27. The Past
27
THE PAST
Caly
I stuffed the last corner of the toaster waffle in my mouth as the screen door slammed behind me with a creak and a bang. Adrianna and Mom had gone into town, and I didn’t want to waste a minute of this time.
The dew-covered grass dampened the bottoms of my feet as I ran out back. I passed the place where those fairy things had been. That had been so cool.
The pretty gold fairy told me I’d be seeing a lot of her, and I couldn’t wait. She was so neat. Adrianna had been getting so annoyed with me because I couldn’t stop talking about how I had saved a real-life fairy.
I wondered if she would come to school with me for show-and-tell. That would definitely get me more friends. I didn’t know why everyone always seemed uncomfortable around me.
My legs picked up speed over the flowers and tall grass.
“Hello!” I sang out to a nearby squirrel.
He would come to my lap and snuggle—I knew he would right now.
This was my favorite. It was the only time I felt like anything liked me, well, besides for Mom and Adrianna—they had to like me though.
My own father didn’t even like me enough to stay. I was glad I didn’t remember anything about him. I didn’t need him or anyone else. Mom was enough for me. Mom was everything to me.
I sat down excitedly, moving my legs to standard crisscross-applesauce position, when all of a sudden, my skin started to tingle. The power in my veins felt like it was being pulled out, but somehow it also felt like it was being pushed back in. My stomach hurt like I had swallowed an anvil. What was going on?
My powers pulsed, and then all of these bright, flashing lights came into my vision. Voices stuttered in and out of my head.
Was I inside a car? I listened harder to the voices, gripping the tall grass to balance myself.
“I’m sorry, but I really can’t let you get in the way any longer.”
Who was that? I knew that voice.
“Hello?” I shouted.
“She doesn’t belong with two humans anyway. She will be the hero of the Seelie realm. The Elysian Fields won’t be able to keep her out.”
Wait, that was the pretty fairy! Why were they in the car? How come they’d left me behind?
My vision continued to pulse, hurting my head. What was happening?
“Not that she’d be refused anyway, being Artemi. The Elysian Fields are like your heaven. Unfortunately, the two of you will not be meeting her there anytime soon. Humans don’t belong.”
What? Why was the fairy talking about the Elysian Fields?
The anvil in my stomach flipped.
No. She was too beautiful and kind to be bad.
But Mom’s face was terrified.
Tears prickled my eyes, soon falling from around closed lids.
Why was Mom so scared? Why couldn’t she stop the car? It was going too fast! No!
I stood up and ran toward the house. I had to do something! I had to help them. The fairy was bad. How could she be the bad one when she was so pretty and nice?
The door slammed behind me as I grabbed the house phone. Who should I call? Mom was the only one I knew to call for help. But I had to do something. The car was going faster.
I frantically ran around the house, trying to figure out what to do. I couldn’t call the police. I didn’t know what I was seeing, and I didn’t have anybody else. The only people I had were in that car.
“What did you do?” Adrianna cried.
“Noooooooo!” I bellowed.
My body dropped to the ground in a pile of Mom’s gardening supplies next to the back door.
No. No. No. No. No.
It couldn’t. They couldn’t.
No!
She had hurt them.
The fairy had hurt them, and it was all because of me.
I stared at the ground next to where I had fallen.
I didn’t blink. I didn’t cry. I just stared, thinking about what she had said to them.
Hours passed. I shifted my legs. They had gone completely numb. I couldn’t even use them. I palmed the garden shears as I moved to my hands and knees and crawled out the back door.
My legs prickled and stung as I stood, my walk turning into a run.
The neighbor’s house was pretty far away, but I could make it. I needed to get help.
She had hurt them.
Someone was coming on a bike. They could help me.
“Please help me! My mom and sister are hurt! I-I think they are dead!” I cried before realizing the bike rider coming closer was Kyle Pierce. The mean kid from down the street.
“What? They didn’t want to be around you either? Left just like Daddy?” The boy snickered. He pulled his bike in front of me to block my path.
“Please! This is serious. Go get your mom. I’m running to the Wetzels. Please help me!” I cried.
“Please help me, please help me,” he mimicked.
“Stop it!” I screamed as I tried to walk around him.
Kyle was a year older than me and was always picking on me. Mom even drove me to school so I didn’t have to ride the bus with him.
“You’re such a nerd, you know that? That’s why no one hangs out with you. Because you’re an ugly nerd!” he shouted at me.
Who would drive me to school now?
Mom was gone. Forever. Who would stop Kyle from bullying me?
No one. Because I had no one.
I was all alone. Everything was up to me now…
The gardening shears slammed into Kyle’s stomach, making him fold over.
She had hurt them.
My father was to blame for this. He did this. They both did this to them!
I hit him again with the shears, this time in the back. He yelled, but I couldn’t hear anything. It felt like I was underwater; everything was muffled and dull sounding.
A little bit of hope swelled inside of me as I continued to stab and stab.
I could make it alone. I didn’t need anybody.
I turned around and walked back the way I had come. Still holding the bloody garden shears, for the first time in hours, I felt like I might be okay.
My mind turned over and over and over until a plan hatched.
“If it’s worth having, it’s worth waiting for” came Mom’s voice from inside my head.
She was right.
Creak, bang! The screen door slammed behind me as I walked into the house. The quiet air of no one home dug into my chest.
Turning into the bathroom, I stared at my blood-splattered face and dress.
It was like I was looking at someone I didn’t recognize—someone new. She looked similar to me, but she had a different light in her eyes. She had the look of someone who was capable and smart. She could handle things alone.
I stared blankly at my new hollow eyes and raised the kitchen shears to my ears. It shocked me when I felt nothing as I worked. I cut the next side. Blood ran down the sides of my face, and I had to sit against the wall for a few minutes because my vision blackened.
When I woke up on the bathroom floor, I knew it wasn’t a dream and I was still all alone.
Mom and Adrianna never would have left me to lay on the floor like this.
There was so much blood everywhere, so I showered, making sure I used the rubber mat inside like Mom wanted.
My ears were still bleeding when I got out, so I grabbed a tube of superglue and glued the big cuts shut. I’d seen Mom do this on cuts from the garden sometimes. I hoped it’d work.
I taped them up with some Band-Aids just in case and then grabbed my purple beanie off the counter to hide them.
A knock came at the back door, and I froze.
“Knock, knock! Calypso, honey, I have some terrible news. But don’t worry, everything’s going to be fine.”
It was the fairy, but I was ready.