The Child Thief

NICK COULDN’T GET the vision of the pixie’s murder from his mind.
The little creature had just seemed so human. He guessed all living
creatures were the same: animals, people, even pixies, when they’re in pain
and in fear for their lives—all the same. Nick’s eyelids grew heavy. He was
ready for sleep, ready to put this long, horrible day behind him. His
stomach felt warm, unnaturally warm. He wondered again about the food
and what it might be doing to him. But it was mostly a good feeling. He
shut his eyes and enjoyed the strange way it spread through his body.
The fire had burned low, and several of the Devils were drifting over to
the straw-lined cages. The band stopped playing and Sekeu and Abraham
were dousing the wall torches.
“I think they’re giving us a hint,” Cricket said. “C’mon, Nick. We need
to set you up.”
Nick opened his eyes. “What?” But both Cricket and Danny were
headed toward the cages. Nick pushed himself to his feet and followed.
“How’s this one?” Cricket pointed to a cage next to hers.
“Sure,” Nick said absently and started to crawl in. He stopped when the
absurdity of sleeping in a cage dawned on him. “Cricket?”
“Yeah.”
“Why do they put us in cages?”
Cricket laughed. “So the pixies can’t screw with you all night.” She
dragged over a cut of canvas. “Here. Toss this over the top. That way they
can’t pee on you. You can tie the ends down, but it really doesn’t matter
because I don’t think there’s a knot they can’t untie.”
“Yeah, if they get to you they’ll suck out all your blood,” Danny said.
“Happened to a kid just the other night.”
Nick looked at him, horrified, then caught the smirk on Cricket’s face.
“Uh-uh,” Nick said.
Danny laughed.
Nick placed the tarp over his cage and crawled in. He still felt weird
about sleeping in a cage, but at this point was too exhausted to care.

---

“Well, I’m hoping for bacon and waffles tomorrow,” Danny said and
crawled in his cage. “Shoot, I’d even settle for Cocoa Puffs.”
Cricket kept rattling on about something, but Nick barely heard. His
eyes felt so heavy. The warmth in his stomach continued to spread,
covering him like a blanket, pulling him down into a deep sleep.
The warmth followed him into his dream, turning into the bright
sunshine of a balmy summer day. He was in a meadow surrounded by
trees, everything turned golden by the sun’s brilliant rays. He lifted his
face up and put his arms out, letting the heat bathe his whole body.
Giggles caught his attention. A multitude of faerie folk danced and
frolicked from one end of the dreamy meadow to the other. Tiny, insect-
size people with colorful butterfly wings floated about, pollinating the
thousands of multicolored flowers blooming from every vine, tree, and
bush. A snort came from the tall grass. Nick saw cat-size centaurs gallop
past. Little white-skinned maidens in flowing gossamer rode on their
backs, leaping and whooping gleefully. Hoots and howls came from the
trees, where purple monkeys leaped from branch to branch. A chorus of
bird and faerie song drifted about on the light breeze.
In the dream, Nick drew in a deep breath, filling his lungs with the
sweet aroma of flowers and the spice of earth. It was all so wonderful,
but all at once he began to sweat and thought a bit of shade would be
nice. As he searched for a cool spot, the heat became unbearable and he
realized this heat wasn’t from the sun, but from his gut. His stomach was
burning. Nick wished he could find some water, something to quench the
burning. He clasped his belly and groaned, and when he did, the
meadow fell silent. All the creatures stared at him and he could see fear
in their eyes—fear of him.
Nick didn’t want them to be afraid. He raised his hands to calm them
and that’s when his skin turned black. Right before his eyes, twisting
splotches of darkness snaked along his arms, and scaly spots, the color
of bruises, bloomed across the backs of his hands. He watched, terrified,
as his fingers twisted into jagged black claws.
The creatures fled, leaving him behind. This made him angry,
furious. He wanted to hurt them, wanted to chase them down and
butcher every one of them.

---

Nick awoke clutching his gut. His stomach burned, and his clothes were
soaked from sweat. He needed some water, but didn’t dare go into the privy
at night, not with those damn spiders. So he lay there wondering how he
ever ended up on an island, in a cage, sharing a fort with Devils and little
blue people. Eventually, the heat in his stomach passed, and shortly before
morning he fell back asleep.

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