Belief
"Easy there, chiquitín. You're alright. Nobody's hurting you. Please stop crying." The girl lay on the ground, sobbing. At those words, she only wailed louder, curling into a tight ball on the thick shag carpet. Mariette sighed, and looked back and forth quickly. Nobody—and, almost as importantly, nothing—was in sight. "Listen, ángela. Listen to me. I can take you home." The girl stayed curled up, but gradually her tears slowed, then stopped. Mariette waited patiently, and finally the girl spoke. Her voice was soft, with a faint Latino accent.
"You can take me back to my mamá?" She finally began to uncurl, and Mariette hissed in sympathy. The child's face was bruised, and blood oozed sluggishly from a cut over her eyebrow. Her nose was crooked—probably broken. That was what decided her. She reached out and scooped the child up.
"Come on. I'm taking you home with me. Then I'll take you to your mamá."
The door opened in front of Mariette as she entered her home. Closing her eyes, she willed a bed into existence there in the front hall, and placed the child carefully on it.
"Dom! Get down here, I need your help!" Mariette pounded up the stairs two at a time, banging on the wall to her left, where her brother's room was. "Dom, I did it! I stole a human child from the Dark Court! You have to help me, she's hurt!" Her brother stuck his head around the door, his eyes glittering with mischief.
"You actually did it, Mari. I don't believe it. You actually did it!" He followed her back down the stairs, just as excited as she was. He came to a sudden halt in front of the bed, his eyes going wide with horror. "Oh Danaë. The poor child." He knelt down next to the child, closing his eyes, and Mariette sighed with relief as she felt power gathering around him for a healing spell.
Anna María woke up suddenly, and nearly flew out of the…bed? I didn't have a bed in…the bad place. Maybe I didn't dream the elf lady who took me away. She looked around, and then she spotted the elf. Elves. She was too old to believe in elves and fairies. Hadn't mamá been telling her so for years? But there he was, watching her from across the little room. When he saw that she was awake, Dominic smiled, and came over to her. "Do you feel better now?" Anna María's hands flew to her face. "I'm all better! You fixed my nose!" She began to laugh delightedly. Maybe I can believe in fairies…and elves…just for a little bit longer.
