“Are you alright?”
“It pulled out my tooth, of course I’m not fucking alright!”
He was crying more now, and under the circumstances Alex supposed he could forgive his son’s bad language. He stood, slowly walking from the room and through to the kitchen to get some ibuprofen for Warren’s pain. He didn’t know what else to do, but didn’t have much time to think about it when another of those nerve-jangling shrieks sounded behind him. He whirled around, grabbing the thing closest to him and swinging it through the air in an arc. The old guitar collided against the airborne fairy with a hollow thud, sending it smashing into the nearby wall.
He finally understood why his father had left in such a hurry: the fairies had come for him, just like they had come for Alex and his son now. The desire to leave overpowered everything else. He went to Warren’s room, giving him the pills and starting to gather their things in a panic. All he said was, “He was right, my dad was right,” in disbelief, over and over again as he shoved everything he could find into their bags.
Taking Warren by the arm he semi-dragged him towards the front door, and to the safety of the car that lay beyond it. Halfway across the sitting room Warren broke free of his dad’s grasp.
“The book!” He cried, making a lunge for the chair where he had left it before bed. Warren scooped up the book where his grandfather had so painstakingly recorded the reality of these tiny beings, then he ran for the door his dad held open for him. Orange lights flashed as the car was unlocked, illuminating the surrounding clearing. Warren dived inside with Alex close behind, but as Alex reached for the door his face was gripped with pain. He was unable to do anything but spin around in the direction it was pulling him.
Tiny hooks were digging into his cheek, pulling him away from the car. More pain racked his body as other fairies swarmed over him, grabbing his body all over. His hands, his head, and his legs were all covered in the tiny creatures. One flew down in front of his vision, and it was indeed a tiny humanoid. Four wings on its back, like those of a dragonfly, and eyes like an insect. It hovered in front of his face and looked at him for what seemed like a long time, and when it opened his mouth he was powerless to stop it under the weight of all the others.
He felt a stab, which sent a wave of pain through his mouth and along his jawline as the hooks pierced one of his bottom molars. Then there was pressure from the small feet against his chin, and then blinding pain. Next was the taste of copper as the tooth was slowly and strongly pulled from his jaw. As the tooth came free Alex was released from their grasp. He bent forwards, spitting blood across the window of the car as the fairies flew at each other, fighting over the tooth and shrieking in a blur of airborne combat.
Alex made for the car, slamming the door behind him as he dived into the seat. Pressing the button on the dash the car revved to life, the tires spraying gravel and debris from the path underneath them as Alex set off up the path that would lead them to safety.
As he reached the tree line he found the road blocked again. In front of them stood a giant creature, no doubt attracted by the noise of the fairies’ squabble. It towered over the car. The glowing eyes of the wendigo left trails behind them, like a will-o-the-wisp might, as its head rocked slightly from side to side. The eyes burned into Alex’s own, freezing him in fear. With every step forward that it took the ground shook, the tremors rocking through the car.
“Dad, GO!” Warren unbuckled his seat belt and leaned forward, hitting his dad on the shoulder, “GO!” and then more quietly as his gaze locked onto the ever-advancing wendigo, “please.”
The fear in his child’s voice overwrote his own. He pushed the gas, hurtling right at the creature. One of the wendigo’s legs was in their path, and they rammed it. The impact jolted them as it struck, and the collision sent them spinning, nearly into a tree. The fae gave chase after it recovered its balance, but as fast as it was it was no match for the speed of the car.
Once the wendigo was long gone from the rear-view mirror, and his adrenaline had subsided, Alex slowed the car. His fear soon gave way to nausea, and common sense. They needed to stay safe. It wouldn’t do to escape those creatures just to wreck into a tree and kill them both, or wreck the car enough to leave them to the mercy of the horrors they had seen back by the cabin.
They drove through the dark in silence, not stopping once in the two hours back to the city. When Warren awoke in the morning his mum was already there to collect him, and his dad was gone. It was the only time Alex ever went back to the cabin, and even then he didn’t go all the way up the trail. He stopped where the tree had been lain across the path, and he dragged it back into place.
Where the word DANGER had been carved he painted inside the grooves to make the letters a bright red so that they stood out more, then he drove away as fast as he could. His retreat was followed by a chorus of high-pitched shrieks that sang out from that part of the forest.
Jason Holden
About the Author
Jason is a human. He lives here and there in the UK, always with his wife, daughter and fur baby. His primary goal is to raise his daughter to adulthood without any major
