Authors: Lauren Shelton
Tru nodded awkwardly, and then beamed a smile up at
her grandmother. She kept eye contact with Tru for a few
more seconds, and then fumbled with the keys as she
tried to place one of them back into the ignition.
As the car purred back to life, Tru
⎯ still giggling ⎯
turned to look out of the window, carefully taking in the
scenery that she had missed on the way over. The road⎯
a two-lane highway really⎯ was lined with tall pines on
both sides, with birch trees, ferns, and other shrubs poking out in scattered places between them. The forest was
so thick that one could only see about three feet into it
before it became a mysterious dark abyss. Every now and
then, there was a small, cabin styled shop or a café just a
few feet off the road, each with a single blinking neon
light in the window that read ‘OPEN.’ Things on the familiar highway seemed to be the same way they had always been. Woodcrest Hills rarely ever changed. In the
past five years or so that Tru had been coming to visit her
grandparents, only three new buildings had ever popped
up ⎯ a newer, slightly larger supermarket, a new post
office, and the small hospital that was meant to save people the hour and a half drive to the nearest emergency
room.
After Tru’s giggling fit had subsided, and about ten
more minutes of silence, Tru decided enough was enough.
Her questions still needed answering, and Margaret Mason was going to be the one to answer them. Tru knew
that Maggie knew the answers. She could pretend all she
wanted that she didn’t, but Tru saw through the awkward
fidgeting and the way Maggie would dodge the subject by
changing the topic.
“Grandma?” Tru asked, looking in the woman’s direction.
“Yes dear?” Maggie didn’t remove her eyes from the
road in front of them.
“Why did you get so skittish when I asked you about
the fairy myth?” Tru held her gaze on Maggie.
But the woman didn’t speak. Her hands were practically glued to the steering wheel.
“Well,” Maggie finally said as she glanced up at the
rear view mirror. “When I was your age, the myth was a
bit more dark and evil than the childish one they are telling people today.” She turned her eyes in Tru’s direction,
and then quickly back toward the road.
“What do you mean?” Tru asked curiously.
What can she possibly mean? I have actually met a
fairy. There is no way that Edyn could be evil. He is my
friend. I know I can trust him, no matter what she tries
to tell me about them.
Tru hadn’t once felt that she couldn’t trust Edyn. She
felt safe whenever he was around her.
“Well, the myth just said that the fairies hated the humans. They felt the humans were an abomination.” Tru’s
mouth fell open. She looked at her grandma.
Humans were the abomination?
“You see,” Maggie continued, “according to the version
I know, in the realm of the fairies, their kind are all born
with special abilities, some more than others, and some
more powerful than others. Humans, unfortunately, are
not. The fairies felt that we humans were worthless. In
other words, what good are humans if they don’t have any
abilities? So, the fairies felt as though they were superior
beings. They tried desperately to seek out all the humans,
to destroy them all, but, obviously, they failed.”
“Like Hitler?” Tru could feel her voice cracking as she
spoke.
“Almost exactly like him. Except, there was never a war
between the races. The fairies were inconspicuous when it
came to killing. They never made it obvious what they
were doing. They were meticulous, but they couldn’t keep
up, and at some point, they seemed to have given up. No
one really knew they even existed, so it was easy for them
to fade away. People wrote stories, made them seem less
harmful, but who knows if any of it is really true or not.”
“Wow,” Tru murmured to herself.
“Nowadays, people change things around a bit to make
it more like one of those Disney movies you used to
watch.” Maggie looked in her granddaughter’s direction
again.
“Do you believe in any of it?” Tru asked. She needed to
know if her grandma really had met Edyn or if it was just
a coincidence that he knew someone with the same name.
But how many humans with that name could he have
met? How many humans could he have met at all?
“Sometimes I think it’s too detailed of a story not to
believe it. But other times, I think I’m just reliving a
dream.”
“No,” Maggie
said bluntly. She didn’t even let her
granddaughter finish.
“But⎯”
“No.”
Maggie knew what Tru was getting at, and her responses answered every single one of the questions Tru
had yet to ask. If Maggie hadn’t have seen a fairy, she
wouldn’t have reacted the way she did. She would have let
Tru finish. And she definitely wouldn’t have known as
much as she seemed to.
Tru looked out of the window and watched the trees
passing by. Each one ticked away like seconds hurriedly
passing by on a clock.
One, two, three. Tick, tick, tick.
After another ten minutes passed by, the car was pulling into the driveway again. Tru hadn’t said a word to her
grandma since she had avoided Tru’s last question, making
it
awkward
to
even
say
thank
you
for the
short
amount of time they had spent together. So, Tru quickly
jumped out of the car, shut the door, and began walking
to the house.
“Gertrude,” her grandmother called, still standing next
to her car door.
“Yes?” Tru asked, turning around to face Maggie.
The old woman looked down at the ground cautiously
as she walked past the front of the car toward her granddaughter.
When she
was
about
three
feet
away,
she
paused and looked up at the young girl standing before
her.
“I know you want to go back into that forest.”
Tru’s eyes grew wide. How did Maggie know that Tru
wanted to go into the forest? Better yet, how did she know
that Tru wanted to go
back
? Tru knew she had spent a lot
of time there lately, but Maggie said it as though she knew
there was something out there that was important to the
young woman in front of her.
“How did you⎯?”
Maggie held her palm out in front of Tru’s face, stopping her granddaughter’s voice midsentence.
“Just promise me you’ll be careful, okay?”
Maggie looked straight at Tru now. Tru wanted to
make that promise, but her mouth wouldn’t respond. Her
voice stayed choked in her throat, behind pursed lips, and
she was still stunned that her grandmother had known
what Tru wanted ⎯ more than anything ⎯ at that moment.
Somehow, Tru managed to nod her head. It was the
only thing her mind seemed capable of doing. And as she
nodded, she thought quietly to herself.
She must have seen me venturing into the forest. But
what else had she seen?
Had Maggie seen the grass stains on her granddaughter’s pants from the day before? Had she done the same
exact thing when she was Tru’s age? How did she know?
Tru stared at her grandmother for a few more seconds
before turning toward the front door. Tru’s feet shuffled
against
the wet
cement
sidewalk like bricks
scraping
against a chalkboard. The damp walkway soon turned
into a waterlogged wooden porch, and then quickly shifted to a dry, soft carpet. Tru didn’t stop walking until she
reached her own room.
When she had made it past the threshold, Tru quickly
shut the door behind herself, took off her jacket, placing it
casually on the end of her bed, and then meandered her
way around the bedframe and to the window in front of
her.
Did he tell her? He couldn’t have. Did she find some
way to contact him and tell him? Impossible. Did she
have abilities too? Incredibly impossible. Did they even
still talk to one another?
Yeah right. There you go again, Tru, coming up with
ridiculous conclusions again.
Tru glanced over at the clock on the antique dresser.
10:38 A.M
.
Where has the time gone? It’s nearly eleven and it
seems like I haven’t done a single productive thing with
my morning,
she thought to herself.
Tru walked over to the hamper sitting in the corner by
her closet and emptied its contents onto the warm, tan
carpeted floor. Quickly, she began separating the clothes
into three piles⎯ socks and underwear, dark clothes, and
finally, light clothes. She looked down at the large heaps
of clothing on the floor. Each pile was nearly a full load.
Tru wanted to see Edyn today, but she had the feeling
that she was quickly becoming obsessed with someone
she hardly knew. But Tru hadn’t stopped thinking about
him all morning. She hadn’t even stopped thinking about
him when her grandmother had surprised her with the
shopping trip.
Tru could see his smiling face perfectly painted in her
mind⎯ his vibrant green eyes as they stared down at her
flushed face, his incredibly white teeth shining through a
pair of rose-tinted lips, his broad chin and nose that appeared masculine but soft all at the same time. Gertrude
could almost feel the warmth of his hand wrapped around
hers. She could smell remnants of the pine and campfire
scent of his darkened skin on her face and clothes from
when they had been resting against his bare, tattooed
chest the night before.
Quickly, Tru grabbed her black raincoat from the edge
of her full-sized bed, and practically ran to the back door
in the family room. Sometime within the last two hours, a
blanket of grey and ominous clouds had pulled itself over
the sky and blocked out the sun almost completely. It had
even begun raining again, but it did not bother Tru in the
slightest. She pushed open the sliding door ⎯ without
any amount of gentleness⎯ and ran to the forest.
Each drop of rain hit her face like tiny, clear daggers,
each one colder and more painful than the one before it.
The sky was dark⎯ it didn’t look like it was almost eleven in the morning, but rather eight o’clock at night. The
mixture of wet dirt and grass made slight sloshing noises
beneath Tru’s sneakered feet with every step she took⎯
her shoes quickly becoming saturated with water and
mud.
But Gertrude did not stop running, not even when she
reached the tree line. Instead, she pushed on, even faster,
following the familiar path through the woods. The trees
were dense, making the rain slightly less bothersome as it
collected in the canopy above, but the smaller droplets
had no change in their temperature. The air was cold too,
making her nose burn slightly as she inhaled, but it smelt
fresh and clean. The treetops rustled above Tru as the
wind passed furiously through them. She could feel her
heart pounding away in her chest, but Tru kept running.
She hadn’t realized until that moment, that she was extremely out of shape, even for the slender body she had.
When she finally made it into the open paddock, Tru
frantically began looking around. But, the meadow was
empty, just like it usually was. The rain seemed heavier
and colder here in the open air, but she hardly noticed
any of it. Her clothes were completely drenched through
to her pale, soft skin, and her hair, sopping wet, fell flat
against her flushed face, dripping thick streams of water
down her cheeks and forehead as she looked around.
“Edyn!” Gertrude shouted, slightly out of breath. She
felt like her lungs were going to burst. So she listened
carefully
as she
waited
for
a
response,
bending
over
slightly, trying to catch her breath.
“Edyn!” she called again after inhaling a few more
breaths of the chilling air.
Still,
there
was
no answer.
Aside
from
the
heavy
drumming of the rain hitting the trees around her, the
field remained motionless.
He had to hear me calling. He said he would come
when I needed him. So why didn’t he come now? Why
didn’t he answer me?
“EDYN!” Tru called one more time, at the top of her
lungs, making sure it was loud and clear. Her throat
throbbed⎯ sore and raspy from the chilled air. She listened to her voice as it reverberated off of the giant pines
on the other side of the meadow, echoing through the
clearing.
Nothing
.
The meadow, and the forest surrounding it, was completely vacant. The sound of the rain pooling up into
small puddles in the grass made small plopping noises
with every drop. The way it hit the trees sounded like tiny
pebbles being flung against a tin building.
Gertrude looked around the field. Her knees began to
buckle beneath her body, and soon, they were hitting the
ground with a thud. She sat there for a minute, looking at
the ground. She watched each blade of grass move delicately as the heavy drops of water pounded against them.
Slowly, she leaned back, shifting her weight off of her
knees and onto her seat, crossing her dainty arms over
her chest as she grabbed her elbows. She then began
rocking her aching body back and forth, trying to warm
herself in the cold open air, though she knew it was pointless. She could feel the tears running down her face, although part of her wasn’t sure if they were really tears, or
just the large drops of rainwater.
Maybe he’s busy,
Tru thought to herself.
But what if
he’s not? What if something’s wrong? But Edyn can take
care of himself. Maybe I should just wait a few more
minutes.
Tru waited for Edyn until the sky was jet black, fighting
with herself the entire time.
At some point during the afternoon, Tru had dozed off
to sleep. She noticed, when she finally decided to move,
that her body was curled up on the ground, with her arms
wrapped around her knees. The rain had finally stopped,
and as she rose from the ground, Tru looked down at the
deep impression her body had left in the muddy grass.
Tru looked up at the sky, but could not see a single star.
It’s still cloudy
, she thought, knowing it would soon
start to rain again.
“Edyn,” she said quietly to herself, barely a whisper.
He lied.
Tru looked down at the indentation of her body on the
ground again. Tears began to puddle up in her eyes, making it difficult to see out of them. As she blinked, a small
bead of water ran down her cheek. Tru slowly wiped it
away with the damp sleeve on her jacket ⎯ though it
didn’t really help much. Her clothes were still soaking
wet, making her body shiver and stiffen.
“Edyn, if you can hear me, please come to the meadow.
I
need
to talk to you.” Tru began pacing back and forth
around the small field, as she looked up at the trees. “This
is ridiculous,” she said quietly to herself.
Suddenly, the branches of the pines that surrounded
Tru and the field of grass began to shake violently. She
had heard that noise before. She knew it wasn’t just the
wind. It had to be him.
“LEAVE NOW!”
But it wasn’t Edyn’s voice yelling down at Tru from
somewhere hidden in the trees. This time, the voice belonged to a female.
“I SAID LEAVE!” The voice was furious, and incredibly
loud. It seemed to echo across the open patch of land,
almost as though the person speaking was holding a megaphone to her mouth.
Tru looked around the forest, balling her hands into
tight fists at her sides.
Where are you? Where are you hiding?
“Airi! I know it’s you! Show yourself! Tell me where
Edyn is right now!”
Tru waited, but there was no answer. Instead, the trees
above her grew
angrier. Their branches bounced and
shook threateningly. Eventually, the entire trunks of the
trees were swaying from side to side, in perfect unison.
Unexpectedly, Tru was knocked to the ground by a
sudden gust of wind. When she hit the soil and soggy
grass, her body felt as though it had been thrown against
a gigantic brick wall. Every breath she had remaining in
her lungs was immediately forced out through her mouth
and nose. And as she stood back up, she quickly brushed
herself off, discreetly looking for any signs of physical
body damage.
“Airi! I’m not afraid of you! And I don’t want to hurt
you!” Tru called out to the sky, not knowing exactly which
direction to look. “Just tell me where I can find Edyn and
I’ll leave!” She looked around the trees again as the rustling stopped. The gusts of howling wind had stopped. It
seemed as though she had given up.
Unfortunately, no matter how much she wanted that to
be true, Gertrude was wrong.
Again, Tru was quickly lifted from the ground and
thrust halfway up a thick tree trunk, leaving her legs dangling in the air below her. Her spine crunched as it
smacked against the bark of the large pine tree. As she
looked up at the branches above, bending and swaying
from the force of her body being thrown against the tree,
needles and pinecones fell towards the ground. Tru shut
her eyes quickly, hoping she wouldn’t be hit by any of
them.
But as she stayed pinned there, Tru realized that a
warm and firm hand was tightly wrapped around her
throat. Tru gasped for air as the hand tightened its grip
with even more force, lifting her body further away from
the ground. The bark of the tree scraped against her jacket, tearing small holes along the spine. Tru reached frantically for the hand, to try and pry it away from her neck,
but when she raised her hand to her throat, there was
nothing there. All that could be felt was the skin of her
own neck.
Tru’s eyes instantly shot open. She frantically looked
around the meadow, and immediately saw Airi emerging
from the line of trees on the opposite side, advancing
closer by the second. Her forehead furrowed in the middle, bringing her eyebrows together in a single straight
line. Her crimson red eyes were blank and cold. Her
bright pink lips were pursed together, turning them from
their once soft, natural, and beautifully full shape, to an
almost invisible thin line on her face. Her expression was
furious, but focused. Her arm was outstretched, making it
look like she was holding an invisible cup firmly in her
hand.
Quickly, Tru realized what Airi’s extra ability was. She
could move things without touching them. Airi was choking Tru with her
mind
.
As Airi walked closer, her hand still outstretched, the
trees behind her, that Tru was now intently focused on,
began to fade. Airi’s red eyes flickered violently through
the darkness, as though a spotlight was shining on them
and only them. They looked like two glowing glass marbles.
“Humans. They never seem to do what they are told,
no matter how many times you warn them.” Airi spoke
menacingly,
and
at
that
moment,
her
hand
wrapped
tightly around Tru’s neck. Tru’s eyes began to roll back
into her skull. She reached up, grabbing Airi’s bare wrist,
but there was no use. Tru’s breath was slowly depleting,
and she couldn’t stop it. She was completely helpless. She
could feel her face turning blue as she gasped for one last
breath.