George slowly rose to his feet which felt decidedly unsteady beneath him, was it the alcohol? Or was it the large knife wound to the gut? He wasn’t sure but either way his feet weren’t going where he wanted them to, he collapsed down again.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone “Sarah” he thought…. “Sarah will help me” shakily he found her number, the phone rang 3 times before she picked it up!

“George I’ve told you IT’S OVER, don’t phone me again – CLICK” came the reply before he even had the chance to speak! 

“BLOODY CALLER ID”, he thought, he redialed but was just met with a beeping sound Sarah had taken the phone off the hook, she didn’t want to speak to George again, EVER, and certainly not during ER!

999 his fingers dialed…… “Police, Ambulance or Fire-brigade” a voice asked….. “I need an ambulance I’ve been stabbed, I’m in Orson’s Park, near the fountain.” No reply came, George looked at his phone, nothing but a blank screen. He turned it on, the phone briefly lit up only to turn itself immediately off. No way of knowing how much of the message had got through George did the only thing he could think of and shouted for help exactly 2 and a half times before passing out.

The next thing George was aware of was a voice…. “Oi, lazy bones, open your eyes!”, a remarkably well feeling George looked up, standing in front of him was a woman barely 3 inches high. She was dressed in a nurses uniform, not a real practical nurses uniform, but the kind you’d find hanging in the window of a sex shop or in some dodgy 70’s comedy.

“Like the outfit?” she quizzed, “I thought it was somewhat appropriate”

“Are you an angel?” asked George.

Penelope Rosedweller rolled her eyes, what a clichéd race these humans were. “I” she said indignantly “am a Flower-maiden, what you humans would call a Fairy“. She did a little twirl and her nurses uniform disappeared and was replaced instead by a flowery tutu and wings…. Not real wings but the kind a child would wear to a fancy dress party! “See?” she said in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Oh and before you ask,” Penelope preempted, “This is not a dream, and I’m more than happy to pinch you”, she clicked her fingers and George clutched his gut as all the pain from his stab wound came momentarily rushing back.

“Anyhow, we could spend all night chatting, or I could save your life! Which is it to be?” the fairy questioned rhetorically…. “Thought so, now my magic isn’t strong enough to do much more than mask the pain for a bit, you’re still bleeding, and if you don’t get to the hospital you’re still going to die. I recon your best hope is if I keep the pain away as long as possible and you try and make your way to St Peter’s.”

St. Peter Royal Infirmary was only quarter a mile a way or so across the park George knew it well. It was only a couple of streets away from his flat, and was where his girlfriend, (or was that Ex-girlfriend?) worked. His mind briefly flitted back to the argument they had had earlier, OK so it was her birthday - any one can forget a birthday can’t they? Admittedly rolling in drunk after one too many post works drinks probably wasn’t the best move but she’d forgive him, he was sure she would.

“Excuse me Mr Daydreamer” the fairy piped up, “Do you want to hang around here, or do you want to live past 27?!? Now GET a move on! My magic’s already beginning to fade”

George got up and started towards the hospital lights, it would be quicker across the long grass. He often used the park as a shortcut, though Sarah had always told him it was unsafe to be there after dark. Her friend Cindy had been mugged by one of the council Estate kids last autumn….. “Wonder if was the same one”, George thought  as he hurried along.

George had gone 50 meters or so but the pain was beginning to return now, but he was doing his best to blank it out - “I’ve got to make it” he thought to himself as he dug in and went as fast as he could towards the hospitals bright lights. Then from behind him he heard a familiar neee naww sound. It was an ambulance! They were going to the fountain….. The Operator had heard him!

George turned to make his way back to the fountain, but suddenly the pain shot through his stomach again, he fell to his knees and then keeled over, he tried to cry out for help but he was too weak to let out more than the barest whisper. By the fountain he could see the ambulance and the paramedics looking at the ground, and then talking into their radios, but he knew that they wouldn’t be able to see him out here in the dark, away from the path’s lights.

Things were staring to get darker yet George could still see the fairy clearly as she walked slowly up to him, she wasn’t dressed as a fairy anymore or even a nurse but was dressed in somber black.

“I’m sorry George” she said, “I know it was terribly mean to trick you like that, but I do hope in your next life you’ll remember - When you take a drunken shortcut through the park, NOT to take a piss on the flowerbeds!”. Then she joined everything else in fading to nothingness.

Half an hour later Paramedic Ed Hulver stood over the body of George Bakerfield, “I just don’t understand”, he told his colleague, “how could someone who lost that much blood have made it all the way over here?”