by Jenna Grey
“I don’t think it’s ever going to be over for us,” Chris said, his eyes wide with shock. They were both shaking, hardly aware of where they were or what was going on.
“We’re going to need fucking therapy for years. What was that place she took us to? Was it Hell?”
He looked almost embarrassed as he asked that question, as if he still didn’t expect anyone to believe something that ridiculous. Lily could understand their scepticism – how could anyone believe what had just happened to them? She decided in the end that truth was best.
“No, but it was another reality. The creature, Virginia wasn’t human, but I think you’ve already guessed that. You aren’t stupid – you know that whatever happened to you wasn’t something you could explain away easily.”
Billy gave the tiniest laugh, humourless, vacant.
“I didn’t fall in at first, until I saw that funny stick thing. I knew that wasn’t anything human. Then Virginia did some stuff – making flames appear in her hand, and lighting candles without touching them, and I knew that some weird shit was going on.”
“Best for you if you never mention it to anyone,” Lily said.
They both laughed.
“You really think we’re ever going to tell anyone about this?” Billy said.
Connor hesitated momentarily, thoughtful.
“I could make it so that you didn’t remember any of it, that your mind is a blank from the moment you left the pub to you waking up just now. It would be gone from your memories forever.”
Chris looked at Billy and their expressions answered before they did.
“God, yes, do it,” Billy said. “I don’t want to remember. I never want to remember any of it.” There was a nod of agreement from Chris. They both looked overwhelmingly relieved. Lily could understand that, she had only seen it second hand and she would have been more than grateful for someone to wipe those images from her memory.
“Consider it done. We still have the problem of getting you to a hospital, though,” Connor said. “I suppose we could help you get there, but it’s going to be hard on you.”
“No, it’s okay,” Lily said, rummaging in her bag and pulling out her mobile phone ‒ thankfully it was almost fully charged. She rummaged and found a piece of paper and pen and wrote:
Call 999 and leave the phone on. They can track you with GPS.
“We’ll leave this note with you, because you’re going to be very disoriented,” she said, thrusting it into Billy’s hand. “You can call whoever you want with it, but the police will probably get you to the hospital quicker.”
Billy looked down at it and nodded a smile.
“They’re going to wonder what the bloody hell happened to us when they see the state we’re in. What’s the date, we were there for at least a couple of weeks, although it was hard to keep track of the days. Our families must be going crazy, wondering what’s happened to us.”
“What was the date you were abducted?” Connor asked.
“Mmmm, 12th of July,” Chris said. “I think. Something like that.”
Connor gave a soft smile.
“That’s today,” he said, the smile broadening.
The two men just stared at them blankly, mouths open slightly. Lily could feel there confusion, one impossibility piled on top of another, until it became just one impossibility too much. She tried to imagine how she would feel if she had suddenly been presented with a nightmare like this. They were handling it pretty well under the circumstances.
“No, we were there for weeks,” Billy protested.
“Virginia’s domain was... not in this reality,” Lily explained. “Little or no time passed there. I know, it’s hard to get your head around, but I promise that’s the truth. It will make it easier for you, at least a little, because it’s unlikely that your families will even have missed you.”
“This shit just gets weirder,” Billy said, shaking his head. “But I guess that’s something we should be grateful for. My mum wouldn’t have been able to cope. I’m not even sure how she’s going to cope when she sees me in this state.”
“I’m sorry that this had to happen to you,” Connor said.
Billy gave Connor a light slap on the shoulder, a real smile on his face now, warm with gratitude.
“You’ve got nothing to be sorry about. We’d both be dead now, if it wasn’t for you two. We can never thank you enough for what you’ve done, and the sad thing is we won’t remember you, will we?”
“No.” Lily said, “but your lives will be much happier for it.”
Billy stared hard at her, trapping her with his gaze. Lily suddenly realised that she and Connor had dropped their glamours and they were glowing slightly with fey light. She could see the two men gauging what they were seeing, and very unsure about how they should react to it. It was Billy who plucked up the courage to ask.
“Who are you? I mean you can tell us, because we’re not going to remember.” He gave a nervous little laugh.
Lily giggled behind her hand.
“We’re fairies,” she said, grinning at him and waiting for their reaction.
The two men laughed, uneasy, but definitely almost believing.
“Fairies?”
Lily and Connor nodded together, both grinning inanely now.
“Why the hell not?” Chris said, laughing properly and regretting it. “Why the hell not?”
“Well, if anyone ever asks me in future if I believe in fairies, then maybe I’ll have to say yes.” Billy said, laughing as well at the absurdity of it.
The two men gave Lily and Connor a cautious hug, tears streaming down their cheeks.
“No more time to waste, we need to get you help,” Connor said. “You’ll remember coming out of the club, and even remember Virginia asking if you wanted to go back with her, but you’ll forget everything from the moment you blacked out outside the pub until the moment you wake up. I’ll even throw in the idea that you felt someone hitting you over the head, just before it went dark. How does that sound?”
“Sounds good,” Billy said. “I can live with that.”
“The police might wonder at the state you’re in, but hopefully they’ll just put it down to you being kidnapped by a gang of perverts of something, drugged and then released again. They certainly won’t be able to prove otherwise.”
“So, I guess this is goodbye. Where are you going now? Back home?”
Lily and Connor both sighed together.
“We have no home now,” Lily said. “All we have is each other.” She slipped her hand into Connor’s and smiled across at him.
“Well, whatever happens, I hope you get what you want and we both wish you all the best. Thanks again.”
They shook hands and as Lily’s hand fell away from theirs, Conner put a hand on each of their heads and sent his magic out to them. They lurched backwards as if they’d been shot, hitting the ground with some force, and lay very still. Connor turned to Lily.
“They’ll only be out for seconds, we need to get out of here before they wake up.”
Connor put a glamour around her and himself so that they were hidden from sight and they turned to walk away.
The men were already beginning to come round, moaning their return to reality.
“What the hell do we do now?” Lily asked. “Virginia was our only chance of getting home, we’re wanted by the police – who will almost certainly think that I’m responsible for kidnapping Chris and Billy when they find my mobile phone. The kids are still missing and we don’t have a clue where we go from here.”
Connor blew out his breath in a sigh.
“All we can do is start walking and pray to the Powers That Be that they show us the way home. The prophecy says that we will defeat the Black King. We have to believe it’s true.”
Connor took Lily’s hand in his and turned to the West. And for some reason, Lily just knew that was the right way to go.
As she looked to the West, towards the darkening skies, Lily felt a shiver ti
ngle down her spine. Above them black clouds were forming, heavy blankets that soon filled the sky, hanging low, and foreboding. They cast a heavy pall over everything, stealing the sunlight and cloaking the whole countryside in deepest gloom.
“This is not good,” Connor said.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Lily said.
From out of the darkness shapes were forming, black clouds, that looked like a dust storm on the horizon. They moved low across the landscape, hugging the low hills and treetops, moving with impossible speed. Connor pushed Lily behind him, and the shapes rushed towards them.
They stopped some way in front of them, ranked like an opposing army, thousands of them, djinn in every kind of form: human, animal, wraith ‒ creatures of every kind, a vast army, that filled the horizon, misting into the distance for miles in every direction. Above them the sky hung dark and brooding, and the air was filled with their whispers.
And then came the terrible realisation. She knew who they were whispering to… their seditious mutterings were going out to every country, every continent, urging humankind to violence, to mayhem and deception. They uttered their poison into every ear, playing on the worst of mankind’s fears, encouraging their greed, their selfishness, turning brother against brother, father against son ‒ creating panic and chaos. And there was nothing that Lily or Connor could do to stop them.
Lily moved around to stand beside Connor.
“If we are going to die, then I do it by your side,” she said.
“I love you,” Connor whispered.
“I love you too,” she replied, and she knew in that moment they were going to die.
From the midst of the creatures a shape emerged, a dark form that moved towards them with slow surety of purpose.
The Black King.
He looked human, a tall man, well built and athletic, dressed in black armour. He was a surprisingly majestic figure, handsome even, and he walked towards them as if he owned the world, stopping just in front of them. The arrogant smile he wore told Lily everything she needed to know. He stared hard at them, that smile still plastered on his thin lips and uttered just one word:
“Checkmate.”
Lily felt the world disappear around her and she dropped to the ground, lost in the darkness.
Connor and Lily’s quest continues in book two of the Faerie series: publication date, December, 2015.
About the Author
Jenna Grey began her writing career at the tender age of three, when she wrote her first words in red crayon on her grandmother’s kitchen wall. Thankfully, she’s improved her writing style considerably since then and now spends every spare minute writing, often into the early hours of the morning. Her main interest is in writing dark fantasy ‒ the darker the better, and she is always exploring new ways to push her work just that little bit further over the edge. She usually spends as much time reading as she does writing, getting her inspiration from some of her favourite authors: Ann Rice, Laurell K. Hamilton, Tolkein, Stephen King and C. S. Lewis, and gets a real buzz when she find a new author to add to the list.
Jenna lives with her long suffering husband and two cats in the heart of Sussex, surrounded by beautiful countryside and abundant wildlife, much of which she finds deposited on her kitchen doorstep, courtesy of her two over-enthusiastic cats.
Her main ambition in life is to receive a ‘Happy 100th Birthday’ card from His Majesty, the King.