Faerie (15 page)

She managed a smile at that.

“Yes, pretty normal...” Lily hesitated for a moment, desperately groping for the right words. She had the terrible feeling that there weren’t actually any words in the dictionary that would cover this situation. She just dived in and hoped for the best. “Kieran, have you been having any bad dreams lately?”

There was a frown and not very well hidden beneath it was a ripple of disquiet.

“Why d’you ask?” He tossed the comment away casually, picking up another flower head. Lily reached out and took it away from him, forcing him to look up.

“Kieran, have you been having any bad dreams lately?” she asked again, her voice demanding this time.

There was a moment’s hesitation, a cautious glance... and something that looked like guilt.

“Yeah, so what?”

“We’ve all been having them, Liam, Sarah, and me. Exactly the same dream.”

He was suddenly defensive.

“That’s not possible, people can’t have the same dreams.”

Lily stared him straight in the eye, and said:

“No, they can’t.”

Kieran looked hard at her for a few moments, studying her face, trying to glean some kind of clue from it. Lily suspected that all he was seeing was sheer blind panic.

“What are you saying? If it wasn’t a dream what was it?”

Lily drew in a breath, loaded with as much oxygen as her lungs could take and blew it out again to try and calm herself and stop her voice from shaking. It didn’t work, she was shaking from head to foot, voice and all.

“There’s a place between waking and sleeping, when the mind is far more open to outside influences. When someone is hypnotised they go into that state and they can recall things that have happened in the past and do things they would never normally do... but when someone is in that state, creatures that are not part of this reality can find their way through to us to influence us for good or bad.”

Lily could see from Kieran’s face that this was not going well.

“That’s bollocks. It was just a dream.”

“You thought you were awake, but you couldn’t open your eyes or move – you were paralysed and you were very afraid, you wanted to wake up, but you couldn’t. Then you felt something on the bed, moving up towards you, perhaps some smaller figures holding you down and one large form moving up the—”

“Shut up!” he yelled shuffling backwards, away from her on his behind. The kids looked over, startled.

“It’s okay, just a wasp. Watch out for them,” Lily called across to them.

The colour had completely drained from Kieran’s face, and Lily noticed he was trembling.

“It was just a dream, that’s all.”

He sounded angry, dismissive. She could understand it, if she were him, she wouldn’t want to believe it either.

“But it seemed very real to you, didn’t it? Not like a dream at all?”

He looked away, his gaze focused on some unseen target, while he considered his answer. When he looked back at her any trace of anger and ridicule had gone, instead he looked older, his eyes holding a dark intensity that far exceeded his sixteen years. It was the face of a boy that had seen far too much in his short life.  

“Yeah, it seemed real. I thought I was awake, but I couldn’t move, and then there was something on the bed with me, just like you said...” He hesitated and swallowed, looking as if he were trying to keep from being sick. “I woke up and I thought I caught sight of this black shape, like a man. I know it sounds crazy, but I swear it was a man squatting on the bed. I saw teeth, snarling, green eyes, and then darted out of the window. I thought it was from eating too many Pringles.”

His face was almost putty-like now, grey, his eyes wide and staring, fear finally getting the better of him. Lily closed her hand over his and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Oh Kieran... they’re real. You didn’t imagine it. They’re called the Shadow People, the djinn, and you have no idea how dangerous they are... you can look them up on the net – trust me, they are as real as you or me. I’m almost a hundred percent certain that they murdered Gary Wilcox. He was so scared of them that he had a heart attack and died.”

“That’s nuts,” Kieran said. “Why are you telling me all this? You trying to scare me?”

He swallowed hard, his lips trembling. Lily suddenly understood that despite his bravado, he was still just a kid – a very scared kid.

“I’m just telling you the truth, because you need to know it. Like I said, you and the kids are in danger and I have to protect you.”

Kieran’s face held real fear now; sweat beaded his face, and the trembling was now a violent shake.

“Those sorts of things aren’t real.” Kieran persisted, “they can’t be real.”

Lily growled her frustration and jabbed a finger towards the two children who were now collecting flowers and herbs in every empty receptacle they could find, lining them up in a row like hunting trophies.

“You go and ask Liam and Sarah and decide if you really think it’s nuts. You know that the woman that brought me up was a witch – God knows you’ve teased me about it enough, but she taught me about these things. There are creatures out there, dark creatures that want to do nothing more than harm other people. Have you ever heard of the fey?”

He gave her a blank stare.

“What, are they a new band or something?”

Lily rolled her eyes.

“No, not a new band,” she said, exasperated. “Most people call them fairies.”

Kieran gave a slightly hysterical laugh.

“What you mean like Tinkerbell?”

“No not like Tinkerbell – these are fairies you really won’t want to believe in.”

Kieran shook his head, a wild gesture of negation, jaw set, eyes narrowed.

“No, now way. Sorry, I can’t buy into that sort of crap.”

“You mean that you’re afraid to believe it,” Lily said.

His reaction was immediate and extreme, he lashed out at her like a cornered snake.

“I’m not scared!” he snarled.

Lily patted the air to calm him.

“Okay, you’re not scared. I’m nuts, Liam and Sarah are imagining things, and you can go to sleep again tonight knowing that nothing is going to come and attack you in your dreams. Cool. Just bugger off then.” She stood up and made to walk away from him. A hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. She sat back down, and saw the first tears creep into his eyes, he brushed them away angrily with the palm of his hand.

“What are these things then?”

Lily looked across at the trembling boy, his face tear-stained, blotchy and smeared with dirt and felt overwhelming affection for him. He looked so afraid, so vulnerable. She reached across and closed her hand over his.

“I’ll try and explain, but try to stay strong. I promise, everything’s going to be all right, I promise. We'll work this out.”

“I am scared. I just don’t understand what’s going on.”

“It’s okay, I know, and you should be scared. These creatures, the djinn are where we get the term ‘genie’ from – only these don’t live in magic lamps or ride around on carpets. From what I can make out we’re just dealing with one of them here, and he’s a particularly nasty specimen. These creatures are as old as time itself and pre-date man, each living for thousands of years. When man first appeared on earth, the djinn resented them, believing that they has stolen the world from them. Ever since then they’ve wanted payback. They can only appear in solid form for short periods of time, but they can posses humans and control them to a certain extent, mainly simply whispering in their ears to get them to bend to their will.”

Kieran raised a sceptical eyebrow.

“Why can’t we see them all the time then?”

“The djinn are trapped in a kind of nether region between worlds, not quite able to manifest themselves in solid form for more than short periods of time and causing harm out of spite to make themselves feel better. They can travel vast distances at great speeds.  They’re dark creatures, malicious, greedy and selfish, gaining power by sapping humans of their life force and making them weak.”

“Can you make them stop?” he asked. His hand was trembling in hers, and she gave it a little squeeze of reassurance.

“Yes I can.”

“I don’t want them to come again. I was fucking terrified, I nearly shit myself – I’ve never been that scared in my life. I wasn’t going to say anything because I thought it was just a dream. I didn’t want anyone to think I was going nuts.”

“They’ve visited Liam and Sarah as well. I think it’s been touching Sarah – and we have to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

“What do you mean, touching her?” He suddenly looked furiously angry, all fear gone.

“Just her face so far, thank God,” Lily said, and when she saw the look on Kieran’s face she knew, just knew that Liam was holding back. “You as well?”

“No, nothing like that,” he said, far too quickly, looking away. Lily grabbed him by the tops of his skinny arms and forced him to look at her. His eyes still kept flicking away, as if he was afraid that she could see more than he wanted her to see.

“Kieran, we have to be honest with one another. You don’t have to worry about me judging you...the bloody thing raped me!”

His head snapped up then and he stared her straight in the eye. His face screwed up and he looked as if he was going to cry again.

“It touched me... I...” He did start to cry then, huge wracking sobs. “I felt something down between my legs... first it was a hand...then... I didn’t want to like it... but it felt so good, sucking on me... and I was so scared, but I shot my load, I couldn’t help it.” He could hardly get the words out, so choked with sobs, and he didn’t object when Lily put her arms around him and held him close, letting him sob into her shoulder, soaking her dress with his tears. He clung onto her as if she were the only think keeping him from tipping into a great black abyss of despair.

“It’s not going to happen again,” Lily said, “I can protect you and the kids. I’ll keep you safe.” It must have been the determination in her voice that made him look up, little hiccuping sobs still escaping from him. “And you shouldn’t feel bad about any of it, not how you felt, or didn’t feel, not about any of it. That creature attacks when you are at your most vulnerable – that place between sleeping and waking, when you are neither world. In that place, it’s hard to tell where dreams end and reality begins, and we get lost, so easily lost. You have nothing to feel ashamed of, or guilty about, but I do promise you, we can stop this.”

“But why are they doing it? What, are they just some kinky fucks that get off on raping people in their sleep?”

“I don’t know why they’re doing it, but I’m going to find out. In the meantime, I can keep them away from you.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out the charm bag. “A friend of mine, gave me a charm and it does drive them away. Last night, when you came in because you thought I was hurt, this charm had just driven away one of the creatures – that was the noise you heard. I’m making some for you, Liam and Sarah – that’s what the kids are doing right now.”

She handed him the small bag.

“What’s in it?” he asked, taking it and turning it around in his hands.

“Just herbs and plants, nothing harmful, but it will keep them away. I’ll make one for you – just wear it around your neck or pinned to your tee-shirt when you go to bed. They can’t stand to be near it. I’m not going to be here for much longer, so I need to rely on you to make sure that the kids wear them every single night when they go to bed. Claire never bothers to check on them, she always expected me to do it, but if you volunteer to take over, she’s not going to say no. I know I’m asking a lot of you, but lives are at stake here. How long do you think it would be before they stopped giving Liam gifts and began hurting him as well?”

Kieran’s face took on a look of grim determination.

“It’s okay. I’ll do it, whatever it takes, I’ll do it. I’m not letting those fuckers near the kids again.”

Kieran looked down at the bag in his hand and she could see the sudden realisation dawn on him that everything he thought he knew about reality and the nature of the universe was just illusion. She was tempted, very tempted to tell him everything, what she was, everything, but she realised that would only put him in even more danger. Perhaps she would tell him one day, but not today. He looked up at her and there was a sudden sense of purpose in his eyes, a resolve that hadn’t been there before.

“This is all real, isn’t it? These Shadow People, they’re out there and they’re real. And they are trying to hurt us.”

Lily felt her own tears coming.

“I’m sorry, but it’s my fault. They’re trying to hurt me through you,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”

And she suddenly realised something, something she should have realised long before now. She couldn’t leave these kids at the mercy of the Shadow People, one or many, the danger was far too real. She couldn’t move into her new flat. She had to stay here and protect them.

“Oh, God, what am I thinking? I can’t leave. I’m going to ask Claire if she’ll let me stay on. I’ll offer to do all of the housework, take care of the kids, do everything. She can have my dole money and when I start working I can give her bed and board. She'll go for it if it means that she can get out of doing the housework.”