The Heart Collector (Under Editing)

Chapter Four: Family

Fare sat hunched over on a bench in the park two streets down and stared at her hands.

"Damn, " she outwardly cursed.

She inadvertently exposed her pin-point ability when she shook his hand and discovered he was an Ice Fae. Normally, Fare was able to keep her ability in check, but with how her mental state had been recently, it was not surprising that she had a difficult time controlling herself. A Fae's abilities were in tuned with their emotions and in Fare's case it was double. If she was not careful, she could let slip her most dangerous ability. Unlike most other Fae, Fare was afraid. Afraid of her abilities and how she could hurt someone. At age twenty-five, most Fae had a pretty firm grasp over their emotions and their abilities, but Fare never actively chose to do so. She may be twenty-five, but she could care less about her supernatural blood. She had enough control to feel safe in her own skin and took up mortal self-defense techniques. By twelve, she had mastered karate, taekwondo, and jujitsu. By twenty, she was able to lock pick into almost any building and use parkour to scale any obstacle. She never saw the need nor did she want to use her abilities.

Fare leaned back on the bench and stared up at the sky. Despite all of the darkness that surrounded the city, it was a rather peaceful day. The sky was blue. The birds chirped their indecipherable tune. Even the wind was calm. Maybe it was days like this that made Kila accept that journalism offer. She was always drawn to things that had a hidden beauty. Fare sighed and moved to get up. She could not help, but dwell on the events on the last hour. While Captain Snow may have been surprised by her sudden exit, Fare could not help but wonder what he thought. She knew that he realized that she had the pin-point ability. She could tell by how he looked at her. Wide eyes and dilated pupils. While She never cared what people thought of her, she did not want to stick around for his full reaction.

There were very few people in the world that Fare trusted and the Truthfalls were not one of them. For as long as she could remember, Fare was scared of what would happen if the Truthfalls had discovered the full extent of her abilities. Pin-pointing was rare these days and so was her ability to turn others to stone. There were several instances over the years where other Fae were taken by the Fae Council because of their abilities to be used for their own governmental gain. There were even some that were executed out of fear of what they could potentially do. While Fare was scared of death, she was scared even more by the thought of becoming a weapon for the Fae Council. She was scared that they would force her to turn against her loved ones.

Fare sighed and used the bench's armrest to support her arm so that she could cradle her head in her hand. The contacts in her eyes began to sting and she thought of Michael. From the first day Kila brought her home, Michael and Agatha Woods became her parents. While Kila was too young to fully grasp the power of Fare's gaze, they did and Michael spent an entire month researching ways to help Fare open her eyes. He discovered that there were contact lenses that did not have any vision correcting properties; they were just a piece of the plastic that came in a variety of colors. While Fare had some handle on this particular ability, she always wore them to help prevent an occasional slip up. She recalled the incident with Agatha's sister, Petra. Fare was eight at the time and that morning she could not find her contacts. With them being clear, Fare would sometimes forget to put them away correctly on her bedside table and then be unable to locate them in the morning. At the time, Fare was unaware the Petra would be coming over for brunch with her bull dog, Brutus, so she decided to look for them more after breakfast.

When Fare exited her bedroom, Brutus charged and barked at her in his deep voice. Fare was startled and the change was instant. Fare knew it was over when she felt her pupils narrow into eyes that resembled that of a serpent and Brutus was stone. Petra's scream will forever ring in her ears. While Brutus made it clear that he never liked Fare, she never wanted to hurt him. Fare felt terrible and her relationship with Petra was horrible already. She never understood why, but Petra always had a cold shoulder towards her and that incident made it even colder. Fare suspected that her displeasure had to do with the fact her sister was so quick to allow a Fae-child into her home. Despite Michael and Agatha's best attempts to defuse the tension between them, they had never gotten along and probably never would. Fare had come to terms with that fact long ago, but she still wondered what life would have been like if she had accepted Fare. Would she have taken her out to tearooms with Kila? Would she have given her souvenirs from her travels? Would Petra have had a better relationship with Agatha? While Fare could not imagine life without them, she still felt like she ruined theirs in some ways. Petra lost her beloved pet. Agatha's relationship with her big sister was strained. Michael became mediator between the two. Kila lost the admiration she had for her Aunt. Despite the many reassurances over the years that they would not have changed a thing, Fare still felt a twinge of guilt when she would see other families on the street.