"What…what do you mean by a curse?" I stammered,
"That's what my people define it to be, you may choose to call it a blessing if you wish. I honestly don't care anyway," she said.
She then moved closer and looked straight at me, "The curse I have inflicted on you is a curse that transferred all my powers and abilities to you in exchange for my life,"
"So you chose to die?
"Yes, I have lived five centuries…Ralph and I thought that it was time for me to leave this world behind and find something better to do in the afterlife. I was supposed to choose a successor for my powers, a fellow fey. But our worlds are on the break of war because humans are now able to wield magic. I have fought for the humans all these years, and I couldn't give this power to a Fey," she explained, "So, I chose you because I feel you're different and meaning you change our worlds. "
"Different how?"
When I asked that question she was already gone before I could even notice, time resumed back to normal and that was the last time I saw Sandra Drake, a girl I had hardly known.
After a week in the hospital. I returned to school, and I know I imagine a lot of o things but this was very weird. No one at the school knew Sandra Drake, she had never existed at all, according to what I kept on hearing from my classmates. It led to me thinking I was mad at some point. When I returned the janitor had been changed and the previous was reported to have transferred to another academy. Everyone seemed convinced that Sandra Drake~~the beautiful blonde girl who had given me a tour around the school when everyone was present~~did not even exist at all.
I almost believed them~~that Sandra Drake didn't exist at all.
Almost.
But Miss Eloise couldn't fool me. She was keeping a firm eye on me, she kept on giving me lectures on how I should deal with head damage caused by accidents and effects like hallucinations. It was clear she wanted me to believe that Sandra didn't exist at all. That was an obvious sign.
Something was going on. Something happened at school that evening.
I didn't have time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Sandra in a different world, with giant eagles, and griffins, but with also terrifying creatures like Minotaurs would wake me up in a cold sweat.
I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. Classes weren't going well, I was casting the wrong spells, and failing tests. Mayfair academy taught its students with an iron fist, so everything was on top of each other. You could finish a dark arts class and at the end of the day, the teacher could give a test based on the topic you had started that very day.
It was hell.
Finally, when the week was over. I was walking back home and an idea crossed my mind. I didn't know I hadn't thought about it the whole day. Sandra's place, I knew where it was, I just had to go there and confirm that I wasn't crazy.
That's what I told myself.
I sprinted and changed course following the street that we had taken the last time.
Her house was down Hallow hill. Where most estates were built, it wasn't a place for commoners, but neither was Mayfair. This was the one city in the world where most politicians who dealt with magical activities stayed along with their children.
I found myself at the same gate we had stopped at before I discovered I had no phone. The gate was painted black with a golden D engraved on the metal.
On the left side was a switch,
Maybe it's a just switch, I told myself. Just a switch.
Am I being paranoid, I stopped my finger before it pressed the switch.
I wanted to know what was going on. My mind was filled with these images of places I have never been to, a world I have never seen, was this a mistake, I thought for a moment.
Then I pressed the switch and the gates opened automatically.
I walked through slowly and frontwards of me was a stoned pathway that cut through the biggest garden I have ever seen. At the end of it was a huge stone mansion with perfectly structured medieval architecture.
I felt like going back and running away because my knees were jelly. Something about this place felt off, so off that, I had to keep my senses up, just in case something attacked me.
I continued moving till I was just three steps from the huge wooden door, which was the entrance to the door when I heard voices inside the house. A man asked a question. A voice that was Miss Eloise's said, "….the boy knows something, Ralph can't seem to let go."
I froze.
I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your mentor talk about you.
I inched closer.
".…he may expose our kind, "Miss Eloise was saying. "I believe her majesty might have transferred her powers to him because we found her dead and the boy alive,"
I was frightened by the sudden sound of glass breaking,
"You may be right, a mere minotaur can't take down someone as powerful as her," the man said.
I inched closer.
"She chose to rather curse a human and give him the power than give the power to her brother," he sounded angry, there was a loud thud that may have been the sound of the man punching the wall.
"Bring me the boy," he ordered,
My lord, the boy's parents are ministers if I am caught," Miss Eloise's voice choked with emotion. "They will find a way to Tlavacus."
They won't Eloise," the man said kindly, "Then we must find a way of separating him from his parents and family, because if what you is true. Then he's in much danger--"
My alarm went off.
The man went silent.
I jumped into the nearby bushes. My heart was hammering, I switched off the alarm. And looked up to see what comes out through the door.
Miss Eloise was the one who stepped out, but no, this wasn't the old woman I knew, she looked different, monstrous-looking to be exact, her eyes were not there what was there were burning flames. Her fingers were stretched into talons and she had a pair of leathery bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs.
I was trembling at the sight of the monster. A bead of sweat trickled down my neck when she started sniffing the air.
"Nothing," she murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since I came to this place."
Mine neither," the man spoke. "But I could have sworn I heard something."
"It's almost dark," he said. "We will have this conversation another time. Just keep an eye on the boy, use magic on him if you need to."
Eloise then walked out of the house, but in her human form smartly dressed in a short skirt and black leather jacket.
I waited till she disappeared out of the area, then jumped out of the bushes and made my way back home, my sister must have been worried over me taking so long. Because last time I did. I almost died.
I walked through the front door.
"Am home," I announced,
The first person that ran up to me was Ron, then she lunged forward and hugged me,
"What took you so long?" she asked
"I had to finish up some assignments back at school," I answered.
"You look awful," she frowned. "Is everything okay?"
"Just....tired."
I turned so that she couldn't read my expression, Ronnie had a talent for that.
Okay, you can go rest."
"Thanks, sis," I head for the wooden staircase that led to the first floor, where my room was.
I didn't understand what I'd heard and seen at the house. I wanted to believe I imagined the whole thing.
But one thing was clear: There was a hidden world of monsters and I had been suddenly dragged into it against my own will and the dream I had with Sandra at the hospital wasn't a dream. She was telling the truth. I might have been turned into a Fey.