The Fallacy of Dreams
The next hour of Dina’s life flew by so quickly that she could not believe what had happened. To better understand the situation, let us glance through Dina’s eyes. Where we last left her, Dina had been stuck in a room with a five inch tall, glowing blue fairy brandishing a standard issue police officer’s Glock stolen from the police officer taking the report on her kidnapping by the guy who thought that it was appropriate to sacrifice her to centaurs.
A priest had been brought to the police station and had been forced to begin reading the ceremony out loud. The only words she heard were those classic, corny, life ending words of introduction:
“Dearly Beloved, we are gathered together here in the sign of God – and in the face of this company – to join together this fairy and this woman in holy matrimony, which is commended to be honorable among all creatures; and therefore – is not by any – to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly – but reverently, discreetly, advisedly and solemnly.”
And within twenty minutes, at least in the God’s eyes, Dina Reedy was now married to a fairy, Broon-dy-kao. But, the fairy was still brandishing the gun at the police woman.
“We’re married. Put the gun down.” Dina sighed, angry, frustrated, and ready to commit genocide on the entire species.
“You didn’t kiss me.” Broon complained. “And it didn’t sound like you were sincere enough.”
“Father Hadley said, ‘you may kiss the bride’, and you kissed me. That was all that was required for the ceremony.” Dina pointed out to the fairy. He pondered this for a moment, then nodded.
“Fine. Affections can always come later. Now, you, and you, Dina, lead the way out of here. Its time for our honeymoon.”
The police woman rose fluidly from her chair and made her way through the room, past the broken ceiling tiles and the dripping pipe above them (Broon’s third wild shot had grazed it) and into the next room, where the reinforcements had moved out of the way. Broon had learned after one shot had been taken at him to remain always within a certain range of Dina, because the officers would not shoot at an unarmed girl. They would, apparently, shoot at an armed fairy.
“You may stay here. Thank you, sir.” The fairy nodded as he passed the priest. The priest, having both had the weirdest and most sacrilegious day of his life, sunk tiredly to the floor as members of the EMT team rushed in to make sure he was okay, followed by police officers who had to take his report instead of getting into the action that was about to occur outside.
From the inner room where it had all happened, where Father Hadley sat amongst EMTs observing his heart rate and blood pressure and general mental state, even they could hear the angry roar of the dragon waiting outside. Father Hadley placed his head in his hands, beginning a small prayer for the teenage girl who had been put through so much in so little time.
“You idiot!” The words thundered through the police station, as if a small earthquake had begun to shake the foundations. “We were negotiating for better living conditions, and you felt compelled by love to take hostages without asking the permission of the General Council of Creatures of the Veil?”
Father Hadley could only imagine what the lovestruck fairy’s response was at that point. To be honest, he had no clue: he wasn’t sure if that little blue glowing thing was completely sane, completely insane, completely deranged, or somewhere far from even Hadley’s imagination. It seemed to him that Armageddon was on its way.
“The Council does not need to decide what to do with you.” Each of the last five words were accentuated with what seemed like a stomp from the dragon’s oversized feet, rumbling the earth even more. “I have already decided. Woman, move from him.”
Father Hadley wondered briefly if the girl would do so. Seeing as she had been ordered around by every single authority figure that could present itself in the past few days. He had seen several hints of psychosis around the girl’s eyes, slowly beginning to burn as he read through the most basic of ceremonies for matrimony, cursing the fairy every step of the way. In actuality, he had seen that look before, and knew what it meant: the girl had not been paying attention. She had been doing the most evil things in her mind, things that not even the priest would want to hear or offer redemption for.
“Good father…” Father Hadley prayed outloud as a smaller version of the earthquake. “Let there be justice on this day, for that poor girl. In any fashion, let there be justice.”
“Amen.” One of the EMTs murmured, cringing as the thundering voice of the dragon started again.
“You are but a child and cannot decide Broon’s fate. Now, step aside, or I will decide both of yours, council and diplomacy aside.”
Father Hadley imagined that her standing aside from Broon wouldn’t really affect her moral stance on the issue. If she was rebelling, it was not for her own resistance efforts, but most likely because the fairy still held the police officer’s firearm in both of his little blue hands.
Screams erupted from outside, one of which sounded like it had come from the girl, Dina Reedy. Father Hadley leapt from his prone position and rushed out the door. Outside, an interesting scene awaited his old and tired eyes.
The entire pavement from the dragon to the building where the police station was located was charred a deep black, parking spaces gone and handicap signs completely melted to the ground. Near Dina’s feet, where she stood in complete shock lay a deep brown colored mess that Father Hadley could safely assume was the remains of Broon. Sure enough, next to the charred remains lay a twisted object which slightly resembled the Glock that the fairy had so proudly held for hours.
Though not surprised, Father Hadley realized there were tears running down Dina’s face. As he rushed out the door to her side, trying not to get burned by the residual heat radiating off of the line of pavement, he could see another couple running towards the girl also.
“Child, are you hurt?” Father Hadley asked the girl, kneeling down beside Dina. Dina looked up at him, tears in her eyes.
“No.” She said, simply, collapsing onto the ground as her parents finally reached her. Understanding his place, Father Hadley respectfully moved away from the girl and the tearful reunion that followed.
A few minutes later, just as the dragon had turned around and was about to leave, fairy’s limp body in his overly large hand, Dina stood.
“Hold on a god damned minute. I’ve been jerked around and fucked with for the past week, and I am sick of it.” Dina looked back at her parents. “Sorry.” She apologized for her vulgarity, and for the future vulgarities that were about to emerge from her mouth. “Now. As I understand it, it is your religion’s fault that your creatures,” Dina shot looks at the priest and the dragon, respectively, “were caught in a time trap for such a long time. Now, my question is, what the fuck does that have to do with me? Honestly? The janitor of the corporation that you run,” Dina turned her attention to the CEO of Green Tech, who was mingling through the front lines of the crowd that had gathered, “Is the one that kidnapped me, because of your religion and your culture,”” The last she directed at everyone, throwing her hands up in exasperation, “Which prevented an accurate understanding of those who were different.”
Dina took a breath and continued.
“Your creature did something noble, bless Broon, by saving me, even if it was for personal gain, from your fucking crazy janitor. And then that same creature did something crazy. Now, I find myself asking: Why should I, or Broon, both of whom are products of our environments, be held responsible for the inaccuracies of politics and religion of many generations before now? Why?””
The silence that followed was heavy and deep, and from the crowd came an enthusiastic response moments later:
“You’re right!” One man yelled. “Demand justice!”
“I do demand justice.” Dina yelled back. “I demand justice for my generation – all of us who are about to come of age in this shit that you have gotten us into. You are all responsible. And you!” Dina turned towards the dragon. “Even if it was illegitimate, you had no right to kill Broon-dy-kao without my permission. He was not only my brand new apparent fucking mate, but also my captor and put me through twelve hours of hell! And to make it worse, my first fucking captor died by my second fucking captor’s hands!”
“I am sorry.” The dragon offered to the girl after it seemed she was done. Dina screamed loud and hard.
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