“She didn’t know you were the real deal?” The officer says in a surprisingly sympathetic tone.
“No. I thought that tonight, with everyone being in costume, I could kind of gradually work my way up to this point. But... I can change into a bat. Like, a normal little bat. Well, it’s not normal, but it looks like a cross between a fruit bat and a little brown bat, and anyway—Kelly hit me with her car.”
“Oof.” Walsh winces.
“Tell me about it. She stuck me in her roommate’s old birdcage. Not that her roommate was a bird. Shehada bird. A parrot. The parrot died—oh, not tonight, of old age, a few weeks ago. But the cage was still here, and she put me in it.”
“Right.” The officer nods patiently, brows drawing together as he tries to work out what I’m babbling.
I continue with a semi-relieved sigh. “I’ve been worrying that she’d think I stood her up, and here it turns out she thought I was missing.”
“She found your car on the property by the catering truck, but there was no sign of you. People have been searching the house and grounds. Kelly came back to get sneakers and a flashlight. She told her friend that she thought maybe you walked across the campus and footbridge to get to her apartment.”
“Walked, no. Flew, yes.” I give a sigh. “Wait... There are other monsters here? At the party?”
“Yeeees.” The officer’s eyes squint, and his head cocks. “You just met one of them. And me. I mean, I’m a pooka. That’s a monster to some, not to others. All the monsters in this town live a nice, peaceful life with our human neighbors—not that most of them notice the difference.”
“Did you say ‘all the monsters’? How many are there?”
“Oh. Hmm. Well, that’s tricky. Do we count the people who are part ‘monster’? And you want to watch how you use that word. Around here, we tend to use the terms paranormal or supernatural.”
I stroke the hair away from Kelly’s face. “You mean she’s been living with monsters hiding all around her and never knew? I guess everyone comes out on Halloween?”
Another head tilt, this one with an even deeper squint. “Uh. No. I mean, Lennox is the gardener at White Pines, and Georgie, the guy doing the catering tonight, is an Orc. My brother-in-law is a warlock, and he’s an attorney with family and business law. Oh, and the Kane brothers who run the garden center are dragon shifters, and there’s a troll at the fire station. No one hides. Humans just don’t notice.”
“Me, they notice. I think.” It occurs to me that I’ve never,ever, ever risked exposing myself to humans after dark unless it was in my little bat body. My parents told me I’d be destroyed by a terrified mob if I ever tried. “Kelly saw me for what I am.”
“You did change from a bat to a—what do you like to be called?”
“Man-bat works. Batman gets everyone confused,” I mutter as Kelly begins to rock her head restlessly against my bicep.
“You changed right in front of her?”
“Yeah. No choice.”
“Well, if you force a human to see the supernatural through some big event, they tend to notice. I had to change into a rabbitand sit on my girlfriend’s lap before she’d believe me. Mind you, that woman is my wife now.”
“I love Kelly. I want her to be my wife. But she’s terrified of me.”
“She’s in shock. Now that you’ve opened her eyes, she can see all the supernatural things that 99% of humans miss. She saw Lennox flying. If I were to shift right in front of her, she’d understand it. If she were to go back to the party, she wouldn’t think that everyone was in costume. I mean, some of us are, but some of what humans see tonight is how we look all the time.”
“You turned into a rabbit?” Kelly asks in a groggy, confused voice, looking up at me.
The officer raises his hand. “Not him. Me. I sure can. Well, a hare. A giant black hare. The size of a corgi.”
I gently put Kelly down, but keep my arm around her. “Kelly? Want to go into your apartment and lie down?” I whisper.
Her eyes blink rapidly, and she shakes her head. “Why do you turn into a hare?” she demands of Officer Walsh.
“I’m a pooka. You can look it up if you want, but the short version is that a pooka is a type of Irish fae who can be a bit of a prankster, but can also be quite helpful. My dad leaned into the trickery. I went the helpful route.” He taps his shirt, then frowns. “Oh, that’s where my badge would be normally. I’m sorry you got such a shock, Kelly.”
“It’s okay,” she whispers, because that’s who she is. She always says she’s okay even when she’s not.
“It’s not okay. I should have told you. I tried to tell you... I just knew I’d lose you when I did, and I was selfish. I wanted to pretend we could have a happily ever after for as long as possible, and I should have done the right thing and let you go. Told you we just had to be pen pals and never meet.” I squeeze her hands as I let her go, stepping back. Out of her life.
And the most wonderful, strange, miraculous thing happens.
My Kelly? She hurries and reaches forward, a strained, conflicted look on her face as she slowly begins to speak. Her hands, so graceful and beautiful, grab my hands, now covered in soft fur on the top and smooth, thick skin on the palms, the fingers elongated and more bony than a normal human’s would be.
