Bubbles floated past my face. Dust glittered in the air above me. Except, it wasn’t dust. Bubbles escaped from my mouth as and I realised I was underwater. I tried to swim towards the surface only hit sand. My lungs began to burn as I whirled around in the water, desperately looking for the surface. Everything was dark. Air escaped through my lips. I clamped a hand over my nose and tried stop myself from trying to breath.

My vision blots as I try to swim in the direction I thought was up. I clawed my way through the water, but it’s too late. I instinctively tried to breath, there was water in my nose, my mouth and lungs. It’s over. I was choking on the water and I couldn’t stop.

In the blackness of the water I see a shadowy figure. Their hand outstretched towards mine. My hand reaches for theirs and-!

I jolted myself awake, gasping desperately for air and blinking rapidly under the harsh light. Breathing in steady breaths I shielded my eyes from the sun coming through the window.

“I was getting worried about you for a minute there. You stopped breathing for a moment too long.” A familiar voice spoke.

With a grunt I turn my head to the side and squint at the figure sitting next to me.

Elijah.

“You’re in one of the upstairs bedrooms. I thought you might be more comfortable up here than on the patio.”

“Thanks?” I reply hoarsely as I tried to focus my gaze.

“You came back to the house and asked for help, remember?”

“Oh yea, that…” I mumbled and rested left hand on my stomach, “you know how to heal a fairy bite?”

“Nope,” Elijah sighed as he shifted on his chair, “but Claude does, hence you’re alive right now.”

“Claude?” I frowned at his name as I remembered what happened. “Of course he does,” my voice sounded bitter, “the jerk was there.”

Elijah leaned forward on his knees with interest. “What do you mean Claude was there?”

I swallowed dryly and took a deep breath. “He saved me from being drowned by the fairy and killed her.”

“He what?” Elijah forced a calm tone as he spoke.

“He killed her, one minute he was pulling me from the lake, and then next he snapped her neck and she was dead.”

Elijah let out a slow long breath as he listened.

“Well, to be fair I tried to kill her first, and failed.” I groaned as I tried to sit myself up. My right arm felt numb, it was wrapped up in bandages and a rough split to keep me from bending it.

That doesn’t look good.

“Okay, start from the beginning. Why were you trying to kill the fairy?” Elijah clasped his hands together and rested his chin atop.

“Can I have some water or something?” I asked holding my left hand to my throat.

“Of course,” Elijah quickly turned to the cabinet behind him and poured a cup of water. He passed the cup to me and then resumed his position on the chair at the bedside, waiting patiently for me to explain.

I took a long sip as I reconsidered twhat I should tell him. To be fair, I did appear on his door step and asked for help, so I supposed I owed him an explanation. Glancing at my arm it occured to me that it might take a while for my arm to fully heal. I figured if I was going to be here for a few days, I should tell him the truth, or what I knew to be the truth.

“I woke up a week ago in an apartment with no memories and this fairy breaking down the front door. Obviously, I ran away.” I explained and Elijah smiled in agreement. “I was in a town somewhere, I don’t know where, but the dirt was a deep red colour. There weren’t many houses or streets, it was pretty small. After a few days I stumbled across this house in the middle of no where and the woman inside said I could stay the night.”

“Ah,” Elijah breathed with understanding.

“I did, and I went to sleep on the couch. But when I woke up, the fairy was just staring down at me. I freaked out and tried to escape. I stabbed the red haired woman-“

“Sorry, the red-haired woman?” Elijah interrupted.

“Yea, the one who said I could stay at the house.” I explained.

“Uh, gotcha, carry on.”

“Uh, yea, so I stabbed the red haired woman with a kitchen knife. I tried to run but the fairy stopped me before I could open the front door. She told me she was here to take me to someone. I don’t know who, but she grabbed me by the arm and tried to put me in a car.” I took another sip of water while Elijah waited for me to continue. “I saw a wooden post sticking out of the dirt, when we passed it, I grabbed it and stabbed her with it.”

“I’m guessing it didn’t work very well?”

“I didn’t know she was a fairy at the time,” I retorted defensively, “I had no memories, remember.”

Elijah gave me an apologetic smile and motioned for me to continue.

“She ripped the stake out of her stomach and smacked me over the head with it. Then I blacked out and woke up here on your couch.”

“So, you blacked out in the middle of nowhere and woke up here. You don’t remember anything else in between?” Elijah stared at me curiously and I just shrugged.

“Nothing, I just remember I was out in the middle of nowhere and then I was here, on your couch.”

“So you know you woke up a week ago, a few days later you were attacked and blacked out, then woke up here. How do you know this all happened a week ago?”

“Uh, it was Christmas morning,” I answered like it was obvious. “When I woke up here it was the first of January, right? Which meant it’s been a week since I woke up.”

But that means that you were unconscious for days. That doesn’t make sense.

Elijah leaned back in his chair. I knew he was debating whether I was lying or not, or how much of it was the truth. He folded his arms over his chest and asked, “so what happened when you left the house?”

“Well,” I began, and recounted the day. I told him about Claude helping me to leave town, the women still pursuing me, how I tried to kill the fairy and nearly drowned. Then the Claude, or the fake-Claude, saving me and killing the fairy, and then how I thought I followed his dog back to his house.

Elijah sat there in silence for a few minutes. I quietly sipped on my cup of water as the silence seemed to get thicker. The longer he was quiet the more panicked I felt.

What if he didn’t believe me?

Eventually he asked, “do you know if the woman with the red-hair is still alive?”

I shrugged and shook my head. “The fairy was going to look for her after she had captured me.”

“And you were saved by someone who looked like Claude?”

“Well, yea, I mean, I don’t know him that well, but it looked like him.”

“But Claude admitted he was someone else?”

“He just said I could think of him as a guardian of some kind.”

The corner of Elijah’s mouth twitched as he consider his next words carefully. “Claude was here with Dinah all night until you arrived. So whoever helped you, it certainly wasn’t him, and the dog you followed clearly wasn’t Mary.”

I looked at my arm, sighed and asked, “how long is this going to take to heal?” I was desperate for a change of topic.

“A few days till you can move it. Claude made an ointment that you need to apply to the affected areas for up to a week.” Elijah tapped the top of a jar with a pale yellow cream. He then picked up another jar with some kind of herbal mix. “You will also need to drink this every morning when you wake and every night before you go to bed for a week.”

“Right, that’s going to be inconvenient if I have people coming after me.” I muttered and fiddled with the bandages on my arm.

“Stop fiddling with your arm, you’ll make it worse.” Elijah scolded me lik a child and then refilled my cup of water. “You just worry about resting up, I’ll take care of the rest.”

I scoffed and take a sip of my water. “What, are you some kind of big shot hunter or something?”

“Actually,” Elijah grinned, “I am. I come from a long family line of hunters.”

“Lucky me,” I muttered spitefully into my cup.

“Very lucky indeed, otherwise you’d be dead right now. Although, there are actually quite a few of us around.”

“Around? Like in this house, this town or around as in this country?”

“Here in Australia,” Elijah answers with a smile.

“Australia?!” I choked on my water as I panicked.

I was not supposed to be here! Wait, if I wasn’t supposed to be here, then where was I supposed to be?

“Where did you think you were?” Elijah tilted his head with curiosity.

“Uh,” I coughed and then frowned as I try to remember, my head twinged with pain. “I don’t know. But I get the feeling I am not supposed to be here.”

“Right, well you don’t seem to have an accent, although I don’t know if accents are lost when you lose your memory. You should get some sleep,” Elijah stood, “I’ll wake you when it’s time to drink the tea.”

“Okay,” I replied absently as I tried to focus on the feeling that I wasn’t supposed to be here. The pain in my temples lanced it’s way outwards as Elijah left me alone in the room.