by R. M. Walker
“Sure she wasn’t tugging out your brain?” Jake sniggered.
“He’d need one first,” Josh replied, and they fist bumped, laughing together.
“Shut up.” Matt rolled his eyes at them.
“There’s something else,” Nate spoke up, he sat forward from the wall, his hands supporting himself on the floor either side of him. “She called my name.”
“Oh, you said that. I thought you were just trying to use some lame ass way to chat her up,” Matt said.
Nate snorted and shook his head. “Whatever. Back on track, I heard my name. My full name and it could only have been her who called it.”
“What all four of them?” Josh asked in surprise. “Ignatius Quentin Benedict Cohen? Jesus Christ, you couldn’t mishear that!”
“No, just Ignatius. I heard it clear as day as I walked over. But how many people even know it, let alone call me that? Apart from my mother,” he added dryly.
“I’m sure your mum was drunk when she named you,” Jake said through a chuckle.
“Can we please stay on track here?” Matt suddenly snapped, causing them all to look at him. “There’s something not right with this girl, and we need to know what.”
“Not right?” Jake frowned at him. “What do you mean ‘not right’?”
“She flips out when I touch her. She's calling out a name that is a closer guarded secret than the aliens in Area 51, then denying she did.”
“Matt, there are no aliens in Area 51,” sighed Josh, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“That's not the point,” Matt snapped. “And of course there are. But you’re not getting it.”
“Nurse Holden said it was an epileptic fit,” Josh said with a frown. He could see how serious Matt was and straightened up slightly.
“There was no trigger,” Matt added. “No flashing lights or whatever’s supposed to trigger them.”
“Nah, they don’t always work that way,” Jake spoke up. “Just being overtired can trigger them if they’re bad to start with. She’s just moved here, first day at a strange place. That’s a lot of stress; it could have triggered it.”
“But epilepsy doesn’t explain how a new girl would know my name was Ignatius,” Nate pointed out.
“So what are we saying?” Josh asked, his eyes on Jake’s. “She’s like us?”
“Maybe,” Matt allowed.
“It’s a possibility,” Nate agreed. “And if she is, then she knew my name somehow and used it to get our attention. If that’s the case, what really happened when she touched Matt? What does she want? What’s she up to?”
“Do we go to Jonas?” Jake asked, turning to look at Nate; they all did. He was their natural leader and had been for as long as they could remember. They didn’t second guess it, they didn’t even actively think about it. Nate was the lead and that was it.
“I think we should watch her first. It shouldn’t be too hard. She’s in the village.”
“Derry’s Lane. They’ve rented the middle one, number two, according to Mum,” Matt spoke up.
“Great, I’m two streets over. You’re not too far.” Nate looked at the twins and then Matt. “She might be around your house with her mum sometimes as well.”
“Just watch her?” Josh asked. “We can do that.”
“We like her; she’s nice,” Jake added.
“I like her too,” Matt admitted. “I don’t think she’s dangerous, Nate. How can a girl that barely tops eight stone be dangerous against us?”
“Come off it, Matt,” snorted Josh. “That’s a dumb question. We’re Fae. Anyone who isn’t, is potentially dangerous. There are even ones like us that are dangerous, you know that!”
“And if she is like us?” Jake asked.
“She’ll certainly know what you are.” Nate looked at Matt. “She would have picked it up the moment she touched you. It may have even caused the fit.”
“Shit.” Matt ran a hand through his hair. “So what do we do?”
“There is something else,” Nate said quietly, his fingers plucked nervously at the carpet beside him.
“What?” Matt leant forward to get a closer look at his face.
Nate shoved his glasses up his nose. “When she fitted… when she went down,” he hesitated, gathering his thoughts. “It was scary, I guess, but there was more. I had to get to her, to protect her, it was such an odd feeling. She’s a complete stranger, I don’t trust her, but for those few minutes I would have fought anyone who tried to make me put her down. And you”—he looked up at Matt—“reached out to heal her.”
“No!” Matt shook his head immediately, then closed his eyes as he realised that what Nate said was right. “Yes, yes. I just knew I had to touch her, to take away her pain,” he admitted. “I didn’t even think. Not even after, not till you just said it. I would have taken her pain and exposed us all, and it didn’t even register.”
“Fuck,” Josh hissed, and completely in sync, he and his twin turned to face them properly. They leant forward, resting their arms along their thighs. “Do you mean that she’s— What are we saying here?”
“We’re saying nothing,” Nate said and stood up quickly, shoving his hands into the back pockets of his black jeans. “The whole thing could be a huge coincidence. Maybe I didn’t hear her say my name. I was so sure though.” He let out a huge sigh. “She may just have had a fit due to whatever… I don’t know. Maybe it just shocked me into being protective. And Matt,” he looked at him, “you feel that kind of thing more than us ‘cause of your power. Shit, if we let you, you’d heal every tiny cut we get.”
Matt shrugged, rolling his shoulders as he sat back in the chair. “Maybe. I wasn’t thinking, that much is clear. I don’t know though. I’ve never tried to heal you when others are around.”
“No, but let’s face it, we’ve never witnessed an epileptic fit before. It was quite shocking.” Nate sighed again, running a hand through his hair. Strands dropped into his eyes, but he didn’t move them.
“So, do we go to Jonas?” Josh asked, once again looking at Nate.
“With what?” Matt threw his hands out. “She had a fit, which may or may not be a regular occurrence for her. We know jack shit about her. And not a lot about what happened. What exactly are we going to say to him?”
“Good point. So we watch her,” Jake said. “Get to know her.”
“I think it’s the best plan so far,” Nate agreed. “It might be nothing, it might be something, but I don’t trust her yet until I know she’s not like us.”
“And Jonas?” asked Matt. He clasped his hands together and leant forward on the chair.
“Let’s play it by ear; see what we find out about her,” Nate said. They nodded in agreement, and he was satisfied with that. They would go to Jonas if it was warranted, but there really was no point in going to see him with the little information they had at the moment.
It was several days since they’d seen Jonas last. Now that school had started up again, he would be busy teaching in the local primary. They’d first met Jonas when they were seven and he was teaching their year. Matt found a bird in the playground with a broken wing. Josh and Jake had already discovered they could control animals, so they’d settled the bird quietly in Nate’s hands. Matt stroked his fingers over the wing, healing it and giving himself a nosebleed in the process. They hadn’t known that Jonas was watching them.
He’d taken them to one side and asked them how they’d done it. Nate stepped up at first, denying everything with the others backing him up. Until Jonas held up a hand, palm upwards, a blue flame dancing on his skin.
It was the first indication that they weren’t alone. That the things they could do weren’t as freakish as they always thought. Nate was particularly relieved as his own power lay within fire, just like Jonas. Josh and Jake had the ability to calm and direct animals in any manner they wished. Matt was the healer. He could just touch one of them, and whatever scrape or bruise they had, he c
ould fix it. But Matt’s power came with a boundary. The bigger the wound or illness he had to fix, the more it took out of him. When they were about eight, Nate fell from a tree and broke his arm. Matt hadn’t thought twice about it and healed Nate immediately, but it gave him a chronic nosebleed and made him physically sick. Jonas explained that his gift was rare and came with a price.
Jonas also explained other things too. Things they wouldn’t have believed if it hadn’t been for their own undeniable abilities. Things that they thought were fairy-tales, he explained were real. He was the one who gave them a name to what they were. They were Fae, Fairies; things that shouldn’t exist but did.
Jonas explained that there were others like them. He warned them of what they already knew: that it was safer for them to keep their powers hidden from people. Society wouldn’t understand, and the potential for abuse was high. He’d also explained that just as in ordinary people there were good and bad, so it was with the Fae. So they’d kept it hidden from everyone except Jonas and never thought about meeting anyone else like them. Now it seemed there was potentially someone else.
It just remained to be seen if she was like them, and if she was, whether she was dangerous or not.
Different
Lily opened her eyes and sighed heavily. Her headache was finally receding to a point where she could think again. The curtains were shut at her window, trying to keep the room as dark as possible.
She lifted her hand to her forehead and moved the cool cloth that lay there. She vaguely remembered her mother picking her up from college and bringing her home. She didn’t always remember the events leading up to a seizure. Sometimes it was vague, hazy recollections, other times she remembered clearly. This time she could remember with clarity the events leading up to the seizure. She remembered talking to two gorgeous boys in the college canteen. They’d been teasing her, and she was fairly sure the one called Matt was flirting with her. She remembered holding out her hand for him to read her palm. The moment he’d touched her, she’d had a seizure. Usually that was the part where the colours swirled behind her eyes in a vivid psychedelic pattern. But this time was different. This time there were no colours. Instead, she'd seen images; random things shot through her brain. Flames, faces; faces she recognised as Matt and Nate. She’d seen a watermill by a river and the twins she'd met that morning. There were also faces of people she didn't recognise and places she didn't know. There was a flash of a house she didn't recognise. Nothing that made any sense to her. It felt as if she was looking through a photo album of someone she didn’t know.
It unsettled her, maybe even frightened her slightly. She'd never had a seizure quite like it before. She’d never seen anything except colours before. Part of her was worried that it was a significant change in her epilepsy; perhaps indicating something was majorly wrong. She sat up in bed looking at the damp cloth in her hands. If she closed her eyes, the things she'd seen were very clear. She shook her head to get rid of them and immediately regretted it when the pain behind her eyes sharpened.
She got up slowly and made her way to her bedroom door. As soon as she opened it and stepped out onto the wooden floor of the landing, her mother appeared in her own bedroom door. Her face was pinched with worry and sadness as she came towards Lily.
"Do you need something, Lily?" she asked quietly, careful to keep her voice low and soothing.
"No, I'm okay, thanks. I'm going to take some tablets. It's not so bad now and tablets should stop the rest of it."
"Are you sure, honey? You've only been asleep for two hours." Her mother lifted her hand and touched her forehead gently. Her fingers were cool on Lily's still heated skin.
"Is that all?" Lily was surprised. Usually a seizure knocked her out for hours before she could function enough to walk about.
"It's just gone three, we got back here just before one. Maybe it was a smaller seizure, honey."
"It was different," she admitted, and started to go down the spiral staircase to the living room.
"Different? How?" her mother asked, following closely behind her.
Lily went through to the kitchen at the back of the cottage. There was a small dining area in front of the back door that was just big enough for a small round table and two chairs. She slumped down at the table, resting her head on her folded arms.
"How was it different, Lily?" She got a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap.
"It's always been colours before," Lily said quietly. She knew that she had to tell her mother, but she was also aware that it would no doubt mean endless trips to more doctors and probably more scans and MRIs.
"And this time?" Her mother set the glass and two tablets in front of her and then sat down opposite.
"It was more like images, pictures." Lily took the tablets with the water. "Thanks." She set the empty glass down and rested her head on her folded arms again, her eyes closed.
"Images? What do you mean images? Pictures?"
Lily frowned at the near panic she could hear in her mother's voice and opened her eyes to peer at her.
"Just random things, places, people. I don't know. It was all jumbled together. None of it made sense. Some of it was people I'd met at college. I think it's probably just stress from the move, Mum."
"People?" Her mother lifted her head slightly, her eyes on the empty glass. "What people? Who did you meet?"
"Just some boys at college. Do you want to get me checked?"
"Boys?" Her mother said it as if she'd said aliens. It made Lily laugh, regretting it instantly as pain throbbed through her skull. She was certain there were tiny people inside her skull, all armed with jack hammers and mining for gold.
"Yeah, Mum. You know, boys." Lily closed her eyes again.
"Why? Why would you speak to boys?"
Lily opened her eyes to look at her mother in disbelief. "What? What do you mean why would I speak to boys? I've been talking to boys since Eric Rundle put that worm down my back when I was five on my first day of school."
Her mother shook her head and flapped a hand.
"Yes, yes, sorry. I just... What were you doing when you had the seizure? Were there flashing lights?"
"No, I was just talking to them. One of them, Matt, is the son of the people who've commissioned you to paint their house."
"Son?" Her mother's voice went up on the word and Lily was beginning to think her mother was having a turn of her own.
"Yeah, Mum, you know, a son. Opposite of having a daughter. Their son. Matthew Crowder. Are you feeling okay? Are you worried about my fit?"
"Seizure, Lilith! You had an epileptic seizure, not a fit!" her mother said sharply, making Lily wince, and her mother reach forward apologetically. "Sorry, honey, I didn't mean to make your head worse."
"S'alright." Lily took her mother's hand and smiled at her. The tablets were already starting to take the edge off her headache.
"I think it's the stress, Lily. I've moved us twice this summer and that's a lot for anyone." Lily heard the unspoken let alone someone like you.
It was true though; it had been a particularly stressful summer. As was her mother's tendency, as soon as school ended she was packing and moving them on. They'd found a flat on the outskirts of Portsmouth, and Lily thought that was it for a year, but then the commission arrived in her mother's P.O. Box and the year became four weeks.
Just days before the start of the new academic year, they’d moved to Trenance. Lily wasn't even sure where all her school records were at the moment. Portsmouth, or Brighton, or lost in the postal service never to be seen again. Her mother tried home-schooling her when she was younger, but it was impossible for her to juggle painting and teaching, and when she started to paint, the schooling tended to not get done.
"I was doing so well." Lily sighed heavily. "Longest run yet."
"Don't worry, honey. I'm sure it's just everything catching up with you."
"So you don't want to get me check
ed up?" she asked.
"I don't think so." Her mother shook her head. "I expect it was a mix of new faces, new places and nerves. Do you feel up to eating yet?"
It was an abrupt change of subject and one which surprised Lily, but she'd had enough for the day and the need for sleep was creeping up on her again.
"I think I'll go up to bed. I don't want to miss college tomorrow.”
"Okay, darling. If you need anything, call me."
Lily got up, dropped a kiss on the top of her mother's head, and went back up to her bedroom. She crossed to her window, and sitting on the window seat, she pulled one of the curtains open and slid her window up slightly. She could hear the birds singing and the leaves on the trees as they moved in the breeze. The trees seemed even darker today. She caught a movement at the very edge of the tree line and sat up to look closer. She wondered what wildlife lived in the woods. Rabbits and badgers, maybe foxes and even deer. A sense of excitement filled her; as soon as she could, she would be out there, exploring those woods and the beach that lay behind them. She didn't know much about different types of trees, but she could recognise oak, beech, and horse chestnut. It wouldn't be long before she'd be able to collect chestnuts. There was an open fireplace in their living room; maybe they could roast them. That would be fun.
She watched for a few more minutes, but there were no more movements. She got up, debated closing the curtain, and then decided against it. It would be nice to go to sleep being able to see the sky. If she woke in the night, she might even be able to lie and look out at the stars. She undressed quickly, shrugging into her sleepshirt, and got into bed. When she lay down, she could just see the tops of the trees moving gently. She watched them until her eyes closed and sleep took her. **************
Her mother dropped her at college the next morning. Her head was clear and she felt fine, but her mother insisted on taking her, and Lily didn't mind. It was probably more comfortable than the bus if it was anything like the others she'd ridden over the years.