The Faery in the Window

The moon was brighter than I thought.

It shone right through the closed curtains of my room, illuminating them and my room brightly. My eyes struggled to adjust to the glow of the bedroom, as if the lights had been flicked on without warning. Dazed I searched for the source of what woke me, there had been a noise …

There was movement in the shadows, a shape that glided through the semi-lit room. Shifting past my small dresser and make up table, something bumped my dollhouse sitting in the middle of the room, having been played with just before lights out. Then I saw the shadow … Or the shadow of a shadow flash in the moonlight, it moved swiftly and silently … towards me. As the moonlight flicked across its form I saw the glimmer of two large oval shapes emerging from the back of the shadow, they reflected the moonlight in beautiful sparkling patterns.

Eyes … I saw eyes …

Glowing a deep onyx, somehow both darker than the night, yet bright and visible to me as the moonlight bounced off them as whatever this thing was scanned the room, its eyes falling on my still form, wrapped in my unicorn covers. I shut my eyes tight and tried to calm my breathing, as if pretending to be asleep so daddy would carry me from the car to bed after a long trip. I felt warm, moist breath on my ear, the pressure of something sliding under my pillow before removing itself sharply after a brief moment.

There was a new stillness in the air of my room, a quiet that built until I could bear it no more. I opened my eyes and sat up in bed, clutching my teddy bear tight to my chest. I scanned my room and … nothing, there was nothing that shouldn't be there, everything was in its place. The moonlight was brighter and now shining through an open window, the curtains having been drawn back … There it was, crawling out of the window. I saw it … I saw her … and she saw me.

She bared her teeth, long and sharp, her wings, for that is what they were, I could see now, shook with a building rage like a coiled rattlesnake. Her eyes flashed a mysterious and deep purple for a second … and I fell back into a deep sleep.

...

I awoke screaming.

My wife grabbed hold of me in an instant, gently shushing me as she held me tight and told me it was okay, assuring me I was safe as within her firm and tender hold I curled tightly around my teddy bear, now a bit ragged and worn, but still soft after these years. Ruth always thought it was cute. I still slept with my teddy, she never once teased me for it … I love her so much.

‘Baby, what’s the matter?’

‘It was her again … that dream … of that night. It was so real, Ruth … I’m scared,’ I said, starting to cry in her arms.

She held me even tighter, wordlessly telling me she wouldn't let go until I was ready.

‘It’s okay, baby. I’m here.’

She gently stroked my hair and whispered shushes in my ear to help calm me down.

‘It wasn’t real, it was just a nightmare, Me-Mi.’

She called me Me-Mi sometimes … it was her little pet name for me, and only between us. Everyone else just called me Amelia. I love her so much.

‘I’m not so sure,’ I said between sobs and deep breaths. ‘It felt more real than ever before … I think she’s coming back.’

‘Who?’

I pulled my arm free of her embrace just enough to take a small drawstring pouch off Teddy's neck. From inside the small silk pouch I pulled out a small gold coin, one that appeared under my pillow that night as a small girl ... a coin my parents always claimed to know nothing about …

‘The Tooth Faery …’

The next day we were standing in the woods just outside of town, in a small grotto of trees that formed a circle and inside was just grass and flowers. I pulled the old Polaroid out of my pocket and stood in the right spot to line it up … everything in it matched perfectly still, even twenty years later … everything except the tree in the middle of the clearing shown in the photo. A tree with a small set of steps and a door …

Ruth held my hand and stood quietly waiting for me to explain more. She knew I had night terrors as a kid and that I still had nightmares on a regular basis, she was used to them. She never prodded or pried to what they were about, she would just hold me, and make sure I knew I was safe … I love her so much … if I had told her my nightmares were because I saw the Tooth Faery as a girl … would she believe me? Still love me? I never thought I could risk it.

I took a deep breath … and told her everything. The events of that night, finding the coin, my parents not knowing about it, even denying knowledge when I was an adult. They always thought it was my imagination. I told her how another time I waited for the Faery to come, and followed her … to this place, I saw her enter her house just as the sun was rising, and quickly snapped a photo with my dad’s Polaroid for evidence. How after showing people the photo we came here … to find nothing but an empty clearing like now. I spent years in my teens researching the myths and stories, trying to find her, I knew there was something sinister about her … not like the story we’re told as kids. I think somehow the story we get is the warped version that passed down from older times, so we wouldn’t disrupt her work, and just accept random gifts in the night.

Ruth said nothing, she simply listened to me, never letting go of my hand once, I guess she doesn’t scare easy. When I finished and took a few heavy breaths of relief, never having told the full story before. Her face was hard to judge, it looked puzzled and contemplative.

‘So you’re saying the Tooth Faery is real? Actually a scary thing, that you put effort into finding her to prove she exists and couldn’t, but what? The story we’re told is so we don’t disrupt the work of Faery folk? And that she scared you so much it’s left you traumatised for life?

I looked down sheepishly, face red with embarrassment … She doesn’t believe me either, she’s going to leave me …

Ruth gently placed her hand on my face, raising it so our eyes met, she pulled me in for a deep, tender kiss. Her ruby lips tasted as good as they did on our wedding day. When she pulled back, she looked at me with a flare in her stunning green eyes, her mouth turned into a grin of determination.

‘That settles it then … let’s find this bitch. She’s got a lot to answer for.’

I love her so damn much …

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I'll admit I had already written the framework of this story as a writing exercise for a workshop I'm part of currently. So technically I've used two prompts! (What a rebel!) the original prompt was "The moon was brighter than I thought." and from there it mostly took shape. But the later half and some tweaks were due to including the chosen image. This is the image I chose (and edited slightly) to include as it gave me the idea about incorporating Faery things into the nightmare story framework.

This story is for the third challenge in James and Oneg's August Summer Writing Extrav-again-za! This time the challenge is to Write a story using the picture provided as your inspiration. (Pictures in the challenge post) The picture must be included somewhere in your story.

You can find out more about the Summer Writing Challenge Extrav-again-za below:

I would normally link another entry here, but can't find one yet ... I will link one when I do 🩷