...four months...

‘You can never disturb these.’

Abbi’s voice rang in Eddus’ memory. He could still hear the seriousness in her voice, and he could still recall the pleading look in her eyes.

‘...not just these ones. Don’t disturb them.’

These. Eddus could barely see the trees around the clearing, let alone the rings of fungi on the ground within it, but he knew that they were there. He’d seen them almost every day for the past week. He’d come to City Park in hopes of finding the young lady he’d spent time with months before.

It was well after midnight. There was almost no light at all. The lampposts that lined the pathway through the park were too far away to cast any light, and the moon was only a sliver in the sky and was mostly blocked by the canopies of the trees.

If he looked at the ground, he couldn’t even see the forest floor, but he could just see the trees surrounding the clearing he stood at the mouth of. If he tried focusing on the trees, he could see only darkness, but could just see the faerie rings, though not clearly. And every time he shifted his gaze while looking at the trees, he couldn’t be sure if the rings didn’t seem themselves to shift and move.

Taking a step forward, he again heard the young woman’s voice in his mind.

‘If you ever see rings like these- anywhere- don’t disturb them.’

Taking out his cell phone, Eddus turned on the flashlight app so that he could see a bit better. It wasn’t very bright, but enough that he could make out the ground in front of him.

Using the light on his phone, he carefully navigated between the pixie rings until he came to the approximate spot where Abbi had stopped him from stepping into one of the rings. It was the same clearing that he had encountered her in. He was sure of it, but he was also certain that the pixie rings were now different. They seemed to be bigger than he remembered, closer together. There was very little room between one another, and there were definitely more of them.

In the glow, Eddus studied the ground in front of him. The ring of fungi was there. He shifted his feet slightly so that he was standing as close as possible to the spot where he and Abbi had knelt with him before they leaned into the pixie ring. He thought about kneeling there again, but decided against it, as now if he kneeled, his feet would touch, if not be inside of the ring behind him.

Pausing, he reflected on why he was there. He wasn’t sure that coming into City Park in the middle of the night was the best course of action he could have taken. Although he was now a bit more sober, at the time he’d decided to come to the park, he’d had a few drinks.

He’d been at Shem’s with his housemates. It was Wednesday, and he’d taken in the play his friends were part of, which he’d resumed doing after Abbi had taken her leave.

The evening began the same way each mid-week had for the past few months. He’d walked from his home in the shipping district to the diner, where he’d had his usual, a sandwich and a coffee.

From there, he made his way slowly to the theatre, where he purchased his ticket and sat somewhere in the middle of the theatre – not so close as to have to look up at the stage the entire time, but not so far back that he might have to sit amongst the other patrons.

After the show, he’d met with his housemates, and they’d gone, as always, to the pub for drinks before going home for the night.

If it hadn’t been for certain remarks made to him by Mo, inquiring as to whether he’d seen Abbi at all, which turned into a conversation about whether or not he’d tried to find her, he wouldn’t even be in the park at this time.

“You didn’t see her?” Jay and Stiles were busy talking to the waitress, leaving Mo and Eddus alone to talk for a few minutes.

Eddus inhaled deeply as he shifted his gaze from his friend to the half-empty beer glass on the table in front of him, shaking his head, exhaling a long sigh. It wasn’t the first time he’d had this conversation, and it had usually been with Mo. Stiles and Jay did ask him about Abbi, but it was usually Mo who brought up the subject, and usually he brought it up while at the pub.

Mo pushed his glasses up with his forefinger, watching his friend sympathetically. He’d asked Eddus every week if he’d seen Abbi. It was both out of curiosity, simply as to whether he’d seen her again, and also because he missed the happiness he’d seen in his friend while the young woman had been present.

“It’s been three months.”

“Four.” Eddus glanced from his friend to his beverage, suddenly conflicted as to whether or not he wanted to finish it or not. He’d gotten used to the weekly questions and usually dismissed them, knowing that they came from a good place. As crass as his roommate could be at times, and as unfiltered as he usually was, Eddus knew that he really meant well.

“Four months, Ed...” Mo said. He was quiet for a moment until Eddus met his gaze again.

Eddus appeared to be looking at something behind his friend. He was remembering leaning into the pixie ring with Abbi. He thought of it often after her departure, whether he wanted to or not.

It had been months since Eddus had watched as Abbi vanished in front of him when she stepped into the faerie ring. And although Mo knew nothing about the ring, he had a point.

At first, he’d given it little more thought than that of questioning if it had actually happened. Then he thought about the fact that it had actually happened. He missed Abbi from the moment she left, and over time, the feeling had only grown. He often thought about their time together. He thought about how it had seemed to have flown by. She’d been with him for almost three weeks, but looking back, it felt like only days.

Eddus wondered again, as he had several times, why the girl had stayed with him; not so much why she’d accepted his invitation to come to his flat, but more than that. Why had she chosen to spend three weeks with him? Reflecting on the time they’d spent in each other’s company, while he was fascinated with her, and probably would have been even without her having been from another world, he still could not see what it was about him that held her interest.

Nothing they’d done in their time together had been in any way spectacular. Looking back, all their activities had been mundane at best. They were everyday outings, and not even all that special, but at no time during them had Eddus felt that she had been bored with him or like she wanted to be somewhere else.

On the contrary, she always seemed to be happy to be with him, and almost as if she were living each moment in the moment. Strangely enough, Abbi had often seemed happy just talking with him, which is mostly what they’d done. She answered his questions and had given him explanations about everything he’d inquired about, as though it was exactly what she wanted to be doing.

But he still couldn’t figure out why she had stayed. Why him? He was nobody, really. Just a guy. She was a faerie, a pixie. She was literally from a world, or realm, as she called it, different from his own.

Eddus was still a bit foggy on how it was possible. He couldn’t quite wrap his mind around a different world, completely separate from the one he knew and lived in. And he could in no way fully accept that she had told him that in her realm, she was physically different, although he would have given anything to have seen what she meant.

But having seen inside of that realm, even if only for a few moments, and then watching as Abbi had instantly disappeared when she stepped over the barrier of that realm, he couldn’t deny any of it, as hard as it was to believe.

And it was hard to believe. Every part of it. From the moment he met her, everything seemed surreal. Every moment, from that encounter on the sidewalk corner down the street from the pub to the moment four months ago when her hand disappeared as he held it, felt unreal. If it weren’t for the fact that he’d personally experienced each of those moments, he may not believe that they had actually happened.

He could remember it all. He could recall everything they’d said to one another. Looking back, every answer to every question he’d asked her he could remember almost word for word, but only as if it were a dream he was trying to make sense of.

Suddenly aware of the crispness of the midnight air, the back of his head began to have a dull, spacey feeling, and Eddus could feel himself slipping further into soberness. He looked around the clearing he stood in, still unable to see anything except what was directly in front of him in the faint light given off by his phone.

For a moment, he looked again at the ring of mushrooms in front of him before carefully turning and retracing his steps. Once again, at the mouth of the clearing, he turned off the light on his phone. He made his way toward the glow given off by the lampposts along the path in the distance, where he sat down on the bench that he and Abbi had stopped at so many months before.

He’d come to the park many times in the months since Abbi left, in hopes of bumping into her again. He’d been from one end of the park to the other and not seen any sign of her. He had seen several other rings of mushrooms and often wondered if they, too, led into the place Abbi had shown him or if they went somewhere else. Remembering what she’d said to him, he always refrained from getting too close to them.

As he sat on the bench in the cool night air, Eddus closed his eyes, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Recalling the conversation from earlier with his roommate, he began to wonder just what he’d hoped to accomplish by coming here. He wasn’t likely to run into Abbi at this time of the night.

Perhaps Mo did have a point. It had been months since he’d had any contact with Abbi, which, as Mo had pointed out, in an implied way, could have been a sign in itself.

Maybe the young woman was gone. Really gone. It was possible. As much as he hated to, Eddus had to admit that it had all been too good to be true. She was a beautiful young woman. How long could he have expected things to go on? He was a human, and she was a faerie. He knew nothing about faeries other than the faerie-tales he’d heard as a child.

He’d wondered several times during her stay with him what she saw in him. While she’d never once seemed bored or indifferent while they were together, perhaps it was not what she wanted in the end.

Maybe... It was possible...

Then again, maybe it was the alcohol. He’d had a few that night and a few more while he and Mo had been speaking, mostly because his roommate had been doing shots while they talked and kept insisting Eddus drink with him. His best friend meant well. But then again, they’d both been drinking.

‘You’re my human...’

Abbi had said that she would be back. She promised. And when they’d met in the park a few weeks after, she’d made a point of telling Eddus that she kept her promises. She could have been acting, but she seemed a little hurt when he told her that he had been beginning to think that he wouldn’t see her again. To his knowledge, she’d never said anything to him that wasn’t true or that she didn’t mean, so there was no reason to think she would not keep her word.

Closing his eyes, Eddus breathed in deeply. He could feel the effects of the drink wearing off, and he felt tired. The night air felt good, and he began to doze. He drifted into the darkness, slowly lowering his head as he sat. His mind blanked as it slipped into unconsciousness.

‘I have never taken anyone into a pixie ring... with or without permission.’

Eddus started, suddenly awake. He could see the pavement in the glow given off by the lamppost beside the bench on which he sat. Raising his head, he looked around with a feeling of hope. He was alone on the park bench. Turning, he saw nothing behind him but the darkness of the park. He had no idea how long he had slept.

It was Abbi’s voice he’d heard. Looking around again, confirming that he was alone, Eddus lowered his gaze again to the ground, feeling deflated. He’d heard her voice as though she was standing right next to him.

It was like a dream, but it wasn’t a dream. It was too familiar...

‘I have never taken anyone into a pixie ring... with or without permission...’

Eddus felt a slight nostalgia as all at once, her words came back to him. He could still see the look of distress on her face as she’d spoken.

‘I should have asked first... No one is supposed to bring anyone into our realm without first being granted permission...’

She’d seemed uncertain, but also portrayed that she might face consequences for having shown him the barrier between their worlds.

‘It could go unnoticed, or this might be the last time I ever see you, Eddus Brandt...’

Without thinking, Eddus stood up, peering in the direction of the clearing of trees he’d been in earlier. He felt cold, and there was a knot in the pit of his stomach. Until now, he hadn’t really given any thought to that part of their conversation that day.

Could she really have been punished for having shown him the pixie ring?

Fumbling with his phone to again turn on its flashlight app, he started back in the direction of the clearing.

Perhaps the reason she’d not been back was that she had gotten into trouble for her actions that day several weeks before. She said that no one was supposed to be brought into her realm without permission.

Eddus stopped momentarily, again at the mouth of the clearing. He had no idea what kind of repercussions Abbi could have faced. She’d only given him a peek into the ring, but afterward told him in no uncertain terms that he was not to disturb any pixie ring he may encounter. Could they punish her for that... would they? He would never tell anyone.

Pointing his phone in the direction of the pixie ring they had entered, Eddus began carefully navigating the rings between himself and it. He stopped at the ring’s edge, the phone’s light shining onto the ground inside of it.

It occurred to him that he may not even be able to cross the barrier without Abbi with him. He didn’t know anything about the pixie ring or how it worked, but he was going to try. Apart from Abbi, Eddus didn’t know anyone inside of it, but he had to let them know that he would never tell anyone about the pixie ring as long as he lived. He would swear it. He would forget that he ever knew about it. Abbi didn’t need to be punished for having shown him.

Eddus turned off the light on his phone, quickly pushing it into his back pocket. Taking a deep breath, he clenched his fists and lifted his foot. He half expected that when he stepped forward that nothing would happen, and that he would find himself standing inside of a ring of mushrooms in the dark clearing.

Closing his eyes, he stepped forward.