One Misty Morning

The echoes of our footsteps were swallowed by the dense fog of the early morning air. I snuggled my head into my oversized hoodie, away from the chill, as we trudged down the empty sidewalks of our neighborhood. I was still groggy, and perhaps a bit grumpy, from getting up so early. I did love this time of morning, but my friend’s chatter was ruining the muffled silence I was trying to enjoy.

"What kind of malarkey was that!"

"Did you just say malarkey?"

"... Yeah, I'm cleaning up my language. What of it?!"

"Your mom heard how you talk online didn't she?"

"If they cheated less I'd curse less so shove off!" Andre dashed ahead of us, his short dark hair bouncing as he skipped to turn and face us, "Speaking of… why haven't you sweaty try hards added the mods I sent?"

"Because your mods Are cheating" I piped in, still adjusting to so much enthusiasm this early.

"Boulderdash!"

"Boulderdash?... really?" Phyllis kept on Andre about his abnormal vocabulary.

"You know between you and my mom, you'd expect me to just keep my mouth shut all the time!"

"That'd be a good start." Andre looked genuinely hurt for a moment, but the look quickly passed as he turned forward again and we all found ourselves stopped in our tracks.

Cascades of vibrant color danced across our faces as an old worn black cauldron, pocketed from age, unfolded from the fog. The thick dense rainbow that poured into it sparkled across a pile of gold coins that heaped higher than the brim; projecting a cloud of color into the fog still thick in the empty streets.

"Woah" Phyllis muttered, wide eyed between us.

"Freaking Leprechaun Gold!" Andre blurted before rushing up to the cauldron, Phyllis right behind him. I stayed back, still not believing what I could clearly see. "Can you even imagine what we could do with this much money?!" Andre thought out loud as Phyllis reached a hand into the pot, confirming it was more than a hallucination as she hefted a handful up and let them fall, chiming, back down, "Man, if our parents find out, we won't see a None of it!"

"Don't be stupid. This is worth enough that won't even matter!" Phyllis snapped without even looking up; their faces fluttered with delight in the gold’s luminance.

"Yo, maybe we should, like, Not mess with it." I called out, feeling eerily uncomfortable, but neither of them seemed to hear me. "HEY!", their gaze shifted. There was a strange gold glint in their eye, "For Real let's go!" a bit of a strain creeping into my voice.

Andre, a bit stiffly, burst out laughing "Yo chill mate, we about to be Set!"

Phyllis chuckled as well "For real, either come share the loot or stay back like a knob and miss out."

"Yeah, I don't see no leprechaun, finders keepers."

They both turned back to the gold and began grabbing as much as they could; shoveling it, by the handful, into their pockets.

"Fey don't play like that!” They ignored me.

Phyllis filled her pockets first, she looked almost frantically about for a moment before zipping her jacket up and shoving the hem of her coat into her pants. She leaned forward and began scraping gold into her jacket with great swathes of her arm, "Phyllis come on, you know I'm into fairytale shit, This is Not a good idea!" She didn't hear.

Andre's pockets were so full he had one hand clinging to his pants to hold them up,"You Can't Carry that much! Please Stop, let's go!" I pleaded, the fear that had crept up on me was keeping my legs too weak for me to rush up to them. There was something haunting about the way the rainbow shimmered off the gold.

It was then Andre paused and turned to face me, his irises were solid gold now, his pupils like tarnished silver, his expression slack and emotionless. As I stared into his tainted eyes I could feel some part of him beyond terrified, panicking and crying, trapped in his own body; even as his hand reached into the pot and clutched a handful of gold coins. Some slipped between his fingers and fell at his feet, dancing out into the mist with eerie tinkling chimes, as he mechanically raised his hand to his mouth and thrust them in, gorging on them.

As he reached back for another handful I saw Phyllis behind him. She was no longer shoving gold into her jacket, but bent over the cauldron, raking them into her gaping jaw. Liquid gold saliva dribbled over her lips and poured down her chin, spilling into the cauldron.

The horror of what was happening to them at last overruled my terror, and I stumbled forward to do anything to tear them away. Before I could get any further, though, they vanished.

For a moment it was as if no one was there, but then someone was. A dark silhouette leaning against the cauldron, facing toward me. Rainbow light danced wildly about him and shimmered streaks of color as two coins fell from above him. The figure nonchalantly whisked them out of the air; drawing a little black book, stowed under his dark worn vest, and a quill, from inside the folds of his fine green dress coat, with the same motion.

He paused for a moment, and glanced at the coins. They clinked as he adjusted the quill between his fingertips and relaxed his palm; inspecting them. His gaze shifted from them directly to me.

What had happened to my friends was beyond horrifying and I was suddenly finding it hard to process anything. The quiet that descended down was as if nothing at all had happened, and the calm this figure exuded almost made me question if it really did. It suddenly all seemed so blurry, like a nightmare ending, but the force that bore into me as his shining green gaze landed on mine crushed any doubt I was having about what had just happened to my friends.

A grin spread across his face, and he cast his eyes back to what he was doing; as if I weren't there. He folded open the black book, pulling to his page with the ribbon bookmark tethered to its spine. The quill, he dragged across his tongue and scribbled down a few things. The back of the quill twirled and twitched as he scrawled down whatever he was writing. Once he was done he placed the quill into the book, to quickly mark his page, as he closed it and looked back up at me.

His smile dug hills into his cheeks, his whole posture seemed relaxed and full of genuine amusement, but his eyes were those of a predator that had missed a prey. Still, he made no move toward me as he stuck his free hand into a waistcoat pocket, and raised the journal with his other. He leaned forward without looking away and touched the book to the brim of his dark emerald velvet top hat and away, towards me. Then he was gone, his creepy smile lingering on in my mind even as the neighborhood began to wake; oblivious to what had occurred.

I stood in shock and disbelief. Tears poured freely from my eyes even as I felt devoid of reality. My friends… were just.. they...

Horrific images of them in their last moments filled my head, mingled with our morning before the gold appeared. My stomach twisted as my lack of action echoed within me, and I nearly threw up as I remembered the look in his eye with that hungry grin.

I didn’t know what I was supposed to do now. Moving at all somehow felt like it was a betrayal to them. I had to though. I had to tell somebody. I don’t know how I was going to get them to believe me. When we found their bodies, if we found their bodies, I would get blamed, I deserved to get blamed, I wanted to be blamed. No one was going to believe what had actually happened, and at least I could atone for not even trying to save them or at least...

I found myself at my doorstep. I must have unconsciously walked home. I did not remember having moved, but felt as though I had. My gut wrenched and my face scrunched up ready to cry. I had moved…

I took a breath to steady myself and went to open the door. It swung open as my hand touched the handle.

"Why there you are!" My mother's chipper voice seemed oblivious to my grief," where'd you run off to so early?"

I took another breath, "I was with A..." My voice locked and I couldn't say his name, "..my f-friends," I forced the words out.

"What friends?" She cheerily inquired, cocking her head.

I swallowed hard, "Andre and Ph-Phyllis…"

"Who, honey?" Confusion swamped over me, she knew who they were," Oh what's that?!" She reached out and took something out of my hand. She held up an old cloth satchel, jingling as she hefted it; I froze at the sound. Unprompted, she opened it and poured it's contents into an open hand. Gold coins slid over one another out of the satchel and onto her palm.

"Oh my…" her mother stared wide eyed, "Honey, come look at this."

"What is it? I'm eatin'." His gruff tone sounded from the livingroom. Undaunted, she immediately walked towards the doorway; gingerly holding the gold and satchel poised, as if it would disappear. I floated along behind her, once again not believing what I was seeing.

"Look." She leaned down to show him.

His eyes went wide, and he immediately became suspicious, "What's this?"

He reached up to inspect one of the coins closer.

He pressed a fingernail into it to scratch at it and the pure soft metal bent in, "This just might be real Gold!" My mother got really excited. "Where did you get this?" His tone was almost accusing.

I shirked away, but didn't dare not to answer."I-I dunno. I was walking around with P-phyllis and A..Andre" I felt it important to say their names, " We came up on s-something a-a.. and…"

"Who? Never mind, I didn't ask for your whole morning, just where you found these." Indicating the coins.

"But dad! They… there was a.." How Could I Tell Them What Happened! I couldn't even describe it, and his look suggested he wouldn't even let me. I sighed, "I don't know, mom found it in my hand when I got home."

"Hmm, must have found it by the creek." He all but ignored what I said and decided to come up with his own answer for me. "We can take it to see if it belongs to anyone, and if not? Well this has gotta be worth something like $20,000."

"Oh my Land." Mom looked flushed, and handed him the rest of the coins; where he reached down, shoved them in his side table cabinet, closed the door, and went back to breakfast.