Life goes on, Chapter Two – A Crack in Reality.
Written and by Astra "Maylee".
Hollis and Anti-Aileen had been happily living in their new home for well over a century and the birth of their first born, Maylee, made the home seam even brighter and their love stronger then ever, each and everyday was a new adventure for the family, waiting to be fulfilled. The fortunate trio were forever having fun and playing games in their back garden, Hollis always held his daughter close to him as he told her fairy tails before bed and her mother, Anti-Aileen always had her in front of the oven, baking something or another. Life was perfect, but both Hollis and Anti-Aileen thought it was too perfect.
Something dark lurked deep inside the small fairy child and her parents knew it but they were too afraid to tell her incase something happened that might change her cheerful disposition, Maylee was always full of happiness and joy, even when things turned bad. The two noticed that if she cut herself while playing in the garden or fell of the swing, she never cried, she just continued to laugh and giggle as if nothing had happened.
They started to worry even more ever since the accident in the garden as they were playing 'blind mans bluff'; Maylee was blindfolded and was running around the garden with out a care in the world, trying to catch her parents. Her pigtails blew in the wind and she ran faster and faster, what happened next shocked her parents nearly half to death. As Maylee was not able to see where she was going, she crashed into the barrier and fell backwards onto the grass, Hollis and Anti-Aileen quickly floated to their daughter and took the blind fold of her to see if she was alright. Maylee slowly woke up and gently smiled at her parents then quickly sprung out of their arms and carried on with the game.
A huge gaping bruise appeared on her head but to her it was like nothing had happened, the worst thing about it was that the barrier prevented her from getting out, this was very bad, they didn't want her to go near the barrier incase what they feared might happened came true, sadly it did. That night the house seamed as if all of the joy was sucked away leaving a gloomily and unpleasant aftertaste in it's atmosphere, Hollis and Anti-Aileen sat on the couch, her face pressed deeply into his chest, they held each other close in their arms, they knew that it was coming, sooner then expected
Maylee stood there in the doorway; it was if she was awakened from the depressing tension of her parent's emotions, she walked over them and climbed into their laps, holding them tightly almost as if she knew why they were so upset.
A few days later things got a lot worse, Hollis was called to stand in front of both fairy and anti-fairy high orders, neither of them wanted the family to stay where they were and wanted them out but the problem was that they had no where to go.
"I do hope you know why we've called you here." One of the members of the fairy high order asked.
"Yes your honour, I have married outside our species and migrated into the forbidden zone." Hollis replied.
"Not only have you broken two of our sacred rules but your wife has also given birth to a small child, do you even know what damage this has caused to the natural balance of our species." Another member of the high order cried, this time coming from the anti-fairy side.
"Yes I do your honour but I don't understand why you have taken this long to take action, if you knew that we fled into the forbidden zone then why didn't you come after us the first day we moved in?" Hollis added, hoping that he'll catch them off guard.
"Errmm, yes well it took us a while to find a loophole around 'da rule book' plus the photo copying machine broke and one of us lost the paper work to bring you here, it was a real ho-ha and took some time to fix." One of them mumbled, feeling quite stupid for someone so superior to make such a silly mistake.
"Oh, right" Hollis replied, looking puzzled and confused.
"Even though you've broken many of our rules, we've noticed that you show strong feelings towards this anti-fairy and started a whole new life from scratch, it seams that Cupid has twisted loves fate and brought you two together. Now as Anti-Aileen isn't like the other Anti-Fairies and won't cause any damage we will let your punishment of your marriage slide" Another member of the fairy high order cried.
Hollis sighed and wiped his head, but the worst was about to come.
"As for your daughter, she will be taken into our care and locked away from the outside world for the sake of our safety!" One of the anti-fairy high order members snapped.
He was crushed to hear that his pride and joy would be taken away from him; he could not allow his precious child to be taken from the safety of his families arms and be locked away like some wild animal.
"But she's only a small child who doesn't even know how to use her wand yet, what can she possibly do?" He cried, floating over to the desks where the high order sat.
"We know that she's just a small child but you and I both know that she doesn't know how to express her anger and she's bottling it up inside, if it continues then her Anti-Fairy counterpart will overwhelm her and who knows what will happen, we can't take any chances. I'm sorry but that's our final decision." Another anti-fairy snapped.
"But if she's taken away from me and her mother then it'll happen sooner then you expect, why do you think it hasn't happen already? Please, if she's taken away from us know then…Anti-Maylee will emerge from within…" Hollis cried, his voice crumbed at the thought of losing his old child.
"If she stays with us it will decrease the chances if her breaking lose until we're able to find a suitable way to contain her, please you have to trust me on this." He added as he started to cry his heart out.
Touched by his beg of mercy for his child, both orders requested for Hollis to leave the room for a moment so that they could discuss what will happen to little Maylee. An hour later Hollis was called back into the room where the fairy and anti-fairy order could declare their final judgment.
"We have all decided that Maylee shall continue staying with you and Anti-Aileen but you have to promise you inform us if any sign of anti-fairy behavior starts to occur. Also we have decided that when she is old enough to learn how to use her wand that she should be sent to the Fairy academy at once so that our trained specialists can keep a close eye on her." The main member of the high fairy order told Hollis.
He was speechless, he though he was going to lose everyone he loved over some stupid pointless rules.
"Thank you your honor, thank you everyone" He replied, he was glad that everything turn out positive in the end.
"Very well, you may go now." The main anti-fairy high order mumbled.
In a flash Hollis quickly poofed into his front garden, both Anti-Aileen and Maylee was in the garden, looking at the barrier but he didn't care, he was too over the moon about the good news, he held his beloved wife to him tightly and told her the great news.
"The high order has let everything slide, we're free to stay here and Maylee doesn't have to go." He smiled, holding her tighter in his arms; he slowly let her go and stared into her eyes.
"My dear, what ever is the matter?" He asked his wife, who was now bursting into tears.
"Don't you even know what day it is tomorrow?" Anti-Aileen asked as she firmly held her husband's shoulders, a small calendar poofed besides her, the next day had a large red marker ring around it.
He looked at the date of the next day closely and realized that tomorrow was Friday the 13th; he then back looked into his wife's eyes to see that they were not bright and gleaming but dark and very dull.
"Oh dear, I completely forgot about that, but what are you fearing about? You know the routine, each Friday 13th I take your wand away and place you into an anti-black magic container for the day." He added, gently stroking her cold pale face.
Friday 13th was the only day where Anti-Aileen could not control her magic, or herself for that matter, she would turn mean and wanted to prank the fairies just like the anti-fairies.
"It's not me that you should be worrying about, it's Maylee." She cried, almost shaking her husband.
"Don't you worry; she'll do the same thing she does each Friday 13th, she'll just run around the garden to steam off that extra energy and then when she's tired she'll stop and fall asleep, I take her into her room and she sleeps until the next day."
He was right, each Friday 13th she would run around the entire perimeter of the grounds for about six hours and then crash to the ground, asleep but this time it was different, something was nor right and it was getting Anti-Aileen very upset.
"Just look at her!" She pointed at her daughter who was standing at the same point of the barrier where she crashed into that day. "By now she would be feeling drowsy and wanting to go to bed but look, just look! Maylee has been staring blankly out there for the entire time that you were gone, when I try to call her over she ignores me and when I tired taking her into the house she started kicking, crying, and throwing her arms around. Let me show you." Anti-Aileen added as she quietly floated over to her daughter, making sure she couldn't her or see her.
Anti-Aileen quickly got hold of Maylee under the arms pulled her up of the ground, usually she would think this was a game and burst out with laughter but this time she threw a tantrum fit, flinging her arms and lets into the air, crying and yelling.
"No! Nooooo!" Maylee cried as she started kicking about even more, is father was shocked in horror, never had he seen his daughter act like this, he quickly rushed over to her and placed his hand on his daughters forehead to try and calm down.
"Please dear, calm down, please" He spoke softly to her, wiping his hand gently down her face, she tugged her head away as if she was saying 'stop' and continued crying.
Anti-Aileen sat herself down with Maylee, still firmly holding her and started to do the same.
"Maylee, calm down, please calm down!" Her mother cried firmly to her but Maylee continued to struggle in her mother's grip and cry over nothing.
This entire disturbance caught the attention of a few passing Anti-Fairies, the looked down at the two who was struggling to keep their child under control and smirked. Maylee, still trying to get free from her mother's arms looked up at the taunting Anti-fairies and gave them an icy glare; she took a deep breath and yelled at the top of her tiny lungs.
"LEAVE US ALONE!"
Maylee's cry did the trick, all of the anti-fairies who were trespassing their privacy fled and left the family to their own business but it made things worse, she got more upset and was now almost dragging her mother along the grass. Their last resort was for both Hollis and Anti-Aileen to hold her until she calmed down but that didn't work either, the crying got louder, the kicks and punches got rougher and Anti-Aileen couldn't take it anymore.
"ANTI-MAYLEE, STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!" She snapped at her daughter while pinching one of her wings and pulling it.
Everything went quiet; all of the yelling, the screaming, the kicking and punching had stopped, it seamed that referring to Anti-Maylee did the trick, she was now sound asleep in her mother's arms. Anti-Aileen loosened her grip on her daughter, tears started to stream down her face, Hollis held her close to him, he too way crying, he didn't know what to do, tomorrow was Friday 13th, as Anti-Aileen would be out of commission for the day, he would be along with his daughter and after this event, anything could happen.
Both of them got up and poofed into the house, but what they did know was that Maylee was staring at the barrier not because of what was on the other side but what was on it, a small crack had appeared and it had gotten bigger as the time passed.
Anti-Aileen placed Maylee into her cot and then poofed downstairs; they sat down on the couch and laid there not saying a word. Hollis waited for his wife to fall asleep before removing her wand and placing her in a corner, he pressed the button on the small blue box that kept his house and family from harm; it beamed out a bright emerald green box around her. He watched as his wife peacefully slept on the hard floor, he wanted to be there with her but he couldn't, in a few hours time she was going to forget everything she knew about being nice and her very unpredictable anti-fairy instincts would kick in.
"Good night my love" He mumbled, wiping his hand on the glass like wall.
Hollis poofed into his room and climbed into bed but he couldn't sleep, he just thought about what the high order told him that day, all signs of anti behavior had to reported to them at once so that they can personally deal with it. He then started thinking about how all the commotion stopped when Anti-Aileen cried out the name 'Anti-Maylee', then he thought about how he could prevent her from getting out, he told himself that tomorrow he will spend the entire day with her instead of letting her run around the house.
'Yes that's it, instead of watching her run around the place, I will join in and make it seam like a game to her.' He thought to himself as he slowly drifted of to sleep.
The crack got bigger and bigger when the clock struck 12:00 midnight, a shadow emerged from nowhere over the crack, larger and larger the crack became as the figure got closer. Before you could know it, SMASH! The glass like barrier chattered and it fled into the twisted forbidden world that lied ahead.
FOP (c) Butch Hartman
Maylee, Anti-Aileen and Hollis (c) Astra Cozens