-Water fairy-

The sky turned beautiful shades of pink, orange and yellow as the sun rose again.

All the colours and light were reflected in the lake, and the sun made the water sparkle.

Sage sat on the dock that morning just admiring how beautiful this place was, he couldn't believe that in a couple of minutes he'd be packing up to leave this place forever.

But as he stared at the sunset in the water, he noticed the water was moving...and kind of bubbling? And then something came out of the water, a face came out of the water. Two bright blue eyes had come out of the water and were now looking at Sage. He wasn't afraid at all, he looked back at the eyes.

"Hello?" Sage said, and the eyes came closer, they came straight up to the edge of the dock before this mysterious person stood up on the shallow sand in front of the dock.

When they stood up Sage could see that this wasn't a human, but a fairy, with shoulder-length blue hair and clothes that resembled a wetsuit.

"You have to leave." The fairy said.

"What, why?" Sage asked.

"It's a trap, the whole cottage is a trap. EVERYTHING is a trap!!" The fairy started waving their arms and the urgency in their voice grew.

"A trap? What do you mean? I thought this was made by fairies?" Sage looked concerned as he tried to understand what they were saying.

"It was, but it wasn't taken over by just any humans it was taken over by hunters, it's meant to trap any fairies that come back to it. The hunters have been watching your every move since you got here, but they can't do anything in front of other humans, they've been waiting for you to be outside all alone...like you are now." The fairy explained, grabbing the edge of the dock to look Sage in the eyes.

"They don't know that you're leaving today. But please, leave as soon as you can, and don't leave your parents' sight." The fairy turned around and got ready to dive back into the water.

"Wait, what's your name? Will I ever see you again?" Sage called out, the fairy turned around again.

"My name's Aqua. And I know we'll meet again, we'll meet many times."

And they dived back into the water disappearing again from Sage's sight, leaving nothing but ripples in the water.

Sage became really aware of the fact he was alone right now, if anything Aqua said was true, he'd better go find his parents.

He went back to the cottage and found his parents putting their travelling kitchen sets back into bags to load in the car.

"Go pack up, we're leaving right away." His mom said.

"Wait, really? Why?" Sage asked.

"Have you seen the lake? The waves are huge, we want to leave before the big storm hits."

That couldn't be true, Sage was out there just a minute ago and the weather was beautiful.

Oh wait.

He knows what's happening.

Thanks, Aqua.

He rushed upstairs and started gathering everything in his room and putting it into his suitcase. He didn't feel the need to fold anything, he had only packed for four days anyway. He zipped up his suitcase, deconstructed his bed and rushed back down to give the sheets and covers to his parents to put in a bag.

His mother took his bedsheets from him, and immediately handed them to his father, who went outside to put them in the car.

His mother picked up the bag beside her, stood up and led Sage outside.

"This is the last bag, you're all packed?" His mother asked, Sage nodded in agreement.

Sage threw his suitcase in the backseat, but then he looked back at the cottage...

He heard something...

Oh probably just an animal but that fairy really put him on edge.

But the he heard something distinct, something he'd remember, the sound of a gunshot.

He swung open the car door and jumped into his seat.

"I didn't people hunted around here, the owner didn't say anything about it. That sounded awful close though." His mom was already discussing the gunshot sounds with his dad.

"We have to get out of here, it's-uh- storming already."

"We're going, we're going, calm down."

The car got out of the parking lot and drove away.

Sage's stomach was still in knots from the sound of the gunshot that nearly missed him and landed in a nearby tree. That was way too close. He kept looking out the window anxiously despite being miles away from the cottage now, what if they were following him? He tried not to think about it, and began writing the last part of his journal, summarizing him sitting on the dock, meeting Aqua, getting shot at, and driving away.

What Aqua said was still playing on repeat in his head 'We'll meet many times.' How could anyone be so sure of that? For all that weird fairy knew Sage could be moving to China in a couple days.

'And I know we'll meet again.'

Pft, they didn't know anything for sure.

No one knows anything for sure.