Supper was over, their homework was finished, and Fiona and Aerya were bored. The books they liked to read seemed dull, with washed out colors on the covers. The games they liked to play were all too boring to consider. Fiona sat on the bed, making a tiny braid over and over in Baby Mushroom’s hair. Aerya was trying to get Madigan Marbles to pose like an acrobat. The rain seemed to press down, making the room smaller.
“What do you want to do?” asked Aerya, giving up on Madigan Marbles and setting him with the other stuffed animals.
“I don’t know, what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. Do you want to color?”
“No. I finished that big poster, and I’m kind of tired of coloring right now.”
“Me to. Hey, do you want to make pamcakes?”
“We just had supper, and I’m still really full.”
“Me to. Do you want to - I can’t think of anything.” Aerya flopped over, her arms outstretched on the big, double bed.
“I can’t think of anything either.” Fiona put down Baby Mushroom, and flopped onto the bed, too, with her arms over her head. She noticed a strange crack in the ceiling. It was as if someone had fought a pirate in the attic, and fallen hard on the ceiling. Fiona wished she had brought home Maggie’s note. That would have given some relief to the boredom. Remembering Maggie, Fiona suddenly had an idea.
“I know what we should do!” said Fiona, sitting upright.
“What?”
“Let’s tell scary stories!”
It was Aerya’s turn to sit up.
“Scary stories? What is that?”
“You know, creepy stories.”
“What do you mean, creepy stories?”
“Like the stories that girls tell at a sleepover. Stories that are spooky - stories that make you nervous and giggly. Stories about things that scare us.”
“Like Sanda Claws.”
Fiona didn’t bother to try and correct the fairy princess about Santa. Some things just couldn’t be explained well enough for Aerya.
“No, not that. A scary story would be, hmmmm, okay, it might be a story about a troll who lives in the basement.”
Aerya pulled her knees to her chest.
“You have a troll who lives in the basement?”
“No, Aerya, there is no troll in the basement. But if I made up a story about one, that would be spooky, and scary.”
“Oh, I understand. Spooky story, sure. That sounds like fun!”
“Oh, yeah! It’s a load of fun with candy sprinkles! We should get ready for bed, and I’ll tell the first story.”
They brushed their teeth, Fiona with her electric toothbrush, while Aerya used a Bob the Builder brush on her teeth. Fiona put on her pajamas with the teddy bears, and Aerya got into her nightgown with the kittens. They stopped to say good night to Fiona’s dad.
“Night, Daddy,” said Fiona, giving him a hug and a kiss.
“Good night, Mr. Dad,” said Aerya, giving him just a hug. A fairy princess, apparently, does not kiss goodnight. Of course Fiona’s dad didn’t know that Aerya was a fairy princess. He thought she was an exchange student from somewhere far away, which explained the unusual things she sometimes said and did.
“Going to bed so soon, you two? Are you alright?” Fiona’s dad knew that 10 year old girls rarely went to bed early. Life was just too interesting!
“Yes,” said Fiona, “we’re a little tired and bored from all the rain.”
“We’ll probably be asleep very soon,” said Aerya, and the tip of her nose turned bright red. If Fiona’s dad noticed, he didn’t say anything.
“Well, goodnight. I’ll see you both in the morning!”
Once back in the bedroom, Aerya and Fiona got into the bed, then Fiona got out again.
“What are you doing?” asked Aerya.
“I want to put something over the light, to make it a little more spooky.”
“Why not turn off the light?”
Fiona slowly turned to look at Aerya. She didn’t say anything for a long moment. Aerya sat, looking puzzled.
“Duh, we’re telling scary stories! It’ll be too scary if the lights are off!”
“Oh,” said Aerya as if she understood, though Fiona wasn’t sure that she did. Fiona found a light scarf, which she folded in half, and carefully draped around the light. It bathed the room in blue and red, dim, but not dark. Fiona got into the bed, and without Aerya seeing, she slipped a modified coat hanger under her pillow. She would need that later for her story.
“Are you ready?” asked Fiona, pushing her hair behind her ears.
“Oh yes,” said Aerya, brushing her black hair back, and wrapping a scrunchie around it. She smiled, excited by this new experience. Apparently, in the fairy world, a fairy princess didn’t have sleepovers with s’mores and spooky stories. Like the s'mores and stories at Maggie's house. Fiona smiled, too, remembering how Maggie scared her at a sleepover when Fiona was nine.
“A long, long time ago, there was a really bad guy. He was mean and wicked, and really scary. He did really bad things, and -”
“Like what?”
“Huh?”
“What did he do that was bad?”
“Well, terrible stuff. Like one time, he ran over someone’s dog, on purpose! And another time, he burned someone’s house down.”
“This is terrible!” said Aerya. “Why did he run the dog over?”
“He said it was an accident, but it wasn’t. He wanted to be mean.”
“Did the dog die?”
Fiona nodded slowly. Aerya put her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. Fiona nodded again.
“He was a really bad guy, and - ”
“What was his name?”
“I don’t know. We’ll call him Ed.”
“That sounds like a bad man’s name.”
“It was. His name was Ed, and people called him Evil Ed. One day, when he was doing something evil -”
“Like what?”
Fiona became a little upset at the last question.
“Aerya, you have to let me tell the story. You can ask your questions when I’m done. If you keep interrupting, it won’t be scary.”
“Alright. I’m sorry. Can you just tell me what he was going to do that was evil?”
“He was going to cut down someone’s cherry tree. He had a big, sharp axe, and he was going to cut down their favorite tree. That way, the birds wouldn’t have a place to live, and no one would hear the bird songs again.”
“Never?”
“Never.” said Fiona in a low, solemn voice.
“That’s horrible! Evil Ed sucks!”
Fiona nodded.
“I told you he was a really bad man. Anyway, he chopped once.” Fiona thumped her hand on the bed. “He chopped twice.” Fiona thumped her hand on the bed again. “He went to chop a third time, and wham! He cut his own hand off!”
Fiona grabbed her right wrist with her left hand, and made an agonized face, moaning with her eyes wide. Aerya jumped, the demonstration showing exactly what Evil Ed looked like holding his injured right arm.
“Well, I’m glad something bad happened to him. It serves him right. You are right, Fiona, this is a scary story!”
Fiona stopped holding her right arm and making the painful face.
“Aerya, I’m not done yet. This is the, what’s the word . . . this is the prelogue.”
“Prelogue?”
“Yes, the part of the story that explains everything for the rest of the story.”
“You mean there is more?” Aerya smiled and clapped her hands.
“Yes, now just sit still, and let me finish. Where was I?” Fiona tilted her head and tapped her chin.
“Evil Ed cut off his own hand.”
“Exactly!” Fiona pointed in the air with her finger. “He cut off his own hand, and had to drive himself to the hospital. He forgot to bring his hand, so they couldn’t put it back on. Instead -”
“What happened to his hand?”
“Huh?”
“What happened to his hand? How come someone couldn’t go get it?”
“Well, someone did go back from the hospital to look for it. They looked all over, and it was gone, because a dog found the hand and buried it.”
“Near the poor cherry tree?”
“No, this was a dog that was going through the neighborhood and smelled the hand.”
“Oh, okay. Tell me more!”
“Since they didn’t have the hand, they had to put a hook on Evil Ed’s arm instead. It was - “
“A hook?”
“Yes, you know, like Captain Hook.”
“Who is Captain Hook?”
“He was a guy who chased Peter Pan and had a hook on his arm because his hand was eaten by an crocodile.”
“Poor Peter Pan! Was he alright?”
“I’ll tell you about Peter some other time. Like I was saying, they had to put a hook on Evil Ed’s arm -”
“I’m sorry, Fiona - how did they put the hook on? Did it get smooshed into his arm, like a deep splinter?”
Fiona nodded, raising her eyebrows.
“Yes, it was really gross. They had to push it hard, and Evil Ed cried because it hurt so much.”
It was Aerya’s turn to nod.
“Good, I’m glad it hurt. He was a bad person.”
“They put the hook on, and he always had to wear his sleeve tight because it was so disgusting, people would throw up if they saw where his hand used to be.”
“Eew!”
“Exactly! The thing is, cutting off his own hand made Evil Ed even more evil and mean. He was so bad, he stopped running over dogs, and started going after people. He would get them with his hook.”
Aerya’s eyes were wide, and she trembled a little.
“How would he get them?”
“He would tap on the window, and when someone opened the window, he would grab them with the hook.”
Aerya turned and looked carefully at the window. Fiona pulled the sleeve of her pajamas down over her right hand, and slipped her hand under the pillow. She found the coat hanger, bent into a hook shape, and held it in her sleeve covered hand.
“He would tap, tap, tap -” Fiona tapped the coat hanger under the pillow against the wall. Aerya jumped at the sound.
“ - and when they opened the window, he would grab them -”
Aerya turned back from the window to look at Fiona. At that moment, Fiona pulled the coat hanger from under the pillow, held it right in front of Aerya’s face, and said loudly,
“- with his hook!” Fiona waved the hanger hook wildly. Aerya threw up her hands and screamed, rolling onto the bed. The next moment, Aerya sat back up and slapped Fiona’s pajama wrapped hand.
“Fiona, you scared me out of my mind!”
Fiona smiled, pleased with the effect of the hook suddenly appearing. She remembered when Maggie told her the story. She had screamed, too, though it took her longer than Aerya to calm down.
“My bad for scaring you so much,” said Fiona, even though she wasn’t the least bit sorry. It was a good scare she got from Aerya, and she was proud of herself.
“Tell me another one!” pleaded Aerya.
“Actually, now it is your turn.” Fiona got up and put the mangled coat hanger back on the rod in her closet, and jumped into the bed. She was anxious to find out what kind of story Aerya would tell. There must be scary stories in the fairy land, thought Fiona.
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