Welcome to the Family

image by "Tooth fairy trinket" by JanetR3

by Britt MacBeth

Thea looked in the mirror, the person that reflected back looked ill. Pale skin, sunken eyes, and now blood dried all around the corners of her mouth. Her last victim was a fighter. Draining the last of her power. She sank to the bathroom floor. All she can can do now is wait for the teeth she digested to work its magic.

***

The moment Thea woke up in that cell when she was five, she knew life would never be the same. She was a victim of a kidnapping like many children her age. Her captor was a creature unlike anything she’d ever seen. Not an appalling appearance but being quite beautiful and youthful, luring one into thinking they are safe. That is, until it was time for it to feed. In order to sustain that youthful glow the captor had to eat the kidnapped children’s teeth. A lot of the time once a child exited the cell they did not return. This creature called herself the Tooth Fairy, telling the children she had no choice but to kidnap them and eat the their teeth in order to still exist. The captive children didn’t believe her because this reality was a nightmare and not what their parents told them was the “tooth fairy”. So they all assumed she was a lunatic.

Children are told the Tooth Fairy is this whimsical fairy flying throughout the night retrieving teeth under pillows of children in deep slumbers. All in exchange for a coin. This was nothing like that. It was all wrong.

Being held captive for twenty years Thea had watched many come and go. Had listened to many bogus stories about this creatures addiction to teeth. Thea led it to think that she enjoyed what it had to say. Thea thought in some weird way she was lucky to have survived all theses years. As if trying to get to know this thing was in return saving her life. That hope all changed when Thea herself starting craving those pearly whites. Salivating while watching other children talk or eat. Envisioning chomping down a big bowl of them.

***

Regaining her strength Thea slowly pulled herself up, with the help of the toilet. The reel of her disturbed life constantly played over and over in her head. She felt strong again. She didn’t know how she ended up cursed with whatever dominated the other creature. One day, it abandoned the kidnapped prisoners and mysteriously vanished, leaving Thea no choice but to carry out the malevolent practice. Every time she tried to control the urges, she simply fell victim to them over and over again.

“Time to feed the prisoners.” Thea said to her now youthful vibrant reflection. Kidnapping children and eating their teeth was a full time job, Thea thought to herself as she descended in to the bunker. The children were fed foods enriched in calcium as to keep those choppers nice and healthy. In the early days, Thea tried only a few teeth sparingly to try and feed her growing appetite. Making sure not to hurt anyone.

She befriended Dr. Michelle a dentist, whose code of ethics had a few holes in it to say the least. Dr. Michelle would make up some medical reason as to why her young patients needed their teeth pulled to get Thea the teeth she desperately desired. In return, Dr Michelle would make extra money with all the x-rays she “needed”. This method fell apart rather quickly when Dr. Michelle was caught and stripped of her dental license. She was tossed into a mental institution after she tried to justify why she did what she did to prevent mass kidnappings. To think anyone would believe her claims was nonsensical. Even Thea herself had a hard time wrapping her head around this horrific reality.

Now things were proving more difficult, Thea’s condition was intensifying. The few teeth that use to hold her over were no longer doing their job. She needed them more frequently. This meant more victims, more kidnapping, and way more work. The psychological warfare she continued to struggle with didn’t help the situation either. She constantly was at war with yearning the things she desperately wanted to stop consuming. It was nightfall before Thea had time to dig a grave for her latest victim. It disgusted her to know that she had 500 acres of land that consisted of soiled filled with bones of the young.

“I don’t want this anymore.” Thea sighed in desperation. Sweat pouring off of her as the lanterns lightly dimmed the unmarked grave. “This isn’t who I am! This life isn’t mine. Taking lives, eating teeth!”

Thea yelled into the ominous night as she slammed her shovel down. Thea threw her victim in the hole and buried the innocent, along with all her dark lies.

“I’m just going to quit. Cold turkey. The next time I need to feed I will let myself deteriorate into worm food like the others. I’m breaking this curse.” Thea made a pact between herself and the graves.

It was coming up on day two and the cravings came back full force. Thea was drained and sick again. She knew her body was shutting down. Ultimately, this is what she wanted, to be depleted of every last ounce of life. She was fragile and her veins were collapsing. She knew exactly what she had to do to regain strength. Thea struggled to walk down to the bunker. All the children were timid, anticipating what would happen to them. They have never seen Thea so damaged. She was literally decaying right in front of their eyes. Thea stumbled to the first cell and unlocked the door. Trembling, the little boy inside knew his time was up.

“Take these.” Thea said breathless, handing him the keys. “Lock me in here behind you, my

powers are not strong enough to allow me to escape.” Thea coughed up more blood. “I then need you to unlock all the other cells and free the others.” Thea said through gritted teeth.

The boy stood shell shocked, legs numb as a result of what he was hearing. He got up and slowly shuffled towards the exit. He too was weak from lack of movement but the thought of escaping made the adrenaline pump through his body. “Make sure that you get every last one of them to safety. Don’t look back.” Thea said giving the last of her instructions . She then sank to the damp, dirt floor.

Hesitating only for an instant, the young boy did as he was directed. He ushered all thirty-five captives out of the bunker and into crisp air. Timidly, they made their way through the maze of freshly dug graves. Making it to the dense tree line, they were now eager to return to their families. However, their

excitement fell short when out of the grey fog, five figures were making their way towards the children. The figures were hooded in velvet cloaks with teeth embroidered around the edges. They seemed to float just on top of the blades of grass. It was almost hypnotic but in a magical way, not a run for your

life kind of way. Stopping a short distance from the herd of children, the figures unhooded themselves to reveal skeletal deer heads. One of them slowly lifted the deer head exposing her face. “Where is she?” The beautiful woman with the sinister face asked sweetly.

“Who do you mean?” One child stammered.

“My daughter. The one who is suppose to be fulfilling her destiny. Instead she’s single handedly trying to ruin the empire I’ve created.” The woman snapped back.

The children said nothing too terrified to move. The frightening lady snapped her fingers and before the children could even process what was happening, they turned and listlessly shuffled back to the prison they’d called “home”. Thea was discovered in the cell by the mysterious woman. Thea was withered and skeletal. Enraged, the leader catapulted all the children back into their cells with another snap of her fingers. The blast was blinding and left a ringing in their ears. Once the dust and dirt settled, what once was Thea’s corpse was now a little girl.

“Thea?” The leader whispered. Her beauty faded into a fierce face with red eyes and demonic gravelly voice.

“Y-yes.” The little girl replied.

“Silly child, how dare you defy your mother and attempt to end this legacy. Do you know how hard our generations have worked?”

“I’m confused. I was kidnapped and lived my life here.” Thea said bursting into tears.

“No, I put you here, in hopes that you would be grateful to be the monster you’ve become instead of fertilizer like the others. Obviously your weaknesses got the better of you.” Hissed her demonic mother.

“This is insane! I don’t want this. I refuse to carry out this plan out.” Thea was now up on her feet. “Why am I a child again?”

“You should be DEAD!” The demon screamed. “Fortunately for you, there’s no running from this destiny. Every time you try to pull some suicidal stunt you will automatically be revived in the body of your five year old self. You again will live out the same nightmare you call your life until you learn how to ascend to the throne. It’s time you become what you were born to be.”

“And what is that exactly?” Thea questioned.

“My darling, you’re the Tooth Fairy.” The demon giggled exposing hundreds of razor sharp teeth. “Welcome to the family.”

Brittany MacBeth by day, is a daycare provider. By night, she is a writer. Her passion is to dive deep into people’s imaginations, forcing them to think outside the box of ordinary.