🧚 Faerie Gift

by Maureen Bowden

I was living rough on the streets when she found me, curled up in Ladbrokes’ doorway, wrapped in an overcoat from Oxfam, hugging my guitar and trying to sleep. She said, “What’s your name, girl?”

“Mindy. What’s yours?”

“Faye. Will you feed me?”

She knelt over me, her pale face almost touching mine, a near skeletal figure, looking no more than eighteen, despite her long white hair, and world-weary brown eyes. She wore a full-length purple evening gown that appeared to be at least two sizes too big.

“I can’t feed you,” I said. “I ate my last cheese sandwich two hours ago.”

She shook her head. “I don’t need cheese. I need blood.”

I shivered and tried to move away from her, but she dug her nails into my arm. Her eyes filled with tears. “Please don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you. I’ll take only a little. You’ll sleep while I feed and tomorrow I’ll pay you well.” She looked into my eyes while I drifted into oblivion with no power to resist.

I awoke as dawn was breaking and the city was still sleeping. We lay entwined like lovers and my left arm ached. I pulled away from her and examined the small puncture in the bend of my elbow. She rose to her feet and said, “Come with me, Mindy. I’ll take care of you now.”

I picked up my guitar and followed her to a block of high-rise luxury flats. Faye tapped a code into a digital keypad to gain access to her apartment and led me inside. It was furnished with couches, cushions, drapes, and a TV screen the size of a bay window. It looked like the show homes I used to see on television commercials in the days when I had somewhere to live. Passing me the access code, she said “Remember it. This is your home now.” From a wall cabinet, she took a wad of banknotes and handed them to me. “Buy yourself some breakfast.”

I laughed. “There’s enough here to buy a café. Where did you get it and how can you afford this place?”

“I bought a lottery ticket and once I’d spent most of the winnings, I bought another one.”

“Oh, come on. Are you clairvoyant as well as a vampire?”

She flopped onto one of the couches and patted the cushion for me to join her. “Long ago I was given a faerie gift. It’s time for me to pass it on. You can have it, Mindy, but only if you consent and you’re prepared to pay the price.”

I sat beside her. “Gifts don’t come with a price tag, Faye.”

“Only humans believe that. I was human once but I’m not now, and I know everything has a price. This gift will enable you to achieve whatever you want but I won’t tell you what the price will be.”

“Will it get me off the streets and turn me into a famous singer-songwriter?”

“What do you need to achieve that?”

“More talent, sex appeal, and a lot of luck.”

She grasped my hand. “Think carefully, Mindy. Do you accept the gift?”

I didn’t have to think about it. A better life than the one I had was worth any price. “I accept.”

She pointed to the mirrored alcove alongside the TV screen. “Look at your reflection.”

I was still me, but more alluring, sparkling with the freshness of youth, and the mystery of womanhood in my eyes. I was irresistible. I picked up my guitar. My fingers caressed the strings with newfound skill and the strings responded.

Faye insisted I buy breakfast, so I grabbed a coffee and bread roll at “Patti’s Pantry” on the corner of Crown Street, then hurried back to the apartment. I spent the day composing new songs and singing them to her. It all came easy.

When night fell she showed me the bedroom. I lay down on the softest mattress that had ever eased my bones, and she lay beside me. “Do you want to feed again?” I asked.

“No. I want to sleep.” We slept.

The next morning she was gone. Her evening gown lay on the bed covered in a fine dust.  I shook it from the open window. Faye’s remains were carried away on the wind. After closing the window I hung the gown in the wardrobe.

The following evening I took my guitar to “The Carousel”, a local pub that welcomed musicians: no pay but free drinks. I sang a newly written song about a brown-eyed vampire full of pretty promises. The patrons whooped, cheered and applauded. A talent-scouting record producer pounced on me, signed me up, and within three months I was the darling of the music scene.  

Fame brought me riches, a gaggle of shallow friends, and a succession of short-lived love affairs. I revelled in each of them and then moved on. For ten years I experienced everything for which I’d longed, but it couldn’t ease a yearning that was beyond my understanding, until this morning.

I awoke with a hunger that scorched my soul, screaming to be satisfied. Overnight my body became emaciated and my hair had turned white. I looked in the mirror. Faye’s face stared back at me.

My hunger grew fiercer as the day wore on. When darkness fell, I dressed myself in her purple evening gown and left the apartment. I searched among the city’s homeless horde and found a young girl, cold and alone, huddled in the shelter of a railway bridge.  I knelt over her. “What’s your name, girl?”

“Ava. What’s yours?”

“Faye. Will you feed me?”