Kinda needed to take a pause. 1) Life, and 2) this story was not going as I'd originally thought. It left me stuck and uninspired, and when I start questioning every idea and every word I write, I gotta step away for a bit.
If you're still here, thank you for your support :)
Sunless skies overcast the red roof shingled past its prime, concave holes with wooden planks as band aids. A spiderweb of cracks coated weathered, white walls overtaken by nature. Shattered windows along peeling paint with wooden siding exposed. Black van with tires deflated on aged cracks along the driveway, orange panels of the garage hung by a single hinge. A path carved in stone towards the dilapidated entry through overgrown grass on its last life, just as the unkempt shell of a house was on its last life.
Thin stairs creaked to the single side door of the room above the garage. A lone room with grime along the dark shadows of olive-green walls taped with star and crown posters and a hand-drawn map of some imaginary world, 'fairies' escribed with an upside-down wand as exclamation. Tan planks of the floor littered in papers of endless scientific research of a magical land that also filled metal and cardboard crates to the brim. Papers that draped off hunter-green sheets of the twin bed barely supported by its wooden frame, a wooden side-table housing the PC monitor operating on early 90s technology.
Beside a wood-working bench stood a bird cage. The metal home of a green parakeet and a pink galah. The two sole companions of one 5th-grade teacher of Dimmsdale Elementary.
"C'mon, Carlos…you need to eat." Mr. Crocker held his palm full of bird food to his green parakeet prince. Carlos croaked in response, his beak pecking lazily at the small crumbs that he hardly bothered to eat. Mr. Crocker sighed, continuing to hold his palm for his pink galah princess. "You too, Wilma…"
Wilma did not fare any better, pecking at a mere morsel of feed before her motivation dropped. A full day, and all they managed to eat was one fingertip's worth of food? Mr. Crocker didn't understand. Their appetite just wasn't what it used to be…
Giving up for now, Mr. Crocker put back what Carlos and Wilma didn't eat in the food jar, hoping to try again when he returned from his weekly hell. The hell of molding the young minds of society's future, because where there is a school, there are children.
And where there are children, there is complete access to FAIRY GODPARENTS!
When he'd first become a miserable schoolteacher at Dimmsdale Elementary, it was…'eventful,' to say the least. Causing 1,800 worth of damage to the car of his ex-girlfriend, the woman of whom had become his boss that day. He'd promised to find a fairy to fix the damage. Why did he promise that?
'Fairy Godparents Exist!' That was what his ten-year-old self had written down. Why did he write that? What was he trying to tell himself? Was it a warning from the past to his future?
Or was it the past method to his future madness?
Yes, Fairy Godparents exist. They had to exist. How else do you explain something magically appearing every time a child wanted it? He knew, he always knew. These 'fairies' float among them, assigned to a child to grant their every wish. Four, grueling years of collegiate research based this theory. Reading all scholarly articles and folklore novels he could on everything magic, snapping photos of anything with wings and whatever looked like a gold crown. Gathering his 'proof.'
Too bad this 'proof' couldn't save him from being booed. From being mocked as the town's biggest laughingstock on the second worst day of his life…
…and what was the first worst day? It had to have been in childhood, which is why his 10-year-old Denzel wrote 'Fairy Godparents Exist!' Had to have been traumatic enough for his mind to block out. March 15, 1972, a day that he couldn't remember anything of.
He couldn't even remember a time when he was happy…
"Love Denzel!"
His train of thought was interrupted by Wilma's squawk, turning to Carlos pecking to escape their cage while Wilma preened. Mr. Crocker opened the cage's latch, and both Carlos and Wilma fluttered from their perch to each of Mr. Crocker's shoulders, squawking in delight. "Love! Denzel!" Wilma repeated, allowing Mr. Crocker to brush the pink feathers on her head. Carlos nibbled at the ear on Mr. Crocker's neck, a non-aggressive sign of his jealousy. To not make Carlos feel left out, Mr. Crocker ruffled the lime-green feathers along the parakeet's neck with his free hand, closing Carlos's eyes in satisfaction.
Love…what is love, anyway? Love was always a stranger that never wanted to meet him. Not in Geraldine, not in any good deed for any citizen. Not even his own mother.
When his mother had told him about the loss of his two parrots at ten years old, he never could have imagined owning pets again. Until he'd discovered a green parakeet with a broken wing and a pink galah with its leg fractured in three places. Wild birds were not common around Dimmsdale, so how they'd stumbled upon his backyard was beyond him. Inner bitterness wanted to leave them for dead. His inner child, the good-natured hero, wanted to save them from such a fate.
They were just birds, nothing more, nothing less. The original plan was to set them back into the wild once nursed back to health. Over a decade later, they had yet to be released. They'd gained so much trust for him in the way they allowed him to scratch their feathers. The way their beady eyes beamed and their wings flapped when he'd come home from a stupid-tuvid day at his stupid-tuvid school. And those green and pink feathers were so...familiar. Comforting.
He couldn't find the heart to let them go.
"I'll be back." he said to them, but he didn't want to leave. He never wanted to leave. With his mother drawing social security, he had become the sole provider of the Crocker household. And to his dismay, discovering Fairy Godparents wasn't going to keep this house on life support.
Extending both index fingers, he waited for Wilma and Carlos to rest on them before directing them back into their cage, screeching on their way back in before he relatched their door. Watching their feathers ruffle, his palm pressed to the cold metal. In response, they waddled forward with their necks extended to brush their top feathers to his hands.
A disheartened sigh fell in his frown. Goodbyes were always incredibly painful. They always felt like forever.
Black smoke coughed from the exhaust pipe as the black van rumbled into the school's parking lot, flabby tires rolling in a locomotive push to park a vehicle loaded with heavy tech and magical detection equipment into the free space near other vehicles of educators. "Stupid-tuvid van, stupid-tuvid school…" he grumbled, killing the engine to slouch in the driver's seat. "Stupid-tuvid life…"
Parked in a lot facing the school buses as they unloaded students, a pink-hatted boy straightened the teacher's posture. Squinting through the windshield at the boy gripping his backpack as he ventured with other kids towards the entrance. Catching a glimpse of those fuchsia and shamrock wristbands peeking through the pink sleeves of the boy's winter coat.
Pink and green whispered his name. Lured him out of his van in an absent shut of his door. Forgetting to use his van key to secure indebt loans worth of tech and equipment inside.
He couldn't pinpoint why he was drawn to those pink and green hues ever since Turner started wearing them. Why his gut was as certain as they sky is blue that those wristbands were fairies in disguise. Nevertheless, being pink and green proved nothing…
Pink and green...that can't be the only reason.
A football punted the side of his noggin, redirecting his attention to two shitty 4th graders and their taunting points. They zoomed off towards the school, their cackle snarling a scowl as Mr. Crocker waggled an irritated fist. "Curse you, stupid-tuvid gremlins!"
Following a group of students into the cafeteria buzzing with conversations, Timmy navigated through the sectioned tables. Heading towards the back where the 2nd half of Brain-A-Thon champions, the richest kid in Dimmsdale, and an ex-JW were waiting for him at a lone table.
"Hey, guys," Timmy took the seat next to Tootie who was hugging herself. Seated across from Remy and Chloe sitting beside each other. "Anything interesting happen this weekend?"
Tootie hunched in her seat while Remy kept his head down on folded arms and Chloe fiddled her fingers, making Timmy stare at their lack of response.
"…don't all speak at once."
"…I-I met another godchild at the library." Chloe was the first to disclose. "I could see the crown and everything."
"…so could I." Remy sat up, deciding on recounting his own experience. "Happened at the country club; Juandissimo's crown was the first thing she noticed."
"A girl figured out you had a godparent as well?" Chloe questioned to Remy.
"Well, she surely knew what to look for."
"The same thing happened to me, too." Chloe related. "Like...h-he didn't have to think about it!"
"Same." Timmy recalled how fast Gary had figured it out. Unaware of the curious hand reaching for his pocket.
"You mean you met another godchild as well?" Remy inquired.
"Uh, yeah. He's how I figured out you guys had godparents." Timmy had not actually explained where he'd gotten the whole 'discover other godkids' hack. He then looked to purple eyes staring from his left. "You met one, too?" he asked Tootie who nodded in response.
"What does this mean?" Chloe wondered. "First meeting each other, now meeting others like us."
"I dunno, coincidence?" Timmy figured.
Remy propped his chin with his palm. "Does it have to mean anything?"
The points of a metal star glimmered enough to catch Tootie's eye. Looking down to the mysterious object poking from Timmy's coat pocket. Call it the sin of temptation, but there was something tantalizing about this object. What was it, and why did Timmy have it?
Careful fingers grabbed hold of the metal object, her hand below the table. Tootie was slow to retract the arm cuffed with her teal bracelet, avoiding any unwanted attention. She gazed upon the metal star with a purple button centered within it. What…this a toy? A remote for something?
Chloe brushed her indigo necklace. "How many godchildren are out there?"
Remy looked at the purple watch on his other arm. "…how many kids are miserable?"
Tootie closed her grip around the star, and the tip of her thumb pushed delicately against the button's surface-
Rainbow glistened in her skin, tingling her veins. Sucked by a gentle force faster than her bewilderment could blink.
"What the-" Timmy spun towards the audible poof beside him, the raven-haired girl replaced by blank space.
As blue and mint-green both bulged, Chloe's shock turned to the pink-hatted boy madly patting his pockets. "Um…w-what just happened?!"
No matter how much his hands searched, they couldn't find what was missing. And when the light switch flipped in Timmy's mind, his palm smacked his face.
. . . . . .
Clean air sharply gasped in her lungs. Blinking to the peaks of purple mountains touching the magenta sky. Turquoise and gold twinkled along the sky above orchid stones and crystal-teal vines. Amethyst spires and rainbow window stained in crystalized glass patterns, landscaped in angel oak and passion flower bushes.
A painting worth more than money can ever buy…
"So, in case you were wondering…" Rose floated in her fairy form, looking down to her godchild's goggled gaze. "…I have no clue where we are."
Rimmed glasses continued to stare.
"I do know we're in Fairy World…" the fairy godmother retorted, scanning their new surroundings "…just never been wherever 'here' is…"
Small fingers curled rigidly around the metal transporter. Whatever 'here' was, one cannot deny the colors ever so radiant. So ethereal, so fascinating…
Magical.
Tiny feet walked on their own, traveling the mountainous path. Lured to the plum wood medieval door framed in ogival arches.
"…Tootie?" Rose called out, reaching deaf ears before her wings flew after her. "Tootie!"
. . . . . .
"A transporter to Fairy World?" Remy inquired from Timmy's explanation of how Tootie had suddenly disappeared and where she'd disappeared to. "Where did you get that?"
"…the godkid I met." Timmy tensed, thinking he probably shouldn't have brought a powerful magical object to school of all places. "It takes a lot of magic for fairies to bring humans to fairy world, and the transporter gives fairies more magic to do it."
"If that's the case...c-can she come back?!" Chloe worried for Tootie. Even with a fairy godmother by her side, Tootie was an outsider on foreign land. "I-Is she stuck there?!"
"Not if we go to her!" the green wristband interjected, giving Timmy an idea.
"That's a great idea, Cosmo!" Timmy climbed his legs from the picnic seats, standing to his feet with his chest raised. "I wish we all had transporters!"
Cosmo sparked his wand, ignoring the flat brow from his wife. The other two godchildren soon received magical transporters in their grasps.
"Wait, what about school?!" Chloe worried next. "The bell is about to ring!"
Timmy wasn't as concerned, starting to think that Tootie may have indirectly done him a favor. "Dunno about you guys, but I don't wanna be here, anyway."
"I'd have to agree." Remy dully remarked. Annoying kids and whacky teachers weren't the best distractions from troublesome memories he'd rather forget.
Seconds later, piercing rings resonated just as Chloe predicted. 1st through 5th graders traveled in disorganized groups towards the cafeteria doors. On instinct, Chloe rose to her feet, readjusting her backpack. Pausing when she noticed Timmy and Remy hadn't moved an inch from where they were "…skipping school?! Seriously?!"
"No one said you had to come with." Timmy confirmed her assumption.
"But you gave me a transporter!"
"That you don't have to use right at this very moment." Timmy shrugged casually. "Since you'd much rather listen to Crockpot drone on about stuff that even he doesn't care about, just to miss out on seeing a big magical castle in a magical world with other kids with magical fairies to see all sorts of magical phenomenon."
Apprehension inhaled sharply through her nostrils. Was searching for Tootie worth her parents receiving a call for being marked absent? Her dad had driven her to school. There're bound to be a million questions!
"…hmph." Remy gave a terse shrug, solely interested in seeing his godfather's homeland. "I'm sold."
And Chloe was a conflicted mess.
"C'mon, Chlo-bird; it's one day." her indigo necklace pressed in her 'let's have fun for once' instead of the 'your education is important' approach. "Remember last week, when you felt so terrible that you wanted to leave? Even you know you need a break."
"B-But my perfect attendance-"
"Is complete rubbish." Remy groused, standing from the table as well. "Harvard won't care about dragging yourself to elementary school." he saw that his purple watch disapproved his blunt tone "…well, they're not!"
Chloe puckered her brow. Easy to say when your family can buy out any American Ivy League without so much as a dent in their bank accounts.
"Look at it this way." Timmy presented a fair point. "If you really wanted to, you would've left for class already. Yet here you are, going back and forth with us and not going to class."
To this, her gap chewed at her bottom lip, stressed fingers tugging at platinum strands. The fear of failing expectations wanted him to be so, so wrong. However, arguing with the truth was impossible. Especially when it's undeniable.
Materializing without their winter coats, three kids and their godparents appeared from prismatic clouds. Greeted by radiant skies and a mountainous skyline that one godchild had visited previously. The grandest castle appeared before them, structured similarly to the very boarding school of witchcraft and wizardry that one godchild had read in her favorite Terry Totter novels. Observing the bright and colorful earth-like scenery with a mythical touch that one godchild had heard his godfather describe.
"So this is Fairy World?" Remy questioned, observing 360 views of the mythical world from the towering heights in which he stood.
"The transporters only bring us to this location." Timmy remarked, standing near Remy. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."
Taking this into consideration, Remy turned to the vast spread of skyscrapers and buildings topped with either crowns or stars that stretched for infinite miles. This world looked simultaneously smaller and larger than he could've imagined.
"You think Rose and Tootie went inside Fairy Fort?" Cosmo inquired, joined in hand by his wife rubbing lethargy from her eye.
"Where else could they have gone?" Timmy figured, finding neither Rose nor Tootie in sight.
"Fairy Fort, eh?" Susie observed the unfamiliar territory given an unfamiliar title.
Juandissimo rubbed his goatee, studying the castle built into the mountains. "Why have I never heard of this place?"
"It didn't exist until godkids wished for it about a year ago." Timmy explained.
"So other godchildren have been here?" Chloe asked.
"Yep, and now so have we." Timmy set off on foot. "Follow me!"
Watching Timmy walk away with his fairies, Remy and Chloe then exchanged puzzled glances before they too set foot with their fairies floating behind them.
At first, Chloe's rapid pulse thought this was a bad idea. How would she explain skipping school to her parents?! However, the further she walked towards the magical castle, the further her qualms subsided from heart-thrashing pulses to lulled hums. The air around them was so calm and quiet, channeling chaotic thoughts in a cohesive, orderly train.
Reaching the plum wood doors, Timmy's palms pressed against the door in an unloose push, indicating that the door was unlocked. He led the group inside to stainless glass windows casting natural, colorful shimmers along amethyst stoned walls and stoned floors marbled in deep-plum, scanning deep-violet furniture vacant of occupants.
"Tootie!? Rose!?" Timmy called out, hearing nothing but the clink of Cosmo shutting the entrance door behind him.
When no response came, Susie thought to take out her cellphone in attempts to just call Rose. Lifting the flip-phone to see 'no service' in the top right of the screen. "Why am I not surprised…"
"What's wrong?" Chloe asked to her godmother's sigh, seeing Susie shut her phone to return to her back pocket.
"Can't get any service in here." Should've figured from the high altitude.
"That's cuz this place is somewhere to like 'disconnect' or whatever." Timmy faced Susie in his explanation, then looking way to mumble to himself "Didn't think that meant literally…"
Chloe surveyed the flying buttresses hanging from the high ceiling, as well as the massive pearl-marble staircases with access to multiple floors and the sconces of burning candles mounted the walls. "This looks almost identical to the Griffinsnore common room…" Chloe thought aloud, though she could be incorrect.
"It does?" Susie questioned.
"Yeah." Chloe took vigilant steps towards 17th-century furniture, a soft finger brushing along deep-violet suede of the largest couch. Dwight was the only other godchild known as a fellow Terry Totter fan. Was…he one of the godchildren to wish for this castle?
A towering fireplace bricked in amethyst drew silent strides forward. Arms crossed against his clenched chest, mint-green studied the heatless flames dancing from uncharred wood. A fire that didn't burn was not the anomaly that creased Remy's gaze.
It was what the fireplace represented…
Gold auburn cackled in the glowing warm radiance within the white brick of the living room fireplace, reaching the tallest height of the wall lined in green dollar signs paneling the wallpaper. A nanny and his beloved eight-year-old boy were cuddled along the white Victorian couch facing the fire. Loving arms held him as his young cheek nestled against the grown man's chest, their lower halves covered in a wool blanket the shade of money green.
Tender fingers grazed behind blonde spikes, mint-green weighing more and more with each loving touch. The nanny's other hand rubbed massaging circles to the boy's back, fluttering his eyelids before they closed peacefully.
Lifting his head from the armrest when he heard the softest snores, a low sigh lowered his head back. Continuing to massage the boy's back until temptation slowly drifted down. Traveling beneath the blanket to the small hump underneath pajama pants, he muffled the amorous groan in his throat when his eager palm reached the pajama pants.
He too closed his eyes, and kneading fingers squeezed as another groan breathed past parted lips, louder than the last.
Snapping mint-green awake when he felt something poke-
"Are you alright?"
An audible gasp gawked in the eleven-year-old's flinch when tender fingers gripped his shoulder. Blue-violets etched in the same concerned that the other godchildren and their godparents shared, staring back at him.
Remy cleared his throat after furrowing his brow, shame softly removing his godfather's hand as he choked "…I'm fine."
Even Timmy could tell Remy was lying. He also knew that if Remy was like him in the slightest, he'd than likely want to keep those troubles locked in their cage. Why make godparents worry more than they do already?
To spare Remy further unwanted attention, Timmy reverted to the original purpose of being here. "Tootie and Rose could be anywhere in or near this castle."
"Is it really bigger than it looks?" Chloe questioned. Though Fairy Fort looked like Snogwarts, the exterior didn't seem that large to her.
"Definitely." Timmy confirmed. "Anyone can get lost if they don't know where they're going."
"Then let's split up." Chloe suggested, walking towards Remy and Juandissimo. Taking an initiative not hindered by self-doubt. "We could cover more ground that way."
"Good idea." Timmy agreed, approaching Cosmo still holding Wanda's hand. "Cosmo, Wanda, and I will search the leftwing. You, Susie, Remy, and Juandissimo search the right."
"How would we alert the others if one of our groups finds them?" Chloe asked, making Timmy tap his chin.
"How about we all just meet back here whether we find them or not." Susie proposed. "Let's say, an hour?"
"Does it take an hour to cover this entire castle?" Juandissimo quizzed.
"I dunno." Timmy wasn't certain, yet he kept his optimism. "Guess we'll find out!"
Chloe and Susie covered the left side of the bricked hallway while Remy and Juandissimo traveled along the right. Venturing down hollow corridors of brick, a subtle chill in the air that felt oddly cozy at the same time. Having searched half the hall so far, they discovered bedrooms decorated as described in Terry Totter, nearly to a tee. If Chloe had forgotten that she was in Fairy World, she might as well be walking down the same corridors as Snogwarts. Living another life far different from her own.
Approaching another room, Remy opened the door to another bedroom. Cautious steps entered a bedroom with a chandelier mounted to the tall ceiling above the queen-sized bed. Reflective light from the hallway glimmered sparkles into its crystal icicles. Just like the crystal leaves dangling from the ceiling of Mr. Nicholas' old bedroom, his personal prison. Where Mr. Nicholas would coerce his way, doing things down there with his mouth-
"What do you dream about?"
"What?" Remy blinked, turning to the attentive stare that tightened his throat.
When Remy was staring at the fireplace, from Juandissimo saw, Remy was not in awe at the fire that didn't burn. He was troubled. And knowing from his own experience, this could indicate repressed trauma. "You have been mumbling in your sleep lately." he voiced his concern, hovering in the doorway. "Tossing and turning, murmuring the word 'no.'"
Remy opened his mouth only to then clamp it shut, averting his eyes. Since his former nanny's termination, he didn't want to talk about what haunted him. The pain was always easier to deal with buried beneath a suppressive grave in the hopes of it never climbing back above ground…
"Hey, guys! Come check this out!" Chloe grabbed their attention, a beam in the rare curl in her lips that led godfather and godson to share quizzical glances.
Susie held open the wooden door to the ceiling painted in underwater gradients above the circular pool built into the stoned floor. A wall of stainless glass shimmered in the flat waves of aqua chlorine, a sheer waterfall cascading from the wall of the deepest end. Within the corner of the room was an unoccupied jacuzzi bricked into the ground, the wall of the jacuzzi lined in lights wading rainbow hues in the otherwise clear water.
Juandissimo hovered behind Remy scanning the surroundings as Chloe ran over to the pool without a second thought. Kneeling to the edge, scooping lukewarm water with her fingertips. She watched the walls of sheer water pouring into flowing waves before she took off, running along the pool's edge.
"Be careful, Chloe!" the fairy godmother called out to her goddaughter's carefree jog to the waterfall at the other end of the room. Her heart thumping as Chloe balancing on her knees once she reached the pool's edge, stretching her arm so that her fingers could catch a couple cascading droplets.
Delight widened in Chloe's smile as water splashed in tiny bounces off outstretched fingers, and Susie's heart began to settle in a small grin. Susie was surprise; the Chloe she knew would never carelessly run so close to the edge of a pool. The Chloe she knew had never been so worry-free with not a care in the world. It was nearly as refreshing as that pool water was assumed to be.
She didn't know it was possible for this Chloe could exist, though it was what Susie had always hoped for her.
Having traveled to the back end of Fairy Fort, Timmy walked through the castle nave leading out to the back mountains. Taking a few steps before scuffed imprints of babydolls within the rocky dirt trail caught his eye. "She must've gone this way." Timmy pointed down the pathway threading through the mountain. "Let's go."
Starting down the trail of a steady incline, Timmy looked to his right, admiring the scenic views of other rocky hills and valleys stretching for miles. When he looked up, he imagined reaching a hand to touch the stars. A chilly breeze swayed his hair, flapping his pink shirt. Even with the breeze, he could still hear his own breaths. He stayed close to the mountain wall on his left; no safety rails equaled more chances of a misstep going catastrophically wrong.
Still hand in hand with his wife, the green fairy glanced over to at her pink wilted stare. She held her bulging stomach with her free hand, and while her body was there with them, her mind seemed elsewhere. Her silence kept gnawing at the notion that something was wrong, and he couldn't mask his downward smile. "Are you okay?"
"Nausea kept me up all night…" she mumbled her first words since getting up that morning. Her free hand rubbed her dry eye once more. Only a few weeks in, and her body felt like an extra roommate was living rent free and sucking all her resources.
"You should've stayed home." Timmy overheard the conversation behind him. He'd noticed his godmother's withdrawal, but in judging her less than stellar mood, he'd chosen not to somehow make things worse.
"Part of me wanted to." Wanda's was wearily honest before she exhaled deeply. "But I couldn't…"
Cosmo tilted his head, softly squeezing her hand. "Why?"
Wanda gently squeezed his hand in return, keeping her eyes lowered. Admission of downfall made her pride feel weaker than her body felt. "They'll come a point in my pregnancy that slows me down, and…" she paused, preferring to skip the whiney details. Meeting her husband's stare focused on her "…I just want to spend as much time with my two boys as possible."
Keeping his eyes on where he was going, warmth swirled in Timmy's heart. 'My two boys.' Man, he loved the sound of that.
The trio continued along, traveling lengths that felt like over a mile. Following the scuff marks until they stumbled upon a large chasm within the mountains connected by a viaduct bridge. The small glimpse of a star-shaped transporter clutched in the hand of a raven-haired girl, peering over the stone railing as teal eyes and marmalade curls hovered beside her.
"Tootie!" Timmy's call echoed through the mountains, running onto the viaduct. Though Tootie didn't stray from the slow stream of turquoise creek below, Rose snapped to the boy and his fairies approaching them, sighing in relief.
"So sorry for disappearing like that!" Rose apologized on her godchild's behalf. "I didn't even see her grab that little remote thing."
"The transporter." Wanda mustered a grin. "And it's not anyone's fault."
Seeing that Tootie had yet to acknowledge the newcomers, Timmy took cautious steps to the stone rail, standing to her right. Widening his eyes when he looked down at how high they towered above the creek. He swallowed the lump in his throat. Heights had never been a fear of his, but the slight vertigo couldn't differentiate this from standing on the roof of the Empire State building with no harness.
He looked at her frozen stare. "…aren't you scared being this high up?" when he saw her shake her head in denial, he had to ask "How?"
She made the conscious effort to meet his inquiring gaze, locking eyes. Baby-blue briefly looked away from the weight of her purple stare, something that normally happened the other way around.
And then, he heard the faintest whisper.
"…I'm safe."