Hunted by a Night Fae

Chapter 3

Silence shrunk in around me as I walked along the wooded path. Overhead, the moon disappeared behind the trees, leaving behind its lingering glow. It was the same shimmer that had danced across my skin before, only now it was engulfing everything.

Fear made my heart pound. Gran's old stories of sharp-toothed bogles and the viscous spirits that lingered between reals came flooding back to me. Hair rose along my arms like something was watching me, but when I stared into the trees, all I saw were the leaves rustling softly in the wind.

Maybe I was just being paranoid. Perhaps I had taken some bad drugs—it wouldn't be the first time Briana had gone for the quick fix. My mouth was dry, and I felt my stomach roil. Maybe Mom was right, and I was slowly killing myself.

Clomp, clomp, clomp

I stilled as the sound of hooves broke the silence, pattering down the path alongside me. An huff sounded next to my ear. I saw the cool air fog over my shoulder, my hair rustling. Heat bloomed along my skin, sending a sharp shard of terror through my blood.

I whirled around. Nothing was there. My head rushed with the pounding of my pulse in my ears.

Another clatter of hooves, this time from the other direction. The trees overhead danced in slow contorting motions as the air around me stayed still.

I sucked in deep breaths to try and calm my pulse, but it was useless. I slowly turned around looking for the source of the sound.

They I saw it. Several paces behind me where there had been nothing just moments before.

The shape of a horse was unmistakable. Only it was all wrong. It appeared to be made of writhing shadows, its hooved feet not quite meeting the ground. It nickered, setting its pitch-black eyes on me. Its form appeared to move and reshape itself, coming closer.

I couldn't move. I couldn't even think. It was like the shimmering air around me was distorting what was real, and what wasn't.

I screamed. It ripped from my throat and echoed through the trees. I stumbled backward.

I closed my eyes then opened them, hoping, praying, wishing...

It was gone.

Yet the chill on my skin remained. The trees still moved. Distant whispers floated through the air. Moonlight wavered through shifting branches, creating patterns across the dirt path.

I scrambled back a few more steps, cursing myself for coming this way. Glowing, dancing things flitting across the sides of my vision. I thought I heard a giggle, the air next to my cheek moved. Like moth wings veering too close for comfort. I let out a muffled sob, pressing my hands to my mouth to try and keep the bile from rising up my throat.

This isn't real, I told myself, desperately needing it to be true, like I could somehow will what was happening away. It's all just in my head, I tried to comfort myself.

It didn't work.

Abruptly the trees closed in around the path. The way I had come from was no longer there. I stood, searching for a way to escape as everything closed in around me. A bright light surrounded me and sound came at me in waves, like I had just walked upon a party filled with hundreds of people. Whispers filled the air and childish giggles brushed past my ears as I stumbled forward.

The forest no longer looked like the neglected green space near my house, which was a small bit of nature plopped down in the middle of the suburbs. No, instead it seemed to thrive with life, thrumming wildly and unyielding. Pinpricks of glittering eyes appeared between the branches, and fingertips ran across my skin. Swirling colors floated through the air, forming and disappearing in the blink of an eye. One minute there was a man with the lower body of a horse staring at me with a wide, sharp toothed smile, then the next minute he wasn't there.

My breaths came in halting pants. As I glanced down at my feet, I noticed I had somehow lost my shoes. The grass shone in a kaleidoscope of shifting colors, rainbows dancing at my feet. All around me was a large pattern of sprouting mushrooms—a faerie ring.

I darted forward, trying too late to escape. The long limbs of the trees blocked my path, but I pushed through them. I felt a tug as they latched onto my loose strands of hair, ripping it from my scalp. A long pointed arm reached out for me, slipping across my shoulder and biting into my skin as it tried to drag me back. A small trickle of blood smeared down my arm.

I pushed and pulled and fought my way through. I needed to get out of the trees. I needed to get home.

Home was safe, home was where they couldn't follow me.

The leaves in front of me appeared to extend and grow before my eyes, a wall of greenery caging me in. I could no longer see past it. The sounds around me grew and grew, no longer whispers but a cacophony of ear-piercing screams piercing through the songs of a thousand little angelic voices...

It started as one voice, then another joined in. It expanded and cocooned me, the sound of melodic little voices joining together and reaching into my very soul.

I stopped moving. I tilted my head to the side, and the air grew even brighter. The sounds around me morphed and grew. Faces appeared one by one,  showing me their wide hungry smiles.

The trees wrapped around me and pushed me back, leading me with their boughs. Their touches felt like gentle caresses, lingering on my skin, and stroking it as I passed. Eventually, I was led to a small clearing, bright violet shafts of light glowing down from an unseen moon, lighting up an impossibly large toadstool.

I wasn't alone, yet, I was no longer afraid. My fear had evaporated with the sounds of the faerie song. I stood motionless, lost in a trance. All I could hear was the music.

What had I been doing? Where had I been going?

It had all seemed so important a moment ago.

A fiddle resounded through the air, and a glowing yellow light erupted before my eyes. What had I just been thinking?

It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard, it washed over my skin, as if alive. I lifted my head and twirled.

And twirled.

Then twirled some more.

And I danced to the beautiful faerie song.