Piercing Silver

Chapter 6

Alison woke up cold and confused. It took a while for her to recollect all that had happened to her. Realising she was no longer in the dungeon, she felt some relief. She checked herself and found that she wasn't in chains. Her body did not ache, but she was hungry. Bowing to her hunger, she looked around and saw she was in a strange place. The sky did not look like the one she gazed upon at night. The trees and plants were weird. She saw glowing tree trunks, glowing insects and flowers. She saw things that she had never seen before, and she became scared. Her relief was short-lived as she began to wonder if they had succeeded in killing her and if where she was presently was the afterlife.

Thinking of where she was coming from, the afterlife wasn't so bad. A world without Edna and the bear man was much better.

What if they were coming back? She thought with fear. She had seen them do strange, impossible things. She wouldn't put coming to where she was past them. Her first move was to leave where she was and find something to eat.

While Alison walked, she noticed a pink creature following her. It had materialised from nowhere and looked like a human butterfly. She had never seen anything like that before and wondered if it was an angel, but since it was tiny, Alison believed it would be harmless so she decided to talk to it.

"Well, hello," she started, feeling foolish and wondering if it understood English." Do you understand English? My name is Alison," she said.

The creature blinked and continued following her. Alison, more concerned about her hunger, let it rest and did not ask another question nor demand an answer. As she searched, the creature kept following her.

Alison got to a purple tree that had fruits that looked like strawberries. They looked exactly like strawberries without the skin texture.

She reached out for it, and a pink, human-sized hand immediately slapped her hand.

Alison screamed, jumped and fell. The creature was now life-sized and still pink. Alison no longer felt safe.

"You can't eat that. It's poisonous," the creature said to Alison in English.

"So you speak English?" Alison asked, amazed.

"Come on, get up. We have to leave here. The open is not safe," the creature said, ignoring the question and pulling Alison up.

"Why should I follow you?" Alison asked, wary of the creature.

"Suit yourself," the creature said, ready to leave.

"Wait," Alison called out, agreeing to follow the creature. She knew it was crazy and could land her in worse trouble, but the creature didn't give her a dangerous vibe. Alison decided to trust her feelings on the matter, obviously faced with just two options, which were to follow the creature and learn the ropes or learn as you go. She was done with surprises, so the latter was not an option.

"What are you?" Alison asked, and the creature paused for a while, amazed that the lady did not know what or who he was.

"I am a sprite," he said with a smile. When he noticed the confusion on her face, he added, "a fairy." He said to clue her in.

Nodding with understanding, Alison asked, "do fairies go to heaven too?"

Her question amused the sprite; he began to laugh.

"Wait, you think you are in heaven?" he asked. Feeling weird, Alison nodded.

"How did you get here?" the Sprite asked, puzzled.

"I just woke up by a tree," she explained.

"So you don't know how you got here?" he asked, and she nodded. "That means you don't have a means of leaving?" he asked, looking worried, and Alison could see his worry. His facial expression gave her an unsettling feeling.

"Where were you before you got here?" he asked, trying to understand.

Alison told him about the settlement and all that had happened there. Her memory was still foggy, but she narrated all she could remember at the moment.

"So a woman that goes by the name of Edna Marsh brought you here. What did you do?" he asked.

"I honestly don't know," she replied with sincerity.

The Sprite knew he had to help her, as she was in a very dangerous world, and their world was unfavourable to humans.

"Well, my name is Hillrich. You can call me Hill. I am a fairy." he introduced himself.

"You are not in heaven," he dropped the bomb. "You are in the dark forest. Land of the Fae, the dark fae to be precise," he explained.

Understanding began to come to her. She had heard stories about the dark fae, and none were pleasant. She knew Edna hated her, but she didn't know why. She wished she knew; it would have made everything bearable. Her aunty hated her, and she knew why. That made living with the woman bearable. Her hatred was understandable. She had killed her aunt's beloved sister by existing. Edna's hatred was different. She had no clear reason.

"Look," Hill began, "follow me home. There, we can discuss better," he explained, and Alison agreed.

Her hunger had dissipated. She felt dead and hopeless. There was no point suspecting the sprite; she was already doomed. If Hill didn't end her life, someone would. She understood why Edna had dumped her there. She began to recall all they did to kill her and how she kept waking from a deep sleep. She recalled the expression on their faces every time she woke up. They were impatient at first, then they got angry, then they became nervous and then fearful.

Her eyes widened, and she stopped in her tracks and began to cry, "what am I? What am I?" Realisation had dawned on her.

Hill stopped. Shocked by her actions, he held her and begged her to stop.

"I didn't die. I refused to die," she began to say. Staring at Hill with tears of fear streaming down her face.

"They killed me, and I refused to die," she explained. She began to scratch her scalp as she shook her head.

"Please, let's talk about this in my cabin. We are not safe here," Hill explained.

Alison soon calmed down and followed Hill. She remembered everything. She remembered their conversations. What weapons they had used, and the blinding pain she had felt. She wondered if Edna had performed magic on her and turned her into a creature. She had heard when she was much younger, in one of the tales the old woman that lived next to her aunt told her. She had said people with magic abilities could turn humans and make them into magic and supernatural creatures. Alison wondered which she was. She continued to follow Hill without resistance.

Unknown to Alison and Hill, a goblin had seen them and was tracing them silently. It had been long since a human visited fae. It had been long his master ate meat. Human meat satisfied his master the most. The goblin was in a bad position with his master. So, to win his master's favour, he had set out in search of something to appease him. He had finally found it: a human. He could imagine his master's joy and the reward he would get for the human lady.