Chapter Three
Lyssa
Lyssa woke to the blaring sound of the alarm clock. She smacked it a few times until she hit the off button. Disoriented, she sat up and wondered what day it was.
Her legs dangled over the edge as the blood rushed into them. Slowly, she got up and looked at herself in the mirror. Dark circles sat under her puffy eyes and her hair was a mess of curls. She looked like a doll you find at the bottom of a toy chest, forgotten and tossed around. She glanced at her calendar trying to remember what day it was when a knock came to the door.
“Lyssa,” her dad’s voice came from the other side.
“Yeah,” Lyssa replied flopping back on her bed.
“Don’t you have that thing you’re going to today for school? Something for a class…biology or something like that…” His voice trailed off going downstairs.
“Oh my God!” Lyssa yelled looking at the clock. “Twenty minutes!” Frantically she threw on her clothes, brushed her teeth, smoothed her rat’s nest hair and rushed out the door with a bagel in her mouth.
She ran towards school for the first three blocks and then walked the last. It was embarrassing enough to be late. As she walked, she tried to piece last night together.
Looking at her palm, she remembered it burning. It had to be an allergic reaction. But it was glowing. It was no allergic reaction. Should she say something to her dad? He would take her to the doctor, and then what? Telling them that some odd shape birthmark was glowing around the edges isn’t a normal thing, at least having a rash is treatable. She clenched her fist pushing last night’s confusion away.
With the school building in sight, she quickened her pace just as the last of her class boarded the bus.
“Ms. Cleverthron,” Mr. Nelson always addressed his students in a formal manner. “You’re late, here are your papers.
“Thanks,” Lyssa took them and boarded the bus.
Most of the class sat in the middle to the back; Lyssa plopped down a few seats behind the driver. She just wanted this to be over with. Collect the leaves required, label them and hope her dad doesn’t forget her. Laying her head back on the seat she closed her eyes almost letting her mind wander to Toby before it was interrupted.
“You’re my partner,” an annoying voice said followed by the seat puffing up under Marvin’s weight.
He looked like a Cupie Doll. Fat cheeks, obliviously innocent expression and a few freckles. He looked like he hadn’t matured since fourth grade even though he was taller than Lyssa. She knew all through school he had some sort of disability, but she didn’t know exactly what.
“I don’t think we need partners,” Lyssa said, wishing he’d go away.
“Look, I brought my plant book; it has a section on trees of Illinois.” He opened the book ignoring Lyssa.
“That’s great, but I’ll just go on my own,” Lyssa said knowing she had to be to the point with him.
“I’m going to try to find a rare plant though I am not sure what yet.” He looked at the book like a person going through a clothing catalog.
“I don’t want to be your partner,” Lyssa said flatly. Marvin ignored her flipping through his book and rattling on about trees.
Lyssa closed her eyes and pretended she was somewhere else far, far away. Suddenly, the bus hit a pothole, opening her eyes she saw an eyeless, white fanged wolf face in front of her. She let out a scream followed by her hand containing it. The whole bus irrupted with laughter including Marvin who kept saying how funny it was.
Craig got her again with his mask that she wished she could fling out the bus window. After last night at her house with Sam getting in Toby’s truck and Craig scaring her, Toby was only seeing the idiot side of her. She wasn’t a small, frightened little girl. She cooked for her dad, helped him pay his bills and even kept track of his checkbook.
She felt her cheeks flush. Why should she even care what Toby thinks, he has Megan. Lyssa is a lump of nothing in the social status of things so, why add heartache to that lump. One day she’d be out of high school and would find her place in the world, far, far away from here.
The winding, gravel road that lead to the campground was covered in a canopy of tall trees just starting to change into fall colors. Mr. Nelson instructed that they should stay within the trails and don’t go down to the lake. The grounds looked like a ghost town with the wind blowing through the white pines making them hum as if they were alive. The chain on the flagpole clanked against the pole making its own rhythm. Lyssa suddenly was aware of her surroundings like she’d never experienced before. Everything was amplified.
“Your partner is leaving you,” a voice said, bringing her to her senses.
She turned to see Toby pointing to a trail opening behind her. Great, now he has a reason to think she was an airhead. Lyssa smiled and quickly went down the path red-faced.
Marvin had gone to look for his rare plant on his own, which was fine with her. She looked at her list and found quickly a white oak leaf, soft maple that wasn’t as colorful as the sugar maples and an ash leaf. The shape reminded her of her freckle. She opened her hand thinking of last night. What caused it and could it happen again?
“Lyssa,” Marvin whispered behind her.
“What?” She snapped.
“Guess what I found,” he sounded like a kid opening a Christmas present, “a Maiden Hair Fern.”
“Wonderful,” she whispered back still walking in front of him.
“Do you want to hear the story about it?”
“No,” she whispered in a fake nice tone.
“There once was a princess who lost all of her hair.” Marvin ignored her. “Her chambermaid feeling sorry for her made her a wig out of the delicate ferns. You see when the leaves are off it almost looks like hair.”
“Great,” Lyssa replied hoping he’d go away.
“It will be our secret,” Marvin said, turning from her.
Lyssa followed the trail’s steep rises and falls. She had to find one more tree, and then she was done. She heard some of the kids going back up to the campgrounds, and knew she had to hurry. Stopping, she looked around and found a tree she hadn’t pulled a leaf from.
It looked something like a maple but was smaller. The only problem was that it was too high. If only she was a little taller. She jumped several times with her hand in the air trying to grasp one of the leaves. Finally, she got one she didn’t accidentally rip in half. She would let her partner identify it for her.
Mr. Nelson yelled for everyone to return when something deep in her suddenly curled around squeezing her insides. Feeling paralyzed, she dropped to her knees letting the bag of leaves float to the ground. What was wrong with her? A burning sensation filled her hand—not again. Shaking, she looked at her palm. Light radiated its edges like a neon sign. Her head felt heavy and the forest trees overhead twirled in her vision. She would’ve yelled, but no sound came from her mouth.
She’d be embarrassed if found like this, but was too frightened to let that bother her. Lyssa could hear the distant voices of her classmates laughing oblivious to her absence. Then the motor of the bus turned over, went into gear and rumbled away as blackness filled Lyssa’s vision.
Lyssa woke to a dim light and the muffled sound of voices. She propped herself up looking around. Her head swam with confusion.
“If you try to fight me, I’ll kill you right on the spot,” a blonde haired woman said pouncing from out of nowhere in front of her.
“Who are you? What is going on?” Lyssa asked as her hands were being tied together with a thin, gold strand of rope.
“Be quiet, I don’t like Etherworlders,” she said, looking at her with sapphire colored eyes.
She stood up with her loose golden hair surrounding her oval face. Lyssa thought the girl looked like an angel, but certainly didn’t act like one. She glanced around trying to find something.
“None of thes
e trees will do,” she said, looking past Lyssa. “If only they gave me other means. We will have to go somewhere else.” She nodded towards Lyssa with her eyes on whoever was behind her.
Suddenly, Lyssa was picked up by large hands and flung over their shoulder. Whoever had her was tall, muscular and had very rough clothing on that pinched the skin on her stomach. Their gait was rigid, but very agile over the rough terrain. Branches rubbed against Lyssa pulling at her hair and clothing as they went by.
“Etherling, are there any large trees around here?” The woman asked bringing them to a stop.
“Large tree—what?” Lyssa asked wondering why she was concerned with finding a large tree. “Who are you?”
“Put her down this will have to do,” she commanded.
Lyssa dropped to the ground. Water seeped into her clothes and something gritty rubbed against her face. They were at the sandy edge of Heron Lake. Lyssa recognized the white limestone cliffs that bordered a section of the lake. The dim light was fading to darkness. She wondered if anyone was looking for her. Surely her dad had missed her by now. She tried to prop herself up with bound hands.
“We can use the water to make a portal. Not only will it be discreet, but they’ll certainly be surprised at my ability,” the woman said, looking over her shoulder at whoever was standing beside Lyssa.
Gazing up at the looming figure, she tried to make sense of her captors. This had to be a dream or two mental patients had abducted her. The darkness shrouded the woman’s quiet companion who looked deformed even in the faint light.
The head looked smaller than the body which seemed to be hunched over slightly. Suddenly, their head turned sensing Lyssa’s gaze on them. Peering down at her were two red eyes slowly curving into two upsides down crescents.
Lyssa tried to push herself away when the creature bent down shoving his face in hers. Frozen in fear, she barely let out a gasp as the creature’s mouth opened revealing yellow, needle-like teeth. It had no nose, only two small holes flaring with each breath. Scales covered its entire body with only a pulled back small section of black, coarse hair like a horse’s mane.
This caught the woman’s attention stopping her creation of a beautifully intricate arched design that looked like a doorway. In her right hand was a pencil-sized, silver rod that had created the illuminating, midair structure. Lyssa couldn’t take her eyes off of it.
“Leave her be,” she scolded coming over to Lyssa.
“I don’t want any trouble from you,” she said, bending down.
“Who are you?” Lyssa demanded.
The woman’s mouth curled into an evil smile that made Lyssa shiver.
“Why I am your worst nightmare dear,” she said, with a laugh echoing in Lyssa’s head until everything faded to black.
People of Fae Page 5