Futures Unseen (Chasing Titania #2)

Dark Waters

I opened my eyes to a dull grey sky. I sat myself up. There was no sun. The grey sky stretched as far as I could see in all directions. I moved my hair out of the way. I was in my Nixie skin. The water surrounding me was completely black, like ink spilled over the surface of the world. I found myself to my feet. 

Get moving. The wind whistled.

I started walking. The water came halfway up my calves. I trudged through it. There were no mountains, no hills—simply flat black water. Fae wandered by me. They kept their heads down. They stayed away. I tilted my head down to the murky water. Opposite, I could see my reflection. It was instead black on a white background. It smiled at me with an empty face. I kept my eyes upwards. 

"You will love him, right?" A Blackwater Nymph grabbed my shoulders. 

"I'm sorry?" I clicked in response.

"Please," she pleaded. "Love him with everything you have. He deserves it."

She shrieked as she fell into the water below. Her reflection showed me a little girl with blonde hair who skipped away. 

Forward. The wind commanded.

I obeyed. I caught glimpses of other fae as they lumbered on. I passed an Edenic Selkie. 

Closer. The wind screamed.

"Noxy, is that you?" A woman cried out for me.

I turned around. There was no one. 

"Ingame Yami?" 

I looked back. A house loomed out of the water. An older woman sat on the porch. Her grey hair was lighter than the sky. She rocked back and forth in a chair, wrapping herself tighter with her wool cardigan. She tapped her cigar on the edge of her armrest.

"Oh, it's you," she glanced back at the door to her house.

"Who are you?" I approached her porch.

"They call me Grandmother. You look like one of mine."

"My name is Forrest," I answered.

"You're naked," she gestured.

"I'm sorry," I couldn't hide. "I didn't even notice. This isn't weird to me."

"Nothing is quite weird here," she took a long puff from her cigar. "I suppose that's what makes it normal."

"Why am I here?" I sat myself down on the porch steps. 

"Some would call this a nightmare," she handed me the blanket she had lying across her lap. "You know what they say about fae nightmares."

"They're indicative of something."

"So what does this tell you, Forrest?" she watched a fae amble past.

"You're the same Grandmother who raised Silver," I watched her lips turn into a grin. "The one who raised Nox."

"I have many, many children," she nodded.

"How? You look so young?"

"Who would want to live their eternity in a decrepit form? I chose to be a bit younger than I had been."

I stared down at the blanket she had given me. The pattern was a simple black and white. The longer I looked, the more it captivated me. Why couldn't my life be this black and white? Simple. Lines beginning where others end. My life was more like a ball of yarn, twisted into itself to the point it was lost. 

"You're troubled," Grandmother spoke. "Otherwise, you wouldn't be here. What's scaring you, Forrest?"

I tightened the fabric into my hands. "I don't quite know who I am anymore."