I hear the rapid patter of feet, and then the sound of an impact. It’s not me who’s been hit though.
I look up.
Violet stands between Dick and myself. “Do not lay a hand on my lay, Dick, or I’ll make you experience the rest of the noble art of Speachóireacht!” Violet’s in a fighting stance, one arm close to her chest the other extended, facing Dick from the side. “And be glad I can’t properly fuck you up with Bataireacht since I left my shillelagh at home.” I don’t know if it’s a trick of the light, but her pearlescent hair looks to be almost glowing. And the air around her warps as if from heat. I’m the only one who seems to notice.
“Mind speaking in English instead of Fairy?” DickButt gasps out, hand on his chest, spit flying from his mouth.
Violet grins. “Fucking stellar, now I can kick your ass for attacking my girl AND for disrespecting Irish.” Violet doesn’t give him much chance to reply as she breaks his nose with her shin. “Is this enough to make you fuck off or should I try harder?”
Dick spits, wiping his nose, but all it does is smear the blood on his face. ”Oh please, this? I’ve gotten worse during training.”
“Yeah no shit, the brain damage is obvious. Tell you what, leave now with just a broken nose, otherwise I’ll have to really hurt you.” I rise up as Violet speaks, rubbing my cheek. I’m expecting it to bruise somewhat, but that’s it. Nothing more than a warning shot, to make me run, or to make me fight back, to make it more fun for Dick.
“Now, see, I have to teach you both a lesson to not bother normal people.” Dick throws a haymaker, one which Violet blocks with her right fist, returning fire with her left. The punch is strong enough to make Dick stumble. The sorority prez steps away, giving them both space.
“You know,” Violet grabs Dick’s shin as he tries to kick her, and uses the opportunity to elbow him in the knee, “you never actually had to learn how to properly fight.” Dick manages to free his leg just in time to not get his knee broken. “Me, on the other hand? Oh I had to learn to kick the asses of douchebags like you for a decade and a half.” Dick throws another punch at Violet, one which she dodges to the side with a spin, following the motion up with a swift kick to the back of his head.
Dick hits the ground, but pushes himself up quickly, recovering. “Still had worse during games.” He spits his sentence and his blood out of his mouth one after the other.
“Bullshit, you’re more padded than the Michelin Man during games.” Violet uses Dick’s shoulders to leapfrog over him while he tries to charge her, pushing him down onto the ground in the process. “You’re really craving that grass, aren’t you, Dick?”
He spits some out. “Oh shut your trap you fucking dyke, I’m just warming up.”
“Hmm, no, don’t think so, still ice cold. It can’t be your looks the sorority prez is sleeping with you for. I can name at least twenty guys that are hotter and better in bed than you, and I know that from personal experience.” Violet stands over him, bending down to look him in the eye. Dick punches up, and Violet steps back from the hit. “Come on boy, I know you can do better, you were so close there!”
“Go eat a dick.” Dick gets up, his shirt smeared in green from the grass.
“Am I to believe it should be yours? Sorry dude, I only suck free range cocks, yours is as filthy as a factory farmed one.” Dick tries to hit Violet with one more punch. She decides to end the fight there. One swift shin between Dick’s legs. I hear a sickening crunch as she does so, and the expression of pain on Dick’s face is all I need to confirm it. He falls on his knees, agony and disbelief his entire reality. Of course the football scholarship kid would lose his nuts before me.
Then I hear the four words that would make anyone freeze. “Hello, 911? I’d like to report an assault at Tower University Campus.” It’s the Prez, phone to her ear, anger in her eyes but satisfaction on her lips.
“I don’t have time for this. Naastrouy-Shpaluh.” I point at the Prez’s phone and she drops it as it erupts in flame. I grab Violet’s hand and we run.
We run to the spot I imagine Liz had gone to. “When did you learn martial arts like that?”
“You heard me say a decade and a half ago. Self defense classes when I came out.” Violet answers. I shake my head.
“And the shillelagh line?”
When we stop at our destination Violet shows me a picture of it on her phone. “It’s been in the family since before the Brits colonised Ireland.” I whistle, awed at the age of that stick of wood. Five hundred years and still ready to kick ass.
The abandoned dorm looks almost warm, nearly inviting in the daylight. Nothing like the ominous atmosphere it kept at night. I enter with care. “Liz?” I call out, my footsteps echoing on the wooden floors, and I notice details I had missed in moonlight. Like the sculpting on the stair handle, the pattern in the wood, the memorial plaque for the Cabbage Day Massacre victims. The lack of any dust or cobwebs surprises me, the place is supposed to be abandoned, why would it still keep up with cleaning? I walk further in, following the path I remember.
The bathroom comes into view and Liz is floating there, looking at the tub. The mist flows down her like a sheer dress and covers the floor. “I remember now. I had, I had completely blocked it out when I came back, but I remember it now. Sitting there, hoping they’d keep their word, that in ten minutes they’d let me out, I’d get to warm up with a cup of hot chocolate and finally, finally be accepted.” When she turns to face me, I see the frozen line of tears on her face, thickening with each tear she sheds. “Why did you do it?”
There never was a nice way to put it. “I was a desperate idiot who wanted to experience being a girl by proxy. I know it won’t help, but I couldn’t control or influence you, just sit there, feel what you feel and watch.” Liz nods, then shakes her head.
“And how long did you sit there, feeling me slowly freeze to death?!” There is a small layer of frost underneath where she’s floating. At her outburst, the mist grows thicker, the ice below her growing into small spikes the size of nails.
“Just long enough to notice the sorority girls throw the key through there,” I point to the steam window near the door “and realise this was going to be a murder if I didn’t do anything. So I ran, and I got a ride, and I tried my best, but…” I slide down the wall, exhausted. “I was too late. It’s twenty minutes from my dorm to here. I’m so sorry, Liz.” She’s not the only one crying now. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I couldn’t do more. I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. I’m so sorry I didn’t meet you sooner to save you the hurt.”
Liz embraces me. I expect her to feel deathly cold, that her touch will give me frostbite, but no. She’s warm, like sitting near a fireplace in the middle of winter. It’s snowing outside, but you’re in comforting warmth.
“I can’t say I really understand, but, desperation makes us do stupid thing. It’s, it’s too late to change any of that, anyway.” Liz’s voice is as warm and reassuring as the rest of her. “The only thing we can do is move forward.”
“And, maybe, hear me out here, give it a thought, we do something about the sorority that offed a sweet girl for the crime of making them cringe.” Violet contributes to the conversation, I sigh.
“Maybe not the best time for jokes.” I look at Violet as she leans against the doorframe. She shrugs.
“You cope by hugging your cat, I cope with shitty jokes. Let me have them.” It’s kind of hard to argue with that.
Liz lets go of me and floats back, to see both of us. “I, uhm, I think Violet is right though. We should do something about the, the sorority girls. Prove my murder, or, or, uhm, something.” I get up off the floor, rubbing the tears away from my eyes.
“There’s no evidence, and I’m only a witness because of possessing you. They’d have to confess.” I begin pacing around the room, trying to think of how to achieve it, how to get them to confess everything they’ve done, all the hurt they’ve caused Liz and numerous others. “I’ll figure something out. In the meantime, it’s getting close to dusk. You’re both welcome to stay at my place tonight.” Holding my arm, I approach the door, squeezing past Violet. “I imagine none of us want to spend the night alone after this.”
Liz confirms my suspicion by hovering down, her ghostly features receding until she looks like she did this morning. I offer both her and Violet a hand to hold, and we walk out of the dorm together as the sun starts setting on the horizon. I do my best to avoid the scene of the fight on my way back, and it leads us to a cliff overlooking the shore.
The wind is calm and surprisingly warm for the time of year. The sea looks serene, like you could just float in it without a care. I’ll grant humanity this over jellyfish: We can appreciate being close to one another.
My dorm had never truly felt empty, not with Top there. Three’s a crowd however, and there are four of us. Speaking of Top, Liz had to scramble to catch her when Top leapt towards Liz and nuzzled her face. “Is, uhm, is your cat this friendly to everyone?” Liz asks, petting Top while holding her like a baby.
“She’s just glad to see you… alive, as it were.” I scratch Top behind the ears, enjoying the purr.
“Your pussy is a hit with all the dames, ey Kat?” Violet grins, and she’s only spared my pillowy wrath by the fact she’d see me coming for one a mile away.
“Violet.”
“Fine, bad one, why don’t you get me a shame pot, I’ll toss a coin for every bad joke and we’ll hang a Pride flag behind it.”
“You’ll need a cauldron for that.” I rub my eyes, sitting down on the couch. “You don’t have to be an asshole to keep people away. Liz is a ghost, I’m a witch, Top’s my familiar, you can just go right ahead and say you’re Fae.”
“Fae? Like faeries? Like…” Liz pauses for a minute, thinking of a comparison “...Tinkerbell?”
“Only as far as skirt lengths go. More like elves.” Violet’s expression shifts, she looks almost bashful as she steps towards me and takes hold of my hands. “Hey, Kat? When you said you didn’t have a home…” It’s the first time Violet is free of any confidence, any self assurance “I, shit, I’ve never really done this. I’d like to be your home.”
And then I kiss her.
Liz is just *incredibly* sweet, these four are just delightful, really interested to see where it goes from here! <3
Looking forward to what happens next
thank for the chapter~ 
Now Prez needs a new phone and a new Simcard. That did make it kind of hard for the 911 operator to get a location for the call. I'm not sure d*ck would admit to his getting beat up by a girl, much less his attacking a trans girl. And I wonder whether he would have been telling the police in a high tenor or soprano voice.
I hope they get justice
I saw "air warps with heat" and was like "no way she warp spasm's (i forgot the 2nd most notable part about cu chullain)"
Top!!!!!!
Awww
Sweet ending :) so cute