Laurel

• Meg Wilson, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2015

David kissed me. It had been one year since I had found out that I was a faerie. It was spring and I was in bloom. David stopped. “What’s wrong?” I asked him “Let’s go somewhere private.” “Now let’s get that flower out,” said David as he lifted my shirt up to untie my flower. The flower unfurled as the scent of fruits whiffed into my nose.
“Can you go?” I asked him. David nodded and turned to kiss me on the cheek “Stay safe.” I heard a loud bang outside my window. I thought it was David so I opened the window and waited.
Massive trolls crawled through my window. One grabbed me and put his hand over my mouth. I couldn’t breathe. I felt ropes unfolding around my wrists and ankles; the troll lowering me to the ground. My vision blurred and I blacked out.
I woke up in the basement of the school. I could hear someone, Jeremiah Barnes. Weeks ago, Barnes had kidnapped Chelsea, my best friend, then a troll hunter had shot him.
I saw David, he was tied up. My hands were bolted to the wall and so were my feet. “Look who’s finally woken up.”
“What do you want with us?”
“Revenge. It just happened that I decided to start with you.” He came over to me with a knife. “Leave her alone!”
“Don’t worry, why waste a good knife on her?” Barnes said, “Do you know how to kill a plant?” David didn’t answer. “You poison it. He stared at me; David was yelling for him to stop. I didn’t do anything. I knew what was going to happen and I knew I couldn’t stop it. The next thing I knew, Barnes was shoving something down my throat. It tasted awful, like Brussels sprouts, the prickles of a rose scratching my throat.
He untied David and he ran over to me, kissing me. Then Barnes untied me, and was gone. The next day, I showed David what had happened to my flower. It had started withering and fading; too early in the spring. So we went to the gate of Avalon.
David carried me out of the car. “Tanami!” David called. He stepped out from behind a tree. “What has happened?” he asked me. “We have to get to Avalon quickly! I will call a winter faerie to open the gate.” David waited at the gate, while Tanami and I went in. Tanami came back one day, with a special seed. He told me to eat it and it tasted awful, but I felt better.
When I walked out the front, Tanami was waiting for me. He walked me to the gate and let me go. I stepped through the gate and saw David. He ran to me and I hugged him. He lifted my face that was wet with tears and kissed me.

A fan fiction inspired by Wings and Spells by Aprilynne Pike