I never really thought much about the existence of fairies, other than reading them as characters in books (i.e. A Court of Thorns and Roses; and Peter Pan), until a colleague told me about a medium on tumblr that once saw them. Since I was always open to the possibility that the supernatural may actually exist, I decided to do extensive research on it. After what I've read online about the fae, I could not stop talking about it for weeks. Some of my friends probably thought it was crazy, but hear me out.

Because there isn't any evidence that fae (also known as fairies) don't exist, and I don't think magic could ever be proven, I'm just going to go with all the information I found. Take this all with a grain of salt. First, the folklore of fae exist in many cultures. They can take many different forms and there are so many different species. But all the stories of fae have one thing in common: you don't want to have an encounter with fae because chances are, you will die.

From what I've read from the medium, fairies are not as sweet and kind as we imagine them to be. In fact, if we think about Tinkerbell from Peter Pan, she was actually rude and mean. Many cultures have special holidays that associate with keeping away the fae by lighting bonfires. Apparently the fae can drown you, stab you, let you wander the woods until you starve, trick you into jumping off ledges and they'll enjoy doing it. And while several curious people have asked how to contact fae, they are strongly warned not to do so. Instead they are told to leave them alone. It has also been said that while the entrances to "fairyland" aren't visible to the human eye, you can feel a strong sensation telling you not to go further. For the rare instances that fae do get in contact with you, it just means bad news - you are not to break any promises to them and you're in a contract for life.

I fell deeper in this hole when I found out that the majority of Iceland believes in the existence of fae - elves, to be exact. Icelanders have strongly protested road developments because it would require the removal of an elf church. They believe that the elf church should be treated with respect, and if it gets destroyed, they will pay for it. In the past, there have been mechanical breakdowns with no explanation behind them, as well as freak accidents. It led to the delay from the ongoing construction from future developments.

Even in Ireland when a fairy tree blocked a motorway, the county council had to reroute the road because of a contract that protected the fairy tree. The road was moved to accommodate the fairies and 'access [was] not permitted within a minimum 5m radius and a protective fence has been erected around it.'

So do fairies actually exist? Maybe, but I don't think I want to find that out myself.