The Sight

02| THE FAE?

Astrid spent the next morning worrying about what to do with her new problem. She'd tried using the web to search for answers but her descriptions brought up weird digital images and nerdy world of war craft games. She thought about getting some books out from the library but decided against it when she recalled not returning the last ones she burrowed which meant she'd be facing a charge if she ever showed her face again.

She laid for a while, wondering if she truly was insane, but elaborately, so in fact that she'd hallucinated a entire species.

In the end she decided to ask her mum about it.

Down in the kitchen she hovered in the doorway, looking for the best way to breech the subject. Best to just go for it.

"Mum what would you say or think if I told you...about people that look, I don't know, strange?"

"How so?" Her mum asked warily. Her facial expression told Astrid she didn't want to beat around the bush. Astrid didn't know how to reply without sounding crazy, so she went all out with the truth.

"Like moving vines and thorns on their bodies and strange marks on their skin and-"

"I think you've been reading too much of nanas journals darling" Her mum interrupted, a relieved and amused smile upon her face. Clearly she had been worried for a moment. She still should be Astrid thought.

"You mustn't get carried away with her stories Astra, they can scare a girl. They're not very nice" her mum added her tone growing sterner. Astrid noticed a brief haunted look pass over her mothers features as she stared at the dark murky water in the sink. "That's the only thing that surprised me about your nana, writing those awful books."

She snapped out of her trance and continued to wash up, leaving Astrid with racing thoughts. Astrid hadn't held much hope of her mum knowing what was going on but she had to try just incase and now she had hope that her nana might have had an idea instead.

Trying her best to leave without causing suspicion, Astrid quietly took on the stairs before sneaking into her nanas room. She had passed away recently, and her room hadn't really changed at all. It wasn't a shrine or anything, though her and her mum had both been devastated by nanas death, the car crash had sort of forced them to stop grieving and the room hadn't been touched since.

Astrid took a moment to sit on the bed and breathe in the familiar smells. Lavender, pine and something spicy. It had been just the three of them for so long, girls together without any men to dictate their lives. The box bedroom made her feel a little more at ease, like her nana wasn't really gone at all.

Her nana was a hoarder and had things from all over the world stacked along shelves and piled on boxes and small tables. Astrid smiled up at the star charts pinned to the ceiling, alongside various other space posters. It was only now that she could fully appreciate how weird and wonderful the old lady had truly been.

Scanning an overflowing bookcase and thumbing through a few of the old books Astrid eventually pulled out one of the journals. They were craftily encased in ordinary book covers which struck Astrid as odd. Why would she be hiding them?

Opening it up she flicked through the thick, well loved pages uncertain what she was searching for until she saw it. With a frown she returned a page that caught her eye. Accompanying her nana's scrawled writing was a worryingly familiar drawing. One that closely resembled the girls she had seen outside the café toilets. Her heart beat quickened at the unexpected discovery.

Brushing a finger over the drawing, Astrid felt an unsettling sickness pass over her. She fumbled through the bookcase to find the other journals before retreating to her own room.