The Sight

01| THE SIGHT

"Most think that if they cannot physically see something, it isn't really there but that isn't true is it? Air is there but no one can really see it. That is what the Faery world is like.

What would you do if all of a sudden you could see air, it would be all around you and something that you could never escape. That is what having the Sight is like.

Knowing something is there but not being able to see it makes all the difference." - The Faery Ring Series
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Astrid sat chewing the first bite of non-hospital food she'd had since the accident. It had been a while, and she was a little shaky about being back in society.

Heather, her best friend, smiled at her a little too brightly from across the small café table. Astrid could see the pity poorly concealed in her eyes.

"I'm fine." She murmured around her mouthful, the same piece of sandwich she'd been chewing for the past 5 minutes now.
Her eyes flickered to the left, like she'd seen something strange and then back again to Heather. Her features blanched. "I just need time."

Heather wasn't sure what her best friend needed. There were no guides on how to support someone through a car accident, none that really helped anyway. Astrid had been a bright and beautiful person before the crash, but when she woke up in hospital something serious had changed. She often gazed into thin air warily, looking troubled and frail. It broke Heathers heart to see her like it.

"I know" Heather replied reaching forwards to clutch her friends tiny hand in her own. "Just. Just tell me if there's something I can do, won't you? Don't hide stuff from me Astra. "

Astrid smiled warmly at Heather's hand before she nodded. "You know I can't hide stuff from you."

She quickly got up to go to the toilet, so that Heather couldn't see the agitated look that engulfed her face. Astrid had to escape before her friend realised she really was hiding something, something she couldn't possibly tell anyone unless she wanted to end up back at the hospital.

She froze mid way to the toilets but forced her body to move, so as not to draw extra attention to herself.

Standing by the toilet door, were two tall, half naked girls. Their bodies were wafer thin and translucently pale. Long glistening hair sat upon their heads, and what appeared to be dark rose bush vines adorned with thorns curled around their limbs; moving like snakes across their skin.

As Astrid drew closer she could see tiny, sharp teeth indenting upon their bottom lips. The smell of salt and humid nights wafted in her direction as an older woman exited the toilets. She didn't even glance at the two girls.

Astrid hurried into the toilets like she was desperate for a wee when really she was desperate to escape their sight.
No one else paid them any attention because on one else could see them.
They were invisible to everyone, all except her, ever since she'd woken up from the car crash.

The girls outside the bathroom weren't the first Astrid had seen of their kind. It had taken a while to get used to her new 'sight' and she had seen all sorts from the window in her hospital room.

It was like waking up to an alien invasion, except no one could see it happening which made Astrid suspect that things had always been this way.

At first she had thought she'd been hallucinating and had screamed for the nurses but after various drugs and negative test results Astrid realised it wasn't her that had the problem. She quickly assured the doctors around her that she wasn't seeing anything strange anymore when they began to exchange anxious and dire looks. The last thing she needed was to be written off as a lost cause.

It was easy to think the creatures she could see were just delusions but as she spent more and more time watching out of the window she saw them brush against people, pinch and even lightly pull them around.
Everyone just brushed it off as the wind or their own clumsiness and went about their business as usual. Only Astrid had seen what was really going on.
The creatures never went away either, they stayed morning, noon and night. Their numbers thinned but they never left. She watched them late into the night, running around in the moonlight, dancing in the hospital gardens. Some were beautiful and others almost human, but not all of them were so.

Astrid splashed water onto her face to try and clear her head. Thinking about the strange sights she had endured recently didn't aid her in staying calm. She stared at her reflection in the water speckled mirror until her heart beat slowed. Slow breaths in and out helped alot to slow her pulse.

She tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. Her dark brown hair looked dull and boring in comparison to the girls outside. She bit her lip as she compared her appearance to theirs. What were they..?

Breaking away from the mirror she straightened out her dress and went to exit the bathroom but she heard a voice unlike any before and froze.

"Isn't she the one?"

Astrid placed a clammy hand on the door handle listening intently.

"Yes." Came a smooth reply from a voice that melted in Astrid's ears. "It's only a matter of time now before he comes for her."

Using all the strength she had at that moment, Astrid pushed open the door, doing all she could to prevent herself from looking at the two girls again. She heard them laugh behind her, a beautiful sound that made her think of wind chimes.

Astrid ignored them, her heart rate shooting up again at their unexpected comments.
They didn't speak, in these past 6 weeks they never spoke. There came another round of giggling but it was brief as she walked away briskly. She was still in hearing distance when the same, smooth voice spoke again.

"Walk away while you still can."

Astrid did, but it took all she had to not run.