by Blair Aaron
“You bet ya, boy. How ya been? Bet it gets lonely down here,” Freja said.
“You need my help, don't you?” Elsa looked around the cavern for the source of the voice but could find none. She peeked from behind Freja and saw a small stone sink, which reflected the image of a dragon's face staring back at them. The picture boggled Elsa's mind, and she figured he must have been watching them from a safe place somewhere hidden in the vast tunnels of the cave.
“Who's with you?” he shouted, the anger in his voice rising.
“Oh, just a friend. Please don't get mad. We need your help,” Freja said. “You see, my girlfriend here, she lost one of our own. We don't know who did it or where to find him. Or even if he's still alive.”
“He lives, that much I know.”
Elsa's heart leapt with joy. “Oh please sir, could you help me find him? I would be eternally grateful.”
“Silence, child. Tell me one thing--why should I help you?”
“Because I love--”
“I can see into your heart. You have malice and secrets. You hide the fact that you're not innocent.” Elsa felt a pang in her chest at the suggestion by the dragon she was anything less than pure. Freja said earlier that the dragon was clairvoyant, so maybe there was something, on second thought, that Elsa was hiding, even from herself. But she almost immediately threw the thought out of her mind. Even though she had many questions about what happened to Theo, why she was so drawn to the Forbidden Forest, whether Freja was telling the whole truth, and how long it would take to regain that brief moment of happiness she cultivated with Theo, but one thing was certain. She would trade anything to have Theo back, that much she was sure of.
“I am innocent,” Elsa fired back. “You don't know me.”
“Tell me something, dear. How far would you go to regain the love you have lost? Say you had to sacrifice your wealth, beauty, or youth?”
“I would do anything.”
“Anything, you say?”
“Anything,” Elsa said again. The dragon looked at her from the reflection in the pool, smiling, clearly up to something.
“What about your life, would you sacrifice that too, if it meant bringing Theo back?” Elsa stopped before answering, as she could smell the fire in the cave boiling the liquid moat surrounding her. She feared the dragon's blood lust, as there was no doubt he waited for a single legitimate excuse to murder Elsa. He was dangerous, and she should choose her words carefully.
“Yes,” she said, finally, “even my life. I care about him that much.”
“Very well,” the dragon said, and that was it, Elsa thought. This is how she would die, in a darkened cave, with a grandma she didn't trust by her side. But several moments passed, she was still alive, and the dragon remained in his distant hiding spot, watching her from the safety of the undulating water's surface in the stone sink. “If you will truly do anything to save the one you love, then perhaps I can help you.”
Oh thank God, Elsa thought. She would see Theo again.
“But first,” the dragon continued, “you must prove your intentions with a single test.”
“OK, I promise. What's the--”
“Prove to me your intentions are pure, that you truly love him and desire no one else. Do this and I will help you.” Before Elsa could answer, she saw the water in the sink drain slowly, out and over the stone basin and onto the floor of the rocky plateau at her and Freja's feet. The liquid seemed to have a mind of its own, forming the shape of a human body. Elsa stood frozen, in awe of the spectacle before her, the liquid person solidifying into someone recognizable, someone she knew and long suspected of being responsible for Theo's disappearance.
“Dorien,” Elsa said, looking up at Theo's older evil brother. “It can't be. You're the dragon Freja told me about.” Elsa's mind raced over the events of the past few days, trying to make sense of what was happening, but Dorien glided to her slowly, his eyes glowing blue. Elsa was transfixed on them. “How could you do this to me? To your brother? He was everything to me, and you knew it. He loved you, too.”
Dorien smiled. “Prove to me, once and for all, you truly love him. If you do, you will feel nothing when I place a single, lustful kiss on your lips.”
“Never,” Elsa said. “How can I trust you that you'll help me, even if I prove my love?”
“A passion-less kiss cannot be faked. If you have any desire for me, no matter how faint, this ruby will glow red hot; should the stone remain cold and lifeless, I will reveal to you Theo's whereabouts.” Dorien opened his hand and showed Elsa a scraggly, ugly rock, red but dim. It resembled a gnarled piece of glass broken from something larger; it was uneven, chaotic, and wild, cut straight from the natural world, unadorned with postcard prettiness someone might associate with beauty or love. “And,” Dorien added, “should the stone glow, you will lose him forever.”
Elsa couldn't think around her anger and despair. She stared first at the stone which Dorien presented to her, then she looked to Freja for help. “Can't you do anything?” she asked. Freja frowned, her eyes indicating to Elsa she would like to help her, but didn't have the power.
“I'm sorry, doll. He's got you in a pickle,” Freja said.
“Well what happens to me if the crystal glows?”
“The real question is,” Dorien said, “What happens to you if you don't take the offer?” And with that his emblazoned eyes lit up the entire cave with a lurid blue hue, so bright it almost blinded her. She shielded her eyes, terrified of what was about to happen. “Ok, ok, please just let me gather myself. I am so terrified, Freja.” Freja came over to her and put her hand on her shoulder. “Why can't we try using that spell you gave me? Will it not work?” Elsa asked her.
“If I were you, my dear, I would wait until you find out what happens when you kiss him. You only get one shot with the page I gave you.” Elsa swallowed hard and approach the center of the plateau, near Dorien who placed the crystal on the rock beside her.
“Are you ready for the truth?” he asked her.
He placed her hand on his cheek and moved his face closer to hers. Elsa anticipated that this moment would turn in her favor, because she never doubted for one second her love for Theo and the purity of her intentions. But she was still nervous because there was an obvious chance an evil warlock like Dorien might have ulterior motives for her, regardless whether the crystal came to life or remained dimmed. The moment Dorien's lips touched hers Elsa surprised herself by becoming ever so slightly excited--in the deep heart of her nature, a wildness emerged which she had no control over. She was two people in that moment. On the one hand, she was the busty girl who'd finally found someone to love her and who wanted to spend the rest of her life in marital bliss with Theo. On the other hand, she was a chaotic personality with an uncontrollable thirst for pleasure and fun, simultaneously destructive and passionate and guilty and ashamed of her lust and desire for freedom. A rift in her soul emerged when Dorien pulled away his thick, soft lips and looked over at the crystal. Elsa watched the rock for several seconds, praying to herself that it remain dead, so she could continue on the heavenly track she had shared with Theo until he disappeared. A few seconds passed, as all three people stood around the basin, watching the rock as if it had mesmerized them with an unseen power. Suddenly, the crystal became enlivened by hot, fiery, red illumination. Elsa's heart sank and she cried out, unable to bear what was to transpire. She was sure she had lost Theo forever now, because she had no idea where to find him and what Dorien had in store for Elsa.
“Oh God,” she said, under her breath. Panic shot through her body, electrifying every nerve ending. Her physical body tore itself from her heart and soul, sending searing pain throughout her entire being, and she summoned all her panic and energy to find a solution to her predicament before it was too late. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the spell Freja had given her.
Dorien laughed. “Oh, it looks like you failed the test, little Elsa. What are we going to do with you now. S
uch decisions.” His eyes began to glow blue again and Elsa ducked behind the stone basin, in order to deflect any violent witch rays he might send her way. She had no idea what Dorien was going to do to her, but she didn't want to stick around to find out. She jumped down into the golden moat surrounding the rocky edifice, ready to come back the way she came. Then she looked back at Freja, who stood on the edifice, quiet and still.
“Are you not coming with me?” Elsa just knew her back would be covered with flames any second if she didn't hurry, and the water in which she had steeped herself felt like a hurried safety. “Freja!” Freja looked back in the direction of Dorien, who's eyes dimmed enough so that Elsa could see his facial expression. He smiled at Freja and said, “Are you ready?”
“Ready for what?” Elsa shouted. Something was not right. The air was heavy with electricity on the verge of discharge. “Ready for what, Freja? What did you do?”
Freja looked at Elsa with a face that of a hurt mother, but then a writhing horror twisted itself across her features, like a snake gliding swiftly over them, and making one little pause, with all its wreathed intervolutions in open sight. Her face darkened with some powerful emotion, which, nevertheless, she so instantaneously controlled by an effort of her will that, save at a single moment, its expression might have passed for calmness. After a brief space, the convulsion grew almost imperceptible, and finally subsided into the depths of her nature. She looked at Elsa and placed a single finger on her lips. She held up her wand in Elsa's direction.
“Freja, what are you doing?” Elsa said, just as a blue electric line slithered slowly from the tip of Freja's wand and made its way in her direction. It was clear at this moment that Freja meant Elsa absolutely no good.
“Doll, I forgot to tell you what happened to Kellen, when I found my grandfather lying on the floor of his apartment bleeding to death. I found Kellen later that day and killed him.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Elsa asked, her voice shaking, while the blue line continued its way to her position.
“It has everything to do with you, doll. I told you I would never put up with bad people anymore. You're not pure of heart, otherwise this crystal would never glow. You're broken, just like the rest of them. And for that, you will pay.”
“I never did anything to you.”
“Not yet, but you will. Your kind always does. It's high time I've done something about all this, before you hurt someone else. From now on, I'll be the one who receives Theo's love, not you, because you don't deserve it. You'll take your place with the other sodomites, the other filth that does nothing but make the lives of innocent people hard.” The blue wire wrapped itself around Elsa's body, like an angry serpent catching its next meal. The place where the blue line touched her skin burned through to the very core of her spirit. Elsa's pain was unbearable, and she fainted several times from its intensity. The last thought in her mind, before the pain sent her into an interminable darkness, was that she should have originally trusted her gut when she had the chance to use the one spell a regular woman had to protect herself from pure evil, now obviously incarnated in Freja Stein. Elsa knew it was all a trick, and the spell would have worked, she was certain, because she was a decent person. She didn't know why the crystal had glowed, but it doubtless had to do with yet another of Freja's illusions to play with her mind, and, likewise, indicated nothing about the state of her soul. She was innocent, pure, and she loved Theo with all her heart. There was nothing anyone could convince her otherwise.
CHAPTER 24
Elsa awoke before she even opened her eyes. The damp ground cooled the surface of her cheek, but the air above her was hot, like the interior of an oven. Without needing a mirror, she felt the pine needles impressing themselves on her face and palms. Something told her she was being watched and she dared not let me him know she was alive. She could lie here, playing dead, for all of eternity. Part of her wanted to, because despite what she told herself, she knew she had made a grave mistake, even though exactly what form her mistake had taken remained unclear to her. Perhaps her first mistake was trusting Freja in following her to Dorien's cave dwelling, in order to trap Elsa. Or maybe it was the fact that she agreed to kiss Dorien--maybe then the crystal never would have come to life, entrapping her to her current position. But then there was no telling what Dorien had in store for her if she had disagreed. Elsa wondered to herself what ultimate goal Freja had in mind by making her kiss Dorien. Freja either needed to know Elsa's intentions, in the way a mother would require her son's potential wife to prove her love--or, more likely, the ruby crystal contained a magic that allowed Freja to get Theo's love. There was no way Theo would love an ugly hag like Freja Stein, however. Elsa lay there, utterly confused about how to solve her current predicament.
A gust of wind tossed her face a space above ground.
“Get up,” a voice said, gruff and commanding. A scaly claw nudged her in the ribs, making Elsa wince. “I said get up. I know you're alive.” Elsa opened her eyes, a saw an orange eyeball the size of a grapefruit staring back at her. Sulfur wafted into Elsa's face so that she could barely breath. A dragon's breath obviously reeked of potent chemicals. “You're in for some pain if you don't stand up and hear your options.”
“What options, Dorien? Since when do you give me options?”
“If I had the power, you'd be a sizzling pile of sticks right now. But, fortunately for you, dear Freja had different plans for you. Gotta follow boss's orders.”
Elsa stood up and surprised herself at the sheer lack of energy she had. She looked around and saw that she was standing between the edge of that familiar forest which had called to her on the way to Dorien's cave, between that and the edge of a cliff, where Dorien in all his glorious dragon form now sat on his hind legs, his eyes narrowed on Elsa like she was prey. His scarred bat-like wings expanded like the sails of a massive ship, poised for flight, should he need to. Despite his massive frame, horrifying expression, and fuming breath, the dragon seemed ever so slightly afraid of Elsa, though she didn't know why. She dusted off her dress and looked him straight in the eye, ready for her fate, which was no doubt going to involve extreme amounts of heat.
“OK, I'm here. Go ahead and light me up. Just do me a favor and make sure it's quick. I hate waiting.”
“Shut your mouth, I'm not going to torch you, although I really want to. Turn around and you'll see your fate.”
“I know what's behind me. It's a stupid forest, which you think you can scare me into getting lost in.”
“I don't need to scare you,” Dorien said. “The Forbidden Forest will do that all on its own.”
“What if I refused? I am going to find Freja and kick her ass for what she's done. Then you're going to tell me where you have taken Theo.”
“You have thirty seconds to get walking, or you won't be able to outrun the flame. I'll give you a head start.”
Elsa pretended her heart was not palpitating, but she was indeed very afraid. “Tell me where you have taken my fiancée! Think about what you have done to your own brother, Dorien! He loves you, followed you anywhere, wanted nothing but to protect you! Have some compassion.” Elsa thought she saw a glimmer of regret in Dorien's eyes, but then it was quickly replaced with furious anger. He took a deep breath, and Elsa could feel the surrounding air rush into his lungs. She knew what was coming, so she turned her back to Dorien and prayed she would reach a safe distance from his wrath before he burned her alive.
But into the darkened forest ahead, she could never go, even though there was no other choice. It was either death by fire, or the mysteries and danger of the evil Forbidden Forest, which she had been warned about her entire life. The choice was heavy and shackling to her conscience, as she knew by entering the forest, the choice destroyed any hope of finding Theo. She would choose evil and frailty to save her own life, at the expense of everything she believed in, at the cost of saving the person she loved. She would sign her name into the Devil's guest book, in blood, re
d as the passion she once had for Theo but was now lost forever.
So into the woods she ran, as fast as the wind. Behind her, the heat lapped at her back, singed her clothes, and filled her lungs with dusky soot. And before her, deep despair waited, a journey into nothingness. Her heart sank at the realization. But she ran on in spite of this, unsure of the future, into the spindly, swaying, intoxicating trees.
PART TWO - INTO THE FOREST
CHAPTER 25
The fire dissipated from Elsa's vision fairly quickly, after the initial blast. She knew dragons could spit fire, but this was no simple stream of heat. Dorien's anger was so intense she might as well have outrun an atomic bomb, without the explosion. Running into the forest ahead, the single bright flash behind her formed her own shadow in the leaves, and then came the heat. Even here, at least a mile into the forest, she could still feel the heat and turned to see him spraying the tree line with violent, yellow hate. She turned back to the forest, searching for a small trail she could walk along, until she was a safe distance from Dorien. There was nothing but darkness before her, and the trees seemed to come closer and closer together, making the forest more and more dense. The shock of the trauma--losing almost all hope of ever finding Theo, the sudden understanding that there might be something to the crystal's glowing she had not been initially aware of, and the sheer loneliness of being forced to willingly walk to your demise, as she had done when she entered the Forbidden Forest--all this and more made Elsa feel completely separated from her old life. In her mind and heart, she entered a vast wilderness, accessing the darkest corners of her psyche and bringing out demons and witch people she always pretended not to see or notice in her regular life. Her old self lie like a dream behind her, receding into memory with frightening pace, and the evil forest forged her new identity. The moment when she placed her lips on Dorien's, Theo's damn brother, marked her shame, the unleashing of an ignominy which would haunt her far into the future. She felt like an angel in heaven, whom God had given the only thing truly worth having, and who, through the rottenness of her own nature, consciously chose her own damnation in Hell.