"The birthday party."
Who doesn't like to look out a window?
The first thing I learned was not to show myself at the windows.
"Good morning!" came from behind me, and the first person I encountered that day was my colleague Jonathan. Smiling as usual, he greeted me from a distance as he approached. "Did you get any rest?" he asked with a gentle smile.
"Are you kidding me? We were on shift last night; how could I have gotten any rest... But I have to ask, how are you always so positive?" I said to him, my eyes half open.
"Come on, come on, consider that we could have not worked together, but you know who I am!" He said, bursting into laughter as we walked into the store for our morning routine. Indeed, what would they do without him at work? He was the perfect co-worker—calm, always well-groomed, with his perfect right-parting and meticulously trimmed beard.
We put on our aprons, and the first sound from the coffee machine rang out.
As usual, the shift with him went perfectly, with lots of laughter, despite the demanding customers.
Around noon, just before we changed shifts, Ermis arrived. You could spot him from a distance thanks to his height and his relatively large nose, which, oddly enough, matched his angular face and his blue eyes perfectly.
"Good morning to my wonderful team, but especially to the most beautiful lady in my life! And, as luck would have it, today is her 23rd birthday! Happy birthday, my love!" He hugged me and gave me a sweet kiss on the cheek.
"So, congratulations to me!" I said, smiling as I looked him in the eye.
"Come on, stop it, there are lonely souls in this world too..." a woman's voice said from behind us. "Happy birthday, sweetheart," Anna added as she hugged me. "What do you think? Will we ever celebrate your birthday normally again? The last time was when we were sixteen." She looked at me with a serious expression, and I laughed awkwardly. Not that she was wrong. That really was the last time!
"Okay, okay, don't be like that. I'll grab my bag, and we'll go to my place to celebrate." I smiled and ran to get my things.
They had thrown me a big cocktail party in the backyard of the house. Everyone was there. We danced, sang, and drank as if we were eighteen again. Everything was spinning, but we didn't care. The sky had turned more orange than the sunset. I was sitting on the house's porch, watching them all laugh together—just a few people, but so important in my life, I thought to myself. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew. That's when Jonathan grabbed my arm. "What's going on?" I asked him, terrified."I don't have time to explain; get inside the house NOW!" He yelled at me and quickly closed the door.
Next to the door, there was a space without a door, with a large window that barely fit a small bed, so we had turned it into a sort of study nook, but at the same time, it was a place to sit so we could be close to everything. A strange choice, if you think about it... My parents had installed a peculiar curtain made of very thick fabric that didn't let the sunlight through, and they always preferred to keep it closed.
Suddenly, Jonathan transformed into a tall elf, with long white hair and turquoise eyes. He started hastily closing all the curtains in the house, grabbed me, and carried me to the small bed, throwing a blanket over me. He came over and took me in his arms. "Don't make a sound until I tell you to!"
Strangely, he didn't scare me. My stocky, slightly plump, sweet boyfriend had just transformed into a creature I had only seen in fairy tales and movies, yet his heartbeat and heavy breathing were so familiar. It was as if I had known him for years; he made me feel so safe and so small. But the silence didn't last long... Someone was banging on the door as if they wanted to knock it down, and then a deep, booming voice was heard amidst the banging. My parents came downstairs from the upper floor in a panic, looked at us, and opened the door.
"Where is she ?" the man who was knocking on the door said angrily.
"She's not here, you're late, she went back to the city." My parents replied.
"You can't hide her from me for much longer, you know the agreement! You had her until her twenty-third birthday, from now on she is mine! The ceremony must be held before the epic full moon in eight days! At that moment, he tried to enter the house, but something like a spell stopped him and made him even more angry. From the shadow I saw, he was short like a goblin, fat, and I could see something like a crown on his head.
"It's her turn this year, that's the agreement with the city, a girl every year. Your daughter should have been eaten years ago... but we decided she would be more useful now!" He smiled mischievously, rubbing his hands together.
Then the elf stood up, looked me straight in the eye, gave me a sign to be quiet, and went to the door.
"They're telling the truth, Elizabeth isn't here!"
He told him with absolute seriousness.
"Yes... you know that if you lie, the only one who will lose in this story is you? And then, it's over, for you and everything you asked me for!" he said angrily and left.
Fear was in the eyes of the elf, but he didn't change his reaction at all until he closed the door.
I forgot how to breathe, my head was so confused, sacrifice, elves, goblins, what's going on? And the girls who said... can't be related to the girls who have disappeared, and yet if you think about it, a girl goes missing on her birthday every year, the last 30 years. There had been some stories about small creatures that had been snatched, but everyone thought it was just another of the crazy stories of Uncle Fortney, who had gone mad after the disappearance of his own daughter, the first girl who had gone missing. And yet, everything the wind described... the kalikantzaros were all true, everything happened, but why did the fairy protect me and what did the king mean by what he said at the end?
All of this and more went through my head as I stared into the void, lost in thought. "Elizabeth, Elizabeth, can you hear me?" And a light tap on the temple with two fingers brought me back to reality. "What just happened?" I looked at the dwarf who had lowered himself to be at my height. He sighed, looked down, and then back at me. My parents sat behind him and with trembling voices they told me, "We have a lot to say and not much time, but Matheus is the only one who can prepare you for what's coming..."