Helikayde the Magical Villain (special preview)

Moving wasn’t as hard as people made it seem. The difficult part would be unpacking simply because you knew how your mind worked. The place you got was out in the country, a tactical move by you as you had grown tired of the hurly burly of the city. After years of protecting the city from all sorts of magically fantastical means of attack, you were exhausted.

Once you drove out of the city limits, your body sank back into the driver seat and you exhaled long and hard. It was a sad moment, but it was also a huge weight off your shoulders. Lots of your friends had already retired and moved on from the magical girl life, a new crop of eager young kids were now taking over and doing a very good job at it. You’d been offered a role as a mentor but you turned it down. Something from your past still haunted you and you weren’t ready to face it, if ever.

Your new home used to be an old bed and breakfast once upon a time. You were planning on fixing it up, maybe renting a room or two to help with bills. Your savings wouldn’t last forever, and your retirement funds weren’t the best. But for now, it was your happy little pet project and you were excited to get started.

Of course, life gets the best of you, and a few months into moving in a lot of boxes were still unpacked, and the best you’d gotten done on your project was painting some rooms and hiring a crew to paint the exterior. Now you were told you needed to repair the roof along with another small list of inconvenient and expensive chores. You had been so excited, and now it felt like defeat.

One rainy afternoon as you sat cutting in paint around the windows, the wonky doorbell rang. It squealed then honked then turned into a bell noise before hissing out of existence. You weren’t expecting anyone, and because of the rain the painter and their crew hadn’t shown. Peeking down the stairs, you saw a shadow outlined in the frosted glass of the door. It could have been an illusion of the eye, but the person on the other side looked strangely massive. You tiptoed quietly down the stairs so they couldn’t hear you. There was a certain point on the stairs that, if you leaned all the way to the left, you could see who was standing on the porch through the living room window. The person standing outside was in fact giant.

“Oh boy, okay,” you muttered to yourself. “Big guy, huge guy. Rainy day. Not great.” You started to crawl back up the stairs when the doorbell rang again; squeal, honk, bell, hiss. You stalled on the stairs, remaining absolutely still. The person knocked.

“I’m looking for White Witch Amor,” it sounded like a man with an exceptionally deep voice speaking. “I know this sounds strange, but I knew her a long time ago.”

Someone out here who knows your old magical girl identity? This had to be a trap! You try to continue your crawl up the stairs when they speak again. “She saved my life. I want to repay her.”

There had been a lot of people who could say that, you thought. But this person with the deep voice made you hopeful. The reason you didn’t want to be a mentor, the incident that made you question your life as a magical girl, someone was responsible for that. Someone you thought you failed. You slowly went down the stairs and unlocked the door, opening it to a small crack so you could peer outside. Standing there was a giant wearing a soaked, hooded cloak. “Who are you?”

Lightning flashed, followed by a loud crack of thunder, it was perfect timing. You flinched, but the giant figure reacted strongly. They cowered, ducking down and covering their head with strangely clawed hands.

“Sorry,” their voice came out guttural. “Loud noises still-”

You opened the door and stared up at them. “It can’t be-” You reached up to move their hood, which you realized was too far away. Instead you took their hand, looking over the strange claw that looked like onyx. “Helikayde?”

“Can I come in please?”

You stepped aside, letting him come into your room. He removed the hood revealing fluffy white hair and tall black horns.

“I can’t believe it,” you whispered in awe. “I thought you had-” You clasped your hand around your mouth. You were near tears as he looked at you, those golden eyes peering at you sadly like that had years ago. You sniffled, breaking down bit by bit as all those old feelings rose up anew. You thought he was dead because of you. He’d reached out for help, begging, pleading, and you thought you let him down.

“I’m sorry!” he knelt down to be more on your level. “Don’t cry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

You shook your head furiously, hoping that would stop the tears, but it only made them spring up worse. “I thought I killed you,” you whimpered through your hands.

Helykayde’s big hand petted the top of your head. His touch was gentle and cool, most of all it felt real. You were assured this was no illusion. “You saved me, just like you promised. Just not how you planned.”