Fairy Rings

Chapter 2

'My Friday night could be going better,' I thought as I stared out at the sea of drunk teenagers. The putrid scent of booze and vomit tickled my nostrils. The only reason I was here was that Vicki was the one hosting. I could have been curled up in front of my fireplace reading a book, maybe snacking on a cookie grandma made. Nope, this Friday would be spent in the corner of my friend's living room watching others have "fun."

"Emmy, you need to get out of the corner. If you aren't going to dance, the very least come play truth or dare with us." Vicki said, having noticed me for what had to be the first time tonight only to try and get me to play truth or dare with her crazy friends.

"Fine, but just know I won't be doing any drinking or drugs," I said with a small smile. Vicki was everything I wasn't. Popular, rich, and pretty. Some would think that would drive a spike in our relationship. That my jealousy would overtake me that I would end up hating Vicki rather than loving her. Vicki grew up with a childhood that I could only dream of. I will admit that I was jealous at first.

Vicki had both her parents, and she wasn't that weird kid on the playground that nobody ever seems to quite like. But Vicki and I were kindred souls of a sort. She was spunky, lively, and happy. Whereas I was more go with the flow and down to earth. We balanced each other out, even if that meant sometimes we did things we didn't quite enjoy together. Besides, this party wasn't as big as I made it seem as. There were only maybe 40 people at her party. Living in a small town meant that most of the high school was here.

"Emmy!" Vicki said, pulling me out of my dazed state.

"Yes?" I said

"it's your turn." She said, and I glanced down to see that the bottle was pointing at me.

"Um... Dare?" I said, my eyes squinting close, not wanting to know what would be my fate.

"I dare you to go to the fairy rings." The male in front of me said he was the kind of guy that

didn't pay me much attention. I should be relieved that the dare wasn't worse. I could be streaking to the school or forced to drink a shot of ketchup. No, this was tame. I can handle this. I thought, standing, but even as I stood, my legs felt like Jell-O each step seemed to take me forever; I could hear the thumping of my foot hitting the ground even if it was just my imagination because the music was far too loud to hear anything below a yell. The fairy rings weren't too far from Vicki's house.

The rings were only a five-minute walk. Even so, the walk seemed to take me hours. The moon was full, bathing the forest in a silvery twilight, lighting my path. The dimly light forest only seemed to fuel the ominous feeling in my gut. I even jumped when I heard a crack off in the distance. The old familiar path was only sightly more worn than the last time I had walked it. The pine trees still littered the path. I could just make out the carving of heart in the trunk of one of the older trees. could hear the soft hooting of an owl off in the distance. The hill gave way to a grove littered with several mushroom rings, I let out a soft sigh of relief. I stood there staring at the mushroom circles, each as perfectly round as a circle of mushrooms could be. The air was warmer around here, and it had the slightest scent of indescribable flowers even though it was below 40 degrees consistently this time of year. For a moment, it felt peaceful. This was a place I had loved as a child after all. It felt familiar and loving and that almost Magical feeling that I felt here as a child seemed to have transitioned to just being calm. I allowed myself to think about the time when this was a place that I had loved a place where I went to see my friend. It was nice until I got to the end of those memories and realized that I was standing in the place that my childhood friend had either disappeared or been abandoned by me. a shot of fear burst through my veins. I couldn't say what set off those memories. Maybe it was the way the trees swayed, bowing to the wind, or the almost silent howl off in the distance. No matter what it was, I felt the need to run and hide from the memory of watching the ground eat someone. I looked at the mushrooms, reminded of the little dance that Theo taught me. A slight smile tugged at the corner of my lips. with the last bit of courage that I held, I whispered into the abyss

"Theoden." for a moment, the air felt still. I almost didn't want to move for fear of interrupting the silence. I froze wondering what sort of atrocity was waiting in the distance to bite my head off. There was a gentle crack in the distance and all the sounds returned. Once the silence was broken, I turned to leave with one more glance, hoping that today would be the last time I would ever see the fairy rings. I was never coming back to this town after high school. I had a scholarship to a good university. Even as I walked away, I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.

An/ this is going to only update once every two weeks. I am excited to see what you guys think.