by R. L. Weeks
“What do you want with me?” I don’t think I really want to know, just that I have to know.
Gothel looks at me with an unreadable expression. “You see me. Other than my nanny and Rapunzel, no one has ever seen me. It’s why I have all these toys, so I don’t feel so lonely. My sissy doesn’t like to play anymore. She just stays in her room and cries a lot. It’s so boring. But I can’t make her into a toy. I’ve tried. It never works.”
It shocks me to realize that she tried to do this to Rapunzel. “I thought you loved your sister.”
“I do, silly. But she isn’t fun anymore. All she ever says is how she wants to be free. I can’t let her go. If I do, I’ll have no one, except my special toys. I don’t want to be alone.” Tears fall down her porcelain face. She really is a beautiful little girl.
I want to feel sorry for her. And I kinda do. But I also see all the trapped souls. And that is entirely on her. “What happened to your nanny? She could also see you, right? Why isn’t she here with you, too?”
“She tried to leave me, too. By getting old. And, she didn’t like that I kept taking her books. I didn’t let her leave me. There she is,” she says, while pointing at the oldest doll in the room. It looked like an ancient, cracked, wrinkled old woman porcelain doll, dressed like a wicked witch. Fitting, since I’m very sure everything that has happened is because of her. The doll looks at me with pleading in her eyes, and at Gothel with utter resentment.
“Don’t look at me like that, Winna. You taught me, you made them forget me. I still don’t know why. I’m not setting you free.” Wow, until this moment, I did not know how much Gothel was aware that her nanny did her a huge disservice by making everyone forget her.
A terrible plan pops into my head. I really should not ask her to do this, but I need the entire story in order to save my brother and Rapunzel. And possibly Gothel, too. “I hate to ask, because it wasn’t the most pleasant experience, but can you show me the past again? I want to understand you.”
A considering look that seems to old for one that looks so young flits across her face. “What is your angle? Why do you want to see? Do you actually want to help me? Or do you just want to free my sister? You’ll become my newest toy if you betray me.” Her voice sounds older and darker than she looks.
“You misunderstand, Gothel. I want to see if I can not only understand, but try to help both you and Rapunzel. And I think it all starts with her,” I point at the old woman witch doll. The dolls eyes go wide as it understands what I’m about to do.
Gothel grabs the doll and slings it against the wall. “She was screaming in my ear to kill you. So annoying when she doesn’t let me have my way. If you want to see, I’ll let you. I like playing with you. But don’t forget to tell me what you see. I can’t see that far back.” She then grabs my hand, and everything goes black once again.
This time, I instantly understand what is going on. I look around and see an older woman hovering over an obviously pregnant, dark-haired younger woman with a glare. “Remember your promise, Lyandra. I got you on the throne. You’ll give me this baby.”
“Mother Winna, please. I need this baby to secure my spot beside him. I don’t want to lose my love.” She is pleading with the old woman.
“I really don’t care, girl. I made sure his previous queen, and true love died to make way for you. You will give me my payment. This baby is my payment. Consequences will be dire if I don’t get what I’m owed.” She has a sinister look as she gazes at the pregnant woman.
“You never said what the payment would be! Why does it have to be our first child?!” The younger woman sounds desperate.
“Because I said so. You owe me, this is what I want as payment! Do not cross me, my queen!” Even I can hear the sneer in her voice.
After that, the scene fast forwards to the woman in labor. Mother Winna is hovering in the background, and Queen Lyandra has a terrified look when she notices the old woman. No one else, except an obviously younger Rapunzel notice Mother Winna. But Rapunzel is shoved out of the room as the queen’s labor intensifies.
“That baby will be mine, Lyandra. You will pay for trying to keep it away from me.” Mother Winna whispers in her ear. The queen screams in pain. Everyone scrambles around her. The baby is born and instantly handed off to Mother Winna.
She continues to hover in the background as the birthing staff try to help the obviously in pain queen, who just bleeds more and more. I watch Mother Winna only laugh in derision. “Was he worth the price, Lyandra?” Then Mother Winna slips out the door.
The scene fast forwards again. This time, I see Mother Winna with young Gothel and Rapunzel in the toy room. “I know you can see your little sister, princess. I will find out why you can when nobody else can. No one will take my little fuel away from me. I will be young again, even if everyone in the kingdom dies in the process.”
Wow. Rapunzel did not tell me this part. All this anger just so the old woman could be young again? Damn…
Gothel has a horrifying look on her face when Mother Winna said the words. “Do not threaten my sister, old woman. She is the only one who plays with me. Touch her, and I will make you pay.” Knowing these words are coming from the mouth of a girl about 6 years old startles everyone else in the room.
“Please, Gothel. Don’t hurt Mother Winna. She might separate us. Then who would remember you?” Rapunzel looks like she wants to diffuse the situation. Gothel runs over to Rapunzel and clings to her leg, tears rolling from her eyes. I feel sorry for this little neglected girl.
I watch as Mother Winna’s face gets red with intense anger. “I curse you both. I curse this entire kingdom. For you, little Gothel, you will never grow up, never be remembered. For you, Rapunzel, you will never leave this castle until someone knows her. Your fate will forever be stuck to hers. Your true love will never find you until she is remembered by someone other than you. It no longer matters that I regain my youthful beauty, as long as the two of you suffer and this kingdom falls!”
As those words hit me, Gothel only laughs at the old woman. “You wanted to use my blood to regain your youth and power. All you really did was make me powerful. I read your books. If we’re stuck here, then so are you.”
With those words, I watch as the familiar white fogs flows from her mouth and floats towards Mother Winna. She sees it as well and tries to run. “Rapunzel, sing for me and make her stop running,” says Gothel. I see Rapunzel stiffen and start singing a hauntingly beautiful melody that freezes Mother Winna in her tracks.
Then I watch as Mother Winna starts choking and shrinking in on herself until she becomes a newer version of the old woman witch doll I first saw in the toy room. Rapunzel looks horrified at the role she played with her hands over her mouth. She looks at Gothel wide-eyed, “What have you done?!”
“Whatever I want. It was HER fault that I’m this way. I can’t stop. No one can remember me, so I might as well make my own memories. Don’t know why she could never figure out that your hair works as a magical shield. For her anyway. I can mostly work around it. And you will always be at my side.” She then reaches for an old book lying on the desk, opens it to a specifically marked page and reads the foreign sounding words out loud.
Once she is done with the incantation, she yanks a few strands out of Rapunzel’s head and throws them out the window. I run to look out the windows to see the strands forming into those weird vines that only grow on the castle grounds. The first vine hits the ground next to a serving girl, and immediately wraps around her. I watch it suck everything from that girl, until only a husk is left, then unwrap from her. When her husk hit the ground, it disintegrates into dust and blows away like she was never there.
The rest of the hair vines do the exact same thing to everyone they can reach in the castle. The lucky ones escape out the gates, which then slam shut and lock themselves. I’m terrified and hurt that I can help no one. But I understand now. As much as I want to hate Gothel for what she did and is continuing to do, I underst
and why she did it. Mother Winna has a lot to answer for.
I wake up with a gasp. Gothel leans over me with a smile. “What did you see, new friend? Do you want to play now?”
I get myself off the ground and pick up the old woman doll. “Bitch! You abused this little girl, and for what?! Youth?! Really?! Death would be too good for you. You deserve to stay in locked in this doll forever! Gothel, do you have something we can lock this hideous thing in? I want to make sure no one ever remembers her. Let her know what it feels like to be forgotten.”
Gothel jumps up and down with glee. Her happiness makes me smile. “Ooh. New game. I haven’t played a new game in so long.” I watch her disappear. Then I look at the old doll. Her eyes look at me pleadingly. “You know, normally I might have sympathy for you, but everything that has happened to Gothel, Rapunzel, their parents, everyone that lived in this castle, and everyone that tried to rescue Rapunzel traces directly back to you. You are the only one that needs to be punished. Everyone else deserves to be set free.”
Not long after I said those words, Gothel returns to the room with an ancient chest appearing alongside her. “Will this do, new friend? It locks and it will be dark inside.”
“I think it will do very nicely, Gothel. And you don’t have to call me new friend. You can call me Rachel.” Her smile is radiant when I tell her that. Then she turns sad.
Her sadness confuses me. I toss the Mother Winna doll into the chest and slam it shut. Then I turn to Gothel. “What’s wrong?”
She starts crying. “I want to hug you, but I don’t think I can.”
My heart breaks for her. I just sit down on the floor and reach my arms out to her. “We won’t know until you try.”
Through her tears I can see her consider my words. Then she takes a flying leap into my arms. I close my arms around a very solid little girl and hug her tightly to me. Her arms go around my neck to hug me as tightly as she can.
Chapter Seven
A bright light suddenly surrounds us. When it dims, I look up to see the sunlight filtering into the room. I get to my feet, with Gothel still in my arms, to watch the spirits of all the people she had made into toys rise from their vessels. They all looked at me gratefully, as one by one, they faded away.
Gothel lifts her head from my shoulder. “Thank you, Rachel. You saw me. For the first time, someone besides Mother Winna and Rapunzel saw me. I don’t need my toys anymore.”
I put her down and she puts her still solid hand into mine. “I’m sorry I was so mean to your brother. I’ll take you to him now.”
She pulls me out of the room and takes me to the north tower, the one I first saw her shadow in. When we step into the room, I see my brother laying on a bed, deeply asleep. I look at Gothel. “What’s wrong with him.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want him to take my sister away, and I didn’t want you to leave. I knew you would leave with him if I allowed it. I knew you wouldn’t play with me if I turned him into a toy or if I hurt him. So, I just put him to sleep.” She actually sounds contrite.
I run over to Matthew and try to shake him awake. Nothing. I try to yell in his ear. Nothing. Finally, Gothel pulls me away. “You can’t wake him up that way. Only she can.”
I’m crying for my brother. “Who can?”
“Me.” I see Rapunzel walk into the room, still as beautiful as she was when I first met her. Only now, she looks solid. “Thank you for freeing Gothel from her anger. Now, let me help you. And him.”
Rapunzel puts her hands on Matthew’s chest and starts singing. Unlike the haunting melody I heard in the vision, this song was full of love. When she finishes the song, she kissed my brother. I wanted to gag, but the kiss was just so full of love, that gagging would not have been appropriate.
Mathew’s arms come up around Rapunzel and held her to him lovingly. She lifts her head to smile at him. “Nice to finally meet you in the flesh, my love.”
“You more beautiful here than in our shared dreams, Rapunzel. If we are together, does this mean you are finally free? Did Rachel break the curse like you thought?” He looks at me with a question in his eyes.
“Did you set me up, jerk?” I try to say this in anger, but I’m too happy to see him awake.
Rapunzel looks at me. “I’m sorry, Rachel. This was my fault, I’m afraid. I had a vision of you. You would be the one to free Gothel and I from Mother Winna’s curse. What I didn’t expect was to visit Matthew dreams. I was aiming for yours. Falling in love with him wasn’t in the picture either.”
I only roll my eyes and look at Gothel with a smile. “Gotta love the older siblings, right?”
She giggles and takes my hand. We all walk out of the tower and leave the castle grounds. I look behind us to see the castle in ruins. I imagine Mother Winna locked in that chest forever in a now crumbling castle, and smile to myself. She is finally getting her just desserts, while Rapunzel and Gothel are finally free. And I helped.
The End
Table of Contents
Publisher’s Note
Stories in this Anthology by order:
Becoming His Beauty
By R. L. Weeks
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
(Untitled)
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Malia’s Curse
By Amy Cecil
Part I
Part II
Beneath the Crimson Cloak
By Jill Ramsower
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
A Diamond in the Rough
By William Joseph
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Snow White and the Seven Cyborgs
B. J. Hardy
Return to Innocence
By LJC Fynn
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Epilogue
The Price of Villainy
By Yolanda Allard
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Crystal Fever
By Dana Fraedrich
The Feral Ones
By Krystle Able
Natural Enemy
By Lorah Jaiyn
Found
Lost
Saved
The Mane Heiress
By Hope Sherrill
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven