Kaleidoscope

by Mindy Hayes

  “What are you?” I gaped.

  Why was I still here?

  “Again. I’m the one who should be asking you that question.” He was smiling now, overly confident. “You shouldn’t be able to see me.”

  “Of course, I can see you. I’m not blind,” I spat.

  “You should be.” He never took his eyes off of me, certainty in his stance. His toned shoulders pulled back, puffing his muscled chest forward.

  “I’m about to start screaming in three seconds if you don’t answer my question,” I tried to threaten. My backbone was wobbling. I wanted to be strong, but his confidence was unsettling and yet. . .I wanted to know more, couldn’t break myself away from his hold on me.

  He chuckled, unafraid. “Princess,” he said, superiority lining his tone. “I don’t think you get it. Humans can’t see me. If you scream and they come running, they will see you standing alone. I only show myself to those I choose, and if you can see me without my consent, it means there is something not human inside of you.”

  I’m sorry? There was something not human about him: his agile movement; his entrancing eyes; his alluring smile; and those freakishly pointy ears! I was being torn in two directions. One wanted me to run as fast as I could away from the trees, never to return, while the other tied me to him and the nature surrounding us.

  “Please,” I asked. “What are you?”

  “You really don’t know?” He looked at me with a curiously amused expression that I wanted to smack off his face.

  I stared at him with an agitated edge. “If I honestly knew would I really be asking?”

  He chortled. “Well, well, well. Feisty. I knew you’d have to be.” I didn’t reply. I was waiting and I’d wait all day if that’s what it took. He sighed when he realized I wasn’t as amused as he was. “A faery. I’m a faery,” he said, deadpan.

  Chapter Four

  “If you’re a faery then I’m the Easter bunny.” I laughed without humor.

  He shook his head and batted his hand at me. “Don’t be absurd. Bunnies are furry and they hop about. You seem to walk perfectly fine.”

  I rolled my eyes. This guy belonged in a mental institution. “Shouldn’t you be like three inches tall?”

  “I’m afraid you are mixing faeries with pixies. They are the little annoying ones that buzz in your ears and spread pollen on the flowers.”

  “I think you are mixing pixies with bees,” I stated candidly.

  He puckered his lips and thought for a moment. “Nope. Pretty sure it’s pixies.”

  Okay. If we were going to play this game, I could play along. I knew how to play nicely. Sort of. “All right, wild-man-in-my-backyard, if you are a faery where are your wings?”

  He began walking casually around me, studying me as if I was the riddle to be deciphered. Though I knew I should be scared, I wasn’t. I was curious and confused, maybe a little apprehensive, but he didn’t seem dangerous. That nervous intuitive sensation in the pit of my stomach at the presence of danger didn’t surface.

  “What kind of a man would I be if I had wings? Now that’s just silly.” He grunted. His light steps circled me, but he kept a safe distance, careful not to startle me.

  I folded my arms across my chest, following his every move. “Can you really call yourself a man if you’re a faery?”

  His electrifying eyes grew puzzled, but the corner of his mouth turned up, smirking again. “I think you’re trying to insult me.”

  I gave him an affirming stare down and nodded. I don’t know what it was that was keeping me here. My instincts should send me running back to safety and yet there was nothing that could move me from this spot, on this mushy leafed ground, away from this mind-boggling whatever-he-was.

  “Well, princess,” he said, keeping his tone playful. “It turns out you’re a faery too so I suggest you hold off with the jabs. You and I are one and the same.”

  I laughed. I don’t know how it came so easily when he left me feeling so uneasy, but in that moment, even with his arrogance, I felt more self-assured. Where was his logic? “If I’m a faery, where are my pointy ears and wings?”

  His hand brushed over his chin, the leaves on his wrist quietly flickering as he mulled over my question. “I’ve been wondering the same thing. You look so naked without your wings.”

  I shifted my arms back across my chest, feeling exposed. I wasn’t a faery. There was no such thing as faeries. And yet here was a guy who although a little crazy, definitely wasn’t human. He carried himself too effortlessly. . .and swiftly. He had unnaturally quick reflexes. And those eyes were unlike any human I’d ever seen.

  “The wings are normally the most beautiful part of the fae women. You’re probably just a late bloomer.” His scrutiny continued as if I was an equation that needed to be solved.

  “I can’t possibly be a faery. And you can’t either. So you have freaky pointy ears. Those could have been surgically altered.” Even as I said it I knew it sounded ridiculous. But what other explanation could there be? Surely, it couldn’t be his answer.

  He stopped and positioned himself easily against a tree, one leg propped up against the trunk. “You think a human would want to surgically alter their ears to look like a faery?” He was trying to rattle me, a teasing smile played on his mouth.

  “People do some extreme stuff to their bodies all the time. I wouldn’t put it past them,” I said. “So I guess that makes me a regular old human with normal ears and all.”

  He shook his head at me as if he pitied me, like I was being naïve.

  “Stop looking at me like that,” I demanded.

  He looked away instantly, but gradually recovered and said, “You give me no choice.”

  My stomach coiled.

  Before I realized what I was doing, I was standing face to face with the wild man. I felt this irresistible need to be close to him, to touch him, to smell him. He smelled woodsy, but not in a negative way. It was a citrusy musk, crisp. My heart was pounding in my chest for this guy in front of me. It was as if time stood still. My life had paused and everything fell away, but him. What is happening to me? My hand reached out to touch his chiseled face. I only wanted to run my fingers down his cheek, to feel the warmth of his pulse under his skin. What harm could that do?

  He smiled mischievously. “Do you believe me now?”

  My mind clicked back into play and I was myself again. I stumbled back, righting my footing so I wouldn’t fall. “What did you just do to me?”

  “It’s called Enticement. All faeries can do it,” he baited. His smirk never left his face, clearly pleased with his magical luring ability.

  “How did you. . .you. . .you just crawled into my head? You were in my head?” I asked in disbelief.

  “It’s just a simple trick,” he said, nearly sounding apologetic. “No harm done. It’s not like I took your memories.”

  “Don’t you ever do that again! My mind is all I can call my own. That should only ever be under my control.”

  “As you wish, princess.” He nodded, a glint of teasing in his eyes.

  “Would you stop calling me that?”

  He was so smug. It unnerved every part of me. I wanted to strangle this cocky, wild, beautiful boy!

  “Kai, leave her alone.” The voice came from up in the trees. I spun around, searching the limbs above us, but either he was camouflaged or I was blind. Then another figure dropped in front of me. I stumbled backward.

  They just kept falling out of the trees! Like acorns!

  “I apologize for the fright I might have given you. Please forgive me.”

  For the fright?

  He was undeniably handsome as well. A dark green vine wrapped up his left arm, but he also had something strapped around his bare tan shoulder. A bow and some wooden arrows? And his eyes were richly blue-green, almost aquamarine. How were these eye colors possible? Colored contacts? “You. . .you. . .” His ears were the same as the other one.

  “You must forgive us both. Kai was just l
eaving.”

  “I’m perfectly fine right here actually,” he chimed, still casually propped against the tree, scanning me up and down. He looked at me like no one had ever looked at me before, like I was the star exhibit at the zoo.

  “Are you a. . .” I broke off, my gaze flitting from boy to boy.

  “A faery as well? I’m afraid so. We’re not supposed to toy with humans. We’ll let you be now.” He half-turned his back to me, gesturing for Kai to walk with him, while still keeping an eye on me, most likely guarding his back. He didn’t seem to trust me. He would take one look at Kai and instantly gaze back at me.

  I didn’t move. There were now two wild men? How many more were there? What was this? Sherwood Forest? Why did they have to be shirtless? They radiated this bohemian, carefree aura. They were unafraid. Though it was my backyard, this was their territory. I was the trespasser. Did they live in this forest? It was preserved. How could that be possible?

  “Human. He said I wasn’t human.” I pointed accusingly at the infuriating one. “Which I know is just ridiculous. I am human. No pointy ears. No wings. No crazy vines.”

  He exhaled, running a hand down his face as if it would wipe away the frustration. “Calliope, will you please just go back home?”

  “How. . .how?” I stammered, my mind rolling in summersaults. “How did you know my name?”

  Without answering me, he turned. “Now look what you’ve done?” He snapped at Kai, throwing his muscled arms up in the air. “You couldn’t just leave her alone. You had to find out what was so different about her. You couldn’t just walk away.”

  “You know me. Always up to no good. But, I’m afraid you dug that hole for yourself, Declan.” Kai chuckled, looking too pleased.

  The one who knew my name, Declan, turned back to me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to alarm you. Just go back home and forget you ever met us. I can see this was all a mistake. I should have stayed out of it.”

  “But—”

  He eyed me seriously, almost endearingly. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll go back. And stay away from the forest. You’re not safe here.”

  “Declan,” Kai cleared his throat. “If I may.” Declan begrudgingly twisted his head back to see Kai who was now twirling a twig between his fingers. “She’s not just some human, not that she ever was,” he said under his breath. “I didn’t have to reveal myself. She saw me without my consent.”

  Declan sighed. I wasn’t sure if it was out of agitation or relief. “I realize that,” he said.

  “Realize what?” I asked.

  “You started it now,” Kai chided wryly. It was like his only purpose for sticking around was to irk Declan and rile me up.

  Declan ignored Kai. “What did Kai say to you, Calliope?”

  I shook my head fervently. “You never answered my question. How do you know my name?”

  He ignored me once more and spun back to Kai. “Will you just tell her to go back home? She’s obviously not going to listen to me.”

  “And what makes you think she’ll listen to me? We’ve been arguing since the moment she saw me,” Kai chuckled and crossed his arms over his pecs. His amusement was unraveling what little composure I had left.

  “Hey,” I called out, but no one turned my way. I should’ve just gone home, but I was in too deep now. I was too involved in their little world. Even with them occupied, they obviously knew where I lived so it wasn’t as if I was going to be able to escape them. They kept talking over each other. I couldn’t really decipher the problem they were trying to work out.

  “I realize that,” Declan was saying. “It doesn’t mean we should be pursuing it. She’s safer away from here, safer not knowing we exist.”

  “I know, but Declan, someone should protect her right?”

  “Excuse me,” I interjected more firmly.

  Declan spoke over me, hardly batting an eyelash at me. “That’s what I’ve been doing for that last five years. Then you come along and everything I’ve worked for is ruined. I watched from a safe distance. I wasn’t completely careless.”

  Five years?

  “It’s not as if she’s not going to realize it sooner or later,” Kai said. “At least this way she’ll have someone to go to if she has questions.”

  “Hey!” I screamed now.

  Their heads finally darted my way, at attention. That was more like it.

  I pointed at Declan. “You are going to tell me how you know my name,” I commanded. “And you,” I pointed at Kai, “are going to leave me alone.”

  Kai folded his arms and sat down Indian style against a fuzzy emerald boulder, seemingly unfazed. Uneasily, Declan shifted his stance as if he was a young boy who’d been scolded by his mother.

  “Talk,” I demanded.

  He moved toward me. “I’ve known you were different for quite some time,” he said. “I’ve been around.” His steps were hesitant as they neared me, measuring my range of comfort. “I know your name because I’ve heard your parents call out to you while you were outside.”

  “Why were you lurking in my trees in the first place?” I kept alert, watching his light footsteps glide back and forth as he tread through the small clearing.

  He sighed. “I’m a faery. I live in the forest. You’ve been able to hear me for a couple years, but never see me. I stayed around because I wanted to know the answers.”

  “And?” I questioned.

  He was mere inches away from me now, seeming to guard what he said to me. “You’re a faery and that’s all you have to know.” His aqua eyes searched my face for my reaction.

  How was it that if I was truly something mystical I hadn’t noticed anything particularly different about myself up until now? If, in fact, these two wild men weren’t psychotic escapees from the nearest insane asylum, why did I feel just like a regular teenager? As bothersome as a mosquito bite, the unnatural pulsing to be in the forest nagged at the back of my mind, reminding me I was disregarding one slight fact. I had known something was different. But being a faery? That was a little farfetched. Yes, I knew there was more to life than this. But this?

  “But I don’t have the same features as you,” I reiterated. It seemed important to emphasize that I didn’t resemble these half-naked men. Last time I checked my features were all very much human.

  “That will come,” he said easily. “Especially now that you’ve come in contact with us. The faery inside of you will start to wake up.”

  “You’re insane.” I shook my head and stepped away, coming to my senses.

  “Call me what you want, but the truth is what it is. The sooner you accept it, the easier this will all be. You can’t deny the blood that runs through you,” Declan said.

  “Faeries don’t actually exist. So you have pointy ears and unnatural eye color and he can seduce people or whatever. There’s obviously a logical explanation for it all.” The evidence was beginning to add up in my head as I said it and though they were unreal, they made strange sense.

  “I’m not the one who should be answering these questions,” Declan said looking uncomfortable.

  I chuckled humorlessly. “If not you, then who? I don’t recall meeting any faeries in the past.”

  He exhaled and lowered his eyes, but didn’t answer me.

  “Who am I supposed to ask? Please enlighten me,” I pressed again, feeling more frustrated than ever. I had been minding my own business when I had wandered in here. They were the ones to disturb me and bombard me with illogical information. I wasn’t about to let these two off the hook or get the run around. I wanted answers. Reasonable answers.

  Declan’s face grimaced, almost looking pained as if he had to answer me. He swallowed and said, “Finnian. . .your father.”

  “Why would my dad know anything about you?”

  “Because he used to be one of us,” Declan sighed.

  I shook my head fervently. “You are both lunatics.”

  “Ask him yourself,” Kai said, inching closer to me and pointing tow
ards my house. “He won’t lie to you. He can’t. He was once a faerie just like us. Just like you are now.”

  My mind clouded and everything started to blur. Their two figures wavered back and forth in front of me, overlapping.

  “Now you’ve really done it.”

  “Me? I had to answer her. I didn’t have a choice. You’re the one who ran with my answer. Besides, you even said she was going to realize it sooner or later.”

  I blinked, attempting to clear my vision, trying to put one foot in front of the other. I wanted to laugh, but I don’t think that was the noise that came from my mouth.

  “Is she okay?”

  “Does she look okay to you?”

  The voices fought back and forth, yet none of it made sense to me. How did my father have anything to do with this? What could he possibly know about faeries?

  “Maybe you should help her sit down.”

  “I don’t think she wants me to touch her.”

  The trees wavered and then stopped spinning, and I gained my balance.

  “There she goes,” a voice echoed.

  My feet sped over the weaving ground cover, kicking up dead wet leaves as I ran. I heard my name being called over and over, but I didn’t turn back. I couldn’t.

  Chapter Five

  When the need to reach a destination becomes so urgent, every other thought escapes you. The destination becomes like a heartbeat repeated over and over again in your mind, rhythmic and persistent.

  Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad.

  “Dad?” I hollered as soon as I opened the sliding glass door. “Dad?” I called louder, demanding an answer back, praying he was home.

  He came rushing in from the garage, his face coated with worry, a hammer and nail in hand. “What is it, honey? Are you okay?” He must have been building the fence. I’d forgotten all about that.

  It hadn’t occurred to me how I was supposed to start this conversation. Could I really sit here and accuse him of not telling me about the existence of faeries? Those two guys were probably rolling on the ground now, laughing about the prank they just pulled, the trouble they couldn’t help but stir up. But the second one, Declan, he seemed so earnest. He seemed like the type of person I wanted to trust.