Queen of the Living

Chapter 1

    Nawal awoke in her loft off of Corcoran and 18th street in Washington DC.  The sunlight beamed through the window at the head of her bed where she lay.  Her head felt heavy and her body weak, yet still whole.  She lifted her hands and noticed all of her fingers were in place and functioning.  Her arms looked intact as well.  She felt something disturb the bed where she was laying and looked down to see a large wolf sleeping by her feet and a cat circling around it.

    “Surely this must excite you,”  the cat purred to the wolf.  It had a seductive woman's voice.  “A rogue coven of bats, here under our noses.”  She began swatting at the wolf's ear, the wolf apparently not noticing.  “The old crow is never wrong,” she continued.  The wolf looked up at her.  “Oh, don't worry, Master will sort out this contract and we'll be back to our adventures before you know it.”

    The wolf looked at Nawal, noticing she was awake as the cat turned and spoke.  “Go to sleep Nou Nou, you shouldn't strain yourself after last night.”  A light shone through its eyes and again, Nawal was asleep.

    “Wake up, love.  You've rested enough.”  Nawal felt that she remembered the voice from somewhere.  Still groggy, she forced her eyes open to the sunlight.  Again.  Standing on the bed looking over her was a small man, or boy, or something.  He looked like a mix between a bat and a very deformed native American.  Cute in a way, as if Disney had designed him.  He wore a large red, wooden helmet with horns that seemed almost Incan, or Aztec.  Whatever, she was never any good at telling the difference.  “Hey, look who it is,”  he said, and Nawal remembered him from his accent.  He was one of the voices she had heard as she was dying the night before.  “Welcome to the land of the living!  Now get out of bed and go find a job, I'm sick of you sleeping in all the time!”

    “What?”  She managed, not fully understanding what was happening.

    His face turned serious.  “I was only kidding.  But good, you're awake.”

    She wiped her eyes and looked around.  The wolf and the cat were gone.  Looking back at the... thing, she said, “Um, hi.”

    He looked confused.  “Ah,” he began pacing around the bed (he was only two feet tall).  “Ok, so I wasn't really prepared for this scenario.”  He stopped and looked at her.  “You aren't scared or anything?”

    “I'm, um, not sure,” she replied.

    “Ooookay.  So, I guess that would speed things up a bit then.”  He hopped off the bed and began descending the stairs to her living room.  “Follow me.  Name's Verm, by the way.”

    Nawal got out of bed and saw that she was wearing the same clothes she had when she was attacked.  A pink shirt with a lighter pink horizontal stripe along her breast, now torn and bloodied, and a pair of Diesel jeans, also torn and bloodied.  One of her shoes was still on, only bloodied, and her other foot was bare, not bloodied.  She took her solitary shoe off and began her descent into the living room when she saw all of the contents of her refrigerator strewn about the floor where a pig, wearing a black Obey shirt with the face of Andre the Giant on its back, was stuffing himself with her food.  Nawal could not help herself, she screamed.

    “What the hell is that?!”  She yelled, pointing at the pig.

    Verm looked at Nawal, then the pig, and back to Nawal.  “Eh?  Him?”  He asked, pointing at the pig.

    “Yes, that!”  She screamed back.

    “You see me and life's just peachy?  You follow me downstairs like we're gonna sit down and have a cup o' fucking tea before work and then you freak out about a pig?  Are you alright, love?”