by S.J. Drew
line of iron left in the dirt from the poker.
"Give me a minute," Isabella replied stiffly. She put the charm in the air between the oak trees. The space between them shimmered for a moment and the real world came into focus. It was nearly sundown and there were few people to be seen. "Let's go!" They broke the circle and charged the door. The plants erupted behind them.
Dave had written a draft of his essay with some notes to go back and do some research. He locked up the van and went in search of food. The festival was clearly winding down and a lot of people had already left in order to beat the traffic. He checked his phone, again, to see if there were any texts from the band. He sent another text and it didn't go through. He sighed and took a sip of his drink and wandered around the perimeter of the festival. He was passing by a pair of oak trees when they started to shimmer and glow.
"Well, that's not normal," he thought, stopping to watch but not getting any closer.
The band scrambled out the door with the writhing mass of plants reaching to grab them. One long vine wrapped around Maryann's ankle and pulled.
"Aahhh!" she screamed as she fell.
Leah ran up and hit the vine with the fireplace poker. "Shut the door! Shut the door!" she yelled.
Nora grabbed Maryann's hands to keep her from getting dragged back into the fairy realm. "Hang on!"
"I am I am," Maryann cried.
They could see Jack standing behind the angry plants with his eyes glowing bright green.
"I'm trying!" Isabella shouted back. She quickly wrote out another kanji, wrapped it around a rock, and threw it at the door.
The kanji stuck to the air, glowed white, and the door shut. The plants were cut off from the fairy realm and fell limp against the ground and vanished. Nora managed to not lose her balance as the force pulling against Maryann disappeared. They slowly became aware of Dave staring at them and they slowly turned to look at him.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, what the hell is going on?" he said.
The four women looked at each other unsure how to answer the question.
Leah spoke up first. "Dave, the supernatural is real, Maryann and Isabella can do magic stuff, and we just fought off a scary bunch of fairy plants."
He was silent for a moment.
"I'm sure this is hard to accept," Maryann started.
"Oh, no," Dave interrupted. "This actually makes things make a lot of sense."
"It does?" she replied.
"Yeah. So, um, are we safe now?"
"We should probably go now," Isabella said. "Jack can clearly open that door."
"Okay, I'm following you guys now," he said.
They quickly walked away from the two oak trees towards the van.
"Is Jack going to try to kidnap Maryann again?" Nora asked.
"Hey!"
"I don't know, but there aren't a lot of doors to Fairyland, not like that," she said. "It would be hard for him to reach her in a less natural setting."
"Does this mean we can't come to the festival again next year?" Maryann asked.
"Yeah, except for the stalker elf, it was great fun," Nora said dryly.
"I was actually thinking about our fanbase," she replied irritably.
Suddenly Jack appeared right behind them. His eyes were no longer glowing but he looked less human than before.
Leah drew a quick circle with the poker before anyone even asked.
"Oh, no, that's not necessary," he said. "You've won. You got out, and I had fun, so no harm done, right?" He smiled pleasantly.
"Leave us the hell alone and get out of here before I give you a piece of my mind," Nora snapped, getting ready to do just that.
He sort of shook his head. "I hope you come back."
"Not if you're going to kidnap me again!" Maryann retorted.
"It will really make it hard to get fans if we can't come back or end up missing a band member," Dave said.
Jack blinked, and then laughed. "No, there will be no further attempts."
"Fairies are notorious for lying."
He smiled. "Well, there is that. But I do wish you the best of luck with your musical endeavors. Well played, Anna, well played." He bowed, and then vanished.
Dave leaned over to Leah. "I see what you mean about Maryann and guys."
She nodded. "I know, right?"
"Do we believe him?" Maryann asked worried.
"No. We'll just be careful next time we come here. We know where he is and we know enough about what he is that we can protect ourselves," Isabella replied. "Now, let's get Dave to an Internet connection."
"I'd really like that."
They loaded up into the van.
"You know what he said, 'I had fun, so no harm done,' almost sounds like of like a song lyric. Would you mind if I tried my hand at songwriting?"
"Be our guest," Leah said. "If we like it, we'll play it and give you credit."
"Cool. So, do you guys have stuff like this happen to you a lot?" Dave asked.
"You have no idea."
"Then tell me."
They looked at each other questioningly, except for Isabella who was driving. "It's fine," Isabella said. "But you have to tell us why you weren't that surprised."
"Sure. Fair's fair. But you guys go first."
"Well," Leah said, "for us as a group, it all started at a Ren Fair..."
The Lyrics:
Shhh come closer
I’ve got something for you to hear
Hey take it easy
I’m not someone for you to fear
Misunderstood is what I’ve been
Haunted by my troubled past
Done some things I’d later regret
Stuck with a reputation that will always last
I may have done wrong throughout my time
May have crossed some people and crossed some lines
I’m a bad seed
Deemed that way for what I’ve done
I’m a bad seed
Yet it was all done out of fun
Refrain: I’m a bad seed
I’ve done things I’ll never admit
I’m a bad seed
I’ve never known when to quit
Done lots of things
To lose people’s trust
Done plenty of things
At the time I thought was a must
Don’t give me that look
Like I’m pulling your leg
I know I’m being evasive
And extremely vague
I’m not trying to admit to anything specific
Just saying I’ve done things I thought were terrific
Refrain
I may have done wrong throughout my time
May have crossed some people or crossed some lines
I’m a bad seed
Deemed that way for what I’ve done
I’m a bad seed
Yet it was all done out of fun
Track 9 - Calm Before the Storm
The Interview:
Bryan: Well, this song made the adult contemporary chart.
Belle: Is there something wrong with that?
Kelly: It's really not what's expected.
Lee: So we can do country but not AC?
Bryan: Well, I wouldn't say that, but this is so, well, almost mainstream.
Anna: I'm still not seeing the problem.
Kelly: Even the topic seems, well, conventional. Two people are in a relationship and one won't talk to the other and instead bottles up their feelings until they get too angry and then they let all their feelings out like a storm.
Lenore: Thank you for so accurately describing the metaphor.
Bryan: We thought you didn't want to be conventional, and your other songs aren’t about something this conventional.
Lenore: We want to be a great band. We want to play the songs we write. We want to write new songs. Being conventional or unconventional doesn't really come into our creative process. Admittedly,
unconventional gets attention. But unconventional isn't necessarily better than conventional.
Belle: And being unconventional for its own sake is, well, pretty conventional, actually. Also, we, like most artists, are inspired by what we experience. We are just people too, which means what we experience isn't that different from what other people experience.
Lee: Sometimes... more or less, maybe...
Belle: So it means sometimes we're going to produce something that is going to sound more normal, like two people who don't say what they need to each other.
Lenore: And it seems you've had a lot to say about our other tracks, particularly how unconventional they are.
Kelly: This is what makes this one so weird.
Lee: So conventional is the new weird. Good to know.
Anna: We thought the topic fit in with our other songs, and we thought a straightforward adult contemporary track would follow well with the country-like song. Do you really think it's that jarring when you listen to the whole album?
Bryan: Well, no.
Belle: Then I think we've done our job. And even our most conventional song still got you thinking about our music.
The Inside Story:
The band members of Nevermore and the Ravens had finished up a show, checked into their hotel, and were getting ready for some much deserved sleep.
“It's been quiet, don't you think?” Leah asked.
“What's been quiet?” Maryann said, her voice muffled by her toothbrush.
“You know, everything. There hasn't been anything weird happen to us in, like, a month.”
“So? I thought you didn't mind that.”
“Well, I guess not,” Leah replied. “But that's kind of weird, don't you think?”
Maryann sort of rolled her eyes and finished up in the bathroom. “Nora would say you're looking for trouble.”
“I only look for trouble when I’m playing Munchkin.”
Maryann stared at her blankly.
Leah sighed. “Never mind. I'm not looking for trouble, but trouble looks for us. Especially you.”
“Humph.”
“I'm just sayin'. Anyway, if trouble hasn't found us yet, I think that's
