I'd been living in an old duplex in Lake Jackson, Texas, working at a nearby chemical plant. I'd been shopping and came home after dark. They like the dark. I let myself in and set my bags down on the table like I always did. As I reached for the light, a cold voice spoke.
"Hey." It was a low voice, but clear. Something in that voice froze me in place. It was cold and calculating, and I felt a chilling power lurking within it. I slowly turned my head to see a shadowy figure seated on my couch. Not a big guy...average height, and from what I could tell, average build as well. The darkness concealed much, but his eyes were clearly visible. They were glowing silver.
Ordinarily, I'd have burst into action at the first hint of an intruder in my home, whether to flee or fight, but that voice...those eyes...I may as well have been a statue. The voice continued.
"You're not him. Not Lloyd, I mean."
I took a deep breath and responded as intelligently as I could. "Uh...no...Whit. I'm Whit. I don't know any Lloyd."
A resigned sigh echoed from the shadows that surrounded the couch. "Figures. Blasted sorcerers always covering their tracks. Now I'll have to ask the Wee Folk to run him down for me again."
The figure stood and walked towards me. I frowned. Aside from his eyes and the aura of power that surrounded him, he looked kind of...well...ordinary. It registered on my face, I guess, because the stranger chuckled.
"I know, not much to look at," He said, amused, as he moved to within an arm's length of me. "Part of the job."
"The job?" I asked, thoroughly confused. "Burglary? Breaking and entering?" That made a certain sense to me. "Shouldn't you wear a mask or something?"
The stranger laughed in genuine amusement, then looked at me for a few seconds, as if weighing his thoughts. Then he seemed to make a decision. "No, I'm not a burglar. I'm a GrimFaerie. I kill bad guys. Evil things. Supernatural threats that would gobble up humans like you. That's my job."
And just like that, he changed. A ripple washed over him and the image of the nondescript man vanished, leaving a terrifying creature in his place.
He was taller than I, all wiry muscle and sinew. His skin was a deep blue-black, and I could see scars in various places on his muscular torso. His long, black hair fell far past the striated muscles of his shoulders. A grin split his face and I got a good look at a mouthful of sharp fangs. He lifted one hand to brush his hair aside and I saw that his fingers seemed a bit too long. Then I realized that bone claws were jutting out from the ends of his fingertips. They looked awfully sharp. Only his eyes remained the same, pools of glowing quicksilver in a half-human face. He chuckled at me, more of a growl, really.
"Don't worry. You're not a bad guy. I can tell."
"Um...yay?" I responded, totally at a loss.
He laughed louder, and that fanged grin widened. "Indeed. All right then, I'll be on my way. Can't have Lloyd out there doing his evil deeds. You stay out of trouble."
I think I nodded because he nodded back at me. In a few silent steps, he was out the door and gone, leaving me bewildered, full of adrenaline, and suddenly needing to go to the bathroom.
Years later, I decided to write about the GrimFaerie. I gave him a name and made up some adventures I thought were suitable for a creature such as he. He hasn't been back to see me since, though I often wonder if he might decide to track me down to correct something I wrote about him. He seemed like a nice guy...really. Deadly, but nice.
