Before a Once Upon A Time

The Evil Fairy - A Soft Farewell

Story 1 - The Evil Fairy

Part 3 - A Soft Farewell

The girl woke the next morning with a feeling of groggy sleepiness that suggested that she had already woken up once. Bit by bit, the thoughts and memories of the events that had transpired during the night filtered into her mind. She flung herself out of bed and rushed to get dressed so she could head to school house. She paid no mind to the fact that it was a weekend - she knew Markus would be there anyway. She paused a moment at the door, considering whether or not to take her sword in light of the fact that she was attacked just hours before in her own bed. When she realized she was wasting time that she could be telling Markus what had happened on something so silly, she tied the sword swiftly to her belt. She wasn't about to go out undefended, no matter how quickly she wanted to get to Markus. She knew that he would want her to be safe, no matter what.

She ran the entire way to the school house, the whole 2 miles away. Through the small forest where she had seen that blue moss when she was little, along the path she had walked so many times dreaming of Markus, across the bridge she had leaned over the railing of to watch the fish below she speed by. An awful feeling swelled in her chest, growing and growing for no reason. Why did she feel so apprehensive? She didn't believe what that crazy old bat said last night. Not one bit.

She should slow down just to prove to herself that it was okay to do so. That she had time. That Markus had time. Because she really didn’t believe it. Not a single smidgeon. Not in the least bit.

So why was she running so frantically to make sure he was alright?

Into town, past the post office and the inn, the restaurant and the general store. There. At the end of the lane. The school house! "Markus! MARKUS!" She screamed, her voice raw and achy as if she had swallowed glass. She couldn't see him yet and that only fueled her anxieties. What about that shadow? Had he collapsed? Was he not there? Where was Markus?

Markus walked out of the school room at a meandering pace, shading his face with his hand. That was something she hadn't even thought about. It was already late in the day. Well, not LATE just not early in the least. The sun was fully up and shining, bright and open, and he had probably already been at the schoolhouse for hours. She didn’t normally sleep so late but she didn’t let it trouble her, ignoring the thought for later, trapped in this one moment. This one moment she would remember and run over in her head a million time.

 She felt such relief when she saw him. He was okay. He was okay. Wait, when had she ever begun to doubt he was okay? She didn't know.  But she did know that was extremely happy that he was okay, one way or another. He was okay. He was okay. The thought echoed in her subconscious even as she ran into his chest, panting. He was okay, he was okay. She arms wrapped around his desperately, clutching at him as though she could prevent the stain of truth from touching him if she held onto him hard enough. He wrapped his arms around her gently, trying to calm her from her strange panic. (At least it’s strange to him. It’s not strange to me, and it won’t be to you in just a moment. But for now, it’s strange, okay?)

"What is it, Mal?"

She shook her head. She felt like she was about to cry and she tried valiantly to hold back her tears. Why was she crying? He was okay. He was okay.

"I had the most horrid dream." She choked out." Except it wasn't a dream. Or at least, if it was, it was a terrible, terrible one. And it was so real, it scared me. There was a woman, who said you would die, and die soon and she sounded so crazy and somehow so right and like she believed her words so much and oh! She sounded so very crazy, Markus! It was so frightening! And-and, she called herself, called herself a- a fairy"