Slumber

by Tamara Blake

  “Hey baby. There you are.”

  Tam was walking in the room, a pack of fairies behind him. Ruby flinched when she saw Violet among them.

  “I’ve been looking all over for you.” Tam bent down and gave her a kiss. “Wanna go swimming with us?”

  “Swimming?”

  “Down by the lake, baby.” He caressed the back of her neck.

  Her confusion vanished. “Sure!” she said, jumping up off the couch. Swimming sounded like such a blast.

  Violet glanced at something in the corner of the room and tsked. “Somebody needs to pick up the place. It’s getting too messy again.”

  The other fairies snickered, but Tam didn’t. He took Ruby’s hand. “Let’s go have some fun,” he murmured into her ear.

  Warmth spread through her. Fun, yeah! She wanted to have fun. So, so much.

  With Tam’s hand reassuringly wrapped around hers, she followed the fairies outside. She laughed with Tam when they ran across the flagstone patio and across the lawn down to the lake where other fairies and humans were already partying, laughing, stripping off their clothes, and diving in. Here and there a few shadowy couples were making out on the shoreline. Music echoed over the water glittering in the moonlight, while stars pricked the sky above. She gasped when a shooting star seemed to rocket across the night sky almost as if she conjured it herself. “Tam!” she gasped.

  Tam tugged her close. “I know,” he murmured. He drew one finger down her jawline and tilted her face up to his. “Wanna go swimming with me now?”

  Suddenly she couldn’t wait to peel off her clothes and jump in the lake. “I’d love to!”

  Tam grinned and let her go. He shucked off his shirt while she reached for the hem of her dress and pulled it up over her head until she was wearing only her underwear, bra, and the scarf around her neck. Something dropped out of the dress’s pocket. “What’s this?”

  “Don’t worry about it, baby.” Tam unbuttoned his jeans and pushed them down. “The others are waiting for us.”

  Shrieks and laughter echoed over the surface of the lake. Violet was being hoisted up on the shoulders of a guy who looked like a bodybuilder. Water made a sheen on her naked skin and ebony hair while she lifted her arms up toward the moon.

  I’m missing the fun! Ruby took a step toward them but her foot grazed the object that had fallen from her pocket. She looked down. A crappy plastic cell phone lay in the grass. It looked so familiar…

  Suddenly she remembered. Her cell phone! She snatched it up and flipped open the lid. Five missed calls.

  “Come on, Ruby!” Tam, wearing only his briefs now, had jogged a couple feet away from her down toward the shoreline. His body glowed in the moonlight, shadows sculpting his muscles.

  “Hold up!” She stared at the glowing LCD screen. The caller ID said Southampton Hospital.

  Awareness crashed through her like a tidal wave.

  Tam beckoned. “Ruby—”

  “It’s my Mom,” she yelled. “I need to call her!”

  Panicked, she put a hand to her throat and felt the reassuring soft material of the scarf. She almost let Violet see her wearing the necklace!

  She started punching the buttons, but nothing happened. How did this thing work? Why couldn’t she figure out how to hit the ‘call last number’ shortcut? Tears of frustration sprang to her eyes, blurring the phone.

  Tam was there. “What’s the matter, Ruby?” he asked, his voice kind. Concerned even.

  She sniffled. “I can’t remember how to make a call.”

  “It’ll be okay, Ruby. Really.”

  He drew her in for a gentle hug, but she resisted. “No, it won’t be okay, Tam! I’m starting to forget stuff. I’ve lost three days. Three days! Are you putting me under a spell?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not doing anything to you. It’s the Slumber. Remember, I told you that humans react to the magic of this place.”

  The Slumber? Holy shit! “I thought you said that knowing about it meant I wouldn’t be affected!”

  He shrugged apologetically. “I said that maybe you wouldn’t be affected. But I guess you are, after all.”

  Oh my God. “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?”

  “If I had, you would have forgotten anyway.” He looked almost sad.

  “But I trusted you,” she said, tears pricking. “I thought you were going to help me.”

  “I am, baby. I am.”

  Lies! She stumbled back from him. “I’ve got to get in touch with my mom. She’s probably worried sick about me.”

  Moonlight shafted down on his face, his features almost painfully beautiful, his expression as grave and still as one of the vine-covered statues in Cottingley’s driveway. “I doubt it, Ruby. Out of sight, out of mind. Look, it’ll be better for you if you just go with it. You’ll wake up faster if you decide you want to stay here.”

  “Stay here? At Cottingley?”

  “Yeah. Become fae. Like all of us.” He gestured to the fairies goofing off in the lake, their beautiful bodies gleaming in the moonlight, laughing playfully with each other. Everyone was so carefree. Eternally having fun.

  “No, Tam.” Ruby began backing away from him. She fumbled for her dress. “I don’t want that.”

  “Ruby—”

  She couldn’t listen to him anymore. Once she yanked the dress back on, she turned and ran toward the darkened mansion, leaving him dumbfounded on the lawn.

  Just inside, she paused to orient herself. She could still hear music and partying from the lake. She almost turned back but took a deep breath instead. “Focus, Ruby. Remember.”

  Cottingley seemed deserted, lights dim, the rooms hushed. Everyone was down by the lake, Violet included, which made it the perfect time to search her room to see if there was something to help break the curse. It felt so good to have some purpose after days of being under the Slumber; it helped cut through the fuzziness.

  She took a couple of wrong turns wandering down the maze of halls, but as soon as she found the room with the blue door and the weird gold hieroglyph, she remembered that Violet’s room lay close by, and found it easily. This time, the room stank with the overpowering smell of patchouli and sour fruit but wasn’t as messy as the last time she was there, when Violet ordered her to clean her mess. The chrome furniture and animal prints were still tacky though.

  Ruby had no idea what she was looking for, but she started carefully picking through the cluttered dresser, opening jewelry boxes, drawers, and closets. She ran across a shopping bag from Bergdorf full of Lucite bangles, a stash of pot, and some dude’s plaid boxer shorts. But nothing that seemed magical at all, or even anything like a key or tool that would unlock the constricting necklace.

  She started to feel frantic. In a last ditch effort, she snatched back the drapes. Maybe something was on the windowsill or…

  “Oh.” Violet’s room overlooked the lake. Through the grimy windowpanes, she looked down to see fairies and humans frolicking in the water. The faint sounds of music and laughter reached her. Lights danced on the water’s surface, and sleek bodies gleamed in the moonlight. It looked beautiful, so beautiful…

  She touched her cheeks and brought her wet hand away. Was she crying? A wave of sadness washed over her. She should be down there. She was missing out on so much fun…

  A sound by the door made her heart jolt. Someone was coming! Violet would literally kill anyone she found in her room. And there she was, caught red-handed.

  Her mind scrambled to find some excuse, any excuse, but thinking had become so hard now, and she didn’t hold back a big sigh of relief when she saw that the person at the door wasn’t Violet at all but Aryenis, the fairy who didn’t talk.

  Aryenis didn’t seem surprised to find her in Violet’s room. Part of her brain told her that was kind of weird, but then Aryenis walked up to Ruby and touched the scarf wrapped around her throat to hide the necklace, and that was definitely weird.


  As soon as Aryenis’ fingers came away from the scarf, Ruby’s brain cleared. Mom! Shelley! How could she have forgotten them? She was trying to save them!

  “I need to wake up,” she muttered. “I’m falling under the Slumber, aren’t I?”

  Aryenis, watching her solemnly, nodded.

  “Shit.” Ruby put a hand to her head and gave it a shake. Her mind was so muddled, but she had to focus. “How did you know about the necklace?” she asked Aryenis.

  No answer. At least Aryenis wasn’t hostile or even amused by Ruby’s predicament. She was just…waiting.

  Ruby wrenched her mind to what Tam had said about Aryenis when she first met the fairy. It wasn’t that Aryenis couldn’t talk, it was that she wouldn’t. Big difference. “Can you at least tell me how to break the curse on me and my family?”

  Aryenis shook her head. Did that mean she didn’t know how to break the spell, or that she was refusing?

  Focus. Desperately, Ruby looked around. On Violet’s cluttered dresser, she saw a crumpled napkin, which she snatched up along with an eyeliner pencil. “Can you write?”

  To Ruby’s total relief, Aryenis took the napkin and pencil. She cleared a tiny space off the top of Violet’s dresser, laid the napkin down, and after trying a few times to get her fingers around the pencil properly, like she’d almost forgotten how, wrote haltingly. Then she handed Ruby the napkin.

  The hell? Instead of words, Aryenis had drawn a series of primitive pictures like Egyptian hieroglyphs. Or like the gold symbol on the blue door to the forever-locked room down the hall. Ruby stared at the drawing of a flower, a crown, a pair of lips, and a stick figure holding out its hands with something cupped in them. Was this fairy language? Or a big joke?

  “What does it mean?” she asked.

  But Aryenis was backing out of the room. She pointed to the napkin, then was gone.

  Ruby stared at the drawings again. A flower. A crown. Lips. A figure holding its hands out. It made no sense.

  The faint strains of music filtered to her from outside, drawing Ruby’s attention back to the window. She looked down at the lake. Her breath caught. Twinkling will-o-the-wisp lights were floating all over the lawn that surrounded the lake! Everyone down there was dancing among them, laughing, and having a good time. Such a good time.

  She wanted to have a good time too.

  Ruby put the napkin in her pocket next to her cellphone and told herself she’d try to figure it out later. Right now it was very important that she go back to the lake and see the lights.

  But when she hurried back outside, the lights had gone. So had the fairies. No music, no laughter. Nothing but the wind whispering through the trees, the rippling of dark water, and the smell of crushed grass lingering in the warm air.

  “Ruby.”

  She turned to find Tam standing beside her. She hadn’t heard him approach.

  “I missed the party,” she said sadly.

  “I’m sorry, Ruby.”

  “Everything’s messed up. I’m trying so hard to…to…” She trailed off. She was trying to do what?

  Tam’s expression was grave. “There was never any way to save your family,” he answered. “I knew that when I brought you here.”

  “You did?”

  “But I also know that you’ll be alright soon.” He held out his hand. The gold ring on his index finger gleamed in the moonlight. “Dance with me?”

  Music started playing again, a seductive slow beat. Ruby took his hand and sighed when he pulled her into his arms. They swayed together, and Ruby gasped when the will-o-the-wisp lights floated down from the sky again and started dancing with them too.

  Tam wiped away the tears streaming down her cheeks with his thumbs. Then he kissed her forehead. “Don’t worry, Ruby. You won’t be sad for long.”

  He slid his hand down the side of her body toward her hip. His touch sent electric shivers down her spine, and Ruby leaned in to him, wanting more. Then Tam pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and held down the button on the top, turning it off, before sliding it back into her pocket.

  Should she tell him to leave it on? But why? She tried to figure it out, but the only thing she could focus on was Tam’s arms around her, feeling so good.

  And that everything was beautiful.

  So beautiful.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Come on!”

  Ruby grabbed Tam’s hand and together they raced down the corridors of Cottingley. The figure of a boy naked down to his boxer briefs, a mask over his face, a crown of antlers on his head, whisked around a corner, just out of reach. “He’s getting away!” Ruby shrieked. “After him!”

  Tam stumbled after her, laughing. “He can’t get away,” he gasped between chuckles. “Where’s he going to go?”

  Rushing footsteps sounded behind them, then more laughing voices. “I know, but we have to run him down first!”

  Ruby didn’t know why. She didn’t care. She was having the best time of her life right now, because hunting was the most fun thing in the world and hunting with Tam was fun times infinity.

  The stag-boy took a couple more twists and turns through the halls until he ran into a dead end at the French doors leading out to the patio. Frantically, he rattled the doorknob, but it was locked.

  “We’re gonna get him!” Ruby screamed.

  “Hell, yes!” Tam yelled.

  The boy took a step back from the door and then started kicking it over and over until it gave way with a crash of splintered wood and shattered glass.

  “He fucking kicked the door down!” Tam laughed and pumped his fist. “Whoo!”

  The boy leaped through the wreckage and out into the night.

  Between the running and the laughing, Ruby could barely catch her breath. The whole situation was so hilarious! “We can’t let him get away, Tam.”

  “No.” They skittered to a halt in front of the door’s debris and looked out to see the guy’s pale figure running down the patio steps and across the lawn. “We can’t.”

  The others were catching up to them now. Some wore masks too, but unlike the stag-boy’s antler-headed mask, these were made of pounded gold or silver and were super-old with features that didn’t quite sit in the right places: gaping mouths that were too low, hollow eyes off kilter, eyebrows that arched grotesquely. They reminded Ruby of a movie she’d seen once about ancient Greek gods, and she was sure they were freaking the guy out. That was funny too.

  The fairy hunting pack was laughing and exclaiming.

  “Holy shit, look at that!”

  “Omigod, what a mess.”

  “The dude is stronger than he looks, ha ha!”

  One of the fairies, wearing a halter-top, leather shorts, and gladiator sandals with straps that crisscrossed all the way to her knees, lifted her gold mask and gazed after the escaping boy. It was Violet. “Desperate people do desperate things.”

  Skye tore her mask off with a shriek of laughter and pointed. “Look at him, he’s running as fast as he can.”

  “Won’t do him any good,” Ash remarked. Cosette shook her head in agreement. They both wore matching leather vests, only Cosette was naked under hers, her breasts practically falling out.

  “That’s why it’s so funny!” Skye screamed.

  Tam took Ruby’s hand and helped her pick her way carefully over the glass. The others followed them until everyone had gathered on the patio, peering out into the night.

  “There he is!” someone yelled, pointing to a pale streak near the lakeshore.

  “After him!” Tam shouted and then they were off, running down the patio toward the figure now veering away from the lake and toward the woods.

  They tore across the lawn, whooping and screaming. The guy had almost reached the woods, but he was slowing down, winded, his chest heaving in and out, and they’d caught up in almost no time. Ruby’s fingers reached out to graze his arm, but he swerved at the last second and she tripped.r />
  She lurched forward and would have face-planted, but Tam caught her and together they rolled in the grass laughing, Tam’s body protecting Ruby from bruises until they came to a stop. He was laughing down into her face, the stars behind his head. “Gotcha,” he murmured in her ear.

  She snuggled into his arms. “I almost caught him!” she said.

  “You were right there, baby.”

  Exhilaration coursed through her. She seriously thought she’d never had more fun in her life! Tam was so gorgeous, his arms holding her felt so good, and he was hers, here and now. She lifted her head and kissed him. He returned the kiss eagerly, crushing her back into the grass. Her body responded and she arched into him while his kiss blistered her lips. At that moment, Ruby thought she could go on and on kissing Tam forever, but the thundering of the hunt pulsed the ground underneath them, and then she remembered. She was missing out on the game!

  She scrambled to her feet and hauled Tam up beside her. “Let’s go!”

  “Why such a rush?” Tam smiled slowly. “Why don’t we stay here a while longer?”

  Ruby almost lay back down with him…

  No, I can’t miss the hunt!

  “Come on, I want to see who catches the stag! We can’t let Violet get there first, right?”

  Tam laughed his agreement, and they stumbled after the hunt. The pack had flushed the stag-boy away from the woods toward the gardens. The boy leaped onto the low stone wall surrounding the garden and launched himself into the branches of a big oak. The first few branches broke under his weight and he jumped again and again until he found sturdier ones and began to climb.

  The hunt gathered underneath the tree.

  “Where the fuck does he think he’s going?” Yukio said.

  “Nowhere.” Violet, her skin glowing, picked up a rock the size of a baseball and hefted it.

  The stag-boy had reached a couple branches higher but now huddled against the trunk desperately trying to find the next branch that would bear his weight. Light from the mansion shafted onto his face and Ruby could see the whites of boy’s eyes inside the mask. He was gasping and shaking so hard he could hardly keep hold. Violet took aim with the rock and let it fly. It struck him on the leg, and he cried out.