Prologue
The moonlight glimmered prettily on the surface of the black lake, it's depth both forbidding and entrancing.
Two young girls sat by the edge of the lagoon, waiting for the little flying lights the younger one had said she'd seen from her bedroom window only two nights before. The girls lived in a shabby bungalow overlooking the lake, they had climbed out of the window of the little ones bedroom and walked to the pool clad only in their night gowns and slippers.
"I can't see anything." The elder girl, who looked to be about six years old complained, she hadn't liked the prospect of coming out here in the dark, it had been all her sisters idea but she couldn't have let her come out alone because she could get stolen by snatchers or eaten by monsters.
"Just wait, the moon was right over da wata when the the lights came before." The little girl replied who couldn't have been more than three, she was a pretty child with beautiful long golden hair.
"I think you made it up, I think.." The bigger one said but stopped suddenly when a sweet humming sounded, almost from inside their heads. The lake suddenly erupted in an explosion of tiny luminous creatures, they looked like fireflies except they silently buzzed around in multitudes of colours.
"They're beautiful. What are they?" The older girl asked spellbound by the lights.
"Faeries." The little girl sighed happily staring at one of the creatures which had stopped right in front of her face. She grabbed it in her fist and immediately the other creatures stopped and then darted straight for the two girls.
The children were engulfed in a storm of pinkie sized beasts which twirled around them in a dizzying whirlwind of colour, snapping and biting and screaming at the two girls.
"Let it go Susie! Let it go!" The elder one shrieked at her sobbing sister as one of the faeries bit painfully at her ear. "Let it go!"
The little girl opened her fist to reveal the crumpled form of a green faery that had lost almost all its colour and looked pitifully small in the two year olds hands.
"Susie, you killed it! You aren't suppose to hurt em!" the elder girl snapped.
The faeries swarmed around the little girl pulling her hair and biting her pink skin viscously. The little girl screamed in pain and terror that was barely audible over the sound of whirring insect wings.
"Susie!" the girl screamed and both the faeries and child began to move upwards.
Susie continued to scream in wordless terror as she was carried towards the lake by the swarm of fae.
"Issy! Help me. Help me please!" The little girl screeched just before the faeries let go and she was plunged into the bottomless water and was never seen again.
"Susie!" The other girl sobbed and fell to her knees at the edge of the pond. "Susie."
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Da wata! Sorry to ruin the mood, but it had to be done.
