Riptide - A Short Story

Prologue

The darkness of the room was nearly overwhelming. It was nearly pitch black, the curtains drawn over the small windows, no light seeping through the cracks under and above the door. The house was quiet and still, not a sound to be heard. That didn't mean that everyone was asleep.

Patrick laid in a small room in the small house. It was cramped, but he didn't mind. The queen sized bed was shoved into the corner, the dark blue sheets blending in with the darkness in the room. The dark wood furniture blended in as well with the dark. The room may have been small, but it was tidy. Not even the small desk in the room had any sort of clutter on it. Every miscellaneous item had a place.

The blond haired fae was trying desperately to sleep, but it wouldn't come. Patrick knew what it was, he knew what was weighing so heavily on his conscious. It wasn't like he had even done anything bad; but it might be something he ended up regretting.

His blue eyes opened for the umpteenth time, and he pulled himself up in bed, rubbing tiredly at his eyes. He glanced over at the clock, looking at the time. A little past one AM. Had he really been trying to sleep for that long? It seemed like a lot less time had passed. 

Patrick leaned over to flick on the bedside light as he crawled out from under the covers of the bed, getting to his feet. Light illuminated the room in a soft glow; so soft that the back corners of the room remained dark. It gave enough light to make it so he could see at his desk, where the dreaded papers lay. 

A few days ago, it was announced through the mail that Hybern was looking for more selected to come to court the High Fae. Patrick had received one of the letters once again, as he was just in the eligible age gap. He had gotten one of the letters at the beginning of the selection, but hadn't sent in the application. But now, he had another opportunity. The question was though; did he take it?

The fae was done with college now, he didn't need to worry about that. Was it a good idea, though? The experience would be interesting, but did he really have a shot? The application said that the Night Court high fae was off limits; leaving him with Winter and Dawn. Or, really, just Winter. He was pretty certain the High Lord of Dawn wasn't interested in men. 

The applications had to be in the mail by tomorrow morning. Patrick had time. But did he really want to do it? He walked over to the desk, taking a seat in the chair. Pulling the papers forward, he looked them over, skimming over the information section before his eyes wandered to where he would fill it out. It was a simple application, actually. But did he do it?

"What do I have to lose," he mumbled to himself as he grabbed a pencil out of the pencil holder on his desk, making sure it was sharpened before he began writing. 

It took Patrick a matter of about fifteen minutes to finish filling everything out. After a quick skim over to make sure he hadn't done anything incorrectly, the fae stood up, grabbing the envelope it would go in and slipping it in. He quickly wrote his address on the back of the envelope, sealed it, then ran out the door of his room.

His parents were asleep, and he wasn't planning on telling them. They didn't need to know, he didn't need their permission. He was an adult. Patrick didn't even put on any shoes or anything as he ran out the front door, sprinting towards the mailbox.

He could hear the crashing of the ocean waves faintly in the distance, the salty tang of the ocean in the air. He was fortunate to live in Adriata, the capital of the Summer Court. Even on the cool Summer night, the wind whipped in his face, blowing his thick blond hair back as he ran towards the mailbox, envelope clutched tightly in his fingers. Hopefully no one saw him; he probably looked near idiotic in his basketball shorts and tshirt, running down the stone pathway to the road where the mailbox was.

Upon reaching it, Patrick opened the metal box, gently sliding the application inside. He closed the mailbox and put up the little red flag to signal that there was mail inside. He did it. Would he actually get in? Who knows. He didn't think he would.

But a small part of Patrick hoped, as he stood outside in the middle of the night, that he would get to go.