• “Fae…!” The voice called me forth from my sleep. “Come back to us, Fae…” It had been the same, over and over again, for the past few weeks. “We need you…” I would fall asleep and the dream would begin…

    A cold white place in the mountains. Trees surrounding a large log cabin. A fire blazing in a living area inside. I was sitting on a window seat, a soft black cushion beneath me, staring out the large bay windows. Smoky shapes flitted about, amidst the falling snow.

    I watched them and they would watch me, though I couldn’t see their eyes or if they even had eyes at all. Some of them would press up against the glass every once in a while. It was so strange to see these shapeless shapes sliding along the glass and leaving misty marks, like puffs of breath on the window.

    But then, just like every night before, it changed. The snowflakes that fell began turning red and landing on the ground in that color. The figures shimmered like they were an electrical program gone wrong and they were warped and unsteady. Their movements were jerky and twisted instead of smooth and graceful.

    And then there was the sound. A horrible, unearthly, haunted sound. It was like moaning and you could feel it crawl over your skin more than you could hear it ringing in your ears. They were whispering moans that made you want to claw your skin and sob—they were so sad. They made me nauseous and sick to my stomach and yet at the same time I couldn’t stop listening to them. It sounded like they were saying something. I pressed closer to the glass, hoping I could hear what words they spoke.

    I moved closer and closer, pressing the side of my head so that I could hear. WHACK! I jumped back, startled and looked at the creature that was pressed against the glass. Still no eyes as far as I could tell. But this creature looked angry. The shape, instead of leaving foggy clouds on the window, left streaks of red as it drew, what I assumed to be a tongue, against the glass.

    There was a cruelness about this shape and all the others who had suddenly become jerking, distorted, monstrous beings. The red liquid oozed from its mouth and hands and every part of it. It was smeared along the glass as the creatures pressed against it.

    “Fae…”
    “Fae…”
    “Fae…”
    “Fae…”
    “Fae…”
    “Fae…”
    “Fae…”
    “Fae…”
    “Fae…!”

    My name. They were calling out my name. Whispering it chillingly against the windowpane. I could hear it grow louder and more forceful as more and more of the shapes came closer and pressed up against the window.

    The ground was turning red, now. A sickly, bubbling, warm looking, bloodlike red. They kept pressing harder to the glass and suddenly their reaching arms began melding in with it. Then their bloodied limps were pushing THROUGH the glass and into the cabin. Blood dripped onto the black seat as they stretched to grasp me. The once misty shapes were reaching for me with talon like claws.

    They brushed the front of my shirt and the strands of loose hair and then one touched the skin of my cheek and I fell backwards onto the ground. The touch was so cold, so sickening. I opened my mouth and a high-pitched, blood-curdling scream was ripped from my throat.

    That’s when I would awake from the dream only to hear the voices still calling me. Their voices would be sweeter, calmer, more inviting. But I knew better. “Fae… Come back to us, Fae…” I shook my head and rubbed my eyes with my fists, willing the voices’ calls to stop. Eventually they did and I got up out of bed and went about my daily routine…just like every day since I turned seventeen…


    TO BE CONTINUED...