The Fae are out there

It was near midnight now, the snow storm hasn't ceased since noon, everything was covered in white fluff. I wouldn't envy a person who gets caught outside in such a weather like this. It isn't often it snows this hard in Ireland. We're used to the beautiful emerald sheen of the grass all across the Inis Mór and the sapphire waters of the lake by our house. Ever since I remember I've lived here with my mother. She loved this island and never wanted us to move away, that's why father left not long after I was born. My older sister moved to Dublin with him so it's just me, my mom and our cat Rua. I liked it here as well, the slow life, laying in the grassy glen, looking up at the lazure sky. Alas, it was nearing Christmas now, we would have to fly to Dublin since my parents are hellbent on spending at least the holiday together as family. I didn't suppose I would go to school this week considering the snow outside. I'll just have to study on my own, I've always been a night owl so I took my workbook and started reading about the geography of Asia since it'll be the next subject once we go back to school. I was ready to focus entirely on the words before me but I heard a knock somewhere in the house. I put down the book and headed to the corridor. Then the knock sounded out again, now I could clearly hear it's coming from the front door. Momentarily I froze. "Who could it be at this hour?" I thought to myself. I decided to ignore it. Then another knock came, I ignored it as well. Then the knocking grew insistent it became more of sound of thuds than mere knocking. It was loud and kept on going for a while. Finally I budged, I looked through peephole but then I felt cold sweat on my body. There was no one there. I heard a simple knock but it wasn't coming from here. It was resounding from the back door. I could feel my heart rate accelerating and goosebumps forming on my skin. I ran to the back door and turned on the kitchen light. I looked through the window but there was also no one there. That's when I heard this blood hurdling screech. It didn't sound like any animal I knew. I felt like throwing up from fear, it was long and resembled a human only a little. It seemed like something that was human once but is no more and at the same time it was so wild so wild, so savage I don't think it ever could've been something natural. I fell onto my back and scrambled away from the door on all fours, I screamed my lungs out. My mother came running into the kitchen, "What is going on?!" she asked clearly just awoken. She looked startled and eyed the door warily seeing that I'm staring at it. "Why are you screaming?" she tried to calm her voice but I could hear the fear in it anyway. She saw me shaking and looked like she's freezing cold. "I heard... I heard... heard this screech. It sounded so unnatural. LIke if a deer was a predator..." I said shrinking away. "I heard nothing, are sure you're okay? It must've been just in your head" she tried to calm me down. "But the knocking and thudding-" she put her finger on my mouth interuppting me effectively. "I would've heard it if it was true, you know I'm a light sleeper. Your mind must be just playing with you" she silenced my complaints. She then poured water into an electric kettle and tried to turn it on. But it didn't seem to work, then the light gave out. My mom tried to turn it off and on again but the lightbulb shattered. I screamed in horror and ran to her but I stepped on the glass shards with my bare feet. "Shh! Calm down" she whispered. She opened the kitchen drawer and lit up two candles. She sat one on the counter and took the second one with her. She then returned with a medkit from the bathroom cabinet. She helped up onto the kitchen table and examined my foot. She used tweezers to remove the glass, disinfected the wounds with spirit and bandaged up my foot. We then heard another screech, this time she heard it too. We both looked out the kitchen window and as expected there was no one there. But we did see footsteps in the snow but the storm quickly wiped them away. I didn't have much time to notice what type of marks they were but mom said they don't seem like paws, shoes or hooves. We were both scared now. She returned to her bedroom and I followed her, we slept together that night.

In the morning mom left for work and I was left all alone. I felt brave in the daylight hours and decided to check if I can find anything that could clear up this situation around the house. After walking around for what seemed hours I found footsteps in the snow. They looked similiar enough to the ones I saw during the night. I was too scared to follow them so I headed the opposite direction instead. Then I heard howling, but nothing like a wolf. It seemed alien somehow. Like it belongs to a being from another planet. I started running. I couldn't tell you for how long even if I wanted to, but I was terrified. I got to the frozen lake, I saw something shining in it's depths. I felt it calling to me, I couldn't stop myself from wandering over onto the ice. I stared beneath the ice, into the deep indigo water. This glowing thing turned out to be an eye I noticed it only when I saw another one open. Then many more ignited. The ice broke and I fell into the freezing ice cold water. As I sank I saw weird creatures around me. Their eyes upturned, slanted and glowing like nothing I've ever seen before. Their facial features were harsh and angular but beautiful, they had very prominent cheek bones. Their long hair flowed everywhere as they circled me ominously. The water was so cold I couldn't move a muscle in my body. One of them grabbed me by my arm and pulled me deeper into the murky lake. It had antlers, faun ears and cat-like nose. It's slender body reminded me of modern depictions of fair folk. And that's when I thought to myself that I might be right. It was said in folklore that faeries lived in lakes and rivers too. In the first second I wanted to tell myself to calm down having identified the creatures. But then I remembered how truly despicable, fierce and dangerous they truly can be in all the depictions in media. We reached the bottom shortly. The creature looked me into the eye and said "You may call me Caiomhe, I'm one of the lake fae. You must worry about where you are and why we have taken you." I nodded although it seemed more difficult to do underwater. "Aoife, we urge you to ask your mother for the truth about her close interactions with the fair folk. We wish for you to learn of the truth about who you are." After it said that I opened my eyes and found myself laying in the snow. I was soaking wet but I didn't feel cold. I returned home terrified. I was restlessly waiting for my mom to come back home. When she finally walked through the front door I told her about what happend to me. She sighed and sat me down on the sofa. "Aoife... When you were just a baby the fae abducted you. They took you away from me shortly after you were born. They have always stalked me since I was a child. I still don't know why. But when they kidnapped you I couldn't just let them be off with you. I found them in their caves and got you back. I killed many of them to do that." "I can't believe that! Why didn't you tell me that before?" "You are just a child. I didn't want you to worry!" "Well maybe if you did I would know about them! What if they took me away again because I didn't know to avoid them?!" I was furious! She knew that and never told me. She wouldn't have if it wasn't if it wasn't for the faeries. I thought we could trust each other but she betrayed me. I said to her to not speak to me and ran away. I avoided the lake but the fae found me nonetheless. "There is something your mother didn't tell you." "So she still lied to me even when she was supposed to tell me the whole truth?" "Don't blame her, it's not something she knew herself. Your mother is half of fae folk." When I heard those words I froze. My mother is half fae? So does that mean...? I'm part faerie?