by Winter, Eden
And then I saw it. My sister was sitting on the floor on the other side of the room. I knew she was outdoors in the dark, but I could still see the room I was in beyond the vision. Isabelle was looking at something beyond me, and she was screaming. Her mouth had been gagged, but she’d managed to slip the gag off. It was now hanging loosely around her neck. There was a look of sheer terror on her face, and I could see the glistening of tears streaming down her cheeks. I couldn’t see her hands, and to me that meant they were tied behind her back.
Before the picture faded, I could hear a distant cry. It was like someone was shouting through a tunnel that was miles from where I was. My eyes squinted so that I could hear it better.
“Now,” was what the voice said, and then everything disappeared.
“I have to go,” I said when everything was back to normal.
“What happened? What did you see?” Eli asked.
“My sister’s in trouble, and I have to go now,” I said. I didn’t realize I was crying until I drew in a breath. I wiped the tears that were coming down my face. I put my empty plate down and stood up. There was no time. I didn’t know how I was going to get to where I thought she was, but I would find a way. I was running out of time.
“I’m coming,” Peter said. He stood up too.
“Me too,” Philomena said without skipping a beat. She and Reginald stood up and followed us.
“We’re all going,” Baylee said. She stood up and spread out her wings. She took flight and zoomed past everyone. “And I’m driving.”
*
We had driven to the front of the pharmacy where I worked. My body shook with impatience, but Eli said that it was something we had to do. He had only been gone for a few minutes, but I was prepared to leave him. I didn’t care if there were things he thought we needed from Mr. McLarry.
“You be careful with these. They can be very powerful. A drop or two will do.” Mr. McLarry had come out of the back of the pharmacy. I wasn’t allowed to go in there. I knew from the doctor bag he carried that there were spells and potions and charms that he sold on the side and they were probably not exactly legal substances.
“Will do. Thank you, Mr. McLarry,” Eli said. We were about to rush out of the pharmacy when Mr. McLarry stopped us.
“I need you to work a double shift tomorrow night, Samantha,” he said. It took everything inside of me not to want to slap him or scream.
“Yes, anything you want,” I said. This time we were bolting out of there without turning around.
“Be sure to take just one or two drops. Take them now if you need it now. Very powerful… very…”
We couldn’t hear Mr. McLarry after the door of the pharmacy closed behind us. We raced back to our cars.
“Sam,” Eli said before he got into his car. “You and everyone take a drop of these.”
“What are they?” I asked.
“They heighten some senses, build up our pain tolerance, and this one… This one slows down time.”
I paused for a moment. That was why the arrow in that last dream had been going by so slowly. It had been this potion. Eli could have very well saved us all. We took the potions as fast as we could and raced down toward the lake.
I didn’t even want to check to see if the front or back entrances were open. My visions had us going through the woods. Whether that was the right route or not, I knew we couldn’t be stopped or turned away if that was the plan, so we drove toward the woods that led to the lake.
And all of this was to save my sister.
*
I told my friends as much as I could about what I knew of my visions. I didn’t have much time, but I wanted everything to be out there so that they knew what they were getting into. Since we were in separate cars, I had to ask Philomena to cast a spell so that everyone in the other car could hear what I was saying.
I told them about each vision and how the last three had been connected. I felt my dream about the fish of Cesar, the dream that involved the arrow, and this last vision of my sister were all going to happen on the same night.
Tonight.
I left out the part about the arrow because I didn’t want to scare Delilah. If I told her, even if it wouldn’t alter what was going to happen, there was a chance that it would alter who it would happen to. But I needed to tell someone. Someone had to protect Delilah.
The brakes of our car slammed, and we all lurched forward.
“The woods,” Baylee said.
“Who stays and who goes?” Reginald asked. He emerged from the other car with Eli and Delilah.
Peter, Baylee, Philomena, and I emerged from our car.
“Sam decides. We don’t have time to argue with her. This is important,” Baylee said.
The night was full of surprises. But she was right—the call had to be mine.
“Phil and Reginald stay here. Stay behind the wheel of each car. And I think Delilah should stay too,” I said. I couldn’t have her getting hurt if tonight was when she could potentially be attacked by an arrow.
“What? Why?” Delilah protested.
“I just think that…”
“Screw that. We don’t need more than two people to be on the lookout. I can fly. I have better fairy senses than you do. You need me.”
I didn’t have time to argue with her. My sister was in grave danger. I just had to keep a special eye out for Delilah to make sure she was going to be safe tonight.
“Fine,” I gave in. If it would mean that we would get a move on much quicker, then she would need to come with us.
“Phil and Reginald stay here. Everyone else come with me,” I said. Phil and Reginald nodded. They didn’t mind not having to come. I’m glad that I didn’t get any backtalk from them.
Everyone was putting their trust and faith in me. No one thought that I was lying about what I had been seeing or had been dreaming about. I was grateful for that. I needed their help to save Isabelle. I wasn’t sure that I could have done something like this on my own. I was going to find my sister, and I was going to kill whoever did this to her.
I had an idea in my mind about who was responsible for all of this.
Malcolm.
I hadn’t mentioned him on the car ride over to the woods by the park. I didn’t want to speculate and be wrong about it. I just told everyone to keep their wits about them. I had said to them that it could have been a person or several people, but I didn’t give them any more details. I would need to know to keep everyone safe.
“You guys look out for a tall blonde guy. He’s a good-looking fairy, but I feel like he’s not who he says he is. His name is Malcolm, and if you see him, grab him and don’t let him get away from you,” I told everyone. I thanked Phil and Reginald for their help through this. There was no way I could think to repay any of them, not even Delilah. None of them had to do this.
We left Philomena and Reginald and made our way to the woods. It was such a black night. I couldn’t see the moon anywhere. We could barely see through the trees. That wasn’t much of a hindrance, but it did make me worry about Peter. Baylee and Delilah could fly, if anything, Eli was a nurse, and I was the one who knew exactly what was going on. I hated to think Peter might have been better off staying in the car since he was the only one who didn’t have any abilities. I had only seen one arrow flying in my vision. What if there was one for all of us? No, there couldn’t have been. When I saw the arrow, I knew that I was dry. The dream I had involving the fish of Cesar had me falling into the water. I had to trust my instincts. There was a part of me that knew it was right to have Peter come along with us.
I took Peter by the hand and then grabbed Eli by the shoulder. Delilah and Baylee had started the journey flying, but as we got into the woods they started walking. They rose from the ground on occasion. If it got too dark for Peter to see, or if we felt like we were lost, they would take flight and take a look around.
“I need you both to keep Delilah safe,” I said to Peter and Eli when Delilah was flying overhead.
It was very cryptic of me to say that.
“Is everything okay?” Eli asked.
“In my vision, I saw something. Someone was shooting arrows at us, and I saw that one was heading toward her,” I replied.
“Did you see that the arrow hit her?” Peter asked. I shook my head. I had only seen that it was heading in her direction.
“I know that it was flying toward us in slow motion. Eli, will you keep an eye on her?”
“I’ll do everything I can,” Eli said.
“And you can’t say anything to her. I don’t want her to be scared. We just have to keep our wits about us.”
“When does it happen?” Eli asked.
“Right as we’re leaving the woods—when we can see the lake and we emerge from the trees. It comes to us from our left. That’s how I saw it in my dream,” I said. I appreciated how thorough Eli was. I appreciated the fact that they were all with me. I hoped that having them all with me would make me braver.
I was leading the way through the woods. Delilah and Baylee were now walking just behind me. It now made sense to me how I hadn’t been able to see any of the other people in my dream. For the rest of the journey, they had been moving behind me. I turned around often just to make sure they were all still there and were all still safe.
I actually liked that I was up in the front. Seeing everyone there was a reminder to myself that I had asked people to help me on a quest that could have very well been a wild goose chase. I called my sister several times on the way over, but the calls went straight to her voicemail. That never happened. Even if she was asleep, Isabelle kept her phone on. Something was definitely wrong, and I knew that it had something to do with the vision I’d had while I was in Peter’s apartment.
“What’s the plan for when we find your sister?” Baylee asked. It was a good question. Up until she asked it, there had been no plan. I had just brought everyone and we rushed into the woods and were all just waiting to see what happened. If anyone got hurt, it would be completely on me.
“I think you and Delilah should keep a look out around the area if we find her. Eli, keep a close eye on Peter. I’ll go after my sister. If anyone or anything comes, then well… I don’t know,” I said. I wasn’t brave enough to ask anyone to fight or kill for me. I didn’t think it would be right for me to drag anyone so deep into my mess that they wouldn’t be able to climb out again.
“Can you guys fight?” Reginald asked us.
“I’ve only ever had to fight once in my life,” I said remembering how I had to defend myself from Alex when we were in my car.
“I can defend myself well enough,” Delilah said.
“I figured I would just raise hell. We stay close together, backs to one another so we can see all around us. Then we follow Delilah and Sam’s leads because they’ve got those extra senses from being fairies and from the stuff Eli gave us. Eli can use whatever incantation or curse he knows, and Peter can…” Baylee stopped talking. She was stuck.
“I’m a third-degree black belt in karate,” Peter said.
“Wow. Yeah, that’ll do it,” Baylee said. We had some semblance of a plan, even though I hoped we wouldn’t have to resort to violence. If it was just one person, then in my rage I could very likely put them in a coma for what they did to my sister. If there were more than five of them, I didn’t know what we could do to save ourselves.
But we could try.
My sister would never give up on me, and I wasn’t prepared to give up on her either.
The fear was starting to take form as we marched further and further into the woods. My determination hadn’t waivered, but there was an overpowering sensation that this could have been my last night on earth—that after the visions and dreams I assumed would occur this evening, there would be nothing else to see ever again. It had not yet sunk in. It was the not knowing that terrified me.
Things were beginning to look familiar. This was definitely where my dream began. It was eerie and quiet. It didn’t feel like any animals had lived in those woods for a long time.
I could see a light up ahead. We were going to be leaving the woods soon enough.
“Get ready,” I whispered to Eli. I took Peter by the hand and squeezed him to tell him to get ready too. I didn’t remember any of this in my dreams. The same thing happened, but there were little pieces that were different. All of my visions had been the same, but I was beginning to realize that the dreams had slight differences from how the scenes unfolded in real life.
We stepped out into the clearing. The air was fresher now that we weren’t surrounded by trees. It was nice to be out in the open air. It was easier to see what was happening around us, and there was a clear view of the lake.
The soft rumbling began inside me. I was becoming so tired, but the world was slowly spinning around me. I leaned into Peter to steady myself.
“Are you about to see something?” he asked me. He held onto me and propped me up.
“No,” I said when the world stopped shaking, “but the arrow. The arrow.”
Everything went still. Even though it had been fairly silent, I noticed a change right away, but the rest of us were moving as normal. I looked over to my left, which is where I remembered seeing the arrow, but there was nothing.
“Look!” shouted Delilah. About two feet away from the right side of her head was an arrow that was moving ever so slowly toward her. It was another thing that was different. Eli pushed himself between Delilah and the arrow in an attempt to knock her over, but that was when time went back to normal.
Eli howled as the arrow plunged into his back. He crumbled to the ground.
Delilah screamed and fell on the ground beside him.
“You saved me,” she said. She was terrified, but there was a look of gratitude on her face too. Eli half smiled, but then he winced with pain.
“There… there’s something on the tip of the arrow,” Eli winced.
“Poison,” Baylee said. “We have to get him back. One of the cars can go, and the other can wait here.”
Eli jerked backward and his eyes rolled while dark foam began to pour out of his mouth.
“Baylee and Delilah take him back. You can fly. It won’t take as long!” I shouted. It wasn’t Delilah that I needed to worry about. It was Eli. He had been hurt because of me.
“What about you?” Delilah asked.
“We’ll be fine. Just get him out of here,” I said. I could sense another arrow coming, and I shouted for everyone to duck. Another arrow whizzed by and lodged itself into a nearby tree.
Baylee and Delilah took flight then, trying to be mindful of Eli and his wounds. I hoped they would make it in time to save him.
Peter and I crawled closer toward the lake. We made attempts to hide behind the shrubs.
“I need you to stay here,” I said. Peter was about to protest, but I hissed at him.
“I’m not getting you hurt too!”
He kissed me then. It was short because there wasn’t much time, but it was the most urgent and heartfelt kiss I had ever gotten. It almost felt like a goodbye. If we weren’t going to make it out of this together, then there was at least a final kiss between us. I tried not to cry. I needed to be brave now.
I was going to slip into the water, even though I didn’t know what kinds of creatures were in there. If my dream implied anything, I knew that the fish of Cesar was below the surface. If there was a connection between us, then there was a chance that he could show me to my sister and figure out a way to stop all of this.
I crawled to the lake and felt the mud and the cold water seeping through my clothes. It didn’t matter now. I slipped into the lake. I hadn’t heard or seen any arrows. The attacker must have moved to a different location to get the proper vantage point.
It baffled me as to why they would have used arrows. I wasn’t sure why there was poison on the tip if it was going to be aimed at our heads. All I could think of was that the poison was meant to keep us alive. Even if it was a possibly fatal wo
und, the poison would prevent us from dying, but we would be subject to the most excruciating pain. It made me worry all the more for Eli. I hoped that Delilah and Baylee had taken him to the cars safely.
I put my head under the water and looked around. I could see nothing. It was murky water. Any movement or change of color or temperature terrified me. Who knew what lurked at the bottom of this lake?
And then there it was. I could see a streak of gold from the murky blue depths. I jumped back, not expecting the gold to be as bright as it was. In my dream, it had been so beautiful, but that couldn’t even compare to what I was seeing now. The gold was like a long ray of sunlight floating and undulating through the water. I was transfixed when I saw it.
I went to the surface to take a few silent breaths, and I dived back down. The streak of gold had gotten closer to me, and instead of being afraid, I was now full of calm. I felt brave for being where I was. I swam down closer to the gold streak.
‘Samantha,’ I heard the bright gold streak whisper. I could hear! It should have surprised me more, but I had dreamt this before. I noticed that I could also breathe. It was the strangest thing to breathe underwater. I wasn’t taking any breaths, but my lungs never longed for air.
The gold streak was massive now that it was closer to me. It was at least ten feet long. The fish of Cesar was starting to take form in the murky water. He turned to the side and was gliding alongside me. He was royal blue, just like in my dream, with sparkling gold around each scale. I wanted to touch him. I was so mystified. This was what everyone had meant when they claimed to have seen it; it made you feel warm and whole and like you just wanted to be a part of it.
“Yes,” I whispered. I was so transfixed that I didn’t even question the fact that I could hear my own voice under the water. I couldn’t pull myself out of the trance I was currently in.
‘Have you come to rescue me?’ the fish of Cesar asked.
“You?” I was suddenly jolted out of my bewitched state. Water got into my mouth and that was when my lungs felt like they would burst. I had been under the water for so long. I thrashed about, forgetting that someone was above the water who was trying to kill us. I broke the surface and tried to get air as quietly as I could. I looked below me, and I could no longer see the gold. I was frantic. I was sure I had seen the fish. What did he need rescuing from? Was the same person who had my sister the one that put the fish of Cesar in danger?