He didn’t know why it was him that had these things. He didn’t know where it had come from in the first place. All he knew was that it made him feel like a weirdo, but at the same time so very special. These things, as he called it, had started happening from the beginning. From the first memory he had, he can remember that he had them. And they had never gone away. They had stayed, and had come back. Every once in a while it made him feel a bit sick, because they were so tiring and they had sucked all the energy out of his body.
The first time someone else besides James noticed that there was something going on with him, was when James and his family had just visited his grandmother at her home. His grandmother had been very happy, there was nothing wrong with her, not even a cough, but James had asked his mother a question that had made her lift her eyebrows a bit.
“Mommy, granny’s gonna die soon, isn’t she?” His mother had only smiled and had told her son not to be so silly. Not a week later, they had said their final goodbye’s to granny at the funeral.
That was the worst vision James ever had, the only ones he had now were a bit silly; like Charlie making an appointment at the hairdresser’s or Matt going out for a pint or two. But they had always been correct, and every time Matt or Charlie wanted to say that they were going out or to the hairdresser’s, James had said, ‘Yes, I know you’re going.’, making Matt and Charlie speechless, looking at each other for a minute or so, and then shrugging, turning and on their way to whatever they were up to. All the visions he had now were totally harmless, until the day that James had saved Charlie’s life.
It went like this; they were doing a gig at some random place somewhere down town, and James had felt a bit dizzy in his head. He saw a light coming down on Charlie’s head and blood dripping out of his mouth. Not ten seconds later, a light came down from the ceiling and James had screamed that Charlie had to move. And so he did, making the light coming down on the stage, little light crackles coming out of it.
A normal Sunday morning, James was alone in his apartment, no one there. Peace and quiet at last. Matt could be so hyperactive sometimes. And Charlie and his posh accent were doing his head in too. Well, sometimes. He wouldn’t give up on neither of them, not ever. They were his best friends for the time being, them two and him made a band. Without them, he was nothing else than a terrific songwriter and singer. But then again, as he thought, he wouldn’t go far without those two mentally retarded dudes. He wouldn’t want to either.
As he ate his self made (read: tried) breakfast; bacon, egg and all that other greasy stuff that would make other people as fat as I don’t know what, he was thinking. As he always did on an early Sunday morning. Especially now; it was the beginning of May, and it was getting warmer with the day. And as he was going to spend his day alone, he wore only ¾ trousers and a sleeveless shirt around the house. Occasionally pulling off the shirt and bathing in the sun on the balcony that had a view on the messy garden of the people that lived in the apartment underneath him. He didn’t give a shit, no one could see him, no fans screaming for an autograph, or paparazzi shooting away with their huge lenses. He lay there, in the sun, not giving a shit about anyone else in the world. His eyes closed, hidden behind dark sunglasses, occasionally sipping from his drink that was stood on the side, he felt something soft and furry go up and down his bare arm.
“Hello kitty, how did you get here?” He asked the black cat that was curling up on his lap, also enjoying the sun. He looked over the balcony; he couldn’t remember the neighbours getting a cat. Or the people under him. He couldn’t remember that anyone in his apartment block had any pet, because they weren’t allowed to. He put his sunglasses on his head. He frowned.
“Now, how the hell did you get here?” He more mumbled than even said out loud, to himself, while scratching the cat behind its ears.
“He came with me,” Went a voice coming from out of his little apartment. James nearly got a heart attack, and knocked his drink over. The cat jumped off his lap and ran over to the girl with long, black hair that possibly reached her bum, and curled around her legs.
“And who on earth are you?” James lifted his eyebrows, looking up and down at the girl. “How did you get in?” He was afraid that it was some kind of crazed fan, who found out where he lived and broke into his apartment. He covered his chest with his shirt, looking a bit silly. As if he was trying to hide his nipples or something.
“I’m Emily,” The girl said, picking up the cat and held it in her white arms. “I know.” She added. James blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, she was gone. No where to be seen. He walked in his apartment, looking around. She was really gone. As he looked up, he saw a post-it stuck on the front door. ‘I know’, it said. James scratched his head in confusion. What did she know? Everyone in the whole wide world knew everything about him. There was nothing left to be known. He even once said in an interview that he sometimes could tell what was going to happen. But more as a joke, not like, for real. What could there be left to know? As he thought, the phone rang. With his head still with the girl, he picked up.
“Hello?” James said, while watching the post-it in his hand, reading it over and over again.
“Hey mate, it’s Matt. You really busy today?”
“No, not really. Why?”
“Nah, no reason. Just wondering if you’d like to go and do something. I’m bored like shit, man.”
“Yeah, okay. Come round my house. We’ll think of something here.”
“Yep, will do. See ya in a minute.” A monotonous sound was heard, telling James Matt hung up.
Not fifteen minutes later, Matt was stood at the door, his face a little dropped. James looked up at him, one eyebrow raised.
“I know,” Matt said, James raised his arms into the air. “I look like shit.” Matt sniffled around in the air. “What’s it that I smell? Has there been… …there was a cat here. James, I didn’t know you had a cat?”
“I don’t,” James began. “There was this strange girl in my room today and she brought a black cat with her.” Matt looked at him with his eyes sparkling.
“You had a girl last night? Well done, mate!” He punched James lightly on the arm. James sighed.
“No, I didn’t have a girl last night. I was on the balcony, and this cat just curled up on my lap, and then that weird girl stood in the room. She was gone in a second. Very weird.” James shook the thought of the girl and her cat out of his head. “Anyway, I’ve got this really cool new game for the Playstation. Wanna try?”
A few weeks went by, James stared more than ever into nothing. His mind never where his head actually was. No one really said anything about it. They got used to his quiet moments, but this time it was worse than ever. But no one was complaining. At least he wasn’t being a bouncing Ping-Pong ball, like Matt was most of the time. He just sat there, staring into nothing, didn’t matter where he was; at home or at some random place for an interview. He only lived up when performing.
On their way to the Top Of The Pops studio, all James could think of was the girl with the long black hair and her fascinating name; Emily. He liked her name. No, he didn’t like it, he loved it, really. It was like only her name itself could enchant him. There was just this thing about her that made him feel all weird inside. Not the feeling that you get when you see the person you fancy. No, it was more than that.
”James. Yo, James, mate. Wake up, we’re here.” Charlie poked his index finger between James’ ribs to wake him up. Matt, already out the car and waiting impatiently for the two lazy fellows, pulled Charlie aside and hung over James.
“WAKE UP CALL!” He screamed loudly into his ear, which seemed to work. James squirmed softly, wiggled about in the car and opened his eyes.
“You didn’t have to SCREAM!” He yelled back at Matt, whose eyes nearly popped out of their sockets of this sudden outburst. “Sheesh…” He added whispering, and climbed out the car to follow his mates towards the dressing rooms. But not before scribbling down some autographs for the fans who were waiting outside, enjoying the sun.
James was happily strumming his guitar and singing the lyrics to their latest single, when a familiar face bopped up and down in the crowd. Long black hair, tied in a ponytail, bouncing along with the rhythm on which she was jumping. James nearly forgot his lines, and had to regain his composure quickly when he finally noticed that he was standing frozen on the spot.
Not two seconds later, the girl was standing at the front of the crowd, standing still, not even the slightest smile appearing on her face, her arms hanging limb along her body. She just mouthed the words again, ‘I know’. James couldn’t take his eyes off of her, he sang the words on automatic pilot, his fingers holding the plectrum and moving over the chords. His eyes were wide, as if in trance. The final fireworks made him snap back to where he was and what he was doing. He muttered something under his breath, whispered a thank you and left the stage. One look over his shoulder told him that the girl was gone once again.
“Okay, can you please fill me in on what you were doing up there?” Matt questioned as soon as they were back in the dressing room. James shook his head.
“What do you mean?” Matt rolled his eyes.
“What do I mean? What do I- You were fucking staring!” He shook his head in disappointment. “And I thought you only stared in interviews…” His voice trailed off.
“Howdy party people!” Charlie happily cheered as he walked in. A huge smile was plastered onto his face. He automatically turned to Matt. “Dude, have you seen that fit bird that was standing at the front? The one with the long black hair. Oh hell, I wouldn’t mind her for a night.” Matt only lifted his left eyebrow, and glared over at James.
“Was that what you were looking at? A fit bird?” James was sat on the dark blue couch, his legs spread, slumped down, his arms lifelessly next to his body. He was staring at the floor, or more at Matt’s shoes, unconsciously.
“Emily,” He said, in almost a whisper. His head slowly moved up to look at Matt’s. “Her name is Emily.” Matt threw his hands up in the air in mock surrender.
“What the hell has gotten into you?” Charlie’s happy face and Matt’s angry one, dropped as soon as they saw James staring to the doorway. A girl, with long black hair, possibly reaching her bum, stood there. A blanc expression and the same glaring eyes as James had. They just stared at each other.
A minute went by, everyone still standing on their place, not moving an inch. James and the girl were still glaring at each other, Matt and Charlie watched as they did this. Suddenly, James blanc expression turned into an angry one.
“Why the hell can’t you just leave me alone!” He screamed, only his mouth moving. One side of the girl’s mouth turned up into half a smile.
“I know, James.” With that, she turned, her long black ponytail right behind her, waving about.
That very same night, James dreamt about Emily. He had dreamt about her before, usually harmless dreams about her dancing and prancing around in a large, green, filled with daisies, field, her long black hair getting blown up into the air by the wind. But this time it was a bit different; Emily was dancing in the field alright, but all of the sudden, dark clouds filled the clear blue sky. It started to rain, a cloud of thunder dangerously close. The girl giggled, had taken James’ hand and pulled him under a large oak tree nearby. Knowing it wouldn’t be safe under a tree, he tried to get up, but Emily just sat on a small patch of grass, smiling and pulling James back onto the grass. James tried to object, but Emily placed her index finger on his lips and tutted. Her face came closer, James could clearly hear the thunder coming closer. Emily’s lips touched his, a warm feeling entered his body as she stroked his cheek, her other arm resting on his. James put his hand in her neck, kissing her back passionately as he did so. He felt her hand going up and down over his arm, then a sudden sharp pain going right through it. His lips left hers, only to see a long, bleeding scratch over the whole length of his lower arm. Tears pricked in his eyes and blurred his vision. Emily became one with the dark background and James woke up, practically bathing in the sweat. The pain was still there, however, and when he got his arm out of under the sheets, he saw a large bleeding scratch over the whole length of his lower right arm. Watching it, the blood got sucked back into the scratch; the wound closed, a crust appeared upon it, disappeared and only left a long scar to be seen. James looked at it in awe, he felt the scar; it’s a bit warm. Clammy, too. A lost tear escaped from his eye, dribbled down his cheek and landed on the sheets. He didn’t know why he was crying, it hadn’t hurt, not even a bit. It was just a really weird feeling, not to mention, sight, for that wound to heal up so fast.
A photo shoot the next day. James and the lads had always hated photo shoots, but this time, James feared the camera more than anything; the scar was still there, on his arm, not exactly being invisible and he was wearing a t-shirt.
Matt didn’t just look when James was sitting in a chair, a woman doing his make-up, he more stared. His eyes followed the beginning of the scar on the inside of James’ elbow, towards his wrist. He actually stretched out his arm to touch it, but thought better and pulled his hand back. Matt bit his lower lip and reached out again.
“What do you think you’re doing?” James asked when he saw Matt fingertips nearly touching his arm. He quickly put his arm on his lap, trying to keep it out of sight.
Matt looked up at James, his eyelashes fluttering against his eyelids. He fiddled with his fingers a bit before answering,
“You’ve got an ugly scar there up your arm, James.” He put it in such a way, that James sort of had to explain what happened. He couldn’t tell Matt the truth, could he? It wasn’t like he would believe him anyway.
“Scratched my arm when I fell out of bed the other night.” Sounded reasonable, he would probably believe him; Matt wasn’t the smartest of people. Or at least, James thought he wasn’t.
“And you’ve got a scar already? Goes fast, mate.” Matt couldn’t help it anymore, but grabbed James’ wrist for a closer look. “You sure you only scratched your arm? It looks kinda deep to me.” James pulled his arm back. “ Sorry,” Matt muttered. “make-up artist will have a lot of trouble covering that.” He nodded towards James’ arm.
Two hours of a gurning Matt and a Charlie who looked depressed as always on photos, passed by. James was completely and utterly knackered. He actually fell asleep straight away as soon as his head had touched the soft material of the car’s backseat.
With a cushion in his neck, squeezed in between Matt and Charlie, he curled up into a foetus position and fell asleep. Charlie grabbed a green and blue chequered blanket from out of the boot and draped it over James’ shoulders and bare arms. As he squeezed James’ shoulders gently, he felt the shape of the bones underneath the skin. James never was the fattest one, but you couldn’t call him skinny either. He was just good as he was, but now Charlie could feel the bones. He hadn’t really noticed, but James had certainly lost a bit of weight. Charlie wasn’t one to keep up with other people’s weight or anything, and he didn’t notice James losing his bit of weight either, because they saw each other nearly every day. Charlie blamed it due to stress, but in the back of his head he knew better than that.
James woke up just the second the driver parked in front of his apartment block. The driver had already brought Matt and Charlie home. Languid, he dragged himself to the front door of the building, pushed the button for the elevator, stepped into the elevator, went up in the elevator, stepped out of the elevator, fished the keys out of his pocket and opened the door. He nearly broke his neck over the pile of mail that was in front of his feet. All addressed to him, all in the same handwriting, same stamp on each and every one of the letters. He kneeled next to the pile and opened one of the envelopes.
‘I know’, it said. He opened another; the same message on it. Another one, same message. He rapidly opened another four of the letters, but only to see the same message in all of them. He groaned to himself, flopped onto the floor and cupped his face in his hands.
The glass doors that lead to the balcony, flew open, making James jump up. He walked straight up to the doors, to close them, but instead, he stared out and over to the balcony. A black hole was floating just above the edge of the balcony. James’ hands tightened their grip on the balcony doors. A sudden sucking strength coming from out of the black hole, made James holding on even tighter, but to no avail. He got sucked into the black hole.
His stomach turned, his hair was in front of his eyes, his arms got sucked into different ways, his legs dangling lifeless under his body. He closed his eyes; the colourful lights from the whirlwind became too much.
He fell down onto soft grass, breaking his fall. He opened his eyes and looked behind him, seeing the black hole closing behind him. When it was disappeared, a forest rose up in front of him, the grass underneath his now bare feet, grew about three inches, hidden birds chirping around him in the trees.
A small ball blue light, of about two inches, rapidly flew over his head, pulling a hair out of his head on the way. James showed a painful face and pulled a hand through his dark blonde hair. Another small ball of pinkish light flew past him, but this time, James could clearly make out a little head and small arms waving about. The wings of this bug fluttered about in the air, and it stopped in its tracks in front of James’ face. It waved with the small hand,
“Hello,” It squeaked. The long blonde hair of the little fairy was draped over its shoulders, a rose petal served as clothing. James just stood there, inspecting the big, talking bug flying in the air. He lifted his arm, his hand forming a fist, only his index finger reaching out. He softly, and quickly, touched the bug, pulling his hand back in a flash when the bug hit him with its hand.
“Didn’t your mother ever taught you, you can only look with your eyes?” The bug giggled, its small hand covering its tiny, almost invisible red mouth. James’ eyes just grew larger, one eyebrow pulled up. The little flying bug twirled about in the air, humming a familiar song. “You’re James, aren’t ya?” Its little arms waving in the air to the rhythm that it had been humming before. James held his head a bit to the side, still inspecting this, this weird bug. His hand flew into the air and grabbed the fairy by its small frame.
“Who are you, where am I and why the fuck am I here?” James squeezed a bit harder when the bug didn’t say anything. The fairy just looked very afraid, and tried to calm itself down. It took a few deep breaths and placed its small hands on James’ index finger that was around its body.
“Let go of me,” The little bug brought out, the last bit of air got squeezed out of its tiny lungs. James shook his head furiously, and squeezed a little harder, determined to get some answers. The pink light that surrounded the bug, turned into a shade of red, and it became a bit warm in James’ hand. No, hot more likely. James quickly let go of the fairy when it had become so hot that he almost burnt his hand. The fairy dusted its rose petal off,
“There, there. You didn’t have to get all angry with me, James.” James didn’t pay attention to the bug, but inspected his hand. It had hurt, and not just a bit. “Sorry bout that.” The fairy squeaked, and touched James’ hand, making the painful feeling go away.
“Well,” the fairy started and sat on James’ shoulder, its legs waving about. “I’m a fairy, if you hadn’t noticed. You’re in the Forest of Magic and you’re here because Queen Emily wants to speak to you.” The fairy showed James the directions that he had to go. “You’ve already met her, she’s the girl that annoyed you so much.” Again, the fairy started humming a song. This time, James recognised it as one of the songs of the first Busted album, being ‘Year 3000’. “However,” The fairy flew off James’ shoulder and floated in the air, just a few inches in front of James’ face, making him look a bit cross-eyed. “Emily wasn’t the one who caused that scratch on your arm.” James thought for a moment and looked at his arm, his forehead wrinkling as he did so.
“Who was it, then?” The bug shrugged, for as far as a bug can shrug.
“Beats me, you gotta ask Emily that. But,” It flew back over to James’ shoulder and sat. “I have reasons to believe that it has something to do with Hex Iceshimmer…” Its voice trailed off and kept quiet for a moment.
“Who’s that?” James asked out of curiosity, while making his way through some random bushes to follow a gravel path that lead to an enormous castle in the distance.
“She’s evil.” The fairy bluntly said. “She lives in places hexed and tainted by black magic and she’s only seen when the first flowers begin to blossom.” The fairy sighed. “Which I don’t get, because the myth says that every flower begins to wither as she strides past.” James bucked under a low hanging branch, making the bug fly off his shoulder and back on it as soon as he was standing up straight again.
“Why would she want to hurt me?” James finally began to feel comfortable around the flying bug and the weird surroundings. It actually looked a bit familiar, like he had been there before.
“Just because she’s evil and wants to get in Emily’s way every time she’s up to something.” James mumbled a soft ‘o’ and left it with that. He breathed in the oh so familiar smell of trees and the sounds of twittering birds. He could swear he’d been here before.
“Fairy?”
“Yes, James?” The fairy said light-hearted and crossed her short legs on James’ shoulder.
“Why do I have the odd feeling that I’ve been here before?” The fairy grinned and giggled softly.
“Because…” She started to explain. “…well, I’m not gonna tell you. Emily wants to talk to you about that.”
“Aha,” James whispered and took in the sights of a pastel pink castle. It towered high up in the air, dozens of empty pink balconies sticking out of it, a few lonely pink, with a big white star on it, flags fluttering in the wind. It gave James a feeling like home, for some reason.
“Is she also going to tell me what she meant by ‘I know’?” James blurted out.
“Uh-huh.” The fairy answered and took off from his shoulder. “I’ve gotta go now, the entrance is over there,” She vaguely pointed towards a white bridge that got hold up by long, metal chains, that lead into the castle. “You need to speak out a magic word though. Watch out that no one sees you, because it might get into the wrong hands.” James nodded. “Okay, well. I have to warn you, please pronounce it nice and clear, because there’s an actual wall that you can’t see but you walk into it if you don’t pronounce it clear enough.” Again James nodded. “Right, okay. You’re lucky, because today’s password is ‘Queen Emily’.” She glanced around before saying the password. “Now, off you go!” The fairy concluded and flew away, as if taken by the wind. James watched the pretty fairy fly off, her golden coloured wings moving her in the air.
As he walked over the white bridge, golden details on both of the railings, he examined the outside of the castle; it hadn’t been made out of normal, pink bricks. It looked as if it had been made out of marshmallow fluff, it smelt sweet and nice as James spoke out the password and passed the gate that lead to a square, surrounded with perfectly cut hedges. A large white statue, what looked like a big fairy, was in the middle of a small water fountain, spouting water into the round bath. James took a quick glance at it, and in the water; he saw several square coins lying on the bottom, a few pink and golden coloured fish happily swimming in the clear blue water.
As he looked over the whole of the square, he saw no one. Not even small balls of coloured light that flew about in the air. But if James had looked closer, he would’ve seen at least twenty small balls of coloured light, hiding behind the hedges, all softly whispering to each other, giggling away.
He neared a small stairs of three steps that lead up to two white doors with golden handles. As he reached out to open one of the doors, the doors opened itself and welcomed the visitor.
“Hello, and welcome to Queen Emily’s castle. Please step into the elevator.” James did as he was told. He stepped into the elevator with bright red carpet and a square golden railing along the side. “Press one for general information, press two for Magical administration. If you have an appointment with Queen Emily, please press three.” Assuming that he had an appointment with the Queen, he pressed number three of the three white buttons that were rowed up next to each other on one side of the elevator. He folded his hands behind his back, thinking it probably would take at least a few minutes before he’d be on the third floor. But instead of going up, the elevator turned around and let James out of it, on the opposite side of where he had come in. James stepped out and looked over his shoulder; the elevator doors slid closed and made a humming sound. He turned his head back into its normal position and walked over the red carpet that was rolled out and ended at least ten yards further in the narrow room.
As he walked, he looked at the big paintings that were hanging on the walls; most of them had young girls on them, all looking very pretty with their dark hair, only one or two with blonde hair or light coloured hair, but all those blue eyes that sparkled. Also, they all had this pinkish aura painted around them, making them look angelic.
James almost, almost didn’t notice the door on ajar. He poked his head around the corner, his jaw nearly dropping to the floor; a massive double bed, with a golden frame, was in the middle of the room, surrounded with red and pink rose petals spread on the floor. The walls were plain white, here and there a lost small painting featuring fairies on the wall. If it hadn’t been for the dark spot, he probably wouldn’t have seen the girl lying on the bed, looking awfully bored. She jumped up from the bed as soon as she saw James. Her hair was pinned up, one tuft of hair was hanging loose along her pale face. Her blue eyes glistered in the bright sunlight, her light pink lips forming a smile on her face. She lifted the bottom of her tight pastel pink dress with one hand, walked over to James and greeted him with a kiss on his cheek. She gestured towards the bed, which she and him sat down on.
“Finally,” She began, examining James’ face. She pulled up an eyebrow when she saw James’ smudged t-shirt and her hand shot to James’ when she saw the scar on his arm.
“Oh, dear my, James.” The expression on her face was shocked, her eyes rolled back to James. “I’m so very sorry. This must be extremely confusing for you.” James only nodded; he didn’t really know what to say. This was Emily; he recognised her face and her voice, but she looked so different, more… …angelic, like the paintings on the wall in the hallway. She looked at him for a bit and smiled her ever so sweet smile.
“Well,” She took his hand, held it in between her own and put them on her lap. “I’m glad you have finally arrived.” This didn’t clear up things in any way for James. “I’m surprised you didn’t see it coming.”
“Saw what coming?” James asked, his brain on full speed.
“I mean, you do have those visions, don’t you?” James nodded, but in the last few weeks he hadn’t had any, ever since she came into his life and put everything upside down. “I actually hoped you had seen it coming, so there would be less confusion…” Her voice trailed off. “I know I’m not allowed to say it, but I’m going to kill that Hex Iceshimmer one day.” She said firmly, James couldn’t imagine her hurting a fly, let alone kill someone. “Anyhow,” She sighed and sat up straight. “I think you realise that you’re one special boy, don’t you, James?” A boy? If he was a boy, how old was she, then? He put that question aside for a more suitable moment and nodded.
“You could call it weird, though.” Emily raised both of her thin eyebrows.
“Weird? How do you mean, weird? There’s nothing weird about you. You have a special gift, that I’ve given you when you were born.” So that’s where it had come from! One question answered for James. A few left, however.
“Why?” Simple, but effective.
“Because you’re not exactly your mother’s son…” Once again, her voice trailed off, her eyes rolled away from him and tears filled her eyes. She gave James his hand back and sighed. “I’ve made a terrible mistake twenty years ago, but to this day, I still don’t regret it.” She stood up from the bed and walked in a circle around the room. “To be exact, you’re the son of me and Hex Iceshimmer’s brother.” James gasped for breath; so all these years that he had called the woman that had raised him, his mother? And his dad? “After your birth, a terrible war between good and bad developed in the Magic Forest. I’ve put you on earth so you would be safe.” She wiped a tear off her face with a tissue that she’d fetched from the bedside cabinet. “Your dad died in the war, killed by Hex, but at least you were safe.” She forced a smile. “I hear you’re in a band nowadays?” James nodded and forced a smile himself, but couldn’t help but feel sorry for his mother. Her shoulders dropped and she let out an incredible deep sigh. “I’m sorry I’ve put your life upside down all of the sudden, but it was the only way I could get your attention, by freaking you out, so to speak.” She paused. “But I was telling the truth, you know. I did know you were actually having those visions. And even though you didn’t know, I knew that you didn’t belong on earth.”
“And I’ve been through all this trouble so you could tell me that?” James asked with an irritated tone. “You could’ve just left me thinking that my mum was my mum and my dad my dad. Did you really have to cause all this trouble?” Everything was getting to James, he had listened for long enough. He just wanted to go home, and so he said that. “I wanna go home.” He whispered.
“I don’t think that’s possible, James. Not now anyway.” His eyes shot up to hers, a questioning look spread upon his face. “You have to learn to control your visions, and after that, you are going to be crowned king.” James’ eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as he listened to her words. He can’t just stay in this so called ‘world’! He needs to go home and do band practise for the upcoming tour! She can’t be serious.
“I’m very sorry, James, but that’s the way it’s going to be.” She shook her head. “I didn’t want this to happen either, but it’s what the law says.” James shuffled to the edge of the bed, hit the sheets and stood up. If he was going to stay here for a while, he might start making it his home already.
“Right, seeing that I can’t change the law, where’s my room?” He bluntly asked.
A week went by, James got taught how to concentrate on future happenings in calm and quiet surroundings like in the forest, under a tree.
With his arms folded, he leaned against the tree and sat down on a patch of grass, looking up at Emily. It was his last lesson; the day after he was going to be crowned king of the Magic Forest. He didn’t exactly know what that meant, and he hadn’t asked either, but he was practically sure that it wouldn’t get him back to the real world, where his mates were and his actual life.
“Right,” he said, with his eyes closed and concentrating like mad. “That yellow fairy, what’s her name…”He snapped his fingers in the hope that its name would get back into his memory. “Örrico, is going to have a disastrous accident.” He finished and opened his eyes again. A flash behind his eyes made them roll in their sockets. “Oh hell.” He muttered and fell over on the grass.
“What? What’s wrong? James, what’s going on?” Emily asked concerned, helping him up from the grass. She felt his forehead. “What did you see?” Her forehead wrinkled as she looked at him. James could finally see that Emily was actually getting older. Emily had told him that she’d die probably a few hours after he was crowned king. She was getting older with the day, but only just now, James saw it. Her soft and tight baby-like skin began to wrinkle here and there and tiny wrinkles formed around her eyes when she smiled. And what he had just seen, didn’t make things better.
“I, I…” He stuttered. “I saw you dying.” He collapsed onto the grass once more and held his head in his hands. He never saw someone dying before, except his grandmother, but that was a long time ago and he couldn’t really remember it. Also, he had seen Charlie die in front of his eyes, but this was different. Charlie hadn’t died in the end, because he stopped it. Emily was just going to… die, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Emily smiled her beautiful smile and sat down next to her son, draping an arm over his shoulder as she did so.
“I know it’s scary, James. But it’s going to happen anyway. I know I will die, and I’m not scared of it.” James tried to protest, but Emily shushed him and pulled him in a for a hug. She stroked his dark blonde hair, that didn’t look like hers in any way, soothingly and told him that everything was going to be alright.
“I can’t do this.” James whispered while Emily was almost suffocating him with her hug. “I can’t be a king. I want my normal life back. I hate it here.”
“James, we’ve been through this before.” Emily let go of James and leaned against the tree.
“Can’t I go home and do my king-y stuff from there?” Emily nodded her head slowly, then her eyes began to twinkle. “I mean, like, I can phone right? Or fax, or email?” Emily laughed, quickly stood up from the grass and dusted her dress off.
“Well, we don’t have phones here, no computers and no fax machines.” Again she laughed. “But,” She pulled James up from the grass. “I think, that if it’s necessary, we can transport you from earth to here, to the Magic Forest.”
“You won’t be here anymore.” James said matter-of-factly.
“True, but I’m sure no one will mind. Everyone knows about you anyway.” They walked back to the castle, over the bridge and to the square. “I’ll make arrangements for it.”
The square was filled with little balls of coloured light, elves and birds twittering a song. Emily was speaking to all the people down at the square, James was nervously biting his nails in the room that was attached to the balcony on which Emily was stood.
“You say you don’t know anything about him, but I know you all secretly do.” A wave of laughter was heard coming from the square. “Can I get a round of applause for my son, James?” People yelling, screaming and clapping and James entered the balcony, to be greeted with even louder screams and clapping. He couldn’t help but smile. Emily pulled James more to the front, so people could actually see him and put a weird looking cape over his shoulders.
“Hereby, I now crown you as a king.” A satisfied smile curled around the corners of her mouth. She was looking tired, worn out. She’d only got up out of bed for this crowning. James felt incredibly sorry for her, but he also knew that if he wasn’t getting crowned to king, Emily would die anyway and the magic Forest would’ve been put up without a king or queen.
A dark cloud formed itself in the clear blue sky, taking most of the sunlight away. Emily backed away from the balcony and gasped. A bubble of dark mist came towards the balcony, and landed on the edge of it. James had seen this coming the night before, but he decided to keep it quiet; he didn’t want Emily to freak out and get a heart attack before he would get crowned. However, he didn’t know what would happen after the bubble landed on the edge of the balcony.
The mist disappeared and a woman with black, messy hair, and wearing a black, for what seemed like, cloth draped around her body was stood there balancing on the edge. The whole crowd down at the square boo-ed, some gasping for breath. It was like bad football match, only in a different world and with less than twenty-one people. Two, if Emily wasn’t going to regain her composure, and it seemed like she wasn’t planning to. She just sat there on the floor, her hand on her heart and breathing heavily, the skirt of her dress sprawled over the cream coloured tiles.
“Ah, James.” The woman began.
“And you must be Hex.” James replied.
“Well, how did you know?” The woman replied rather sarcastically. “Anyhow, I’m not here to get slagged off by some child.” She huffed. “Emily,” She began and drew closer to the figure lying on the floor, shaking like a leaf. “I’m here because of you.” She stood next to Emily, looking at her as if she was some kind of dirt on the floor. “Now you’ve crowned my grandson, I think it’s only fair that I get to be part of it.” Emily squirmed and held her hands over her face. James slowly turned on his spot and walked towards Emily, pushing Hex out of the way, and giving her a dirty look. He sat next to her, his arms around her, holding her in a try to comfort her.
“Why don’t you just leave us all alone?” Emily begged in between sniffs. Hex took hold of her cloth and pulled it off her body, to reveal a long, pink tight dress. She waved her hand about in the air, her dark hair slowly pinning itself up. She took Emily’s hand and pulled her up from the cold tiles. Emily was getting weaker with the minute and Hex actually had to support her while basically dragging her to the balcony. Again, the crowd down on the square boo-ed, angry sparkles left the little bodies of the fairies.
Hex stretched her arm out and pointed to the dark edges of the Magic Forest in the distance, where the trees were high and brown and stretched out over a big desert. That was where the Magic Forest ended and the black Magic started, until that day. Hex waved her arm about gracefully and just as she passed her hand by the beginning of the end of the Magic Forest, the dark brown trees and the desert disappeared and made place for green trees, twittering birds and here and there a hidden waterfall that flowed into a bath of clear blue water. Emily laughed softly, tears still leaving the corners of her eyes and dribbling down her cheeks onto the body of her dress. Hex then took Emily to her bed, where she put her down, folding Emily’s hands. Emily closed her eyes, and softly whispered James’ name. James, all this time, had been standing frozen on the spot, not really sure what to do. He walked over to the bed, where Emily was lied down, a smile curled around the corners of her mouth. She did not open her eyes, but just held James’ hand.
“It’s alright now,” She brought out in a croaky voice. “Your grandmother will be here for you. Don’t be afraid, James.” She sighed. “It’s alright now.” She breathed the last air out of her lungs and peacefully passed away under the eye of her son. The grip that Emily had had on James’ hand, loosened, and a lonely tear escaped from James’ eye. A reassuring hand on his shoulder told him that everything was going to be alright, just like his mother had said. He looked over his shoulder and saw a smiling Hex behind him. Everything was going to be alright.
Not long after Emily had passed away, James was brought back to earth through the black hole; by the way he had come to the Magic Forest in the first place. To what had seemed like weeks in the Magic Forest, had only been a couple of hours on earth, and the only thing James had missed out, was a phone call from his band mate Matt, who had been worried sick about his friend. James dialled his number, to get screaming Matt on the other end. He let Matt finish, then decided to repeat those comforting words,
“It’s alright now.”