A knock on the door

knock knock knock knock

Tom hadn't even finished putting the coin away when he heard the noise from the front door. That seemed curious. It being before he would normally even head to work, he wouldn't usually expect anyone to be going door to door this early in the morning. Sliding the drawer of his desk closed fully, Tom took one last glance to make sure the coin was fully tucked away and hidden before leaving his office and heading for the front door. Of course, he wasn't an idiot. While he hadn't expected such an immediate effect, he was aware that whatever this was could be the result of his wish. It COULD be, but he wasn't about to ask, so he knew his response should just be a normal one either way.

Opening the door gave Tom a need to pause and double check what he was looking at. Who he was looking at. A girl, or a woman rather. She was certainly younger than Tom, though he loathed to think about how little that narrowed it down. At the very least, her hair seemed much closer to grey than his own. Pale blonde, so pale it was almost white, parted in the center to fall down the sides of a face almost equally as colorless. The baggy black hoodie and shorts she was wearing looked oversized, but the frame of her shoulders suggested that nearly any clothes sized for adults would be. Unhealthily skinny or simply lithe?

The woman said nothing, returning Tom's curious look with a sharp, almost judging glare of her vividly green eyes. The expression on her face was muted. Unreadable. If she was planning to sell something, Tom decided he would have to give her a couple of tips on both timing and first impressions.

"Erm, can I help you?" Tom finally asked when the silence had gone long enough to be uncomfortable.

There was another beat of silence, as if the woman was driving in her odd scrutiny. Finally, she opened her mouth. "A feed." Lightly accented, she spoke softly, apparently coming to a conclusion with herself first before sharing it. "No. You cannot."

Tom mentally stumbled at the break of the social contract. Why knock on the door then? Clearly not a normal person, which may technically have been a good thing considering his previous wish. In that case though, how was someone like this going to help? "Okaaaay, then so-"

"Stand aside," the woman's orders were crisp as she cut Tom's question off. With a sweep of her arm, she elbowed him out of the way and walked inside. "I will speak with your mistress."

"My mistress...?" Okay, that probably settled it on this being a wish result or not, although Tom had more than one problem with the situation already. Reaching out to grab the woman and keep her from simply strolling into his home even more, he protested. "Hey, hold on lady, you can't just-"

Although he was once again interrupted, it wasn't with just a brush aside this time. His ears ringing and vision blurred and spinning, it took more than a moment to even realize what had happened. After finally getting hold of his senses enough to move, Tom's body strongly resisted following along with the idea. As he tried to sit up, he heard the creaking splintering of wood and ruffling of fabrics as something fell to the ground behind him. Vaguely, a realization hit him that he wasn't where he should be. He wasn't where he was a moment ago. He had been thrown across the entryway of his house, colliding with the door into the coat closet. More than colliding. His body had crashed through the closet door. With the shock and confusion slowly clearing, the pain was settling in as if to remove his disbelief.

"Honey? What the hell was-" Tom heard the voice of his wife, growing louder along with her footsteps before both stopped abruptly. "You!?"

"Hmph." The woman invading their home grunted with annoyance. "I had hoped that my warning would be enough for you to understand, but now you do not even attempt to hide your appearance?" No longer speaking softly, the woman's voice became authoritative, almost threatening.

"What did you do to me!?" Sarah demanded.

"What did I do?" The woman's repetition came with a huff of feigned amusement. "I waste my time. You had your chance to walk away and go into hiding. Instead you only made yourself more obvious. Draw more attention to yourself and I will be the one having to hide from hunters in the aftermath. My hand is ****, infernal whore."

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about!" Although Tom knew that Sarah's confusion is genuine, the woman simply ignored it. She begins speaking once again, but Tom couldn't parse the words. Not a language he knew. Rather, even in his addled state it felt so foreign he didn't imagine he had ever heard it before in his life. "W-what are you doing?!"

Hearing his wife's panic Tom finally willed his protesting body to move. Grabbing the frame of the ruined closet doorway, he hauled himself up to a sitting position just in time to see a blinding light radiate off the unknown woman's body. His eyes **** shut by the brightness, he felt heat, then a concussive ****, then nothing as his consciousness evaporated.