Day 166: Fantasy — The Shark Agenda

Write about fairies, gnomes, elves, or other mythical creatures.

I stared hard at the weird old man my grandma just introduced me to. “Excuse me…what? Fairies?”

He nodded, with a smug smile. “They exist. And you need to find one. His name is Gus, he lives down in the backwoods of-”

I laughed for a long minute. “No. I’m not-” I turned to look at my grandma, who just sighed. “Is he for real?”

Turns out he was. So guess who took her sister to some hick town outside of New Orleans because her grandma’s weird friend told her to go find a literal fairy living in the woods. Named Gus.

GUS. HIS NAME IS GUS AND HE IS A FAIRY.

Just wanted to make sure you guys were still with me, because it’s going to get weirder from here on out.

Emilia insisted we stop for snacks when we got to town. “I don’t trust this food, you know they deep fry butter down here.” I rolled my eyes but obliged her. We could only navigate so much on Google Maps because Gus’ home is deeply off road and I’m worried about these handwritten instructions from grandma’s boyfriend.

She won’t admit he’s her boyfriend but he totally is.

We arrived at Gus’ ancient, yet still standing, home after about 45 minutes of getting lost and the two of us yelling at each other. We drove slowly up long gravel road winded all the way up to and past the broken down gates. Reader, you’re probably wondering why the hell my sister and I are out here in the backwoods of Louisiana trying to find a fairy.

In order to continue my witch-ducation, I have to meet with every so-called magical being still in existence but hiding out there in the world. Listen, my skepticism is still at an all-time high even though I can quite literally fly. But fairies? What next? Elves? Vampires? Ghosts?

I shuddered as we approached Gus’ front door. His front yard was littered with bones. A shit ton of bones. But it wasn’t just like piles of bones everywhere, it was like… a bone art museum. A collection of bones stacked together to form weird and ghastly shapes.

“Um, can we get the fuck out of here?” Emilia whispered, slowly.

“Nope!” A voice called out from the porch. Our eyes quickly jumped to a tall, skeletal figure slowly descending the stairs. It smiled at us, in what I’m sure it thought was a friendly manner but you see, it didn’t have any lips? So it was definitely less reassuring and more terrifying than anything.

Emilia squeaked and hid behind me. The figure, Gus I assumed, stopped short and looked down at its’ hands. “Oh dear,” it whispered and suddenly its form changed shape into a short, round black dude with a bald head and bright green eyes.

“Sometimes I forget,” he smiled again and slowly walked to us. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Eva. When your power awakened, we all felt something we haven’t felt in a long time.”

“We?” Emilia asked.

“What?” I asked.

He ignored my sister and leaned into my personal space. “We felt a rebirth.”

“Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.”