Blood At The End Of The Rainbow

20250801

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

Once someone figured out how to make leprechaun gold shelf-stable it was in immense demand for cosmetics. Suddenly you could apply glittery body-spray with abandon, knowing that in a day the sparkles would vanish rather than lingering forever in creases. Throwing glitter no longer had environmental concerns attached, so long as you got authentic leprechaun products that is.
“Don’t be a fool - use fools gold!” had risen from tagline to meme, aided by the jaunty catchy music.
So for Sean, seeing a wavering rainbow shooting straight up was not only a normal sight, it meant he had a collection to make. That a leprechaun had a sealed cask of fools gold ready for processing.
It wasn’t until he got close that he realised this rainbow wasn’t sprouting from any of the usual addresses. And it was… something about how it wobbled and fluttered made him uneasy.
Was this just a young leprechaun learning how to call rainbows? Would he look like an idiot?
He slowed the truck and frowned up at the rainbow. Uncertain what to do.
Well… he supposed it couldn’t hurt to go check. But he left the truck on the side of the road rather than try and navigate it down the narrow lane, and made sure to lock up before setting off on foot.
Sure enough, there was no barrel of gold - instead he found a family of leprechauns lying bruised and bloody outside their home.
“Thank luck!” One sobbed, the only one he could see still conscious, and let the rainbow fade. “Please, call an ambulance, and hurry!”
Sean was already fumbling his phone out and dialling ‘933’. While he had no idea what street he’d been on thankfully he had a good GPS signal, and once he’d allowed access the responder told him help would arrive in twelve minutes.
“Do you know first aid?”
“I-I know human first aid…” Sean stammered, feeling wildly inadequate for the scene surrounding him.
The cobbled yard was soaked with blood, no less horrifying for being yellow instead of crimson. He could see several broken limbs. Oh god, that crunch under his shoe had been someone’s tooth.
“Do your best to stop bleeding, but don’t try and move anyone.”
“Right. Right.” Sean tucked the phone - call still going - into his chest pocket and crouched next to the leprechaun who’d signalled for help. Even accounting for the difference in sizes, she looked so young… “Help’s on the way and will be here soon. I, uh, do you have a first aid kit in your house? A-anything I can use to…?”
“Kitchen.” She whimpered, and with that permission he rushed into the home.
The dwelling had been ransacked. What had happened here? And who had done it? And… were they definitely gone?
Sean gulped and brushed aside guiltily enticing thoughts of being safely in his van. Yes, he wasn’t trained for this. Yes, he’d called people who were. Yes, this was technically nothing to do with him.
But here he was. He couldn’t just run away.
Oh thank goodness the first aid box was clearly labelled. And one of the drawers which were hanging open was full of crisp clean tea towels.
He really hoped that whoever owned them wouldn’t be upset about him covering them in bloodstains. But there were a lot of injuries out there and he didn’t know what to do!
First aid kit clutched in his hands, arms piled with linen, he stumbled back out into the horror.
Had he remembered to put his phone on speaker? “A-are you still-”
“I’m still here, sir.” The voice came clearly from his pocket. “Please remain calm.”
“Right. Yeah.”
Calm was a distant memory, but the panic was numbing into its own kind of high-pitched background buzz which he could think past.
“What do I do if they’re bleeding but their arm’s broken? I don’t want to…”
“Do you have something to stop the bleeding?”
“I have a first aid kit and clean towels.”
“Alright. Then…”
While later his phone swore that the call only lasted seven minutes, of which probably only five involved him following the terse, soothing instructions, it felt like an eternity before the ambulance roared up the lane.
Sean could almost hear his instructor barking “You never leave your truck blocking the way, you don’t know when emergency services’ll need to get through!”. He owed the guy an apology for rolling his eyes. Thank goodness that wisdom had been forcibly engraved into his mind despite teenage flippancy.
Relieved to be able to just get out of the professionals’ way, he gabbled thanks to the person on the other end of the line and hung up.
But then he was at a loss whether he should be heading straight back to his truck or not. Did he need to be questioned? Give a… witness statement, or something? Not that he’d really witnessed anything, but they wouldn’t know that until they questioned him, so…
The leprechaun who’d signalled for help was talking to one of the responders. Sean hesitantly drifted over.
“-convinced we make it out of real gold and wouldn’t believe us-”
Oh.
Really?
That seemed like such a, a silly reason for this violence. Not knowing that leprechaun gold was made of pure magic.
Admittedly, even if it was somehow made of real gold, this horrific scene wouldn’t make any more sense to him. How could you do this to somebody? A family that was just minding their own business.
He… should probably update his boss. He fumbled his phone back out in a daze.
“Morning, Sean.”
“I… I’m gonna be late picking everything up.”
“More roadworks?”
“No. I…”
Why was his hand shaking? Oh. Tears. Everything suddenly hit him, leaving his stomach knotted and breath ragged and head swimming.
“P-p-people were attacked, and…”
“What?? Stay there, I’ll come pick you up!”
Sean closed his eyes and focused on breathing.
It would be a while before he stopped feeling anxiety when following rainbows.

Prompt was “Your character manages to travel to the end of a rainbow, but instead of a pot of gold, they find…”