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To be honest, I’m not certain how many years I’ve been on the road. A new year becomes a bitter feeling when you don’t have a person to spend it with. After the recent stressful jobs, I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a while. I planned a beach trip.
There were a few local beaches nearby when I started planning the day. But just in case I got tangled up in some sort of supernatural mess, I opted to go to a location that was meant for creatures and their families. A great deal of The Corporation Agents used the beach for fun summer days on the rare occasion they had a day off. I may see someone I’ve worked with which was a welcome change than being around strangers all the time.
The location was hidden, so I needed to apply for a door keycard to get me there. Once it was sent, all I needed to do was press the magic card against the reader that would appear next to the door I picked. A connection between two doors would be made through a spell. Instead of walking into a hotel room, the door now opened onto a wide beach with a slight breeze pushing sand onto the floor. I quickly went inside and closed the door behind me fearing how to explain this if someone saw the impossible.
I arrived early. I saw only a handful of people already there. A woman wearing a black light dress was under the umbrella in the provided chair. Two people were closer to the shoreline digging in the sand, and another two were sitting on a massive towel setting up a basket of food. I didn’t recognize any of them. Well, at first. I planned to just pick out a chair to relax all day. As I walked by the two on the towel, I squinted feeling as if I’d seen the one before. He looked up with the same expression. Then it clicked for both of us at the same time.
“Oh! You saved me in the woods a while back!” He commented, excited to see me again.
He was a mailman that I saved from getting sliced to bits one day. It was such a brief exchange; I was shocked he remembered me. Then again, seeing a man die in front of you, and having them just randomly walk by on a fun summer day out may be even more shocking for him.
“You helped out Toby once?” The other person on the towel asked.
I was ushered down to sit with them. The boy who spoke wasn’t human. His body was made of some sort of transparent material with a round orange spot in his head. He was introduced as Sunny and they both wasted no time offering me something to eat from the huge pile of food they’d brought along. At first, I tried to decline, but they admitted Sunny made too much. They feared if one of their group members got to the stash, he’ll eat too much and get sick.
“Max has no self-control when it comes to Sunny’s food. Rufus isn’t much better.” Toby said as he nodded towards the other two still digging away.
They both had large dog ears, brown hair, and dog-like legs. I assumed they were related, most likely father and son. The younger one, Max, wore an open jacket I recognized to be a mailman uniform with a white shirt and swim trunks. His father also had swim trunks on with a spot for his curved tail, but I found myself unable to look away from him. He wore a black tank top so tight, it felt like going bare-chested may be less revealing. I forced my eyes away, pushing down the blush coming to my face. I didn’t want to embarrass myself by drooling over an attractive dog man off in the distance.
I started to talk to Toby and Sunny as if we had always been friends. It soon became clear they were dating. Any time Toby even looked in Sunny’s direction his face showed how much he adored the other boy. It wasn’t just fawning over how cute the slime boy’s face was. Toby truly respected and loved everything about Sunny’s personality. Those two were perfect together. I’ve heard slime creatures often were bought and sold for terrible reasons. I was glad Sunny found someone that would never hurt him in such a way.
Max must have gotten hungry. He came over to us, covered in sand ready to dig into some sandwiches. His father went under the umbrella to sit next to his sleeping wife. He gave us all a small wave, making me weak to his wide smile. I envied the woman next to him.
Toby and Sunny struggled to feed Max, but also keep the towel as clean as possible. Our attention was drawn to the sounds of children yelling and screaming in joy. We watched as the door opened to let in a group of kids. Each looked to be of different ages, but all were under fourteen. And they all seemed to be some different species of creatures. A woman with long sandy blonde hair followed them carrying some bags. Max brightened up and abandoned his sandwich to rush over to her. We all decided to do the same to help with her burdens.
“This is Miss Maisy! Her species is kinda related to mine.” Max explained when we got closer.
A quick round of introductions was made. I didn’t know if I just liked supernatural creatures, or if creatures were just naturally attractive. She wore a long baggy sundress, but that didn’t hide her round, yet perfect figure. Bright green eyes shone in the sunlight and a pair of golden dog ears sat on top of her head. Maisy was cute. Super cute. And in charge of watching all the kids for the day.
“That seems like a handful. How many do you have?” I asked her.
“Oh, a few. Max knew I was coming by and volunteered to help look after them too. He’s great with kids.”
I glanced over at the smiling dog boy knowing that was true. Once we got the bags dropped off by the towel, Max went off to round up the kids for them to get some sunscreen on one by one. I tried to keep track of them all. The class they were in catered to half-breeds, or full creatures being raised by human parents. Maisy was a nanny for two of the kids. The teacher had been busy, so she stepped up.
The child, who appeared to be the oldest, had brown hair and dog ears. He looked maybe thirteen, but ages could be deceiving. All the kids looked up to him and already started handing over cool shells or rocks to gain his praise. He took over getting sunscreen on a ten-year-old girl with black eyes and sharp teeth. I think he was the only one Sweetheart wouldn’t bite.
I always knew creatures picked out odd names for themselves and their kids. When I heard some normal ones, I was a bit surprised. Bea was a tomboy who took Sweetheart’s hand the moment they got their sunscreen on. The healing bite marks on her arms showed how often they played together.
A boy named Wendy stayed close to another slime creature who went by Benny. The small child was a solid pastel purple. I’ve never seen a creature like Wendy before. He had a mess of red hair, and scars along his small body as if he’d been stitched together. The fact some skin tones were different on stitched parts confirmed that theory. Despite that, he acted like a normal happy kid with his sibling. They were the two Maisy took care of for her nanny job.
The second oldest of the group was a girl that wore a frilly dress not suited for the beach. Her mouth went ear to ear, her eyes a deep red, and her hair a tangled mess that looked like seaweed. Her name was Pork Chop and all the kids in the small group aside from Casper, the oldest, had a crush on her.
There were a few more in their class, but this was the only few that went on the beach trip. When the children were released again with Max chasing after them, Maisy sat on the towel already exhausted. She prayed that the day would drain their energy making it an easy trip back home.
Once the kids were out of earshot, she nodded toward where Rufus sat.
“Do you think Max would take care of the kids long enough for me to spend some adult time with Rufus?” She hinted.
Toby and Sunny made a face. I leaned in wondering the same question. I mean, who wouldn’t?
“That’s our dad you’re talking about. And he’s with his wife anyway.” Toby said, slightly disgusted.
“His wife can join in.” She replied.
Toby was even more disgusted. We got distracted by another pair coming through the door. I didn’t know them, but I was having my theory tested to see if every supernatural creature was naturally attractive. The taller one of the pair was a lizard creature wearing only a loose sheer cardigan. Their body built in a way any weightlifter would be jealous of. Somehow Sunny knew the lizard and waved them over.
“This is Hot Sauce and her boyfriend Skyler.” Sunny told us. “Hot Sauce and I are in the same cooking group.”
“I like cooking things.” The lizard answered back with a smile full of teeth.
Knowing Hot Sauce was a woman made her even more attractive. Thank God she was dating someone. I would be crushed if I tried anything with her. That could be a good or bad thing. I shook hands with them, Skyler’s hand larger than my own. At least his girlfriend was careful not to break anything in her tight grip. They looked like a good pair as well. Skyler was taller than me, broad-shouldered with piercing blue eyes. A small scar ran across his nose, and he was missing part of an ear. I wondered if he was an Agent, but he didn’t give me that sort of vibe.
“We’re going to do a cookout further down the beach. We brought a lot of meat to share if anyone wants to drop by. I’m just waiting for my brother to show up. If he gets lost, can you direct him our way?” Skyler asked, his voice much softer than I expected.
We all agreed and let them go on their way. I thought the day might keep going like that. It was a nice feeling meeting new people who were so kind. It was a good break from the daily horrors and struggles of my life. I wished I could make these kinds of days a habit but knew how poorly that would turn out if I tried.
No one else arrived until around lunchtime. Max somehow kept up with the kids the entire time. At some point, Maisy did disappear with Rufus while we weren’t looking. No one wanted to comment on or acknowledge that fact. We just started to wrangle the kids for lunch. Just as we caught the last of the screaming monsters, a new set of hands came to help.
A woman with long golden braided hair come rushing out of the door, kicking off her shoes as she raced down the beach. A man behind her calmly collected her shoes to tuck them into the bags and purses he carried for her. She was going to run right into the water, but noticed I was struggling to get Sweetheart to the towel for lunch without getting bitten. She changed direction to help me lure the little monster girl with a strip of jerk she had hidden away in her pocket. I thanked her as the man she came with caught up.
His eyes were dark, yet kind. His hair was also braided to match hers. The color was an odd shade of peach that appeared pink at the roots.
“Did my brother with his girlfriend Hot Sauce arrive already?” He asked, his voice extremely soft and very charming in its own way.
Even if we didn’t talk with Hot Sauce, if we saw them go by, we would know that was her name.
“Yes, they already came through. Sunny and Hot Sauce are friends, so we were introduced. They’re further down the beach.” I told him pointing in the direction I last saw the pair.
“Do you have sunscreen? I forgot to bring some.” The blonde who helped me out asked.
I handed her a bottle and she went right to work rubbing it into the other man’s face with weak signs of protest. I was glad she asked. He had such pale skin; he was already getting red from the few minutes we talked for. We received another invite to the cookout before they walked away to find the other two. I think the kids might like another meal. I needed Maisy to come back so we could herd them over though.
I was tempted to go and find her, regardless of what situation I walked in on. Any plans for the day got derailed in the oddest way. I’ve seen nightmare monsters and felt the worlds crash into each other. The ripple of power followed by a grinding booming noise across the sky made us huddle around the kids. Each paused their lunch to look around to find the source of the noise. I knew this was a tear between worlds. I fully expected some kind of monster to appear ready to devour the group on the beach. What I didn’t expect was fluffy pink clouds to start falling from the sky.
One was about to land on Sunny. On reflex, Toby and I pulled him out of the way just in time. Another ball of fluff came down above little Casper. He got there in time to shield his body with my own. I braced for the pain to feel… nothing. The pink cloud bounced off my back and onto the sand completely harmless.
We all watched stunned as the clouds that landed were still for a few seconds. Then, an odd pair of eyes appeared in the pink fluff. A breeze picked up, carrying the small batch of clouds away, only for more to replace them. I finally looked up to see the source.
A massive ball of pink covered the sky. The thing was so huge it covered the moon. More balls of pink fell from the ball and down to Earth. This wasn’t just happening on the beach. Pink clouds were falling everywhere. I bet if something didn’t stop soon, our world would be covered by them.
Sweetheart got brave. We couldn’t stop her from grabbing hold of a pink ball as large as herself, then biting down on it. To our shock, the cloud exploded in a burst of pink that changed her previously red dress to the same color.
We all stared in silence confused over what was happening.
If these pink clouds were so easy to burst, then maybe they wouldn’t take over the world. They all looked harmless. Once the kids were certain nothing happened to Sweetheart, they got out of our grasp to start bursting clouds. At least they were having fun.
When we all realized that the strange event wasn’t going to end the world we decided to carry on with the cookout. We hadn’t finished setting up when Casper’s parents arrived on the beach. They heard what started happening and wanted to make sure their boy wasn’t getting into trouble. And they wanted to give us updates about what the plan may be to take care of the sudden arrival of the pink balls of fluff.
Social media was a mess. I knew it would be impossible to fully scrub videos and mentions of the day no matter how much The Corporation tried. I doubted they ever needed to attempt to erase an entire world’s memory of something this big. Nearly all the Agents currently were running around making a poor attempt at damage control.
Casper rushed over to his parents. I told them that so far, nothing dangerous has happened and all the kids were fine. Casper had two adopted fathers. The one looked similar but I couldn’t figure out where we met. His entire set of features was void of color. His hair and eyes a pure white. The man next to him looked human. A set of glasses slid down his face in the panic of getting to his son. Both hands looked discolored but I didn’t dare ask him what happened to them. He scooped Casper up to treat him like a child half his age. It was hard to tell how old a half-breed was. The boy may look double or triple his real age. I thought it was good they weren’t rushing his mental state to catch up to his faster-aging body. Kids should have a childhood for as long as possible.
Another person showed up. He wasted no time racing across the beach. He nearly didn’t stop in time, his larger body bumping into mine. I took hold of his arms trying to calm him down. The moment I saw 340’s face next to the other man that picked up Casper I knew where I’d seen those features before. 340’s had a lot of brothers. I knew his second or third eldest brother quit his Agent job. That was unheard of with their brothers. It was like abandoning their family. 340 never spoke highly of the other brother who didn’t die in the line of duty. In his haste to see if I was alright, he didn’t notice a sibling so nearby.
“Are you alright? I heard a monster appear in the sky around here and you mentioned you wanted to go to the beach.” 340 said, trying his best to stay calm.
“Yeah, I’m fine. These things are harmless.” I said a bit surprised over how worked up he’d gotten.
“Is this your boyfriend?” The white hair man chimed in.
340 scowled at his older brother thinking he was getting teased.
“202, it’s not like that.” He started.
“More like causal hook up.” I added in helpfully.
“It’s not like that either!” 340 sputtered out.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t explain our relationship. There were some feelings between us, but we couldn’t make a habit of seeing each other. And it wasn’t as if we were exclusive either. He understood I found a lot of creatures attractive, and I bet he would jump on the chance for a night with a hot werewolf as fast as I would. If I wasn’t living the kind of life I did, there might have been something more to us.
“Have you at least figured out a nickname yet?” 202 asked.
I’ve been meaning to do that. 340 made a face as if he’d just been offered a pile of rotten food.
“Unlike you, Tooley, I refuse to abandon the name our parent gave us.” He said still giving a dirty look to his sibling.
If something didn’t distract him, 340 might pick a fight. Casper wriggled from his father’s arms to the soft sand below. He stopped in front of 340, who took half a step back. He wasn’t sure how to act around kids. And not around a kid who looked up to him with such affection in his eyes.
“Since you’re my uncle I’m going to draw you. What’s your number?”
340 gave it out, suspicious of the interaction. The moment he spoke, Casper ran off to his bag to pull out a small drawing pad. With him occupied we got back to the task of worrying about the large pink mass still in the sky.
“We just need to clean up the smaller clouds right? They seem easy enough to take out.” 340 said and I didn’t have time to stop him as he stomped on a fluffy ball hard enough to burst it.
Since we watched the kids found out two things about the drifting clouds. Sometimes they changed things around them to a pink color. They also gave out a puff of gas if you hit them too hard. We assumed the kids and Max were just laughing because they were having fun. But the gas forced you to have a giggle fit for a minute or two.
340 was hit in full force by the laughing gas. His stern expression dropped with the rest of his body. We watched him suffer on his hands and knees holding back laughter so hard he hurt his chest. If he just gave in to laughing for a little bit, it wouldn’t hurt him as much.
When I looked away from him, I realized the beach was getting crowded. More people showed up. Which was understandable. There was a huge thing in the sky still dropped more pink clouds than we could pop.
Four people arrived. The Two of them were someone that all supernatural creatures knew by sight even if they’ve never met before. Walking next to each other should be impossible. A boy around thirteen stopped taking charge within seconds. His red eyes looked over the group on the beach. His hair was wavy and went to his shoulders. The man beside him also had red hair and white wavy hair, but they didn’t appear related. He was an adult, but he dropped down to take hold of a cloud. Tears came to his red eyes because he found the pink ball so cute, he simply could bear to part with it.
“It appears a creature from another world arrived at this one. I requested En to look it over to see if he is aware of what type of creature the one above us is. En is also not from this world. He should be the one most qualified to identify if the cloud is a threat.” The boy said sounding way beyond his years.
“Aren’t you both Silver Kings? I thought only one could be around at once.” I commented.
“It’s August 9th. Don’t worry about it.” The child replied.
That didn’t answer my question. At least we may know the best course of action when it came to what threw the entire day off track. We directed our attention to another boy no older than seventeen. His dark straight hair went a little past his shoulders. His guardian looked human. A kind man with dark skin gave us a wave and a smile.
“En, do you know what this thing is?” The boy asked.
“Fuck if I know.” En replied, and oddly enough, dabbed.
He then ran off leaving his guardian a bit embarrassed and apologizing for his choice of words. En wasn’t much help. At least he put his gremlin energy into clearing out some of the pink problems on the beach.
“I don’t know what I expected from him. I suppose I’ll just have to use my power and see what-” The smaller King started.
Someone burst a cloud too near to him. He coughed for a moment in the pink air waiting for it to clear. At least it wasn’t the laughing gas. The pink stuck to his white hair and we all couldn’t help but stare. He was… cute. Adorable. A small boy trying his best to act like an adult made him look even cuter.
“Pink is a good color on you.” I commented unaware I hit a sore spot.
The poor child took one look at a strand of his now pink hair and screeched. A crackle of silver light shot down from the sky leaving nothing but an empty spot where he stood. With that one compliment, we ran out of Silver Kings to rely on. The older one was too upset over how much he loved the cute clouds to murder them, and the younger one was mortified by his new hair color to be seen by anyone.
“We should really try to think of a way to take care of this whole mess.” Tooley finally said.
His brother had gone off attempting to be a serious Agent and held back bursts of laughter at the same time. Skyler and Hot Sauce walked over to hand out plates of food that had been cooking. Sunny stayed near the fire pit that was set up earlier to keep making more plates, but Toby joined the brainstorming group.
“Does anyone know someone who can fly up and is a strong enough creature to burst the larger cloud?” Tooley offered.
“I know two who can fly, but I doubt Mage and Gully can go to space.” Skyler mentioned.
“You know, Max would suggest we throw someone really hard.” Toby half-joked.
“That might work getting a person strong enough to destroy the larger cloud. Getting them back to the ground is an issue. Plus, I don’t know who’s strong enough to live in the high atmosphere long enough to attack the cloud.” The retired Agent answered back.
“Actually, I come back to life the day after I die. If I can get a bomb or something on the cloud, getting back down wouldn’t be a problem.” I offered, wondering if this might be the strangest conversation I’ve ever been in.
“Why would we need you if we had a bomb? We just, can throw a bomb really hard.” Hot Sauce added.
That was a good point.
“Well, spells that activate on their own cost more magic and tend to be less powerful than ones manually set into motion. We would have a better chance of exploding the monster cloud if a person was the one who used the spell instead of just throwing one at the sky hoping it worked.” Tooley pointed out.
Yupe. The weirdest conversation I’ve ever had.
“We could-” Hot Sauce started.
We never heard her idea. As we talked, the man with the peach hair made his way over to the shoreline. He started to walk into the ocean, but his feet didn’t sink into the water. By the time I noticed him, he stood a few feet into the sea his bare feet on the water as if it was solid ground. He looked to the sky as his hair changed to a glowing red. The strands flew out of the braid to flow around him. I felt the power that came off him more than I saw it.
The sea parted from under his feet for a few seconds. A shockwave came over the beach kicking up sand and knocking over bags. The sound came after. It was like a sharp whistle heading into the sky. A second later, whatever attack he let loose hit the cloud floating high above. The ball exploded in the same way the smaller ones had. It covered the entire sky pink as pieces rained down to Earth.
From what I’ve heard that pink dyed random spots all over the globe for a few hours. It must have been a sight to see a pastel-pink set of pyramids.
We all stood; mouths slightly open silent over how someone could be that powerful.
His hair stopped glowing and fell back into place. He looked back at us, a confused expression on his face. I didn’t hear his words, but I knew he questioned if the show of force had been too much.
At least there was still some fluff on the beach for the kids to take the last few hours of the day to track down.
After a good meal, I found 340 on his back, a blush on his cheeks from the strain of holding back laughter. I sat next to him away from everyone else. I didn’t speak for a few minutes. I just put my feet in the sand warmed by the sun to watch the pink sky drift by. I heard rustling beside me.
340 took out the drawing Casper finished of him. For a kid, he was pretty good. He even got a scar over his uncle’s face right. Casper was also a good boy who wrote 340’s number on the side with little hearts. The boy might have met all his uncles, but he loved all of them. The Agent looked at the paper with mixed feelings. He wanted to be angry at his brother for leaving their family. He might have held that grudge forever if he hadn’t seen the new family Tooley made for himself. He carefully folded the drawing to place inside his suit jacket.
We were alike but I would never understand his burden of being an Agent, or his family dynamics. I listened to everyone else I’d met that day chatting away. I enjoyed meeting new friends. But I felt a small pang in my chest when I glanced over at the group. After they left, they all had a home to go back to. Even 340 could start a family of his own if he just stopped being so damn stubborn.
“Hey.” I said to get 340’s attention.
He looked over, worn out from his ridiculous task. His tie had been dyed pink, which oddly looked good on him.
“Kiss me.” I told him.
His face turned red for a different reason. He sat up, eyes darting around as if someone overheard us planning a murder.
“People are here. And-”
I gave him a dirty look. I didn’t care if his brother saw and teased us. If we couldn’t become official, he should at least give in to my demands once and a while. With another glance around, he fulfilled the request a bit too fast for my liking.
“I need to go help with more clean up. Call me.”
I let him leave. He was a busy Agent after all. I didn’t go over to the group after he left. I just wanted to be on my own feeling the sand between my toes for a little while longer. After I left this beach, I would be back to my life with some nightmares waiting.
At least I was able to enjoy a pink day.