Paranormal Investigations 4: In Limbo

By EH Walter

Leo owes the Fae promises, promises that are being called in by Jamie in a bid to help him escape the Realm of the Fae - even if that means entering Limbo and being accused of murder at an Agatha Christie convention.
With her team consisting of a time travelling daughter, a satyr and a troll around her, Leo has to escape Limbo and prove her innocence. Not easy when everyone thinks you did it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: EH Walter
• Release date: Jun 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781311387929

EH Walter

EH Walter is from Hampshire, but now lives in North London where she lives the impoverished life of a writer. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter to be kept up to date and have the chance to contribute names for characters.

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Paranormal Investigations 4

In Limbo

EH Walter

Copyright 2013 EH Walter

Smashwords Edition

Cover by Tirz at http://acleverwhatever.blogspot.co.uk/

Discover other titles by EH Walter at Smashwords.com

Paranormal Investigations 1 http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/101392

Paranormal Investigations 2 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/113147

Paranormal Investigations 3 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/149963

White Christmas - a short story http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/114199

Assassin in the Abbey – a short story https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/265823

Fallen http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/26601

Paperbacks available at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/ehwalter

Coming soon from EH Walter: The Reed Bed and Snowbound – two new titles for 2014.

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Chapter 1: Into the Realm of the Fae

So this fairy turns up, uninvited, and spins you a sob story of how he doesn't fit in and wants to go home. What do you do? Do you tell this immortal being, who is destined to impregnate you at some point in the future, to sod off? Do you get him a taxi back to his portal so he has to leave the mortal world alone and stop interfering? No, of course not. You agree to go with him and be his green card, his British passport - whatever it is that means so a fairy can live in our realm. And he doesn't even have to answer immigration questions based on Eastenders and the unemployment rate in Hartlepool. Well done Leo, you're up to your arse again in stuff you would rather not believe in.

I can't say I was overjoyed to be walking in the dark and up to my ankles in squelchy mud back to the location of my almost-murder. There were at least a dozen better ways to spend an evening, including cleaning my toilet.

Can't you do some fairy voodoo and whizz us there or something? I wheezed, asking Jamie who was out ahead of me. The mud wasn't causing him any problems. Why did shit never stick to arseholes?

I paused to reclaim a shoe.

Stop complaining Leo.

I like to complain, it runs through my veins and keeps me going. Especially when I am traipsing through squelchy mud with someone who not only aims to father a child on me, but make me his passport out of his fairyland. Am I your beard? Is that it?

You do a lot of talking with your memory back.

Ah yes, my reclaimed stolen memories – the deal I had made with him that led to me being on a muddy hill in a closed park in the middle of the night.

I do a lot of talking anyway.

Anyway, nothing makes me want to father a child with you.

Nothing? Gees, now I was insulted.

Well I suppose it could be very useful in my present circumstances, to have a physical tie to the mortal realm. However, I don’t like responsibility and the child will be torn between worlds. It's not ideal. When we have sex I will try not to father a child on you. I will make sure not to. It would be a disaster. But I will obviously fail. You can't argue with fate.

"Excuse me? When? I am not sleeping with you."

You say that now Leo…

I will say that forever. It’s not happening. Ever.

He laughed. Don’t say that Leo, it’s been ages since I slept with a mortal woman. It might be fun. You’ll make me want to impregnate you if you protest anymore. It’s kinda sexy. And you can't fight fate, we have a daughter. We will...

I let out an exasperated groan. "Just for the record, if there is one, I am not sleeping with you and if you make any overtures or suggestions of such I will blow this deal and you are stuck with your fairy kingdom. I don’t know why you don’t want to live there anyway – your bloody sister worked hard enough to get you all in there." So bloody hard she had meant for me to die to ensure it happened. Only Jamie had saved me. Damn it – I didn’t like the way these debts were stacking up with the fairy. It was the first rule of the paranormal (in the handbook I was mentally composing in my head) – don’t make deals with the Fae. I had already made enough to take a lifetime repaying. My great aunt would flip out if she knew – she repeated it to me like a sacred rule – don’t get into debt with the Fae. Anyway, with some luck she would never need to find out. She was off backpacking around India now anyway. At eighty something years old – I kid ye not.

"Come on Leo, put some effort in. It’s almost midnight and I must be back by then."

Do some magic fairy stuff then and whoosh us up this bloody hill.

I can’t.

Can’t or won’t?

He paused uncomfortably before speaking. I can’t. I’m on a ban.

A ban?

Yes a ban. Now walk quicker.

I conserved my breath and put more effort into my legs. Since when did fairies get banned from using their magic? And who would have the power to implement such a ban?

Finally the hill gave way to flatter ground and less mud. We were up by the monument. The park was littered with monuments dedicated to random people, one of the owners of the park had liked collecting them. If it had been daytime I would have been able to see the house and the sweeping grounds at the bottom of the hill we had just trekked up. As it was, all I could see were patches of different shades of black and the orange fuzz of street lights in the distance.

Tucked into the path heading downhill was the one of the entrances to Camlet Moat, there was another one around the side. Jamie passed through first, I hesitated. I had not been back here since Jamie’s sister Orla had arranged for my murder. My veins had been opened and my blood had flowed into the earth. So much blood I would have died but for Jamie saving me before he too disappeared into the fairies' realm. I thought then they were all gone and I’d never have to deal with them again – I thought wrong.

I stood still, my mind replaying that night and a feeling of despair mixed with absolute fear washed over me. I had always thought that I would be brave in the face of death and accept the inevitable. I had not been. What I had not realised, until faced with death, was that we humans are designed to fight for our lives and twenty-five felt far too young to die. I was too young to die. I was a coward in the face of my own mortality and once you have realised that, your life can never be the same. It takes on a fragility, an ephemeral brevity that you don't want to test again.

Come on Leo. We don’t have time.

Sensing my hesitancy Jamie grabbed my hand and pulled me inside. I felt my stomach lurch as I crossed the boundary – almost as if my newly replenished human blood was rebelling, churning in my veins.

I planted my feet firmly in the mud. I’m not sure I can Jamie…

No time. He said urgently and bent down, grabbing me about the waist and throwing me over his shoulder. He was surprisingly strong.

I kicked my legs, but it was a pathetic protest and Jamie didn’t have time to indulge me. He wrapped one arm around my legs and jogged over to the land bridge. On the little moated island we would find the gateway to the Realm of the Fae.

My body trembled. I had almost died here. Although rationally in knew I was not in danger, I could not control my behaviour. My throat began to constrict and my eyes welled with tears.

Jamie slapped me on the bottom, which was almost enough to change my fear to anger – but not quite. This is just the gateway, he said, we’ll be out of here soon. I didn’t like the way his hand was resting on the hole in my trousers (from when he had given me a bunk up to get over the wall to the closed park and I had ripped my trousers on the sharp glass embedded in the top of the wall). His hand was warm and the flesh on flesh contact was far too intimate.

Do you think you could move your hand?

Sorry Leo?

It kind of feels like you’re massaging my bum.

He gave it a squeeze.

For fuck’s sake Jamie.

Feel better? he asked.

I pursed my lips in fury, but he was right. I was too pissed at him to be scared any longer.

The gateway, which was invisible to mortals, was wrought in grey stone reaching up high. I saw it because I was the Seer and apparently way back when we had a fairy ancestor or something. That was what made us special and allowed us to… well, see things.

Jamie laid his hand on one pillar. Thankfully it was the hand that had previously been on my arse. A tiny breeze crept through my ripped trousers and cooled my flesh.

You’re late, came a tired voice, I was about to shut up. This is it you know, it won’t be opened again.

I understand that. Jamie replied.

The gatekeeper was dressed as a Roman legionary. Maybe the last time the gate had been permanently open was in Roman times and he sought to blend in? He even held a spear and I fancied his chances of using it should he have to repel invaders. Though why anyone mortal or otherwise would want to cross into the Realm of the Fae I don’t know since it was full of murderous and self-centred fairies. Or you could just call them knob ends. That works for me.

"It’s just midnight so technically I have until it ceases to be midnight." Jamie said, referring to an expensive watch on his wrist.

Which is in about twenty seconds.

Then you’d better let us through.

Not her. She’s a mortal. I can smell her.

Only a tiny part. You know how that mortal smell lingers when you’ve been in their world for a bit. And she’s my fiancée. She has a right to be with me.

They’ll tear her to pieces.

Woah, hold on…

Jamie continued: I’ve already got that covered. You don’t need to worry.

He shrugged. I don’t care. I was just stating a fact. Well, you’re clearing it with the high council. Not me. The gatekeeper stepped to one side to allow us through.

Some kind of blue-purple coloured webby force field dimmed and we passed through. Yes, a webby force field. Look, I’m the one who saw it, okay and that’s what I think it looked like. A webby force field. When you go into the Realm of the Fae you can tell me what you think it looks like.

Jamie placed one of his hands over my eyes and took a step into his home world. As we passed through I heard a sharp snap behind us and the park and everything in the mortal world disappeared behind us. Suddenly the world felt very bright. I wriggled so Jamie had to put me down onto my own feet. He kept his hand over my eyes.

Brace yourself, Jamie said and slowly moved his hand.

I opened my eyes for the briefest fraction of a second and then closed them immediately. I could see nothing but a pale yellow brightness that burned into my head. Even with my eyes closed the light seared through my eyelids.

Ouch! I said.

I told you to brace yourself.

You didn’t say I’d be blinded. What is it?

Probably the sun shining out of the arses of millions of self-righteous fairies.

I heard Jamie rustle in a pocket and then I felt a weight as he placed something over my ears and on to the bridge of my nose.

It might be easier to open your eyes now.

When I opened my eyes I was seeing through dark Chanel sunglasses. It was still bright, but at least I could see. Jamie was also wearing a matching pair.

Why didn’t you just give me these straight away?

Give me a chance! Besides, I wanted you to see what I have to suffer with.

Poor you. Chanel shades.

The other fairies think I’m odd for wearing them, but after a life in the mortal world I can’t get used to how bright it is here.

"It’s like being really, really hungover."

He sounded glum when he responded: Isn’t it just.

I tried to look around me, as the first mortal into the Realm of the Fae I felt I should be taking notes or something, for the Lonely Planet guide book if nothing else. However it was too bright, even with the dark glasses. I could make out nothing but a shock of bright shapes and reflections.

Jamie had moved and was rustling around somewhere. When he came back he had something in his hands.

You need to wear this as well. Don’t take this wrong Leo, but you smell really mortal. This is enchanted and will disguise you as one of our kind.

He held out a thick dark fabric towards me. A waft of cheese mould and damp wafted towards me. It took me back to a student flat I had once survived.

I looked at it through almost-closed eyelids. I was not impressed. It’s a burka. And it’s not enchanted, it just stinks.

More of a niqab actually. It will help you escape notice.

I don’t see anyone else wearing one.

Seriously Leo, you can’t see anything. It will be days before your eyes begin to adjust, even with the glasses.

"I know no one else is wearing one. No one with any sense of style or smell would wear one."

We don’t get many banshees here admittedly.

A banshee? You are making me look like a bloody banshee? Fine fiancé you turn out to be.

Irrespective of my comments, he threw it over my head. Stop talking Leo. I’d rather some weird fairy type didn’t get too curious about you, okay? Some of them like to nibble on strange foods and I thought you might prefer to be spared that.

Nibble? Great. Now I was a foodstuff. Fine.

Now I’m really sorry about this next part Leo.

Wha-?

I didn’t get a chance to finish. He plunged something into my neck that felt