by Cameron Jace
“Two,” Angel said, still sobbing. “The other came like an unwanted worm out of your womb.”
Aside from his disgusting metaphor, I suspected he had just made this up. “I am sure I only gave birth to one daughter. I remember that night clearly. The night I met Death. The night I saw the human wolf. The night I saw the black panthers. The night…”
Then it hit me.
“Oh, my God,” I said, and my body curled. “I fainted. I don’t remember what happened. You told me the panthers took Shew and you fought to bring her back.”
“Without getting into the morbid details,” Angel said, collecting himself. “You gave birth to the other one. The Black Swan. The one who had been eaten by the so called Chosen One.”
“What did you do?”
“I wanted to save my other daughter, the one everyone had previously decided is the Evil One,” Angel said.
“But she must have come out dead.”
“Dead and light as a feather,” Angel said. “The only way to resurrect her was come back here to the Swan Lake.”
“Why? How was the lake going to resurrect her?”
“Remember when we were told that Death, the color red, will have the final call between black and white?”
“Yes?”
“Brighid offered to resurrect Gwendolyn. Some crap about the universe demanding balance,” he said. “Like the prophecy had predicted, Death and her descendants, will always have a final say in the war. And Death said the Black Swan could be resurrected.”
“Just like that?”
“Of course not,” he said. “Everything comes with a price, remember?”
I ran and bumped my clenched fists into Angel’s chest. He didn’t move. We were both horrible parents. We were both doomed and in perpetual pain. “What price, Angel? What did you do to Gwendolyn?”
“I call her Wendy,” he said, not moving, letting me slap and kick him without him resisting it. “She could only live if I gave her back.”
“Gave her back to whom?” I said. “She belonged to us, Angel.”
Angel finally held me my wrists and looked in my eyes. “You want to know why I didn’t want to have a child in the first place?”
“What? You’re going to tell me now? After all these years?” I could feel the shocking revelation coming. I knew it was going to kill me.
“You want to know why Night Von Sorrow didn’t kill us?”
“That I know. Because he wanted to find Atlantis. I told you about a million times.”
“That could be part of his plan,” Angel said, “but not the main part.”
“You knew why he didn’t kill us?” My eyes widened. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“Night Von Sorrow didn’t kill us for the same reason I was reluctant to have a baby,” Angel said. “Because he always knew you would have twins.”
“So?” The words spurted out of my mouth without thinking, but then the spider web of thoughts began to sew together into a clearer truth. “Are you telling me your father let us live because…”
“Yes, Carmilla,” Angel said. “Because as much as the Sorrows feared the Chosen One, the White Swan, they wanted to get hold of the Black Swan.”
I slipped from Angel’s grip and fell to the ground, wondering why I hadn’t aged enough and died before this day ever came. “He wanted the one who can stand up to the Chosen One. My other daughter. Wendy. A vampire. One of them.”
“That’s it, Carmilla,” Angel said. “The damn universe and its balance. And we’re going to pay the price for it.”
“Angel,” I said between sobs, trying to be as gentle as possible, because within all of this darkness, I still had hope. I wished he could answer this coming question and ease my heart.
“Yes?”
“What did you do to Wendy?”
“It was the only way to give her a chance to live, or else she would have died the same day her sister was born.”
“Goddamn it, Angel. You didn’t answer me. What did you do to Wendy?”
“I gave her life.” Angel cried. “I couldn’t stand seeing my child not having a chance to grow up and live in this world.”
“I swear I will kill you, Angel. Just answer me. What did you do to Wendy?”
“Brighid said Wendy could only live if I gave her back to him.”
“Back to whom, Angel?”
“Back to Night Von Sorrow.”
And with this I let out the sharpest scream I ever uttered in my life. I was in so much in pain that the swans fluttered away, the trees bent with shame, and even the moon peeked up in the darkened sky, sympathizing with my pain.
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The Queen’s Diary
The rain was accompanied with thunder and lightening. Something strange was suddenly going on in our kingdom. I didn’t know what it was. I was consumed with my guilt toward Wendy, unable to imagine that she, in some way, was the swan dying at my window every night. But it still didn’t make sense why everyone thought I was evil.
Maybe everyone considered me evil for not protecting my daughter, the one I had thought was dead. The conflicting feelings weren’t helpful at the moment. I hadn’t been able to save one daughter, but I had to save the other, Snow White.
All that came to my mind was that this creepy Bloody Mary was going to hurt her. I didn’t know how, but I had to get back to the castle as soon as possible.
I left Angel drowning in his guilt at the Swan Lake, and climbed into the carriage. As Managarm took off, I still couldn’t understand why Angel was still at the lake. Was he trying to bring Wendy back? Did he have some other secret with Death, just like those he had kept from me all these years?
My carriage hurtled through the dark, uphill toward my castle in the distance.
I prayed to all the creators of the universe to save my child. It can’t end like this. There must be a reason for all that had happened and the sacrifices made. I couldn’t think about anything but the survival of the Chosen One. It had to be. Angel and I had endured so much, and it couldn’t be in vain.
Suddenly the carriage swiveled in the mud and crashed against a tree. I bumped my head against the side, but was still awake. Hurriedly, I stepped out in my red dress, again risking angering Death and violating the rules in Sorrow. But I went out to call for Managarm, who had fainted nearby. I couldn’t wake him up, and I wasn’t going to waste time on that.
I cut my dress short with my teeth and ran through the mud and rain, uphill toward my castle.
Chunks of mud glided over from above, pushing me back, but I had to break through. I stumbled and fell, bumping my head. But I had to stand up again, even though I was ill and sick and old. Strangely, miraculously, none of that counted now. I was going to save my daughter no matter what.
But it began to get harder to walk through the slippery mud and the dark. So I had to start crawling on all fours, reminding myself of the wolves and panthers that chased me in the past. They weren’t better than me. I could do it. I crawled my way up like an animal into the night.
But it wasn’t stopping there. The lightning began to strike all around, striking breathing fire into the mud, and threatening to burn me up at any moment. I wondered if the universe had decided to kill my daughter up in the castle. Why was all of this happening?
But I used the fire in my favor. I used it as light so I could see my way through. If it was going to burn me alive, I didn’t care. I was unstoppable. I was going to reach my castle.
And soon enough I was pounding on the gates.
The huntsmen let me in, having not recognized me immediately, thinking I was Death itself. But then when they did, they told me about Dame Gothel insisting to meet me. I told them later and pushed them out of my way, climbing up the stairs to the room with the mirrors. My daughter’s room.
At the top of the stairs, I was surprised to find Dame Gothel waiting for me.
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The Queen’s Diary
“Get out of my way,” I shouted.
But Dame Gothel stopped me, using two other huntsmen to hold me against my will.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I snapped.
“You can’t go inside, my Majesty,” she said, standing with her back to the door, her arms spread wide. “For the love of your daughter, don’t go inside.”
“Who do you think you are to order me?” I tried to wriggle myself free from the huntsmen’s grip.
“I’m not. I am begging you,” she said.
“Get out of the way. Let me in.” I turned my head toward the huntsmen. “I’m the Queen of Sorrow. You will pay for this when the king returns.”
“We will willingly, Majesty,” the huntsmen said. “We’re protecting you.”
“From what?”
“This.” Dame Gothel pointed at a book in her hand.
“What the hell is this?”
“The prophecy,” Dame Gothel said, shrugging.
“So what?” I hadn’t known the prophecy had been documented in a book.
“It explains in detail what is going to happen tonight.”
“How so? The prophecy is only guidelines.”
“That’s not true,” Dame Gothel said. “I found it inside your daughter’s room.”
“In her room?” I frowned.
“Who knows how it got inside,” Dame Gothel said. The thunder and lightning outside was getting wilder. The chandeliers above us even shook once. “What matters is that the prophecy says you will try to save Snow White from Bloody Mary after she bonds with her.”
“It does?” My heart beat faster, staring at the book. “What does it say?”
“It’s not good, my Majesty,” Dame Gothel said. “Please don’t go in there.”
I didn’t argue this time, but kicked one of the huntsmen and wriggled myself from the other. Then I turned around them, maneuvering to get to the door. “Move!” I threatened Dame Gothel.
But I was wrong to waste my time threatening her, because the huntsmen pulled me back, pushing me down to my knees.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me,” I screamed.
“It’s for your own good. Look,” Dame Gothel pointed at the book. “It says that bad things will happen on the night of All Hollow’s Eve, the 10th Year of in the Reign of King Angel Von Sorrow, 1804 A.D. in the Waking World, One Day until the Eclipse, the ritual will happen.”
“What ritual?”
“It doesn’t matter. Can’t you see this date is exactly today?” she said. “This lightning and thunder outside is preparing for tomorrow’s eclipse. The kingdom’s gypsies have predicted this day.”
“And it’s all written in here?” I pointed at the prophecy.
“It is, my Majesty.”
“What horrible thing?”
“You don’t want to know,” Dame Gothel said. “Just let it go.”
“I won’t let it go. My daughter is inside. She is the Chosen One and she is in danger.”
“There is nothing you can do about it,” Dame Gothel said. “Night Von Sorrow, the Piper, and all those evil monsters were much smarter than you and Angel.”
“What do you mean?”
“You may think you’ve managed to overcome one obstacle after another to reach the kingdom, but in truth they had it planned from the beginning.”
“Speak up, Dame Gothel. I don’t understand a thing.”
“Night Von Sorrow didn’t kill you because he wanted you to get here. Not just to find Atlantis.”
“I know,” I said. “He wanted to find Wendy. My daughter. The Black Swan.”
“That’s not only it. He planned this for much bigger reasons, considering this particular night in the prophecy.”
“He knew about tonight?”
“Everything was pointing to this night,” Dame Gothel said, then another bolt of lightning struck. “Remember the coffin you saw in the Demeter?”
“Yes, the one I never found.”
“You actually did, my Majesty, but you never knew it.”
“You’re talking nonsense. I never found the coffin.”
“But you found what was in it. You even spoke to it.”
“I didn’t. You’re confused. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Actually I do, my Majesty. Remember the quote about the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was letting you think he was someone else?”
“What about it?”
“The trick was the Night Von Sorrow let you all think the coffin had a corpse inside.”
I gasp, my mind putting the puzzle together but refusing to admit it. “There is not a corpse in the coffin?”
“Never was,” she said. “The coffin that was destined to reach the Kingdom of Sorrow had something else. Even scarier than the scariest corpse.”
“Speak up!” I demand for the third time. “What was in the coffin?”
“A mirror, my majesty,” she spoke as the chandelier above us was shaking violently. “Bloody Mary inside the mirror had been sent here to complete Night Von Sorrow’s plan.”
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The Queen’s Diary
“What plan?” I asked, as the castle was shaking as well. The world outside seemed as if a volcano had erupted, shaking everything around it.
“The plan to get Bloody Mary into Sorrow,” Dame Gothel said.
At this point she didn’t need to elaborate. I was all clear by now. The grand plan of the Sorrows. They let me live so I’d find Atlantis for them. That would help the Piper find his flute and eventually destroy the world in his revenge. Then I’d give birth to both Shew and Wendy. Night Von Sorrow waited until he managed to trick his son into giving him the Black Swan so he could make her live. He used Angel’s guilt and weakness against him.
Then there was the last part of the plan. To kill the Chosen One by sneaking Bloody Mary in a mirror into Sorrow. This way she managed to befriend Snow White and create a bond with her. A bond that made Bloody Mary in control of the Chosen One and capable of killing her at any time.
Not to mention that they must have known all about the Lost Seven by now.
This must have been the wickedest plan in the course of history. A plan that had been previously written in a prophecy.
But I refused to believe that our lives were set in stone and predicted in paper and ink.
“Let me in,” I pleaded to Dame Gothel. “I don’t care. I will do my best to save my child.”
“You don’t understand,” Dame Gothel tried to explain, but my anger had already granted me usual powers. I pulled one of the huntsman’s swords from his sheath and to his surprise, I stabbed him right in the belly. The other was in awe, so I slit his throat. If evil was a point a view, so be it. I was going to commit all the evil in the world to save my daughter.
Dame Gothel tensed and stared right into my eyes. I could tell she was already in shock, but wanted to test my will for one last time. “Please, my Majesty,” she pleaded. “At least let me finish reading the prophecy for you. You have no idea what you’re…”
But I had already pushed her away. The old woman stumbled backwards and I took a deep breath, before pushing the door open to my daughter’s room.
I was never ready for what I saw inside.
Never.
The person in front of me was the last person I had imagined I’d ever meet. And the irony was that I hadn’t actually seen her before, not in this age of seven years old.
But I recognized her.
Because she was my…
“Mother?” she asked me.
I was staring at my other daughter, Wendy. The Black Swan.
Chapter 75
The Queen’s Diary
“Wendy?” I was going to sink to my knees, begging her to forgive me.
“What’s going on, Mother?” she asked, innocently.
I didn’t understand right away, but Wendy was standing exactly in the middle of the circle of mirrors, rays surrounding her. The rays’ source was the mirrors.
“Get out of there,
Wendy.” I reached to pull her to me.
“I can’t,” she said. “The light has me locked in the circle. If I try to move, it rips me apart.”
I cupped my hand on my mouth, realizing that this was Bloody Mary’s doing. I wanted to ask Wendy how she got here, but then I realized Snow White, her sister had fainted in the circle next to her. My heart raced, all kinds of scenarios playing in my head.
“How would you like to lose both of your daughters, my Majesty?” Bloody Mary appeared in one of the mirrors, snickering and laughing at me. She wasn’t playing kind and innocent anymore. She was showing her ugly face in the mirror. She was so scary, I almost fell back.
“Leave my daughters alone.” I waved my sword at her.
“And why would I do that?” she said. “Why would I miss killing the Chosen One, and bringing the Black Swan back with me.”
“Back where?”
“Into the pits of darkness, where she belongs,” Bloody Mary said.
“What is she talking about, Mother?” Wendy almost cried in place.
I couldn’t believe how naive she looked like. What exactly had happened to her? Hadn’t Angel sent her to Night Von Sorrow, or did that not affect her at all? Was it possible that Wendy was as good as her sister?
But then Bloody Mary shattered my thoughts.
“She is so innocent, isn’t she?” the girl in the mirror said, pointing at Wendy. “What if she isn’t the Evil One? What if she is the Chosen One and not her sister?
“Stop it,” I clenched my teeth. “Stop playing with my emotions.”
“But really, how do you know?” Mary snickered. “Did you think Shew was the Chosen One because she was white as snow? How awful of you.”
“Shut up. Just let go of my daughters.”
“You know the rules, my Majesty. Everything comes with a price,” she said. “What are you willing to pay for the safety of your daughters?”
“Anything you ask of me,” I said.