Fairy Rings

Chapter 9

A/n ("are you interested in getting faster update's?  you are welcome to visit my Quotev page where you will receive faster updates under the name nins  https://www.quotev.com/28002639.)

I gasped for air, a scream bubbling up but never quite boiling over. I wasn't in the forest, not anymore. Instead surrounded by the same four walls I had been looking at scents, I was five painted in a light pink color that I had loved when I was little littered with toys too sentimental to throw away. Nothing was out of place. I was even in my pj's, for goodness sake. Everything told me that it was all just a nightmare.
Everything except the fact that I could still feel Theo's fingers latch around my neck. His body caged me. My back crushed into the tree behind me. I could even still feel his hot breath licking at my ear, the word sleep whispering through me. A shiver went down my spine.
"a dream it has to be a dream. besides, he just reappeared in my life, and I had an traumatic experience nightmares are bound to happen." I grumbled, pulling myself out of bed and making my way downstairs, lured in by the smell of vanilla and oats tickling at my nostrils. Grandma had never been a wealthy woman, but she got by mainly through baking things for neighbors and doing odd jobs. Making my way downstairs, I saw grandma sipping tee at the table, her usually curled and pinned hair loose falling around her shoulders.
"Where did you go last night?" Grandma asked, lips pursed in a familiar scowl. That was when I noticed the type of tee grandma was drinking Cammomeal. She only drank that when she was upset. The only problem was I didn't know what she was talking about. I didn't leave my bed unless last night wasn't a dream.
"What do you mean, grandma? I was in bed all night." I said, shoving down the simmering doubts.
"No, you weren't. Your shoes are covered in mud. And you tracked dirt in all through the house. If you have the gall to lie to me, at the very least, make sure to clean up after yourself." My heart Dropped. I ran to the front door Finding my mud-slicked shoes placed ever so nicely on the shoe rack. With shaking hands, I grabbed them off the shoe rack. I had left my shoes in my room last night. I don't sleepwalk. There was only one way this could have happened. I had visited the fairy rings with Theo last night. That Or I was facing a psychotic break.
"Grandma, did I make a lot of noise last night? Was the door still locked this morning?" I asked as calmly as I could. Be even still, my voice wobbled.
"No, you didn't. There wasn't any extra sound that I heard, but that's not the problem, young lady, your per.."
"Grandma, that's not the problem! I thought it was a nightmare. Grandma, what happens if a person catches the eye of a fae?" I rushed, cutting grandma off. For a moment, I could have heard a pin drop as grandma turned paper white As her teacup shattered onto the table below, spilling out the hot liquid across the table.
"What did you say." grandma asked, her voice getting small. Grandma was never the type of woman to make herself small. She was the kind that would throw down with a man twice her size and half her age, given half a chance.
"The fae, how do I get away from one? He is following me, enticing me with sweet words and phrases." I begged, hoping beyond hope that Grandma knew what to do she always had. Even after mom and dad Passed, she always knew how to make things work. She would know what to do. She had to.
"Have you made any promises, deals, or trades?"
"I don't think so."
"I don't think so is not good enough. I need to know whether you made any deals or trades. Tell me, child, before it gets too late." Grandma's voice boomed, Grasping me by the arm.
"No, no, I haven't made any deals," I said.
"Thank god," Grandma said, toppling back into her chair as though all strength had been sucked out of her leaving her a pile of human-shaped goop.
"What do I do, grandma," I asked, my voice shaking.
"The fae only have as much power as you give them. The fae like to play with their food and hope that is all you are to the fae child being food is the least of your worries." She snapped.
"How is me benign eaten the least of my worries!"
"Have you learned nothing! The fae-eating you is at least a quick death being their plaything is even worse. It's how your great aunt went."
"You had a sister." I tried to keep the surprise out of my voice, failing miserably.
"Two one was merely a plaything for her fae of choice forced to dance until her feet blistered and not a lick of affection was granted for her efforts."
"What happened to her? "I asked
"The same thing that happens to every woman who falls for the fae she got left behind withering away each day slowly turning mad at the thought that the fay that she loved was never returning. By dam, she even stopped eating to the point that she starved." She spat.
"What about your other sister?"
"My other sister who told you about her!" Grandma said, her rage dissipating for just a moment.
"You did just now. You said you had two sisters."
"I might as well tell you the story. It's not like you will understand otherwise," Grandma grumbled.
"My sisters were twins in some ways that made them seem otherworldly. They always seemed to know what the other was up two, and not even my own mother could tell them apart. They talked and walked the same and even mimicked one another. This was no problem until they caught the eye of a fae."
"How do you know any of this?" I asked
"Who is telling the story?" grandma snapped, silencing me.
"I thought so. My sisters had gone to the fae rings for what Reason? I haven't a clue. I wasn't even there when it happened. All I know about that night is that they came back late in the evening after your great grandparents and I had thrown this town upside down looking for them. Annabelle and Martha would disappear late at night and come back before our parents ever woke up. Blisters lined their feet for weeks, and both of them seemed to always have a smile on their face, that was until Martha disappeared. At first glance, we thought that Annabelle was depressed. Her sister was missing, and she hadn't left the house. at least not that our parents knew of. As time went on, she got weaker and weaker, never stopping her nightly excursions. One night I followed her deep into the wood. I couldn't believe my eyes both my sisters were dancing with one another, watched by a handful of the fae. It wasn't until I watched one of the fae men kiss Martha on the cheek that I realized what was happening. Annabelle lunged at Martha with a knife, trying to stab her with a crazed look in her eye. The fae man merely laughed, seemingly with not a care for who made it out alive and who died. "
My breath hitched
"What happened?"
"Annabelle lost, and Martha stayed. Annabelle kept going to the rings, but she never got what she wanted from them, instead withering into nothing. She wouldn't eat barely slept; it made her an easy target for illness. She passed after months of coughing up blood. Our parents did their best, but this town at the time barely had a doctor.
"Grandma, what should we do?" my voice trembled at the fate I was looking at. It didn't matter what I chose; I still had Theos eyes on me.