Finding Fae

I dreamed of fanciful things all night after that. Magic and glamour abounded. There were tall and elegant elves, mingling and laughing with goblins decked out in the shiniest of clothes, complete with earrings and necklaces enough to make any debutant envious. Sirens giggled with tree nymphs, fawns and satyrs made joyful music, things I had no name for flitted around my mind until I finally woke up some time around dawn.

It would be a few hours still before Dad decided I had enough peace and came to tell me the days activity. Hand-to-hand combat? Knife training? Sword training? endurance? Physical improvement? It was like playing roulette. You never really knew where that stupid little ball would land. I laid in bed for a few minutes before I gathered the nerve to actually get up.

There was one thing, out of hundreds of images, that stayed with me from my dreams. I showered, taking longer than needed in the hot water, and checked my nearly healed wounds in amazement. Dad was really outdoing himself with his ointments and remedies lately. Even the scrape on my chin from the day before was merely a pink discoloring from the new skin. The whole time, this one image haunted me.

It was a woman. Her face was kind and had fine features, like an elf would have, but she lacked the lithe frame and easy grace. She had honey brown hair that was almost golden as it reached down her back, near her hips and her eyes were a familiar dark gray. She was a little on the short side, maybe five feet and five or six inches. She was smiling a knowing, happy smile, but she held herself with authority. She had power about her. An attitude that said, “Mess with me and see how long you last. I will destroy you in two seconds flat”. She wore a simple white dress that looked more like a nightgown, which was incredibly out of place in the middle of a super green forest the likes of which I had only seen in the Olympic Peninsula, in the middle of the day. The breeze played with her hair a little and made the fabric of her clothes hug her body, which is how I saw that she was hugely pregnant.

She smiled wider the longer I watched, but then the dream changed again, leaving her image burned into my mind for the rest of the day. I tried to focus on Dad’s lessons, battle stances “to improve my form”. Apparently, I got knocked down too easily. Regardless, I wasn’t paying attention very well and I ended up getting that disappointed, “I know you can do better” look from Dad all day long.

By the time he called it a day and went to make dinner, I was about to go insane with this woman in my head. I went up to my room and grabbed my pad of paper and some sketch pencils so I could get her out of my head.

When Dad called me for dinner, I had made decent progress before I stashed it away and went to eat. It was another quiet meal, but I did catch Dad looking at me with an almost pained expression on his face from time to time. I wanted to ask him what his problem was, but I knew he’d just ignore it or something like that, just like he always did when it came to topics he didn’t want to discuss, which was most of them.

I climbed the stairs and was pacing around in my room after Dad had gone to bed. I was anxious and restless as what he said to me yesterday bounced around my head, along with the still haunting image of the woman in the woods. I was literally itching to get out of this house and away from my dad and all of his stupid rules that I hated so much. So, I did possibly the dumbest thing I could have thought of.

I decided to go to a party.

I grabbed a small bag and threw in a few things, like a change of clothes and my hairbrush, before I opened my window. I had oiled the tracks generously so I could open it if I wanted some fresh air, despite the cold weather, so it slid up noiselessly, which was a good thing since I had learned ages ago that Dad slept lighter than a feather. Next came the second story drop and I frowned a little bit as I thought of how I was going to make it down and then back up later. I could see stacks of debris and judged that getting back up wouldn’t be so terrible, but I wasn’t about to risk a broken bone jumping down.

I looked at the frayed rug and got an idea. It had seen better days, but was one of those old circular things made of long pieces of fabric that were swirled like a snail shell. I picked the sewing that held it together until I had a thin, but passable rope. It wasn’t quite long enough to get me all the way down, but it would save my neck from breaking. I tied it to the old gas heater that obviously had no real function other than to break toes if you got to close and made my escape.

I was grinning like a total idiot as I jogged towards the nearest gas station two miles away. I didn’t have a cell phone, but I did have the numbers to all of the guys that really had turned into my brothers this week. Funny. I had always wanted a sibling, someone that could be my friend, no matter where we went or how often we moved. Now, I had four brothers who took to their role like they were born to it.

The frosty night was forgotten by the time I reached the gas station and walked inside. I borrowed the phone and called Ben, the one that would be most likely to encourage my roguish behavior.

“Gerald’s Taco shop, where the tacos are pink and always willing,” he answered.

“Gross,” I made a face.

“Fae? I thought you didn’t have a phone,” he said.

“I don’t. I’m at a gas station. Mind being the hero that rescues the damsel?” I asked and he laughed as he asked for the address.

Fifteen minutes later, he pulls up in an old, but well cared for car that looked like an eighties reject.

“Your chariot, my dearest Pixie,” he called out the window as I walked around the side.

“You’re such a dope sometimes, you know?” I snorted as I got in and closed the door.

“So, what gives?” he asked as he drove away.

“I snuck out,” I beamed with pride. “First time I’ve ever managed it without getting caught.”

“Dare I guess why? A certain party, perhaps?” he smiled.

“I’ll be eighteen in a few months and then what? I need to have at least one teenage party before I’m legally and adult,” I said, rubbing my hands together and putting them over the vents to regain feeling in my fingers.

“My folks are away for the weekend, so we’ll wait there for the others to show up,” he said, typing out a text faster than I could follow. “In the meantime, please tell me there’s something aside from the usual getup in that bag.”

“Um...” I frowned.

“You’re lucky I have a sister,” he rolled his eyes. “We’ll raid her closet.”

“You have a sister?” I asked.

“Yeah, she’s... away. Exchange program type thing,” he shifted in the seat a little.

“You are a terrible liar,” I said and looked out the window. “So, what does one do at a party?”

“Depends on the party,” he smiled. “Some are a little more on the wild side while some are fairly tame and laid back. This one should be around the middle. Good fun, dancing, maybe a few beers.”

“Beer is nasty,” I made a face.

“You’ve had beer before?” he laughed in disbelief.

“I’m a shut in, not sheltered,” I rolled my eyes. “I used to live in a town that had a small college. coming home one day, I passed a frat house and some random person handed me a can of beer. I was curious.”

“I thought you came from Arizona,” He looked at me as he turned into a neighborhood that looked pretty upscale. Not quite Snob Central, but close to it.

“We move a lot,” I shrugged.

“Here we are,” he said, and I was glad he let it go so easily.

Ben pulled up to a house that looked like the rest of them, except this one was painted differently and had a huge bird bath in the middle of the front yard. I followed him into the house and was hit by how different it felt. I’d never been over to someone’s house before so this was... new.

“You look like you’re about to cry, Pix,” Ben poked me in the side. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just feels... different,” I whispered as I looked around.

Pictures hung on the walls and sat on tables next to fake flowers in fancy vases. Random things, like headphones and gaming devices, were sitting here and there. It felt warmer, I guess. Like this place was actually lived in and not just a place to shelter for a little while. It felt like a home, not just a house.

“You’re weirding me out a little,” Ben said, but he smiled and used my shoulders to propel me further into the house and up a flight of stairs. “This is Bella’s room. Feel free to raid her closet. I’m not if anything will fit, since I’m not a girl and can’t just tell by looking at you.”

“I’m not taking your sisters clothes,” I rolled my eyes at him.

“She won’t be back here until next summer. Trust me, she’s going to have a whole new wardrobe with her. She won’t miss anything in there,” he scoffed. “I swear, she has some sort of fetish for clothes and shopping.”

“Most girls do, you know,” I laughed.

“Obviously, you don’t,” he said opening the door and pushing me inside.

“What do you mean, “obviously”?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“He means you dress like a hobo,” Blaine said as he came up the stairs and smacked Ben in the back of the head. “Be nice to the little pixie.”

“Wait a second. Who the hell are you calling “little”?” I glared at him.

Blaine grinned like a fool and dragged Ben out of the room by his ear, closing the door behind them.

It felt a little weird, rummaging around in someone else closet. I’m sure the part about me not even knowing who she was didn’t help matters any, but I found something that wasn’t what I would normally wear and smiled.

Black skinny jeans and a black shirt with a sparkling Eiffel Tower on the front and a black denim jacket to keep me warm. I grabbed a pair of black high tops and changed clothes, grinning as I looked at myself in the full length mirror beside the bed. Never in a million years would I have been able to wear this with Dad’s rules. It was pretty exciting and I watched as the smile on my face grew.

I stuffed my clothes into my bag and walked out of the room and followed the voices towards the kitchen downstairs.

“I’m telling you, this is a bad idea,” Zane was saying.

“It’s a terrible idea, which is why we’re all going, instead of just one,” Blaine said.

“Holy hidden gems. Fae?” Ben gawked at me.

“This is a really bad idea,” Zane groaned and Blaine smacked his shoulder.

“This is going to be wicked fun,” Ben grinned.