P. Stormcrow

There was still a lot she didn’t know. But somehow, the vast basement storage surprised her, nonetheless. Maybe it was the fact that there was only a single set of creaky narrow stairs led down here. Or perhaps it was because she had no idea basements were even possible in this city. 

Yet, here she was, standing in front of the expansive room that must span the entire width and length of the warehouse, filled with stack after stack as far as the eye could see.

Finn dug out the piece of paper from her pocket and unfolded it with care. The letters and numbers made little sense to her, and she blew out a long sigh of hopelessness. Jackson had scribbled down a list of past case files he thought would help, but had forgotten to inform her how to find them.

A sudden thud echoed in the air, snatching her attention away from the chicken scrawl. She jerked her head in the direction of the sound but found nobody there. Instead, her gaze fell on a table with binders standing between two plain black bookends. Somehow, one of the heavy tombs had tumbled from its place to the concrete floor.

By itself? No, her instincts told her that someone was here, even if there wasn’t a soul in sight.

“Hello?” Finn called out loud. Her greeting bounced off the shelves and walls, but still there was no answer.

Great. She inched closer until she could peer down at the fallen object. Her eyes widened as she realized it was an index. They all were. With excitement hastening her movements, she picked it up from the floor and set it on the table. As she ran her forefinger down the tiny text, she brought the note up to compare.

There! The first match! And the contents of the binder listed the exact aisle and row. She flipped a few more pages page and found another entry that from her list.

Five matches across the various binders later, she clutched the piece of paper to her as she prowled file systems. But it was much more than that. As she rounded the last stack, she found the cabinets giving way to shelves of books, ranging deeper into the warehouse, each one towering above her.

“Looking for something in particular?”

Finn almost jumped out of her skin bur she spun around to face Dr. Laurent, clutching the folders she had already retrieved close to her.. “Jesus fucking Christ you scared me.” She pressed a free hand against her chest to slow her pounding heart.

He gave her a wry smile but waited with all the signature patience of his profession for her to regain her composure.

“Wait. Did you… back there…?” Finn gestured behind toward the staircase where the table with the binders of indices stood.

“Hmm?” Dr. Laurent raised a brow.

“Nevermind.” She didn’t want to contemplate how he made it across the entire warehouse without a sound when it was so quiet she could hear a pin drop. “I should probably get going.” She lifted the files in her arms.

“Of course. I’ll see you Thursday for part two?”

Finn did her best to not flinch. One of the first orders Ms. Callaghan had issued after she and Jackson had wrapped up the Tube System case was for her to re-book her shrink session. Not what she was looking forward to, but she gritted her teeth and nodded all the same. “Right.” 

“Excellent. See you then Agent Reed.”

Grateful that he hadn’t tried to keep her, Finn spun around with every intention to hurry off. But the seed of an idea had taken root, keeping her planted in her place. Before she lost her nerves or had a chance to question her sanity, she turned to him and spoke again. “I was wondering… could you recommend a book for a newbie like me. Like sort of an A-to-Z guide to the supernatural world?”

“Ah. Of course. Let’s see.”

At that moment, she could have sworn a particular thick volume slid out by itself, but Dr. Laurent snatched it up so quickly that she couldn’t be sure the tome had moved itself or if it had been just her overactive, spooked imagination.

“Excellent, there we go. Thank you old friend,” the doctor muttered under his breath as he straightened. “Here you are.”

“Tales of Folk and Myth. Volume one?” Finn read the title of the book he offered. “Wait, I don’t think—”

He held up a finger and shook his head, the same patient smile still on his lips. “Humans have always told stories, sometimes to warn of hard lessons learned, sometimes to share knowledge or to make sense of their surrounding world. Why? Because tales are much more interesting to listen to and we are bound to have an easier time remembering them than some random facts. We are creatures of stories, Agent Reed. Take the book. It will tell you far more than any dictionary could.”

“Okay. Okay.” Finn took the damn thing in her hand.

“Brilliant. Happy reading!” 

She had meant to stay down there to read so no one would disturb her. Instead, she fled upstairs until she was sitting in front of her typewriter once more, ensuring there would be no more snipe lectures on the power of stories.

“Hey, you okay? You look kind of spooked.”

She looked up at the girl approaching her table. At least she didn’t move like a silent cat. 

Or a ghost.

“I’m fine,” Finn answered on autopilot. But she leaned over the pile of papers, braving herself against her desk with her forearms. “Though I just came from downstairs and um—something weird happened there.”

“Oh.” Olivia’s smile faded and her gaze darted left and right. “We don’t talk about that.”

What? Finn knew she used that word a lot the last few weeks, whether in her mind or spoken out loud but too much around here made little sense. 

Instead of elaborating, Olivia reached across to the boom Dr. Laurent had recommended and opened it, flipping through until she landed on a particular page. She pointed at the title then walked away without a word.

The Elves and the Shoemaker.

Nah… It couldn’t be. Finn pursed her lips. If she remembered right, the creatures in the story were brownies, helpful spirits that were the equivalent of domestic gods. The only catch was that they didn’t like to be thanked, which explained Olivia’s skittishness.

She rubbed her forehead. Did they have a brownie as their librarian and record keeper? Was that what helped her? And who Dr. Laurent referred to? Wait, then why did he thank him?

Finn groped for her notepad without looking as she continued to read, now engrossed in this version of the folktale Or was this a recounting? Fact or exaggeration? She knew all of it had a kernel of truth, but it was hard to discern where the embellishments were.

More questions. More scribbling down notes. One story led to another. It twigged a small memory of a particular case from Jackson’s list. The cross referencing began. Time passed and her vision blurred but she pushed on in pursuit of clarity.

A heavenly smell wafted to her nose, tempting her away from the deep work that was sorting through this different world, hiding just beneath the skin of reality as she had understood before. She wrenched her attention away from the text spread out before her to glimpse her partner approaching with two steaming mugs. It took all her willpower to not drool in anticipation.

“You look like you need this.” Jackson handed her one cup.

She accepted it in both hands and inhaled deep. The richness of the aroma told her that this was no ordinary office blend, but something he made from his private stash. She was learning to recognize the difference and appreciate the treat all the more. 

Fuck, he was turning her into a coffee snob.

Still, she took her first sip, careful to not burn herself. Heaven.

“How’s the studying going?” Jackson swept his gaze across her desk.

She cringed and had to fight the urge to tidy up. “It’s been…” She gestured at the mess and let out a long sigh, unable to even come up with the right words to describe the swirl of confusion inside. For every bit of knowledge she gleaned from the pages, give more questions sprung up.

“Maddening?”

“Yeah. That’s a good word for it.” She took another sip of the coffee, letting the liquid soothe her nerves while waiting for the zing of energy it would return. The heat of it warmed her body, enough for her to shake the cobwebs off and to turn back to Jackson as he perched on the edge of her desk. “How do you deal with all of this?”

He chuckled, but didn’t miss a beat in answering. “One step at a time. You won’t be able to know it all. Nobody can. It’s too much. So you get the fundamentals down and you learn as you go case by case.” He pointed at another thicker stack of paper, held by spiral binding. “You’ve already plowed through the procedures, right?”

She bobbed her head once.

“Then you’ll be fine. Stop worrying.” He patted her on the back. “Now, how about we put all that reading to good use and hit up trivia night?”

“Wait, night?” She blinked and turned to glimpse the clock on the wall. Holy shit.

The shock must have shown on her face as Jackson laughed. “Yeah, and that coffee will keep you awake for a while. Come on.”

He had tricked her! But somehow, she didn’t mind. This was going to be interesting.