May's Workshop Stories

The Initiation

Trigger warning: This story is gruesome and rather morbid so read at your own risk. 

Finally, the noble month of September has arrived. I am giddy at the mere thought of the initiation that awaits me.

I will no longer be a cute little Tooth Fairy as those wretched humans described me. I will finally reach full maturity and become what I was always meant to be, a Bone Fairy. No longer will I have to be a meek tiny being bound by the odd rules of apprenticeship.

"Know your enemy!" Teacher T'hala used to say. "That is one of the first steps to being able to defeat them and gather our sustenance. It is the only way."

Of course, we, the young Tooth Fairies, don't understand the need for secrecy. We want to pull the bones out of the bodies of those fragile creatures whose creepy ways are far worse than anything we could have done to them. Their obsession with their difference is fanatical. That works in our favor because many scavenge operations are often seen as another part of their own brutality.

"T'yala, are you ready for your first quest?" T'hala asks like a proud mother bird allowing her chicks to fly for the first time. "Don't forget the text. That's one of their obsessions. While it distracts them, they won't notice if you use your long nails to cut their throats."

"Yes, mistress T'hala, I am ready, and I have everything memorized just how you taught me. We hide in the shadows until they are distracted. We slit their throats because we aren't cruel like them. Then we harvest their bones," I say, carefully repeating my lessons.

"Very good, my dear," T'hala says. "And remember. Humans, are vile creatures. If they catch you..."

"Then they'll cut me up and torture me, I know," I interrupt, impatient to get my second wings, the huge dark ones which will mark me as what I've always strived to be, a Bone Fairy.

I have heard that some of the Tooth Fairies have gone soft. That they feel sympathy for their humans but not me. I am sure they wouldn't hesitate to murder me for the simple pleasure of seeing me die, so I will not give them time to do so and will harvest their bones first.

"You are as ready as one can be," T'hala said with the rare bout of tenderness that Bone Fairies aren't very prone to because of the harsh life they lead.

When one fights for survival, there is rarely room for tenderness, but my teacher is different. Yes, she is the most dangerous predator who ever walked the earth, but she also cares deeply about her students. She doesn't want to lose any of us, even if it is for the well-being of the tribe.

As we fly down from the dark clouds that hide our presence, I and the other initiates part ways as we all have different targets. Mine are the parents of the little girl assigned to me, Marigold.

For you see, bones of adults are much more nutritious than the ones belonging to undeveloped embryos such as the 12-year-old Marigold. Her only purpose is to allow me entrance into the house by believing in me so firmly that no force can stop me now. Well, that will be true until tonight. Because although she'll never understand that I harvested her parents, she will never believe again in anything as timid and innocent as the Tooth Fairies.

Marigold's family is an average, dysfunctional one with a better connection with their cell phones than each other, which is good news for me. While they are texting and snap-chatting, or whatever they do, I can kill them without any issues.

My first target is her father. I know he stays in his study late at night, typing furiously at his computer. I draw my long, jagged nail across his throat, even before he notices my presence behind him. His warm blood gushes out as I make another cut from his throat down the length of his body. I expertly remove his organs, peeling away the skin and meat effortlessly until all it is left is the most precious commodity of it all, the bone.

I've done my job so quickly and quietly that even after I store the bones in my magic bag, everything is still quiet. After all, I am the best student in my class.

The next one on my list is the mother. As expected, she is in the bedroom doing something on her phone, we call it text, but we actually have no idea what it is that she does. All we know and care about is that she is distracted, making our jobs easier.

Quick and agile like a cat, I jump on her bed and slash her throat before she can let out the scream I could see building up. Then I proceed with pulling out her bones as expertly as their butchers do with pigs, maybe even more so.

After my bag is filled with the delicious treats, I cloak myself with darkness and fly up onto the dark cloud where our teachers await to judge our success or failure.

"Congratulations! As expected, you finished first, with the best score," my teacher says. "You are now officially a Bone Fairy."

As her thin wand, made of the best bones the humans had to offer, touches my skin, the black wings I coveted finally grow out from my back, darker than the night itself. My body extends to its full, enormous height, and I feel all the power that a fully grown Bone Fairy has. It is exhilarating as it is so much more than I expected.

"You may partake in the nourishment as your final reward," they say, sounding formal.

I open my bag, drooling even before I see those gray delights. Then I take the large thigh bone and chew it up in seconds with my new row of hundreds of sharp teeth that fill my mouth.

I am finally a full-fledged Bone Fairy, and I can't be prouder of it.

Humans, beware because I am always there, lurking in the shadows, checking to see if your bones are thick enough to satiate my hunger.