Blurb: This story is about is about a sick child and how a rumor sends a small town reeling.
The sun peeked over the tops of the mossy trees, waking the village of Dunmare. People began to file out of their cottages to greet one another and young children ran through the village, weaving through each building, their laughter of joy echoing into the forest of Ireland. One particular child, a young girl by the name of Anna, was galloping towards her mother, a frayed shawl wrapped around her head.
“Mama! Look at me!”, she giggled.
Her mother, Nora, turned around to see her twirling around in place. A smile tugged at the edges of her lips and she held back a laugh. Anna, satisfied with her mother’s response, skipped away to play with the other children. Nora looked as she disappeared from her sight, then returned to her cottage. She inspected the small kitchen. The rough wood supporting the ceiling was covered with some plant she couldn’t identify, and the grooves of the floor created a wooden spiderweb unfurled across the room. She breathed in the crisp air coming from an open window and began her daily chores.
Soon, the rays of the sun became fainter, and Anna burst through the door.
She lunged at her mother and squealed, “Hi mama!”, squeezing her with all her might.
After getting her breath back Nora kept a stern tone.
“Now you go and get washed up. It’s late and you need to prepare for bed.”, she scolded.
Anna stiffened and quickly did as she was told. Nora turned to finish cleaning the clothes she had been preoccupied with, but a flash of reflected light caught her eye. She froze and stared at the framed picture that had come into her view. Her deceased husband stared back at her, questioning her with his emerald eyes. She quickly looked away, wiping a tear from her eye. She abandoned the wet clothes and found Anna sound asleep, snoring softly under her covers. Nora reached out and tucked Anna’s hair behind her ear. Her daughter’s eyes opened slowly, revealing the same color as her father’s, and Nora got pulled into them. Anna’s eyes fluttered back shut, the spell broken, and Nora tiptoed out of the room, returning to the wash.
The full moon shone brightly through the thin curtains in Nora’s room, and Nora lay awake, confused about why she’d awoken. Then she heard it again, the intense string of violent coughing that had taken her from her slumber, and the origin of the sound was in Anna’s room. A flood of worry crashed through the dam in her head, rushing through her body, the waves of dread sprinting towards her fingertips and racing to her toes. She sprang out of bed and flew to Anna. Just as she had expected, the poor girl was in her bed, her lungs about to be flung out of her mouth. She was shivering frequently as well, so Nora covered her with multiple blankets, as many as she could find. She cradled Anna in her arms, rubbing her back in hopes of easing her coughing. Anna tried to choke out a sentence, but could only manage a word.
“My-”
Another coughing fit began.
“Shhhh”, Nora tried to comfort her, brushing her hair with her fingers.
She stood there for several minutes, pacing Anna’s room slowly while petting her head gently. The coughing became occasional, then eventually stopped, and Nora set her down carefully in her bed. After taking a final look at her, she walked back to her room. The smiling moon lulled Nora to sleep, calming her with its warm glow.
...
When the birds started singing and the sunlight flooded her room, Nora’s eyes opened. She recalled the events of the night before, and the torment she’d experienced. This woke her body up, and she briskly went to check on Anna. She touched the door to her bedroom lightly, and the door whispered a scream as it opened.
Cringing, she whispered a question, “Are you awake Anna?”
There was no response, so she opened the door wider, and slipped inside. Nora looked in sickened awe at the mess displayed across the walls of the room. A chunky yellow substance was cemented to them and left in thick pools on the bed and the floor. The smell swirled into her nostrils and she gagged, covering her nose with both hands. Her eyes scanned the room, searching for Anna.
A slime covered figure twitched a hand, hidden in the corner of the room. Nora stared in disbelief.
“How in the..”, Nora’s sentence trailed off.
Anna stared at her mother, barely blinking, but didn’t say anything. She started to shiver and shudder, her entire body convulsing. Nora stood still, her eyes glued to her daughter. Anna repositioned herself into a tighter ball than she was in before, and shivered more intensely, closing her eyes.
Nora swallowed, trying to lessen the lump in her throat. She edged toward Anna and reluctantly held out her arms to pick her up. Anna abruptly sat up and glanced at her mother. The arms reaching out for her caught her eye, and without hesitation, her teeth sank into Nora’s flesh. Nora jumped backward and her eyes widened at her daughter.
“Why did you do that!”, she screeched.
Nora let out a very long string of profane words, holding the fresh wound on her skin. A few droplets of blood found their way out, and slid down her arm, and fell to the floor. Nora looked from the teeth marks to Anna with frustrated bewilderment. Anna averted her eyes from the scene she created and cowered on the other side of her hands. Nora looked back at her arm, more blood creeping towards the ground. She gawked at it for a long time, attempting to get a grip of reality.
Her head whipped upwards, and she regarded Anna.
“Stay right there.” she instructed and walked briskly out of the room.
Nora ransacked the bathroom, trying to find something to cover her wound with. Her shaking hands found a rag, and they wrapped it around her arm. She winced and took a deep breath. Then she walked out of the cottage, fumbling with the doorknob on the way out. Nora tried to stay collected as she walked through the village, nodding at a passerby. She hid her arm under her other hand.
Knocking on her mother’s door, she breathed, “Ma, are you home?”.
The door cracked open.
“What is it”, her mother croaked.
She peered through the sliver of light and examined Nora. She saw her hidden arm and pulled it into her view. Seeing the slightly bloody rag, she raised her eyebrow and looked at Nora questioningly. Nora looked back at her, her face flooded with panic.
“Something is wrong with Anna.”
...
Nora opened the door to Anna’s room and her mother walked in.
“What in the living hell happened in here?”
She made eye contact with Anna, and Anna immediately started bawling. She tried to get closer to her, but the crying got louder as she got near. Eventually, she gave up and turned to Nora. Nora held up her bitten arm and shook her head.
Her mother sighed with exasperation and grumbled under her breath. Swiftly, she spun around to face Anna, marched up to her, and snatched her up in her arms. Anna was too surprised to cry out. She was then taken to the bathroom, plopped down into the tub, and given a bath with lots of scrubbing and soap.
While her mother bathed Anna, Nora sterilized her room. Her back began to ache after about an hour, so she took a break. When she walked into the bathroom to check on Anna, she found the bathroom covered in the same yellow substance she was cleaning off of the walls in Anna’s room. Her mother was covered in it as well, a look of disgust on her face. Nora couldn’t help but laugh.
“What are you laughing at? Now you have to help me clean this up.” she snapped.
Eventually, the mess was gone and Anna was clean. Both Anna’s mother and grandmother inspected her carefully. Nothing seemed to be wrong with her, but Anna wouldn’t stop whining and kicking them. Nora took her up in her arms and set her into her bed to rest. She and her mother advanced into the other room.
“You know what this could mean Nora.” she stressed.
“No, ma. I refuse to believe in old wives tales. Just because Anna is acting strange does not mean that she’s been taken over by some faerie.” Nora scoffed.
Her mother gave her a criticizing look but didn’t reply. She left Nora’s cottage and went back to her own. Nora waved at her from the window and let out a sigh of relief as she walked out of sight.
“Stupid old traditions destroying lives. It’s madness is what it is.” she spat.
She went back to Anna’s room, saw her sleeping soundly, and smiled. Nora fell asleep quickly in her own bed too, exhausted from the cleaning. What she didn’t know was that her mother was spreading rumors around the village like wildfire, and by the end of the day everyone would be talking about the “changeling” that had taken Nora’s daughter.
Nora was awoken by the sound of broken glass in the middle of the night. Her body jolted upwards and she listened to where it came from. She heard the crunch of the glass being stepped on and knew that it came from Anna’s room. She bolted to the bedroom. Anna wasn’t in her bed. The window pane was broken and the night breeze whispered in her ears. The chill of the Irish air sent a shiver down her spine. Her heart dropped to her feet as she stared at the empty sheets being blown in the wind. Finally, she could utter a word.
“Anna!”, she yowled, her voice being carried into the depths of the woods.
She knew who could have been behind this. Hot tears rolled down her face as she stormed to her mother’s cottage.
“MA, OPEN THIS BLOODY DOOR RIGHT NOW!”, she raged as she beat the front door with her fists.
Her mother appeared at the doorway, only a fraction of her face showing.
“You better tell me where my daughter is right now or I will break your door down right now”, she sobbed as her voice broke.
“This is for your and Anna’s own good and you know that. If you get rid of that changeling, you can have your daughter back. I’m only trying to help you, see.” she insisted. “Now get back to bed. You will have your daughter back soon enough.”
Nora screamed with frustration.
“MOTHER I AM BEING SERIOUS-”
She was cut off as her mother shut the door in her face. She turned around to see everyone else out on their porches, watching with their mouths open as Nora ran to her own cottage.
Nora cried herself to sleep, her eyes red and her face wet. She didn’t want to rest, but her body forced her to, the stress tiring her.
...
For the next week, Nora waited for her daughter to come back home, hoping that the folktales were true. She prayed that a faerie really had taken her child and that Anna would return now. But she never did. Nora waited on her porch for every waking minute, anxious with uncertainty. But Anna never came back.