Bone Collector

Dirt filled my nostrils, my mouth, my eyes. Stones and tree roots ripped my nails as I dug hand over hand in what I believed to be an upward direction. The pain that should have come with it never did, but the relief I felt as a cool breeze caressed the flesh of my hand as it burst from the ground drove that thought into the back of my head. 

My second hand followed the first, and I dug until my head broke free of the oppressive earth. I spat it out, the aftertaste of rot and worms coating my tongue. Dragging the rest of my body from the grave, I took in my surroundings. The day was as dark as twilight, casting everything into shadow. Square stones stood in uneven lines. Sad, drooping trees surrounded the area, but didn’t encroach on the stones. 

I shook dirt from my shoe, biting my tongue in concentration as I balanced on one foot. A buzz, so low and one with the night, released my ears from its grip, and only in its silence did I notice its presence. 

Slipping my shoe back on, I twisted in a slow circle. On top of the gravestone at the forefront of my grave sat a human-like creature, no taller than my knee. She wore a dress made of animal fur and had four insect wings glittering in the moonlight. Bouncing a crossed leg, she smirked at me. 

“Who are you?” I asked, my throat raw and scratchy from disuse, and lack of hydration. Cocking her head, she smiled at me, red eyes glittering as she dragged her tongue over a row of pointy teeth. 

“Ebony.” Her voice wasn’t nearly as high pitched as I expected. “Of the Blood Faery Clan. And you are Samara.”

“How’d you know?” 

The faery gestured behind me. A square stone stuck out sideways, the corners long worn, with dirt and moss climbing up one side. Squinting, I could just make out words etched into its face. 

“Beneath the dirt, Samara lies. Lived from 811 to 825,” I read, a frown creasing my lips. “What year is it now?”

“The humans call it year 1154.”

I grabbed my chest, expecting to feel my heart slam against it, but there was nothing. Not a single beat. Panic threatened to take my breath away, but I already couldn’t breathe and the overwhelming need to inhale consumed me. 

“I can’t breathe,” I said, clawing at my neck. 

“Of course you can’t.” The faery tapped her long nails on the gravestone. “You’re dead.”

“But—but— I’m talking. I’m walking.”

She sighed, and her wings vibrated, raising her from the stone. A tiny hand settled on my shoulder, her sharp teeth too close for comfort. “Don’t think about it too hard, sweetheart. It’s easier that way.”

I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples, pretending it helped. “If I’m dead, why am I here?”

Ebony fluttered back to the stone, crossing her arms. “I need your help. Well, we need your help.”

“We?” I arched an eyebrow. 

“Faery kind.”

“Does it have something to do with that?” I jerked my thumb at the sky. The twilight hadn’t changed in the many minutes I had panicked. Something had happened during my period of rest. Ebony glanced upward. A ring of light hung in the sky, the middle consumed by a black mass. 

“Ah, that. A bit. That’s what happens when humans mess with our magic.”

“Humans and magic?” I wrinkled my nose. “No, we wouldn’t touch—” I lowered my voice, “—magic. It’s dangerous.”

“You think?” Ebony gestured at the sun. “Now the moon will hang in front of the sun for eternity. But I’m not worried about that.”

I raised an eyebrow and flopped against my gravestone, staring at the thin line of light chasing away the darkness. 

“The problem is the humans stole part of our magic.”

“So why me?” I asked. “I’m human.”

A smirk curled across the faery’s lips. “Exactly. Humans can cross thresholds without an invitation. Follow me.”

I pushed myself off the ground again and traipsed along behind Ebony through the graveyard, stepping between grave stones and over little carved animals set in front of them. Good to know some things hadn’t changed. 

We wandered under an archway, and through a part of the graveyard I didn’t remember. Dirt crunched under my unsteady gait, and small, flat squares lined the graves rather than the large, bulky ones on my side. 

The church that once stood on this plot of land was long gone. An iron gate twice my height took its place, and on the other side, lights twinkled. How many candles did people go through now that they didn’t have light?

Ebony stopped at the gate and I grabbed the bars, resting my head against them and gazing at the dark shapes that marked a village grown since I last laid eyes on it. An old man limped past, sparing only a glance in my direction before hurrying along. My stomach growled. 

“How come I’m hungry if I’m dead?”

The faery grimaced. “It’s a side effect of the magic. It needs energy to draw from, and usually it takes from the object it's cast upon.”

“Are there still sweet rolls in this time? Those were my favorite.”

Without answering, Ebony slipped between the bars and tapped the lock with one long finger. It clicked, and the gate swung open with the obvious creak. The road I stepped on wasn’t just dirt anymore. Rocks cut and puzzled together reached as far as I could see to either side. 

“That’s a lot of work for a road,” I said, tapping it with my foot. 

“Not with magic,” Ebony grumbled, flying toward the village. I jogged after her, stumbling at first. I hadn’t enjoyed running when I was alive, and after not doing it in over three hundred years, I was out of practice. 

She flitted up to several windows, gesturing for me to keep in the shadows. A woman and her child walked by, but when I smiled and waved at the boy, he started crying. Mom didn’t see me as she swung the boy into her arms and cooed at him. 

I couldn’t keep my eyes off her dress. Light material stuck to her curves and danced around her calves despite the chill in the air. The cold didn’t bother me anymore, but when I was alive, all dresses had three layers, and that was during the warm months. 

“Samara, come here.” Ebony gestured wildly at me from a window. I slid up next to her and peered in. We had glass, but not in windows. This one had glass covering the entire opening, and I could actually see through it. 

Two people faced each other. A girl around my age, and an older man, her father. He held a cup in his hands, a pinched look on his face as he stared at it. I didn’t understand until steam began rising from the cup. The man smiled and handed it to his daughter, who took it and skipped away. 

“He used magic to warm it?” I asked, ducking below the window. The faery nodded. 

“It’s not much, but it doesn’t matter. They stole it from us.”

“And you want me to get it back?”

“Now you’ve got it!”

“But…how?”

She popped her head above the windowsill again and pointed. “Look. His neck. See it?”

I stood and squinted through the low light. He wore a string of white beads around his neck. “The necklace?”

“Look closer.”

Sighing, I leaned as close as I dared, watching the man as he moved around the kitchen, preparing dinner. He picked up a bundle of carrots and moved toward me. I squeaked and ducked, but not before I got a good look at what he was wearing. 

“Teeth.”

Ebony nodded solemnly. “Teeth. Baby teeth, to be exact.”

We slipped away from the window and meandered along the road toward the graveyard. Somewhere deeper in the village, a dog barked. Across the road, a father called for his two children to come inside for dinner. My stomach rumbled at the thought of dinner. 

“Where do teeth come in?” I asked, trying to ignore it. 

“That’s where the magic manifests itself. Once they fall out, the magic is gone.”

“Unless they harvest them,” I said, chewing on my lip. 

Ebony patted my cheek. “I knew I chose right.”

We stopped at the gate of the graveyard and I gazed in forlorn, the hunger gnawing at my insides. 

“Can we eat first? I’m all for helping, but…” I touched my stomach. 

“I guess you have to.” She sighed and tapped her chin, floating in a circle while her beady eyes roamed the streets. “There.”

I followed her finger, but only saw a man sitting on a bench outside his house. His eyes were closed and his head leaned against the wall. A twinge of jealousy clawed at me as his chest rose and fell with each breath. Ah, but to breathe again. 

“What about him?”

“Dinner.”

“People aren’t dinner, Ebs.” I wrinkled my nose. 

“They are now. Here, watch.” She flew over to him, and careful not to touch him, whispered in his ear. The corner of his mouth twitched. Then he stretched and stood, his gaze swinging toward the gate of the graveyard. He shambled forward, not quite awake, as he yawned and scratched his stubbly jaw. 

Ebony fluttered behind him, keeping out of his line of sight. I ducked back behind a bush while he fiddled with the latch until it swung open. He stepped inside, blinked, and looked around, confusion coloring his features. 

A primal urge roared in my chest. The need to feed. I couldn’t have stopped it taking over if I tried. My legs sprung of their own accord, launching my body at the man. I barely understood what I was doing as I grabbed his ears and wrenched his head sideways before he could utter a word. 

A crack filled the graveyard, echoing from one side to the other. Ebony flinched and hastily checked if anyone heard us. I didn't care. Dragging the man with a strength I hadn’t possessed in life, I slammed his head into the grave stone until the skull cracked and the pink, gooey insides leaked out. 

Somewhere in the back of my head, I rebelled against the gruesome act of scooping the brains from the bowl and stuffing them in my mouth, but the hunger eating at my stomach had finally abated, and they didn’t taste that bad. 

I dropped the corpse and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “Now what?”

Immense satisfaction curled like magic off the faery’s skin. Her teeth flashed white between her lips as she pulled them back. 

“Now it begins.” She flitted over to the body and beckoned me down. I dropped to my knees as she landed on the body’s chest. “Check his pockets.”

I hesitated, nervous about touching a dead man’s things, but then remember I ate his brains, and plunged my hand in. The first pocket held a device Ebony called a watch. Looked like a fancy shadow clock to me, but I guess something had to tell them when to go to bed with the sun covered. Dropping it, I checked the other and found a handful of coins. 

“Ah, perfect!” Ebony launched into the air and flew up the coins, inspecting them. “These will do nicely. Each time you must eat, save these coins.”

“Why?” I asked, shoving them into my pocket. “And what about…him?” 

“Bring him over here and I will explain.”

Even with the extra strength, I had a hard time keeping up with Ebony while pulling a grown man’s dead body behind me. 

“What?” I asked for the tenth time as she flew too far ahead. 

“Aren’t you listening?”

“Yes, but—”

“I said, you replace each tooth you steal with a coin. It negates the favor effect.”

“And that is?”

“That’s what happens when something is taken without payment. If we take those teeth without something in return, we owe the owner a favor. Any favor. You do not want to owe anybody, anything. Especially humans.”

“So leaving the coin is like buying the tooth.”

“Exactly! Drop him in here.” She gestured toward a man-sized hole in the ground. 

There was something eerie about an unfilled grave. With a little poking and prodding, and more than a little shoving, we corrected the problem. I dusted dirt from my hands and pulled a coin from my pocket, looking at it in a new light. It was thicker than the ones I was used to, and completely flat. By the time I got any coins when I was alive, they were bent in half. 

“When can we try it?” I asked, tracing the likeness of the woman’s face stamped into it. 

“When the mountains eat the sun.” 

“I’m sorry, what now?”

She sighed and pointed at the blind sun. It sat just above a bowl shape between two mountain ranges, as if a mouth had stretched wide to consume it. I thought I’d remember something like that, but maybe the mountains got up and moved around too. 

***

The realization of forever insomnia didn’t come to me until well into the night, and my disappointment dampened the mood. What was the point of being back in the world if I couldn’t sleep?

I sat uncomfortably against a warped gravestone with my arms crossed, staring at the inky blackness with disdain, when the buzz of Ebony’s wings shattered the silence. 

“Fix your face and come on. It’s time.”

My scowl deepened. I didn’t have to be happy about being awake all the time. “Stay close, I can’t see you.”

“Humans and their feeble eyes.” The faery sighed and snapped her fingers. A light blue glow sputtered to life across her dark skin. 

“Better.” I meant to say, but tripped over a gravestone and landed with a mouthful of dirt instead. My appetite for it hadn’t grown since I dug myself out of the ground. Spitting it out, I climbed to my feet, grumbling. “Thanks for the warning.”

“It’s not my job to watch your feet.”

“Then I won’t help you watch out for signs.”

“I’ve been flying a lot longer than you’ve been walking.”

I stuck out my tongue at her back, and didn’t talk to her until we stopped outside a house. A candle sitting in a fancy holder with a handle sat in every window. They had the curtains closed in most of them, except for the room of a little girl, and we stood in front of her window peering in. I felt a little creepy, but I suppose stealing teeth was pretty creepy. 

“There.” Ebony pointed at a desk against the far wall. I squinted. A bracelet sat on the surface with a single charm. Even from back here, I could tell it was tooth shaped. Sweeping my eyes over the bedroom, I realized an immediate problem. 

“Ebs, the girl's bed is underneath the window. How am I supposed to go in without waking her up?”

“That’s your problem. I’ve done my part.”

I groaned. “How long do I have to do this?”

“Until we get all the magic back.”

“So forever. Got it.” I rolled my eyes and made sure she saw it. Before I could think about getting through the window, I first had to figure out how to open it. My family had shutters on our windows, so I checked for a crack in the middle first. 

“What are you doing?” Ebony asked, floating way too close to my face. 

“Trying to open it, what does it look like?”

“Oh. They slide up.”

Instead of strangling her, I slid the window open and moved the light. Muffled breathing came from underneath a pile of blankets. A tiny dress hung off a chair next to the desk. Pressing my lips together, I hauled myself onto the windowsill. 

I had some luck. The window was as wide as the base of the bed, and I stretched one foot far to the corner, and let myself slide to the floor, missing the bed by a finger’s breadth. Pausing, I listened for the child’s breathing. Slow and steady. Still alive. I worried she had died on my way in, cause only the dead could sleep through the racket I made. 

Just kidding. 

The dead don’t sleep. 

Annoyed that I had reminded myself, I stomped quietly over to the bracelet and snatched it off the desk. There was indeed a tooth dangling from it. 

“The coin!” Ebony almost whispered from outside. 

I waved at her, dug a coin from my pocket, and left it in place of the bracelet. The floor creaked. Glancing at the bedroom door, a shadow moved in the candlelight shining through the bottom. In my haste, I kicked the chair, and it scraped across the wooden floor. The breathing stopped. Someone rattled the door. 

The bed lacked spring as I jumped on it and dived out the window. Yelping, the girl sat up and peered out the window. Ebony and I had already faded into the darkness. 

“For you,” I said, holding out the bracelet as we passed back into the cemetery. The tooth sat on her palm like a skull as she tilted it side to side. 

“Such a small thing,” she murmured, eyes glowing. 

“Small things have an uncomfortable way of growing larger,” I said, sitting on the closest gravestone. 

“That they do.” She shook her head and dropped it into the bag over her shoulder. 

“What will you do with them?”

“Most of them will go toward keeping your spell going. Anything extra will go back into the magic pool.”

“Are you serious? Most of them?!”

Ebony shrugged. “They stole it from us. We’d spend more to get it back if we had to.”

“Petty, all of you.”

“It’s more the principal. I’ll be back when I have more work.”

And so the nights went. Ebony scouted around, watching schedules, and finding children who took off their teeth while in bed. I would come and switch them out with coins. The more I did it, the sneakier I became, until no one ever woke up. 

Word spread though, and one night, Ebony told me the teeth would be in the top drawer of a nightstand, and they weren’t there. Panic caused my fingers to twitch as I searched the contents, pulling out pieces of featherless quills, light parchment paper, and a few ribbons. Ebony was never wrong. Never. 

Dropping to my knees, I checked under the bed. Maybe he left them on the top of the stand and knocked them down. Nothing. Scowling, I stood, glancing at the boy to make sure he was still asleep. 

That’s when it caught my eye. The tooth lay next to his pillow with a folded piece of that light paper. Slowly, I stretched out my fingers and plucked both from the bed. Having spent enough time there already, I pulled out the coin and placed it where the tooth had been, before slipping out the window and into the shadows. 

Back at the cemetery, I gave Ebony her tooth and asked for light. She obliged, creating a glowing orb hovering above my head. I pulled out the paper as she fiddled with the tooth. I recognized some of the letters, but not others. 

“Hey, Ebs.”

The tooth popped away in a burst of light, and she alighted on my shoulder. 

“What’s this say?”

Her eyes moved across the page, an eyebrow raising slightly with every pass. “It says: Dear Fairy of Teeth, I don’t like old teeth, they’re gross, so you can have mine. I put it here so you can find it better. My friend Tara says you left her a coin. I’ll give you as many as you want for a coin! Your friend, Cooper.”

“Someone must have seen you.” I giggled at the thought. “The faery of teeth!”

Ebony rubbed her temples. “As long as they don’t realize who and what you really are.”

“And what’s that?” I asked, dragging a head out from behind my gravestone and slurping down the brains I saved for later. 

“A Boon Collector.”

I stopped, rolling a chunk of pink meat between my fingers, then snorted. “More like a Bone Collector.”

“In this case, yes.” Ebony smiled faintly as she drifted to the ground next to me. I laid back on the ground, watching the stars disappear as the anti sun rose. 

“That kid had a point, though. I like Tooth Faery. Has a ring to it, don’t you think?”

“Meh. I guess,” I said, and stuffed the last bite of brain into my mouth.