Chapter 2: The Warning

Previously... 

Once Mr. Pendragon had returned to the shop, I made it clear to Aine that I wanted to speak to him alone when I brought up the dream.  She didn't argue.  Once he settled in, I gave her a silent signal.  She flipped her black hair curtly, called a farewell to an uncaring Pendragon, and left to do whatever it was she did with her time.

I waited a bit, and once I suspected he had finished his business and resigned to a sudoku puzzle for the evening, I entered the back room.  There he sat hunched over a bundled up newspaper.  And as expect, his puzzle was about a quarter filled in.

'Mr. Pendragon,' I began simply, with more of a tone than I usually use to say goodnight.

'Yes, go ahead,' he responded, steely eyes fixed coldly on the numbers.

'I had a dream last night,' I continued.  But even that little bit seemed to stir him uncomfortably.  I took it for annoyance and skipped to the end, 'A guy was stabbed in the heart, and Aine said I should tell you.'  And then, opting to leave, I said, 'That's all.'

We've had weirder conversations, but I was anxious to see this one end.  Something about what I said sounded like an admission of guilt.  Mr. Pendragon put his pen down and called for me to stay before I left the shop.  Upon my return into the back room, Pendragon places a pen and paper on the table. 'Draw them,' he instructed.

'The symbols on the knife,' I said knowingly, but with a need for him to affirm it.  Even then, I felt the coldness of something supernatural licking at the back of my arms and bringing the hairs to stand.

'Yes, please.'  

Pendragon looked... sad.  It was strange to see any emotion in his typically disinterested features.  But this was altogether human, in a way that surprised me flat out.

Off my guard, I complied with his wishes and watched as he began to tear up upon my completion.

'Now you've got to tell me what's going on,' I said abruptly.  It was the rudest thing I'd ever said to him, speaking to him like an equal as such.  But this was becoming more interesting to everyone I told than it ever would have been to me, and I needed to know why.

'Your dream, as I'm sure you've realized since, occurred last night in reality as well.'

He didn't seem surprised by the correlation between the crime in Brooklyn and my vision of it.  And so neither did I choose to be surprised as he confirmed what I already suspected.

'The young man who died, whose name you wrote here on this paper,' and then hesitation.  'He was my son.  He was killed, this morning, in the twilight hours.'

'I'm... sorry.'  It seemed the only thing I should be allowed to say in spite of how curious it was all making me.  I bit my tongue and waited for what I hoped was inevitable clarification.

'As am I, that I had not known this sooner.  All this time, I thought it was a coincidence, you coming here.  But it appears the gods are casting dice once more.'

'Mr. Pendragon, please stop speaking it riddles,' My heart was pounding within my chest as I felt myself on the verge of some great discovery.

'You received a warning granted only to those of close kin.  An event common to our kind.  It appears as if you were related to my son, in some way.  Only those closest in blood would have received the vision.'

My chin went upward the way it does when I'm expecting a fight.  Talking about my family is a call to brawl if you ask anyone who knows me.  My folks were a sore spot, memories of them leave a bitter taste in my mouth. The idea now that there was more I had to learn about them.  It sucked.

Pendragon went on, 'It's why you saw it happen. Your dream was a warning.  One we must heed, if either of us is to survive.'