Chapter 40

-Dante-

We all stood there in stunned silence, staring at the devastation of Gus’ home. Hideout. Whatever it was. I started feeling anxious, so held onto my ring tighter, keeping it at ready just in case.

Then, Roe broke the silence.

“Right. I think we need an expert,” he only said, and vanished.

Frank marched out of the house, fishing his phone from his pocket, so I assumed he was trying to call Gus. I felt useless. I tried to pick up scents in the house, but obviously, I didn’t recognize any of them. I hardly even knew how to use my nose anyway…

“This is just fucking great…” Chase muttered behind his gritted teeth. “We were just about to get more answers…!”

“I don’t understand,” I muttered, looking around again. “Is this because of us?”

“It would be one hell of a coincidence if he didn’t get attacked because of us,” he replied, his expression turning worried. “Like… Is someone watching us?”

I suffocated the sudden urge to look over my shoulder. “Gus did seem awfully paranoid…” I muttered, realizing that maybe we should’ve been paranoid too.

“A secret society, huh?” Chase hissed, turning his back on me.

I felt something horrible in my stomach, but at that same moment, Roe returned. And he was not alone.

“Roe! For fuck’s sake, let me down!”

Roe did as he was told, and lowered Zane down on the ground. The small human was wearing pajamas, and he looked like any person would after being kidnapped straight out of bed: tired and confused.

Zane’s red eyes darted from me to Chase, and he crossed his arms. “What the fuck?”

“We need your help,” Chase said, peering at his best friend’s attire. “It’s eight in the evening?”

“Hey, do I ever judge your way of living?” he grunted, but his attitude was changing as he spotted the destruction around us. “What’s this? A pixie after-party?”

“What do you make of this mess?” Roe asked demandingly.

Zane glared at him for a second, before turning his attention to the fallen table, then at the blood.

“Not an after-party,” he mumbled with a sigh. “Never take anything from pixies…”

“We were supposed to meet the owner of this house. He’s friends with Frank, and he may have information for us,” Chase explained quickly. “But when we got here…”

“I need a little more than that,” Zane said. “And I need my clothes,” he added, looking at Roe.

“What you’re wearing is fine,” Roe snorted. “All we need is information.”

“Do I look like a pixie expert? Or a seer?” Zane snapped.

“Seer, no, but you are friends with pixies,” Chase said with a pleading tone. “We need to find Gus. Whoever took him must’ve left just before we arrived, so there’s still a chance for us to find them if we act quickly.”

“Then you better hurry to get me some clothes,” Zane told Roe. “I can help, yes, but we need to go to the pixies, and I’m not going in my pajamas.”

“Fine,” Roe snorted, and vanished again.

“So, what the hell is going on and why wasn’t I invited sooner?” Zane asked us.

While Chase spoke about what had been going so far, Zane slowly went through the house, studying the broken things and the pixie dust. Roe returned halfway into the story and tossed the clothes to Zane, who seemed glad to have more clothes on in the chilly air.

I kept an eye on Frank, who was looking more and more worried as he kept trying to call Gus, and Ben, who was slowly going through the yard, looking for any clues.

And I was being completely useless… I was somehow holding onto my humanity, and the beast stayed dormant. I could only hope it was tired and wasn’t coming out anytime soon to make things extra difficult for us.

“Do you think he’s…” I began, but swallowed the rest of my words when I turned to look at the blood.

“Pixies aren’t murderers,” Zane said. “Besides, if they wanted someone killed, they’d make it look like a natural death – like a heart attack. They wouldn’t leave a mess like this. This has to be a kidnap, and they were clearly in a hurry.”

“So they knew we were coming?” Roe guessed.

“That, or they didn’t think anyone was coming,” Zane said with a shrug. “Where are we anyway?”

While Chase replied to him, I turned my attention to the glitter. There seemed to be a lot less of it. I pointed it out, but none of them seemed surprised.

“It vanishes in half an hour or so,” Zane explained. “Their wings produce it whenever they’re flying, you see.”

“Wings…” I muttered, wondering why I was still surprised every time I learned more about their world.

“Great. They’re not just murderers, but they are flying murderers.” Frank sighed angrily as he stepped back in.

“I just said they’re not murderers,” Zane said sternly. “I mean… usually…”

“So, what are we going to do now?”

“We need to find out why they kidnapped him,” Zane said, pulling his jacket on. “And where they’re taking him.”

“How?”

“We go ask them,” Zane smirked.

Since there wasn’t enough room in the car, Roe teleported ahead, leaving the rest of us travel by the slower method. Frank was the one driving again, while Zane wanted more details about our day. I focused on petting Eru to keep myself calm. It was working surprisingly well.

“This was not how this night was supposed to end,” Chase sighed, rubbing his temples in annoyance. “Why couldn’t he wait to get kidnapped after we got our information??”

“Easy there, psycho, that’s my friend you’re talking about,” Frank grunted at him.

“Who somehow managed to get pixies pissed at him!” Chase grunted back. “Pixies!“

“Let’s just all stay calm,” Ben said nervously. “I’m sure we can sort this out. What I know about pixies is that they are reasonable beings, after all.”

“That’s true,” Zane agreed.

We all stayed silent for a while. I turned to look at Chase, who was still looking mad. I took his hand in mine, and his expression relaxed a bit.

“I’m tired of this shit,” he whispered to me. “Why can’t we just have our answers…?”

“We will,” I promised, wondering where I was getting my positivity from.

The drive continued in silence for a moment. It was clear that Frank was anxious – the way he was driving was enough proof of that. The rest of us had also noticed the tight curves, sudden breaks, and fast speed, so after Frank had to hit the breaks and back the car a little to get onto the right road, Zane told him to take a deep breath.

“He’s not dead,” he said reassuringly. “Pixies are three feet tall, they wouldn’t go through the trouble of abducting an adult human if they’re just planning on killing him.”

“I shouldn’t have contacted him. He’s in trouble because of us,” Frank hissed behind gritted teeth.

“And we’ll get him out of that trouble,” Zane promised.

His words didn’t do the trick. I was glad of the seatbelt I was wearing. I held onto poor Eru, who seemed annoyed by the bouncy ride. By the time we reached the city limits, I was surprised we still didn’t have cops chasing us.

Ten minutes later, I was wondering if we were still on the right track. Frank was driving through small roads that seemed to lead nowhere, but the rest of them didn’t seem worried.

“Are we…? Where are we going?” I asked eventually.

“We’re not lost,” Frank grunted angrily.

“This is the right way,” Zane nodded. “They live deep in the forests, far away from humans.”

“Of course,” I muttered.

“We’re getting close now,” Zane muttered, looking somewhere to our left.

I could only see the old, dark forest. If a forest could look hostile, that one definitely did, and it creeped me out. I was sure no one had done any kind of maintenance there in decades, and it was left to grow however it pleased.

Soon, Frank slowed down, and I saw a small gap in the tree line just before he turned left on a pathway that was just big enough for a car. I couldn’t call it a road, but by some kind of a miracle, it was still in good enough condition to drive.

But my god, it was dark around us. As soon as the street behind us vanished, we were swallowed by the darkest pitch blackness I had ever seen, and I’d been locked up underground for six months.

“Should we even be here,” I mumbled.

“Don’t worry, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t welcomed,” Zane said nonchalantly.

“That… sounds disturbing,” I admitted, looking away from the trees.

“It’s a pixie forest,” Chase told me quietly. “Pixies are basically mad scientists, and they absolutely love meddling with nature. These trees,” he nodded his head towards the darkness, “they’re watching us.”

“And here I thought the forest was scary enough,” I muttered my reply.

“Like Zane said, we’re fine. The forest wouldn’t let us any deeper if we weren’t welcomed. Pixies are pretty chill.”

“Yet, they kidnapped Gus,” I pointed out.

“To be honest, you have to be some special kind of dickhead to piss off pixies,” Chase said quietly, peering at Frank. “I have the feeling he got what he deserved…”

“And that’s the person we want to listen?”

“Do we have a choice?”

I didn’t reply to him. I was getting really skeptical about the whole lead, but he didn’t need to know that.

After a few minutes of complete darkness, I started seeing tiny flickering lights in the distance. At first, I thought my headache was just tricking me into seeing things, but as we continued driving, I started seeing more lights and even movement behind the trees. And then I spotted the first treehouse.

I turned around on my seat as I stared at the house, built high above the ground on a thick branch. It was way too small for a human and looked like it was made of wax or clay instead of wood or bricks. I could see lights behind the tiny, round windows, and more hanging off the branches around the tiny home. The weirdest part had to be the porch that had nothing but air below it. You had to have wings to reach it.

When I turned to look ahead of us, my eyes widened at the sight. There were hundreds of those houses all around us. There was one on each branch that was big enough to build on, and there were plenty of those since the trees were huge. It was a whole-ass city. It just kept continuing to the distance, and the longer we drove, the bigger the trees became, if that was even possible.

“Holy hell…” I breathed out, almost pressing my nose against the window to see the pixie city.

And the people… Pixies… They looked a lot like humans, but couldn’t be taller than three feet and had very sharp features. And wings. Like butterflies. And they really did shed glitter when they flew past us. There was glitter everywhere, even our car was getting covered in it.

I could only stare. I stared so long my eyes went dry. When I finally managed to turn to look away, Chase gave me a smile.

“I won’t get tired of watching you seeing these things for the first time,” he told me gently.

“There’s so much glitter,” I gasped. “And tiny houses. How do you guys stay hidden?”

“We’re really good at it,” he chuckled.

“That’s an entire city up in the trees!”

“Trees that are making sure no one can see the pixies from above, or wander into their lands,” Chase pointed out.

I had to turn back to stare more. I hadn’t even noticed the big pavilions between the houses on the ground, lit up with party lights and decorated with bright, colorful flowers. Big groups of pixies and other races had gathered around the pavilions to eat and drink.

“Are we interrupting a party?” I asked, since it all looked a lot like we were crashing a wedding or something.

“Well, we’re not interrupting anything,” Zane said avoidingly.

“…But?”

“It’s a rave night,” Chase said, also avoidingly.

“A… what?” I asked.

“A rave night.”

“When we get there, don’t take anything from anyone, okay?” Chase told me.

“That kind of rave, huh?” I muttered.

“Well, they do throw the best parties,” Zane smirked, but wiped it off his face when Frank glared at him.

“We didn’t come here to party,” he grunted. “We are here to save Gus.”

“Of course, of course!”

“Better remember that.”

I thought the forest would never end, but suddenly, there was a big hill with a massive cave in front of us. When we got closer, I realized the cave was basically a concert hall, and most of the people were heading towards it. It was so odd to see massive screens, strobe lights and a big stage with music equipment in the cave. In a cave.

Frank had to stop the car long before we reached it and parked the car on the lawn with dozens of other vehicles. When we got out, no one paid any attention to us. I watched the people passing us by, all dressed up and ready to party. In a cave. With pixies.

“Are you all right?” Chase asked when he stepped next to me.

“Just trying to understand what my life has become,” I said, and shook my head.

“You’ll get used to it,” he said reassuringly. “Come – we need to get going.”

“How are we supposed to find… whoever we’re supposed to find?”

“Zane knows the way,” Chase said reassuringly, but his expression was worried.

“I know where we need to start looking,” Zane corrected him, and gestured at us to follow him, which we did.

He started leading us through the forest city, away from the cave. The pathway ahead of us was much wider than before, so I assumed it was some kind of main street with shops and cafes. The majority of the people around us there were heading towards the cave, and the noise level decreased as we walked, and soon I realized just how loud the crowd at the cave had been.

“Over here,” Zane said and pointed at one of the trees.

He went to knock on the door while the rest of us stayed back. It took a moment when a young-looking pixie woman with black-and-red wings came to open the door. She had long, brown hair in a ponytail, and she was wearing very human-like clothes: jeans and a green top that was open from the back to give room for her wings. Her narrow lips spread into a smile when she saw Zane.

“Chels!” Zane smiled at her. “I wasn’t sure if you were home.”

“Oh, hi Zane! Why didn’t you tell me you were coming to visit?” she asked with a high-pitched voice, her head far back so she could see Zane’s face.

“I wasn’t supposed to,” Zane sighed. “But I need your help.”

“Sure! What is it about?” she asked, peering at us in curiosity.

A short moment after Zane started telling her our story, her smile faded away. By the time he stopped speaking, she had a bewildered expression on her face.

“Uhmm…” she uttered slowly, hesitantly. “That sounds a bit like something I shouldn’t get myself involved in.”

“Do you know anyone who could help us?” Zane asked carefully.

She looked like she really wished she hadn’t opened the door, which made me uncomfortable. She looked somewhere behind her into her house, before she stepped out and closed the door, pulling out a tiny phone from her pocket.

“I can ask…” she muttered, bringing the phone on her ear.

“I’m sorry – I really don’t want to get you in trouble,” Zane said.

“There’s no harm in asking, right?” she chuckled, but she was clearly nervous. “Hi, Bri, do you have a moment?”

Apparently, this Bri did have a moment. Chels quickly explained our situation to her friend, and after she was done speaking, I couldn’t hear the person replying to her right away.

“I haven’t heard of anything, but I can ask Fonz,” Bri then said, also hesitantly.

I didn’t need my super senses to hear what they were talking about – their voices were so high-pitched that I was sure everyone else on the street could hear them just fine too.

“Thanks… I’m sorry I’m pulling you into this,” Chels muttered.

“Anything for a friend. I’ll call you back,” Bri said, and the call ended.

“I’m really sorry I pulled you guys in this,” Zane spoke.

“Yeah, I don’t think we should’ve come here,” I said, feeling really bad for making these tiny ladies so uncomfortable. “This might get dangerous.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Chels said. “Of course I’ll help a friend,” she added, looking up at Zane.

“I’ll make this up to you,” Zane promised.

“You’d better,” she said sternly, but with a smile.

The next few minutes were torture. Frank was getting increasingly anxious, which made him increasingly agitated. The rest of us were just awkwardly standing there, watching partygoers on their way down to the cave. Zane and Chels were the only people talking, but they mainly exchanged their how-you’ve-beens.

“Where’s Roe?” I asked, when I realized the demon was nowhere to be seen.

“Lurking, listening,” Chase said shortly. “He doesn’t like… being here…”

“Why not?”

“I’ll explain later,” Chase mumbled.

Finally Chels’ phone rang, and she quickly picked it up.

“Okay, Fonz called Blitz, and Blitz called Drit, and apparently it was Bon who abducted your human,” Bri explained hastily.

“Bon? But why?”

“Hais let it slip that Bon let the human borrow something valuable, but the human lost it, and now it’s payback time,” Bri spoke.

We all turned to look at Frank. He suddenly seemed strengthless.

“That… does sound like him…” he mumbled.

“Okay,” Chels spoke into the phone. “Do you know where we can find Bon now?”

“He should be at his factory,” Bri said. “According to Hais, you can find your human there too.”

“Thanks, Bri,” Chels said, and hung up again. “I found your human.”

“Thank you so much. Just tell us where to find him, and we’ll be on our way,” Zane said, but she shook her head.

“Oh, I’m coming with you. This is getting interesting,” she chuckled. “Let me go grab my scarf.”

“Are you sure? This might get dangerous,” Zane said with a frown.

She laughed and stepped in to grab the scarf. “With Bon? No way! I’m surprised he went as far as to kidnap a person!”

“People may surprise you,” Zane warned her, but followed her anyway when she started walking.

“Is Gus safe?” Frank asked as the rest of us joined them.

“He should be,” Chels said, but she didn’t sound too sure about it. “We’ll find out what’s going on once we get there.”

She seemed awfully optimistic, but I already knew this one was going to be one hell of a shitshow.

As always.