WEBVTT
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In a black Irish forest, a desperate father grips a
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writhing fairy in one hand and a cold iron revolver
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in the other. The fae want his child, he wants
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a normal life. Tonight, love goes to war with ancient magic,
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and not everyone escapes. What's that You want to be scared?
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Come with me. You will experience tales over our ba who,
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ghosts and death. It is not recommended for the week
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At Heart Heart listen as in the dark. It's more
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fun at that way way. This is Weekly Speaking. Hello,
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my spookies, It's Wednesday, and you know what that means.
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It's time for a little spooky in your weekly. I'm
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your host and narrator, Enrique Kuto, and tonight we have
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a fantasy tinged terror just for you to listen to.
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But before we get to that, I want to say
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simply thank you so much for joining me. Tonight. October
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is nearly upon us, which will bring thirty one shows
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in thirty one days. But here at Weekly Spooky Halloween
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is all year long, so thanks for joining us a
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little early. To get your taste of terror, make sure
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you subscribe on your favorite podcasting app and if you
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love what we're doing and want to support us. Headweklyspooky
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dot com slash join and for as little as one
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dollar a month, get two bonus episodes over five years
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of audiobooks and creepypastas and so much more at Weeklyspooky
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dot Com slash join. But as for tonight, imagine the
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woods of Ireland after a storm, wet leaves, whispering branches,
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and the feeling that something older than the hills is
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watching now. Picture a secret you've carried for your whole life,
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that you were never meant for the world that raised you.
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When a carnival fortune teller shows you your true face
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in a dusty mirror and the fay folk come calling
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for what they think is theirs, how far would you
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go to protect your family tonight? Under the shadow of
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the Nochnara Mountains, iron meets enchantment, and a single spark
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of emerald fire could burn away everything that you love.
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Get cozy, my spookies. Our story begins momentarily right after
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this abandonment issues by Douglas Waltz. Slogging through the wooded
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area south of Nochnaria Mountain in Sligo was far from
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my idea of a good time, but I really had
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been given no choice. The forest shrouded in darkness, enveloped
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every corner and crevice, regular forest wildlife noises had ceased
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an hour before, so I knew that I was on
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the right path. I was the only source of sound.
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My labored breathing concerned me a little. I wasn't that
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out of shape, was I? I chalked it up to
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the purpose of traveling half the globe to complete my
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quest or perish in the attempt. I stopped to check
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the scrawled map I had paid too much for at
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a nearby pub. The ancient drunk with roomy eyes claimed
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that this was the only way to reach the land
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of the fairy folk. Something made me believe him. The map,
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scribed with shaky hand, said I was traveling in the
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correct direction. As dark as the woods were, I had
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no trouble reading the map. I continued on my leather
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clad left hand, ached from being constantly clutched. I could
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feel my pulse with each beat, but dared not release
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my grip. Cautiously, I made my way down a path
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that circled a gigantic boulder. Its deep gray, glossy surface
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was home to multi colored moss and lichen. That was
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when the smell assailed my nostrils and told me I
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had arrived a mix of human feces and brown listerine.
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It was a calling card of the fay folk. I
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made my way to an open glen near the boulder
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to have the proper room to maneuver if the situation
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warranted it. I had not come all this way to
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die in the woods of Ireland. I carefully squeezed my
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left hand, and a small piercing sound escaped. I had
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gone over this situation in my head so many times
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during my long journey, and nothing would have prepared me
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for what came next. A huge pillar of emerald flame
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irrupted near the boulder, and a being of immense height
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strode from it as leisurely as if they were on
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a Sunday stroll. Their equiline features with huge emerald eyes
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glared at me as their mouth compressed in a narrow slit.
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Ten others came from the flame as well, impressive in
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stature but paling in comparison to the one who had
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first derived. We stared at each other for what seemed
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an eternity, before the creature before me spoke human. The
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voice was soft, yet commanding. I could feel it searching
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for an answer from me. No, I replied, far from it.
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A murmur of foreign voices whispered amongst them. As they
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all took a closer look. The obvious leader spoke again,
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Explain yourself, mortal, and here we are the moment of truth.
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I told them of my family, who for a short
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period of time lived in Ireland, how their child was
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captured by the fay, and how I was left behind
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to be their own. I told them of the family
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caring for me, and we soon moved to the United States,
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where I lived a somewhat normal life. Certainly there were
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oddities as I traveled through my years of existence. How
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no cat liked me, but dogs would defend me with
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their lives. I explained how a bully at school once
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knocked me to the ground, and when he came in
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for another blow, I grabbed his arm. His skin sizzled
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at the touch, and his eyes widened as he screamed
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and unholy scream. The bully was never seen in school again.
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Word in town was his family moved away and were
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never heard from. Another rumor was that he never stopped screaming.
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And died soon afterward. Any time I played in the forest,
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I could feel its life force, a talent that seemed
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to fade the longer I spent time in civilization. Then
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I explained my journey to the hills of Ireland. Three
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years back. I had made the acquaintance of a young lady,
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Matilda Cooper. In my twenty years of life, never had
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I seen such a ravishing creature. My luck held when
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she reciprocated my feelings, and after a six month whirlwind romance,
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we were wed. It was at a carnival where Matilda
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and I decided, on what I believed to be a whim,
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to have our fortunes told by a small, twisted old woman.
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She said nice things about us and our child, who
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would arrive in nine months. She knew Matilda was with
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child before Matilda had a clue. As we went to
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leave the tent that smelled of sawdust and cooking grease,
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I passed the crone a few coins. She went to
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take them, and her eye went wide and a small
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cracking groan escaped her lips. She leaned forward and explained
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that she needed to show me something, but not in
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front of Matilda. So the following evening, as the circus
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was closing down for the night, I found myself at
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the Crone's tent. She beckoned to me to follow her
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to a back room in the tent. There she removed
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a purple cloth from a full length mirror and told
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me to stand in front of it. I gasped when
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I saw my inhuman reflection. She told me the tale
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of the Fay and all my memories of my short
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time here before the switch was made. With my tale told,
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I stood in front of the Fay. The elders spoke first,
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and what would you have from us? I want to
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know how this will affect the child in my wife's womb.
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The elder put a slender hand to his chin. He
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looked at the ground for a moment, then a smile
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crossed his lips. It would seem that a new born
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Faye will be born soon. My brethren his entourage all
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chuckled in response. Wrong answer, I replied, and brought my
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left hand into view. In it, the wriggling, biting, tiny
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delicate fairy I had captured hours before screamed when it
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saw the Fay. The eleven creatures who had formed a
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semicircle all gasped in unice. Don't go away, weekly, Spooky
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will be right back now, I demanded. You will tell
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me how to rectify this situation, or this little one
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dies before your eyes. Wait, the elder exclaimed, consider what
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you're doing, Oh I have you monsters took one of
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your own and abandoned them into the cold, cruel world
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of man, a world with no magic, no wonder, a pale,
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dull existence. Why did you not want me? An involuntary
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sob racked my frame. The elder's features hardened at my
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display of emotion. We left you for the reason we
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always leave a changeling behind. Our kind does not no love?
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A small child gives us that for a short period
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of time. And is the child here? I asked? In answer,
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a man the same age as I stepped from behind
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one of the elders. He looked exactly like me, without
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a care in the world. His smile brought me joy.
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Then my features darkened with hatred. Here was this human
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that received all I ever wanted, the whole magical experience
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taken from me as a small fay child. But I
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adapted and made the human world my own, and now
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a small bundle of joy was coming into it, and
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I needed to make sure that no fay stink touched
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this child. I want my child to be human, I
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said sternly. The semicircle of fay rerupted into laughter. Fool,
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we will take your child and they will replace the
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void left by you. There is nothing you can do.
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Your offspring belongs to us. Really. My hand had slipped
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around the revolver in my pocket. I freed it from
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the cloth confines and fired a single shot. The human's
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head jerked back from the impact of the bullet and
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crumpled to the ground. The fatal wound poured blood onto
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the forest floor. The elder screamed and took a step forward.
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I held up the forgotten fairy and locked eyes with him.
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He stopped moving. If you don't want her to join him,
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you will give me what I demand, And right now
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I could see him contemplating my request. Out of the
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corner of my eyes, I saw the others moving imperceptibly slowly.
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I squeezed my left hand. The cry from the fairy
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stopped all movement. The elder sighed. In the human world,
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there is an iron supplement that women take because they
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think it will help them with their monthly blood ritual,
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give it to her on each Sunday of the week.
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Until the babe is born. No aspect of Fay will
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survive in that womb. I nodded. At that point, one
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of the other ten lunged towards me, pate, burning emerald
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fire in their eyes. I swung the pistol to them
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and fired. Once they dropped, writhing and screaming to the ground.
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The elder gave me a questioning look cold iron bullets.
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He gave me a sage nod, with a tiny smile
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creeping into the corner of his lips. He glanced at
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my left hand. I opened it, and the small creature
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stretched their wings and fluttered to perch on the elder's shoulder.
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She made small cooing sounds in the elder's ear. He
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responded in calming tones to the fairy. Two of the
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other Fay helped their brethren to his feet, and they
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all walked back to the emerald pillar of flame. The
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elder entering the fire last turned back to give me
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a small nod. I returned it. The conflagration stopped as
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suddenly as it had begun. I found myself with a
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deep thirst and made my way back to the pub
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and then home to my family, my family soon to
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be born child, a child that, if I failed in
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administering the proper iron supplement to my wife, would be
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born much like me. Would that be so bad my
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entire life? I wondered about why I seemed so different
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from others that crossed my path, and the old crone
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gave me the answer, and the fay in the woods,
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shadowed by the mountain Knochnera confirmed it. Would it be
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so bad? When the elder told me that they were
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incapable of love and found it by stealing children from
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their cribs, I almost spoke up. I nearly revealed that
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my entire life, surrounded by the love and affection of
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my human parents and the friends I made, including Matilda,
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had given me the same capacity of love, with the
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ability to return it tenfold. Would it be awful if
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my child was just like me? It was a thing
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to consider as I slowly made my way back to
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the pub, back to a civilization I wouldn't trade for
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all the loveless magic in the world. Well, my spookies,
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I hope you enjoyed that little fantasy departure to the
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hills of Ireland as much as I did, a nice
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change of pace from the monsters, killers and ghosts we
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often encounter. But don't let that fool you. The threat
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is just as dangerous. Thank you all so much for
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joining me as I'm preparing for the Big October, and
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I gotta tell you there is so much to record.
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We have not only the usual weekly spooky short stories,
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but we have exclusive novellas, a few horror movie reviews
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to sprinkle in, some highlights of stories from Halloween's past,
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and of course some surprises. So make sure you're subscribed
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on your favorite podcasting app. We cannot wait to help
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make your Halloween just right. And if you love what
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we're doing here and need even more spooky in your
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weekly Headweeklyspooky dot Com slash join for as little as
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one dollar a month. You get two bonus episodes, as
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well as exclusive audio books and about five years of
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creepypasta readings. That's at Weeklyspooky dot Com slash Join. And
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I want to say an extra special thank you to
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our Patreon podcast boosters, folks who pay just a little
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bit more to hear their name at the end of
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the show, and they are Johnny Nix, Kate and Lulu,
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Jessica Fuller, Mike as Skewey, Jenny Green, Amber Hansford, Karen