Chatoyant College, Book 1: New Student Orientation

Chapter 51: Annie's Story

Luckily, between Edie and Corrie they managed to get her upright again, and she managed not to drop her instrument. "Are you all right?" Edie asked, belatedly realizing that she had been gone for days and who knows what had happened to her while she was with the faeries. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"

Annie shook her head quickly. "I'm just tired," she said, her voice quieter than before and still hoarse. "I need to rest, and drink plenty of water. Real water."

"We can help with that," said Corrie. "We have bottled water."

"Will you be okay to get up the stairs, or should we go up and get water for you?" Dawn asked.

Annie looked over at the stairs, chewed her bottom lip a little, then nodded. "I think I'll be okay. Can I lean on you?" She looked at Corrie, then at Edie.

"Of course!" One of them supporting her on each side, they headed toward the stairs, letting Dawn and Rico lead the way. They got Annie to their room and seated, then Edie went in her closet and got out several bottles of water. Annie reached for them, an expression of profound relief on her face, and downed half the first bottle in one long gulp. She brightened immediately and looked ten times healthier to Edie's eyes, then drank the rest of the bottle at a more sedate pace.

"Did you eat or drink anything at all while you were there?" Corrie asked. "You were gone for... two and a half days, I guess."

"And all the stories say that if you eat faerie food you're trapped there," added Dawn.

"Was it really that long?" Annie asked--her voice was noticeably stronger now. Her brow wrinkled in confusion. "I didn't realize. It was hard to tell how much time was passing... but I don't think I ate anything. They did give us water to drink. I think it was a pond or something." She grimaced and opened another bottle of water, taking a drink before speaking again. "I don't remember it that well."

"Well, it must have been a big shock," said Edie, nodding. "People tend to forget things like that. Your memory might come back or it might not."

Dawn gave her a skeptical look. "Or it might be faerie magic that's making you forget."

"It doesn't matter." Annie gave them a weak smile, including each of them in turn. "I can't thank you enough for coming to rescue me. Especially since they kicked you out the first time."

Edie laughed shakily. "Well, Ever didn't give us much choice the second time. Not that we wouldn't have tried again, but it would have taken us longer, because we had no idea what to do."

"We had to try, though," said Corrie. "Especially since Dawn was really the only one who could do anything."

"Really?" Annie looked at Edie, then frowned. "Wait, which of you is Dawn? I'm sorry, I can't keep track."

Dawn laughed. "I'm sorry! I think we were so used to talking about you as though we knew you, we forgot that we hardly met before you vanished. I'm Dawn. Edie's the one who handed you the water, and that's Corrie and Rico." Rico, Edie couldn't help but notice, was being strangely quiet; perhaps he was still suffering the effects of having met the faeries.

Annie nodded. "I think I remember you from the meeting. Why were you the only one who could do anything, Dawn?"

"Well, the faeries said I had the Sight..." She shrugged apologetically. "I don't even know what that means, to be honest. All I know is that only Lorelei and I seemed to have any idea what happened to you."

"I'm sorry to tell you this," said Corrie, "but no one else even knew you existed. We had all forgotten about you by the next day."

"That makes sense," said Annie, looking down at her hands. "I think I mostly forgot that I had ever lived anywhere but with the faeries until I saw you three come in."

"What happened?" Dawn asked. "I mean, how did they get you? Do you even remember?"

"I do now. I was playing Solitaire on my computer when I heard this really pretty music. It made me want to pick up my oboe and join in... which is what I did, I guess." She lifted the instrument she held in her hand as though just noticing that she still had it, and placed it gently on the desk. "I went down the stairs and outside to the grass. It was really dark and I couldn't see where I was going, but I followed the music into the woods, and then suddenly I was in that little orchestra, playing without stopping."

Dawn nodded. "That fits in with faerie abduction stories I've read."

Edie frowned. Something didn't seem to fit. She thought back to the night Annie had disappeared. Something had alerted them all to it, hadn't it? "Oh!" she squeaked, then blushed, embarrassed that such a noise had come out of her. But no one laughed, just looked at her expectantly. She took a breath. "So they didn't steal you right from your room? You didn't scream?"

"No," Annie said, setting down another empty bottle of water. "They made me want to come to them. Why would I have screamed?"