Santea

Before

"You remind me of my daughter," the old woman exclaimed as she clutched onto her empty family scrapbook.

"You don't have a daughter, Mrs. Carpenter, or I think I would know."

"Perhaps you would know of her Jenny," said Mrs. Carpenter, "if the fair-folk hadn't taken her from me many years ago."

Jenny looked confused. Her nose scrunched up and her eyes moved from side to side as if she was waiting for someone else to say something. "But," Jenny said, "the fair-folk don't exist either. They're only real in stories."

Mrs. Carpenter laughed. "Oh, but my dear girl, they do! The fair-folk are everywhere, even here, you just have to allow yourself to see them."

Jenny was a young girl, perhaps twenty years old and nothing more, but Mrs. Carpenter knew that this girl had more knowledge than she could possibly imagine.

"Well," Mrs. Carpenter said, patting Jenny's hand, "I ought to be getting to bed now. It's getting late."

Jenny sighed with relief. It wasn't that she didn't like Mrs. Carpenter's company, but at times it felt as though she was being interrogated and forced to remember things that she couldn't possibly know. She had started volunteering at the Oak Ridge Senior living Community last summer, and that's when she met Mrs. Carpenter. It was as if something had come over her, something powerful, but she knew that in the first moment of seeing Mrs. Carpenter, that they were somehow connected.

It was nine pm and time for Jenny to help Mrs. Carpenter get into bed before she ended her shift for the night, but she couldn't help but stare at the fire in the fireplace. Something strange was happening. She could feel her eyelids becoming heavy and her legs losing balance. Since childhood Jenny had always loved fire. She admired its spirit and it's desire to destroy, but also it's willingness to be contained.

Jenny jumped as a hand placed itself on her shoulder. "Dear," Mrs. Carpenter said, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I must be going off to bed now, my eyes are battling my mind to stay open." Mrs. Carpenter laughed, but there was something in the sound of her laugh that gave Jenny the impression that she was proud of something. Jenny looked at the clock again and noticed that a whole hour had passed since the last time she looked at it. Was there something wrong with the clock?

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Mrs. Carpenter," said Jenny, flustered, "I don't know what came over me." Jenny rubbed her blurry eyes and when she opened them again she gasped. What seemed like a firefly flew by her face, but when its wing grazed her skin, she winced in pain. "Ow! What was that?" She touched her face where the malignant creature had come into contact with her skin and realized that she was bleeding.

She looked over at Mrs. Carpenter's face and realized that something wasn't normal. "Hurry!" Mrs. Carpenter yelled. "We must get to my room, now!"

Mrs. Carpenter tried to get off of the couch, but her static limbs wouldn't grant her the satisfaction. Jenny began to look into the captivating fire once again, this time noticing that another firefly had exited from the flames. "Jenny!" Mrs. Carpenter said, raising her voice, "we have to go!"

10 minutes went by as quickly as one minute should have lasted, but Jenny hadn't noticed. Frustrated, Mrs. Carpenter leaned over the couch to reach a glass of water that Jenny had gotten her over two hours ago. She fell off of the couch and knocked over the nightstand, sending the glass of water to the ground and shattering her hopes of getting through to Jenny.

Jenny's stiff body stood in front of the fireplace, the flames glowing in her eyes. She was under its spell, and if Mrs. Carpenter couldn't put it out, Jenny would be forced to go through the flames.