Lily

Lily looked out the window and sighed, dropping her embroidery. There was nothing truly interesting to do within the walls of her father’s castle. She glanced back at the door, and in a moment of unrestrained rage, she suddenly flung the sampler out the window. It spun out over the trees that crawled right up to the foot of her tower, and disappeared into the dark foliage. She wanted so badly to do the same.

Lily leaned her elbow on the window sill and huffed an angry sigh, glowering out at the peach and rose colored sunset. She heard again the voice of her nurse warning her.

‘Don’t go there — there’s creatures who are hiding in the dark.’

But she had been there. All she could find were rabbits and squirrels. She couldn’t tell what was so dangerous about it. She glanced again at the door, and her fist tightened. She would go back again. It was later now than it had ever been when she’d been through the trees before, but she didn’t care. Everything else about the big, wide world made her afraid, but this was a place she wasn’t scared. She got to her feet and leaned out the window, reaching down to test the strength of the creeper that reached in through her window. It was just as sturdy as normal, and she swung her leg over the windowsill. She climbed slowly and carefully down the vines, reaching into nooks and cracks between the stones in the tower when she could find them.

Soon she reached the bottom, and stepped back, into the darkening dusk that filled the woods with a dim violet mist. She looked at it in awe, and marveled at the beauty of the deep color. None of her dresses were colored that way. It looked lovely.

She wandered on through the woods, finding new marvels that came only at twilight, such as sparkling pale flowers and the lovely scented mist that lured her onward. The violet light in the trees deepened to a dark blue that was nearly black in a lot of places, but she was numbed to fear. She wandered on in a naive, oblivious daze, until suddenly a faint, silvery whisper brushed her cheek.

“Don’t worry — just follow me,” it said, and she startled very slightly, looking around with glassy eyes.

“Is there someone there?” she quavered.

“I can give you everything you’ve been dreaming of,” murmured the voice in a high, shimmering tone. She looked around again, and a little, fluttering ball of golden light with a faintly lilac-tinted center caught her attention. A very, very dim little blue humanoid shape hovered in the center. Its sky-colored arms beckoned to her, the motion distorted as though through a candle’s smoke.

Lily stepped towards it, wondering, reaching out a delicate hand to the glowing light. Her fingers breached the orb’s soft bounds, and instantly she jerked them back, sucking at the burned tips. Her wide, doll-like eyes remained fixed on the light, and she continued to follow it deeper into the dark woods.

“You’ll be safe under my control,” tittered the little voice. “Just let me in…”

Lily smiled faintly as she held out a hand, a little more considerate of the fairy’s space, and waited. The little blue figure drew closer, and bypassed Lily’s trembling fingers.

Something stirred in Lily’s mind, and she was suddenly aware that she was hypnotized. She floundered desperately in the dream of the mist, and broke out with a gasp, flinching abruptly back from the sparkling golden orb.

“Everything you want, in gold,” giggled the silvery voice, which did not seem to come from the orb.

Lily shook her head dazedly, and abruptly turned to run, pushing wildly through bushes and thickets to escape as tears began to flow down her face. The orb followed her, undaunted by obstacles. It passed straight through them, inexorable, unrelenting, tireless and dominating.

“I’ll be the magic story you’ve been told,” it whispered.

Lily screamed in horror, sobbing violently as she scratched her face and arms and tore her dress on thorny bushes. “Please, help me!” she wailed, to no one in particular. “Come get me!”

“I am,” said the voice, and Lily screamed as she suddenly found herself at the edge of a ravine, wherein lay a multitude of scattered skeletons, all with vestiges of silk and velvet dresses clinging to their remains. She could not stop herself.

“Just let me in,” breathed the haunting voice as Lily’s feet skidded off the edge.