Bone Fairy

It started when I was a little girl. My mother used to put glitter on dollar bills that were from the tooth fairy under my pillow. She used to tell me the tooth fairy was a cousin to the sleep fairies that watched over me at night. When I got older I learned, she wasn’t entirely wrong.

At first my obsession seemed harmless: the simple joys of a little girl. My room was decorated in fairies and forest themes. I dressed as different fairies for Halloween and birthday parties. But as I grew older - high school, college: my obsession turned from enjoyment to hard research my family and friends began to worry. But they didn’t know, they didn’t know what I knew.

Everyone told me she wasn’t real. Everyone told me she was a dream I had when I was a little girl but I knew she was real and I was going to prove to the world that not only were fairies real but they were dangerous, evil creatures that were not to be messed with.

As I walked down the hall to my apartment door I noticed something weird on the floor. A small black patch of something but it looked like it was moving. I lightened my steps as I moved forward. Yes, it was clearly moving and … humming? No, buzzing. There were at least ten honey bees gathered around a pile of flowers just outside my apartment door. I looked around the hallways back and forth. I couldn’t see them but I knew they were there. I narrowed my eyes at the ends of the hallways that led back out into the night. Part of me wanted to openly object but I didn’t want to anger them or be the crazy lady yelling at nothing.

I reached over to unlock my door and stepped over the small offering. I locked my door tightly behind me and after turning on the light made sure all my windows were still shut. My empty apartment was just as I left it: cluttered with research on the fairies and spilled salt around the edges of the windows just in case any of them got any ideas.

I moved over to the fridge and scanned the contents for a beer.

“You can’t keep them out forever,” she exclaimed calmly from behind the glass casing. I shuddered at the sound of her voice. Found the beer. I stood up, opened the glass bottle and took a huge gulp of the contents. “If you would just release me - ” I turned and shot a hard glance at her, “they are never going to stop.”

“I can hold them off long enough to get the answers I need,” I replied, now studying the small glass case. She smiled wickedly at me.

“My sisters have already collected your hair, your teeth, your skin. We know you now and if you don’t release me soon you’ll see a new type of fairy you aren’t anywhere near ready to handle.”

“You’ve got no more surprises left.” I took a seat at the table across from her in her cage. She laughed out loud so hard she fell down on her butt. Her little wings fluttered and glittered in the lights reflecting off the glass.

“Oh, you have no idea. Wait till you meet the bone fairies. You can imagine what they take,” she whispered with a wink.

“One of my bones would crush a fairy. I could smash you between my fingers right now. You can’t possibly expect me to be afraid of a tiny fairy trying to steal more bones.” I took another swig of my beer and her smile turned malicious.

“I never said they were tiny.”

Smash! I covered my eyes from the flying glass. The fairy on my desk was back to laughing maniacally. I turned to see a giant fairy cover in bones that were still dripping with flesh and blood as if only recently detached from their previous owners. He stared at me with his beady eyes. I grabbed the salt and threw it in his direction. The fairy in the cage panicked at the spilled salt but the bone fairy paid no attention.

“You’ll have to work harder than that little human if you want to keep all your bones.”