Trickster

I could get away with murder and still be rewarded. It was all part of a carefully designed plan; Death took me under her wing and managed to make life easier for me. It didn´t mean that I was untouchable though.

But this deal came with a debt I had to pay some way or another; this time it involved hunting for lost souls and helped to cross the other side . And it wasn´t so hard to do but every time I engaged in this act  I was impregnated with somebody else´s pain. My only means of escape was making music.




Before I went down to get ready for the big night my old friend and band member, Twigster came to see me because he lived nearby. He was a tall, scrawny sand coated horse with light brown mane and a laid-back attitude. Meanwhile, Vyla was helping me get dressed and groomed in my bedroom. She insisted to attend my every 
need.


"Please, come in." 

This time he look a bit concerned.

"Hey dude," he said as usual, "We haven´t had a nice conversation in a while just small talk."

"That depends on what you want to discuss," I said.

"Maybe I should wait outside..."

"No, it´s fine. Afterall it should be something that concerns all of us, right, Dear?" I said referring to Vyla.

"So true, Master," she said as she rolled her eyes, "your little friend is wondering why you´ve been so distant 

lately."

"How did she know that?!" cried Twigster.

"She has a sharp intuition; you can´t hide anything from her. She´s reading your mind."

"Is that possible?"

"So it is," Vyla continued, "you don´t need to worry about a thing anymore; master Mayhem is quite capable of handling his business."

"It means that if you thought that I don´t care about you guys it´s because I´ve been renewing my vows with Death. Everything I´ve ever done with my personal life has become easier to control because I have an agreement with the underworld."

"Gee, you know, that´s the part that I don´t get and sounds kinda scary..." said Twigster. "What sort of agreement is that?"

"The Chateau Licorne seems to be a very good place to work with," said Vyla. "The more ancient the place is the better it gets in terms of finding lost souls."


"I´ve heard lots of tall tales," I said as I finished dressing in my usual black attire and high boots. I decided to wear a choker with the symbol of the Circle of Death. I was no longer afraid of exposing these themes to anyone; it protected and reminded me that I was about to have another encounter with the unknown. I could feel it in my hooves.


"That´s right, Master; you must take care. Whatever lies down there will know who you are and will fight you," said Vyla.


"What´s down there?" said Twigster with a worried expression. "Isn´t this just supposed to be a Valentine´s Day gig?"


I sighed deeply and remained absolutely confident, "Then we must warn Cupid and tell him to bring a more appropriate weapon instead of arrows."


"Does Blak even know about this?"


"He trusts me; he´ll be there if I need him. We also have an agreement but it´s more based on love."

"Dammit, Marelyn! Why are you taking these risks?"

"To prove myself I´m not a failure and that I should love myself even more."

Twigster scratched his head and said, "You´re not a failure! But the ´loving-yourself-part-even-more´ might be hard to imagine."








The truth is Blak wasn´t coming along with me because he had his own plans with his band. Meanwhile I  revisited the Chateau Licorne because it had been a favorite hangout of mine. It was also where I met a girl, the last one I ever got romantically involved with; Evening Sky.


She is a young prolific actress; she started at an early age. She is blonde with a hot pink coat and dazzling blue eyes. Not that such a combination is hard to find but she rocked. The first time she approached me it was as if she was staring into my soul and knew how broken-hearted I was. I on the other hoof saw her as a love interest and was deeply attracted to her. Somehow I did my best to date as many girls as I could and feel sort of normal, but what is normal anyway?


We made out on the first date and I quickly welcomed her into my world; curiously she didn´t let me enter hers. 

Her family was very rigid and conservative and I was a real wild child. I guess she wanted to break me and keep me on a leash. I still believed in her and tried to set her free from her inhibitions but Evie chose the conventional life. She ended up marrying her prince charming. Taking risks was not her thing; that´s where I came in. 

I wanted us to stay as friends but things got more complicated not to mention that my darling Blak was quite jealous. That´s what I loved about him; that he protected me all the time as long as he didn´t take things seriously.







The luxurious hotel was by far one of the most ancient buildings in Ponywood. It had been restored roughly more than five times and all the golden accents were preserved. It was located at the top of the North Ponywood Hills where it was usually colder. It had a main entrance guarded by two tall statues of unicorns held against the fine marble walls.


There was a fountain at the lobby which produced water blasts of different colors like a rainbow. It was where all the jet set gathered, the starlets and whatever silly rich kid you could find.


I never quite fit in with that crowd but they knew me well and treated me with great deal of respect. They even called me the Dark Prince of Ponywood.


Within a few minutes a big gryphon assistant approached us, "This way, gentlecolts." He looked just like Pete, only black. They all looked the same to me anyway.










"So, like are we going to the usual rooms?" said Twigster.

"Yes. I prefer the Water Suites though. They are customized according to your sign; that way you´ll find that everything in the room is pleasant."

"That´s what I call being too spoiled!" said Fred, my other guitar player with a mouth.

"You can never be too spoiled," I said. "I reserve those rooms when I´m out with my babe but this time it´s different."

"Why is that, chief?" asked Jayson, the unicorn.

I pulled out a brochure of where we would be staying, "We have been assigned room 1312." At this point I didn´t consider myself a superstitious fellow so I asked the tall feather brain.

"Excuse me but what´s in room 1313?"

The gryphon peeled his eyes.

"Don´t even mention that room again. I know they keep asking me so much about it but I will keep this beak shut, oh yeah!"

I felt shocked. "Hey, calm down, big guy! I was just trying to break the ice."

"I apologize, Sir but it´s not so easy to explain. No one and I said no one books that place at all."

"Why, is there something bad there?" asked Twigster boldly.

The half eagle, half lion answered in a more serious tone, "If you want to stay alive you better listen to everything I tell you and when I say "don´t go in there" you don´t ask why, is that clear?"





You know the popular saying, "curiosity killed the cat", right? Well no one ever told you what would happen to a group of fine-looking horses. So I got distracted for a few seconds while the guys went into to leave their things and noticed that room 1313 apparently wasn´t there; a big space was between 1312 and 1314 and was covered with a painting of a winged unicorn. 

I placed my hoof and I felt it was terribly cold like a big block of ice. It was then when it occurred to me objects have an invisible trace; a thing that Evie taught me. My heart was beating fast and felt a cold sweat.

"Is something the matter, Sir?" said the gryphon.

"It´s cold, very cold! That´s what´s the matter! I hope our room has a better temperature."

"Why yes; we always take great care of our guests. May I show you to your chambers?"







"Here you are, Mr. Mayhem," said the bell boy, "it also has a very handsome view. I hope you enjoy your stay."

"Boy, that guy sounded pretty worked up when we asked about room 1313!" cried Twigster. "Didn´t he seem weird to you?"

"Of course he did; he´s a gryphon!" I said.

"I meant by his attitude."

"Maybe he didn´t like you, Twigs," I said.

"Oh yeah, so I thought."

"Bah, screw the performance! I need to check what´s in that room," I cried.

"Slow down, amigo!" said Fred, "I say we play first then you can go screw around and do your black magic, medium stuff or whatever it is that you do now."

"Fine," I sighed, "but you don´t understand sometimes what it´s like to be around dead creatures."

"No, I don´t. Even if I did I would live up to my responsibility which is the band. You have to stop dragging us around."

"Don´t tell me what to do with my band!" I shouted.

"Guys, guys!" cried Jayson trying to break us apart before we butted our heads together, "We´re brothers and best friends, aren´t we?"

"Maybe you could explain that better to the Lord of all Darkness here," said Fred , "to stop solving mysteries and concentrate on what really matters."

"You´re just the same as always, Fred. You´re not making things any easier," I said infuriated.

"Come on, Jayson. Let´s get out of here and not make this a sour Valentine´s Day."




As the two of them left it was just me and Twigster who looked a bit down. 

"You know, M, " he said timidly, "this is exactly the kind of talk we needed to have but you didn´t give me the chance. You´ve grown distant from us. I´ll be at the bar if you need me." Then he walked away too.

"Is that supposed to make me feel bad?!" I cried.