Fairytale by Sarah (good summer reads TXT) 📕

into that thing. I never want that to happen again, but it’s my only way out.

I leave my dress, untouched and start to think of the monster. I visualize my body, then my bones shrinking then expanding to twice that of the bones that they used to be. I feel the transformation, less painful than before, but still very hard to do without screaming or biting your lip until it bleeds, which adds to the pain. The pain soon recedes, though, and I have transformed completely. I look at the full bodied mirror as if it was a thing I do often, transform into a monster, that is. I suck in my monster stomach and turn to the side. I transform back to my human body, and am once again in the nude.

I do this many more times, but each time the pain shrinks until the changing is almost pleasant. Soon, I just put my dress on because I’ve worn myself out.

A beautiful man comes, a guard, and removes me from my cage and leads me through many corridors and by the time we finally get to the front door, twelve men have joined us, all equipped with spears and bows.

“What’s going on?” I question, figuring maybe if I’m friendly he’ll let me go, but he continues on in stony silence. Must be like Roger. All work and no play makes Tony—I’ll call him Tony for his s-Tony silence—I giggle, and he looks at me out of the corner of his eye.—maybe he’s not so boring after all… I wink and he just continues on, paying great attention to the air in front of his face. Or maybe he is.

We step outside and the wind greets us with a gentle embrace, carrying the scent of mud and pigs and dirty peasants whom I love dearly. We travel into the forest until we come to a cave with a cage guarding what I would assume is the only entrance or exit.

My heart races as I’m shoved into the cave with the same beasts that murdered my mother. I can smell the decay. Wait, how can I smell that?! I look back at the man who roughly shoved me in here with these beasts, I plead with him with my eyes. He only closes the fence again and shakes his head, cruel black eyes on his beautiful face watching me as my stormy gray ones try to catch him in their gaze. I try to make him feel bad… it’s the least he could do. I choke back a sob. My eyes roll back into my head as I have a flash back. Mother screaming, her eyes flutter closed and a man who just stabbed her standing above her. Then, I couldn’t get a good look at his face, but I would give anything to hurt him so he lies, just as helpless as mother, looking at his murderer.

I wake up to find two zombies standing above me.

“What were you thinking girl?” One says.

“Yessss, it was decedant!” The other one hisses, licking his disgusting dried lips. I think these were the result of zombie testing, these things, they have defects. Some people believe these things used to be human. I snarl and they step back. One had their arms are chopped off… odd.

“Come with me if you want to live!” The first one jokes in a bad Terminator accent.

“Touch me if you want to die right here, right now.” He takes half a step away from me. These boys, if you can call them that, are my age of fifteen years. I study them and they study me back with a spark of interest hidden in their eyes.

“We didn’t ask for this any more than you asked to be a girl, or a human instead of a sea urchin. I’m Caspian,” says the first zombie, the one with arms. He doesn’t look like one of them… He has chocolate brown hair to match his eyes and tan skin. His friend, however, has green skin, the color of the substance that the stable boy threw up after eating a whole pie as a dare last week. The only human part of him is his beautiful baby blue eyes he was graced with as a gift from Torr for this ghastly existence.

“You don’t look like a--- OOMPH!” He, Caspian, launches himself at me and covers my lips with his. He pushes me to the ground and lies on top of me, breathing very heavily through his nose. I struggle at first, but I soon give up and lay there, quite still. I have figured out that he means only to quiet me.

His lips finally let go of mine when no-arms over there clears his throat, but instead covers my mouth with his hand. He leans down as if to kiss my neck and my skin tingles in anticipation, but his lips stop at my ear.

“I am indeed human, but if you want to live, you’ll keep that a secret, for I have claimed to have found an antidote for rotting.” I gasp in surprise.

“Is there really such a thing?” But his hand is still tight over my mouth, so it sounded more like, “Mmhmh, mmhm! Mhmn?”

“What? Oh, sorry, promise not to scream?” I shrug. He sighs, “Good enough.” His hand is removed from my mouth and I scream at the top of my lungs.

“Somebody help me!!! I’VE BEEN CAPTURED BY ZOMBIESSSS!!!!” He covers my mouth again, and we hear a shout. Caspian’s face lights up for a moment and he stands up, quick, pulling me up behind him, but he controls his emotions and tells his buddy to go. If they all run, then they’ll lead them back to the clan.

The clan? Uh-oh! That sounds like a lot! I start shaking, not from the cold, but at the thought that, if Caspian hadn’t found me, I’d be in a heap of trouble. He wraps his arms around me because he has got warmth radiating from his body. He is like an open flame!

“Good job. Now we’re going to be rescued!” He says, and mumbles, “Even though you went against my direct order to…” He trails off when he realizes I could hear him.

“Well, well, well, what have we here?” I freeze at the sound of Kasey’s voice. He always used to say that to me when we would meet up on a new day. Tears come to my eyes and I lie on the ground and curl up into a ball. “Lacy! What are you doing?” He peers at me through one of the cracks between my arms.

“DON’T LOOK AT ME!! I’M A MONSTER!!” I shout. He backs off, the picture of defensiveness, with his palms out in front of him.

“No one has ever, ever said that!” He retorts.

“Yeah, well they thought it! That guy whose throat I ripped out thought it! I COULD HEAR HIS THOUGHTS! Have I ever told you about my visions? Have you ever wondered why I could tell where the enemy troops were? Have you ever… Have you ever seen my real hair?” In our time, red hair was the sign of the devil. I have always worn a wig to cover my fiery red hair. I have no idea why I’m opening up when my life is at stake.

“What? You’re a blond; of course I’ve seen your hair! I can see it right now!” I look at him for a moment, as if weighing my options, then sigh. I slowly raise my hand to my head and take my blond wig off. I shake my hair loose of the ribbons I have used to tie it up for as long as I can remember, and shut my eyes.

I can still see them, for I have the sight, but they do not know I can see them. In my mind’s eye, I look at Caspian. He looks unconcerned, as if me being a spawn of the devil is not a problem. Kasey, however, the man I wanted to marry, the boy I grew up with, the boy that I love, is backing away. Caspian grabs his collar and shakes his head.

I open up my mind and read his thoughts. ‘OH. MY. TORR. I cannot believe it! I thought I had finally found a girl, a normal one, because all the scullery maids want to do is talk about their feelings. She… Her… I wanted her… From the moment I saw her at four years old, I was ready to do anything to get her… Even pretend to be her friend. She would have been mine, but then she had to go and ruin everything by turning into a beast .An ugly one at that. Who cares about her anymore? Not me, she can go die and go back to her father, Lucifer. I just need to get rid of her…’

I close my mind. Is he really going to try to kill me? I start weeping. I cry until I feel Caspian wrap his arms around me. I mastered my shifting in the cell I was put in, so I grow one claw and walk up to Kasey.

“Tell me, lover boy, what do you think of me now?” I whisper, claws behind my back.

“I think you are beautiful, no matter what form you take.” He is lying through his teeth and any blind, deaf man could tell. I try to kiss him and he recoils.

“Are you sure about that, or do you want to rethink your answer?” I say, flexing my paw behind my back.

“No!” He whispers, then more loudly, “You are a MONSTER! Go back to your father, Devil child!”

I pull out my hand and put my claw to his neck, forcing his head back, and whisper into his ear.

“Thank you for being truthful for once.” And scrape my claw gently against one of the veins in his neck. He tries to inch away, but I force him to the ground and straddle him. My animal instincts kick in, but I resist the urge to kill him. I go back to watching the blood flow through his veins and prick one, making a small hole. Sweat forms small beads on his forehead as I lean down to lap up the blood dripping from the small cut I made. I was just testing the waters.

The pain that I caused him when I pricked him with my razor sharp claw was nothing compared to when I stuck it back in and made the hole larger. He screams in pain and breathes faster, making His heart beat faster, and in turn, the blood flow at a quicker pace. I suck on the cut, loving the warmth that engrosses me when I do so. It was even better than being in his arms.

The whole time this was going on, Caspian sits there with a blank look on his face. He seems bored, so I tune in to his brain waves. ‘Great, another clean up duty. This girl sure knows how to make a mess! But she is worth it! Wait… Stephanie! Get out of my head!’ I decide to insert a thought into his mind.

‘Who is Stephanie?’ I ask.

‘Why, you, of course’.

‘But, I am Lorabelle!’ I continue sucking on Kasey’s wound. His heart beats slower, now. Soon it will stop altogether.

‘We all know that’s an alias! You were Stephanie before’.

‘NO! I was Lacey Youdplea before.’

‘That was an alias, too, one your mother thought up.’