Part Three
"Real fairy tales end in blood or tears."
―Luna Lindsey, Emerald City Dreamer
Aidan's eyes snapped open as he awoke suddenly in an unfamiliar bed.
He didn't remember leaving the rift. The last thing he remembered was seeing the hurt in Gwen's gaze when she'd seen him kissing another girl - one he had been made to believe was her. But it hadn't been his Gwen, it'd been Bettina. And then Bettina had disappeared - was possibly dead.
He hadn't meant to do it.
It had been a horrible mistake.
A nightmare.
He had to let Gwen know that he'd been tricked, or else she would hate him forever.
Where was she?
He sat up carefully, running a slim-fingered hand through his disheveled hair. The room he'd been placed in was stark, only the bare necessities in place. There was the single bed with a single white pillow on it that he was on, a white wooden vanity and mirror pushed up against the wall opposite the only window in the room. Aidan got off the bed and left the room, finding himself in an unfamiliar hallway, equally barren. He heard voices, and followed the sound down the hallway and down a faintly familiar wooden staircase. It led him down to the front room of the Guardians' house.
All conversation stopped upon his entrance. Four sets of female eyes landed on him. Uncomfortable with suddenly being the center of attention, he ventured further into the room until he stood next to the fireplace, putting names to faces as he went. Elspeth, Lunaria, Thorne, Aisling...no Bettina.
No Gwen.
Where was she?
"Where's Bettina? And Gwen?" he asked in a scratchy voice. He cleared his throat. "What happened?" Lunaria was the first to look away. Her expression was grim as she stood up and left the room, sweeping past him without a word.
"Bettina's gone", Elspeth answered matter-of-factly, breaking the silence that had followed Lunaria's departure. "I warned her, you know."
"Gone? As in dead gone?" Aidan asked, guilt filling him. He just knew he was at fault somehow.
"Yes. For now, anyway... You shouldn't blame yourself for it, either. You didn't know we're cursed to die if a human male gives us an affectionate gesture." Thorne answered. She glanced at Aisling, who had yet to speak."We've asked our creators whether Bettina will be recreated, or a completely new Guardian will be made to take her place. We've not heard from them yet."
"Recreated? Like resurrected?" The world the Guardians had revealed to him seemed to get more complicated with each question he asked.
"One can call it that, yes", she said, crossing her arms and leaning back against the front door.
"Even if she was recreated, she wouldn't be exactly the same as before, so she might as well be dead", Elspeth added brightly.
"Oh. Ok." He nodded, still confused but not caring enough to ask for a better explanation. He just needed to get Gwen and leave, and never look back. "Where's Gwen?" Three pairs of eyes blinked back at him.
"Gwen?" Thorne asked, disbelief infusing her tone. "What do you mean 'where's Gwen'?"
"Yes, Gwen, my girlfriend. Where is she?" he demanded. Surely they hadn't forgotten to bring her out of the portal with them! Elspeth began to quietly hum a tune he did not recognize to herself, her gaze vacant and no longer focused on him. Aisling stood up from her perch on an arm of the couch and approached him. She stopped a few feet away from him, locking gazes with him.
"Aidan", she began solemnly, "we weren't able to save her."
"What?" He felt all the blood drain from his face. No way. She couldn't be saying what he thought she was saying.
"She's dead. The faerie killed her just before he died. We buried her together, under the tree you told us you both marked your initials into."
After 'she's dead', Aidan heard the rest of Aisling's explanation as if he was underwater.
No way.
No.
She wasn't dead.
She couldn't be dead. Not his Gwen.
"You're lying...Why would you lie about something like that? That's sick!" he shouted, furious. "You don't have to tell me where she is. I'll find her myself. She's out there, somewhere, and I need to find her." He stormed out of the house, running when he heard them calling him back. He was done with those... freaks. Monsters. They could all go to hell for all he cared.
Gwen was more important than listening to their lies. He ran and ran, eventually finding himself standing in front of the very tree Aisling had mentioned earlier; the one at the top of a cliff that was sloping picturesque hillside on one side and jagged, dangerous fall on the other. Something had drawn him here. He stopped, gasping for breath, and looked around. In the darkness of night, he could barely make out the shapes of shrubbery and rocks.
The cloud covering the moon slowly moved away, allowing moonlight to spill down onto the earth.
"Danny", she whispered softly from beneath the shadows of the tree. He knew that voice.
"Gwen?"
"Come here, Danny", her voice replied. He looked around, desperate to find the source of her voice. Suddenly, he saw her under the tree. He knew it was her - he'd memorized her features everyday since the day she'd agreed to be his girlfriend. Relief swept through him as he rushed towards the tree where she stood waiting, a smile on her lips and her arms held out in welcome.
He was overjoyed at seeing her again; at knowing for sure that she was safe. Glad that his fear that he would never see his love alive was now at rest, for here she was.
So beautiful, his Gwen. He ran the last few feet to her and wrapped his arms around her tightly, his nose picking up the scent of her hair instantly.
"I love you so much, Gwen", he said fiercely as the earth beneath his feet crumbled away and plunged him into the abyss.
The End.
A/N: Thanks for reading my short story. Let me know what you think? :D
Oh, and please vote for each part you liked, thanks!
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Fey
Fantasy"She wasn't just sucked in, Aidan. She was taken." When Aidan Cassidy's girlfriend literally vanishes into thin air, he doesn't know what is happening. He only knows that he has to get her back.
