I Don't Believe in Fairies, So How Am I One?

I'm tackled down on the ground with a hard thud. "That's the girl," the step monster says.

"Oh really? Then where are my wings? Everyone knows, Fairies have wings or are you stupid and not know that?" I challenge.

The Hunters look back and forth between one another. Then one comes out with a middle road of some sort. The Hunters keep my arms and legs in place, as the man raises it above his head and hits it down on to my spin, where electricity is over taken my body. I scream in pain, but I keep my wings hidden somehow. The man pulls the rod from my back, as I pant. "Do it again!" she orders out.

"Do one better," I pant out. "Kill me," a hush fills the room. "You aren't like these other Hunters and you know it. Your type of Hunters kill Fairies and suck all the goodness out of the world. So do it and make sure that I am, what you 'think' I am. I dare you,"

She puts the crying child down in it's bed and pulls out the knife I seen her grab all those weeks ago, the last time I was here. "Hold her still," she tells the men and they do as she tells them, as if they are under some sort of spell.

I look at the Hunter that should be leading them. The look in his eyes are dead, as if the lights are on but no one is home. "Nathaniel, I know who are now. She showed me who you are to me and I want you to know. You couldn’t had stopped this and I hold nothing against you," I tell him, as the step devil gets down on her knees and holds the knife over where my spin is at. A sure kill spot and the stop, where my wings would have no choice but to show themselves. The first time I kept them hidden, but with this last blow, I will have no choice but to show them. "Goodbye, dad," I whisper.

An unseen wind starts to pick up, then I am sucked into an unseen world, followed by Jake and Kimmy. The book closes us in, protecting us. But for how long and what opened the portal?

Jake hugs me, then pulls me at arm length. "What in the world were you thinking and how did you open the portal?" he searches my face.

"I wanted to see if she would really do it and if any of the other Hunters would wake up. As for the portal, I had nothing to do with it, I thought you two did something," I tell them looking between them.

Kimmy shakes her head. "Neither of us did it. It must had been your powers in search for protection or maybe someone inside the book opened the portal and sucked us in,"

"How long do you think we are protected here?" Jake asks, as I let my wings out of my back. But as I do this, my back screams in pain, where the road had been.

"Let's get moving before we find out," I tell them, then we start walking down a stone back of blue stone, white stone, gray stone and red stone. It's almost like the yellow brick road, but it doesn’t lead us to the Emerald City. No, it leads us to a big castle of gold. "Do you think anyone is inside?" I ask them, as we push the big doors open.

"One way to find out," Jake says, as we walk in.

"Hello?!" Kimmy yells out.

Nothing. No sound but her voice coming back to us. "Any idea what we are looking for?" Jake asks me, as we go in further.

As we go into the middle of the room, lights turn on and a small boy appears at the top of the grand staircase. "Who are you to enter my playhouse?" he asks holding a teddy bear and has big green eyes that look like they have never stopped crying.

"My name is Audrey and-"

I'm cut off, when the boy flies into me at fast speed. He hugs me tightly and starts crying, as his small gold wings hug my shoulders. "Audrey, you came back for me!" he cries out.

Wrapping my arms around him, I pat him on his back. "I'm sorry, I don’t remember much from my childhood. But I am sorry, for making you cry," I tell him softly into his hair.

He pulls away and looks up at me. "What has happened? What of our family?"

He didn’t know, he didn’t know about the loss of many. "Not many are left, the Hunters are chasing us and I need to make the last change. How do I do that?" the castle starts to shake, like someone grabbed the book from the outside and slams it down on the ground.

He let's go of me and lands down on the ground. "Heart of child and laughter to be pure, that is what makes us gold," he riddles.

My shoulders slump. "I lost my heart as a child, something made me lose it from my past and laughter is sadly, something I'm not good at anymore," I tell him.

He shakes his head. "I know what has happened to you. I've been by your side, since I can never leave this place,"

"Why can't you leave?" Kimmy asks.

He doesn’t have to say anything, I know the reason. "Because he is dead. This book, is the only place that keeps him alive. He died as a child and they put his soul in this book, so he could live," I see flashes of images of gruesome and horror of what happened to him.

"How do you know?" Jake asks.

The small boy looks at him. "Cause I am her older brother, I died trying to protect her. She was just learning how to fly and feel. I flew after her, wrapped my arms around her and tried to keep us up in the air, but I wasn't strong enough. I made sure that she wouldn’t hit the ground first." he then looks at me. "Our ages are different from our realm to the human realm. When mother came to the human realm, you were inside of her. It was the only way to protect who you are," he tells me.

Kneeling down to him, I give him a hug, as the castle shakes violently. "I'm sorry," I tell him, wishing all could change. I wish that the child laughing had stayed. I wish my laughter had never died. If only I could go back and change so many things. My brother wouldn’t be dead and I wouldn’t be so closed off from my childhood.

"This was never your fault Audrey. It was meant to happen. So please, know that I love you and always do," he looks up at me, places his hand on the side of my face. "As you are out in the real world, please remember this. even if death we still love. Reach into your heart and find the love that you once had for me and bring it out. Because what you are meant to be," he says softly, then he fades away.

Jake and Kimmy look around. "Where did he go?" Kimmy asks.

"Resting," I whisper, then place my wings around my body as a shield that nothing can get into. My wings show me flashes of childhood. Of a life I missed out on, without remembering it. The laughing and the love is all around me. "I'm ready for what I can be," I whisper, then a great brightlight sworlles me and I am reborn.