I must have been more tired than I realised. Rubbing my eyes, I blinked profusely praying that this strange, little man sitting in my passenger seat was nothing more than a figment of my imagination. Even though I had heard him talk, there was no way this wasn't all in my head.
I turned my head to face the front of the car and stared through the windshield at a giant red balloon that was tied to the front bumper of my car. The strange man must have put it there while I was grabbing my coffee. Perhaps if I just ignored him, he'd go back to whatever recess of my mind that conjured him up. As the minutes ticked by, I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was growing more and more agitated. After fifteen minutes he exploded.
"SIR," he yelled into my left ear, "DID YOU NOT HEAR ME, SIR?"
It seemed obvious to me that the problem wasn't that I couldn't hear him, but that I most definitely could. I stretched out the index finger on my right hand and jabbed it into his side. The man let out a yelp as my finger confirmed that he was indeed corporeal.
"So," I reluctantly began, "you're... a fairy?"
"I am not just any fairy. I am your fairy, sir," he declared proudly.
"Erm...OK, I guess. And you're supposed to help me save the world?"
"That is right, sir! Only Tingle knows the magic words to stop all this and he swears he didn't make them up all by himself."
Sometimes when you wake up in the morning, you just know that it's going to be one of those days and unfortunately for me there was nothing in the world that could have prepared me for this. Not even the disappearance of the rest of the human race. Weighing up my options, I decided to play along with Tingle for now. I don't know why exactly but that name seemed somewhat familiar and despite looking like he was at least 35 years old and wearing a ridiculously tight-fitting green outfit, he was the first living thing I'd seen all day and it would be good to have some sort of company.
"OK," I replied, "You can come along for now. But I'm warning you, make one wrong move and I'll... I'll... eat you." He certainly looked like he could make a substantial meal if it ever became necessary.
"Yes, sir, Tingle understands, sir."
And just like that I had myself a rather strange companion. Weighing up my options of what to do next, I noticed that the light was fading. I'd spent more time talking to Tingle than I'd realised and the sun would be setting soon. I decided to get back on track with the original plan which was to drive back home, pack a bag with emergency supplies and set out to try and find some sort of clue about what it was that had happened whilst I was asleep. Perhaps Tingle might even be able to shed some light on that.
As I turned onto the street where my house was, I got a text message. I knew from the custom tone that it was from Josh and I could feel my anxiety creeping up on me again. I pulled into the driveway, stopped the engine and looked at my phone. The message was blank but there was an image file attached. I downloaded it, but at first glance was unable to make heads or tails of it. There was also some strange language I'd never seen before resembling hieroglyphs across the top. As fast I could I texted back: Josh? I'm so glad you're alive! Where are you? Is Sarah with you? What is this that you've sent me?
Ten minutes went by, and just as I was about to give up hope I got a reply. Two simple words: Tingle knows.