by S L Mason
“Yeah, this is where Sarah brought us back. Her parents’ house is right there.” Nick’s hand waves off to the right.
I try to pull my eyes away from the dashboard. I can’t seem to snap out of it. My stomach rolls over several times as the rock in my belly grows to a brick. I push back mentally at the brick but it doesn’t budge.
“Shit! Open the fucking door, Nick! Before she yacks on us.” Tom’s words lodge in my throat, holding the dam.
“Hit the Breaks?” Will yells.
Stumbling, I practically fall out of the truck. All of the lovely acidic with its glowing yellow colors spew from between my lips. The muscles in my body clench and unclench, as my hands hold on to my kneecaps.
Rough fingers move over my brow and pull my hair back. “It’s okay. Get it out. You’ll feel better.” Nick’s tone is soft and soothing “They’re just dead. Remember the Fae can’t hurt them anymore.” He pets my hair back and rubs a hand up and down my spine.
Moisture drips down my nose as every orifice in my body seems to open up the floodgates. I’m just happy I didn’t wet myself.
“Sorry, I didn’t know it was is your parents’ house.” Jake’s voice comes from far away. “So, your dad’s over there?”
He’s talking about Arty’s dad. I shake my head to try to gather some more saliva in my mouth so I can spit out the last of the bile. “No, my mom and dad aren’t here. Those are Arty’s parents.”
Nick goes all big brother on me. “Sorry, guys, back off! Give her some air. Let her catch her breath. Here, Sarah, take a swig of this. Swish it around and spit it out. Get the acid off your teeth. You don’t want to lose your pretty smile.”
Half-cocking a smile to myself. If Arty were here, he’d be the one holding my hair and telling me to go ahead and throw up. Instead, I’m surrounded by a bunch of strange guys and Nick.
Tom throws out, “Lordy, Nick, tell your girlfriend to suck it up, and let’s get going.” Whatever pity party I was having, it instantly passed.
“He’s not my boyfriend, dickweed,” I say and spit on the ground near Tom.
“I’m not her boyfriend. I’m her… we’re allies. Just like you, we banded together for a common cause.” Nick’s retort isn’t as convincing as mine.
“Ha, told you so. You owe me a twenty there, Jake.” Tom laughs, letting his tongue sneak out from between his lips.
Will barks back. “You’re a real asshole, you know that? You don’t have to bet on everything. I mean, honestly, of course, they’re just allies. Shit, look at him. Of course, she doesn’t dig him, he’s a big roid baby.” Will shakes his head.
Nick puffs up slapping a fist into his open palm bristling at the idea that I wouldn’t want him.
I want to lunge at Will and smack him in the face. There’s no reason to hurt Nick, just for fun. But the truth is, I can’t fault them. I’m not into betting, but there isn’t anything to take the edge off of the reality we’re all living in now. More power to him. Everybody needs something. I need a good cry. Nick needs a fight. Jake and Tom need to bet. My question is when did they make the bet? As we were walking up? I hadn’t heard them talk about money.
I walk over the grass. It’s fresh, green, and singing its sweet song. It draws me in. I don’t need to be distracted. I take the tip of my shoe and wipe the puke off. The song sours slightly. Apparently, the grass doesn’t like yak either.
“You popped out here?” Jake asks as his steely eyes burn into me.
“Yeah. This is where we touched down.” I wave my arms around.
“And you saw this?” Jake points at Nick.
Nick shakes his head. His eyes wander down to the ground. “No, I don’t remember anything until I woke up standing here.” He tilts his head back. “We were already on the ground. I had the sound of Sarah’s voice ringing through my mind, and suddenly it was like waking up from a long nap to the radio playing. I felt groggy like I’d been asleep for a long time, but my body was tired like I’d been running in my sleep. Other than that, I can’t remember a thing.” Nick shakes off the memory.
Jake swings around to look at me. “Which house is yours?”
I point to the walkway without a dead body in front. “Don’t go up the walkway. My father planted Claymores on both the front and back doors.” I reply.
Tom pokes around the front yard until a thin wire creases the leg of his fatigues. He squats down and runs his index finger across the line. “Fuck me, she’s not kidding. Her old man did.” Tom has such a way with words. He lifts the debris covering the box and then replaces it.
I turn my attention to the cobblestone circle. The pavers are surrounded by mushrooms, little brown ones and tall skinny peeked white ones. Some are flat while others are round. A clump of pointy umbrella-like mushrooms dots the circle along with oyster, white button, chanterelles, and grand morel mushrooms. They’re all in varying shades of sepia tones, yellows bleeding out to a delicate ivory white, earthy reds, dark browns tipped in purple. Their song calls to me.
The grass and the trees make a chord, they sing in C, E, D, a B-flat here and there. The mushrooms are different, and the air around them is distorted as if they give off heat in a desert. A circle of magical distortion.
“It’s a fairy circle.” I don’t bother to look up at the gasp heard off to the right. “I think we need to stand in the circle, and that’s the way back,” I remark, then tilt my head to the side.
Will raises his hands and waves us off. “No, I’m not going. You guys go ahead. This is too creepy for me. You’re telling me you came back from wherever the Fae live on this pile of rocks, surrounded by mushrooms. No fucking way. I’m sorry. Keep your fairytales to yourselves. I’ll stay in the human world. You go wherever the fuck they went without me.” Will runs his fingers through his flaming red hair. He promptly turns around and marches down the street with his head held high. I see him shifting his head from left to the right to see if anything is coming.
Jake jumps in. “Okay, William O’Brian, you don’t want to play with fairies; that’s fine.”
“Hey, Will! If you want to help a few kids stay safe, I could point you in the right direction.” Nick’s voice carries enough for him to hear.
Will stops, turns, and taps his foot on the ground. “I’m listening.”
Nick rushes on. “Go to the edge of the Sanburg Industrial district at dawn every morning and wait. Either a little blonde or a bigger guy with brown hair will appear. Tell them Nick and Sarah sent you.”
I hold my breath.
“Yeah, I could do that. They friends of yours?” Will inquires.
“Yeah, they are,” Nick says.
I’d never heard Nick refer to anyone as a friend. I nudge his shoulder, and he shrugs.
“I suppose I could keep an eye out for a few kids. I ain’t goin’ with you. I’ll do my part from this side.” Will turns his back on us and keeps walking back the way we’d come. I heave a sigh of relief.
I don’t blame him for leaving. The fairy circle is kind of creepy. If I was still human, I’d feel it was totally creepy too. But whatever I am now, I know I’m not human. I’m not one of them, but I’m not one of us either.
The song of the mushrooms pulls at me, making me smile. Air slides through my nostrils, and the taste of clean air comes from the land of Fae. Deep down inside the pull is like gravity. I want to step through into the circle. The hum throbs with my pulse.
I don’t realize I’m leaning forward until Nick’s hand locks around my arm.
“Are you okay, Sarah?” he asks.
I glance down at his hand and up into his face. The moment of peace and tranquility emanating from the Fae world lifts from my shoulders—gone. Suddenly, gravity locks me back in place. “Yeah, I’m fine. Anybody who wants to go to the land of Fae, please step inside the mushroom circle.” I avert my eyes from the circle. The moment I spy the mushrooms again, I hear their song, and I’m not sure I can stop myself from following it.
Jake announces, “I’m
going too. Tom, are you going to run off with Will?” he eyes his friend.
“Well, there’s no way I’m gonna win that twenty back if I walk away now. Will doesn’t like to gamble. Guess I’ll just have to go with you. It’s the only way to get paid.” Tom replies and shrugs.
It’s a shady excuse, but maybe that’s his way of saying, ‘yeah, I’m going but not for the reasons you think.’
My eyes dart over to Nick.
“You don’t have to ask me,” Nick says. “You know what my answer is. Let’s go! We’re burning moonlight.” The songs of the mushrooms will diminish as the sun rises. How Nick knows is beyond me. If we were going in, we have to go now.
I step to the edge of the ring, and their song fills me again. It isn’t as powerful as before. I’m able to control it—a bit. It fills me, but instead of drawing me to it now I can bend it to my will. “You guys step inside first. I have to go last.” I supply.
I watch the magical distortion ripple like a stone in the water as each of them steps over the fungi-covered edge. The three of them take up a triangular position within the circle, oblivious to the magical wall or their disturbance of it.
I insert my right foot through the wall of magic, feeling a squeeze and a tingling as I step down. The song that had drawn me to it changes from a pressing hum into a blazing orchestra. The music is all-consuming. My left foot follows suit. As soon as my body clears the wall, the mushrooms’ desire pounds into me. All they want, all they’ve ever wanted, is to go home. I’m submerged in a lake of magic. The circle’s desire becomes my own. I want to go home to the Hallowed Hills.
A vision of iridescent plants in the phosphorescent lights comes to me. I move to the center of the circle, and I feel the notes pour from my mouth. Focusing on the vibration of the notes emanating from my vocal cords my jaw opens wide to let the notes out, and my voice rises with a chorus of mushrooms, singing the beauty of Fae. Deston’s castle, evil pixies, rainbow horses, honeysuckle, morning glory, baby’s breath, all of it wrapping around me in a sonnet woven of spider silk notes. Thoughts and visions I’d never seen in the Hallowed Hills loosen from my lips.
My eyes register that we’ve risen into the sky, but I don’t feel the gravity of Earth anymore. The human world falls away from me as I sing.
My skin burns with liquid acid, melting away my humanity. Music streams from my throat, covering the screams under my skin and in my bones. Changes race through my body. The sun dawns in the distance, blinding me to the world I’ve always known. My back arches with my arms spread, balancing on my tiptoes.
When I’m done, I won’t be the same. I never will be the same, but I can’t stop. The magic is a drug, and I’m addicted. I reach the crescendo of my song, begging it to take me home. A loud crack splits the air. The sun disappears, leaving the day-glo lights in the air around me.
My hands now carry the iridescent markings of the Fae. The pressing need to sing vanishes. The round softness of my humanity disappears with the music, leaving only a sharp point that angles away from my skull. My fingers trace the new shape of my state of being.
Nick’s eyes go wide, and his pupils dilate as his lips part slightly to say something.
Hot tears race down my cheeks. “Don’t! I don’t want to fucking hear it.” My body quivers and trembles.
Nick’s mouth snaps shut, and his jaw muscle grits as he grinds his teeth.
The fairy circle slowly lowers us down. I shift my gaze around to get my bearings.
CHAPTER 9
After our circle lands, I don’t just see the day-glo colors painted across everything. I hear their sounds too. Vibrating music, and waves emanate out from everything around me, intersecting with each other. The waves touch, mingling and changing and wake out like waves in a pond to meet others and repeat. The world is a pond with millions of thrown pebbles, all waking at the same time. When you throw pebbles onto a lake close to one another, their wake waves flow out from each other in circular perfection, outlining whatever shape they are. They meet each other and reform, creating a whole new wake wave with a new shape. Fae is the lake, and everything is a pebble.
One way or the other, I will never see the world the same.
I reach out and touch a wake with the tip of my finger, pushing back and changing its shape. My companions have wakes too. Jake and Tom’s wakes are weak and smooth. Nick’s is stronger and rippled. They don’t radiate like the plant life around me, strong and vibrant.
Fae appear different and yet the same. The sound waves flow everywhere, altering my perception of reality. It’s brighter, the colors more intense, vivid, and domineering; each one vying for attention and dominance over the other. It reminds me of my brief time at the Fae court, all of them vying for attention. The plants aren’t much different. There are ferns and climbing plants with big leaves. Something that resembles a day-glo version of an elephant ear. Delicate flowers, butterflies, large and small in a rainbow of color. I can see and hear all their vibrating sounds.
“Sarah?” Nick snaps me out of it. I’m staring at him, entranced by the sounds waking off of him. I turn to face the three of them.
You know the moment when you can tell something is wrong? Like there’s a giant piece of lettuce caught between your teeth, or maybe your hair is sticking out in twelve different directions, or you rubbed your nose and now there’s a booger hanging out.
“What are you?” Jake voices the thought on everyone’s mind. It’s a neon sign across their faces.
In slow motion closing and opening my eyelids blink. Time shifts for me. I’m moving in slow motion while they are fast. Humanity runs at a different time span from Fae. The Fae are eternal, immortal. Humanity is not. Now I can actually see how quickly their time is spent.
“I don’t know what I am. Something else.” The muscles between my brows pull together at my frustration. How do you explain the inexplicable? In the pit of my belly, the brick lodges deeper.
“You looked human before. You don’t anymore. You look like one of them, but not quite.” Jake’s response is laced with confusion.
I see the shift of Nick’s body, repositioning himself between Jake, Tom, and I.
“You wanted back into the land of Fae, I’ve brought you here,” I retort.
Jake and Tom’s weapons train on me. Their wakes change from smooth to sharp thorn-like peaks.
I think quickly. “You didn’t ask me how I was going to do it. You didn’t ask me what it would cost, or if there even was a price to pay. There is always a price. The price, me, little bits of my humanity have been slowly cut away. I figured out how Fae magic operates. They call on music to weave the magic around themselves. They sing it into being, and every time I use Fae magic, it changes me.” The wake around me changes as I speak, interacting with my words. “You wanted in here. As for explanations, I don’t owe you shit.” I throw the last part out there.
Nick posies himself like a sentinel next to me, silently defending with his arms crossed and his jaw muscles working.
Jake scratches his chin and replies, “You’re right. There is always a price to pay. No, we didn’t ask you what the price was, and you offered it for free. So, touché. Now we’re free to run off and get ourselves killed. Tell me what your objective is, and maybe I’ll help you achieve it.” Jake says then shifts his eyes to Tom and back to me.
“We’re here for three reasons. Nick wants to save his sister. I want to save my friend Arty and a six-year-old little girl, Olive.” Don’t tell them they took her because they want me. Bad idea.
“Olive. Why is she so important to you?” Jake looks up at me through his bushy eyebrows.
“She’s my friend’s little sister. I promised I’d get her back. Zoe stayed to help the other kids. I left to go save her sister.” I say, simple and to the point, no need to get bogged down with extraneous details.
“So, can we get on with it? We’re standing out here in the open, and we’re burning whatever the fuck you call this moonlight; mighty stupid,” T
om says. He has such a way with words.
“Burning moonlight? You’re even starting to talk like them?” Jake joshes him.
“You’re very funny, Tom,” I snap. “You’re not in charge. Just because you have a gun doesn’t make you the big baddie here. Your job is not to question why, but to do and die.”
Both of them recoil from my words.
I know they’ve heard those words before, but not from an eighteen-year-old. Tom moves toward me; it’s slight.
Jake raises his arm, blocking Tom’s path. “Let it go! She knows what’s going on here. She had operational knowledge; we need to follow her. Once we decide it’s not worth following her anymore, we’ll go our own way.” Jake lowers his weapon.
“Yeah, she’s got operational knowledge; it’s true. She’s been here, and she got us in just like she said she would. She could be holding back. She could know more about what’s going on here. We need to cut the head off the snake, Jake.” Tom’s gun never leaves me.
My mind races and my hands are moist with how I’d react if that gun goes off.
“I agree. She’s probably holding out on us,” Jake says. “She’s a teenager; they hold out on everybody. But she’s got two brain cells to rub together, and she looks like one of ‘them’. She can say she entranced us, and we can all slip by a lot of Fae. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth for what it is. She’s using us, we’re using her.” Jake’s simple reply does the trick.
Tom looks away and nods his head. “Yes, sir!” Tom gives Jake a half-hearted salute, lowering the tip of his gun. His hard eyes say it all. He doesn’t trust me and never will.
I don’t blame him. If I looked anything like I feel, I wouldn’t trust me either. It’s the Fae. For all I know, the land masses shift around. Nothing about the land of the fair folk is forever, except the Fae. Everything here feels as if it is in constant motion, moving with the music and the magic.
Nick breaks into my thoughts. “Do you know which direction to go, Sarah?”