Blood

I scream as the faerie stabs my brother in the throat.

“Sorry about this, mate. It ain’t personal.”

The faerie laughs as my twin dies, sputtering blood everywhere.

I don’t go to help him, though, like I should. Instead my first instinct is to get Sean away.

“REEEIIIIID!” Sean cries, causing the creature to look at him with a broad grin.

Fletch is up, and he’s moving towards the faerie, but he has no chance since it’s already pulling the steak knife out of Reid’s torn neck and moving towards him.

“Sean!” I snap, grabbing him and pulling him from his chair with more force than I thought was possible. He screams on top of his crying and I hear a pop come from his shoulder.

“Come on, baby,” I say through my tears, pulling him to the door.

“REEEIIIIID!” he screams again.

“You know, if you hadn’t have done that I might have let you be,” I hear the faerie say as I’m pulling the door open. “Oi!”

I shove Sean through, follow, and then slam the door shut.

“Lorna, no!” he screams. “REEEEIIIID!”

I lift him off his feet and look around, realising I don’t have any car keys. “Seanie we’re gonna have to walk,” I say.

“No! I want Daddy! Where’s my daddy?” he cries.

“We’re gonna go find him, love,” I say, trying to figure out which way to go.

He’d expect us to go to Kappamor, wouldn’t he? But the Cove is too far. Mallory. I have to find Mallory. That thing wasn’t him. It couldn’t be.

The door opens behind me and I feel a pair of arms close around me, grabbing both Sean and myself with ease. He lifts me clear off the ground and I scream.

“Sorry about that, love. It was nice of you to come out and wait for me,” he pauses. “Oh, don’t worry. I understand ya not wanting the little one to see that. If I could have, I would have done it away from him, but you know…” he continues on, carrying me towards Mallory’s truck as I scream and kick and try to get Sean free, but nothing works.

A bright light works to blind us.

“Oh, what now?”

Mallory, I think.

“Lorna?” asks my Da’s voice, laced with fear and dread.

“You don’t mind waiting here, do you?” says the faerie, dropping me as suddenly as he had picked me up.

As he starts to walk away I recover myself enough to realise what this all means.

“Da!” I scream before grabbing Sean by the arm and starting to run. I don’t know where I’m going, I just know I have to get Sean away.

It’s dark and cold and I can’t see worth shit and Sean is crying and screaming.

“Sean, we have to be quite,” I say without stopping but he just continues to scream.

The moon lights the snow ahead of us, all the way to the patch of trees behind the house. Maybe if we get there we can hide. Can faeries smell people like dogs? I don’t think so.

“Alright, love. That was fun,” says a voice by my ear before arms wrap around me again.

I scream and kick.

“Okay, now. I ain’t gonna hurt you.”

How did he catch us so fast? How did I stand so little of a chance?

“Bullshit!” I yell, which makes the faerie laugh as he carries both myself and my poor little Seanie back towards the house.

“You are just lovely.”

I continue to kick and scream and punch, which seems to have no effect on the creature.

Why am I so damned weak?

Mallory, I think again, help me.