Pages fluttered by, whipping back and forth with the push of the wind. A notebook lay, abandoned on a bench as it’s owner left it for a short moment. The notebook was already half open after they had been writing, or recording something in it. It had a hard black cover, its edges decorated in small lace and fine white calligraphy for the words in the front. Fae Belle Reille.
The wind lay at rest for a brief moment, and left the pages open to a day that would never be forgotten, not easily at least. It was a day cursed with sorrow. It was a day doomed to despair. A day where the skies were painted in crimson, and the clouds were crying out for the fate to come for a young girl.
Nobody ever really thinks for things like these to ever happen. They brush off the fear of such an occurrence with simple statistics that claim it probably would never happen. Well, the unfortunate part about that was that there was always a chance that it could happen. and it most certainly happened. She was that one in every 600 to be hit with such a horrid fate.
December 21st 2030
I stared outside the window.
My face, pressed up and smushed against the cool window pane. I could only imagine how ridiculous i looked to anyone passing by, but i had hardly the energy to care. I glanced across the road, my eyes flickering from left to right between the passing cars that surrounded me on the road.
We had just gone to pay our respects to my father. Me and my mother. My father died a year ago today, and I still remember it as crisp and as fresh as the fallen snow that December evening.
“ Fae darling!” My father called out to me. “Come on you slow slug!” He grinned, I rolled my eyes simply and skipped over to him. The grocery bags swung back and forth on my arms as I hurried to his side. I hummed a soft tune to myself that had been stuck into my head for who knows how long. I hardly had the attention span to keep up. My father was not angry at me for it in the least, but simply amused. A smile was plastered to my face as I hopped from square to square on the paved sidewalk squares.
However, the songs that danced in my head were quickly interrupted by a shrill scream by a lady off in the distance. I froze, my breath caught in my throat, my blood curdling. I turned to glance around and see who had made the sound but my father quickly picked me up. I felt the bags slip from my hands, “Daddy! The food!” I cried out, but he didn’t seem to care. His eyes were struck with terror. I kept quiet, my own eyes widening with growing fear. My father never seemed scared about anything. He was tall, and very strong. His shoulders were broad with muscles, his arms thick with muscle. His legs just as strong, if not stronger. The fact that even he was scared, meant something. It meant that whatever caused that lady to scream, was a threat, a big threat. I wrapped my hands tighter around my father’s neck, not enough to strangle him, not even close, but enough to hold a tight grip onto him.
The skies flashed with colors of red and then of orange as I snuck a peek from around my father’s shoulder. The sounds were all a blur, screaming, shouting, crying, wailing. It was all one loud cry of sorrow of pain. I could almost imagine a soft cackle in the distance, of those who had caused it all.
Suddenly the ground shook and a loud noise erupted from behind us, the skies earlier painted with warm pinks and oranges were quickly dyed with yellow and colors of crimson. Perhaps it was the sky simply reflecting what was going on below, perhaps it was an omen of what lay ahead in the near future for me that day. Fear rippled through my veins, driving my adrenaline to its peak and causing all the hairs on my body to stand on end. Clouds that were once white were now stained black with the terror that had erupted in the city.
We made it to our house within a short time. My mother was outside, the door open, awaiting our return. She seemed so fearless, so determined. “Hurry Ezei-” Her words were cut off as father leapt up the stairs of our porch and thrusted me into my mothers arms. She set me inside and quickly began murmuring something. I had no idea what it was at the time, but she was casting a protection spell across our house. My mother was a Fairy.
My father however, was not, The terrorists in town were looking to exterminate all magical beings, my mom was one of them. My father was just as easily a target because he was associated with her. The whole town was a target. The town was in danger because it was associated with the magical beings that lived there. It was an attempt at a purge at the hands of these terrorists, sucking up everyone and everything associated with their target. Their cause, was nothing more than a hope for equality, something they could not have if there was ever to be anyone more powerful than them. To me, it was nothing more than fear. Pure fear, fear that someone was more powerful than you. Fear that if you didn't kill them first, they would kill you.
These people dressed in black saw themselves as heroes, blinded with the hopes of a brighter future so that they could no longer see the true devastation of it all. Before I could even open my mouth, just as my father was hurrying a nearby neighborhood child into the house, one of those men showed up with a rifle. I felt my throat tighten with the words left unspoken as he got shot in the back, right where his heart would be. He got shot again, a bit higher and then again, right through the back of his neck. He fell through the doorway as my mother finished the spell and sealed the house from any outside danger. She was too late though, he was too late. The child whom he had saved, had gone into hiding, but i stood there. I listened to the ping of bullets hit the protection spell as I stared down at my father, tears welling up in my eyes. My mind was blank with thoughts from the shock of it all. My mother immediately fell to his side to try and heal him, but it was already too late. His breathing ceased and his blood was already trickling out over his wounds, past his mouth and staining the carpet.
He was a hero. That was what a hero was meant to look like. Yet as honorable as it was, it wasn’t enough for me. I hated how he had to trade his life for another. I hated how I was too young and too weak to not have done anything to have helped him or save him. Most of all I hated those people. I hated those people, those people in black.
We, my mother and I, had moved away for a short time as the city recovered, it was only about six months until we moved a bit closer to the city. We were still about an hour or two away from our old home, but it was better than the six to seven hours we had once been.
I shivered just beneath the pitch black sweater I wore all day and had refused to remove at any point. I sat up briefly, letting out a warm sigh, the huff of air I breathed out brushed up against the cold glass and fogged it up. I watched as it briefly extended as far as it could towards the outermost reaches of the glass and then faded away, retreating back into itself before disappearing all together. I bit my lip as I took a glance around then, within the same second it would seem, I slumped back against the car door. I found no entertainment in watching the world around me go by. I closed my eyes softly, listening to the pitter, the patter of the rain against the window. The soft, gentle- Squeal of rubber on the road!
My eyes snapped open and I quickly sat upright. Everything was a blur, it all happened so quickly. I saw a car attempt to stop, but it continued to spiral out of control across the icy, wet road, It was coming closer, closer! It felt like my heart was about to jump out of my throat when everything went black.
There were hardly five seconds between the squeal of rubber, and the moment things were black, and I awoke here. At least, that’s how it seemed to me. I tried to sit up, “where am I?” I asked, my head throbbed and spun as i tried to prop myself up on my elbows at first and then my hands. White tall figures rushed at me quickly and pressed me back against the bed, I struggled weakly against them. “Let me up!” I whined, or so I thought I had. My words were nothing more than a slur as I was lost to the painless feeling of my body at the fault of some anesthetic. I quickly gave up my attempts to sit up and allowed the hands to hold me down. I closed my eyes for a bit, taking a deep breath in attempt to balance out my pulsing heart beat. I opened my eyes again to see as the figures slowly became more clear. It was then I realized I was in the hospital.
I was in the hospital.
My heart leaped out of my chest, or so it had felt. My eyes were wild with a terror, the worst kind of all. I sat up in a rush, only bringing back the spinning sensation to my head. All in that same moment, the memories of what had happened flooded back to me as a whole.
I thought of the worst, the thought of what could be, and the proof that it could all be true, and that it all may have come to life. I was scared to ask, but it seemed my heart had its own voice as i shouted out raggedly. “My, my mom!” I said weakly, my words stuttering, stumbling over each other.
My words must have been clear enough for them to comprehend at least. One of the nurses rushed to my side, after seeing I had sat up again. Two more followed her after I tried to sit up. I was simply pushed back down. Yet I was worried. I was worried for my mother’s sake, I wanted to get up, to see her, to see she was alright. Yet time and time again, I was pushed back down against the bed and finally held there. I was out of breath, my head hurt from the up and down movement I had done by struggling, my body aching with the effort. I watched their lips move as she pulled away her face mask, but none of the words came out told me what I wanted to know. “I-Is my mom okay?” i grunted, my heart pounding faster and faster as anxiety crept up on me with the terrible thoughts of what could be.
Finally, a doctor entered and gave me the news I hoped to know. The doctor told me, “I’m sorry, but,” there was a pause in the doctor’s words. My jaw gaped and my heart fell into my stomach. I could not believe it. It really happened. “Your mother is dead,” the doctor finished softly. Tears glossed over my eyes with the pain I felt as I let out a wail of agony. I was in so much pain, I was in so much pain and yet I was in a hospital. The bitter irony. I was in pain, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
Most people say you never understand how good you have it, at least not until you lose it. For that second, in my mind, I lost my mother, and then my father all over again.
In that moment, everything good in the world was gone. I felt the tears rise to my eyes and flood my face. She was gone. He was gone. They were gone, and I? I was alone. I let out a cry of pure sadness, my heart shattered. I was alone. I was an orphan. My hands shook, my breaths were ragged with all the weight It had put on me. Why? Why me? Why now? Why? It seemed cliche, but I was heartbroken, I was alone. Who wouldn’t be asking these questions?
After I had cried all that I could, I told the doctors my name, my address, things like that. Eventually my uncle showed up. My mom’s brother, he was not any happier than I was. He still forced a smile for me though. I didn’t have the energy to smile back however.
It was a year, a year! It was a year ago I lost one of the closest people to me. Today, I lost the only person left I cared about. I was weak from crying, I was weak from the news and the weight of it all.
My uncle took me in, adopted me. I was glad at least that it was someone related to me, someone I was somewhat familiar with to take me in. I love him very much for doing so. However, I know, and he knows, I will never love him as much as I loved my parents. That is one thing that should be a given.
Fae walked back over to her notebook and saw the open page, she bit her lip. She bit it almost hard enough to draw blood, holding back a tear in her eyes as she easily recognized the date. The date which was nearly two years since. She stared down into the pages, before closing it and hugging it tightly.
“I miss you, and I will never forget you… Mom… Dad…”
