THE FAERIES
by Kim Smith © 2007
Her back was to me. I shivered as I took in the somber
surroundings. The old tree where she knelt was gnarled with roots exposed in the twilight and spindly twigs shooting out at odd angles. Fog rolled in, turning everything ghostly and pale.
“Lindsey?” I reached out, touched her shoulder. She
twisted her head around, absolute terror on her face.
“What? What is it?” Now my heart thudded deep inside
my chest as I realized she was not just sitting, meditating on the weather or watching the sluggish pond before her.
“They're out there,” she whispered her voice blending
with the surreal surroundings. “They're real.”
“Who's they?” She'd been in the hospital for so long.
Was she still off balance even with the medicines prescribed to keep her mentally intact?
Her hand, a white flag against the deepening gloom
flashed out from under the long cloak she wore and her thin finger pointed at the water. “Watch.”
I decided to give into her whims and try to understand
what it was that had her so entranced.
As I let my gaze wander across the smoking water I
could see tiny lights flicker across it. I believed it to be easily explained and told her so. “Fireflies. A normalnighttime event out here, and nothing to be afraid of,certainly.”
“No,” she hissed. “It's them. Can't you tell the difference? They live near the water. It's their firelight that you see.”
I might have been more inclined to believe her had I
known just whom she thought lived near the pond. The blink of golden light was so fragile, disappearing so quickly, I couldn't decide who was having visions, her or me.
“I see the lights, Linds. I say it's stars peeking out
of this blasted fog, or it's a house across the woods.
Maybe it's just fireflies.” I tried not to sound
condescending.
She stood, slowly, her eyes never leaving the water. A
short laugh escaped her unhappy lips. “Not fireflies. Never fireflies. Faeries. And they're coming for us.”
She began backing away and I took her arm. She was
shivering now, the coldness seeping into both of us.
“Faeries? Oh, boy. That sounds lovely, shall we have
them in for tea?”
She wrenched her arm away and took a few steps, gaping
back over her shoulder at the water. “Run!”
Then she was away from me. Fleeing through the trees
that rose to greet us, black specters flashing past. I
didn't look back. I was too intent on keeping up with her.
If she fell, she might be seriously injured. She was not well, after all. Her crashing ahead of me became faint,distant.
“Lindsey, stop!” I could barely make out her cloak as
it waved like a dark hand ahead of me every so often.
Then as if planted there on purpose, a root tripped me
and I fell. The spongy moss felt cold and wet beneath my cheek and sharp searing pain threaded through my body from my leg.
Broken. It must be. The pain would intensify soon.
I tried to call out to my sister, but the air had been
heaved from my lungs and all I could do was cough and gasp.
That was when I saw them. The fireflies. They were
approaching my left shoulder and I moved my head, blinked twice and tried to focus more sharply.
Yes, they were there and they were moving toward me on
legs thin as matchsticks and their faces were like
something with biblical proportions. The golden flickering lights they carried illuminated their ghastly furrowed countenances like harsh light on a newspaper.
I could see them clearly, but I couldn't move. Didn't
want to move as they neared. They became the creatures of beauty that time worn tales had painted them as.
Faeries.
The pain as they bit into my flesh was like thousands
of tiny pinpricks hitting me all at once. If I'd had
mobility before then, it was taken away as soon as they struck.
Darkness enveloped me and I felt myself being taken
over by it.
Voices. I'm afraid to open my eyes. The visions I've
seen have both horrified and sickened me. Then it was
Lindsey's voice. She'd come to save me!
I open my eyes and was blinded by the glaring light of
fluorescent bulbs.
“She's going to be fine, Miss Sparks. Those ants are
killers if you follow my meaning.”
I focused in on my sister's face and she winked at me
knowingly. “I tried to tell her they were there.”
Kim Smith lives with her husband of fifteen years and her dog in North Mississippi, where she always leaves her nightlight on in case any of the creatures she dreams up comes to call. When not writing, she spends her time helping her husband with their video production company, Videovision Entertainment. Kim loves to hear from her readers at pubd2b@yahoo.com.