An Ultra Violent Fairy Tale by Pete Bertino - HTML preview

65 AN ULTRA VIOLENT FAIRY TALE

She took the wings and the blade used to end Glitterbelle’s life and went to leave but then remembered her promise about not letting them get her body either. Fortunately the building much like the rest of the city was powered by gas and had many pipes with big red flammable signs on the valves. She found one in a floor vent towards the back and opened it all the way and was immediately struck by its noxious scent.

Out the front door she went and walked half a block before she found a round metal garbage can with its contents smoldering. Kickswitch dragged it by the handle ignoring the heat blistering her hands and moving as fast as she could worried that more Marshals might arrive at any moment. She drug the can as close as she could to the building until she could see Glitterbelle in the darkness just passed the door.

She turned the can on its side and pushed it forward towards the door leading back to where the body rested, it wobbled and sparks rolled out as well as flaming garbage but that was okay, it was rolling and held most of its fiery innards.

Kickswitch ran away when she heard the whoosh of the fire catching and a boom much bigger than any hand cannon’s roar. She felt the ground rock under her and heard screams renew but she kept on her feet and escaped Neon City without further incident. She fast walked down a mountain road that had people mostly going, all of them talking about the fire and the fairy that caused it all.

She followed a great road called Umbar that went into a narrow valley then up a mountain much higher on the other side, in just a half hours walk. From here she was looking across a valley standing parallel to Neon City though from this distance it looked far away and not so intimidating. The few people taking this road stopped to admire the view as well.

The fire was only affecting maybe a quarter of the city which was dark but still very noisy with life.

The other glass towers were unaffected and still alight with neon brights as she stood under a cluster of elms watching some areas burn while other areas smoldered. Kickswitch walked away knowing that Neon City would survive.

The people thinned out before she got very far, above and beyond in the sky the smoke was no longer shading the moon, she had gone a different direction from when she came and had to search for almost two hours before she found a set of tracks to follow to a terminal to get an autocart. The longest part of the journey she sat in the autocart rolling at a leisurely speed under the blue light of the moon, feeling sad but a little happy too. Not because she felt like a real and true wizard but because she loved Glitterbelle. Even if it wasn’t the exact love she desired it was a love, something Glitterbelle had never known before.

It was knowledge, and as Mariana always told her it was a wizards job to share knowledge. You didn’t always get knowledge from books either, that was something Eliza taught them all. Kickswitch then thought about Lenny and his whiskey twin sister as he’d affectionately called her and how they both taught them how to laugh even when it hurts. And Sandy who was always showing them ways to build and fix things even if you were lacking in tools or experience.