Chapter 6

Nymphs are not creatures that allow themselves to be easily stimulated by curiosity compared to other living beings, as it is in their nature to be disinterested in everything that is outside the sphere of mother nature. They may "take an interest" in something, but if they don't keep their focus, they quickly lose interest in it. The Nymphs hated having a fixed thought. They said it was a trap that imprisons the mind.

So what was happening to Nadia was something that on the one hand she wanted to understand better, but on the other hand it frustrated her because she couldn't help but think about it.

It was a torment, overlapping so many of those ideas that resounded in her head like the rising sound of a violin out of tune. It was the first time she had tried this experience, usually she was always so busy in her daily life that she didn't have time to think about what was wrong with the world, also because for her the whole world was her city: Marietta, Ohio.

The place is located in the south-east along the Ohio River, surrounded by a thick green of leafy trees, brick red buildings prevail over those tending to ivory white. It's a nice town to live in and the people are nice enough.

The small community of Nymphs considered themselves the real masters of the place. They had taken root even before the settlers arrived and after vain attempts to send them away - because they did not like mankind to build on their territory - they had been forced to integrate into society. One can venture to say that there were more Nymphs than human women in Marietta, and over the years the increase in births had made them the most numerous in the whole state. It was a good thing since, delicate as they were, their extinction was always on the razor's edge.

Nadia was proud to be part of it. She always found the time to help her sisters and they knew this, so they always contacted her when there was a need for a hand.

She didn't belong to a wealthy family, she just liked being help because it was normal for her.

The girl fantasized about the parties they would throw her when they saw her return. She couldn't wait to hug her friends and relatives again, breathe in the scents of home and go back to living that normality that had been snatched away from her. The return journey through that same road, traveled on the outward journey with evil intentions; it seemed to rewind time to bring it back to its point of origin and erase the timeline it had ended up in.

Yes, Nadia was full of expectations.

For this disappointment hit her heavily, when she found Marietta as a ghost town.

In fact, before she discovered it openly, she had found the city limits blocked by hordes of military personnel. It was forbidden to enter because an alarm of dubious origin had been raised that no one wanted to explain to her, the only thing they declared was only that a massive quarantine had been imposed for all the inhabitants and so it would be until further notice.

Nadia didn't believe any of that bullshit. No news was leaked about it, the whole world would have noticed immediately if something so serious had really happened, shaking the attention of journalists, prophets of the apocalypse and anyone who would have seen a profit or a bad sign. Humans are made like this - the girl thought - they can't resist the attraction for the misfortunes of others, and there wasn't even a person who was intrigued by them, apart from the military. For this reason she thought that something very serious had happened to her sisters.

She would have investigated the mystery without having to ask permission from those stupid people, she knew more than one way to get back to town.

If only they knew how many secret paths were scattered around the perimeter to facilitate entry (or escape if required) into the city. The Nymphs had built them to help themselves and other creatures in case of emergency, very rarely they had been used in modern times. It was fortunate that they were still there ... but in that case it only served to make her find the bitter surprise.

The city had emptied, not even a trace of the tramps.

The quarantine was all a lie, but what happened then? Only a mass evacuation could have explained how and what could have forced an entire town to disappear. We are talking about 13,356 inhabitants, not about ten people; even Amyntas was uneasy in the face of this absurd situation.

In that short period of time she had been away, something very bad must have happened ... she couldn't give herself any other explanation.

Nadia went home, it was the only place she hoped to find answers.

Her house was located near the river that ran through the city, hidden a little among the trees that served as shelter from the heat in summer.

It was a pretty red and white colonial house like the rest of the buildings, the whole perimeter was surrounded by bouquets of daisies and the walls of the house were covered with vines, part of the vines had twisted around the columns of the entrance door and of the black iron gate. On the back there was a small vegetable garden, at the bottom you could see the grape vines that every autumn guaranteed large purple clusters with a sugary flavor.

Instead of an electric bell there was an iron bell: the handle of the cord was shaped like a moth with spread wings while the clapper inside was a sleeping bat. It was probably the most curious object in the whole house, in its originality they had promoted it to the "coat of arms" of the family. She shook it a couple of times making the worn iron surface ring, how much she had missed that out of tune sound!

As expected no one came to open, unfortunately.

She forced the door open and stepped inside, screaming her mother's name with all the breath in her throat.

The first thing that struck the eye was the intrusive garden inside the living room: the furniture was dominated by plants and small trees, the floor was covered with a carpet of soft fresh grass and flowers and buds had blossomed on small objects. . It looked like a small greenhouse, the pretty but unusual landscape would have made many people smile who would have found it original and also beautiful. For Nadia, however, it was a bad sign. That misplaced vegetation could only say one thing: a Nymph had died in there.

She ran around the house calling every member of the family, that discovery was causing her to have a hysterical fit.

When a Nymph dies of natural causes, her body decomposes into a mass of vegetable fluids capable of flourishing even on sterile lands or surfaces. Not being organic like humans their bodies decompose instantly, there is no trace left of what they had been when alive, just flowers and lots of grass. They don't like to die either, but unlike other creatures they accept this process, they know that their sap will nourish the world that gave birth to them and allow them to generate new, healthier and more robust lives. It is a normal process that they respect, they do not think at all of delaying or avoiding it as many others do. This "return to earth" does not happen if their body suffers a violent death, as in the case of the Nymph who has been dismembered.

> Amyntas scolded her.

> she replied furiously.

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Nadia hated hearing those words because he was right.

She had to go to Bernharde, that was the second reason she had returned to Marietta.

But how could she leave knowing that a murder had been committed in her home? What if those were her mother's remains? She couldn't leave like that, without answers.

> the demon asked her.

Instinctively she wanted to answer yes ... and at the same time no, she didn't want to know.

That question forced her out, frightening her into knowing a truth she couldn't accept. She stood at the door fighting the last remnants of desire to stay there, before leaving for good she left a message in plain sight in the living room, above the stone fireplace where every winter they gathered to spend lazy afternoons of doing nothing: " Mom, Dad, I’m back home. See you soon, I love you. "

In order not to think about what he had seen, she began to wonder what this was like Bernharde.

Nadia did not know her personally, she only knew what she had heard from the rumors, which was that she was crazy and that she had to stay away from her. But there was a rumor among the Nymphs and other creatures of the secret people that she was a witch. She had never given any importance to this chat except now that she was on her way to meet her.

She knew, however, that she lived just outside the city, in the Oakwood Ave area.

Modern youth considered witches and sorcerers as real as aliens: everyone said they were there but no one had ever really seen one. For her generation, magic and people related to it were considered as prehistoric as VHS, telephone booths and gramophones. In short, something that they did not take seriously since it was out of their time.

Once they had offered her to go and see if the rumors were true, but she was never interested in knowing this person and soon the rest of that group also became disinterested in the proposal, ending up doing something else.

She had rarely been to Oakwood Ave, it was not an area she liked (for a simple aesthetic reason).

The outskirts were not as beautiful as the center and the houses were medium-sized, with small gardens and dodgy alleys. They stopped in front of a dull blue house, the only one in the whole neighborhood with that color and with the garden occupied by horrible scarecrows made of old rags and pieces of mannequins. There were no names on the rusty mailbox, the gutters were filled with bird nests whose feces had smeared the walls, and weeds had grown immeasurably around the perimeter of the house. It was the classic place that makes you say "nope" and run away.

> said rightly the Incubus.

His theory was rejected when he was hit full-length by a stray bullet.

From the ground floor window, through the lowered shutters, the barrel of a gun was sticking out.

> shouted a woman's voice.

Against all odds, she was still there.

Nadia promptly took cover behind a nearby garbage can and Amyntas behind an old moped without rearview mirrors. The demon begged her to order him to attack, he "kindly" wanted to return the blow.

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Silence. The woman did not answer.

Shortly after, the front door was heard opening with an annoying squeak.

Nadia peeked from her hiding place and saw a person in the doorway, rifle in hand and scowling. When their eyes met, it dissolved into a surprised and excited expression, erasing any trace of menacing.

The woman had very pale pink skin and wore long silver hair left free and wild like a lion's mane, she had lips so plump and shiny they looked painted, her eyes were an intense hazel color with a slight yellow tinge on the outer edges of the iris. She wore worn-out denim overalls and a mouse-gray wool sweater with green stripes, and on her feet she wore black boots soiled with dirt that at first glance seemed too big for her.

Was she really a witch, that one? Her appearance did not fit it.

> she said.

With one hand she signaled to both of them to enter, inviting them to hurry.

Nadia and Amyntas obeyed without saying a word, reluctantly entering the house. Both had noticed the nervousness that the woman exuded and wondered what could be the reason, enough to force her to arm herself and shoot on sight.

The interior was far from being welcoming: the living room was small, the dusty old furniture took up most of the space, making everything narrow and stuffy, the parquet had unevenness and one would trip over it repeatedly. The semi-darkness and the stench of being closed together gave the nausea, there were scented candles around but there was no trace in the air of their essence.

Suddenly the hostess hugged Nadia.

A sincere hug from those who were happy, something she couldn't help but appreciate. It was the second stranger who held her in their arms with such affection, it was pleasant but also quite strange.

> Bernharde said with a courteous voice. Around her neck she wore a beaded necklace that she always touched even just with her fingertips, as if to reassure herself.

She motioned for the girl to sit in the single lumpy brown leather chair, while she sat down on the sofa that was missing a piece of backrest. She completely ignored Amyntas, who was forced to stand.

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The witch explained without much preamble what had happened.

The same day she disappeared, a source close to her had warned her that an army of demons was marching in the direction of Marietta with the intention of exterminating all the Nymphs who lived there and it didn't matter if humans got in the way too. Caught off guard and without even a reason why the demons wanted to carry out such a scourge, she immediately warned the community. Many of them had fled immediately. But those who remained hesitated because they had made a family: they would never abandon their spouses or adopted children to save themselves; nor those friends they had made over the years.

They wanted to take them away too, but how to do it without having to confess the secret of their identity? Bernharde's own source had thought of this.

After a short time, a military squadron arrived and forced the entire city to be evacuated. They were strange people, the woman said. Although they looked like one, they did not belong to the American forces and had arrived with the pretense of having to evacuate everyone without giving an actual explanation. They hadn't given people time to take as many personal belongings and with some they had used brute force to take them away. Good for her that she had the magic to be completely ignored, the hell she would follow people lying about their identity. And then, someone will have to stay for Nadia's return.

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Nadia - almost felt guilty for having been at the center of an unwanted situation - told what had happened to her until her arrival in Las Vegas. Bernharde glared at Amyntas and gripped the rifle he held on her legs. The demon told her something not polite, she did not appreciate the rude intervention towards her. She snapped her fingers and Amyntas found himself covered with hundreds of ants, small and red as the sparks of coal when it burned. The incredulous demon jumped and kicked in an attempt to get them off, unaware that it was just an illusion made by the witch; her eyes sparkled as she used magic without needing to utter any vocal formulas. Then the illusion ended, again lucid Amyntas moved as far away from that witch as possible, scared after that trick. Confident that the demon would no longer bother her, she relaxed.

Nadia continued her story, however, talking about it with less attention than before. She was not happy to have to tell another person what she had been through, especially regarding the murder of one of her kind.

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Bernharde paused to catch her breath, even looking at her strangely.

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The girl shook her head negatively.

The witch made a disappointed expression, as if expecting such an answer.

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The woman could not hide the disbelief from her face. It was one of those reactions of those who expect you to know everything about the subject you are talking about and for this reason Nadia sank into the chair, embarrassed to feel so ignorant. But it wasn't her fault that those words didn't make sense.

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> Nadia asked at one point, now curious about the subject.

Bernharde took Nadia by the hands, she had two severed fingers on her left hand that made her a little uncomfortable, her skin was rough as a carpet and she felt hard growths of calluses along her palms. What she wanted to say did not come out, showing an exaggerated hesitation. Her mouth twisted without ever opening to utter a word, as if what she had to say was so relevant that she didn't even know how to say it. Did she not know how to explain it to her or was afraid she would not understand? Or didn't she want to tell her? If it was a secret Nadia absolutely wanted to know, also because she hated secrets.

Unless it was personal, she hated when poeple hiding the truth from her. It was one of those few situations that made her get out of her temper, there was no reason or origin behind it, it just bothered her.

The witch suddenly got up and rummaged in a shop window behind the sofa.

“I'll show you what it is,” she had told her.

I mean, had she put this thing in front of her? Did she have it?

The girl imagined a real human heart and was worried that this could be the case.

Instead she took out a small glass bottle, the kind used for perfume samples to distribute to customers: inside was a yellow liquid with reddish drops that floated like the bubbles of a lava lamp.

She also picked up an oval pebble from the same piece of furniture and carefully poured a couple of small drops like a penny on it.

That small amount was enough for the witch's purpose, the liquid spread over the chipped surface of the object, in the darkness of the house the yellowish glow shone dull until the stone opened like a flower bud, radiating the environment. The hollows smoothed like a baby's skin, the dirty black was replaced by a clear aqua blue, and human limbs sprouted one after another.

The "object" was actually a Fairy. More precisely, a mummified fairy ... and now back to life.

Nadia incredulous stared at the Fairy who stretched as if she had just woken up from a simple nap, yawning and rubbing her eyes.

It was also the first time she had seen one, considering they were extinct. Small, elusive and fragile, there was no way to preserve them from extinction, much less to try to recover their DNA with the scientific method because at the moment of death they hide, then becoming stone. Humans are unaware that they often step on their bodies when they are walking in the woods or on the beaches, mistaking them for ordinary pebbles.

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> Nadia exclaimed in shock.

Gaea, the personification of the Earth.

This name made Nadia tremble more than an earthquake or the rumble of a lightning storm.

Gaea wasn't just a Goddess. She was the Goddess of everything and everyone.

The first divinity ever, mother of all the others and also of terrestrial creatures, she who together with the Titans had forged seas and continents with her breath, her body and her blood. A lot of figures had declared themselves gods of humans, but she was the original divine being of the world, unjustly forgotten because of people who wanted to profess their religion over others.

> Amyntas began.

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Nadia got up and slapped Amyntas as hard as she could.

Her anger flared up with tears that tasted like salt, she began to scream like crazy. If something was close at hand, she would take it and throw it at him. How dare he insult Gaea?

She was the Mother who had forged life on that piece of rock called Earth. It was only thanks to her that all of them existed today, and not thanks to a faceless old man who is hiding in the clouds, who decides when he wants if someone should die. It was offensive what the goat had said, he shouldn't allow himself to be disrespectful.

So much was the irritation that in the end - even with the hand of accumulated fatigue - she fainted exhausted at his feet.