Tales From Twistwood

The Love Fairy

Ingredients:

1 tsp. Blood

1 live frog

2 dove feathers

½ cup sugar

Live red rose

Red candle

Red matchsticks

I read over the list of ingredients one last time and checked to make sure everything was correct. I double-checked my incantation, too. Everything was in order. I even had the frog - who wouldn't be alive for much longer, I didn't think. He'd been in that jar for three days, after all.

"Finally," I sighed dreamily. "I don't care what it takes. By the time I'm done with this, he'll love me!"

I mixed together the needed ingredients in a bowl. When I picked up the frog, it croaked and tried to jump out of my hand, but I shoved it into the bowl before it could escape. Then, it just huddled up into the mount of sugar. Stupid thing. I never liked frogs all that much.

Finally, I recited the incantation.

"Eaque est stercore," I began. "Bovis et stultus ego comparor."

Nothing happened.

Well, it wasn't like anything could happen immediately, I reasoned. After all, it was a love spell. I'd have to actually see Anderson for it to work, I guess.

But then something did happen. All the darkness from the room was sucked into a spot right in front of me. Then it formed into some kind of figure. It looked human, kind of. Whatever it was, it must have been a product of the spell. That was kind of expected. But Andrea hadn't mentioned anything like this, had she? I couldn't remember.

"Hello," said the figure. The voice sounded female, so I guessed it was a girl. Did apparitions have genders?

"Um, hi," I said back. "Who are you?"

'I'm... the magical Love Fairy. I'm here to grant your wish."

I was taken aback by that. Andrea hadn't told me the spell was a summoning spell! I guess whatever I did summoned the Love Fairy, and then she would make Anderson love me.

"So," she said. "What is your wish?"

"My wish? Um..." I had to be careful how I worded this. Andrea had said sometime that if anyone says they'll grant a wish, sometimes whoever it is will turn it around so you don't get what you want. I decided I was going to be very specific.

"I want Anderson Davison to love me. I want him to treat me like I'm the only girl here, and like Poppy - that's his girlfriend - isn't here either."

The fairy leaned closer to me. Shadowy hair fell from her shoulders as she leaned down to where I was sitting. "Alright," she said. "If that is your wish."

"It is," I confirmed.

Then, she was gone. The shadows returned to where the shadows had been, and I was left alone.

The next day, I walked to school with Andrea, fiddling with the strap of my backpack.

"What do you think will happen?" I squealed. "Oh, I can't wait!"

"I'm sure everything will work out like you planned," she replied in monotone. My friend had always been a little odd. She was kind of goth, and by kind of, I mean very. Her naturally blonde hair was dyed black, and she refused to wear anything other than black or grey. It didn't matter to me, though. After I got popular from dating Anderson, I would just ditch her.

The only reason I was still friends with her was because she was into the occult. I swear she's a Satanist or something. She's got all these creepy spellbooks and stuff. But when she told me she had a love spell, I got excited. I would finally live out my dream - to be Anderson's girlfriend, and the most popular girl in school! And his annoying girlfriend Poppy would be out of the picture.

For some reason, a bunch of people were blocking the entrance to the school. I shoved my way through them. What was going on? Did someone get hurt?

The first thing I saw was the blood. It was everywhere, even the walls. I stepped backwards from the front of the crowd to avoid getting it on my shoes.

Then, there was the principal. She was laying right in the middle of it. Her face was contorted into an ugly scream of terror, like she had been scared to death. But obviously that wasn't how she died. There was a gaping hole in her chest, right where her heart should be.

I felt dizzy. I hoped I wouldn't faint, not in front of everyone. Definitely not in front of Anderson.

I didn't, thank God. Right when I turned away from the grisly scene, I ran straight into Anderson. He was as handsome as ever, obviously. I thanked my lucky stars that I hadn't passed out right there.

Right then, I didn't even think to compare the principal's death with the love spell and the Love Fairy. That couldn't have been what she thought I meant when I said he would treat me like I was the only girl there... right?

Wrong.

It continued like that, day after day. Every day I would wake up, and another girl would die. I was okay with it at first, at least once I realized what was going on. At first, the Love Fairy only ripped out the hearts of girls I didn't like. Delilah, Jasmine, Billie - they were all dead within days. All the girls I hated. Well, except for Poppy. She remained alive throughout the whole ordeal, which I found strange.

But then the murders became more random. After the Fairy ran out of girls I hated, she started to pick off random women from the town. No one under three was killed, but girls as young as ten were found dead in their houses. The police were completely stumped. They had no idea who was doing it. I considered turning myself in, but no one would ever believe me. A magic spell? A Love Fairy? Please.

Day after day, the murders started to get closer and closer to me. My cousin. My favorite teacher. Andrea. I was glad I lived with my dad, because my mom lived all the way across the country. There wouldn't be any reason for her to die.

But I didn't know how to stop the murderer.

One day, I decided I knew how to make it stop. I just couldn't live knowing innocent women and children were being brutally killed, all because of me. So I wouldn't.

I checked over what I had one last time to make sure it was correct. What I needed was minimal, but it should do the trick.

First, I swallowed a handful of sleeping pills.

Then I climbed up onto the chair. It was my dad's office chair, the only one light enough to carry up the stairs to my room.

Next, I looped the rope around my neck and hoped that this would make all the dying stop. Even if it didn't, this is what I deserved. All of this pain, and because of me. And Anderson hadn't even looked my way. Even if I did end up being the last girl in the town, he'd never date me. I was just an unpopular loser.

Finally, I said my prayers, and kicked my dad's office chair out from under me.

I never did see the Love Fairy in the afterlife. I kinda suspected she wasn't really a fairy from the beginning, but I was stupid and hopeful.

Oh well. Everything's gone and done now. May I rest in peace.