The Twisted Fairy Tale Box Set

by Holly Hook

  She turned towards me, her fingernails inches from Henry's face. Her eyes were black. Greedy. Hateful. The advancing dark spot had done something to her.

  "Stand back, Rae," she ordered. "You are not going anywhere. How dare you betray me after all I have given you?"

  My chest ached and Mother pointed her palm at me. The cold energy hit me head on and I went sliding back along the floor. I waved my arms, trying to keep my footing, but then I hit the chair and landed in it, forced to sit.

  This was magic she was using. Dark magic.

  "Mother!" I yelled. "Why are you doing this? Henry was only trying to warn us about the dark spot." She'd heard everything he said. There was no convincing her about his motives now.

  "Silence," she ordered me in a voice that was low and quiet. Henry still grabbed onto the sill behind her, bracing for what was to come. He glanced down and fear blossomed over his features. That meant the dark spot had reached the base of the tower.

  "You tripped my spells, young man," Mother said to Henry. She took another step towards him and he didn't dare move. Henry paled and all his freckles stood out more. "I knew you were here the moment you crossed the perimeter. Rae is right. She should not leave this tower. I will never let her."

  Henry leaned back as she raised her nails at him. He would fall to his death. I had to think of something.

  "Mother," I said. "Show Henry some mercy and I'll let you braid my hair so you can feel better. You look like you need that right now. And you told me the dark spot wouldn't get all the way to the tower. Why is it here?"

  She faced me and her gaze softened. A trace of the Mother I knew returned. Henry took one step from the window and I breathed a sigh of relief. "The dark spot was not supposed to advance this far," Mother said. "He told me that—never mind. Perhaps what he told me wasn't as accurate as I thought." She waved me to the beds. "I will braid your hair, but I fear now I will have to braid it a lot more often. Move over here."

  I got up. More color flowed into Henry's face and he lifted one boot and set it on the windowsill. I had bought him time.

  I waited for the air inside the tower to turn dreadful while I moved over to the chair, but the feeling never came. The dark spot seemed to hug the area around the tower, but not the tower itself. The flowers remained colorful in the vase even though the sky outside had faded to a dark gray. Something was keeping the despair out of the tower itself.

  "Sit," Mother ordered.

  "Braid it fast," I told her, sitting on the bed. Henry waited in silence. He didn't want to leave me. I had Mother distracted. He had the chance to escape unscathed. I faced the window and nodded at him. Go, I thought.

  The gray outside had grown ominous like it was about to storm.

  The dark spot had us surrounded now.

  Mother stood beside me, hesitating. She trembled and muttered something.

  And lifted one palm towards Henry.

  The air went sharp and cold again. Mother was using dark magic again. Henry's eyes bulged open, and he slid back.

  Towards the window.

  "Henry!" I shouted, rising from the bed.

  He cried out and went toppling over the edge.

  The world slowed down. I ran for the windowsill. Henry fell out of sight and the sounds of cracking branches followed. I leaned over the edge as my pulse roared in my ears. Henry lay in a huge cluster of brambles two feet from the ground that hadn't been there before. His chest heaved up and down. Henry stared into space, stunned. He blinked. He was alive.

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Until I saw the thorns.

  Thorns the size of crochet hooks tore at his clothes, exposing pale skin. Blood streaked on the front of his thigh and Henry cried out, grabbing at the bush, only to scrape the top of his hand on another thorn. The brambles were moving. The plants were closing around him. Red flowers blossomed as if the vines were feeding on his lifeblood.

  “Get out of there!” I shouted at Henry. The thorns were thick. The vines continued to grow, scraping against the stone of the tower. Henry cried out as another thorn cut into his arm. The ground below him cracked with dryness. Leaves rained from trees in the wind as if the forest was crying.

  “Back, Rae,” Mother said, pushing me aside.

  “You’ve got to free him!” I shouted, trying to get back in the window. “Do a spell and let him go!”

  Mother glanced at me. A flash of sympathy came over her features, but then the hardness returned and she faced Henry again, clutching the windowsill and shoving me further out of the way. “Do not return here!” she shouted, “or you will not live to see another day. Rae’s place is here and no one will take her away."

  “She doesn’t belong to you,” Henry managed. His voice was full of pain and defeat. He seethed with pain and the sounds of struggle against the creaky vines met my ears. “She doesn’t belong to anybody.”

  I pushed in beside Mother, not caring about the cold gaze she gave me. “Henry! Run!”

  He still struggled against the brambles even though he'd fallen to the ground. Blood streaked his clothing. Henry stood, and he reached for the loose bricks. He was attempting to climb back up. AMother growled and the first loose brick slid into the tower with a scrape, leaving only a smooth surface to grab. Henry brushed his hand on stone and found no grip.

  “You can’t do this,” he said. He stared up at us, pleading. The brambles behind him rose like a hungry monster. Mother stared at them as if willing them to move.

  “Henry—behind you!”

  Mother shoved me out of the way with so much force I toppled to the floor. Pain surged up my elbow as I hit it on the chair. Down below, Henry screamed in agony.

  I tried to get up as I died inside. Henry let out another scream and Mother said something, but I couldn’t hear it over the pain. A cold energy washed over me and my limbs froze. Something was holding me down. Mother leaned over the windowsill so much that I feared she would fall off. But Mother kept her grip and a little smile crept onto her face.

  This wasn’t the Mother I knew.

  The screams died.

  “Go,” Mother ordered Henry. “Do not return to this place, ever, or it will be more than your eyes you lose.”nother red flower opened, and a vine reached for his leg.

  Chapter Six

  I remained stuck on the floor for a long time. The cold energy wouldn't loosen its grip.

  Henry muttered something as brambles shifted against the ground with awful slithering sounds.

  Had he—

  Footsteps followed.

  Headed away. Feet scraped against dirt and dust and death.

  Mother stood there for a long time and the smile dropped from her face. She trembled as if some internal struggle had taken her. The cold feeling vanished, and I stood at last.

  I felt empty. Broken.

  And for the first time, in chains.

  “Mother,” I said, shocked at how level my voice sounded. It might as well have been over in the village or on the moon. “What did you do to Henry?”

  Mother turned to face me. Her eyes remained as black as ever. “I need to braid your hair,” she said, flat. “I need to braid your hair right now.”

  She was shaking.

  And so was I.

  “You are not braiding my hair,” I said, “until you bring Henry back and undo whatever you did to him. You made those thorns attack him!”

  I rushed to the window, and this time Mother didn’t stop me. “Henry!”

  He had gone.

  The thorns on the bottom of the tower had parted as if to let him go, and only a few reddish stains remained on the dust below. Everything was darkness. Grays, dark greens, and blacks. The dread feeling hit me in the stomach as I searched all around for a flash of bright green. “Henry!”

  "He left, dear," Mother said. "Henry will not be coming back to take you away. He might have seemed kind, but his intentions were dark."

  I whirled around on her. "And you have room to speak?"
/>   Mother took a step back. This wasn't the woman I had grown up with. This was the woman who had taken me to that dark spot when I was eight and made me face that rat.

  She motioned to the chair and spoke with a demanding tone. "Let me braid your hair, and then we can speak more about all of this."

  "No!" I leaned out the window again and the dread feeling hit me. Everything outside of this room was dark. Fluttering panic rose, and I eyed the entire forest. There was no longer any sign of light or happiness. Henry had wandered away. All the trees as far as I could see were dead and skeletal or thick and foreboding. Swamps of black, inky water spread out everywhere and grasses had turned yellow and dead.

  "Sit down, Rae," Mother ordered. "I need to braid your hair, or I will remain like this. I did not like what I did to Henry and I never want to do something like that again. Please, Rae. Do you want me to be like this? I've done so much for you and you will let me rot in darkness?"

  "What's happened?" I asked her, whirling around. "Everything out there has gone bad." There wasn't even a dark spot anymore. It was a dark world. I didn't want to gaze upon any of this. It kept us trapped in a tiny circle of normality if I could consider Mother normal. "What happened?"

  I was fearing I'd made the wrong choice, staying in the tower.

  "Sit down, Rae," Mother ordered again.

  "You're not answering my question," I said. "I'm not sitting down until you do."

  Mother fumbled through her pocket. "Then I will need to make you."

  "You're not making me do anything!" Henry was out there, wandering around. Had the thorns taken out his eyes? He'd never survive out there and if I didn't do something, I'd cause his death.

  I should have gone with him when I could.

  "Gothel! Turn out your mirror so I may enter."

  A man spoke from below and the voice reminded me of cold dark.

  It was the man in black.

  Alric.

  He was here.

  Mother rushed to the window and pushed me out of the way. This time, I let her. I backed away to the chair, not because I wanted to let her braid my hair, but because I wanted as far as possible from the man in black.

  She gripped the windowsill and nodded. "At once." I could hear the terror in her voice.

  Mother rushed past me again and I pressed against the wall. I didn't want the man in black up here. I didn't want him near Mother or me. Her lips tightened, and she went to the old, cracked mirror she always kept turned towards the wall. She turned it around and I could see her reflection in it along with mine. We were broken. The mirror made Mother look sheared in half.

  "Why are you letting him in?" I asked.

  "He's too powerful to say no to," Mother said. She waved me away from the mirror. "Back away, Rae. Get close to the window."

  This time, I obeyed.

  The mirror darkened. A living shadow spread over our reflections and my yellow dress was the last thing to fade. The mirror smoothed, erasing all the cracks, and then the glass expanded out at us as if a blob of ink were growing and emerging.

  I screamed and searched for an escape.

  The windowsill.

  Mother remained transfixed by the sight. The blob got bigger, sticking out from the mirror a few inches now, and took the shape of a man. A sucking noise filled the room.

  "Rae," Mother told me. She trembled. "Run. Leave this tower and never return."

  "But--"

  A hand appeared in the black, reaching out for us.

  She faced me, trembling. Her features fought each other in conflict. One eye turned blue again for a second. "Run, Rae. Get out of here. I didn't know this would happen. He might want to kill you. Go before I change my mind!"

  My heart pounded, and I ran for the window, swinging my legs over. The entire world slowed down, and I left the sucking noise back in the tower with Mother.

  First brick.

  Second brick.

  Climbing down was easier in the daylight even if the light was gray and sad. Behind every blink, the bulging black glass of the mirror was there, reaching for me. Third brick. My bare toes slipped, but I kept my fingers curled into the cracks of the old tower. I dared to face the ground. The brambles were still parted, but one of the thorny branches curled out and reach for the space right below. They knew I was here and trying to escape. In seconds there would be no escape.

  All fear of the ground left me and I let go. I slid down the side of the tower, scraping my knee on the jagged stone. Pain flared in my vision in pinks and yellows. My feet hit the ground and dust flew up. Greens and reds surrounded me. I got my bearings and ignored the burning pain across my skin. The thorns surrounded me now, and the flowers were red and open and hungry. Thorns moved closer on both sides and the vines creaked and hissed against the ground.

  I ran.

  My hair trailed out behind me and caught on something. I stopped, neck snapping back. Turned. The brambles had caught the end of my braid and wrapped around it like pointed teeth. I grabbed onto my braid and pulled as hard as I could until my hair came free. Gathering my hair, I bolted through the clearing and into the trees.

  From behind, the man in black shouted with rage, but I couldn't figure out what he was saying. Mother shouted back. They were arguing. I slowed and turned on the cracked ground, facing the window.

  No one stared out after me. The man in black yelled something else. And then he yelled louder. And louder, until at last I could make out his words.

  "Where is she?"

  Mother was up there with him.

  I should go back.

  But it was too late. The brambles had filled the space I had vacated seconds before and they grew taller as if trying to reach up towards the window. There was no way I could get through there.

  And I had to find Henry.

  I checked the surrounding woods. Darkness everywhere. Ravens watched me from tree tops as if daring me to do something. I had to run through this. Henry was out in these woods somewhere, likely missing his eyes. If I didn't find him, he might die.

  But so might Mother.

  I hesitated, then ran right into the trees.

  Shadows closed in. Branches hung low, and I had to dodge them, keeping my braid cradled in my hands. I couldn't afford to get stuck again. Tree trunks had grown thicker. Leaves had turned a dark, wicked green and flowers had gone red, black or dead. Gone was all the color I used to admire from the window. Gone was all the life. The dread feeling only got stronger in my stomach the further I went into the trees. Which way was back? I had no clue.

  Sticks stabbed at my bare feet and dead leaves crunched underfoot, but I couldn't slow down. I had never imagined the ground to feel so strange without boots. I reached a clearing where the yellowed grass crunched under my feet and the ground cracked worse as if it had never rained here. Stopping, I caught my breath. My lungs felt like they were on fire and the dread feeling wasn't going away. My calves hurt. I had never run this distance before. A lifetime in the tower had made me unfit.

  I whirled in a circle, certain something would come out of the trees and try to destroy me. The world was shadows and death. I jumped when I glimpsed red, but it turned out to be another flower that didn't belong to a cluster of brambles. More of those had to be out here. And where was the tower? I had lost all sense of direction. Even though some of the surrounding trees had died, many more of them had grown thicker, with impenetrable canopies and worlds of darkness underneath. Seeing the tower was impossible even though I couldn't be that far.

  I had never been farther from home than this. I wondered where the dark spot and the rat tree were. Or the trail. I had gone in a different direction.

  It didn't matter now. This entire forest was dark, just like that place. If I found it again, it wouldn't make any difference.

  But at least the trail was there, and the trail led to the village. To help if the people there wouldn't kill me first.

  Tears welled up. I did not understand what to do other than try to fin
d Henry. If he'd lost his eyes, he would need a pair to help him find his way around. And he would tell me how to find people who wouldn't want to kill us.

  "Henry!" I shouted.

  I waited for him to call back, but there was nothing. He couldn't have gone very far. But what if he'd walked in the other direction? Henry could have. I never saw which way he fled in.

  "Henry!" I shouted again. I needed him, and now.

  Two ravens conversed somewhere in the distance. They were mocking me, maybe even laughing at me. I could imagine what their caws meant. Look at the little girl who can't defend herself, they were saying. She knows nothing out here. Let's place bets and see how long she lives.

  I turned in a circle again. Darkness. Sadness. The cracks on the ground seemed even larger now as if they were ready to open and swallow me. I remembered the summer when I was eleven when Mother kept saying we needed rain and she kept having to pump water from the well to feed the garden. This was far worse than that.

  And only feet away, stinking black water hugged the gnarled roots of a tree. Green slime floated on top of it. I held my nose. I had never encountered such a disgusting smell.

  "Girl!" a man shouted in the distance.

  My heart leapt. For a fraction of a second, I thought it was Henry. But this voice was heavy and dark. It was the man in black.

  He had heard my shouts even from the tower. Or perhaps he had climbed down and followed before Mother could stop him.

  Terror gripped at my heart and I chastised myself for being so stupid. Men had ears. I'd seen them.

  He wanted to kill me.

  I had to hide. He didn't sound very far.

  "Girl! You'll get lost or eaten out there. Follow my voice and I'll lead you to safety." He was closer now but not close enough to see through the forest.

  It was a lie. Mother wouldn't have told me to climb down from the tower if it wasn't.

  I searched around for a place to hide. I couldn't outrun the man. He'd expect me to hide in an easy place, right? I needed somewhere he wouldn't think to look for me in.

  And that was the disgusting pond.

  I ran over, lifted my skirt, and splashed through the cold, putrid water. It grew deeper around my legs and rose to my waist. My bare feet sank into the muck. I held down vomit as I waded towards the tree with the gnarled roots. One of them rose just over my head and I ducked underneath. My braid fell into the water and I ducked down, chin close to the inky black surface. I could spot my reflection in it, warped and strange and greenish. I felt like I was staring at some demon version of myself. I could barely see the clearing. The huge root kept me in shadow and the water settled behind me. I hadn't realized that wading in water like that would leave such a wake. The slime on top rippled and bobbed. Two voices drew closer, and I prayed the water would still before they got here.