Away With The Fairies

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The bookshop down at the bottom of Seamer's lane was tucked away behind ivy and trees. It was not somewhere that Callia Sanders wanted to spend her Friday evening. It was November, cold and wet, so Callia didn't want to be outside at all. The only person in their group of six who did want to be outside in the bitter cold was Aubree.

"BeeBee," said Emmy. "Can you explain to me again why I am spending my Friday night going to some bookshop? I was invited to Katy's massive party, I'll have you know."

Aubree, at the front of the group, turned around, laughing. Her brown hair was wild, floating far past her shoulders. Her brown eyes were full of the adventure in her soul. With her lips parted so wide, her crooked teeth made an appearance. Watching Aubree, Robbie smiled, his face reddening.

"We're going because you threw up on Halloween last year, meaning that I couldn't go out to the party because we were looking after you. Therefore, you owe me a scary experience."

"I mean, I understand that a bookshop might be scary for Phoebs, because she can't read." Emmy smiled at Phoebe, who was walking next to her. "But why is a bookshop scary?"

Aubree sighed, as if it was all so obvious. On her face, there was still the daring smirk. "Because it's haunted. Obviously. Apparently some of the books in there take you to another land."

Emmy rolled her brown eyes. "They don't need to take you to another land. You seem to already be on one—the land of stupidity, resident Aubree Smith." Emmy shook her head, running a hand through her short, dyed-red hair. "Callie. You said you didn't want to go either, do you want to bunk off somewhere?"

Callie, walking with Nick at the back, looked down. Her blonde hair stuck to her face because of the cold. She bit her fingernails as she refused to meet Emmy's eyes.

Aubree laughed. "Callie wants to come, of course she does. Don't you, Cal?"

Callie glanced up, blue eyes wide, and nodded. Satisfied, Aubree turned back around. Emmy sighed, breath dancing in the air.

Nick Boston, all glasses and a mop of black hair, tapped Callie lightly on the shoulder. "You don't have to come, you know that," said Nick. "As Emmy said, we can go hang out somewhere else."

"I'm not scared," Callie said quickly. "I just want to be at home in the warm. And I have so much work to do..."

Nick offered Callie a gentle smile, before wiping his nose with his hand. Then, he offered the hand to Callie to take. As much as Callie liked Nick, she was not going to take hold of his clammy and now snot-ridden hand. Callie looked away, pretending she hadn't seen the offer.

They came closer to the bookshop, lit up on the dark street. Paster's, it read. Callie truly wasn't scared. All that was in the bookshop was dusty books and cheap coffee. These two things didn't interest Callie. At eighteen, she thought they all would have had better things to do than check for haunted lands in a bookshop. Still, she couldn't say no to Aubree.

When they arrived, Aubree beamed. Next to her, Robbie smiled. He ran a hand through his messy blonde hair. In the light, his blue eyes glistened as they intently fixed on Aubree.

"Are you ready?" Aubree put on what she thought was a scary voice.

Phoebe, standing behind Emmy, shivered. Noticing this, Aubree rolled her eyes.

"You're not actually scared, are you, Phoebs?"

"No," Phoebe replied, shaking her head.