Zoey wrapped her arms around herself as if they were a jacket. The wind played with her hair, and the streetlights cast her long shadow on the road. She missed the Twixies. Although she had not understood what they had been saying, their energy had been uplifting. Zoey looked up and only saw two stars above the city. Yes, she missed the Twixies’s lights.
Zoey headed to the nearest house, hoping to find help. It was in the middle of the night, and it would take her a long time to walk home. Had her parents called the police yet? They were usually quick to overreact.
She braced herself before knocking on the old door with the rusty hinges. Moments later, a lady with curlers in her gray hair and who wore a long, blue nightgown, opened the door.
“Dear child!” she exclaimed.
“Hi,” Zoey said awkwardly. “May I please borrow your phone?”
“Certainly.”
Zoey waited patiently outside as the old lady went into her house to get the phone. She did not want to barge into a stranger’s home, especially not after she had woken her so late.
“I’m Bree,” the old lady said as she returned.
“Zoey.” Zoey accepted the phone and hesitated before dialing. She would not call the police to come get her, and she did not know either of her parents’ numbers by heart. The only number she knew was Eric’s … it was the number he had when he got his first phone. Both had got phones that same year, and they had memorized each other’s numbers.
Surely, five years later, Eric would have a different number. Zoey took a chance and dialed, and surprisingly, the phone rang several times before a groggy “Hello” came.
“Eric!” she screeched. “Hi!”
“It’s in the middle of the night. Is everything okay?” He suddenly sounded wide awake and ready for anything. One of the things she loved about Eric was that he would always be there when she needed him. It didn’t matter what day or time she called him, if she needed help, he would give it.
“I need you to come get me.” She gave him the address.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He hung up without asking further questions.
“Come inside,” Bree offered.
Zoey had goose bumps on her arms and thighs from the cold. She stepped into the house, with its warm, welcoming air. After she closed the door behind her, she followed the lady, wrinkling her nose at the house’s distinctive old-person smell. The corners of the living room were dusty, and the furniture was antique. Bree stopped in the kitchen, where Zoey half expected a dozen cats to jump out, demanding food.
Zoey sat down on one of the white, plastic kitchen chairs, and it creaked beneath her weight, while Bree switched on the kettle and took two cups, with pink flowers printed on, from the cupboard. Soon, a steaming cup of tea was placed in front of Zoey.
The old lady watched cautiously as Zoey took a sip. She watched her like a teacher would a student who was expected to fail.
“Hmm,” Zoey said. “It’s good.”
Bree smiled as if Zoey had just gotten an A. “Good. That’s good!”
Zoey smiled awkwardly and waited for Bree to start asking questions, but Bree was not nosy. She sat there, sipping her tea, and observed Zoey with bright eyes. Zoey noticed the big ring on the old lady’s bony fingers. The silence was weighing down on her, so she said, “That is a beautiful ring.”
“It’s my wedding ring,” Bree said. “I never take it off. Although it’s been twenty years since my dear Alfred—”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Zoey managed to say. Plenty of photos of Bree and her husband, when they were much younger, adorned the walls and counters. There were also photos of them with a young girl, whom Zoey thought might be their grandchild.
“Oh, no! He is not dead.” Bree looked down into her tea dramatically. “But if I tell you what happened to him, you won’t believe it.”
“Try me,” Zoey said.
She had had such a long, crazy day. After everything she had seen, she doubted anything could still come as a surprise.
“Well, my husband and I moved here many years ago. We moved here because it is such a nice, quiet location. We chose this house because we only have to cross the road and then we are in the woods – both my husband and I love being in nature.”
Zoey thought about how quickly she had walked from the edge woods to this house. It had not even taken five minutes and was the ideal location for nature-lovers to live. She sipped her tea, enjoying it warming her body, and listened to the old lady tell her tale.
“My husband used to go to the woods – fishing and hiking. He always went in the daylight, until one night when we were sitting on the porch when he spotted a tiny light floating around in the forest. I thought it was a firefly, but he said it was too big and shone too bright.”
Zoey immediately thought about the glowing Twixies and the energy they carried with them. Was it possible that Alfred had seen the Twixies?
“I told him not to go into the woods…but he did.” She paused as if the story was hard to tell. “He came back hours later, intoxicated. He did not carry wine into the woods, and as far as I know, he could not purchase it there either. I asked him where he had gotten it and his answer was one I did not see coming: Fata. He said he got it from the faeries.” She clicked her tongue as if this memory annoyed her. “I remember laughing about it and telling him that he was drunk and talking nonsense. But, as it turns out, he was telling me the truth.”
Zoey listened attentively because she wanted to understand every detail of this story. A day ago, she would have accused the woman of lying, but after seeing two Fata herself, she knew Bree was telling the truth.
“What did they do to him?” Zoey asked.
“Well, this kind of Fata is called the Enerly. They can choose to make themselves visible or invisible to the human eye. Most of the time, they are invisible to humans, and we simply pass through them. This is how we live in harmony.
“Anyway, the Enerly are very powerful Fata and have the ability to compel humans’ thoughts. They can control what you are thinking or make you see things that aren’t there. They can make you do anything by simply telling you to do so.”
“They sound horrible.” Zoey thought about the two males she had encountered. If she had not helped them, would they have taken her hostage and toyed with her mind? She had been a fool to go back and help.
“Oh, they are, but they are such beautiful, magical, and majestic creatures that the illusion they hold can easily fool an innocent human. One of the Enerly offered Alfred a drink – and he accepted. If only he had known the consequences.”
Zoey took another sip of her tea and studied the old lady’s wrinkled face. She had sad eyes, and her teeth were so white they had to be fake. It was clear that she was healthy and taking good care of herself; maybe she wanted to live long enough to see if her husband would return.
“You see, the wine he drank was not meant to be drunk by humans. He became addicted to it. Without this wine, his body would shake and convulse – like those of a drug addict who was having withdrawal symptoms. He simply could not live without it. Human food did nothing for him. He found no flavor in tea, and our food didn’t nourish his body the way it used to.”
Zoey bit her lip. “What did he do?”
“What could he do? He went back to the woods and found the Enerly. He made a deal with them – he would work for them, in their castle, in exchange for wine. He had been tricked into slavery. The Enerly do not have a lot of respect for human life. Most of them believe we should spend our lives worshiping them. And I guess that is exactly what Alfred does.”
“So, you never saw him again?” Zoey breathed.
“Not in twenty years.” Bree touched her wedding ring absentmindedly. “But I keep this on because I hope he will one day break his curse and come home.”
Zoey shivered, and it was not because she was cold. She had come so close to these creatures today. She had saved one of these beings who saw humans as nothing more than slaves. This day could have turned out so much worse. What if Rane and his white-haired friend had forced wine down her throat? She was a fool for going back to help him. She was a fool for pitying Rane. She was a fool for being swayed by their beauty and grace.
But what about the drawing of the beautiful purple-and-pink flower and how it might just be her sister’s last hope? If faeries were real, then this flower could also be real. Bree was certainly one person who might know about it. She pulled the drawing from her pants pocket and handed it to Bree.
“Have you ever seen this before?”
“Fluver-luzile,” Bree responded. “It’s a healing flower.”
“It’s real!” Zoey exclaimed. “Can it cure leukemia?”
When Bree did not answer immediately, Zoey realized what had been going through her head. When Zoey had shown up by Bree’s front door, in the middle of the night, close to the forest, Bree had assumed the Fata had tricked her to enter the woods (like they had tricked Alfred). She had been studying Zoey when she was drinking her tea, to see if she would react the way Alfred had to normal food and drink. If she had it would have meant she was also addicted to Fata wine. Bree had been pleased when Zoey liked the tea because that meant she had not drunk any cursed wine.
“It’s better to die from leukemia than to die the slave of a Fata,” Bree said.
“It’s not for me,” Zoey said. “It’s for my sister.”
“They will use her as a weakness against you.” Bree gazed at Zoey with such intensity Zoey almost fell off her chair. Before Zoey could say more, a knock sounded on the door, and she rose to answer it. But Bree snaked out her hand to grip her arm, forcing her to stop.
“Listen to me, child, whatever you do, do not go back into those woods.”