Once

Fifty One

The woods were dark and hot. Far off in the distance thunder grumbled in the sky. There was a smell of rain in the air, and all around her the woods seemed to be full of tiny little movements - animals scrambling out of sight, ducking back to their homes. As if they knew what was coming. And not just the gathering storm.

She tried to gather her thoughts as she walked. The problem was her thoughts didn't seem to want to be gathered. They scattered away when she tried to grab at them like mice darting off to every corner of the room.

She tried telling herself she was in a better position than she'd been a few hours ago. She knew the last story, for one thing. She knew who it was going to be. And she knew it would all be over when she got to the prom.

The problem was, she had no idea what she'd find when she got there.

Her eyes drifted upwards as the clouds parted for a second overhead. A huge orange ball hung in the sky, burning fierce as a sphere of gold. The blood moon.

When the blood moon stands high over midsummer night. That's what was written in the prophecy. Tonight was the night it would all come to an end.

She heard something behind her. A faint step along the path. She didn't even need to look round. Somehow she knew who it was the minute she heard it.

"You ought to be careful, you know," she said. "It's midsummer night. There might be fairies in these woods."

She turned round slowly. David was standing about ten paces behind her on the path. He had on a sharply tailored suit in royal blue, crisp white shirt open at the collar. Very handsome - very correct.

"Somehow I think I'll be OK," he said. There was the very faintest of smiles toying with the features of his face. "I have my guide to protect me."

"Your guide?"

"That's right. Y'know, I always think of you in these woods, whenever I think of you. You seem right here, Elle." He suddenly looked down at her outfit. "You look very pretty."

"Shame about the shoes though, right?"

It was a joke, and he smiled at it.

"Yeah, I guess some Grade-A arsehole must have bought you those."

There were a few moments of silence between them. It wasn't an entirely uncomfortable one. It felt like the silence between them the first time they'd walked here. The silence of old friends.

"I'm sorry about today," Elle said at last. Saying it felt like bursting up through the ice of a frozen lake, taking a deep breath of fresh air. "I - I didn't mean it."

"I kind of think you did."

She smiled weakly.

"OK. So I did. But I am sorry. I know that doesn't mean much. In fact, I'm learning more and more that it doesn't matter how sorry I am for any of the stupid things I do."

David walked up to her. Under the light of the blood moon his eyes were like fire.

"Y'know what I think?"

"I'm sure you're willing to tell me."

He smirked.

"Well, a couple of things. One - I believe you have a very high opinion of yourself, and a very low opinion of guys."

"David -"

"Don't argue. Anyway, I didn't even say it was a bad thing. You're smart, Elle. Smarter than any of us. The problem is you're so smart you like to overcomplicate things. Sometimes you can't see what's right at the end of your nose."

She gave a mirthless laugh as she said, "Yeah, I'm beginning to see that. More than you'd know. Anything else?"

"Yes. Two - you don't have nearly enough confidence in yourself."

"Wait, wait. I don't have enough confidence but I have too high an opinion of myself?"

He shrugged.

"What can I say? You contain multitudes, Elle. We all do. The problem with you is you like to put yourself into lots of tiny little boxes. You like to be a certain person to all the different people in your life. You're curating your own life, Elle. Writing it like it's some kind of story."

"Aren't we supposed to do that?"

He gave another shrug, looking up at the sky.

"I don't know. Personally I prefer to let my story write itself, and I'll just tag along for the ride."

Elle bit her lip, and struggled against the urge to pick at the bracelets on her wrist.

"Anything else? Any other wise words?"

"Not necessarily wise words. But - I guess I do owe you an apology. You see, I may not have made myself very clear about this, but I really only wanted to hang out with you this week because you seemed cool. You had opinions, you could hold a conversation. That's really all I wanted."

"I know that, David - look, I was an idiot to say what I said this afternoon."

"No, I wouldn't say that. I think there's blame on both sides here. I clearly didn't make myself very clear to you. It's just... I have a hard time making friends, Elle. I can't really open up to people. And when this cool, slightly weird, undeniably pretty girl bumps into you on your first day of school, you sort of have to latch onto her. And if that girl happens to be a magic psychic who predicts the locations of fairy tale monsters coming to life... well, then you sort of really have to latch onto her. Those are the rules, I'm afraid."

She gave him a smile. A genuine one this time: sincere enough to reach right to the edges of her face.

"I'm glad you latched on, David. I wouldn't have gotten through this week without you. And I'm kind of hoping, if we all make it through tonight, that we can maybe - I dunno - start from scratch?"

David took a deep breath. His eyes went up to the sky again, up to the dazzling splendour of the burning blood moon. He went slightly pale, and he looked for a second as if he was going to be sick.

"I guess, in that case..." He broke off, then gave a surrendering sigh. "Look, Elle. There's something I have to tell you."