Onyx Ring (Incomplete)

[Hugo Prosperio]

I have some hardcore writer's block when it comes to Carnival of Dreams, so I decided to visit my old friends from Pixie Dust, and tell their next story, which I've been plotting for a while now. I hope you all enjoy it!

ONYX RING
A Pixie Dust Tale
by Hugo Prosperio (aka darthspielberg)

Chapter One: Black Pebble



The spring air swept into the bedroom of Alana Sweet as she slept soundly, the wind tussling her raven hair like it would grass. She sighed softly as she gripped onto her pillow. She suddenly stirred moments later, however, when she thought she heard her name. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

The 22 year old girl was home visiting her family in Maine for a week, and was enjoying the rest and relaxation, but every night she swore that she could hear someone calling her name. She rose from her bed, planting her bare feet on the ground, and stood up, looking around. She couldn’t see anyone, so she sighed and began to crawl back into bed when she heard it again

“Alana!” it said, distinctly. It was coming from outside. She walked over to her window and stared out, and looked onto the front lawn of her parents home, and again the voice called out to her. “Alana!”

She quickly slipped on a pair of her sneakers, not bothering to change out of her pajama pants and t-shirt, and crept downstairs. She slid out the front door and listened, and sure enough, the voice called again. She followed the sound of it into a nearby patch of forest next to the house. She had played amongst these trees when she was little, so she knew her way around, even in the dark. The voice called out again, and she could make out something in the distance, a figure.

“Hello, Alana.” It said, with a soft, friendly male voice. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Who are you?” Alana asked.

“I have many names, some human, some of other worlds you can only imagine. But for now, you may call me Strom.” He said stepping into the moonlight to reveal a man around Alana’s age, and if you had asked her at that moment, she would say he was very cute.

“Well, Strom, why are looking for me.” She added, looking around for possible escape routes, in case things get scary.

“I have gift for you. You see, I have magical powers. Now I am sure you don’t believe me, but that’s okay. Time will tell if I am lying or not. I come to give you a very simple gift, a gift of…freedom.”

“Freedom?” she asked curiously as she looked him over.

“You are a college girl, right now, are you not?” he asked.

“Yes…” she said hesitantly.

“…and a working girl, if I not mistaken. Have to pay for school one way or another, right?”

She didn’t like the tone of his voice, but she stood her ground.

“I work as a waitress some nights, to make some extra cash, that’s all.”

“And wouldn’t you like to be free of the burden and stress of it all…to live a life of adventure and…freedom?”

“You can give that to me?” She asked, highly doubting it.

“Of course I can. Like I said…magical powers.” He said chuckling.

“Look, I don’t know you who you are, but I think this prank has gone on long enough, don’t you?” she said, hands firmly on her hips.

“I can imagine this very strange for you…but I am telling the truth…” he stated. “Perhaps…a bit of proof?” he said a smile on is face, made incredibly creepy by the moonlight.

Deciding to humor him, She replied with a simple “Yeah, sure…”

He the stepped closer, and produced a small velvet bag and handed it to her.

“Inside is a small stone, hold it in your hand, and wish to be free of your earthly burdens, and the stone will make it so.” He instructed.

She opened the bag, and shook out a small black pebble, that shone in the moonlight.

“Now grasp it tight…and think those thoughts…” he smiled.

She did as she was told, and oddly a warm sensation began to transfer from the stone to her body.

“What is it supposed to do…” she asked.

“My dear, you are about to find out” Strom said with a laugh. A laugh that Alana didn’t like one bit.

Suddenly she felt the warmth spread from her hand to her arm, to her whole body in a matter of seconds. The warmth began to tingle, and the tingle got stronger the longer she held onto the stone. She then felt a strange jerk in her body, and suddenly the whole world started to morph before her eyes. It seemed as if it were slowly getting bigger, the trees, the moon, even Strom…but then the realization that her clothing was getting loose singled that the world was not getting bigger around her, but that she was getting smaller. She dropped the stone with a loud gasp, but it was too late. The magic had already worked it’s way into her body, and she was rapidly, and steadily, shrinking in size.

“Soon, you will never worry about another thing in life, my dear” Strom said as her pajama pants began to slide off. “You will be in my collection of pets, and My dear, you are going to be the prize of the bunch, I can tell you that…”

“What?!” she shrieked and tried to run, all the while screaming “Help! Mom, Dad! Help”

“They can’t hear you. They are in a deep slumber, and you, Little Alana, are mine.” Strom said as Alana felt another jerk, and she dwindled down quickly to around six inches in height.”

“Please!” She shouted up, standing stark naked, in the center of what used to be the neck of her tee shirt. “Please turn me back…”

“You took my gift, which means you really wanted to be freed from your stressful life, and now you are…” he said as he grabbed her, her tiny body squirming in his hand. She tried kicking, punching, and even biting, but he was wearing leather gloves, and she couldn’t seem to do anything to harm him.

“Come, Alana, Let’s go Home” Strom said, sounding quite satisfied with himself.

The only thing that remained was a pile of her clothing, and a small pebble, black, but no longer shiny…now very dull…

-----

The police detective left the room as the parents of Alana Sweet sat there, trying to desperately get the cops to believe that their daughter had been abducted.

Her father shouted, “You have to believe us, we aren’t mad. All that was left was her clothing…and that…pebble…what if it’s a calling card?”

Detective Alex Horn knew they were telling the truth, but he wasn’t sure how it had happened. What he was sure about was that this was the third disappearance of it’s kind in the last month. Each case was the same; a young college-aged girl disappeared in a heavily wooded area. All that was left behind in each case was the girls clothing, and a dull ugly looking black pebble.

“CSI find anything?” Horn asked his partner, Jacob Leonard

“No” said Leonard. “No signs of abuse or foul play other than the disappearance. No footprints, no trace, no nothing. Whoever is doing this…is a real professional.”
“Yeah, seems like it.” Horn said. Horn was running out of ideas, and even worse, he was running out of excuses for the loved ones of those gone missing.

“Make sure to get a full report of what Mr. and Mrs. Sweet have to say, Jacob” Horn said as he grabbed his cup of coffee. “I’m gonna head back to the scene…see if I can dig anything up. I just wish someone in this building knew what the hell is going on.”

Oddly, at that very moment someone was in the building that knew what was going on and he happened to be the chief of Fairy Police. Da’av Harken. He sat in the window, listening to the cries of the Sweets, and to the conversation between Leonard and Horn. He saw Horn leave, and he flitted out of the room, unnoticed by anyone, and followed the grizzled police detective to his car.

“This is gonna be interesting.” Da’av said as he flew into the back of Horn’s beat up pick up truck.

-----

The cool splash of the tropical waterfall soothed both Jadaris Pevnock and Jenna Hall as they bathed.

“I love vacations like this…” Jadaris said wistfully.

“Me too.” Jenna added “And the scenery is to die for.

Of course, one might think that they were off in Hawaii or something, but the truth was much more…odd. They were sitting in the middle of a waterfall themed soothing fountain, like one you might find at Brookstone or some place like that. They couldn’t have been taller than four inches, and Caitlin Miller just rolled her eyes as she walked past Jadaris’ desk.

“Guys…I’d love some help closing up shop!” Caitlin said.

“But we are on “vacation”, Caitlin!” Jenna shouted up.

“Yeah, Big Bad Caitlin is ruining all our fun.” Jadaris said, sounding like a massive child.

“Oh Can It, Jade” said the voice of Beth Gainsborough, who was sweeping the floor. “ Just because your magic who-doo rakes in the customers, doesn’t mean you get to sit on your ass and we have to clean it all up.

“Fine…” Jadaris said crossing her arms. She then blew on her hands, and dust mixed with the mist of the water from the fall, and In a flash both Jadaris and Jenna were human sized, standing next to the desk, wrapped in towels.

“Now…get some clothes on, ladies” Caitlin said. “You’ve got mopping to do.” She said pointing out the puddles growing beneath their feet on the salon floor.

-----

“Nothing at all. Damn it” Horn said through his teeth. So far, the clothes and the pebble remained as part of the crime scene, but Horn knew the crime lab would be back momentarily to take them to the lab to do further tests. He swore as he kicked a nearby tree. This case had been plaguing him for months. First it started off slow, a kidnapping would happen every once in a long while, but in recent months, it’s gotten worse, and all he had to show for it was a collection of dull pebbles that meant absolutely nothing to him.

Da’av on the other hand had a pretty good idea what the pebbles were, but he would need to do some investigating to be sure. He swooped down while Horn was distracted with the pain in his foot from kicking a tree, and sighed. He saw a small red velvet purse, on it was a strange seal. Da’av knew what it meant, but he said nothing as he collected the purse, and stuffed it into a knapsack on his back.

“This is far more complicated than I thought” he mumbled to himself as he flew off, heading towards the city in the far distance.

Horn just stood there, silently wishing he knew what the hell to do…perhaps, someone would grant his wish soon, perhaps not…all he knew is that he had to find this culprit, and bring them to justice…if only he knew how hard that would be.