by S R Edwards
“What?” I turn to face her.
“Where are you going?”
“Out, I found out where they are living there is a big house in the woods it’s glamoured but I can see through it. That’s where I’m going and you can’t change my mind.” I run off towards the woods. Zara shouts something but I can’t make out what she is saying.
When I come to the house, well it’s more of a mansion, I stand there. Two pixies grab me from behind. “You just made a grave mistake princess!” One hisses in my ear. “I didn’t make a mistake, I came here to make a deal with my father.”
“A deal? The king loves to make deals!” The other one snickers. They push me forward and take me into the house. The front hall is decorated like a Victorian state house. The walls are covered in elaborate art and the marble floor is pristine. Red velvet curtains hang in front of the windows and the stairs are wooden with a bright crimson carpet running up the middle. A man stands on the balcony above us, his brown hair hangs loosely against his face and his clothes remind me of the goblin king in labyrinth. “Amelia my child to what do I owe the pleasure.”
“Father, I am here to make a deal with you.”
“A deal.” He starts to walk down the stairs, he really looks like the goblin king, and stops half way down. “Come to me my child.” The two pixies let go of my arms and I step forward. He holds out his hand and I take it. He leads me to a study. “So what is this deal?”
“You and your people can feed off me and you leave the town’s people alone, including my friends and family.”
“Your blood is half pixie.”
“I did my research, it means I will be able to heal quicker gain my strength and you be able to feed off me. Do we have a deal?”
“I’ll have to think about it. So you are willing to give your life to save a couple of weres and town of humans?”
“Yes!”
“OK, I accept we have a deal.” Two pixies grab me and drag me upstairs into a room. They chain me to a bed. Then I realise that I have just made the biggest mistake ever, in the history of man.
Chapter 9
Pain shoots up my arm and into my chest. The pixie wipes the blood from her face and smiles at me. “You’ll die princess!”
“Gladly!” I say through gritted teeth. The pain is unbearable, it shoots around my body and stabs into my head. The door to the room swings shut as the pixie leaves. I can hear shuffling or it might just be the pain throbbing in my chest. Then the door opens and a skinny figure appears in the door way. “Oh, my god Amy.” Alice runs over to me. My vision is hazy. I shake my head and she tries the pull the chain off my wrist. “Alice no, get out of here.”
“No way, they hurt you!”
“Alice leave before they find you and kill you that’s why I did this.”
“I can’t leave you.”
“Alice look at me, I’ll be fine. Trust me, now go please before they hurt you.”
“But...”
“Alice please.” She nods and hugs me.
“I’ll be back Amy, with help. Don’t die!” She leaves and my father comes into the room. “How are you feeling my child?”
“Fine.”
“That is a lie.”
“If this means that your people leave the town alone then this is what I will do.”
“You are very brave.” He puts his hand on my head and I shudder. He stands up and leaves the room. A tall boy comes in. “Princess.”
“Oh, just get it over and done with.” I close my eyes and he laughs. He sits on the bed. “I am not going to feed from you, do not worry. My name is Ashley and I am here to help you.” He hands me some water and a sandwich. I look at him and he leaves the room. “Wait, you’re not like the others.”
“I can control my needs unlike them. Now gather you strength.”
A few days pass and I grow weaker. The pixies are happy though and haven’t attacked anyone, my father promises. Zara comes in and I try to look at her. “Zara?”
“Shh, Amy I’m here to help you.”
“No, you can’t.”
“You don’t have to be the hero Amy.” My father comes into the room.
“You are Astley’s queen.”
“Not any more, there is a stronger king I see. I pledge my allegiance to you.”
“Very well child, have your fill and leave to keep watch with the others, I’m sure the weres will be coming for her soon.”
“Thank you.” He leaves and I look at her, my face must look shocked because she smiles. “I had my fingers crossed.” She tries to pull the chain. I lift my hand up and put it on her arm. “Stop please, I don’t want others to die for me.”
“They won’t I promise. Amy you are too weak if they feed on you now you will die.” She sits on the bed and holds my hand. I shake my head.
“I don’t care.”
“You’ll never get Chris back.”
“I have to this, the only way you are going to get be out of here is if I’m unconscious.” She looks at my arms and gulps. Zara nods and bites her lip.
“Amy, you are going to die if I don’t get you out of here now.” A tall man comes into the room. Ashley a pixie who has been helping me while I have been here, he smiles at me. “I will help to.” I shake my head and pass out from exhaustion and pain.
I wake up in my own room. I look at my arms they are covered in scars and I bite my thumb nail. I get up and walk over to the door. I open the door and stand at the top of the stairs. I grab the banister and start to walk downstairs. “Gram?” She turns round and runs up the stairs and meets me half way. “Amy, come on back to bed.” She turns me round and I’m too weak to resist. She tucks me back into bed and smiles. “You are unbelievable.” She leaves the room and goes back downstairs. Noah opens the door and smiles. “Are you ok?”
“Do I look ok?”
“No, that’s why I asked.”
“Let’s just say I’ve been better.” He laughs and I smile at him. Alice runs in and launches herself at me. She wraps her arms around me and starts to cry. “I thought you were going to die.”
“Yeah we all did when Zara brought you back and said that the pixies had been feeding off you. We all thought that you wouldn’t make it.” Noah explains. Alice hugs him and looks at me. “Did she tell you she had help?”
“Yes, a pixie helped her.”
“Yeah, Noah if it wasn’t for him I would have been dead before Alice found me.”
“I don’t care I don’t like him.”
I sit cross legged on the settee and the phone rings. I throw the remote on the settee and get up to answer it. “Hello.” I walk over to the settee and turn the T.V. off. “Yes Gram, I’m fine. Ok, I will. Yep, alright. Yeah all the doors and windows are locked. Gram you worry about me too much. I’m fine. Ok, bye, bye.” I hang up and go into the kitchen. I open the fridge. I grab a cheese square and open it. Someone knocks on the door. “Yeah one minute!” I run to the door. I peer through the spy hole. A guy stands there. He looks familiar. Chris? I unlatch and unlock the door. I open it just a little bit. “Who are you?”
“Your worst nightmare!” He jams his foot in the door and I try to shut it. I run in to the living room but he grabs my waist and pulls me back into him. I shove him away and try to find something to use as a weapon. He grabs me again and I try to find where I put my phone. “Scared princess?”
“No, not of you.” He punches me in the stomach and gets a knife out of his coat. I back up and my legs hit the fireplace. I shouldn’t have opened the door. I try to run upstairs where he can’t get me. But he stands in my path. I’m all out of options. He comes at me with the knife pointing at my stomach. I turn my head away and wait for the pain and blood.
Chapter 10
The knife slips through my skin and into my stomach. I open my eyes and stagger forward pushing it in further. The pixie scout yanks it out and it makes a slurping sound. I throw my hands onto the wound and grab the settee. He licks
the blood from the knife and throws it on the floor. If I could scream I would but I struggle to breathe. I stagger to the phone and dial Gram’s number. She answers. “Amy, what’s wrong?”
“Pixie scout, knife, I tried.”
“What happened?” She pauses. “Stay where you are, I’ll send Chris, Noah and an ambulance.”
“Ok.” I hang up and stagger back to the settee.
Noah throws the door open and Alice follows him. “Oh my god Amy!” He runs over to me. I manage to force a smile. He takes my hands away from the wound. Alice runs into the kitchen to get the first aid kit. “You hold on Amy, you hear me?” Alice passes him the kit. His hands are shaking. I cough and wince.
“No, Noah stop. You have to find Chris.” The front door swings and a tall figure stands in the door way. Ashley clears his throat. “Were, let me help.”
“No way you are not going to do anything.” Noah shouts at him. I roll my eyes. Ashley leaves and everything goes silent. Noah seems like he’s shouting, Alice is crying. The ambulance crew then the room spins and goes white.
I wake up in a strange room. I think it is a hospital. Zara walks in. “Hey, how are you feeling?” She smiles and I smile back.
“I’ve had worse.”
“Me too.” She walks over to the bed. “You shouldn’t have lived the doctors are calling it a miracle.”
“So why did I?”
“Because I brought a friend of mine here to help you.”
“How many friends do have Zara?”
“Enough.” She walks back over to the door and opens it. A girl walks in, she looks half dead. “This is Cassidy.”
“Hi, thanks.”
“It’s ok any friend of Zara’s is a friend of mine. I had to help you.” They both have to leave because the doctors want to speak to me.
Ashley stands outside the room in the corridor. I roll over and see him. He opens the door. “I thought you were sleeping.”
“No, I can’t get to sleep.” He stands in the middle of the room and watches me sit up. “What’s wrong?”
“I wanted to help.”
“I know you did.”
“But the were.”
“He’s my friend, he’s just looking out for me.”
“I am sorry this happened.”
“I wish it hadn’t.” He stands next to the bed. Gram opens the door and sees him.
“Get out!” she screams at him, he turns on his heels and looks at her. “You stay away from my granddaughter.” He leaves and she runs over to me. “Did he hurt you, did he try to kiss you?”
“Gram, I’m fine. Ashley is my friend. If he hadn’t have helped me in the pixie house I would be dead.”
“He’s a pixie!”
“Zara’s a pixie!”
“She’s different!”
“And so is Ashley!”
“No he’s not!”
“Yes he is!” She rubs her forehead and leans down to kiss mine. I move away and she straightens up. “How do you know he isn’t just trying to trick you, gain your trust and kill you?”
“How do you?” She falls silent and I look at the scars on my arms. She starts to cry. It’s the first time I’ve seen her cry. “Gram, I’m sorry.”
She hugs me. “It’s not your fault sweetheart. I just don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t.” I hug her back and she pushes away.
“I love you so much Amy, you know that?”
“Yeah, I know.” She goes home.
A few days later I am discharged from the hospital and Gram sends me straight to my room. I sit on my bed and my wound stretches. I wince and someone knocks on the door. “Who is it?”
“Devyn.”
“Oh, come in.” He opens the door. “I thought you, Zara and Cassidy were going home.”
“We were and then Zara changed her mind. Cass went home though. Issie needs someone there. She’s paranoid.”
“I am not!” He squints and I bite my lip trying not to laugh. He’s been arguing with her on the phone about coming up here. He turns round. “What are you doing here?”
“Zara said I could and I paid for the ticket myself.” He shakes his head.
“Amy, Issie. Issie, Amy.” He runs down stairs and starts shouting at Zara. Issie smiles and walks over to me. “So you’re Amy. I’m Issie. Urm Dev’s girlfriend.”
“Cool. Yeah I am.”
“It’s nice to meet someone that’s like Zara. I mean there aren’t a lot of people like you.”
“You can say it I’m not offended by it.”
“Half pixies are rare and I mean you’re friends with Dev’s cousin. That is weird.”
“You could call it fate, destiny or a coincidence.” Devyn storms back upstairs and grabs Issie’s arm. “Nick’s here too!”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t he be?” He hides his face in his hands.
“Who is protecting Bedford?”
“Betty, Astley, his pixies and Cass.”
“Issie you and Nick go home, you are not staying here it’s dangerous.”
“And Bedford isn’t.”
“Issie please.” She crosses her arms.
“No, I am staying and so is Nick. You know how he gets when Zara’s in trouble.”
“But she isn’t in trouble.” I stand up and go down stairs.
A well-built boy stands in the living room. “Zara next time you decide to fight evil pixies. Tell me!” I stand in the door way and clear my throat. They look at me and Zara smiles. “I didn’t ask them to come.”
“Ok, let’s go home then. Zara I don’t want you to die not after everything you’ve done for me and Bedford.”
“He has a point. I want all of you to go back to Bedford and protect your families and friends.” Devyn and Issie come down stairs.
“Is this what you want?”
“Yes, I can find Chris and kill my father on my own thank you for your help.”
“Alright guys come on lets go. If you need us we’re a phone call away.” Gram looks at me. “Why did you send them away?” I shrug and go upstairs.
Chapter 11.
Noah bursts into my room and punches my bad arm. “Ow! Noah what the hell?”
“Why did you send them back to Maine?”
“Because Noah , I don’t want people to die for me!”
“They helped you because you wanted them to.”
“No, you wanted them to.”
“Amy, I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I’ve been doing some research.”
“On what?”
“Valhalla.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, I found a way for me to get there.” I turn round and turn my laptop on. “My blood has active pixie parts, so I can go to Valhalla as a worrier.”
“Wait that would mean you...”
“Yep.” He shakes his head.
“No way Amy, you are not getting yourself killed!”
“But this is the only way to get Chris back!”
“No, there has to be another way.”
“There isn’t I’ve looked and plus we have to get him back soon otherwise he will have to stay there and we will never see him again!”
“But...”
“I am going to Valhalla and you can’t stop me!” I stand up and he watches me. I grab my coat and run downstairs he runs after me. “Amy don’t do anything stupid.” I ignore him and run into the woods. Two pixie scouts grab me.
“What are you doing out here all alone princess?”
“She’s not!” Noah shouts at them. They look at him and it gives me the opportunity of elbowing them off me. They jump back and come at me. I hold a stick in my hands and wave it in the air. Noah steps back and the pixies scream. They run at me and I hit one on the head. He falls to the floor and the other one produces a knife. Noah shouts at me and I turn around to look at him. “No Amy behind you!”
“What?!” The pixie shoves the knife into my back and it slices into my spine. I feel mysel
f drop and everything goes white.
When I wake up I’m in a strange room I’ve never been in before. I sit up and a woman’s pale hand pushes me back down on the bed. “You must rest now worrier your work is done.” She turns to walk away.
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
“Where am I?”
“You are in Valhalla young one.”
“Do you know of a worrier by the name of Christopher Andrews?”
“Yes, I am aware of him.”
“Could I speak to him?”
“I will ask Odin.” She walks away and a few minutes later she returns with Chris.
“Amy?”
“Is it really you?”
“Yeah, I missed you. How did you get here?”
“The same way you did.”
“What?”
“Look it doesn’t matter. I’m here to persuade you to come home with me. I read about it if you give up your were you can return to Earth.”
“No, Amy. I’m needed here and I can’t leave.”
“But...”
“I’m sorry.” He walks away and I feel tears welling up in my eyes. I gulp and look at the woman. “Could I speak with Odin?”
“Are you sure child?”
“Yes!” She disappears and in her place is a strong looking man. His hair is white and wavy. His eyes are bright blue and his skin is perfect. “You asked to speak with me young half-blood?”
“Yes I did.”
“May I ask why?”
“I wish to give up the pixie blood running through my veins so that I can return to Earth and fight by the side of my friends.”
“Is this your true wish?”
“Yes.” Everything fizzles out and I can feel myself falling. The feeling seems never ending.
I hit the floor softly. I can feel the grass on my skin. I sit up and look around. The train tracks shake and a train zips past me. I jump and turn around. My house stands just as strong and the light is on in my bedroom. I run up the fields and burst in through the kitchen door. Noah stands with his mouth wide open and Alice screams. “Noah, Alice what’s going on?”
“You’re dead.”
“Well obviously not.”
“You died in my arms. You can’t be here that’s impossible.” Gram walks down the stairs. “What are you shouting about?”
“Hi Gram.” She drops the books she is carrying and shakes. “What?” She runs over to me and hesitates. She softly touches my arm and wraps her arms around me. “I don’t ever want to lose you again.” She kisses the top of my head and stands aside. Noah smiles at me. “Did you go to Valhalla?”