by Tamara Blake
“Let me try!” Skye picked up a rock and threw it at him. It missed, but the next one didn’t. It hit him in the ribs and drew some blood too.
“Omigod, that’s so awesome.” Amleth handed Ohira a rock. Ohira’s swirly dragon tattoo gleamed on her sweaty skin. She whispered a word and the rock split in two, leaving a razor sharp edge. Then she took aim and chucked it.
The rock landed on the guy’s upper arm, laying it open. Blood splattered down on them.
“OHHHHHH!!!!” they yelled in unison.
“Bullseye!” Ash shouted.
The rest started looking for rocks and whispering to them too.
Ruby choked with laughter. Did the guy know how funny he looked trying to dodge the hail of sharpened rocks while the antlers of his stag’s mask caught in the branches and he scrabbled at the tree trunk, desperately trying to hold on?
“Fall! Fall! Fall!” they chanted. Ruby fist-pumped with the others and shouted too. “FALL FALL FALL—”
There was a hand on her arm. Tam. He was looking at her weirdly, as though he wasn’t having fun any more. “Ruby,” he said. “I don’t think—”
She leant forward, silenced him with another deep kiss.
“I’ll bring him down.” Violet picked up a rock, the biggest one yet. It seemed way too heavy to be thrown, but she drew back her arm and in a whirling move like a discus thrower, launched it into the tree.
It smashed into the boy’s chest. Wind-milling, he couldn’t keep his balance and dropped, landing on the low stone wall, head-first.
The squishy crack of his bones breaking was like a jolt of electricity through Ruby’s whole body. Horror flooded through her. The guy’s body bounced awkwardly and then sprawled onto the ground in front of them in a tangle of unmoving limbs. Blood gushed out of the top of his head where his skull had split in two.
“Oh, gross!” Skye yelped.
“Super-gross!” Ohira squealed between giggles. She wiped the blood that had sprayed across her face with the back of her hand.
Ruby felt her limbs start to shake, and she clung to Tam. She looked around at the rest of the fairies. They were laughing too, taking off their masks and high-fiving each other. Violet lifted her mask and gazed with contempt at the mangled body. “I thought he’d last a little longer,” she said. “What a weakling.”
Tam gently disentangled himself from Ruby’s arms and nudged the boy with a toe. His arm flopped down from his unmoving chest, but other than that, he lay still while blood pooled sluggishly in the grass.
Ruby stared at the body. They’d just killed a guy. No, they killed a boy. A human, like her. And she stood by and laughed while they did it.
What the hell was wrong with her?
Like a fog lifting, her mind cleared and her senses became completely sharp. She could smell the piney air wafting from the woods as it blended with the iron reek of fresh-spilled blood; she could see every detail of the boy’s body, every cut and bruise and broken bone; she could hear the fairies tittering while the wind stirred and crickets chirped.
“Someone better bury him or he’ll start to stink,” Yukio was saying. “You do it, Vi, you made the killing blow.”
Violet just gave Yukio a disdainful glance.
“Well, Ash, then.”
“No way. You do it.”
“Come on, dude, it’s your turn. You got out of it last time.”
Last time? How many people had died at Cottingley? Ruby shoved her way between them and knelt next to the body.
“Um, you’re going to get blood on your hands,” Cosette said.
Ignoring her, Ruby gently lifted the mask from the boy’s broken face.
She recognized the brown hair, the blue eyes staring sightlessly up at her.
It was Shawn Mosely.
Ruby heard Tam’s intake of breath behind her.
“No big loss, he wasn’t that great in bed,” Faelan said with a shrug. She dangled her gold mask from one finger and began wandering back to the mansion with some of the others.
Ruby stumbled back from Shawn’s limp form, breathing deeply, trying not to vomit. “Tam,” she whispered. “This is awful. We need to call the cops.”
“It’s too late for that, Ruby.”
She whipped her head around. Tam was looking sadly at her.
“Shawn is dead. I…we…just murdered him.” Her voice broke on a sob. Oh God, just a minute ago she was laughing about the way they were torturing him up in that tree…
“I’m sorry, Madison. I tried to get through to you, but the Slumber was too much.” Tam reached for her, but she jerked away.
“Oooh, looks like there’s trouble in paradise,” Violet snickered. “You didn’t happen to know that human, did you?”
Ruby spun around. Violet was smirking at her.
“You,” she said. “It was you who…”
“She’s not very smart, Tam,” sneered Violet. “I guess I better use small words and spell it out for you both.” She flicked at a stray drop of blood that had stuck to her leather shorts and turned to Tam. “I saw him leave with your trailer trash girl when she first came here. I tried to find her, but you must have hidden her from me. Shawn was the next best thing.” She grinned triumphantly.
“No.” Ruby backed away, shaking her head. A sob bubbled out of her throat.
Tam leapt forward, holding up one beautiful, ageless hand that was pointed at Violet in accusation. The gold ring on his index finger gleamed dully by moonlight.
“How dare you,” he growled. “How many more, Violet? How many more humans are you going to kill just to spite me?”
“As many as I like.”
“You’re going to regret this. You’ve crossed a line.” He turned back to Ruby. “Are you okay?”
“Am I okay? Of course I’m not okay! You people—you fairies—are sick. All of you, this whole place”—she swung her arm wildly around—“is sick!”
“You’re freaking out,” Tam said reasonably. “Understandable, if this is the first dead body you’ve seen, but there’s nothing more we can do for him—”
Ruby wanted to tear at her hair. “I’m not freaking out!” she yelled. “I’m having a normal reaction to murder! Shawn had a mother and a father. Maybe a brother, a sister. He had a life, Tam. Until we took it away.”
The other fairies had gone completely silent, watching them.
“So, what do you propose I do about it now?” Tam said. His eyes shifted to the others watching them, then back to Ruby. “I tried to warn you. And I can’t bring him back.”
“You’ve done enough.” She took a deep breath. “I’m out of here. I want nothing more to do with Cottingley and the psycho games you play. And Tam, I want nothing more to do with you either.”
Tam had gone still. “Don’t say something you’ll regret later.”
“I reject you,” she said very clearly, very calmly. So there could be no mistake. “And all of Cottingley.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, the ground underneath her trembled. Dizziness washed over her and she lurched, trying to keep her balance.
Violet gasped. “It’s that fucking trailer trash bitch!” she snarled. She whirled to Tam. “You tricked me!”
Ruby swayed, feeing nauseous, drained. How long had she been here under Tam’s spell? Days? Weeks? Months?
Where was Shelley? Was her mom even still alive?
“Who the fuck do you think you are, trying to trick me?” Violet screamed at Ruby. “You insignificant…human!”
Violet swung at her, but Ruby was too weak to do anything about it except lift her arms in a pathetic attempt to protect herself.
Before Violet’s fist could connect with her face, Tam jumped between them. He caught Violet’s wrists and wrestled her away from Ruby. Either Violet was as strong as Tam or her anger lent her superhuman strength, because she was able to push him back a few paces.
“Asshole!” she screamed. “Zhopa! Bhokio! Fuck
ing jerk!” She tried to rake her nails down his cheek, but he shoved her away.
“Back off,” he grunted. “Calm down.”
“Calm down? I want her dead!” she shrieked. “I want her head cracked open like this human’s here.” She spat at Shawn’s body and made some sort of warding sign with her fingers.
Ash stepped forward. “Violet, hey, that’s not cool—”
“Stay out of this,” she snarled, panting. “Or you’ll be next.”
Tam was breathing hard too. He kept himself between Ruby and Violet, and Ruby could see his fingers twitching a little. “Ruby is mine. I claim her.”
“No,” Ruby said. “I don’t want to be claimed by you.”
“Shut up, Ruby. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, I do. I want nothing from you. You’re all rotten from the inside, except Violet here, who’s rotten inside and out.”
Violet tried to swing at her again, but Tam caught her by the waist and shoved her away. “I said back off!”
Tam jabbed his index finger, the one with the gold ring, at the ground between them. Violet halted, chest heaving, and the other fairies muttered and took a pace backwards too.
Violet gave a cruel laugh. “You’re wasting your time trying to save her, Tam. Look at her. She’s too stupid to understand any of this. She doesn’t get us.”
“She will.”
“Oh, here we go again. Tam, ever the hopeful one. Always thinking the best of his humans. But this time I’m going to show you once and for all that they are not worth it.”
Violet turned to Ruby. “I’ll do something for you, human, that Tam won’t.”
“And what’s that?”
“Give you the chance to leave Cottingley, freed forever.”
“How?”
“By playing a game.”
The other fairies murmured to each other, some uncomfortably.
“Forget it,” Ruby said. “I’m not that dumb.”
“What if I make the prize worth your while? Say, if you win, I lift the curse from your mother and bring luck back to your family. The woman who spawned you would be cured, and you…you would be free to go, luck in your pocket, and we’d never bother you again.”
“So Mom’s still alive?” Ruby gasped. A sour look crossed Violet’s face. Ruby guessed that meant yes.
Mom would be cured? Shitty things would stop happening to them? She could leave Cottingley and their psycho lifestyle for good?
“And if I lose?”
Violet’s lips lifted in a sweet smile. “We get to see the necklace around your throat tighten to the last link in its chain.”
Ruby swallowed, feeling the metal hot against her throat. It must have stopped tightening when she started to accept life at Cottingley. Just like Tam said it would.
Save Mom. Or die. One thing Ruby appreciated about Violet was her lack of bullshit.
Tam’s body was tense, his eyes darting back and forth between them. He was shaking his head at her. “Don’t do it,” he mouthed.
Ruby didn’t need protection. Especially not from Tam. She turned to Violet. “Okay,” she said. “I agree.”
The fairies gave a collective gasp. Then they started chattering.
“How long do you think she’ll last?”
“A day, at best.”
“I think it’ll be a couple hours, tops.”
“Oh, that’s gonna so be gross when her head pops off…”
The look on Tam’s face made her shiver. He looked…almost frightened.
For her.
“What about the dead human?” Cosette said, nose wrinkling.
“I’ll bury Shawn,” Ruby said.
Tam took a step toward her. “Ruby—”
She snatched her arm away from his hand. “Leave me alone. I want to do this myself.” She turned to Violet. “I’ll meet you back at the house when I’m finished.”
“I’ll be waiting.” Violet jerked her head at the others and headed back to the mansion. They all trailed behind her, except for Tam.
“I don’t understand you at all,” Tam said when they were alone. “I tried to protect you from Violet, but you ignored my warnings. I can’t save you now.”
“I’ll save myself, thanks.”
“You don’t even know what you’re up against.”
“Yes, I do. Now leave me alone, I want to bury Shawn.”
“Ruby—”
“Go. Please.”
He hesitated, as if he wanted to say something more. But then he closed his mouth over whatever he was going to tell her and turned toward Cottingley, leaving Ruby alone with Shawn’s lifeless body.
Chapter Sixteen
Ruby shivered. The temperature took a decided drop when Tam left, and the tiny designer dress she’d been wearing since he put the glamour on her didn’t offer much protection.
The wind ruffled Shawn’s hair, the only thing moving on his still body. She stared down at him. How did everything get so out of control?
She remembered flashes of light and color. She remembered the taste of honey and the feel of Tam’s arms around her. Suddenly, everything had seemed so funny. She’d felt light on her feet and brimming with confidence. Like everything in the world was her property, put on the earth just to give her pleasure, and nothing could ever ruin it for long.
It’s ruined now. Thank God.
She moved a few feet away and found a patch of ground that wasn’t very rocky. Holding back sobs, she grabbed a stick and started to chip away at the sod, but the packed earth was like cement and the stick broke after a few tries.
“Damn it!” She flung the broken ends into the night. Then she pounded the ground with her fists. Couldn’t she do anything right? The least she could do was give Shawn a decent burial instead of leaving his body for the crows pick at, and she couldn’t even fucking do that.
“I’m sorry, Shawn,” she said to his lifeless corpse. “I should have stopped them. But I didn’t. It’s my fault this happened to you.”
Shawn’s silence was damning. She bowed her head and wiped at her tears, feeling the grit of dirt smudge her cheeks.
After a long moment huddled in misery, the unmistakable sound of footsteps over the grass made her lift her head. “Aryenis?”
She was walking out of the woods toward Ruby, a shimmering cloak hanging over one arm. She wore a simple shift and sandals that looked handcrafted—certainly a long way from the designer pieces the other fairies liked. When she reached the tree, she gazed with deep sadness at Shawn. Then she gently draped the material next to his body and Ruby realized she wasn’t carrying a cloak at all. It was a shroud.
Aryenis motioned to Ruby to help her wrap it around Shawn’s body. Together they managed to roll his limp figure onto the sheet, and then Aryenis expertly began tying the ends over his still face and motionless hands. Once Shawn had been completely covered, she pointed to the thicket of trees, then motioned for Ruby to pick up Shawn’s feet.
“What are we going to do with him?” Ruby asked.
Aryenis pointed to the woods again, this time more emphatically. Then she took his shoulders and lifted while Ruby picked up his feet, and together they carried Shawn into the shadowy woods. For a second Ruby wondered if Aryenis was going to tell her to dump his body there, but then the trees thinned and they came to a clearing.
“Oh my God,” Ruby moaned.
Mounds of dirt, some marked with crude headstones, filled the clearing. They lay side by side, each heap about the length of a body.
Ruby was sickened to her core. “Are these the graves of other humans?”
Aryenis nodded and motioned for her to lay Shawn down next to the freshest grave, one that looked only a couple months old. Altogether there must have been over fifty burial mounds, and beyond the clearing, a narrow path led to the shadowy outlines of even more. How many humans had died in the fairies’ cruel games over the years? Would this be her eventua
l resting place after Violet was done with her?
“Cottingley is completely evil.” She shuddered, rubbing her arms. She couldn’t believe she let Tam seduce her into thinking she could live here. Evidence of the price she’d pay was all around her.
Aryenis broke into her dark thoughts by handing her a shovel. It seemed the graveyard came conveniently stocked with the proper tools. Together they dug a shallow hole out of the loamy forest floor.
“Why are you helping me?” Ruby asked after they’d dug a grave deep enough and laid Shawn’s shrouded body inside it.
Aryenis didn’t acknowledge her question. Instead she began shoveling dirt on top of Shawn’s body.
Ruby steeled herself to do the same, spearing the clots to cover Shawn. Shovelful by shovelful, he disappeared under a layer of earth.
After they were through, Aryenis bowed her head over the fresh grave. Ruby did the same. The image of Shawn’s confused face when she’d given him that ride home from Cottingley seared her mind. More memories were coming back: Shelley standing in front of the Garcias’ house, watching her drive away; Mom’s pale face as she was wheeled into the Emergency Room; Aryenis drawing pictures on a napkin.
Ruby’s breath caught. Aryenis had been trying to tell her something back then, hadn’t she? And how long ago had that been? She put her hand in the dress’s pocket and her fingers touched two pieces of paper. She pulled out the crumpled napkin…and the page from the fairy tale book. It seemed like she’d torn out the story of the Ruby Red necklace a lifetime ago. She touched the page gently.
Shelley. Mom.
She put her hand in the other pocket and grazed the round shape of her cheapie cell phone. She took it out and flicked it open. It had been turned off. She held down the power button to turn it back on, but it seemed to take an eternity for the LCD screen to light up. When it finally did, it showed zero bars. No cell service in the woods. She ground her teeth in frustration. Couldn’t she ever catch a break?
Still, at least the date on the screen told Ruby how long she’d been here. It was a Tuesday, about two weeks after she’d first arrived at Cottingley. Guilt pierced her. She had left Shelley alone, promising to call soon, and disappeared for two whole weeks.