Entranced

Never anger the fae. Never trust the fae. Never love the fae.

What I need is a task. Something to concentrate on, something that will distract me from all the whirling thoughts crowding my head.

Then I will pretend that my life here was nothing but a bad dream . . . A nightmare.

I fall. I fall and fall, air whipping my face, my shredded arms and legs. It’s almost a relief. A relief to know that everything is going to end in just another instant, when my body hits the water, when every bone breaks, and I sink beneath the waves. I’ll be dead then, and the pain flaring through my senses from all those deadly cuts will be over. The fear of the future will be over as well, and my ten years of enslavement. All will be done.

I’ve learned over the years that a smile is a much more effective mask than a non-expression. Every non-expression is ultimately nothing but a blank canvas inviting unwanted and revealing expressions to flash into momentary visibility. But if you’re wearing a smile, those more revealing expressions have nowhere to go.

trail my fingers along the spines of certain books, seeking comfort from them as I would from old friends.

My heart hitches in my breast. I can’t let this go on! I can’t let this . . . this thing destroy any more of my books right in front of me. “Write it back into the pages.

It’s thankless enough, I’ll grant you. Fighting tooth and nail to save the worlds every single day, and no one knowing or caring what you’re up to. But you know. And that counts for something.

I’ve traveled into the human world a few times. Didn’t like it much. The air is awfully thick there, and I can almost *feel* Time crawling all over me, aging me with each passing second. Not a pleasant sensation!