tried to use any of this I'd give myself a sore throat and just piss off the Gods.'

'They can fake incense?' Rachel picked up a stick, sniffed it, and put it back down. It smelled like every other incense stick she had been near, but apparently there was a difference. 'We'll go to the crystal stall.'

Rachel pulled Kiko away as she was giving ugly looks at the incense seller, dragging her to the crystal stall. There were salt lamps and salt purifiers, crystal jewellery and a large amethyst cave with a NOT FOR SALE label on it. The woman behind the table was telling some customers about the properties of lapis lazuli, so Rachel took the chance to examine the necklaces.

'Oh, I recognise this.' Kiko picked up a necklace with an orange red stone from the display.

'Really?'

'Yeah, L-Tom uses them in his cunning work.' She handed the stone to Rachel. 'This is cornelian; it's protective in an amulet, but is also good for wax seals. A charmed cornelian wax seal can protect whatever documents it binds.' She picked up more stones, handing each one to Rachel as she went and giving a little spiel on it's properties and uses, then reached the last stone in the display. She picked up the rock and turned it over, studying it intensely before handing it to Rachel. 'And this is a pretty rock.'

Rachel turned the pink stone over in her hands. 'It's rose quartz. For emotional healing and mourning.'

'You seem familiar with that.' They were interrupted by the stallholder, who had finished with her customer and turned to the two of them. 'Did you lose somebody?'

'Giggy.' She looked down at the rock, the emotions coming back to her as fresh as the day he had died. It was a stone for loss and grief.

Kiko's arm wrapped around her and steered her away from the stall.

'Do you want to tell me about it?'

'He was my dog- the family dog. He was the silliest boxer you've ever met. We got him as a puppy for Christmas, and I loved him so much. But he got old, and got cancer, and… he had to be put down. For his own sake.' She could feel tears come to her eyes just from remembering it. 'He was still wagging his tail as he went.'

He had been her constant friend for over 10 years, and she still missed him. Whenever she visited her parents house she expected him to come gallumphing down the corridor, and his loss was a quietness she still hadn't recovered from.

She wiped her eyes. 'This is probably silly to you. After you lost your parents, and your girlfriend…'

'Losing somebody you love is never easy.' She tapped her chest. 'But Akko's still with me, in here. When I get sad about losing her, I remember that she's always still with me.'

Rachel looked at the stone in her fingers. She had been so depressed after Giggy's death she could barely go back to uni, but then Chloe had given a rose quartz to sleep with and they had talked for hours. She thought she had found a best friend after that night, but had just been given more grief.

She squeezed the crystal in her hand. 'We need to give this back.'

They went back to the stall and Rachel returned the necklace, despite the offer of a discount from the stall holder. She managed to ask a few brief questions for her article, but was too thrown by her emotions to really put too much thought into her questions.

After they walked away from the stall Kiko suggested they get coffee and cake so Rachel could relax, and Rachel was only too happy to agree.

After buying two coffees and a large slice of chocolate cake, they left the hall to eat in the small park adjoining the hall. Kiko settled on a patch of bare ground and Rachel sat down next to her, balancing the cake on her knee.

'It's nice to be back in the fresh air. Do psychics always wear so much perfume?'

'It's the cheap incense. It's only good for muddying the mind and confusing rubes.' Kiko handed Rachel one of the forks they had taken from the stall. 'Did something happen with the crystals? You seemed angry.'

'Huh?'

'You seemed angry. After telling me about the dog- Giggy's death, you seemed angry. Did something else happen with the crystals?'

Rachel took a forkful of cake and slowly chewed it as she gathered her thoughts. 'I had a flatmate at at uni, her name was Chloe. She was into all of this stuff; she gave me a rose quartz to sleep with after Giggy was put down. I thought we were friends, until I came out to her.' She looked at Kiko, who had a blank expression at the term. 'Until I told her I'm a lesbian. I thought she would be open-minded, but it turned out she was only open-minded about angels and spirits.' Rachel spat out the words, and Kiko hastily took the cake from her as her body tensed and she clenched her fists.

She breathed out, slowly.

'It hurt so much. I thought we were friends, she had gay friends- male gay friends- but she was just another bigot.'

Kiko sliced off a piece of cake and put it in her mouth. 'S tha' why you don' li' thi'?' She waved her fork in the direction of the hall, then handed the cake back to Rachel.

'Psychics?' Kiko nodded. 'I've never believed in psychics, not even when I went ghost hunting with the other girls at my primary school.' It had been fun ghost-hunting and telling spooky stories at sleepovers, but she had never taken any of it seriously.

Kiko gave her a look. 'You've met Jacquie, but you don't believe in spirits?'

Rachel froze as she pushed the fork into the cake. 'Are they ghosts?' Kiko nodded. 'I didn't know that. Of course I believe Jacquie, and the other… spirits I see on your farm are real, but… I don't…' She trailed off, trying to figure out what she believed.

She couldn't deny the reality of the spirits she saw at the farm; the wheelbarrow that moved by itself, and the ghostly fingers that sometimes messed up the office paperwork and stationery, and especially not Jacquie who brought her lunch and snacks each day. But she still couldn't believe that psychics talked to ghosts.

'I think… If ghosts are real, I don't think they…' she motioned to the hall, 'can see them or talk to them on command. Maybe there are some real psychics who can communicate with spirits, but not most of them.' She sliced a piece of cake off, satisfied with her logic. Maybe some of these people could talk to ghosts on command, but it would be a rare skill; even Kiko had admitted it was all a con, and she knew ghosts. She lived on that farm around the ghosts, and learnt cunning work…

'Did you say Tom's a cunning man? Does he control the ghosts?' Rachel set the cake down; she had so many questions now she thought about it. 'How do you know Jacquie's name? Can he talk to them? Can you talk to them? Why do you call him Lex sometimes, and why does he call you Ram?'

Kiko laughed, shrilly and falsely. 'Slow down! That's- that's a lot!'

Rachel maintained an even expression, but the wheels in her head were turning.

'I'm not going to tell anybody about the ghost who brings me sandwiches, or that Tom tells her to bring me sandwiches. I'm not that kind of journalist, I don't want to join the tabloids, or get a cover of the Fortean Times, I just want a bit of honesty.'

Kiko twirled her fork in her fingers, downcast. 'There's a few "real psychics". Not many, but there's maybe one or two in there who can see, or hear, but they-' she pointed in the direction of the hall- 'they can't "control the spirits", they can't do anything on demand.' She laughed darkly, 'and if they try, they find control can be a two-way street.'

A darkness descended on Rachel's sight, like the saturation had been turned down on the whole world, and everything was muted except Kiko's voice.

'When you get your readings for your article, I'll show you who's true and who's fake, or they'll show themselves from how they react. The rest of them are frauds, ready to be used by those they call on in their ignorance. From my experience those who can see don't brag about it, because they know what's out there.'

Then Kiko took a bite of the cake and the world went back to normal.

'We should get a tarot reading, they're always fun.'

Rachel sipped her coffee hastily, the burn in her throat nothing compared to the questions running through her head.

After lunch, where Kiko deflected all of Rachel's additional questions about ghosts, the farm, and cunning work, they returned to the hall.

Rachel let Kiko lead her as an expert in the field, even if Kiko still professed ignorance about it. She interviewed a palm reader who gave her a reading and said that, despite any past relationship trouble, she had a long, stable relationship with a woman in her future. Rachel would have been more impressed if she hadn't been wearing a rainbow bracelet and walked up to the table holding Kiko's hand, and if the woman hadn't previously admitted during the interview that she just said what she thought would make her clients happy.

A tarot reader said she had gotten into cartomancy after watching movies, and that she found she got the most accurate outcomes when combining tarot readings with astrology. She had explained everything in such a mattor-of-fact way, Rachel had almost been compelled to believe her. But then she had given Rachel a reading and said that change was coming soon and her worldview would be challenged, but she shouldn't be scared of it. It had been so generic Rachel left the stall feeling deflated, despite not expecting anything from the reading to begin with.

Finally she went to an aura photographer to see what it was about. The reader told Rachel about the whole process, and how the readings and cleansings took place. While the women seemed convinced it was real, Rachel thought it was the biggest load of nonsense she had heard in her life, and Kiko had been excited to see how it worked. Rachel paid for Kiko to get a photograph, and they both had to hold in laughter as the reader said Kiko had a calm, spiritually clear aura.

'You were right about them being performers.' Rachel said to Kiko as they stood to the side of the hall and she finished writing notes on her phone.

Kiko laughed. 'I can't believe they're still doing aura photography!'

'Still?'

'I thought that was passe by the end of the war.' Kiko chuckled. 'I guess it's more exciting with colour film now. Sorry, Rachel, I don't think you'll find any real psychics here.'

Before Rachel could process that to ask what Kiko meant by "now", Kiko had run off with a vague mention of seeing a different stall selling incense. It was just another question to put in the growing pile of questions.

Rachel leaned against the wall; Kiko could find her when she'd decided if the incense was real or fake. She scrolled her notes again. There was enough for a piece, but it probably wouldn't help her career prospects. More compelling though was the information Kiko had dropped throughout the day; as much as she was openly blabbing bout ghosts and psychics, she also didn't seem to want to talk about it openly, and any direct questioning was met with deflection or a change of topic. Was Kiko one of the "real" psychics?

'You!' Rachel jumped at the sudden voice to her side and looked over to see a woman with dark hair and wispy clothing standing beside her. She grabbed Rachel's arm with hard fingers. 'Do you know that woman?' She pointed in the direction Kiko had run off in.

'Kiko?'

'I've been waiting for her to leave you. Come with me. To my table.' She pulled Rachel in the direction of a small table tucked away in the corer of the room. A modest banner showed her as Morgana Mystique: Tarot, medium, psychic readings.

'Sit down.' She pushed Rachel into a chair, then spun around the table to her own chair.

'Is-'

'Pretend you're getting a reading.' Morgana pulled out a worn pack of tarot cards and started shuffling. 'How do you know it?'

'Know what?'

'That Kiko. How well do you know it?'

'Her. She's my girlfriend.'

'That's not an answer. How well do you know her?'

Rachel thought hard. They'd talked about Kiko's life, but it was broad strokes. She was born in England to Japanese parents, lived between the countries until her parents moved back permanently to look after her ailing grandparents, then everybody died in a car accident. She had a career in an idol band, but Rachel didn't know the name of the band, and after her girlfriend/ band-mate was murdered by a stalker, she returned to England and moved in with Tom.

Or that's what she said, but sometimes she needed to be reminded she'd even had parents, and she didn't know a single thing about Japanese or English schooling. And today had just raised more questions than Rachel could possibly answer.

'We're still getting to know each other.'

'So you don't know anything.' Morgana banged the cards on the table and started shuffling them again. 'Where are you from?'

'What?'

Morgana rattled off a string of villages, all within five miles from Tom's farm.

'Excuse me?'

'Are you from any of those places? There's a darkness in that land, I won't go there, nobody who can feel the darkness would go there. Except the people born into that land, they're native to the darkness, it's imbued in them.' She nodded towards Kiko. 'She feels like that darkness.'

'I grew up West of there, and went to school in _.'

Morgana nodded. 'Close enough to be immune. Do you know the black man?'

'A black man?' Rachel deadpanned.

Morgana stopped shuffling her cards and blinked as if she had just heard what she said. 'It's not a very PC term, is it? No, he's not black- I think. I haven't been close enough to see him, just passing through his land is bad enough. We also call him the Farmer, but all the food he grows is bitter and tainted with his darkness. You'll have it in you if you eat his food and drink his water.'

'It's farming country, there's lots of farmers there.'

Morgana slammed the cards down again. 'Don't get cute. You know him if you live there. He's been there for longer than any could say, spreading out through that land like a spider spinning a web.'

'I think I know him.'

'He's the centre of the darkness. He's not human, though he looks it if you can't see what he really is. You'll find out if you get close enough, but if you get close enough it'll be too late.' She looked away from Rachel, over her right shoulder, and put on the tightest smile Rachel had ever seen. 'Hello, you must be Kiko.'

Rachel felt the small hand rest on her shoulder.

'Yeah. Rachel, are you ready to go?'

Rachel looked between Morgana's tight smile and Kiko's slight frown. 'Yeah, I'm ready.' She stood up and placed a 20 pound note on Morgana's table. 'Thanks for the reading. I'll keep it in mind.'

Morgana picked up the note. 'If you want another one, call me. Day or night.' She took a plain business card from her handbag, and scribbled a number on it before handing it to Rachel. 'It might not be too late.'

Rachel glanced at the card. A mobile number had been scribbled on the card above the words 'Mary Morgan. Tax Accountant.' Rachel nodded to Mary and shoved the card into her pocket, then led Kiko away from the table.

'Did you find any incense?'

Instead of answering Kiko nodded back over her shoulder. 'She was a real psychic.'

#short story #demons #ghosts #denial #original characters #ocs #original story #short fiction

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