FotN '21: Fairy Lights

It was Prudence’s fault.

She’d brought him to the festival, promising a fun evening out, and then she’d gotten distracted. It was strange, admittedly, to see someone else from the same social circles in which the St. James family swam out at such a tawdry celebration. This was not a fancy party with tasteful music and sweet wine and a polite atmosphere. This was beautifully loud and bright, busy. The overlapping noise of several street performers created a wonderful cacophony, underscored by the constant noise of a dozen conversations going on at once.

Overhead were strings of fairy lights, casting a soft glow over the stalls and people. While Prudence demurely handled her acquaintance, painting this outing as a necessary dirtying of her hands as opposed to the celebration it was supposed to be, Angel slunk off into the shadows between food stalls. He dug his claws into the wooden frame and clambered up towards the best possible view of the festivities.

Only, once he’d settled atop one of the stalls, he could hear a faint buzz coming from the bulb nearest him. It tickled something in him, pulling him closer, and as he neared, the bulb flickered like a flame, on and off and buzzing incessantly.

His tufted tail flopped behind him, an irate twitch, and Angel peered down below where Prudence continued to talk, blissfully unaware that Angel had left her side. His pink eyes turned back to the bulb. He tapped a claw against it consideringly, then opened his mouth and ran his tongue along the intermittent flashes of heat. It wasn’t enough, nearly satisfying the urge, but what he really needed was—

Chomp.

The glass in his mouth barely registered as a point of concern as electricity raced through his small body. All along the festival, the fairy lights flickered madly before bulbs began to burst one by one, freeing more electricity to flow into him until the line simply went dead.

Angel opened his mouth and let the glass shards drop from his maw. He stretched along the top of the stall, sated, ignoring the several shouts as organizers tried to figure out what happened to the lights.