Time | The Westbury Faery Contest Entry

The Story of the Westbury Faery

I never intended for anyone to be hurt by my actions, barely anyone ever does. I never intended to break the union of Lauren and Philip Ripton. I never intended for a child to be left all alone. However, no one can ever know what will happen at the next tick of the clock. No one except the fae.

Time is a thing that every human being believes in, something that is always certain. Living without it, living immortal, will never be an easy task. Every tick of the clock marches our loved ones towards their deaths. Even if the ones we protect never realise that we exist, we will always care for them deeply.

I observed the actions of Lauren and Philip Ripton for many years before our encounter. I watched them grow up as childhood best friends as they loved each other from afar until Lauren finally got the courage to own up to her affections. Everyone in the small town of Skibbereen heard about the unconventional way that the pair united. Many were overjoyed that the couple were finally together, however, they faced a lot of opposition, particularly from the Moran brothers.

Lauren McNeil had been previously engaged to the oldest brother, Kyle, and he still had not admitted to himself that their union had indeed ended. It had been many years since Lauren had been infatuated with the factory owner, yet Kyle still left a flower at her doorstep every single morning.

Their relationship had been planned by their parents. It had been bitter and short lived with a damaging effect on the short-tempered Kyle Moran. His brother, Riley, tried his hardest to find a replacement for the red-haired beauty so that his brother would stop going after something that he would never have, but instead, he found a concoction.

The Moran brothers' poison was unlike any other, for it was made of fae blood. They captured the souls of the recently departed, stopping them from ever reaching the next step on their journey. The fae were never able to cleanse them of their darkest deeds; we were never able to save them and let them travel to a better place. As well as this, the existing fae began depleting rapidly as only a few returned from the brutality of Kyle and Riley Moran with their wings lost forever.

The brothers sought out individuals who were in dire need. They travelled around the world, stealing the souls of innocent people as they tried to reach the fae. They caused famines, droughts and natural disasters with their new-found powers, as they removed every speck of magical essence in everyone that they could find. It was thought that no one could stop them, however, that was untrue.

The people still protected by the fae were able to survive the fate of the poison that caused a person to die within a month, leaving them stranded in a state of intense depression, eating away at their kind hearts and turning them wicked.

I was one of the few that remained. I was still able to protect the townsfolk of the small town called Skibbereen. Myself and a few others were brave enough to stay in the town that we had always known, helping those we could out of the factory to a small basement under the house of Lauren and Philip Ripton.

However, one day I was caught on my way into the factory. I was trapped by the notorious Kyle Moran. He kept me in his personal cage for many weeks, using me as a test subject, making me unable to leave. For I was a split image of Lauren, the red-haired beauty that he still obsessed about. I reminded him of their fleeting relationship, something that he believed was true love while in truth was an abusive union.

Kyle's plan was simple, every day he covered the flowers that he left for Lauren in a concentrated serum of the Moran brothers' poison and it was slowly eating away at Lauren's soul. With me unable to protect her from the effects, she could be easily manipulated by the magic that the brothers had accumulated.

Kyle used the fae magic of foreseeing the future to portray the relationship that Lauren could have with him. The first object that she received was a mirror. It showed her a glimpse of her a future, one that was created by the imagination of her crafty ex-fiancée. It showed the life of a young boy which she would give birth to in the future. Ever since Lauren was young she had been told of the happiness that a child would bring. She became obsessed with the mirror, drawing away from her husband, Philip, and hoping for the gift of life. Lauren blamed Philip for the lack of a child in her arms. The couple had been trying for years to finally create a little girl or boy but nothing had become of it. The mirror gave her hope for something that could never happen naturally.