Opening The Closed Door Open (Attn. Hywel)

Hunter

"I'm Hunter Dumont and this is my friend, McRorie," she said with a smile, "Hywel told me to drop by now and again. I'm sorry, I didn't think to phone ahead. If he's too busy, I'll see him some other time."

She really wanted to talk to Hywel, her first actual friend in the city aside from Mrs. Wittershall, who apparently was a vampire, and her erstwhile dog McRorie. In reality, she wanted to make sure that Hywel's sister hadn't managed to sour their burgeoning relationship.

Her inner voice chided her, first you have no men and now you've got two. Oh shut up, Hunter told it. One of them's a dog for Pete's sake! She patted her fingers on the counter.

"If you would please just let him know we were here and that I'd really appreciate if he would see me? Thanks."

She turned to head back out, disappointment clearly showing in her demeanor.

"He'll see ye another time," McRorie said soothingly.

Hunter

She halted just before she got to the door, when the bartender called out.

"Thank you," she said to the fellow as she pulled McRorie aside with her to allow other customers to come and go while they waited.

She held her cu's arm tightly. She was so nervous that she was practically shaking. This whole situation was frightening and strange. Hunter felt as if she was trapped in a nightmare. She pinched herself and not for the first time either. Breathing a sigh of relief when Hywel appeared, she gave him a shaky wave.

"Ye're fine,"McRorie whispered, "I'm here with ye and ye'll come to no harm with me around."

Hunter smiled gratefully at her erstwhile pet and moved closer to him. He was a big part of this strangeness, but he was still the most familiar person she knew. She trusted him implicitly, even more than she trusted herself at the moment. Hopefully, she could also trust Hywel.

As Hywel came towrds her, Hunter apologized profusely, "I'm so sorry to bother you! I can come back some other time."

The poor man looked frazzled and gorgeous. Hunter swallowed reflexively and bit her bottom lip.

"I'm having some trouble with everything right now," she announced, "And I was hoping you could help me straighten things out."

Hunter looked up a Hywel, tears forming in her eyes, but not flowing, as she struggled to control herself.

"I'm sorry. If you don't want me to come around anymore, I'll understand."

No, you won't, said her inner voice, you'll go home and cry yourself to sleep on your bed and wish that you'd never been born.

True, she replied to it sadly.

McRorie squeezed her hand as if he could read her mind.

Hunter and McRorie

Hunter gathered her wits as quickly as she could. She usually didn't get this upset in front of people. She saved it for when she was alone. In the past, she'd cry it out and get on with life. This time it was life itself that was screwed up. She took a big breath, swiped at her eyes and straightened up.

"I'll be as brief as I can," she began, talking down to her clasped hands.

"I met up with your sister yesterday and I assume she told you what she saw happen. I didn't see a lot. I passed out. When I came to, McRorie here wasn't a dog any longer, your sister seemed to be livid and marched out after McRorie told her to go.

"Then he told me a bit about things that I never thought actually existed and that they're real and I'm as confused as fuck, er, blazes."

She looked up and disbelief showed in her face.

"Apparently Mrs. Wittershall is a vampire? I mean should I start wearing crosses or something?"

Hunter looked Hywel dead in the eyes. They usually told more than words could. She wanted to keep Hywel's friendship at the very least because being alone in this big city with all of this new reality was just too much for her to shoulder by herself. While McRorie was as helpful as he could be, he couldn't do this all alone and she hated to burden the poor man, er, dog, with everything she was going through. She also didn't want to bother someone with her friendship if it wasn't wanted.

"You and Rhiannon are witches. I've got gremlins in the store. Sylvan is a familiar," she started to look a bit distressed again, "I mean, where the hell am I? New York or Storyland? And what the hell is a kooshee?"

McRorie had left his fingers lying on her arm, just to catch her if she passed out or anything else. Hunter looked shell shocked.

"Rhiannon also told me to stay away from you and her. I'm just here to say goodbye. I sure don't want to be where I'm not wanted. I like you, Hywel, and I don't want to cause you any trouble."

She felt tears forming again and used a bedraggled tissue she dragged from her pocket to dab at her eyes.

"I'm really sorry about all of this," Hunter continued, "I'll go now."

She tried to turn towards the door, but McRorie's grip on her sleeve prevented her. He sighed heavily.

"Perhaps ye has somewhere more private to discuss these things?" The cu asked Hywel quietly, "Yer patrons are staring."

Sure enough, those closest to the action were sipping their drinks and casting quick glances towards the three of them. Even the greeter at the podium was frowning.

"There's a lot more to this than I can tell ye here," he continued in a hushed voice, "even Mrs. Wittershall doesn't know the lot of it and that's odd.

"She sent me to keep this girlie safe and she approves of ye as well."

McRorie

The cu guided Hunter along behind Hywel as the man lead them to the back of the club. It was private and Hunter seemed very subdued. She sat when and where she was told. Picking up a napkin, she started to fold it into smaller and smaller shapes. She was so deep into her confusion that she'd zoned out.

McRorie had no intentions of outing anyone, but straightening Hunter out was imperative. She could go either of two ways; she could be let in on the secret entirely and learn to live with it, which McRorie thought she could do if she had more support, or she could become a serious thorn in the side of every supernatural in the city. With what she possibly was, that would be extremely dangerous for everyone. The cu felt somewhat responsible for this. If only the blasted gremlin hadn't had that spell, if only the books had gone elsewhere, if only.... well, there were a lot of if onlys.

"I'm sorry this happened," McRorie began.

"If those bedamned books hadn't showed up, none of this would have happened and Hunter would have never been the wiser. I would have remained a cu, ye would have stayed just a friend and her world wouldn't have changed so quickly.

"I was supposed to ease her into this over months, or years if needs be. Instead, I got bespelled back into me human form right in front of her by one o'them buggering gremlins. I'd been killing the things at night when she was asleep. They came along when those books did."

McRorie leaned his elbows on the table.

"Yer sister didn't help matters any. She had a right fit when she saw me. I'd hoped Hunter would stay passed out until she left, but no, she came to and started askin' questions right off.

"Rhiannon -- that's her name, right -- got right uppity and angry and started in on the girl about not seeing either of you again and that I was dangerous, ye knows the drill, I'm sure.

As he spoke, he waved his hands as if he wished he could simply make he whole business disappear.

He then looked Hywel dead in the eyes and declared, "I'm not here to kill ye or anyone else. I'm not here to announce the end of the world. I'm not gonna hunt anyone down. I'm here to protect the girl. That's it.

"I don't care what ye does to yerselves or anyone else. I'll only intervene if it endangers Hunter."

He seemed to be wrestling with something he wanted to say, wondering if he could trust Hywel with what knowledge he had. When Rhiannon had tested Hunter's patience something had happened and the witch knew it. McRorie then decided that Hywel should have as much information as he could give him. Then the man could make a more informed decision on whether or not he wanted to be a part of this whole thing, whatever it turned out to be.

McRorie dropped both hands to the table.

"Before ye goes writing us off as bad investments, hear this. This girl is a power. We don't know what kind yet. We may never truly know. Hunter isn't aware of it herself. Even the Wittersham doesn't know, but she senses something big.

"If ye wants to help, I'd be grateful. If ye doesn't then a quick farewell is needed and I'll handle things meself. I'll give her some sort of story so she doesn't feel that either of ye owes the other anything. Ye don't want to get on the bad side o' this girlie, especially with all of this supernatural stuff going around.

"Faith, if she'd stayed in her small town, no one would have been the wiser and nothing would have started up. Ye and yer sister would go on with yer games. I'd be back in me graveyard with me cat friends.

"That's all water under the bridge now. I've got a job to do. She's got to stay in our hands and not be taken by the Others.

"Warn yer sister about them books she's got. I hope she can keep them safe. Whoever put them at Hunter's door hasn't got our best interests at heart, me boy."

In a very small voice, Hunter asked, "Water? Please?"

McRorie and Hunter

The cu pursed his lips, "That's fine then."

He didn't really want to go it alone, but what choice did he have now?

"I didn't gravitate anywhere. I was sent. The only thing the Wittershall told me was to stay by her and guard her from harm. I was also supposed to slowly -- don't get me wrong -- SLOWLY introduce her to us. To win her trust and get her on our side.

"As the gods are my witness, this is the truth. As soon as I met her, I knew that something was different."

Hunter thanked Hywel and drank some water, holding the glass with two hands like a toddler. She was past crying now. She was held tightly in the grasp of sorrow. The thought crossed her mind that perhaps she could end all of this and save all of her friends the trouble of her company.

"McRorie," she asked, "Can we go home now? Please?"