I woke up to sharp pain in my whole left side of my body. I was lying in a hospital bed with a metal frame that looked like it could've been from the Vietnam War. My left side was covered in bandages and my left arm was in a sling. 

I looked around the room, there were no windows, a couple chairs next to the bed, the walls were painted tan, and there was an end table next to the bed. The door to the room was cracked open.

An IV drip attached to my right arm that was hooked up to a plastic bag filled with a clear liquid. hanging nearby. Probably just saline. I thought as I took in my surroundings. 

There was a sticky note on my hand in Mark’s sharp, flowing handwriting. ‘Don't panic, don't remove the IV, and DO NOT LEAVE THE BED, the circle will hurt you! I promise you're safe here and I'm nearby.’

I quickly checked on either side of the bed and saw a complex chalk circle design completely surrounding it. I was unsure of what it would do to me if I were to step off the bed, and had no desire to find out.

On the table were my phone, my glasses, and a bottle of green liquid with a label saying 'Painkiller'. I opened the bottle and was immediately hit with the smell of strong liquor. Not a hospital then. I took a tentative sip from the bottle. Ugh, what madman thought giving me absinthe for my pain was a good idea?

I slipped my glasses on and picked up my phone. It told me it was 10:27 PM of the same day. I had a voicemail from dad. I decided to put that off and call Mark instead. I was scrolling through my contacts when I heard voices from the other side of the room's door.

"Is this still necessary, William? If Lucas wakes up and steps onto the circle it could reopen his wounds." Mark asked. He was clearly pissed off at whoever he was talking to.

"I'm not taking chances on the enclave's safety just because you think he's not a threat." A man’s stern voice answered.

"I used the fucking alarm ward that you designed, how is that not enough proof?"

"Well, it was a variation on Daniel's universal alarm ward design. But if your friend did magic without a focus and had the Fae Response to iron…" 

What the fuck did they say?! I strained my ears as hard as so I could catch every word of the conversation.

"Ha! You fucked something up while designing it, didn't you? I'm totally telling Dan you screwed up their design."

"Please don't, I'll never hear the end of it." William pleaded. 

"Maybe if you lift the landmine you put under my best friend, I'll keep your little secret."

"For the last time, no, and ‘landmine’ is a wild exaggeration; it’s little more than an electric fence. Until we know he's not a threat, the circle stays. Unless I say otherwise or am overruled."

"He saved me from that thing!"

"And we gave him medical care to the best of our ability as thanks. Just because you're Ashe and Vincent’s friend doesn't mean you have a say here. You’re pushing your luck as it is. If Marsh didn’t buy your story, you’d be on the street." The voice switched to a softer tone. "Look, it's likely you're right and it's really him, but since we're not sure what he is, it's necessary. At least until he can answer some questions."

Vincent? I wonder if he's talking about Mark's friend. I vaguely remembered Vincent from a few parties Mark had dragged me too. I caught him making out with some dude last Halloween and had been avoiding him the couple times I'd seen him since.

"Gah, fine." Mark relented and opened the door.

"Hey." I greeted him.

"Oh! Good you're awake. Hey doc, he's up," Mark called down the hallway. "How are you feeling bud?"

"I’m all right," I quipped while waving my unwounded right arm.

"Good enough to make a shitty pun, got it."

"I’m in a lot of pain, but I'll make it. What was that about?" I asked him as a lean man in his mid-fifties wearing light green scrubs and holding a clipboard entered the room.

He had a military style buzz cut that clashed with his kind face and outfit. He was one of the two people that I had seen outside the book shop.

"Mark, would you do the honors?" William asked. He had a slight London accent. 

"Lucas, this is Doctor William Conrad." Mark introduced. “He really saved your ass on this one.”

"Thank you, now would you go fetch Marsh for me?" William requested.

"I guess," He grumbled, clearly unhappy with the request. Mark left, and William closed the door behind him.

"Hello there, I was wondering if you could answer some questions for us." William asked. I would rather ask him questions right now, but I owed him for saving me, so I grunted affirmatively. "Great, first off for a baseline could you state your full name."

"Lucas Page." He wrote something on the papers on the clipboard with each answer.

“What are your pronouns?”

“I’m a guy.” 

“Not the question, but noted.” He continued, "Do you know where you are?" 

"A bookstore?"

"Close enough. You are in the Willowwisp Enclave, which is underneath the shopping center Marshall's Used Books is in."

"So, what? We're in an underground town?"

"Town is a bit of a stretch for about a couple dozen people, but yes, we're in an underground complex. It was originally going to be a community nuclear bunker during the Cold War, but the war ended before construction finished and Marshall bought the whole shopping center and turned it into a little enclave for outcasts of the supernatural world."

"So y'all just live down here?"

"Most of us yes. Each of the stores up above are run by one of our people. It can get damn cold in the winter but there are much worse places to live. Moving on, how much pain are you in?"

"Enough." I answered simply.

"I am saddened to hear that. We just ran out of actual painkillers, so I had to improvise." He gestured to the liquor.

"Next, how were you injured?"

"Some kind of monster attacked Mark and me."

"Could you describe the creature?"

"Gaunt, grey, and tall. Pointy ears and hooked nose. It also had a mouth like a black hole. It regenerated all its wounds. It even pushed it’s entire body through a small hole in the front door."

"Black hole, as in the astronomy term?"

"Yeah." I confirmed. He nodded with a frown.

"It could be some kind of troll, but not like any type I've ever heard of. No troll I’ve known of would inflict that amount of pain to themself just to get through a door faster. Got no clue what's up with the mouth." William theorized. “Alright, back to the questions, what are you?"

"Pardon?" 

"What are you?" He repeated.

"Hungry?" I answered, unsure of what he meant.

"I'll see about getting you something when he gets back with Marshall." He promised. "I can't leave you by yourself. Any dietary restrictions?"

“Vegetarian.” I replied.

“Got it.” He made a note on his clipboard. “How much did you overhear of me and Mark talking outside?”

“You don’t want to release me from this bed until you figure out why I had “the Fae Response” to iron, whatever that means.”

“Fae have a great weakness in iron, the Fae Response refers to how it seriously hurts them, prevents their blood from clotting, and drains their energy until they collapse,” William stated. “We found iron shrapnel from your fight in your left side and arm, which caused the Fae Response in you. Moving on Mark said you did some sort of magic during the attack without the use of a focus. How?"

"It just sorta happened. I went to punch the thing and something happened." 

"Interesting, what are you?" He asked for a third time.

"What the hell do you mean? I'm a lot of things." 

"What species are you?" He finally clarified.

"Human, obviously." He seemed genuinely surprised by my answer for some reason.

"Huh, alright. Are you a warlock?"

"No? I don't know what that means."

"A warlock is someone who had made a pact with a supernatural being for power."

"Then no." 

“What is your connection with Glaistig?” He pressed.

“Okay stop!” I snapped. “I don’t fucking know anything about all this shit. I just found out that this magic shit is real today. Look, I appreciate your help, but fucking cool it with the third degree!”

Whatever response William would've had to my outburst was stopped by a knock on the door and the other person that carried me inside came in the room, Marshall presumably, and was followed by Mark. 

They had what I could only describe as a suburban mom-core aesthetic. They had curves like an ancient fertility idol. Their tan skin was wrinkled and they had laugh-lines at the corners of their mouth. Their long black hair was up in a ponytail. They had ditched the cooking apron for light blue jeans and a loose flowery blouse and a long silver necklace. They also had two ram's horns on either side of their head and yellow irises neither of which had been there when I saw them before.

“Agh!” I instinctively screamed in fear at the demon person.

“That’s hardly an appropriate greeting, Mr Page.” The demon reprimanded in faux offence. 

“Uhh, sorry.” I mumbled looking away. My heart was still pounding from the fright but was quickly calming as neither Mark or William seemed bothered about the demon’s appearance.

“Think nothing of it, as I understand it you’ve been thrust head first into this world without warning. Your reaction to an infernal, while unfounded, is to be expected.” 

"I-Infernal? So you're a demon? I stuttered. Now that fear had converted to embarrassment my dumb idiot brain informed me demon person was intimidatingly hot.

“Not at all, demons are native to Hell. I'm an Infernal Angel, the church likes to call us "fallen angels"." They did finger quotes and stressed the last two words in disgust. "To condense the story: History is written by the victors. I can go more into it later if you wish, but I don't have time to give a history lesson at the moment. My pronouns are they/them by the way.” 

I opened my mouth in confused protest, but I decided against asking about what that was supposed to mean to prevent further offending them. 

They turned to William. “Will, what’s your take?”

“Either we’re wrong about what he is or he really doesn’t know anything, I’m leaning heavily toward the latter.”

“Very well.” They pursed their lips, deep in thought. The rest of the room stayed silent while they came to a decision. After an awkward few minutes they finally spoke up. "Will, would you be willing to use the Sight on him?"

"If you really think that's the best way to go about this..." Marshall nodded in confirmation, and  William turned to me. "Lucas, would you be okay with me to look at you through the third eye. It would allow me to see you as you truly are, without limitations of the physical world. I wouldn’t know everything about you by doing it, but possibly more than you would be comfortable allowing.”

“Understand we don't ask this of you lightly, but time does seem to be against us.” Marshall assured.

“Us?” William sputtered. “What in the hell do you mean ‘us’? We’re not getting involved with all this, are we?”

“We are allowing for a fugitive from the Unseelie to stay here while his friend heals. We are already well involved in this.” Marshall observed in a flat tone.

“There's a difference in medical care and… fucking hell Marsh you really mean it, don’t you?” William gawked.

“I certainly do, that is, if you two want our help.” Marshall raised an eyebrow to Mark and me. 

“Yes!” We said in unison. 

“Good, then it’s decided. I have already polled the others on this, while Will was playing guard.” 

“Damn, well… shit.” William sighed in resignation. 

“Can you handle this from here? I must reach out to some contacts.” Marshall asked.

“I believe so.” William turned back to me as Marshall left the room. “Have you made a decision yet?” 

“I don’t really have a choice if I want to be allowed out of this bed, do I?” I grumbled.

“Of course you have a choice!” He exclaimed. “I would never force this on someone. If you want, there are other, less invasive ways, but this is the quickest one I know of. But if you wish, you could leave when you are ready to, and there would be no need for any tests.” 

I hesitated, unsure how good of an idea this was. Mark seemed to trust these people, but I wasn’t thrilled at the thought of someone I barely knew learning that much about me. For whatever reason these folks had decided to get involved with what amounted to an international incident, and it was hard to justify turning away their help.

“Alright,  do it.” I answered.

A vertical line appeared in the middle of his forehead as he closed his eyes slowly. Suddenly the line opened revealing a cat-like eye rotated on its side.

"Oh! Well, that's unexpected!" He exclaimed, whatever he had seen surprised him a great deal. Then as quickly as it started the eye closed and faded away.

"What did you see?" I asked in curiosity.

"Umm well, we were right about you being a sidhe scion, part human and part sidhe. Almost definitely related to Glaistig based on how much you look like her."

I remembered back to meeting Glaistig and about her face. Then realized why she had been so eerily familiar. I looked like I could be her kid! I thought how pretty she had been and how it now made sense that I hadn't been attracted to her.

I focused on her otherworldly beauty, then how close some of the similarities in my features were to her's. An odd but pleasantly warm feeling flared in my chest then was gone. What the hell had that been? I wondered to myself.

"That would explain a lot." I admitted after a moment's thought. A scary thought occured and I asked, "Then am I not related to one of my parents?"

"You would have to ask them or Glaistig." William shrugged. “But this clears you of suspension enough to release you. Although you should consider getting some more bedrest, I doubt you will have many opportunities in the coming days. Just let me remove the IV and I’ll get out of your hair.” William scuffed the chalk circle with one foot and took the needle out of my arm. 

"How come the needle didn't cause the, what did you call it?" I asked.

 "The Fae-Iron Response. Luckily for you we have a sidhe living here, so I used a silver needle we had in case he needed medical care."

"How come iron hasn't done this kinda thing to me before?"

"No idea. You'll have to ask around. But for now, I'll leave you two alone, I've got some work to do." William exited the room.

An uncomfortable silence came over the room when he left. All immediate danger had passed, and with nothing to distract me from the reality of the situation anymore, I began to feel an overwhelming sense of dread wash over me.

"I'm not even completely human." I whispered.

"I know it's a lot to take in, but on the plus side, you being part sidhe does make you somewhat immortal. You're likely to never die of old age!" Mark remarked.

I appreciated him trying to find a silver lining to all this. But that wasn't something I needed to hear at that moment. My mind finally snapped with that revelation. Mark kept talking but I really couldn't focus on his words. My thoughts raced manically trying to cope with all I had learned and could no longer ignore. 

Our lives were in danger from beings that could rip me apart with their bare hands, could do magic, or could look like anyone they wanted to... Dad and Mark never told me about any of this shit. To top it all off, I'm not even completely human.

I imagined outliving everyone I'd ever known and loved. Being powerless to help as my loved ones die of the unavoidable causes of aging.

I began hyperventilating and shaking uncontrollably. As I spiraled into a full blown anxiety attack, small arcs of electricity started coming off me and jumping to nearby objects,  mostly the metal bed and IV line. This sent the panic into overdrive as my throat closed up, preventing me from breathing.

A gentle breeze began around me that slowly picked up in speed as the panic worsened. Within a few seconds the wind was nearly gale force.

Mark had started freaking out too, although I couldn't parse his words he seemed to call for help and attempt to calm me down in vain.

The bolts of electricity increased in size and intensity as tears flowed down my face. An errant bolt struck my phone and a small puff of smoke rose from it.

Mark appeared to come to a decision and took a few deep breaths, psyching himself up for whatever he was going to do.

Then he sat down on the bed with me and gave me a tight bro hug. He was shocked several times and flinched in pain but held on. The bolts and wind decreased rapidly until none remained and the room was still.

"Lucas it's going to be ok. We'll make it through this in one piece." He assured me. 

I replied incoherently, I wasn't even sure what I was trying to say, but I returned the hug. With our arms wrapped around each other and I sunk into the comfortable warmth of his body pressed against mine. The knowledge that he was there for me as much as I was there for him helped soothe my troubled mind greatly.

I'm not sure how long we sat there on the hospital bed, at some point Marshall entered the room but hastily left when they saw everything was under control. It didn't take me much longer to gather my thoughts. 

He must have figured out what the tipping point had been because then he explained "Mages often live well into our hundreds. I'm not the only one you know who will. Le- Megan, Vincent, and possibly your dad will be around for a good long while."

"How come you never told me?" I sobbed into his shoulder. Mark briefly tried to break the hug to be face-to-face with me but I held on tight and he went back to the embrace. 

"In the Order of Eternity there's a death sentence for telling mundanes about the supernatural. Most factions have a version of that law. But when you told me Glaistig had contacted you, there was no longer any point in not telling you. Especially since she gave you some kind of magic book and knows your dad."

"Were you going to tell me all this before you knew about Glaistig visiting me?" 

He winced at the question. "To be completely honest, no. I was planning on lying to you about what happened before I called you. I hope you can forgive me about asking you to come help me while I was planning on lying to you. I only asked you since very few beings would risk exposure to a mundane person."

I broke the hug and looked him in the eyes. There was a deep shame in them while in a sense was well deserved, but I couldn't stand seeing that in my friend. Not that I blamed him for not risking a death sentence to tell me. Plus I wasn't sure I would have handled things any better if I was in his position.

"I'm not happy about it, but I understand why you did it. I still would have come if I had known. Even if I knew you were lying to me about all this. I forgive you."

I gave him a weak smile. He returned it in earnest and gave me another hug. There was a comfort in the embrace that, even as upset at him as I was, I desperately needed.

If I hadn't been so distraught I would have never allowed myself to be hugged, let alone hug someone back, especially by a guy. But at that moment I couldn't bring myself to reject such a blissful embrace. I wrapped my arms around him and we stayed like that for some time.

Suddenly he cleared his throat and the moment created by my heightened emotions shattered, leaving me painfully aware that I was hugging a guy. I hastily pushed out of the hug and looked away in shame and more than a little fear. 

Why had I hugged and cried on Mark's shoulder? This isn't how guys are supposed to act, pull it together Lucas! I didn't feel like dwelling on what had just happened so I spoke up.

"What do we do now?" I wondered in a hoarse voice. I faced the opposite wall, unwilling to look directly at Mark.

"I-I think you should just take it easy for now and when you're ready I'll introduce you to my friend Ashe. He may be able to help teach you to control and use your magic."

"Sounds good," I confirmed. Then softly added "I think I'd like to be alone now."

"Umm, alright, call for me if you need anything." 

He stood up, hovered awkwardly by the bed for a second, then left without another word. I lay in the bed for a time with my eyes closed tight, trying as hard as I could not to think of how much I had enjoyed hugging Mark and how much I wanted to do it again.