Special Delivery

Kalen. Kay. Kalena. They were all the names that she responded to, but no name described her more succinctly than Death’s Messenger.   She leapt onto her Aerstrada and grabbed her black cat Molly.  After scrutinising her list, she noticed that only one name remained unchecked.  Mr James S Preddy  residing at  30 Gardens Way. Kalen’s brain instantly provided her with the co-ordinates. She twisted the handlebars  and took flight.  Obsidian black hair danced from her head energetically as she propelled forwards and weaved between the various hover cars surrounding her. The traffic lights blinked a foreboding red, but not even slightly perturbed she ignored their warnings and sped through them. It was at that point, she saw a hover car heading towards her. Her finger desperately pushed on the descent button and she ducked to avoid becoming the latest windshield accessory. After escaping near death she slowed her speed to a leisurely pace until she had arrived at her destination. After approaching the block of flats where her client lived, she pushed the buzzer and waited for his response.

“Hello?” came a voice from the intercom.

“I’ve come to give you your reading,” responded Kalen

“Ah, excellent come on up.”

BUZZ. CLICK.

She pushed the door open, as she heard the door unlock and walked up the steps with her cat trailing behind her. Kalen walked to the end of the hallway to find a dark Asian man laying on his bed holding a laptop and using his dog as a substitute mouse mat. As Kalen entered the room  the man didn’t move or flinch once but sat immersed in the laptop’s contents.  Since the man remained in his idle state, she drew closer and held out her hand containing an envelope with his name typed on the outside.  

“I thought I paid for a reading not a letter,” the Asian man scolded.

Kalen reluctantly  tore open the envelope with her sharp letter opener which she kept concealed behind the small of her back to reveal a green letter and announced its contents, “The 15th of October 2050.”

He smiled and said “Excellent, another thirty years to go.”

As Kalen turned to leave the room as quickly as she could, the man said, “Before you go, I have something for you.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“It’s a letter for your from your boss,”  he replied as he produced a crumpled up envelope from the small of his back.

He woke up his dog and put the paper in its mouth to deliver the letter to Kalen. The dog spotted the black cat hiding behind Kalen’s legs and instantly transformed from a docile dog into barking hell beast determined to slay Molly. He darted over to Molly, causing her to dash for the exit. The dog followed suit. Kalen had found herself in a high speed chase to find out the contents of a dog’s mouth.

In the hallway she noticed her cat had parked herself between the bars in the stairwell. The dog charged at the cat, which immediately sprang to safety leaving the attacker firmly stuck head first in the space between the metal railings.

With the dog subdued, Kalen knelt down near to his mouth and tugged at the paper until she had released it from its soggy grasp. Kalen unfurled the damp envelope and removed the red letter from inside. She felt slightly anxious at the colour of the letter but carried on to discover its contents. A date. Well one third of a date. The dog’s teeth had rendered  the day and month illegible to Kalen.  But she could make out the year, it was this year. She shuddered at the prospect and wondered how this could be; her diet and fitness were excellent and she was rarely exposed to danger.  But her biggest problem was that she didn’t know precisely when her time was up.