Around the world

In fairyland: Alina

Finland...

Seurasaari, island and district in Helsinki...

Midsummer Festival...

Bonfires...

And a fairytale in fairyland...

Alina...

I didn't know about this celebration until the moment I landed and I saw all those posters and preparations. Everything and everyone was hectic. And really excited. I found out more about the celebrations from the girl on Reception in my hotel. She told me it was a traditional Finnish holiday celebrated every year with festivities starting on Friday. The traditional events include raising and dancing around a huge maypole and many people wear their traditional Finnish folk costumes.

When the Friday came and the celebrations began, I was amused to find out that everything in the town was closed and everyone was dressed in their traditional folk costumes headed to the massive bonfire. I followed them as I was curious to find out more and see what this so important celebration looks like.

I stopped a young boy and a girl headed to the bonfire and asked them why they were dressed as fairies and not in the traditional costumes. It turned out that Midsummer was considered to be one of the key times in the year when the power of magic was strongest and at it was thought to be a good time to perform rituals, particularly those which related to predicting the future. And the kids had decided to dress as fairies. I found it amusing how humans believed in this and were going to perform rituals to predict the future but if I stood in front of all of them and showed them my fangs and red eyes and told them magic was real, they would chase after me with stakes and onion.

When I reached the bonfire there were already a lot of people around it. Kids were playing around, dressed in traditional Finnish costumes and fairy costumes, wearing flowers on their heads. The atmosphere was nice and I decided to have a beer and go home. It was already getting late and I was a bit hungry. I was going to leave the party and go around the woods to look for a lost soul for dinner.

But as I was having my beer and was thinking of what blood type I'd want to have tonight, I noticed that one of the girls who was dressed as fairytale wasn't as young as the others. She was probably around 17-18 years old and was dancing to the rhythm of the music. She was with a group of older women, one of which looked exactly like her - probably her mum. The girl who looked like a real-life fairy, or at least what I imagine they would have looked like if they even existed, was swaying her hips so seductively, she had the attention of all the boys around her. And of course mine as well...

This seemed to have pissed off her mother because she told her off and made her sit next to her and not dance until the end of the night. Well, I'm not gonna have that, that's for sure! No one is going to deprive me of this beauty. Not tonight and not after my failure with Sophia...

I walked to the group slowly, straight to the mum. The girl saw me coming from far away and never let my sight. I winked at her as I approached them and went straight to her mum. I came as close as possible and let my hair fall on both sides of my face so no one could notice my eyes changing "You are being really annoying tonight so why don't you be a good puppy and leave your daughter to do whatever she wants tonight". She nods. She doesn't have a choice. I compelled her...

I then turn to her daughter who hasn't heard a word and is wondering what a complete stranger could talk to her mum about.

"I'm Emma, nice to meet you!" I say and give her my hand.

She shakes it with uncertainty looking at her mum who is now too busy with her friends.

"Ummmm, I'm Alina but what did you do to my mum?" She asks and giggles at the fact that her mum is a completely different person now.

"Let's just say I can be really persuasive" I say winking at her again.

She is even more beautiful up close with her waist-long platinum blonde hair and her silver-blue big eyes. She isn't wearing any makeup except for a small amount of mascara and a bit of glitter on her cheeks. She's put flowers in her hair which make her look magical under the moonlight. She's breathtaking.

"She's always at me for wanting to have fun" She complains and I laugh at her innocence.

"How old are you?"

"I will turn 18 next month. How old are you?"

"I'm 24" Kinda, it's not I'm lying, though, is it? I have been 24 for centuries...

"Do you think she'll say something if we go somewhere else? I've always wanted to go around the woods in Midsummer. There's this place with a lot of fireflies that looks amazing during this time of the day"

"I don't think she'll have anything in mind" I say and offer her my hand. Her mum just looks at us with questioning eyes but doesn't say anything. She can't, she's been compelled. Whatever she wants to say now and would have said otherwise is now a complete blur in her mind. She's looking for her thought and is unable to formulate it in a sentence.

We leave and enter the woods. But we're not alone. Apparently two of the boys have thought it's going to be their time tonight but they're really wrong. I don't show that I know about their presence, I'm going to wait for them to make the first move and then I'm going to have them for dinner...