We Might As Well Be Strangers
"Monsters are real,
And ghosts are real too.
They live inside us,
And sometimes, they win."
-Stephen King
On the deep green of a forest lightened by the sun where the birds chirp gaily and the aroma of flowers over powers, besides a willow tree lays fairy town. A village with a menagerie of fairies: the green hairs, the purple skin, the yellow cat like eyes, the red footed and finally the pretty common ones.
At the south part of the city it's a place hidden by beautiful trees and bushes. It is full of roses, sunflowers and a vast collection of other colorful flowers that reflect purple, white, blue, pink, and yellow in the lake. Behind the camellias, on top of the muddy surface which the lake caressed, a leaf was found, with its ending point facing the lake and its skin smooth.
Mia sat on top of that leaf, a petite fairy with vast brown eyes. Her skin glimmered like a thousand stars and her hair fell straight down soft and cold. Her shoulders shook both from the cold that had made her skin hard and the sobs that slowly took away the life out of her eyes. Her mouth tasted of her salty tears and her vision was blurry, the fireflies surrounding her made tiny sparkling dots in her brown orbs.
Every frog, butterfly and rat was there surrounding her. Caterpillars, worms, birds, crickets and even fireflies had gone to admire her beauty. All they saw was this marvelous creature sparkling on a leaf. Sparkle through sparkle fell from her eyes making her even more pulchritudinous. They gaped at her beauty; their gazes so intent on watching her splendor they couldn't even realize she was crying so no one bothered to ask.
Mia was aware of everything: the intake of breaths whenever someone saw her and the sluggish movement of the leaves announcing death and the presence in her back and the petrifying gazes from her monsters. And she saw everything: the dark ground with blood streams and the sharpie yellow teeth whenever someone snarled and the long dented tounges and big hollow eyes and deformed figures and the cold shadows. Even her own reflection in the black lake was hideous. And she heard everything: The flow of the river leaving her behind and the buzzing sounds and the growls and the wood peckers without feathers or eyes pecking at the trees and the deliberate movement of the butterflies 'wings and the sound of the wind weeping and the water dripping bead after bead, tip, tip, tip. The smells not all of them she could single out: the flowers, the wet hair, bad breath, the combination of all were repugnant indescribable she felt the nausea viciously ripping her stomach the vomit traveling up and down her throat but she could not puke. All this gave her a horrible taste in her tongue making it unfeasible to eat. She felt everything. In her pulse, in the vibrations of the monsters presence that pounded her heart at their own accord tenaciously and without mercy.
Everything in her eyes was tragic. The happier the affair the more ominous and macabre it was in her eyes. A simple flower looked like bear traps. There was no sweet pink or orange to give life to the forest. It was atrocious. She could not see the sun reflecting in her face but a dark sky with no bright companions. The smell of roses was nauseating and the sweet laughter of squirrels seemed like a malevolent cackle. Her surroundings had very few colors black, gray, purple, red and sometimes yellow but only in the eyes of her monsters. If the feature she saw was a friend or someone she remotely like it would cause her great pain and fear; perhaps there were beasts with no hair and scratched bodies trying to eat her or black holes that filed her with gloom.
No matter where she went she was never calm. Her pulse was twice as fast of any normal fairy; her eyes moved too quickly from side to side fearing anything that might come her way. Her bottom lip was roughly injured but you wouldn't notice since she will always have her teeth holding it fearing if she let it go she might explode. Her legs turned green from the time she spent sitting on that leaf and she moved her feet swiftly up and down ready to escape if anything to dangerous were to happen. Her breath had lost its rhythm and her thoughts were jumbled up. Since fairies did not sleep she was damned to live in panic every second of her life. Every creature was an enemy; every entity was trying to destroy her.
Sitting on the leaf Mia tried to imagine what time of the day it was. She tried to remember how the sun looked like but it had been so long since she had seen light that she could only picture one of the monsters eyes circling the world. She felt yet another tear piercing her skin and sighted.
Loneliness consumed her. Her body was hollow; it was left uncared and lifeless. Her own soul had left for the sun and only the shadow of what it had once been remain. It was there, she did not see it, but it was there. Her mind had not left her but it was clouded in dark and her heart was not able to see it. The want of overcoming the creature she had turned too had been dawdling eaten by fear.
She covered her nose with her right hand trying to evaporate the smell of flowers but the feeling of drowning made her move her hand away. The creatures surrounding her saw this movement as a graceful dance, her erratic breathing was a lullaby and her moving hand looked like the ballet that accompanied it.
Winter had awakened to the world. The winds announced its presence. Birds had already left south but the crickets were ready to replace them in a song. Bears left for slumber and the ants worked persistently. But Mia. Mia was all alone preparing herself for yet another chilly December. It was better this way. Without her admirers she was less afraid, she did not have to worry of being attacked by one of them, still she kept herself aware. Her fragile body shivered, her skin felt like an alligator's tail. Her eyes were glazy as she moved her button-like nose from left right several times. She inhaled and exhaled once and let her head fell downward, her neck pasted to her shoulders. And then just like the song you can't get out of your head a memory came out of nowhere. But as everything else she thought, it was miserable; the memory that changed her to who she was now and the person she will never be. It's how it all started and of this she had no control, because once she was in the memory again she could not get out.
"Don't you care at all about your husband?" Her back was straight while her neck stretched in Mia's direction her head tilted down a little while her eyes squinted like a snake before the attack. Mia smiled sweetly with an innocent look only people who had experienced too much happiness in their lives wear.
"Of course I care, I love him. But I can't spend the rest of my life crying his absence. Brujilda you can't live under a rock crying forever. Fairies were made out of miracles for a reason, our entire point of living is to dance, sing and play to give life to the forests. You should start living again." Fairies laughter was heard at a distance. Mia's heart filled with joy, she knew they were probably waiting for her to play with them under the willow tree. Dreadfully she wouldn't be playing with them at all.
"My husband, Hestos, fell in love with me while I was happy it is in no other than that same state he will find me when he comes back." Mia nodded to affirm this.
"How can you say something like that? You'll pay for you negligence. From now on…
Mia was able to get out of the memory before the worst event was to happen. Her breathing became erratic and then she started crying. Her sobs shook her entire body and an electric shock passed inside her while her shoulders wobbled furiously. "Huh," Mia emitted forlornly.
Winter ended with a bright sun. The forest was awake again and with it Mia's worries. The squirrels stretched their tiny paws, bears yawned and the birds returned. Soon the flowers will start to open and the fairies will dance in welcoming of spring. Mia's eyes enlarged more aware then she had been in weeks, since nothing seemed to come her way. She relaxed a little and chewed the nothingness in her tongue. Mia's leaf that she had considered home for some time now was cold but it felt warm under her legs for their time spent there. A bird got closer to her and started singing for the sun. That's when it all happened.
It came flying like most of our thoughts and filled Mia's vision so entirely it will be the only sight her eyes would hold. It approached her slowly so slow in fact it gave time for Mia to scrutinize its every aspect. In most daunting films there is a creepy soundtrack in the back but here was nothing and somehow that was even more terrifying. Her lips started to quiver hastily making a buzzing sound; her teeth chattered yet not from the cold. The hair from her entire body stood up. A scream was trapped inside her wanting to get out but her lips were sealed and so it hit her eyes sending them on fire.
"Mia" Her name leaked out of its lips like blood. Mia's pulse quickened, her breaths became loud and short; her knees gave out. "Mia" It whispered again with hoarse voice savoring her name. He was closer now, five flowers away. She felt her heart at the top of her throat she wanted to run but her feet were frozen and refuse to fly. Her surroundings all looking black and white at that moment the most colorful thing was the monster. The monster was like anything she had seen before. Nothing had made her felt that way before. His appearance terrified her and yet somehow it made her feel more depressed than she'd ever felt. He's entire body looked deformed like someone could not decide how to make him. His calve had red lines shrieking in rage. It looked as if his calve had been scratched for hours over and over again. He had an eye larger than the other and he was bare to the world. His body was repulsive; hairy in some parts and completely nude in others. He had tiny yellow claws some larger than others but they were all broken. "Mia," he grumbled once more. "Mia it's me Hestos." "Mia"
Years before
The sound of her laughter echoed on the trees. As usual her hair was complete disarray and the only part left visible were her eyes the rest was covered in dirt. Her eyes so bright and full of life it made you forget about the rest of her body. The sky was dark and it was raining but Mia only saw this as an opportunity to play in the ponds created by the rain. She fell but it only made her laugh harder. The wind blew vigorously, somehow Mia manage to dance at its rhythm.
"What is my lovely wife doing outside in the rain?" Mia stopped dancing with the sound of his voice. Whirling her body to the right she looked at him and her smile stretched.
"Enjoying this beautiful day by herself, care to join?" even though he was soaked he could never refuse Mia so he flied next to her and wrapped their fingers together.
"Hestos, how did you find me?" Mia wondered. She crooked her head to the left and moved her lips to the right. He smiled crookedly and looked at her lovingly.
"It wasn't hard. You are the only creature who would remain outside while it's raining." Mia put the best kicked puppy face she could, enlarging her eyes and blinking slowly.
She enveloped him in her arms and whispered in his ear, "I'll miss you." Hestos sighted and hugged her back softly. He brushed a tear that had escaped from her eye and kissed her cheek, a warming gesture that reached her toes. "What am I going to do when you're gone?"
"The same thing you always do sing, dance, and play around. Blissfulness does not come from feeling exultant every day. It comes from the satisfaction of knowing you were happy once and the knowledge you'll be once again. Besides, the army needs me. They need as much soldiers as they can get," Hestos mumbled. Mia sighted and positioned her head on the crook of his neck and smelled his lemon aroma for a last time.
"Will you ever come back to me?" Mia cried questioningly. She stood right before him with their nose touching. He gazed at her eyes as serious as he possibly could.
"I promise I'll come back." And with a kiss he parted.
Mia felt like a fire exploded in her stomach and filled her body in internal smoke. Her hands trembled furiously and her eyes were so swelled up in tears they looked like fountains. She was too scared to say anything. Even her tears were silent; the only sounds were her breaths and the monsters' that clashed in harmony, his slow and hushed and hers' loud and erratic. Once in a while he'll whisper her name and she will shudder in fear. Time passed and he got closer. And closer. She did not move, she hardly blink, she sustained her knees close together putting her feet facing each other and kept her fists forcefully closed. He kept moving. She would have done anything for him to stop. But he didn't. He got closer and closer till he was right in front of her. A sound escaped from her lips before she could hold it back. He breathed in her face and her shoulders that had preserved still started to shook. She could not look at him in the face so she kept her gaze on her motionless feet. His cold whopping hand grabbed her shin briskly. Fear consumed her; she was drowning in it and could not get out. Her eyes closed firmly creating wrinkles all over them. She could hear heart beat pounding in her ears erasing any other sound. Tum. Tum. Tum.
Dread gave her courage. She took two steps back and slowly opened her eyes. She could not think. She was forced to act on her impulses. She jumped out of the leaf and went flying over the roses. The monster followed her; he was faster than what she had thought. He kept screaming at her but she could not hear. He grabbed her by the arm, she tried to free herself from him but his grip was too strong. Her eyes were everywhere trying to think of some escape plan but she was blank. Everything was spinning her heart felt like it could burst.
And then her gaze fell on a thorn. It was small but very sharp. With her left hand she yanked it out of its stem and lifted it up in the air. The sun made the thorn glow. She moved her head hastily to face the monster making her hair fell into her right shoulder. She could see the monster moving its lips but could not understand a thing it said. She was too scared to figure it out. Everything happened to fast. First the thorn was in the air and then all of a sudden she stroked the thorn into the monsters chest. He looked at her in panic but it was too late for anything. Too late for explanations. The blood poured out of the monsters chest as he took her shaking hand. "Mia," he whispered for a last time and then exploded in a thousand golden particles that vanished in seconds.
Everything started to explode: the flowers, the mushrooms, the leaves, the rocks, the grass, the trees, everything all in different colors. Purple, blue, green, yellow, pink, orange and silver filled Mia's vision. The horrible smells were gone and instead she was left with the sweet aroma of flowers and fresh grass. She felt warmth in her skin again and it felt so good she started crying. She looked around the colors, the animals, she heard their song. Relief freed her; she felt as a dark smoke erupted from her chest and unchained her body letting it breathe once more. She looked up and was met with the most wonderful sight. She saw the sun. It was painting the forest and bringing it life. She looked and looked. The sight of the sun was so splendid she could not look away. The sight blinded her all she could see was light, her eyes hurt but it brought her heart so much joy she glowed. She did not look away.
The animals had wakened up and were admiring her once more. She had managed to look even more beautiful and every animal that woke up that morning stop whatever they were doing to look at her. The birds sang loudly and other fairies that were driven there by the commotion started to dance. And Mia. For the first time in years felt love and it was wonderful.
Mia returned to her normal self. She dance and sang with other fairies. She told tales to the little kids and played around the forest. Sometimes she would spend hours watching the sun or smelling the roses. Warriors returned but Mia did not found her husband, he probably got lost on the track home. As positive as she was Mia believed her husband would come home and she will be waiting for him. From time to time she will return to the leaf and watch the sun set and the sky with the birds flying around. She waited for the wind to announce her husband's returned. With time her visits became more frequent but she never lost hope. "Hestos where are you?" she asked the sky but there was no answer. There never was.