Moonlight Cottage

Prologue

The moonlight fades from flower and rose

And the stars dim one by one;

The tale is told, the song is sung,

And the Fairy feast is done.

The night-wind rocks the sleeping flowers,

And sings to them, soft and low.

The early birds erelong will wake:

'T is time for the Elves to go.

O'er the sleeping earth we silently pass,

Unseen by mortal eye,

And send sweet dreams, as we lightly float

Through the quiet moonlit sky;--

For the stars' soft eyes alone may see,

And the flowers alone may know,

The feasts we hold, the tales we tell;

So't is time for the Elves to go.

Louisa May Alcott

    The first thing I noticed was the pain. I reached for the seatbelt, but it wasn't there. In fact, I wasn't in my car at all. I was laying on a hard surface, my ears picking up the sound of wood crackling in a fire.

Forcing my eyes open, I peeked at my surroundings, trying to lift myself up, but the pounding in my head was too much. I was on the forest floor, facing a small fire. The trees rose up all around me.

I took a deep breath and forced myself up. I had to get help, but I needed to take it slow and the pounding was making it hard to think. I reached my hand up to put pressure on my throbbing head and felt a slickness across my face.

The snap of a twig alerted me to another presence. The voice I'd heard before blacking out creeped along my skin again, "Ah, you are awake, finally we can begin."

I flinched away from his smile of anticipation. He chuckled low, then snatched me by the hair, bending my neck back at a painful angle. He put his face two inches from my own and I could feel his breath as he spoke, "Do you think I am a fool? No matter, the more you fight back, the more fun this will be."

The next thing I knew, I was smashed back down into the dirt. His body was pinning mine as he smashed a kiss to my lips. I managed to grip his bottom lip in my teeth and bit down hard. He hissed, pulling away, before his hand rang against the side of my head and the blackness crept in again, sucking me back down into unconsciousness.