Myths and Magic: An Epic Fantasy and Speculative Fiction Boxed Set

by K.N. Lee

  Juan took this news with a speculative look on his face. I knew he was probably wondering how the cat had gotten to the forest. I wondered the same thing too. It seemed like too much of a coincidence.

  “We should go back,” Juan said then and I arched an eyebrow,

  “We should totally go back. I bet that bunker holds some clues and it’s just waiting for us there. We need to go back.” He said, then added quickly, “But we have to be very careful, so we don’t run into the Oakatex”.

  I nodded and he grabbed onto me, slinging his bag over his shoulder once more. This time, I closed my eyes.

  When I opened them, we were back in the forest and we continued our search. We searched for a long time, but the berries seemed to elude us on purpose and all the ones we came across, were normal everyday berries. The special tree with the special berries was nowhere to be found. And it annoyed me to no end.

  Soon enough we arrived at the location we’d been before I passed out and I led the way towards the bunker. When we arrived there, Juan bent over the door, examining it and I looked around. There was suddenly something eerily familiar about this location and I found myself walking forward. With each step I took, the memory cemented itself firmer in my memory. Then I got into a circle of trees and it hit me.

  I hurried back to where Juan was still inspecting the door.

  “Juan, I’ve got to tell you something”, I said as I reached him and he got up, staring at me curiously.

  “Tell me what?” he asked.

  “Everything”.

  I listened with rapt attention as Faye-Minita finished her story. I looked towards the direction she pointed in and I was in awe of it all. The coincidences were becoming so much I was beginning to lose count. How odd was it that the place where she had been attacked all those years ago, just turned out to be a mere 5 feet away from where she’d found the bunker?

  The floodgates seemed to have been opened and she told me everything. How she tripped and fell, bruising herself, to how the creature had jumped at her and attacked her. She even mentioned that she’d seen the creature eating a deer and it had looked very much like the deer we’d seen earlier.

  It seemed like she’d been keeping everything inside her for so long and now that she finally wanted to talk, there could be no stopping her. When she finally finished, she breathed deeply and exhaled.

  I nodded in understanding and turned towards the door handle. I tried it, but it was rusted shut and wouldn’t budge even a little.

  “Let me have a go at it,” Faye-Minita said and I stepped backwards. She closed her eyes and her brows furrowed in concentration, just like she’d done with the rock. Then she opened her eyes as her tattoo glowed and gestured towards the door. The area around the door seemed to shake and I looked in anticipation. My hope was quickly dashed as she only managed to lift all the dirt and debris that surrounded the door. She looked disappointed.

  “Hey, it’s okay, it happens, you’ll get better, and you just need some practice. How about I poof us in there, eh? What do you say?”

  She nodded, smiling gratefully and looked like she was about to say something when her eyes darted downwards and she stared at my arm. I followed her eyes and saw that the tattoo on my arm had suddenly lit up. Faye-Minita’s tattoo began to glow as well and as we stood there, wondering what was happening, we heard a latch release. It was a very distinct sound, and we both heard it clearly.

  We both looked at each other and at the door. Then I bent down and pulled the circular handle. The door opened easily and I turned to see Faye-Minita staring at it in surprise. It was clear we were both unsure of what had just happened. She was staring at her arm curiously.

  "Let's go,” I said, retrieving a flashlight from the bag. I'd brought it in case of this very scenario...or in case we had to transverse the forest at night.

  I lit the way and Faye-Minita and I descended the stairs. The flashlight was barely able to cut through the darkness and we walked down for what seemed like a very long time, feeling our way down in addition to using the flashlight.

  By the time we got to the bottom, our eyes had adjusted fully and the flashlight revealed that the place was semi-furnished with paintings and books. Faye-Minita commented that the books were similar to those she found in the attic and I nodded, inspecting the entire place. It didn't seem like anyone had been down here in a long, long time. I wondered how many people even knew of its existence. Where exactly was here?

  Suddenly, Faye-Minita gasped and I turned round sharply. My flashlight illuminated what look to be a cat bed and stretched out on top of it was Ambrosia. Our noise obviously woke her up and she scooted over to me and began to purr gently.

  "Ambrosia, how did you get here kitty?" I asked, crouching and patting her lightly.

  She just purred away, rubbing against my leg gently.

  The appearance of the car struck me as odd, and as I thought about it, there seemed to be no ready explanation. Something was definitely up with that cat. I took the flashlight from Juan and inspected the room.

  I caught sight of a leather-bound book that looked like one I'd seen only the previous day. I picked it up, palming the pages quickly. Sure enough, it was Saban Montgomery's diary, a continuation at least.

  "Juan, come over here," I said, as I began to read the new entries.

  Written inside, were entries concerning how he first began to change and express his abilities. He also wrote about trying his best to hide the abilities from his family, scared of what they might think, even as the Oakatex drew closer, attracted by his scent.

  It knows our scent? I wondered, shivering slightly. That just sounded wrong.

  It seemed, according to the entry, that the Oakatex was seeking him and his immediate family members, trying to find out who the fairy amongst them was. It seemed Saban had devised a plan to keep his family safe. To throw the Oakatex off his scent, he had begun biting other people and turning them into fairies. This way, the Oakatex would be drawn to them and hunt outside England for what it sought.

  I re-read the last part with a mixture of anger and slight amazement. Had he saved himself by luring the monster on other people? What kind of man was he? Then a thought crossed my mind. What if he was the one who bit me so many years ago? All this while I'd instantly assumed it was a monster, what if it had been a fairy trying to protect himself?

  I continued to read. The next entry stated that one could sense a fairy aura or essence, by being in fairy form. It stated that there would be a light emanating from their bodies. I note this with delight. It seemed in my fairy form, I could astral travel, so since the berries were proving hard to find. I figured we could just detect other fairies in the vicinity this way, seeing as I could not be seen in my astral form.

  Suddenly, Ambrosia hissed loudly and ran away to her bed. Juan tried to calm her down, but she kept on hissing, glaring towards the door.

  As I watched, confused, Juan suddenly blinked out of sight and I heard a loud crash as he shut the bunker door hastily. The crash was soon followed by a full thud, which shook the bunker as something heavy landed on the door. I could hear inhuman screeching as the creature clawed at the metal door, trying to get in.

  "It's the Oakatex!" I screamed, realizing instantly how much trouble we were in.

  I turned and saw Juan grab Ambrosia who was still very skittish, and then he walked over and grabbed my hand.

  "Got everything?" he asked and I shook my head, quickly stuffing some books and papers into the bag. Then I nodded and he took my hand again. I closed my eyes.

  The familiar scent of my room hit me the next second and I opened my eyes, sighing in relief. As I watched, Ambrosia flew out of Juan's arms and landed on my bed. I watched in amusement, as it seemed to be inspecting the room, making sure everything was in its place. It seemed rather odd but my thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud, frantic knock on the door. I looked at Juan and he nodded, moving out of sight. I rushed towards the door and opened it.

&
nbsp; Ophelia rushed into the room. She looked frightened and upset and she looked like she'd been crying,

  "What's the matter?" I asked and she hastily told me that she’d been looking for Drayton, so she'd gone to his room to find him, but he was gone and his belongings, were scattered all over the place as though he'd been in some kind of struggle. She said she'd seen blood.

  I looked over at Juan who was hidden from Ophelia’s line of sight and he looked equally worried by this news. Struggle? Drayton missing? I didn't want to think of the implications. Not with everything I knew now.

  I turned back to Ophelia, trying to comfort her as I could see she was close to falling apart.

  "Don't worry. We will find him, okay?" I said and she nodded, looking at me hopeful.

  "I think I’ll go ask Danielle if she has security footage from this morning because I noticed some cameras out in the hallway".

  I nodded. It sounded like a good plan. She left the room hurriedly, seemingly to go find Danielle.

  Another thought had entered my mind.

  I turned to Juan, who'd come out of his hiding place,

  "Danielle has camera footage. Do you think she had footage of us? The Oakatex? Saban? Just how much does she know? We have to find that footage as fast as possible Juan,” I said and he nodded gravely, adding,

  "We need to find Drayton as well."

  I agreed and turned towards Ambrosia. Juan quickly poofed to the upstairs kitchen for some water. I had some milk in my bag and I poured it for her in a bowl. Once she seemed taken care of, Juan and I went off in search of Ophelia.

  11

  I approached Danielle’s door. Ophelia had said she was going to see her concerning the tapes. It seemed only rational that she would be there. I knocked and listened for a response. The room was quiet, and I knocked again. A voice came sounded from within the room asking me to hold on. It was Tabitha’s voice.

  What was she doing in Danielle’s room?

  As she opened the door, I felt instantly on edge. Something was not right; I could see it plainly written all over Tabitha’s face. She seemed slightly dazed and then the door swung open wider, and I spotted Drayton lying on Danielle’s bed. He looked unconscious. I looked at Tabitha in alarm and without further ado, pushed past her and raced towards Drayton. I knelt beside the bed and shook him. He didn’t respond. I shook him again, harder this time.

  “Wake up Drayton. Are you okay?” I said urgently, shaking him once more. Slowly, he opened his eyes, but he immediately snapped, then shut again and put his hand over his eyes, pointing towards the window,

  “The light…too bright!” he stammered and I inspected him quickly. His shirt was open and I spotted a bite mark on his chest. The anger was quick, hot and blinding. I turned towards Tabitha where she stood, still looking confused,

  “Where is your sister? How did he get here?” I demanded angrily, but she did not respond. She just watched me and staggered slightly. From where I knelt, I could see that she didn’t look too good. She seemed sick and sort of confused, almost like she didn’t know exactly where she was.

  I got up and walked towards her, feeling concern take over from anger. Something was up with her and I looked her over quickly. I saw a bite mark on her shoulder and looked up at her confused face. I pointed at the mark,

  “How did you get that?” I asked, looking closely at the bite mark. It was the same as the one Drayton sported on his chest.

  Tabitha looked at the bite mark as if she didn’t quite understand what I had asked. She inspected the bite mark, seemingly unable to understand what exactly I was asking her. I shook my head and led her towards the bed. She stared at the bite mark all the way there and I placed her on the bed and made my way out of Danielle’s room.

  I walked down the hall, wondering where Juan could have gotten to, and then I spotted him coming around a corner.

  “Hey, I just found Drayton and Tabitha, they’ve been bitten,” I said and he didn’t look very surprised,

  “I found the others, they were like that as well. All of them, except Ophelia sported bite marks and were very confused as to where they were.” Juan said as he got to me.

  What was going on? I wondered,

  “Alright, here’s what we’re going to do, I think you should poof around the mansion and make sure we’ve found everyone while I’ll go check on Ophelia and the others” I suggested and he nodded, poofing out of sight immediately.

  As I got close to the room I could hear Danielle’s voice. She was talking to Ophelia and they were discussing what it was that could have happened to Drayton.

  What? Was she just going to act like she didn’t know where he was? How dare she?

  The anger returned and I barged into the room, startling Ophelia,

  “Drayton is in Danielle’s room, Ophelia,” I said simply, glaring at Danielle and watching her reaction. I was shocked to see that she looked surprised. She blinked and looked up at me, the look of surprise, clearly written all over her face,

  “He is? I was looking all over the mansion for him. How did he get there? Is my sister there as well because I haven’t seen her at all today?” she said and I looked at her, arching my eyebrow.

  She was lying.

  The knowledge came to me with strong certainty, and I stared at her, waiting for her to falter, but she didn’t. Rather, she fixed me with that innocent stare like she didn’t know what was happening.

  “Yes, Tabitha is there, dazed out of her mind. And just like Drayton, she has a bite mark as well,” I said in a monotone, still staring at Danielle. She looked genuinely surprised by the news I was currently giving her, yet I knew for a fact, that she was lying. How could she carry on like that? What exactly was she hiding?

  I caught sight of Ophelia’s confused expression. She looked from me to Danielle and then back at me. Then she asked, obviously just computing what I’d said,

  “A bite mark?” she asked and I nodded gravely, still looking at Danielle. The latter had an innocent expression all over her face and I watched her closely. It didn’t crack.

  Ophelia got up abruptly and murmured that she was going to Danielle’s room before running out of the room in haste.

  Danielle and I remained in the room, and I stared at the heiress with undisguised anger. Well, since she wanted to play, two could play at that game.

  I looked up and saw the clear sign above the room. It sure helped that Danielle’s family was conscientious enough to label all the major rooms in the mansion. The security room door was thick and from what I could tell, tightly locked. But I tried the door anyway, and to my surprise, it opened, creaking slightly.

  “Wow, talk about security conscious”, I thought to myself sarcastically and I looked behind me, just in case someone was walking down the hall. Satisfied that no one was around, I entered the security room, it was empty as well. I quickly found the recordings and smiled as I saw that they were arranged according to date. I looked through the list quickly and found the ones from a few hours ago and I played it, sitting down as the image came into view.

  As I watched, a dark colored creature came into view. It looked like Saban’s drawings of what a fairy was supposed to look like, but this one’s colour was different, darker. The creature moved from one person to the other, biting them and then just leaving them alone. I watched in confusion as the person bit everyone we had found with bite marks and I instantly knew what was happening.

  This wasn’t an attack meant to harm or wound them even. No, the dark fairy was biting them for a whole other reason; the dark fairy was turning them into fairies.

  The realization shocked me and I paused the tape, wondering what exactly the plan was. Was the dark fairy just trying to create other targets for the Oakatex to latch onto their scents? Was that what was going on here? I couldn’t be sure, but it was worth thinking about.

  As I looked over the tapes once more, one of them caught my eye and I stared at the title. It was marked “happiest day” and I quickly played it. T
he video began to play and Danielle’s face came into the frame. She was showing off what looked like an engagement ring and she was smiling broadly. I could see that she was not the only one in the room, but the other person was out of the frame. Then, Danielle happily proclaimed that she was getting married, twirling her ring in the air and doing a short dance. She grabbed the other person’s arm and dragged him into view.

  My eyes widened in shock as I instantly recognized the face of the man who stared into the camera, smiling.

  Derek Caruthers.

  I felt my pulse quicken dangerously and I stared at the face of the man who changed my life. The man whose death had led me away from a path that would, no doubt, have destroyed me. I stared at the face of the man Faye-Minita and I had been involved in an accident with.

  The man Faye-Minita and I drove off the road in that accident was Danielle’s fiancé.

  “So, are you going to come clean or not?” I asked, staring at Danielle. She looked at me innocently,

  “I don’t understand your question,” she said, smiling sweetly,

  I rolled my eyes and repeated myself.

  “Why did you invite us back to the mansion after so long Danielle? What exactly are you planning?”

  Her face clouded and she put her hand on her chest in what I took to be an expression of mock-offense. She clearly intended to be taken seriously, however, and got up,

  “I don’t have to sit here and be accused of outlandish and unreasonable things,” she said and made a move towards the door.

  I looked towards the door and slammed it shut with my mind. Danielle jumped in shock and turned to me, looking slightly surprised. Her eyes went down to my arm and she caught sight of my glowing tattoo. Then, as I watched, a small smile spread over her face and her right shoulder instantly began to glow as well and I caught sight of a tattoo there.

  Danielle was a Fae as well.