Search for the Fae

Chapter 3

Resistance drove in silence. She made her way to the Stairs of the Unknown as calmly but quickly as possible, but the problem was she wasn't calm. While her face appeared emotionless and professional, she shook like mad as she tried to make sense of the freakiest thing that had ever happened to her. "Who the hell– no, what the hell was that thing?" Nothing about what happened to her just 20 minutes ago made any sense. That person – that's what she would call it for now – seemed to know what was going on, and knew her as well. But how? She definitely would remember meeting something like that. She didn't really catch a glimpse of what this figure looked like due to the fog's thickness. She could only make out its silhouette. She could've sworn that the figure had wings like a moth and red eyes that stared into her soul.

The young woman brushed some hair out of her face while trying to pay attention to the road. She felt like she was hallucinating. She felt the presence of her mother and that of the others who went into dreamlike bliss after they lost their children or saw the flying creature. Just another attraction to add to their town's freaky reputation. Many people in town claimed to have seen the creature, even tourists. Everyone had theories about its origins, ranging from it being an alien, a government science experiment, to something like New Jersey Devil. Hell, a couple even said the creature was the protector of Yggdrasil. Of course there were idiots who've tried to catch the creature on camera. Just like those who tried to find Bigfoot or Nessie, they never came back with anything concrete.

"I didn't drink enough coffee..." she said, blaming the little "encounter" on lack of sleep and paranoia. She pulled up to the forest parking area as she rubbed her eyes. After taking a couple breaths, trying to calm herself down, she opened her door and began to jog down the rocky dirt trail towards the forest. She looked all over for the hysterical man searching desperately for his missing daughter. "Sir, I'm Detective Nole!" she said, hollering out for the man. She didn't know what this man looked like, but she figured she would at least recognize the tone of voice of a man desperately looking for his child. "I'm with Missing Persons and I want to help you find your daughter! Please! You've got to allow me to help you so we can find Cynthia," she shouted down the trail. At first she couldn't make out much other than dense trees and fog. When she caught sight of recently disturbed dirt along the trail, she knew it must have been caused by the man. She assumed he was in a great hurry, considering that the footprints were messy

Resistance started to run. Her breath billowed in front of her each time she panted. It took a couple minutes for her to finally reach her destination. She arrived at an open grassy area crisscrossed by a winding stone path that led to a stone fence blocking a tunnel. The tunnel had stairs inside, and she was amazed how it was able to stand up all these years with how old it looked. It looked like it would crumble away any day now. Resistance walked through the clearing fog until she saw a man kneeling on the grass looking down and breathing hard. He wore white tennis shoes, blue jeans, and what she thought to be an orange Polo shirt.

Right away the detective pulled out her radio, clicking the button. "Chief, I found the man by the stairs, and he doesn't look injured," she said as she cautiously approached the man. She kept her distance in case the man freaked out. She couldn't make out the man's face, but instead she saw that he had dark brown hair. "But there's no sign of the child, sir..." Resistance said grimly into her radio.

She sighed deeply. She hoped they could at least prevent one from going missing, especially since it had happened only recently. "Sir, I promise we are going to do everything we can to find Cynthia—"

She cut herself off when she saw what the man was holding: a little purple jacket featuring a My Little Pony character on the front. Resistance's eyes widened. So the child had been brought here after all.

"I was too late..." the man finally said, his voice hoarse. He looked up at her with broken and misty eyes. "They took her... Like they took her mother."