Forest Stop One

The boy shifts his grip, holding tighter around the sweaty steering wheel as he maneuvers his way along the hurried solitude of the open road. All is quiet. It’s him, alone, with the bright flashing lights that dance in formation. The repeated patterns calm his delicate heart.

None of that matters now. He snivels as crystals form in the corners of his eyes. The bumpy car shakes him out of his self pity. The steering wheel locks to the left, he freezes him in the tattered, leather seat. A frenzy of car horns behind shakes him from self-pity into vigilance. The lights converge--growing closer. The wheel unlocks. He swerves right to avoid the oncoming lights and is sent reeling as his back hits the cars ceiling.

The lights converge, then grow black. He wakes. His phone buzzes to life, blinding him.

It’s his mom. Theo, your father and I have decided.

He rolls out of the battered car, falling onto his face into the cold mud. Rain pelts his neck and back. The phone roars to life again. He struggles for air. Clenching his fist in the cold clay, he pushes through until he finds solid ground.
...a boy as feminine, disrespectful, and arrogant as you.. Is no son of ours.

He crashes against the crushed frame of the car, breathing in the scent of moss-decorated branches. The polluted air burns his nostrils. The sight of cracked asphalt seems to burn his eyes. His surroundings taunt him-- the, trees, gnats, and the tiny human on the tip of his nose.

“This world isn’t for you!”, Theo screams.

The fairy flinches backwards, falling into his hands.

Theo’s laughter breaks his hysterical cries.

The fairy guides him from the empty parking lot into the darkness of the forest.They swarm, emitting a blinding, almost familiar light. They dance, laugh, and scream as they surround him. Maybe their inferior minds were threatened? Maybe they decided to dance, instead of scream?

“Please. Save me.” Crystals fall from his eyes, shattering on the ground.

This stops their movements.

He drops to his knees.

“I have..” He pauses. “Nowhere else.”

“We accept you.” Their small voices are a tiny whisper in his ear.

“Stay.” He was always fucking weak; it was unshakeable.

“Yes,” they chanted.

“Whatever you do, don’t venture outside. Trust me.” He extends his hands to the crowd of fae, then points to the shadows of an empty, window-shattered car peering from the edge of the forest. “It’s dangerous.”

In time, some attempt to leave.

In anger, he picks up the winged nuisance, pinching it between two fingers. He shakes it before shoving its miniscule body against the battered car. “Do you want your life to end this way?”

“Never test my patience.” Theo throws the creature’s body down to Earth.

The crowd squeaks, banging their fists against the boy’s small frame, trying to knock him off balance.

The boy still stands.“I don’t want you to leave me.”

---

Calm ensues soon after, he finds his place as ruler of the land hidden from society. A commoner approaches him with a request; fix his mistakes. He looks over from his seat. The town was decimated, and the cheerful faces of the people contorted into sadness. In the passing months, he destroyed everything they owned, everything they worked for. The society was on the brink of chaos. He couldn’t bring himself to care. He crushes the whines underneath his sneaker. Instead of the usual response of aggression they dull their expressions. The crowd contains their rowdiness and avert their eyes.

They don’t care anymore. In the beginning they would kick and scratch when he became violent but now, nothing. The life in their eyes had faded. He killed them inside.
...just as his mom had done to him.

Useless. They had been this way a long time. Another red-headed fairy breaks from the silence to rush at him, a tiny blade firmly pressed into a miniscule hand, and then to Theo’s jugular.

His shoulders slump and he pleads for one more display of kindness. “I’m sorry.”
Does that word mean anything anymore? He closes his eyes.

He accepts his fate.

Photo by Jake Blucker on Unsplash