#I had to dust off my years old HTML to get this into anything resembling order

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Future Sight

Everyone has moments that change their whole life. Watersheds. You usually can’t see them until they’re gone and you realize there’s no way back to where you were before. Full tilt on a free-fall to the fate waiting below the fog. Being prescient can help with that a bit. Not that dreams and gut-feelings were incredibly useful most times. But when I had a dream about a purple-eyed woman wielding an honest to God sword, well, I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to see that.

In typical human fashion, I didn’t realize my curiosity might really get me killed this time until it was far too late. The McDonald’s smelled like grease and coffee. I was in line between a mountain of a man who probably weighed three-hundred pounds, none of it muscle, and a middle-aged woman toting around a sulky pre-teen girl and her little brother, who was clutching a green frog backpack like it was made of gold. The fat man rolled up to the counter to order and I realized I was next. I tried to think back to the dream I’d had the night before, but that particular piece of it was too blurry. Sometimes that meant it wasn’t important, other times it just meant my vision had crapped out.

I ordered fries and a milkshake, chocolate, and went to sit at the second table back by the window. That part I remembered. I had that certain sense of familiarity when i set my food down,confirming my hazy memories. I sat with my back to the window, even though I really wanted to watch and see the purple-eyed woman who should be coming in soon walk up. She was the reason I’d come out here, I didn’t usually eat McDonald’s, even though they had really good fries.

The longer I waited, the more complicated a knot my stomach made. I couldn’t tell if the feeling was a premonition or just me being nervous. It wasn’t every day a possible Fey wanted to talk to me, psychic or not. I did kind of wish I’d brought my knife. I carried silver, because there was a lot of other greebly shit out there that would like to take a bite out of me and almost all of it didn’t like silver, but Fae weren’t bothered by it. A normal steel knife would make them think twice though—it was too close to iron to be comfortable. I was probably— hopefully— just being paranoid. Usually if I had a dream about something truly dangerous I had an idea of it. Feelings stuck better than more concrete things in my dreams, and the taste of terror especially almost always lingered like the bite of too much spice.

An older man holding an umbrella like a cane walked in, looking way too upscale for McDonald’s with his dark suit and styled hair. He glanced at me, and we made eye contact for half a second. I felt the very familiar tug of my dream and looked back towards the door. Sure enough, the purple-eyed woman walked in. I swallowed back nerves and a few butterflies. The eyes had been the only thing I clearly remembered from the dream, but there was no discordant jang of wrong in the leather jacket that hugged her curves, or the flat dyed-black hair tumbling out from under a leather cap. With all the black her milky skin looked deathly pale, and those purple eyes stood out like living gemstones. She looked at me as if she knew I was watching her, waiting for her, walked right over and sat down. This had gone beyond the scope of my dream, but at least now I didn’t have to worry about finding a way to approach her.

“You seem more normal than I expected.” The purple-eyed woman said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I replied, my curiosity dented by irritation.

“Normally when I have a dream about someone they’re not so obviously human.” The woman said, reaching across the table and taking one of my remaining French fries.

I pulled the red carton away,“Only friends get to steal my food.” I said, closing my mouth before I could add that being all mysterious and sexy didn’t count. The woman shrugged, a cocksure grin on her face. She leaned back in the cheap metal chair, lounging like it was a lay-z-boy.

“So, isn’t this the part where you try to threaten me or something?” She said, raising an eyebrow.

“Does that sort of thing happen a lot?”

“That’s usually how it goes when I have a Dream.” The woman said, her eyes darkening a little as she leaned forward. “Why should you be any different?”

“Funny, I came here because of a Dream too.” I said it with the same implied capital D she did,although I didn’t usually think of them like that. I had them too often to put that level of significance on it. Usually it was stupid, little stuff, like a scrap of a normal day. So maybe last night could have been a Dream.

“What do you mean?” “I had a dream about this.” I waved my hand. “Well, up to the point where you sat down.”

“Really?” The woman reached over and took another french fry. “Now that is interesting.” She looked at me for a long few seconds. It felt like she was seeing something more than just me, but I couldn’t pin down what. “Was there anything else?”

“Uh,” I hesitated, not particularly comfortable talking about the second part of my dream in public. Especially not with the perpetrator. “Well, you had this big-ass sword and were…fighting…something. Somewhere else, I think.”

“Obviously.” The woman smirked, “I didn’t bring my sword today.”

“What else did you see?” I asked, curious.

“Nothing much.” The woman said with a shrug. She took another fry and I gave up, pushing what was left of the carton to the other side of the small table. “Oh, I did give you this.” She half stood up to reach into her jeans pocket, working to get something out. It had to be small, her jeans had been tight, showing off a dancer’s or athlete’s legs. I held out my hand, and she dropped a very old looking coin into my palm. I turned it over. It looked like dingy copper. There were odd symbols on both sides, different ones on each.

“What is it?”

“Heck if I know.” The woman said. “I found it ages ago and for some reason hung onto it until now. Apparently to give it to you.”

“Huh.” I examined the coin closer, but couldn’t make out anything significant.

“Well,” The woman stood up, “I’ll probably see you again, if you know about my sword.” She waved and walked out. Screw that. I hadn’t even gotten a name. I stood up to follow her.

“Really? That’s it?” I demanded as we left the restaurant. “Just give me this stupid thing and leave?”

“Sounds about right.” The woman said. When she glanced back at me, her eyes were cold.“What were you expecting?”

“I dunno, a name at least.” I’d had this woman in my head all day, and I didn’t think that was going to change now.

“Most people call me Eve.” She said. It fit, in a biblical sort of way. I could definitely see this woman playing as seductress.

“I’m Alex.” I said, desperately trying to think of a way to keep the conversation going. It was kind of hard to concentrate on something so practical when Eve was looking at me like she wanted to eat me. Knowing some of the things out there, that might be literal. Somehow it was still hot. Scary, but hot. She cocked her hip, a slow smile curling her lips.

“Well, Alex, if you’re so interested, you might want to brush up on your combat skills.”

“I prefer to think of them as saving my ass skills, and they’ve kept me in one piece so far.” I said,trying not to be insulted that she assumed I was helpless. Most people these days were, especially against more than mundane threats.

“Oh?”

“If you want my life story you’re going to have to buy me dinner or something first.” I said,surprised it came out without any stammering. I didn’t have a whole lot of practice asking people out. Usually I was the one being asked out.

“I can work with that.” Eve said, producing a sharpie from somewhere. I didn’t see her reach for a pocket at all. Maybe she’d had it up her sleeve. Or maybe making things appear was another of her abilities. She stepped towards me, just a breath of air between us, and grabbed my hand. She smelled like a dark forest at night with a touch of frost. She scribbled her phone number on my palm, at least I assumed it was her phone number. “Call me later and we can set something up.”

“Sure.” I said, over the pop of the sharpie cap. Eve’s hand lingered on mine, sparking my imagination in all kinds of wild directions.

“Don’t lose that.” Eve winked, her fingers sliding through mine as she stepped back. Then, just as quickly as she had come, she was gone. And me too busy looking at my hand to catch a glimpse of her retreat.