Sunbrushed (drabble)

She had felt it since she was young, a murmur of energy that sparked static beneath her feet when she played in the fields surrounding the village as a child. The green meadow down the road from her family home held secrets, she could taste it on the tip of her tongue, caress it with the pads of her fingers in a way no one else could. But when she told her mother of the magic she believed to be ingrained into the very air they breathed, she was told it was bad luck to believe in such things. So, as Elspeth grew older, the static became quieter in her ears. The magic didn’t reach out to her the way it did when she was a child, because her heart wasn’t open to it the way it used to be. The taste on the tip of her touch became an afterthought, a sprinkle of sugar she couldn’t quite swallow; but eventually, even that was somehow twisted into a normal sensation. That was, until Elspeth took a wander through the popular walking trail on the outskirts of her village.  

The trees grew higher than most places she knew, creating shapes against the crystal clear cerulean sky that caused a wave of gold to flutter across Elspeth’s irises. That gentle spark fluttered up through her fingers and circled around her wrists like a shackle as a welcoming warmth tugged her further into the trees, straying from the usual path that most chose. There was a chime, stroking at the back of her brain inviting her to take off her boots, to feel the earth between her toes as she had when she was little. But that gentle chime was met with a fever that curled up like a housecat and settled at the base of her spine – and Elspeth could swear she heard the very air whisper a warning to not be pulled under the current that circled her, to not be trapped beneath the gold that had grown brighter in her eyes.  

The chime rang once more, the shackles twisting like vines up over sun kissed forearms to settle at her elbows. It sounded almost like faerie bells; though to a regular human’s ears it was more like a twitter of a bird in the distance. Elspeth drew a pound coin from her pocket, straining the invisible shackles on her arms to do so before dropping it onto the soil beside her, just like the old stories she was told as a child urged her to do. Inquisitive eyes dropping to watch as the soil somehow moved, encasing before engulfing the coin and dragging it under.  

Another chime; but the whispers grew louder, compelling her to turn and leave. A brush of what felt like wings, delicate as a feather, traced along the skin behind her ear, and the whispers were met with a dulcet murmur of sound, it was warm, inviting, purring against her ear.  Every sound around her faded as she took a step further into the trees, the bright warmth of the sun twinkling through the leaves like stars, coating her skin as the gold grew brighter still in her eyes.  

There was an echoing snap of a branch barely a few feet away from her. It drew her back, the warm vines around her wrists snapping off and falling to the ground. Fluttering in the air around her caused her hair to sweep backward, curling behind her ears to replace that gentle brush she could have sworn she felt mere seconds before. 

“Elsie, is that you?”

It was a neighbour, a girl she had went to school with when she was young that as a child Elspeth swore to be magic.  

Elspeth’s skin was cold, all of a sudden, like something was missing and when she finally turned to look toward the girl in question, her irises had faded back to brown, the light sheen over her skin gone. She felt somewhat hollow. 

“Hi, Sarah. How’ve you been?” Even Elspeth’s voice sounded faint. Echoing around her mouth in a way she had never noticed before.  

The second she took a retreating step toward the chosen path, the memory settled itself at the back of her brain, joining all the others from her childhood; a heavy blanket pulled over the top of it as the coldness from her skin dissipated, her heart settling into a steady rhythm. But just as the blanket was about to encase every feeling that had completely consumed her, Sarah’s voice came gentle, scared almost, "Don't stray from the path, faeries aren’t kind creatures.” 

Gold shimmered across brown irises, heat brushing across her clavicles as that corner of the blanket flipped back over, just enough to leave a trace of everything Elspeth had felt. It was almost like déjà vu, a memory she couldn’t quite grip with her fingertips.