An Autumn Feast

It was early morning and the dew on the grass was sparkling in the sun. The crisp breeze outside blew leaves all over Cindy’s lawn. Autumn was definitely in the air and this made her come alive. There was something electric about the fall that inspired her to get out into nature and explore all the colored, crunchy foliage on different hiking trails. She was a hermit by nature, but something almost otherworldly called out to her this time. The force this year seemed exceptionally strong and the pull it had on her was irresistible.

Without putting up a fight, Cindy put a hat on her long, blonde locks, laced up her Timberland boots, zippered up her down jacket and wrapped a scarf around her neck. Her tall, thin frame left the house for a trail in the woods behind her home. The second she stepped out and breathed in the fresh, cool, clean air, she could feel her body come alive. Her lungs opened and received this precious breath. A smile ran from cheek to cheek. She closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun’s rays. Cindy said out loud, “I wish everyday could be just like today.”

The autumn spirits in the woods heard her wish very loud and clear. Cindy was special to them. There was an ethereal element to her nature which allowed the veil between the fairy realm and the Earthly dimension to cross over. A connection between her world and the faes’ was bridged in that single moment she made the wish. It was just what the fairies wanted for they were desperately seeking the soul of a mortal Earthling to covet.

She is what they never could be, a human with an eternal soul. Cindy would live this life here and her soul would take her elsewhere one she departed this plane, but not if every day was just like today. No, she would live this day everyday, over and over again the way the fairies would have it. Since they had the power to grant wishes, they were going to give it to her in the most literal sense.

“Ouch!” she cries as she stumbles over a thick branch hidden under leaves. “That freaking hurt!” Cindy inspects her leg right above where the boot ends. Sure enough there’s a tear in her legging where blood is coming out. It’s not super deep, but enough to really sting the hell out of her. “What the hell? I didn’t even walk more than two minutes and this has to happen!” she yells in her most pissed off voice.

Giggling in little huddled groups hidden behind the tree line to the woods she is just about to enter, lurk the dark fairies. Taking delight in her pain, they wait with baited breath to hurt her again. Only this time, she will be on their soil, in their territory, where the trees and the grass are theirs and their magic is the strongest.

Half of her is ready to turn back and go home, and they sense it quickly. Without a moment to spare they collect their energies as one great force field and emit a powerful burst of energy that sails through the air. If you can see it through their eyes in the fairy realm, it would be deep blue with swirls of black in color. This smoke, if you have it, is breathed into her nose. It infiltrates her mind, heart and even her nervous system. It immediately persuades her to think otherwise and continue on the trail into the forest. Within a few seconds after being under its hypnotic spell, her anger is diffused, the pain in her leg is muted and she feels better about moving forward.

The fairies sigh with delight as their precious little angel, their mortal human toy, enters their playing field. Finally their stars aligned and not only are they going to grant her wish, theirs' was answered as well. For centuries they have waited for the perfect specimen, someone that met the requirements for them to use their magic on.

Cindy was special. She was born with the innate ability to see further than the human eye can. Her abilities have allowed her to see things much deeper on both a physical and spiritual level. She is an empath capable of understanding the emotional and mental state of others. There are even latent psychic abilities she has yet to discover. She can communicate with animals and them with her. Her big, beautiful blue eyes hold so much love and truth in them. Children pure of heart have this same elemental energy inside theirs. Now you can understand that once she allowed the fairies an opportunity to enter her world by way of granting a wish, they were never, ever, going to let her go. No they never will.

Within minutes of her walking into the heavily wooded forest, the sunlight is greatly diminished. This is not due to the tree tops blocking it out. It is an effect created by the fairies, along with icy cold winds that begin to pick up. She pulls her scarf tighter around her neck making sure to cover her freezing ears. While still taking in the sounds of nature and enjoying the crunch of the fallen leaves under her feet, she also hears something in the distance. It’s almost like a laugh. She can’t tell if it’s coming from her left or right. Cindy pauses a moment to see if she still hears it.

She does! This time it’s loud and clear! It’s like the sound of fifty little children giggling reverberating off the trees. The laughing is not from the left or the right; it’s coming in from all around her! Panicked, she turns around to head out, but the path behind her goes on for miles!

How can this be! she cries to herself in terror. She has only walked the path for several minutes. There is no way she could be so deep into the woods.

“What is happening!” she screams out loud in a panic. Cindy runs for her life in the direction she came in but never finds the tree line. The insidious laughing sounds become louder and louder all around her. Their echoing drowns out her cries for help. She realizes whatever force is causing this is pure evil. She can feel it in every cell of her being. The darkness crosses into her blood, courses through her veins and chokes her very soul. The air she is gulping into her lungs burns her inside. She feels herself suffocating and desperately tries to take in more air. It’s as if the air is poisonous because even all the leaves on the trees have turned black, along with their once living trunks.

Crying real tears of desperation, she continues to run but her legs start to get super heavy. Trying to breath she struggles to put one foot in front of the other. They become heavier and heavier like lead. Reduced to crawling on her hands and knees, she cries in sheer panic to escape this evil place. No matter how deep she digs her nails into the earth to push her body forward, she cannot find a way out.

As she lay face down with all stamina gone, the laughing abruptly stops. An eerie quiet fills the woods. Not a sound is present. Cautiously lifting her head to peek out and see if this was all a dream, Cindy slowly opens her eyes. To her vantage point, nothing seems out of the ordinary. The trees are alive and their leaves are green once again. Sunlight is popping through the treetops like it normally would. The temperature has warmed up like it was when she left her house. Could it really have all been a dream?

Was this all a dream? she thinks with confusion. “How could it be though? I was awake when I left the house,” she ponders out loud.

Cindy checks her leg and to her shock, she is bleeding from the cut she suffered before walking in to the woods.

“No, no! This can’t freaking be! What the hell is happening to me?” she screams in panic.

She pushes through her arms and sits upright. She looks left, then right, and sees nothing out of the ordinary. Still breathing deeply, she slowly turns her head around to see behind her.

Her screams are the shrillest this part of the Northeast has ever heard. Cindy howls in agony of what she sees and what they begin doing to her. Her cries could make a cold blooded killer feel remorseful.

Repeatedly the fairies take bites at her soft, pale flesh. Their long, dark black hair and green glowing eyes are all she can see flitting around as they each take a turn in the torturous ritual. Cindy desperately swings her arms to swat them away but the evil fae keep darting in at her. They snort and snarl like a pack of wolves as their mouths drip with her blood. As they each get a taste, another group flies in with their black, raven looking wings. They sound like a swarm of bees hovering over her. Some are laughing at her while others are gnashing their teeth. The more she begs them to stop, the worse the frenzy continues.

Shortly before her eyes became lifeless, the feasting stops. The fairies, about a hundred in all, encircle her body as if she is in a witch’s circle. Their tiny bodies with long, curling fingernails, stand very still as they stare at her with luminous eyes. One stands out from the rest. She seems to be the leader of the clan. Her wings are tipped in red and she stands several inches taller than the other males and females. A red gem adorns her neck in an amulet. As she lifts her hands, the others draw in even closer around Cindy.

Cindy lies on the ground covered in blood. Her body is too lifeless to do anything but utter the most pitiful sounding, “Why?”

“Why not?” says the leader, Amora. Her voice cascades through the air as if she was a giant. “You are the perfect vessel,” she smiles as she her soulless eyes connect with Cindy’s. “You were just what we have been looking for to live out our dark fantasies. You may have what we never can, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take it away from you, everyday for eternity!” she laughs demonically. Her laugh rips through the air and creates a torrent of energy so evil, nothing holy could ever withstand her presence. The laughter incites the others and they all begin cackling at her bloody and broken body. Tears stream down her bluish face. Life is fleeing from her fast as her freezing body begins to twitch.

With her last bit of strength, she begs, “Kill me. Please kill me now.”

“Now where would be the fun in that?” Amora laughs in her face. The others follow in tow and mock Cindy even more. “You see Cindy,” Amora adds, “you made a wish for everyday to be like today and we granted it for you! Everyday is like today for you, for all eternity! You have been doing this for over seventy years already! You wake up every morning and end up here and then we send you back to recycle this whole day over and over again! In fact it’s about time I send you back so we can do this all again tomorrow! You stupid humans are too ordinary to know the difference and that’s how we have liked it for millennia. Night, night, Cindy. Sleep tight. Don’t let the fairies bite.”