Searching

10 - Ainsley

Twice, I nearly fell over. Ashton had one hand on each of my shoulders and basically had me on his feet as he rushed us out of there. In all of five minutes me and El went to the toilet, came back and were then thrown out. Not even by the owner. We had just been trying to talk to the two girls Ashton had been talking to. They were gorgeous. 

One of them was sat down at the booth near where we had been sat. Her hair was bright blonde and she was wearing these amazing aqua blue heels covered in glitter, but the heel was tiny silver shells stacked on one another. Her face had been almost happy until Ashton said we needed to leave. The other girl not so much. From what i saw she looked angry with... neon pink eyes. What the hell? Her hair had similar coloured highlights showing in her brown hair. After that I couldn't say anything else about her because Ashton not only blocked my view but basically picked me up and pushed me out.

"I guess we aren't meeting your friends then," I laughed. 

"So. We got a bit distracted huh?" he said clearly annoyed.

"Well I guess. We were having fun but I'm sure-"

"No, what I mean is I asked you guys to hang out so we could talk about the bathroom. And we never did."

"I thought we were just going to leave it since it's been about two hours since you said 'we need to talk about what happened in that bathroom'." El jumped in. 

"Well, we got a bit interrupted didn't we?" Now he sounded more annoyed.

"Okay, okay, let's just calm down and talk about it then." I stood between the two of them as they slowly started edging towards each other.  Ashton looked down at me and sighed before turning away and walking back a few steps. "What happened in the bathroom, Ashton?"

"Can't we go now?" El whispered to me. Ignoring her I kept going, "I assumed the men who came in after we sat down had been in there."

"Well, that's where they were meant to go. Instead of outside. They were there because of someone else though. Not me. I think there was a fairy there and that they did something to the cleaner." Ashton turned back around. "I think some fairies are starting to work with some rogue werewolves. Do you know how that could affect the Prime World?"

Ashton was right. Rogue wolves were currently trying to weave their way into the human world by sending hints of their existence and even letting some see them. That was why the Premiers had been meeting up so much recently. They didn't want the humans to know about us, and we had done so well for thousands of years. Well sort of. Every time we were found out, it would take few years before it was just pushed out of the way as a legend or myth. But times were changing. Humans now had cameras and social media. Not long before they would realise all these old drawings dating back to thousands of years weren't just imagination. 

"Do you know what people used to be like when they believed in us? What happened to the witches? Most of them weren't even actual witches. They would want us all dead. If fairies and helping the wolves that means they're getting stronger."

"I don't like the sound of being burned at a stake. But I don't think people do that anymore." El piped in again.

"How do you know?" She didn't reply. I didn't say anything either. There was no telling what humans would do to us now. Time had changed so much but things come back. I mean look at flared jeans.

"Why do you know so much?" I looked at Ashton also wanting to know the answer to El's question.

"Seth sent me down to retrieve a weapon. He wants to wipe out people who disagree with what's right."

Seth was the Premier werewolf. If Ashton was helping him that closely he must be important. Especially if he was trusted with a weapon. 

"Is that meant to impress us?" asked El. 

"What?" his face screwed up, "No! You two seem helpful and you're going in the same direction. There is no way I'm travelling with a weapon when there is now fairies as well as rogues against me." 

"So you want our help?" Finally I decided to talk. It was kind of validating that someone looked at me and didn't see some useless unwanted child like my current parents. 

"Yes please." 

"Well, have you got the weapon yet?" He nodded. "Can we see it?" I questioned. A surprised look made it's way onto his face but reluctantly he went over to his bike beckoning us to follow him. He lifted up his seat and pulled put the smallest vial I have ever seen in my life. Not even a pinch of fairy dust would even fit in there. With the tips of his fingers he held it up to show us and the smallest bright neon blue light could be seen glowing in the middle.

"It looks like nothing but trust me, if I took this lid off and knew what I was doing with it I could kill both of you. And no one would know."

"What a lovely thought," I murmured.

"Isn't it just? So, will you at least pretend to be my friends for about a day as I go back to Veritos."

My attention turned to El. If anyone would be to blame for us dying because we went away with a strange man, it would be her. 

"Something tells me we would keep bumping into each other even if we said no." Her eyes roll as she walks back to the car.

"Well, I'm going to take that as a yes." I smile at him, a gesture he gladly returns. 

"Well before we go maybe I could ask you something. I have a question and I think you two might know the answer."

Elvira stops and turns back. "What now?"

"Well I don't really know a thing about fairies apart from the fact that some of them have their own dust that can leave prints where it's been used. In the bathroom I found some light pink dust and they were in some shapes so I was wondering if you knew what type of fairy it was?"

Now this was a task Ainsley could do. Her adoptive parents insisted on teaching her about all types of fairies. To begin with Ainsley thought it was normal but after meeting more and more fairies at the parties Elvira had dragged her to she slowly learnt all fairies had only ever learnt about their own types. It confused her but also made sense. Unlike other fairies who showed their powers at around three, the first signs of hers came when she was fifteen. That's more than a late bloomer. In fact, she didn't learn how to bloom flowers until six months before her sixteenth birthday.

 That was why she saw herself as so useless. Probably why other people saw her as so useless too. She figured that was why her parents taught her about all types of powers, because they didn't actually know what type she was. 

"I took some pictures if you want to see?" Ashton pulled his phone out of his back pocket.

Joining me at his side El leaned over my shoulder to look at the screen. The picture showed the toilet cubicle he had come out of. On one side of the toilet was a pool of blood almost flowing into the other cubicle next door. The other side of the toilet had little circles of light pink. 

"Zoom in on the dust, please" I asked him. He did as I asked. Only a few seconds went by as I looked at the dust trying to figure it out. The pink dust was in sections, each section was the outline of skulls. That would mean death. But these skulls were filled in.

"The light pink dust means the fairy was a soul fairy. They can cause death or sometimes not by taking a person's soul. The skulls definitely mean someone died, and they're filled in which means they did cause pain. But I guess that's also shown by the pool of blood on the floor."

"Wow, you don't look like a nerd." I shoved his shoulder.

"Not a nerd if it wasn't a choice." I tried to defend myself.

"Wow. Caught yourself quite a know it all haven't we?"