Zoe's only wish is to be able to run barefoot through grass, but she knows it'll never happen. Ever since she was born, she's been unable to touch anything living without it instantly dying. It's a curse she would do anything to get rid of, but that...
The footsteps of the two people came closer, but I couldn't be bothered. The pain I felt took over again. All I wanted was for Felix to come back and hopefully be able to elevate the pain. But I also didn't want him to come back because then other parts of reality had to be faced.
"What has happened to her?" a voice asked that was vaguely familiar.
"Can't you feel it? Her pain?"
"How can she bear it?"
"Just leave me alone if it bothers you," I muttered. I had no idea why the voices sounded familiar. They were female, but I couldn't picture any faces to them and I was too tired to look around. I also couldn't stand their way of talking about me as if I wasn't there. Not right then.
"It bothers us, because it bothers you," the second one answered. "We want to help you escape from it."
"It'll get better in a while. It's not like I'm actually hurt," I pointed out because I knew very well that the physical pain I felt was only a memory in my body that would fade.
"I don't think she knows about the pain she's actually in," the first one said.
"No. She seems to be ignorant to it," the second agreed.
At that, I had had enough of everything. Too much had happened during the past day. It had been emotionally exhausting and physically draining. And who were they to know anything about what type of pain I was in? They were nothing but annoying.
I sat up quickly and was about to tell them off when I saw them and all my anger froze.
They had both knelt down on either side of me. They both had slender bodies like dancers and wore green flowy dresses with nothing else. Not even shoes. The one on my right had darker skin and fluffy black hair, which was in contrast to her grey eyes. The one on my left's skin was pale, and she had long brown hair and eyes. Both of them smiled at me and something about them made me sure I knew them from before.
"Hi!" the one on my left said.
"I'm Ash," came from my right. "And she is Pine."
"She really looks like her!" Pine exclaimed, her eyes shining while on me.
"She does," Ash agreed.
"Like who?" I found myself asking, curiosity taking over.
"Oak!" Pine said.
"Your mother," Ash explained.
My head spun and my mouth went dry. Their words left an echoing silence around me as I tried to grasp what they had said. It was surreal, unreal. Impossible and the last thing I had expected. As if I wasn't dealing with enough, but now two strangers mentioned my mother? There was just far too much for me to handle. But... They had a bright, happy, innocent aura that made me trust their words and the importance of hearing them out. "You knew my mother?"
"We're her sisters!"
I frowned at Pine's words and quickly turned to Ash. She smiled and shook her head slightly.
"Don't bombard her with information or at least try to be somewhat gentle about it," Ash reprimanded Pine, who pouted.
"But I want to dance with her! And make a crown of flowers! And run through a stream!"
There was something with them that made me hang on to their every word and twist my head to whoever talked. A lightness and easiness. A familiarity that made me want to hear more and understand more. And at Pine's words, a part of what was happening caught up with me. I had read enough to be able to tell what they were, because they were definitely not human.
"You're nymphs," I said, and both of them smiled brightly at me.
"See! She understands!" Pine exclaimed.
"But..." I continued but broke off immediately because the thought I had was absurd. "I can't be who you think I am," I said instead.
"Why not?" Ash asked.
"Because if my mother was your sister, that would mean she was a nymph as well and that would mean that I'm part nymph, but I'm not." I felt the certainty of that to my core. Nymphs' magic was all about restoring life, but I did nothing but destroy it.
Pine giggled while Ash gave me a sweet smile.
"But you are part nymph," Ash said calmly.
It felt as if a lid was put over my ears and blocked every sound out. I just stared at Ash, who smiled back at me. My mouth hung open, and I felt it going dry.
"I... That's not true," I finally said while shaking my head.
"But it is! But it is!" Pine insisted and took hold of my arm as she got up and tried to pull me with her.
"Pine! You need to relax a little. Let it sink in for her. Remember her pain," Ash reproached.
Pine both pouted and stomped the ground like a child, but sat back down again.
"What... What pain do you mean?" I asked, having temporarily forgotten the first few things they had said.
"Your heart is broken," Ash said sorrowfully. "You've lost your hope and spirit."
"So let me dance with her! That'll surely lift her spirit," Pine said.
Ash only gave Pine a hard look that time before she continued. "First things first. What makes it so unbelievable that you would be half-nymph?"
"Nymphs, you are... Like your magical abilities are all about life. Right?" I said, trying to make my spinning head focus. There was too much information at once and I couldn't even bother with trying to understand what she'd meant about that my heart was broken.
Ash nodded in reply to my question, and I continued. "Like you give plants life."
"Not give, no," Ash said thoughtfully. "Rather we heal, but we cannot awaken what has died."
I laughed, though it was far from happy. "And that's why I can't be part nymph. I kill, I take life. I don't heal."
"What do you mean?" Pine asked with wide eyes.
"A faerie cursed me before I was even born. Everything that touches my skin dies. Even my mother..."
I looked down towards the grass I had leaned my head on, which was now dead. Nymphs were life, innocence, happiness, joy. The opposite of me. There was no way I could be one, not even the tiniest part of me was one. Whoever they thought I was, they were wrong.
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