A/N: Since this story required a sort of decent into a fantasy world, I decided to tie it into a much larger story I wrote years ago called "The Turning of the Tides." My other prompt was to have my character be some sort of little known mythological creature and I chose Lady Midday.

Lady Midday was usually pictured as a young woman dressed in white. She assailed folk at noon causing heatstrokes and aches in the neck, sometimes she even caused madness.

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I hadn’t even opened my eyes yet but I knew the sun was shining through my curtains. I could feel it on my skin and in my blood and it told me what time it was. 11:30, my time. I could feel the effects of booze and cigarettes weighing down my body, but every passing minute pushed them aside as I was filled with the sun instead.

Since the Tides had turned and everything changed, I never went outside in the day. Not because I became some kinda weird shut in or anything. I sacrificed the sun to protect people. It was really the only way I could still be a part of the civilized world anymore.

“Mmmm…” I heard the voice and it sent a chill down my spine. “Mornin’, sweetheart.”

His arm came down across my chest and the smell of him brought back the memories. We were dancing, his hands were on my hips.

I leapt out of bed, pulling the sheet with me. He stretched out in full view and winked at me. “What are you doing here?” I pinched my forearm and reminded myself, No questions.

“Well, we, uh…” He glanced down at his body and chuckled. “You really need me to say it?”

“No, I know, I remember that.” He moved just as well in bed as he had on the dance floor. “I mean didn’t I-…I told you not to stay.” The sun was creeping higher into the sky, I could feel my scalp tingling, my spine burning.

“I wasn’t gonna, I swear.” He stood up and climbed into his briefs. “But you just looked so beautiful all sprawled out with your hair tied in knots and your make up all—”

“Okay, okay, it’s bad enough I look like this in front of…” I took him in — from dimples to dimples — and gestured to his body. “That, but can you leave now?” Shit, another question. I felt the lure in my gut, the pull to ask more.

“I was thinking about maybe going out for brunch.”

“Where would we go?”

“I don’t know, I heard about this new pla—”

“What time does it open?”

“Oh… I don’t know but I’m su—”

“Do the have anything with bacon?” I was lost, so lost. It was a shame too because this guy was cute.

“Can you even be considered a brunch place if you don’t serve bacon?”

I felt the bigger questions coming now, like vomit broiling up my throat. “Where do you see this relationship going?”

“Relationship?”

“Do you see yourself getting married?”

“You mean, to you?” He was groping for the rest of his clothes now, trying to cover himself up. “You know, maybe we’ll just pass on brunch.”

“How many kids do you think we’d have?” I blocked him from leaving and he leapt back, holding his clothing between us like a shield. “What’s the square root of six thousand five hundred and eighty two?”

“What? Is… is that how many kids we’re having?” He was crying now, blocking his face from view. “What do you want me to say?”

“How many years does it take for an elm tree to reach maturity?” I wasn’t even letting him try to answer anymore “If Sarah is traveling five kilometers an hour down road A—”

“Oh God! Stop! Please!” He fell to his knees in front of me. I wanted to stop, but the sun had me now. We were smack dab in the middle of the day and he was the only human around.

“DO YOU WANT A SPRING WEDDING OR A FALL?” I screamed down at him and he tried to cover himself with his arms.

“Fall! Fall!” He managed to say through sobs of fear and confusion.

“HOW MANY LICKS DOES IT TAKE—”

“I DON’T KNOW!” He jumped up and pushed me aside. “Leave me alone!” He ran for the window and dove, shattering through the glass. I could hear him screaming his way down from my tenth floor apartment toward the street, then there were even more people screaming.

“Well…” I said to myself as I approached the window. The sun was edging back down the other side of the sky now and I no longer felt the compulsion to interrogate. I looked down to where a circle of people was forming around the man I had accosted into suicide. “There goes another good one.” I examined the broken glass hanging in my window frame and sighed. “Not to mention the damage deposit…”