Peaky Blinders One Shots

Bonnie X Reader: The Fairy Circle

There's nothing Bonnie loves more than travelling. The life he was born into has always suited him, for the cities and towns filled with their smoke and cars have never agreed with him, never made him feel settled. The quietness of the countryside has always filled him with peace. He could explore the rolling green hills and dark forests for years and never grow bored.

That's what he's doing now. He and his dad set up camp in a clearing in the woods just over an hour ago, and, because the sun is still high in the sky, and he wants to see what he'll find in the area. Maybe he'll spot some hares that he and his dad can hunt later for dinner, or perhaps a lake to swim in on hot days. They plan on staying here a while, so he might as well explore the forest.

While there are some small rabbits that they could also hunt for dinner, Bonnie doesn't find much else. Birds tweet and sing above his head, high in the trees. He enjoys hearing their songs, and in his head he identifies the ones he can see. He also notes the trees and plants around him for fun. Bonnie continues walking down the dirt track that was set by many before him. It's clearly a well-used path through the woods, given how clear it is. He knows that if he goes hunting at some point he'll have to go off the path, as animals will know to avoid the area if humans frequently walk through it, so when he comes to a fork in the road, instead of following the clear trail on the left, he chooses to walk to the right, where plants and briars have covered most of the ground, but he can still see a small pathway through it, showing some people have used it before. Something about it draws him in, and his curiosity wins over easily.

The trail is long and winding, and becomes less clear the further Bonnie walks. Most people probably turn back after a while, but since the sun is still bright, Bonnie has no problem following it even further. Thorns catch and snag his trousers, but he simply keeps moving. Something in him feels as though it's being dragged to the end of the path by an invisible force, filling him with a need to find this entity that has such a hold on him. By the time he starts to wonder if it's such a good idea to give in to this need, it's already too late, because the trees grow more sparse, and he finds himself walking towards a clearing, though it's not the one he's camping in.

The clearing is much smaller than the one he and his dad brought their vardos to, and much more overgrown. In the middle, however, a ring of mushrooms forms a perfect circle, with nothing but grass growing inside it, as if someone has been tending to that exact spot and nothing else here. The circle is no more than 8 feet in diameter, taking up most of the little clearing.

Bonnie knows what it is the moment he sees it: a fairy circle. As a child, he heard many stories about fairies and fairy circles, most of which were cautionary tales from older relatives who believed the stories completely, and who he's seen have avoided the circles when they've come across them in the past. Though Bonnie isn't sure whether he believes the stories, he always avoids them too, often being too cautious to find out whether there is any truth to the tales he's been told. But this time he can't bring himself to turn around and follow the pathway back to the fork in the road. The tugging feeling inside him leads him forward, feet moving one step at a time, until he's only a step away from penetrating the circle, when a voice rings out.

"Stop!"

Bonnie nearly falls over from being so startled. Where the hell did the voice come from? He turns, still standing at the edge of the circle of mushrooms, and gasps at the sight before him. A young woman stands there, no older than him, fully naked, but surprisingly that's not the most striking thing about her. Her eyes and skin grow brightly in the sunlight in a way that is entirely inhuman. Her gaze bores into him, and he feels as if she sees into his very soul. It's both unnerving and exhilarating. He knows now that all the stories he's been told about fairies must be true, because this woman simply cannot be human. He can feel it in his bones.