8 Faerie Things

I stared into those familiar green orbs and screamed.

"What the hell are you doing in my bed?!" I cursed and lurched up with a jerk. Grabbing the pillow I was sleeping on with both hands, I used it and smacked Zach's face.

I could feel my face turning hot, and immediately looked away.

"Ow... you're pretty strong for a newly turned faerie." Zach groaned and the bed shifted in weight as he sat up.

I turned back towards him and saw him pulling the pillow off his face. He was wearing the same outfit from a few hours before.

Frowning, I realized that there were those red markings under his eyes from when I first saw him back at the forest.

They were two bright blood red lines travelling across each cheekbone of his, just below the eyes. I definitely did not see those from the second time we met.

"Hey, how come when we met at your house I didn't see those markings under your eyes? I saw them when we first met in that forest too." I questioned as I smoothed down my clothes.

"Oh, you mean these? Well, every faerie has a kind of marking somewhere on their body. It's different for every faerie, just like how no two humans have the same fingerprint. The color of the markings are based on the fey elements, blue, green, red and white, which means you won't have such markings until the element ceremony. Also, to be able to live with humans without being discovered, we are able to conceal these markings using magic. Since I was taking a nap next to you earlier, my magic wore off. Did I mention that when a faerie uses his or her powers, the markings will glow with their respective colors regardless of it being invisible or not?" Zach yawned and gave me a lengthy explaination.

Suddenly my stomach gave a loud growl. Oh my goodness. That was so embarrassing. I cringed and clutched my abdomen.

Zach smirked and hopped off the bed. "Let's go get you something to eat first."

I nodded and told Zach to wait for me in the living room while I showered.

The sounds of running water echoed through the bathroom as I felt the cool water splashing over my body. It felt so good, and my fuzzy thoughts started to clear up.

After about five minutes in the shower, I got out and put on some casual clothing; a grey hoodie, ripped whitewashed skinny jeans and white sneakers.

Zach was standing next to the door when I came out to meet him, and he opened the door the minute I came into his sight.

I walked after Zach, thinking that he would bring me to some far away place where there were little or no humans. We walked for a short while through the streets.

To my surprise, he briskly pushed open the door of a convenience store just a hundred metres away from my apartment and strolled right in.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. I thought faeries could not eat human food?

Zach marched past the rows of human industrial food and straight to the counter. I followed. He whispered something inaudible to the cashier and nodded towards me.

The cashier's facial expression changed from poised to bewilderment in an instant, and he immediately gestured for Zach and I to stand next to him.

Zach and I did what we were told, and the cashier started punching random numbers into the cash register with inhuman speed.

Suddenly, a hidden trapdoor sprang upwards, revealing an opening of a lit tunnel just in front of our feet, below the cash register.

There were stairs leading downwards, and Zach stepped downward without a single moment of hesitance.

My eyes widened and I tagged after him, the cashier right behind me. When all three of us were inside the tunnel, the trapdoor of the opening closed shut.

We walked down the flight of stairs for about a minute and came across what seemed to be a huge hidden underground supermarket, completed with air conditioning and all.

"This, is one of the many faerie markets spread out over this city. We sell all kinds of faerie things, from magic mirrors to bouncing pens and most importantly, faerie food. My name is Cray by the way, nice to meet you. Zach told me about your situation and I totally understand. Feel free to browse." The cashier spoke up with a warm voice and smiled at me.

I mouthed an 'okay' to him and started looking around. Right now, what I needed most was food.

Before I could even touch anything, Zach already had a basket full of items I did not recognize, but what I assumed was faerie food.

"There's something I forgot to tell you. Faeries have a currency of our own, and they are called 'jews'. A silver jew is the most common and least valuable, it's worth amounting to one. A red jew is worth five silver jews, a blue jew worth ten, green jew worth hundred, purple jew worth one thousand and a gold jew, the rarest jew, worth ten thousand. All these food I'm going to buy for the both of us cost about thirty jews." Zach said to me while holding out his free hand, his other hand gripping onto the basket.

In his hand were what looked like different coloured leaves. There were two red ones and two blue ones.

Zach handed the 'leaves' and basket in his hand over to Cray. Cray nodded and stuffed the contents from the basket into a plastic bag, which he then gave to Zach.

Zach held the plastic bag and walked to the side of the underground market where a teleportation portal seemed to be activated. Cray then left, and I went to Zach was.

"This portal will take us to the back alley of the human convenience store. Just walked right in. It will feel as though your body has turned to jelly for a while after exiting." Zach warned and disappeared through the portal.

The portal was camouflaged into the concrete wall of the faerie market, if not for the faint silver glow surrounding and Zach walking towards it, I would not have noticed it.

Composing myself, I went in. My body did not feel anything in particular when I went through the portal, and it was as if I was just walking through air.

Contrary to when I flopped onto the floor of the back alley. Zach was right. I could not feel my muscles at all.

I wobbly proceeded back to my apartment, as Zach seemed to have gone on without me.

Back in my apartment, I plunged myself into a chair and sighed. Suddenly, something slimy was stuffed into my open mouth.

It tasted heavenly.

Zach watched my face change in amusement and gave me something that looked like Aloe Vera, but smelled much more wonderful.

I slowly ate the newly bought food in silence with Zach. This was probably the happiest moment of my life since becoming a faerie. For once, the food did not taste horrible.

Zach and I had just finished eating when someone knocked on my apartment door.

"Hello? Lila?" That person called.

Crap. I knew that voice.

It was Jessica.