by Willow Mason
“Oakleaf Glade isn’t dangerous.” I tried to keep my voice steady, but a wobble crept in as I thought of Brody and Patsy. The town felt threatening to them right this minute.
“What do you know?” My mother’s voice was tinged with alarm as she reached out a hand to her brother. “Pete? What’s wrong with this place?”
“Everything’s wrong. The whole town creeps with evil.”
Ben clapped his hands together as our meal arrived. “What a lovely spread. I’m sure any place in the country has its share of good and bad. Just look at the crime stats. According to those, every city is a den of thieves.”
He picked up a fork and speared a wedge, dragging it through the aioli before popping it into his mouth, whole. “Delicious,” he mumbled.
But my mother couldn’t be sidetracked so easily. “Elisa. Is there something going on here that you’re hiding from me?”
“I’m not hiding anything.” I shook my napkin out and placed it over my lap. “Uncle Pete had a scare when he was a kid and it’s twisted his view, that’s all.”
“Pete?”
“Don’t you remember anything about this town?”
Mum shook her head, appearing nonplussed. “Sure. It’s got a nice stream we used to play in, during the summer.” She sat back, nibbling a chip as her eyes flicked up to the ceiling, watching memories unfold. “There was an ice cream seller near the centre of town who’d give me an extra scoop as long as no other customers were waiting in line.”
“There was a man trapped in the walls of the closet upstairs because our auntie was a demon.”
My hands tightened into fists and I closed my eyes, expecting something terrible to follow. Instead, my mother gave a low laugh. “Oh, you and your nightmares. Honestly. Do you remember you had that doggy nightlight until you left home?”
The teasing edge in her voice seemed to drive my uncle insane, and he thumped his palms on the table, making our meals jump. “This isn’t a joke. This town is packed full of terrible things and the longer we stay here the more damage they do.”
“Right.” Ben reached over and plucked up my uncle’s glass of beer. “You’re officially cut off for the night.”
“It’s not the alcohol talking.”
“A statement which we’d appreciate better if you weren’t so full of alcohol you’re slurring while you say it.”
“Can’t we all just have one nice meal out together?” Mum pleaded. “We used to have a nice time as a family. I don’t understand what’s happened?”
“Oakleaf Glade happened. Your daughter becoming a pixie happened.”
“A what?” My mother turned a perplexed gaze my way. “Is that a job? You know I support you, but is dressing up as a character really how you want to make a living?”
“Don’t judge, Kayla.” Ben turned up the wattage on his smile. “Is this a mascot or an acting role?”
Uncle Pete gave a disbelieving snort and pushed away from the table, upsetting my mother’s lemonade glass, thankfully empty.
“Sit down.” Mum’s voice was filled with steel. “You don’t get to cause trouble then flounce away from the repercussions.”
“And what would you know about that? You can’t even see what’s right in front of your face.”
I glanced around in dismay at the other diners, some surreptitiously watching from beneath lowered eyes, others openly staring. “Can you stop causing a scene? These are my friends and neighbours.”
“That’s the whole reason I’m acting this way. They shouldn’t be. We cut off this portion of our family for good reason. Do you think my mother enjoyed turning her back on her sister? She did it to spare us the ill effects of this wretched place.”
“No, she didn’t.”
Uncle Pete turned to my mum in surprise, then shook his head. “You don’t understand. You were too young.”
“Lord knows I loved my mother but if you think she cut Auntie Esmerelda off because of some imaginary evildoing, you’re one hundred percent wrong. It was out of spite. Mum never could stand anyone else doing better than her. Remember when she pulled up all of Miss Martin’s gardenias because she won first place in the St Argyle’s Church show?”
“It was because—”
“Stop it.” My mother also stood, matching off against her brother. “Looking at our family through rose-coloured glasses won’t help anyone and I can’t believe you actively tried to stop my daughter getting her rightful inheritance over some imaginary night terror you had forty years ago. This ridiculousness stops right now.”
She glanced at Ben for support and he leapt up to stand by her side.
“We’re expecting a child and while we’d very much like you to be part of his life, I won’t hesitate to cut you off. Seems I inherited at least that much from our mother.”
My mouth fell open in astonishment. Seeing the same woman who’d let someone in front of her in the checkout queue just because they had fewer items stand up for herself was amazing. My throat tightened with pride as my hair finally completed its descent and flowed down my back.
But… Wait a minute. Hadn’t Mum just said his life?
“I’m going to have a baby brother?”
Mum tore her eyes away from my uncle and smiled at me, clutching for Ben’s hand. “We weren’t going to tell anyone until after he was born, but I guess I let that cat out of the bag.” She turned a wary eye back towards Uncle Pete. “Although, having a brother isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.”
I danced around the table to hug her just as Syd burst into the Tavern Café, a worried expression on his face.
“What is it?” I asked as he headed straight for me.
“We’ve got a ping on Brody’s cell phone,” he whispered. “Judging from the location, we’ll need help to get him and Patsy out, if they’re still there.”
I ran a hand through my hair, feeling useless. “Without my powers, I’m not much help at all.”
“If you can lend us your great aunt’s stash of dust, we have someone on the way who can help.”
“A witch?”
“No. A witch can use your dust but their result won’t be as strong. It’s another pixie. A male. He’s on his way and should be here within the hour.” Syd’s frown grew deeper. “We’ll have to hope they survive that long.”
I stared at Uncle Pete until he raised his eyebrows and shrugged. “What?”
“We’ve got a male pixie right here,” I told Syd. “It’s just a matter of convincing him to do the right thing.”
Chapter Twelve
“They used to mine coal just south of Oakleaf Glade,” Syd explained as Uncle Pete and I climbed into the back seat of the patrol car. “Nothing like they have over on the West Coast but enough to make it worthwhile. When the country introduced stricter safety regulations in the thirties, the mines shut down. Appears the cost of a dead worker was cheaper than keeping them alive.”
I rubbed my stomach as it clenched with claustrophobic fear. “You think they’re down an old mine shaft?”
“Somewhere around there, according to the information from the mobile company.”
He paused and one glance at the worried set of his mouth told me Syd was keeping secrets. “What else did they tell you?”
“The last time Brody’s phone pinged was ten-thirty, this morning.”
I bent my head as I calculated how many hours had passed since then. If Brody had been taken by a rogue supernatural, his chances of being alive and unharmed dropped to almost nil with that long a passage of time.
We pulled up outside my house and I ran to collect the pixie dust. Unsure how much we’d need, I settled for bringing the entire container.
“How’m I going to be of any help if I don’t even know how to use the stuff?” Uncle Pete grumbled. His attitude might be just as surly, but I was pleased to hear his words sounding more precise. The danger of the situation had sobered him up.
“Take a pinch,” I told him, opening the box. “Now picture in your mind some
thing you’d like to happen.”
“I’d like to open my eyes and find myself plonked in front of the telly at home.”
“Try for something that doesn’t teleport you out of this situation. How about a snack?”
“A cup of coffee might help me around now.”
“Good. When you have it fixed in your mind, gently blow the dust off your palm.” As a mocha cloud swirled in the backseat, I made a mental note to remember this the next time I didn’t want to go out early for muffins. A mental note I immediately had to correct since magic no longer applied.
“Oh. My powers.” I sat up straight as a large reusable coffee cup appeared in my uncle’s hand. “The twins thought they might be because I was soon getting a new sister but according to Mum, she’s having a boy.”
While Uncle Pete stared at me in confusion, I flapped my hand at him. “Not you. I’m talking to Syd.”
“What else have you been in contact with today?” the officer asked, the words stilted as he concentrated on the road in front of him, hard to see in the increasing dark. “Or have they been diminishing for longer?”
Both good questions. The only thing that occurred to me was the invisible creature stalking the library. I had noticed my powers flagging after that, but it didn’t mean it was connected.
“Do you know of any other cases?”
Syd frowned and glanced in the rear-view mirror. “Not off-hand but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. Since supernaturals don’t tend to keep written records we have to rely on memory and anecdotes for this stuff.”
I was about to ask why, then thought of Blake Stone, the so-called monster hunter who’d been unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a real monster. His kind knew just enough to create a potion strong enough to view supernaturals. If they had a written record of our lives, we might end up with a lot more hunters recruited to their ranks.
“Oh, that was good,” Uncle Pete said as he drained the cup. “I feel more awake.”
“You’ll need it,” Syd said grimly. “If Patsy and Brody are both being held down the old mines, it’s not just a rogue supernatural creature we need to worry about. The shafts are old and there’s only timber and tradition holding the ceilings up. One wrong move and we could be buried in a collapse.”
My toes turned ice cold. “At least it’s not raining.”
As if to spite me, drizzle pattered against the windscreen.
“How much pixie dust is this?” my uncle asked, clicking his fingers when it took my attention a moment to refocus.
“A lot.” I peered into the wooden box, trying to estimate while simultaneously feeling foolish. My great aunt had gone to a lot of trouble to collect the dust together and I’d added nothing to the stores. I’d blown my chances to leave a legacy behind.
“Thanks. When we’re going forward into possible death, it’s good to know we have ‘a lot’ on our side.”
The sarcasm might bite but at least this was an uncle I was familiar with. “Usually, a small head scratch is enough to propel a magic spell. This looks to be around a thousand or more of those. It’s powerful stuff.”
“Good to know we won’t run out halfway through.”
“No chance.” Syd slowed the car as the road turned to bumpy gravel on hardened dirt. “I’ve also got a few spells up my sleeve if it comes to that. My wand mightn’t be a match for pixie dust, but it’s a lot better than nothing.”
“Fairies,” Uncle Pete said with a snort. “We used to make fun of you guys all the time in school.”
“Yeah? That’s how us male fairies build up our magic muscles. Grinding male pixies into the concrete playground.”
They inexplicably grinned at each other in the mirror, an act that left me shaking my head. Men.
“Get ready.” Syd pulled the car to a stop. “We’re here.”
Here didn’t look like somewhere good to be. The darkening night sky probably wasn’t helping but even without that added gloom, the tightly knit forest canopy did a good job of keeping out light. Even where the moon was rising over the hills, only a few fragments made it through the dense foliage.
My uncle spoke in a soft voice, “This is the Oakleaf Glade I remember.”
If this had been the first scene the town presented me with, chances were I’d have a bad taste in my mouth, too. Pushing doubts aside, I slid off the back seat and forced my feet to get moving.
“The old mine is along a track somewhere around here,” Syd said, scouring the ground. “Not an official path, mind. Just worn grass where people who’ve been repeatedly told to stay away go back and forth.”
I was about to question the attraction, then remembered a teenage Elisa who would’ve been more than happy to endanger herself if it meant going against an adult’s instruction.
“Is this it?”
Syd and I quickly crossed over to Uncle Pete, seeing a vague trail through the undergrowth.
“Must be. Here are some torches. Don’t turn them on unless you need to. Once they’re switched on, everyone will lose their ability to see in the dark.”
I clipped mine onto a belt loop in my jeans, then followed Syd’s lead as he walked along the faint path. As we progressed, the sounds of night creatures stirring in the woods increased in volume. A morepork flew overhead, its wings tracing a shadow in the moonlight.
“Slow up,” Syd whispered. “I think this is it.”
My eyes strained to make out shapes in the dark. I was almost up to the gaping mouth of the mine before I saw it. “Bags you go first.”
“Hold on to the back of my belt,” Syd instructed. “And Pete, grab hold of Elisa. We’ll go single file and when I stop, you stop too. Keep your ears peeled for the sound of anyone alive in there.”
Soon my ears were straining more than my eyes as the tunnel engulfed us. A steady drip of water came out of the depths, but it was hard to hear anything else over the sound of our movement.
“And stop,” Syd whispered.
As I listened for any telltale sounds, the darkness overwhelmed me. It felt like a physical substance just biding its time until it pushed into my nostrils, my ears, my mouth.
“Did you hear that?” Uncle Pete asked, jerking back.
When the echo of his voice fell away, I thought I could hear something moving far away. Over the increasingly fast-paced thump of blood through my eardrums, I couldn’t be sure.
“Maybe,” I whispered. “It’s coming from ahead of us.”
A pity, since that was the direction I didn’t want to go.
Step by shuffling step we walked farther into the mine. At a fork in the tunnel, we paused again, desperately trying to catch a sound to direct us where to go.
Syd led off again, his step more confident than mine. I think we took the left-hand side but since I couldn’t see my hands in the dark, I couldn’t be sure.
Uncle Pete stumbled, pulling hard on my jeans and cursing. “Any chance we can use these torches now? I can’t see a bleeding thing.”
“Let’s just try a little while longer. If we turn them on now, they’ll do more to blind us than let us see ahead.”
“And you’d rather wait until something awful attacks to blind ourselves?”
“Shh!”
I thought Syd was just using the command to stop Uncle Pete’s whining, then I heard the sound, too. A moan from ahead. Not far away. I pushed against Syd’s back to get him going again. “Should we call out to them?”
“If that’s Brody or Patsy, they’ve probably heard us coming for ages. That means they either can’t respond anyway, or we’ve got a nasty shock in store for us, just ahead.”
I pulled the torch of its clip. Not to use as a light but as a potential bludgeon. “Do you have your dust handy?” I whispered to my uncle. If he nodded, I couldn’t see him but the tug on my jeans suggested yes.
“What am I meant to picture? How will this stuff know who to target?”
“It just knows. Try to do something evil and the dust just falls to the g
round.”
Another groan sounded and we fell silent, intent on reaching our friends. When Syd abruptly stopped again, I wasn’t prepared and ran into the back of him. “What?”
“The earth gives way here.”
My stomach dropped to my knees like an elevator with a snapped cable. I stayed frozen in place while Syd searched for a way past, expecting at any moment for the ground to disappear beneath my feet. Uncle Pete’s hand fell away from the waistbelt of my jeans and for a moment I felt like I was floating—untethered—in space.
Then I heard a snort right by my ear. “Uncle Pete. It’s here!”
Syd whipped his wand out of his uniform trousers and waved it above his head. “Invisible creature, you are now incapacitated.”
A trail of sparkles burned my retinas, leaving dancing stars floating in my eyes as it dissipated. Someone cried out in pain. I turned my torch on, aiming it towards the noise.
Brody lay on the mine floor, holding a hand up against the intrusive light. I only caught a glimpse before my watering eyes closed—blinded as much by the torch as I had been by the darkness.
“Is Patsy here, too?” I called out. When he didn’t immediately answer, I cracked my eyes open a sliver and worked my way to his side. From there, I could see her, lying just beyond him. “Syd. Help me.”
“We thought you were the creature coming back,” Patsy gasped. “It’s around here somewhere.”
“How did it get you down here?” Unable to find any bonds, I helped Brody to his feet. “Are you trapped somehow?”
“We were scared to move,” Patsy said, using the wall to get upright. “Where are we?”
“In the old mine shaft,” Syd said, flashing his torch up and down the pair to check they were okay. “If you can both walk, we should get out of here. Being invisible is even more of an asset in the light.”
“It compelled us somehow,” Brody said, pressing close to me as we retraced our steps.
Patsy nodded. “Even though we were both conscious, we couldn’t stop our feet from moving.”
