by Joe DeRouen
Sparks rained down from the archway, showering the ground with glowing red, and Anna realised that the roped off area was no longer safe. She looked around wildly as another pair of fountains lit inside the roped area. How could the Ackersleys have thought putting their guests inside an arch of dripping fire was appropriate? She looked around, searching for a way out, noting absently that Haley was trying to squash her wide skirts together, attempting to minimise their ability to catch sparks, while her knight companion gallantly raised his plastic shield above their heads.
“This isn’t safe! Mrs. Ackersley!” shouted Jake.
Anna looked around again. Mrs. Ackersley was nowhere to be seen, and the dwarf, Darion, and her husband, had vanished. Behind them, another group of guests seemed oblivious to the oncoming danger. Two more rows, and they’d all be directly under the arching fireworks.
They’d lost their beauty, realised Anna, lost it in the swirl of fear, and flame. Ringed in by the fireworks around them, they were trapped. She looked down the burning archway ahead of them - the earliest fireworks were beginning to die down, and the worst of their crackling, spraying heat was spent. The fairy creatures were gone. If they ran…
“Quickly! Before the ones on either side start!” She gestured forwards.
“Good idea, Anna!” said Ella. Jake tugged at Aiden’s arm, and gestured forwards.
“Mason, Laura, come on!” shouted Anna, and then turned and beckoned to the group behind them. She had no idea if they heard her voice, because the firework to their right went up in a flare of gold sparks, just before the one on their left sprayed silver. She was off and running, urging her new friends into motion. Her cloak billowed behind her, and she grabbed at it with one hand, pulling it close as she ran. She could feel the warmth of the fireworks above and to either side as she shielded her face with her free hand while she hoped desperately the others were following.
The pathway under the arching fireworks seemed endless, longer than she could possibly have imagined, and the rope was nowhere in evidence - probably burnt, she thought. Eventually the heat on either side began to die, and the light dimmed. Anna didn’t slow though, just kept on running, worried about the possibility of an unseen fixed piece engulfing them all in its fiery embrace. Somehow, she’d managed to run through the remnants of the earlier ones without noticing them.
“Anna! I think we’re safe, you can stop running!” It was Ella, forcing the words out through puffs and gasps. Anna slowed and then pulled up completely, turning to look back behind her.
Heart pounding and chest heaving, Anna bent forward with her hands on her thighs.
“Whatever were they thinking?” screeched Haley. Her makeup had run, and her face was streaked with mascara and smudged with foundation. “That was ridiculous!”
“Wait till we tell the police,” gasped Laura. Her pirate companion nodded angrily.
“If you hadn’t thought to run this way, we’d have gone up like torches,” said Mason. His puffy sleeves were smouldering in spots, and Anna could see Aiden beating out tiny patches of smoke at the back of Haley’s skirt.
Anna walked her hands up her legs and looked back the way they’d come. Her mind refused to process what it was seeing. “Look!” she gasped.
Ella looked up. “What are you going on about, Anna?”
“Look!” Anna pointed urgently behind them, and as one, the group turned and looked.
Where there should have been the remains of a fireworks display and another group of frightened teenagers, there was only a blank rock face, extending into darkness on either side, and lit only by the brilliance of Haley’s costume.
“What the…” Jake’s voice trailed off into silence, and for a moment no-one spoke.
“Wh-where are we?” asked Ella.
“Where’s everything gone?” asked Laura. Her gypsy dress was slightly skew-whiff, and her hair was a mass of tangles.
Anna shook her head mutely. Her brain refused to process the images properly. One moment she’d been running, and then, the next she was…where?
“I have no idea where we are - could we have misjudged how far we ran?” she asked hesitantly, “I mean, you’re all much more familiar with the area than I am.”
“No way,” replied Mason. “We weren’t running that long, and there were still fireworks spouting off only a moment ago.” He dropped his hands from his sleeves and looked around. “This is nuts. Haley, move a bit closer.”
“Why?”
“I need to get a better look at this.” He pointed to something on the ground near his foot. Haley stepped a bit closer, and he bent down and picked it up, turning it so that her multicoloured light played over it. “Look, it’s a piece of firework!”
“But - how?” asked Ella, gesturing to the grey rock face.
“Hallowed of nights,” said Anna, sighing. “Remember what Mrs. Ackersley said?”
“What do you mean,” said Aiden. “Of course it’s hallowed - it’s Halloween.”
“Yes, but does anyone ever call it ‘hallowed’?” asked Anna, “Like, in normal conversation?”
“Well, no…”
“I think there’s more to this than we’re seeing right now,” replied Anna. “Look - you’ve all said we’re not anywhere you know, but Mason’s found a bit of one of the set pieces - what if we went from where we were to somewhere else?” She could hardly believe what she was saying herself, so she wasn’t surprised when Aiden shook his head scornfully.
“You mean, like to another dimension or something? That’s just stupid,” he said.
“Well, what other explanation do you have?” asked Anna.
“We’re just lost,” he replied. “We must have run too far.”
“But Aiden,” replied Mason, “What about this?” He brandished the exhausted firework at his friend.
“Maybe it just got caught on your trousers - they’re wide enough.”
“Aiden!”
“Stop it you two,” said Ella, frowning. “We’re lost - none of us have any idea where we are, and at least Anna’s been thinking about it, because whatever’s happened, it’s clearly not normal. Look, we can’t have run in a straight line and suddenly ended up on the other side of a cliff face without noticing!” She stuck her hands on her hips.
Anna looked around at the faces staring at her in the light of Haley’s dress. They were uncertain and pale. She walked over to the rock face, and began to run her hands over it, wondering if it was just a mock up, like the barriers players ran through at the football, and if it might be part of the Ackersley’s display.
It wasn’t a mock up. It was rock; solid under her seeking hands, with small plants and moss clinging to it. She cast her eyes around, looking at the lifeless firework in Mason’s hand, and then retraced her steps back towards the cliff. She crouched, feeling around in the dirt, with a sudden thought.
“Haley, can you come a bit closer, please?”
“I wish you wouldn’t all treat me as if I were a torch,” said Haley.
“Sorry, but you’re our only light source at the moment,” replied Anna, absently. “Look!” She pointed down at the ground. The rock face melded with the dirt below her pointing fingertip, but protruding from the rock was the remains of yet another of the fireworks. “Just move to your left Haley, if you wouldn’t mind.” There was a grunt from the other girl, but she stepped to the left and Anna pointed again. “And there’s another one! We did come through here!”
“But how?” asked Ella. “It’s clearly solid.” She stepped up beside Anna, tapping with her hands. “And there are plants on it.”
“I want to go home,” said Haley. She sat down suddenly, in a puddle of light and crumpled dress. “What you’re saying is impossible.”
“It might be impossible, but the evidence is here, before your eyes,” replied Anna. “Somehow the fireworks sent us here - and if I’m right, they were set up to do so. If we’d stayed where we were, we’d have been burnt - so we were herded - but why?”
/> “It has to be the Ackersleys,” replied Jake. “But why?”
“And how do we get back?” asked Laura. There was silence. How were they to get back?
Anna looked around. Three hours ago, she’d been moping around, homesick for the Pilbara, and now, she was who knows where, with no way of getting back to her family, and the answer to why she was where she was, was a mystery. It put her earlier misery into the context of a toddler’s temper tantrum, and the first tiny tickles of fear began to weasel their way down her spine.
“I think I’m more concerned as to why we’re here,” she said. “Why were we sent?” She looked skyward, searching the night sky, looking for the familiar constellations of home, as she had so many times since they’d moved. She shook her head - she was in the northern hemisphere, of course there was nothing she recognised. “Do the stars look normal to any of you?” she asked.
“Not to me,” said Ella, “but I’ve never really been an outdoors type. Jake, what do you think - you hunt and camp a lot.”
He looked skyward for a moment. “This isn’t our sky,” he said. “I’ve never seen these stars before. Do they look like this from the southern hemisphere, Anna?”
“No,” she replied. “Not at all. Does anyone have phone reception?” She went to pull her phone from her pocket, but a snarling sound interrupted her.
“What was that?” squeaked Haley.
“I have no idea,” whispered Anna. “But it doesn’t sound friendly.” She looked around, wondering if there was any way they could climb the rock face, or perhaps a nearby tree. The snarl sounded again, closer, and Jake motioned in the half light of Haley’s dress.
“Quick, turn it off, Haley!”
“What?”
“Turn off your dress!”
“Why?”
“Just do it! We don’t know if it’s attracting…that!” Another snarl ripped through the darkness.
Belatedly, Haley fumbled in her bodice, and then the light from her costume died.
“Join hands,” whispered Anna, sticking her own blindly out to one side. She felt someone else grab her shoulder and then her hand.
She tugged on it and began to move parallel with the rock face, trailing her companions behind her, trying to see or feel if there was a way up, or into, the solid rock. She had no idea where she was going, but the snarling sound had been joined by another, and she was becoming more frightened by the second.
Mind you, she thought grimly, kangaroos didn’t snarl, and you never heard a snake. Perhaps it might be a bear, or a mountain lion. Jake might know. “Jake, does it sound like something you’ve heard before?”
“No,” he said shortly, and Anna heard the apprehension in his voice. She kept moving, trying to tread silently, but knew that even if she was quiet, her companions sounded like a herd of elephants. And their Halloween costumes weren’t helping.
More snarls joined the others, and then a series of bobbing lights appeared, moving parallel with them, effectively pinning them against the rock face. “What are they?” whispered Laura.
“I can’t quite see,” replied Mason. “Can anyone?”
“Something flying?” replied Ella.
“Are the lights making the snarling?” asked Aiden.
“Maybe,” replied Haley. “Hang on, they’re coming closer.” Her voice was quivering but determined, and Anna felt a new respect for the bedraggled princess.
Her own eyes searched the darkness, still trying to find some kind of refuge, when her hand dipped into a hollow on the rock wall to her right. “I think I’ve found something we can tuck into,” she called quietly. “Haley, I think we need you to turn on again, just for a moment.”
There was a bright flare of light as the other girl complied, and Anna could see the rock face bent inward, forming a niche, and there was a rock barrier that might provide them with some protection. “In here! Quick!”
She led them into the space, and then asked Haley to turn her dress off again, shutting her own eyes the moment she’d spoken, hoping to regain her night vision more quickly. The snarling intensified, and the tiny lights grouped together, flickering and spinning.
Anna’s heart began to pound, as a loud crunching of vegetation sounded through the darkness. Whatever the flickering things were, there was something else with them. Something bigger.
“Can anyone see what’s out there?” whispered Anna.
“No, but it surely isn’t happy,” replied Jake. “What do we have that might be used as a weapon?” In the faint starlight, Anna could see that he was brandishing a stick.
“I’ve got my sword and shield,” said Aiden doubtfully, “But the shield’s plastic, and the sword’s just painted wood.”
“I’ve got a plastic cutlass,” said Mason, “but my telescope’s real, and it’s heavy brass.”
“I’ll see if I can pick up any rocks,” came Laura’s voice. “My costume doesn’t really run to weapons.”
“I’ve got a capsicum spray,” replied Haley.
“What?” said Anna.
“Dad insisted,” said the other girl, and Anna saw her shoulders shrug in the dimness.
“I’ve got my bow, and some real arrows,” said Anna. She pulled the case from her back, and began to string the bow by feel.
“Can you actually shoot?” asked Jake, curiously.
“A bit. I was in an archery club at home.” She was quite good, particularly at longer ranges, but now wasn’t the time to boast. “And the fake arrows could be used at a pinch, but I don’t think they’d go very far. How about I give them to Laura and Ella? They might be useful close in, and they’re better than nothing.”
The snarling and crunching was growing closer, and the spinning lights formed into rows, as Anna finished stringing her bow. Not that she’d be able to hit anything if she couldn’t see what she was doing. She handed her fake arrows to Laura and Ella. Ella had pulled the diver’s mask she’d been using as part of her minion costume off her forehead and was swinging it reflectively, causing what little light there was to glint off the faceplate.
“If anything gets close enough I should be able to clock them with this,” she said.
“Good idea,” said Jake. “But I think we’re going to need some light if we’re to make the most of the only real weapon we’ve got. Haley how fast can you strip the lights off your dress?”
“Well, it took me forever to put them on, but I suppose it doesn’t matter if I rip my dress taking them off,” sighed the girl. “Give me a hand, Aiden.”
“Give them to Laura then,” said Anna. “She’s the least well armed, and if she can rig them up high enough, I might be able to see to shoot. Hurry!”
She nocked an arrow, counting the number of remaining arrows she’d transferred into her quiver with her fingertips, as the rows of dancing lights began to advance towards them. Behind them, a spiral of red flicked into existence, and something crunched loudly through the vegetation. In response, the bundled LEDs blazed into brightness, shining their light over the group, and the ground in front of them.
The rows of tiny lights seemed marginally dimmed, but the red spiral flared in response, and then was joined by a second.
Anna raised her bow and prepared to draw, as the others stood shoulder-to-shoulder brandishing their mismatched collection of weaponry. Mason held his plastic cutlass in one hand and the telescope in the other. Out of the corner of her eye, Anna noticed Aiden had gallantly given his shield to Haley, and Ella was swinging her mask in one hand, while the other held one of the fake arrows like a dagger before her.
Despite the incongruousness of her bright yellow onesie, Ella looked determined and collected. Anna wished she felt like Ella looked. Resolutely, she turned her attention outwards, squinting as the rows of lights finally crossed from darkness into the light. Disbelief warred with fear, as the lights resolved into fairies, each one delicately garbed in what could only be described as a Tinker Bell outfit, but festooned with what looked like real bones and teeth. Tiny
faces snarled and mouths opened to reveal pointed black teeth, while small hands brandished tridents.
“You have to be kidding,” said Aiden. “Evil fairies? Now I do believe we’re somewhere else.” He rearranged his stance slightly, holding his wooden sword like a baseball bat.
“Good idea,” replied Mason repositioning himself.
“Try the capsicum spray first,” said Jake, “Maybe it’ll disorient them. Then we’ll attack. Anna, save your arrows. I have a nasty feeling about the red things.”
Anna nodded. So did she.
The sudden sound of a horn split the air and the ranks of fairies charged. Anna heard the hiss of the pepper spray, followed immediately by shrieks, and then the sounds of meaty thunks as the telescope, wooden sword and stick went into action.
“Ouch, they bite!”
“Hit that one, Aiden!”
“They’re going for our eyes - put your mask on Ella!”
Anna tried to keep her eyes on the red-lit spirals, but the sound of her friends fighting the fairies was distracting. Every now and then a stick or telescope, and once a fistful of her fake arrows, would knock a fairy away from her. Several times she had to duck as tiny tridents screamed towards her, but most of the time she kept her eyes fixed on the two red glows. They were slowly coming closer.
Finally, the creatures came into view, hazy through a cloud of fairies and capsicum spray. “Unicorns!” called Anna. But just like the fairies, they weren’t the graceful white unicorns of legend - these were nightmares. Glinting black under the blue and white LED lights, their horns threw off the red glow she’d seen through the trees. Red and ominous, backlit heads tossed, to show off spines instead of manes, and forked tongues flickering from fanged mouths. Claws, and not hooves, trod the dirt, slicing plants into pieces and leaving blackened mush where they trod.
Anna drew her bow and sent her first arrow at the nearest one as it leapt clear of the screening vegetation. She missed, but not by far. A shrieking buzz heralded a fairy as she nocked her second arrow. She almost ducked, but a flailing telescope struck the diving shape. Anna steadied herself, drew, and then fired. This time the arrow flew true, striking the black beast in its quarters.