#3. Night Huntress

“Night Huntress? That’s a fucking ridiculous name. What am I some cheesy ass poorly drawn comic book character? Let's get one thing straight...I am not wearing some latex bullshit. Also, I DO NOT volunteer for tribute.”

Audra had just informed me I was something called a Night huntress. Or maybe the Night Huntress. It wasn't clear whether I was part of a group or if I had the dubious honor all to myself. Tbh it sounded kind of lame, made-up, and a little goth/emo for me. I mean yes I do wear a black leather jacket, motorcycle boots, and am covered in tattoos but I also have wainscoting on my walls.

Before she could respond to my commentary, I continued. "Wait, does that mean I have SUPER POWERS???"

I've always wanted super powers but I could never settle on which one. It was a question that the regulars at Callisto’s had debated a few times while sprawling on the picnic tables with their drinks.

Not invisibility for me. Definitely. People are annoying enough without me learning the things they say when I'm not around. Also, I'm not a jewel thief. Or a voyeur.

I always settled on teleportation as my chosen power and maybe it would be nice to have just a general *magic*. All encompassing magic that got shit done. Like removing the rusted metal from Kath’s yard and Gerald and her skunk babies from my porch.

"The only one of those questions I can answer right now is the cheesy ass poorly drawn comic book character. Absolutely not.” She paused. “You are ancient. You, like myself, have been here since the Beginning." Audra was so cryptic even in her answers and there was that capital letter again.

"Since the Beginning...?" I asked.

"Of time." Her voice seemed to echo out and blend with the sound of the nebulae (sorry echoed out and blended with the sounds of WINONA).

I shook my head, not bloody likely.

I mean I get that crossing over the line from my real life front porch to this place had changed my understanding of the way the universe worked. I never really understood it in the first place but now my limited understanding was obliterated.

The Beginning of Time thing...I feel like...that seems pretty damn important...I would remember that. Wouldn't I?

I must have said that last part out loud because Audra responded. "The forgetting was not something that happened on accident. You chose this...to hide away in this body, in that place.” She said that last part with just a little bit of disdain as if she’d visited South Podunk Nowhere herself. “And you chose that Time. To stay safe. Think of it as self selected witness protection but on a universal scale."

I did not like the sound of any of this. We all know that witness protection is for people who testify against the mob or gangs or some disgraced but acquitted Senator from Alabama.

You only went into witness protection if someone was trying to kill you. On a “universal scale” sounded at least a billion times worse.

My voice was came out of my mouth in almost a yell, "Someone was…IS…trying to kill me?!!?" I said it as a question and a statement all at once.

Just my luck. First the skunk, then the magic door thing, and now I was on someone's galactic hit list. Literally. (I can never remember how to use that correctly but let's just go with it)

"It's a little more complicated than that," she replied. "But first, I need to return this to you. You gave it to me for safekeeping before you...left." Her voice sounded a bit odd on that last word. Huh, something else to dig into. How had I disappeared. "It will help you reclaim your memories."

A ring shimmered into being on the arm of my rocking chair. The stone was large and sparkled with shades of blue and coral. It had an iridescent look to it that shifted the color as light hit it. Surrounding the stone were three circles of gold, each encrusted with a different colored jewel. Bright blue (lapis lazuli, maybe?), a pale green stone, and obsidian in the outer most circle.

Between each circle was a tiny gap and on the inner wall of each, words were etched into the gold. Words in a language I couldn't read. Because of course. I barely passed high school French and that language used the same alphabet as English. These were characters I've never seen before.

They moved fluidly like the words on the note that started all this had. Something about it felt familiar.

"Put it on," Audra said. Almost of its own accord my hand obeyed. As I slid the ring onto my finger, the porch began to spin. Parts of it began to shift and slide and rearrange itself.

"What the actual...." heat began to build inside of me and it was at that moment that I realized I was not alone on this porch.

Where the boombox had stood was a tall woman who did actually look like a very powerful comic book heroine. Her hair was piled high on her head, glowing purple around its height and through her thick curls. Gold freckles shimmered and dance across her dark skin and out into the spacey air. Her lips were a glittery purple and her amber eyes were highlighted with a vibrant blue. Around her forehead she wore some kind of golden crown.

She was fucking magnificent.

My eyes must have been bugging out of my head because she laughed, throwing her head back the jewels weaving and dancing as she did. "I'm guessing you can see me now," she said. There was something more to her than a human. She seemed...more full maybe?

"Are you...Audra?" that seemed the most obvious guess.

"I am," she replied. "Night Huntress, who are you? Can you remember? When you are? What you are?"

And then she closed her eyes and spoke a sentence I recognized immediately from an obscure internet essay called Season of the Bike which I stumbled upon in a late night perusal of Tumblr. I’d promptly fell in love with it and taped it over my desk.

"When I ride the night even the familiar seems strange and glorious." She looked at me and I finished it. "The air has weight. As I push through it, its touch is as intimate as water to a swimmer."

She placed her hand over my ring and spoke commandingly and a little over dramatically, "Be reborn, Soul Seeker."

Waves of power crashed through her fingertips and I could feel it begin flowing through me meeting the heat and becoming something else. My whole body opened up, expanding, filling up with something familiar but just out of reach. Maybe the entire universe.

And that’s when the first memory crashed back...

Which I will tell you about next week. Okay, okay, I know you hate waiting. I get it. You were clear about that in your messages, but I really do have to break it up. It’s too much to share all at once and I think your (my) brains need time to absorb something we believed was impossible before dumping more in.

I was going to answer a few of your messages again. Apparently there are now THIRTY-FOUR of you who have read my posts. Don't know how the rest of you found me but thanks for being here! But I only have time for one.

Dear Ms. Jupiter,

My mom said I needed to apologize for saying mean things about your blog and Gerald's name. Sorry. Also, you said you were going to answer my questions about space but you didn't! Maybe you should apologize too for LYING. She also mentioned you might want to apologize back for the mean things you said to ME!

Andrew L.

P.S. Please share another picture of Gerald from the front. My mom wants to see what she looks like.

Dear Andrew L. and mother,

Thank you for your apology, Andrew L. So sincere. Will def try to get one for you but no promises. For the last one, Kath definitely got sprayed when she walked over to take it for me.

As for the rest of you, I hope you stick around for next week. Did I mention I'm glad you're here? (I'm glad you're here)