* The Fiction Awards 2020 Winner *
In Goodharts, the small town beyond the hills, nobody knows how Ferry Donovan looks. His mother has been keeping him out of sight for over nine years. When the boy finally begins school, the people are not only int...
Silence fell in the meadow to allow the wind to tell his story, whispering in rustling leaves. Ferry was standing stock-still. He's been watching behind Matilda long after she was out of his sight. Her leaving, no matter how much he hated to admit, had made him think. Now, he was alone among the fairies. And even though he should have felt like home, something made him waver. This place, no matter how amazing, had secrets still. As is there was something else, dark and hidden, waiting behind every tree.
Oona and Poppy had stepped aside, trying not to bother him. But when a goblin showed up, heading towards them, Oona dashed and pulled him behind a tree while Poppy turned invisible.
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"Come," she whispered. "We should stay away from goblins, leprechauns, and other small creatures. They have a weakness for precious stones. They can smell them from miles away."
"But I don't have any stone," said Ferry.
Oona reached out for the raven's stone on Ferry's neck, then quickly pulled her hand back as if burnt.
"That's the hag's stone," she said. "They say they are very rare and have magical powers. They could heal and protect you from nightmares. They can even heal a snake's bite. And fairies with great powers can even see the future through them. Can I keep it for you?" she said and her eyes glittered. "You'd be safer without it."
Ferry caressed the stone's surface. It had become more shimmering ever since they stepped foot in those lands. He looked at Oona who was still waiting, a strange flicker in her eyes.
"No, I think I'll keep it," he eventually said. After the goblin distanced, protected by the tree, Ferry took out his map. Somewhere in the corner, the drawing on the map was becoming unclear and darker. That was the Blind Alley.
"We must go there," he said, pointing the spot on the map. "That's where Danny is."
But Oona shook her head no, "I don't think it's wise. No one can get in there. Not even us, the Wandering Fays. And even if we did, we wouldn't see anything."
"Why not?"
"Because once you step foot there, you go blind, of course," she said. She then started to walk the path in front of them, jumping and frisking. Poppy came along and the two began to sing a song as if the whole world was theirs.
Ferry ran behind them, "What do you mean you go blind?'
"Well, you see, Fae Queen put a spell on that place so that no one, not even she, could see once they set foot there. That's where the humans who still remember they're humans are being kept. Only the Kallikans, which are the guardians of the Blind Alley, can see. In fact, that is the only place they can see, for daylight or any light at all is burning their eyes. If they come out of the darkness, they turn blind. Nothing can bring light to that place. Not even fairy fires. Because the spell is made so that no light from fairy world could lighten that place."
