Alyssa
The storm began without warning. This is bullshit, Alyssa thinks to herself. She knows she checked the weather app on her phone before going out and there wasn’t supposed to be any rain for days, let alone a full thunderstorm. And of all times it had to start, it was during her walk? While she’s maybe ten minutes away from her house, even? Whatever joke the weather is playing on her, it isn’t funny. And of course she didn’t bring an umbrella with her. Who would in this situation? Like a turtle tucking their head into its shell, Alyssa tucks hers into her hoodie and sprints back home.
She tries to stick to the treeline of the woods near her street to shield herself from the storm. In her haste to get back home, she slips on the wet pavement and finds herself sliding down the hill, splashing directly into a massive puddle at the bottom. Soaked from head to toe, she tries to wring out her clothes to no avail. “Fucking awesome!” she can’t contain her frustration any longer, “can this day get any fucking worse!?”
And then, as if by magic, something suddenly appears right in the middle of Alyssa’s field of view and gently drifts down the ground like a leaf falling from a tree. It startles her at first, appearing out of thin air as it did, but as it softly lands on a nearby patch of moss, she picks herself up out of her puddle and slowly creeps over to investigate. Whatever it was that fell is mostly covered in muck, but she’s certain she sees the delicate figure of a tiny girl, dirty, bruised, and motionless. She takes a look around, praying that there’s someone nearby who also sees this to assure her she hasn’t lost her mind. Realizing she’s all alone, she pokes the tiny girl to see if she’ll respond. When that yields no results, she kneels down to her level and hovers her ear over her tiny body. There she can just barely hear her strained, raspy breaths. Holy shit, Alyssa recoils in shock, she’s alive!
Alyssa reaches out to grab the tiny girl, but hesitates. Should she be doing this? Should she be taking this stranger back with her? It feels like kidnapping, but she’s going to need somewhere safe to rest while the storm rages on. A nearby crack of lightning makes the decision for her; she can’t leave her here. I can’t believe I’m doing this, she thinks to herself, as she gently cups the tiny girl in her hands and carefully moves her to her sweatshirt pocket. Alyssa gets back up and makes her way back home slowly and carefully so as to not disturb her little passenger – and to avoid taking another dive into a puddle, of course.
After several minutes of walking, Alyssa finally makes it home. She takes a towel that’s been hanging off her oven and sets it down on her kitchen counter. As carefully as she was placed inside, Alyssa takes the little girl out and places her onto the towel. Now comes the challenge of just how in the world she’s going to care for her without breaking her fragile little body. She considers cleaning off the dirt and mud covering her guest and makes her way to the bathroom to grab a little cotton ball. She runs it under the sink to dampen it so she can use it as a sort of makeshift loofah to clean the girl off.
Finally getting a good look at her as she cleans, Alyssa notices something… strange about this girl, aside from her obvious irregular height. Across her back, through the muck and grime, she can see… wings? They look like dragonfly wings but, with a silky texture and a faint golden color. Is this girl… a fairy? Upon closer inspection, one of the fairy’s wings seems to be torn, cut right up the middle from the base and splitting it in two. This must be why she’s in such bad shape, but what can Alyssa even do? Can she put a bandaid on it? Is the wing irreparably damaged? She’s still reeling from the shock of having found an actual fairy that her pitiful state is almost too much to handle.
And then there’s the question of where to even keep her. Can she just put her in a jar? No, that would be too degrading. She’s not some bug, she’s practically human! Right? Argh! This is nuts! First she finds out that fairies are real and now she needs to figure out how to take care of one! What do they eat? When do they sleep? HOW do they sleep? In a bed, or some other way? What does someone even do in this situation? She’s so out of her depth; she’s worried she can’t properly help the poor little fairy… Alyssa takes a deep sigh. Now’s not the time for this, right now she’s got a fairy to clean.
Once the fairy has been cleaned off, Alyssa’s mind races once again as to where in the world she’s going to keep the fairy. Her mind wanders to the thought of her old childhood dollhouse. Could that work? It’s buried somewhere in her bedroom closet at the moment, so it would take some time to set up. Maybe she can just put the fairy in a jar for the time being while she works on that. She won’t wake up for a while… right?
Alyssa brings the jar containing her new guest into her room and sets it down gently on her nightstand. Now that she has room to breathe, she realizes she’s still wearing the soaking wet clothes she came in with. The fairy is still out cold and doesn’t seem like she’ll be waking up any time soon… hopefully she can get away with changing real quick. Her mind wanders once again as she struggles to get undressed. A fairy, a real life fairy, is currently in her possession. One would think she’d be accustomed to the idea at this point, after having taken her into her care, and yet she’s still reeling from the initial shock. She has no idea who this fairy even is or what happened to her, but she was hurting, that much was clear. The fairy is pretty cute too… her little wings, her cute hair, and her body is just… so…
Alyssa is drawn out of her stupor by the sound of a very tiny gasp. Her head whips around to see the fairy awake and sitting upright in her glass prison, with the color of embarrassment splayed across her pale cheeks and covering her mouth with her hands. Alyssa’s face turns a similar color as she realizes the fairy has just seen her completely naked.
“Um… h-hi!” Alyssa stutters, trying to maintain a friendly demeanor despite the compromising situation she now finds herself in. “Are you… uh… are you feeling alright? I found you-,” she isn’t allowed to finish, as the fairy lets out a cry of fear and flies out of the jar, frantically searching for an exit. “Wait! You shouldn’t be flying around in your condition!” Alyssa’s concerns fall on deaf ears as the little girl’s screams continue. Operating on instinct, Alyssa reaches out to grab the panicked fairy, but is met with her hand inexplicably being forced back from her. She darts towards an open window but is stopped by the wire screen in front of it.
The fairy’s head spins frantically, looking for a way past the human. Alyssa continues to try and calm her down. “Okay, I’m sorry for spooking you. But I promise I’m not-” she’s again interrupted by the fairy’s panicked screams. Her wings suddenly start to glow a bright shade of gold, as does her once dark hair. The palms of her hands shine with a brilliant light of the same color. In a flash, the screen behind her is blown open, allowing her to escape back outside into the storm. Alyssa panics. The fairy can’t possibly survive out there for long in her condition. She hurriedly dresses herself and runs back outside to find her. Hopefully she hasn’t gotten far…
Lace
Content Warning: Suicidal Ideation, Corpses, and Death (Not Suicide)
It’s just one nightmare after another for poor little Lace. She can still hear the growling of the metal beasts that razed her home to the ground, the screaming of her friends and family as they try to escape the horrors, and the crunch of fairies unlucky enough to find themselves under the pounding boots of the humans that oversaw it all, herself included. She has no idea how in the world she’s still alive or how she ended up in her invisible prison, all she knew is that she had to get as far away from the giant as possible.
Her body is in excruciating pain, her big right wing most of all. The force magic she used to escape combined with the flight has put much stress on her body; she fears she could drop dead at any moment, but it didn’t matter. She had to get back home, to see if anyone survived, to see him again.
Lace should know these woods like the back of her hand by now, but the pain is affecting her more than just physically. Her mind is mush, unable to keep a thought in her head for longer than a few seconds. She clumsily darts between the trees on the path back home. This should be the way, there but with everything going on she can’t be sure. Eventually, she finds herself out of the woods. This can’t be right! She was certain she’d not gone far enough to exit out the other side. She looks around, looks down, then sees the horror before her.
Lace falls to the ground, or more accurately on the stump of a tree that once held the towering abode of many fellow fairies, neighbors, friends, all completely leveled. What once was a dense forest filled with joy and laughter had been reduced to a field of stumps with the occasional unidentifiable, mangled corpse mixed within. She collapses to her knees; she was so tired she couldn’t even muster the energy to shed more than a single tear for the lives destroyed. She has nothing left… she simply lies down and waits for that giant to find her, and hopefully put her out of her misery.
Her prayers are seemingly answered by the quaking sensation of giant footsteps. The human has finally come to put an end to her suffering. She comes into view, blocking out the rain that had been falling on the fairy’s cold, broken body. She’s panting hard, her face peering out of her dark cloak that shields her from the rain.
“I found you…. Thank goodness,” the human says while trying to catch her breath. “I’m really sorry for scaring you!” Such shallow words coming from a human. “I know it wasn’t right to keep you in that cramped jar. I just didn’t know that you’d wake up!” Standing in a veritable fairy graveyard, the human has the gall to try and justify herself. They’re all the same, cruel, uncaring about any but themselves. Lace prays the giant will just get this over with sooner rather than later.
The human bends down and reaches for the fairy. “Here, let me-,” she stops as she finally looks over the destruction, coming face to face with the atrocities other humans have committed. And then something strange happened. Lace’s vision must finally be failing, for she could have sworn the giant’s face was one of abject horror, but that can’t be right. She saw her cover her mouth in shock and a stream of tears trickled across her cheek. This must be an apparition of Lace’s dying mind. No human would ever feel a shred of remorse for the victims of their domination.
The human’s voice is shaky, quivering with despair. “Is… was this your home?” Lace remains silent, for she has no words left to speak. “I… I’m so sorry. I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re feeling…” So, she does understand? Impossible. “Look I… I can take care of you. I may not know anything about fairies but… I want to help.” Lies, all lies! They must be! “I can help you get your wing fixed, and once you’re feeling better, I can bring you back here, maybe help you find anyone that could’ve made it out.” Now this was a step too far. The human dares to give her hope? In the face of all this destruction?
“Here, I’ll get you back to my place,” the human says before cupping Lace in her hands, covering her up with her fingers to shield her from the rain. Lace is in no condition to argue. This is her new life, completely at the mercy of a human. The walk back is silent, save for the somber sound of rain tapping against the human’s body, the world itself seemingly mourning her.