The voices! The lights!

wolfwolfwolfwolfbigwolfbadwolfwolfwolfwolfwolf

I shook my head. I could understand them! I could understand them? How? Why?

fffffffffaerrrie

What? Did I just...?

faerrrieeeeeefaerrrrieeeeeefaerie

Fairy? Fairies didn't exist! This wasn't a Disney movie and Tinkerbell was the product of a Scottish author, therefore NOT REAL.

faerieofthefaefaefae

I tried to cover my ears. After so long being unable to understand the voices, now I could finally follow what they were telling me, I didn't want to know. Not ridiculous fairy tales. Not lunacy. And the beast! The wolf! 'Big bad?'

Was I dead? Had the creature attacked and killed me? Was my body sprawled on the stairs of my parents' house? Was this some sort of heaven? Or hell?

We were descending. I looked down but the lights were concentrated beneath me, supporting my weight. I felt us land and the lights released their grip on me, coalescing together to become a large orb, throbbing with light.

"What are you?"

faerieofthefae

"Fairies? Really? You expect me to..."

FAERIEFAERIEFAERIEOFTHEFAE

"OK! I get it! I don't believe it, but I get it." I realised the voices were no longer around and in my head. The voices were coming from the lights. "What's going on? What do you want with me? What is that thing?"

wolfwolfwolf

"Yes, I know it's a wolf! I could see that!" It was wolf-like, at least. It had the form and threat of one, though its bipedal stature belied the title.

bigbigbadwolfwolfwolf

"The Big Bad Wolf?" I shook my head. I must be dead. Or unconscious. Dreaming. Perhaps I was still five and I'd wake up screaming with Mum rushing in through the bedroom door.

bigbadwolf

"If you say so." I ran my hands through my hair and began to pace. I'd come so close to being killed. My parents were dead. Dave, whom I felt to be a friend even though we'd barely met, was dead. Why wasn't I?

becausebecausethebondbondbond

"I don't understand you! Stop repeating yourself!"

The ball of light shrank in on itself and started to spin. Its speed rapidly increased until it was a blur of bright motion then it suddenly exploded. I ducked, expecting to feel the sharp impact of the... faeries. There was nothing. When I looked up, they were moving around each other, creating swirls in the air reminiscent of Bonfire Night sparklers. As I watched, they began to take on a form. It was vaguely human, but parts here and there kept breaking apart as if the dots - the faeries - were struggling to retain the shape.

bondbondbond

I waited with no idea of what bond they spoke of. Listening was difficult. The words were there, easily heard, but there were so many layers to the voices as they interwove with each other, the repetition sounded like an instant echo and I struggled to follow.

bond becausebecause... because of the bond

I sighed. Finally. I slumped down to the ground, feeling the relief of a lifetime of ignorance slip away. The voices were speaking. I was hearing. I was seeing. Though I might fight the idea, I couldn't fight the evidence in swirling in front of me. Fairies or faeries, I wasn't sure of the difference, but they were clearly real.

yes we are real we are here we are with you

"Hi." I didn't know what else to say.

we protect you

"You protect me? From what?"

the wolf

"Yes, the Big Bad Wolf." We're always told even the most fantastical of stories have grains of truth from with the myth or the tale blossoms. Could this be so?

big bad wolf

"Why is it killing? Why me and my parents?"

you speak with us you hear us you keep the bond strong

"I don't understand," I said. "What bond? I'm only speaking with you now. I've never known what you were saying before!"

you did inside we led you to the others you heard us

The others. The animals. The girl and the woman and Mum and Dad.

"Why? Why me? What is this bond?"

the bond between worlds human and faerie you hear you speak you keep the bond strong

"So, because I can hear you, that keeps this bond between my worl and yours strong?"

yesyesyesyesyesyes

"Slow down!"

I put my head in my hands. I was trying hard to believe this craziness. There was something joining a mythical world to that which I thought to be simple, safe and ordinary. And because I could hear the voices, that made sure the bond remained intact. I voiced my thoughts to see if they sounded less insane out loud.

yes

I sighed. I could guess what the wolf was. Some sort of evil wanting to break the bond.

yes evil darkness death end

"End? End of what?"

alllllllllllll

"All? What do you mean 'All?"

all human and faerie no more only night

I leaned back, my mind whirling as fast as the lights. It was so much to take in. So much to believe. It couldn't all be real, but I knew it was. The voices had been my companion for all my life. If they were lying to me, surely I would know.

"Why were you showing me the deaths though? Why take me there? Why make me see all that?"

warn you make you see make you hear us make you listen make you run

"You were warning me? Why didn't you speak to me like you are now?"

we were you could not hear until you needed to hear

I could think of nothing else to say. There were a hundred questions and there were none. Nothing to make sense of the situation. Nothing to bring my family back.

you are the last

My head snapped up and I stared at them as they turned in the air. The last. That meant, if I died...

I had no time to finish the thought. From somewhere in the trees, the howl of the wolf caused my bladder to empty and the faeries to disperse in a flare of fire. I scrambled backwards feeling my hand suddenly wet. I looked back and saw the lake. I'd forgotten it was there. It wasn't large but it was supposed to be deep. Maybe if I could get far enough in, hide under the water. I hadn't practiced holding my breath since I was about eleven years old, but if my life depended on my lung capacity, I would try hold it forever if necessary.

The faeries grouped back together, creating a wall in front of me. The trunk of a tree was yanked from the ground and thrown over my head, splashing into the lake. Without looking away, I backed into the water quickly. I hoped the fae barrier would disguise my escape. Briefly, I thought about staying and helping them but I was already waist deep. Besides, faeries had magic, didn't they?

The wall bulged as the wolf, big and bad, smashed into it. It held for a moment but the wolf started to claw and snap at it. Talons and teeth ripped at the faeries and, back in my head now, I could hear their screams. Still I retreated, the importance of what they had told me moving me much more than self-preservation. I had to stay alive or... ALL

The faeries managed to free themselves of the wolf's attack and started to swirl as they had before me. They came together, elongating into a band which wrapped around the creature and lifted it into the air. It howled again and tried to break the binding. I paused, thinking they had it captured, but, with a snarl, it brought its claws up, tearing through them. As it fell, the faeries threw themselves at it. Even in mid-air, the wolf whipped about. Its head was turning in all directions, biting down. It flailed about, each movement knocking faeries down or crushing them.

It landed on its two hind feet, standing exactly as it had when I saw it at the top of the stairs. The wof looked at me. I couldn't tear my gaze away. On the periphery of my vision, I saw the faeries join again into a ball of light, tighter, denser, more solid and powerful. There was no breaking away. No faeries unable to keep the close to the others. It lunged at the wolf, glowing brighter as it advanced. Just as it was about to strike at the back of the wolf's head, the beast spun around, its maw opened impossibly wide. With a crunch of thousands of tiny lives and with their screams making my ears bleed, the wolf clamped its mouth shut.

The lights went out.

I heard - felt - thunder, except it was in the ground. Even in the water. Dark clouds appeared, covering the sky in seconds. I could see the grass and leaves on the trees begin to brown, the leaves breaking off and falling as they died.

The Big Bad Wolf advanced on me. Once claw was pointing at me. I knew why. My stomach.

The other claw held a pair of pink wings. I'd always thought, when I visited the 'pound shop' and seen the tatty, poorly made hen and Christmas party garb, they were angel wings.

I was wrong, I realised as the talon touched my stomach.

They were fairy wings.