Something kept poking her in her left foot. It was sharp, cold, and irritating.

Half asleep and groggy, she pulled back the covers to see tiny, glowing people. The golden light coming from them, lit up her bedroom and made the miniature spears, they were holding just visible to Helena.

They didn't seem to notice that she was now wide awake and watching them.

They giggled with delight as the fattest of the group rammed a spear into her big toe.

Helena let out a loud hiss of pain and the giggling stopped.

They all looked up at Helena with their mouths open in shock that she was wake then their eyes darted towards the spear sticking out of her toe.

"This is all a dream and in the morning you will remember none of this," squeaked the tiniest of the bunch while Helena glared at them. "You don't believe this is a dream, do you?".

Helena cradled her foot as she gently pulled the spear out of her toe.

"I could never dream up something like this. What are you?". The little creatures looked at one another nervously. They whispered amongst themselves in a language Helena had never heard before.

Helena studied them a little more closely. There were eight of them in total. They had childlike faces,pointed ears, and sapphire blue eyes that sparkled with mischief. Their clothes were made of dark green leaves and none of them were any bigger than Helena's thumb.

"If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell Mr. Kanefire about any of this," the littlest insisted while others mumbled something about "No good will come of this".

"I promise not to tell Lucas about any of this," Helena said with her fingers crossed behind her back. There was no way she wasn't going to bring this up the next time she saw him.

A warm tingly sensation spread through the palms of her hand.

"That promise was magically binding. You break it and there will be dire consequences well dire is a bit strong, but there will be consequences," it was difficult for Helena to tell whether he was being serious or not. Every word came out like a chirpy squeak.

"Once we were men, then one terrible night a long time ago all that changed. We were cursed to live as men by day and creatures by night. We have mischief in our hearts and when the sun sets we become pixies. The others, they become,"

"That's enough Sam! You have told her too much already," interrupted one of the pixies his voice full of fury and fear.

It sounded like a tale from one of her books, but instead of just being words on a page or beautiful pictures these pixies in front of her were real. They were living things that minutes before had been jabbing her in the foot.

It was a mixture of strange and wonderful.

A despairing howl made the pixies edge closer to her. "He's sad tonight," one whispered, but Helena heard it.

"Whose sad? And is there anything I can do so your men all of the time?" Helena asked, but they just looked at her with sadness and hopelessness in their eyes.

"The sun will be rising soon we have to go, but remember not a word to Mr. Kanefire about any of this,"

She watched them hop off the bed and scurry across the floor before crawling through a hole in the wall.

Helena wanted to call out for them to come back but knew it would do no good. She sat there taking in everything she had heard. Trying to figure out how she could have been at the castle nearly a week and not figured out what was wrong. Imagining what the others became when the sun set and why the other pixie interrupted Sam when he wanted to tell her more.

~~~~~~~~

"Why are you all cursed?" Helena blurted out to Mrs. Marcus. She hadn't meant to say it or at least not so bluntly, but ever since Andrew had called her for breakfast she'd been dying to ask.

Lucas wasn't up yet. She hadn't broken her promise by asking Mrs. Marcus. Other than Grattle and Andrew they were alone. Grattle didn't react to her question he just continued to nibble on his toast, but Andrew's eyes were as wide as saucers.

"It's a long story, dear and not my story to tell. How did you find out about it?" Mrs. Marcus calmly asked while pouring her some tea.

"It's a short story that involves pixies. They made me promise not to tell Lucas and that the promise was magically binding,". Helena saw Mrs. Marcus exchange a look with Grattle who just shrugged his shoulders.

"All promises made at night are magically binding that's something I warned Mr. Kanefire to tell you, but he wanted to do everything his way."

Helena sensed a great deal of loyalty to Lucas from the older woman, but also worry and frustration.

"Don't tell Lucas that you know about the curse let him believe you know nothing about what is happening here. No one in this room to let him know that Miss Cranbrown knows, are we clear?" Mrs. Marcus asked looking at Grattle then Andrew.

"Yes, Mama," Andrew replied. He looked as puzzled as Helena felt.

She didn't know what the big deal was if Lucas knew or not. If they or he were worried about her telling everyone the moment she went back to the village, then they had very little to worry about. She would never tell anyone and even she did no one would believe her. Everyone would just think she'd gone mad up at the castle.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a tray of food up to Mr. Kanefire".

Mrs. Marcus left with enough food to feed a small army. She muttered and sighed with every step she took out of the room.

Helena felt confused and nowhere near close to figure out the secrets of the castle or the people in it.

Author Note

Thank you so much for reading I hope that you enjoyed reading this.

So Helena now knows of the curse and a smidgen of the truth of what is happening at the castle. Why do you think Mrs. Marcus doesn't want Lucas to know that Helena knows?.

Here is a cover made by lastwitchhuntress for The Kanefire Curse. It's really beautiful.

Also guess who finally, after weeks of waiting got to see the new Beauty and the Beast film.