by Hahn, Chanda
Mina was once again surprised by how well Brody was able to read her mind. She had been nervous about being in the back of a limo alone and their new relationship status. She was nervous that she would somehow resort back to the awkward stage of her friendship and not be able to remain calm, cool, and collected.
“No that’s fine, I’m happy that you invited Nan.” Mina's shoulders slumped at the thought of facing Jared and being shunned.
“But not Jared?” Brody could read the strain in her voice.
“No, I'm glad. Really I am.”
“He was part of the deal. I knew you would want to have Nan close to you and he was just the carry-on luggage.” Brody rubbed his finger along Mina’s jaw and leaned down to kiss her sweetly on the mouth. Mina reached up and drew him closer. He tasted of richness and warmth, Brody wrapped his arms around her and Mina felt safe, secure. Until a loud horn blared from downstairs.
Mina pulled back from the kiss and grinned. “That would be Nan. Her timing is always off, but I am usually the one who’s always running late.”
Brody helped Mina down the stairs and opened the door onto the street. Nan jumped down out of the driver’s seat and addressed the driver, “See, I told you they would come down if I honked.” She ran over to Mina. “Oh my, you look beautiful. I never imagined red looking that good on you, but wow!” Nan wore her hair piled high with blonde ringlets falling down the back of her neck and around her face. She had a flowing white dress and white frost decorating her face and hair; she was obviously the Snow Queen.
Jared stepped out of the limo and Mina clutched onto Brody’s arm. Jared hadn’t dressed as a specific character but the costume he wore suited him as if he wore them all the time. He wore a white Victorian shirt with a tie up collar and silver doublet. Dark black pants tucked into calf high boots. His skin glowed in the darkness but may have been a trick of the light from the neon store fronts. His dark stormy eyes looked like molten silver.
Brody didn’t seem to sense her anxiety and led Mina to the back and opened the door for her to slide in. Mina was so short she actually had problems maneuvering herself and her dress in the car. Nan slid in and moved down toward the drink bar. “Look, sparkling cider.” She opened the cider and poured a few glasses.
Mina took the glass and sipped it cautiously, fully aware of Jared’s direct gaze. Nan handed the drink to Brody who put it in a cup holder. Nan fiddled with the radio stations and finally found a contemporary rock band worth jamming to.
The music seemed a surreal backdrop to Nan bobbing her head in tune with the music, Jared sitting in the black leather seat across from her brooding silently. Brody studied everyone with an intense look.
“Happy Birthday MINA!” Nan yelled out and giggled. Jared’s head flipped to Mina with a look of horror on his face. This was the first time she had made eye contact with him in a week and Jared didn't look pleased. She hadn’t told him that the day she faced one of the scariest tales would also be her birthday. She just hoped it wouldn’t be her last. Mina broke eye contact first and nervously played with a pleat on her skirt.
Her head started to pound from the loud music and she desperately wished the limo would fly to the school, so they could already be there. The limo ride, though beautiful, was torture for Mina. She sighed in relief when the driver turned into the school parking lot and pulled up to drop them off at the entrance. Numerous students were milling around waiting for their friends to show up and started whistling at the size of the stretch SUV limo. One of those students was Savannah White and her friends.
When Mina and Nan stepped out of the Limo, Savannah’s smile faltered a bit, as she waited to see who their dates were. When they were followed by the two hottest boys in school, Savannah’s smile turned downright ugly. The punch glass she was holding started to visibly shake in her hand, from anger.
“I thought she wasn’t coming,” Savannah choked out to Pri who was standing beside her. Savannah was dressed in light blue and her blonde hair was piled high in a bun with a tiara. She was obviously Cinderella, and Pricilla with her green dress and stuffed frog she carried was obviously the princess from the Princess and the frog.
“Who is she supposed to be?” Pri frowned. “I thought she said she couldn’t dance?” Both of the girls who were gorgeous in their own right, they could very well have stolen the show as the most beautiful at the dance. But with the arrival of Mina and Nan, they looked like dandelions among rare orchids.
Brody was right. The security guards did do a pat down of him and checked his fake knives and arrows. When they decided it was all legit they passed them through into the building. Mina’s feet began to feel like lead weights and she couldn’t get them to move her closer to the gym. It was like she knew that was where it was all supposed to happen; it was all going to conclude there. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but she knew.
Nan and Mina entered the gym and gasped in surprise at the visual wonderland the student council had created with lights and full-sized set pieces. Rapunzel’s tower was set up along with a giant gingerbread house and wishing well. Even the bench where Mina and Brody had shared their first kiss was all set up. Giant gates and archway sectioned off the areas for pictures, food, and dancing.
Fog machines were hidden among the gym creating misty paths, and the colored lights created ambiance. It really created the feel of stepping into a story book. The D.J. was spinning records and had gotten into the enchanted theme and had donned ogre ears and large patchwork clothes.
Dancing on the floor was a visual montage of fairytale, storybook and mythical animals. A Minotaur was trying to pour punch for a Unicorn. A fawn was dancing with a goose girl maiden and there were various wolves, sheep and dragons. But those that weren’t animals had gone as a prince, princess or knight. Frank and Steve could be seen pretending to joust using stick horses and the school’s flags.
D.J. Ogre, his requested moniker for the night, pulled out some slower music. The dance floor that was hopping began to empty as couples filed on.
“Do you want to dance?” Brody asked.
“I’m not sure you should risk it.” Mina flushed bright red.
“I’ll be fine, if you let me lead.” Brody took Mina’s hands and led her onto the floor. He was right, as long as Mina let Brody led, she didn’t have any problems finding the rhythm or staying away from his feet.
“See your doing great.” Brody encouraged Mina and held her closer. “You know, I should have thought different about bringing you here.”
Mina was startled by his words. Was he now realizing that he was ashamed of her? Did she step on his toes? She thought that she was doing just fine, until he said those words. “What do you mean?”
“I thought that I could handle bringing you to the dance, but I’m finding that it’s not true.” His hands tightened around her waist and he leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Every Steve, Frank and Larry can’t take their eyes off of you.” Brody nodded with his chin toward a crowd of boys, and Mina snuck a quick peek over her shoulder before turning bright pink with embarrassment. He was right, everyone was staring at them.
“Maybe it’s you. You do usually have a lot of people staring at you. Maybe you are only realizing it right now,” She tried to console him.
“No, I know how to tune that out, besides it’s usually girls staring at me. I doubt that many boys at our school would find me attractive enough to warrant the kind of male attention that is being directed our way.” Brody glared at the boys and a few actually turned away in embarrassment, some began texting on their phones, while a few refused to budge their gaze.
“I’m sorry; I must have done something to embarrass you,” Mina apologized instinctively.
“Don’t apologize; this is not your fault. Well wait, it is your fault, but not because of what you’re implying. They are staring at you because you are gorgeous.”
Mina’s cheeks turned pink. When the song began to die down, Brody finally had enough. “Will you be safe next to Nan?
I really want to go talk to those guys.” Brody walked Mina over to Nan who was talking animatedly to a short boy with glasses.
Once Brody walked away, Nan leaned over and whispered to her. “Can you believe the attention you are getting? I’ve never seen anything like it.” She nudged Mina and pointed to another group of guys wearing various animal masks.
“Nan, I don’t think they attend our school,” Mina whispered. She was right, there was a completely different group of students that couldn’t or wouldn’t take their eyes off of her. To test a theory, Mina looped her arm through Nan’s and walked over to a food table. They followed at a distance, trying to not draw attention.
“They ARE following YOU!” Nan mouthed.
“Where’s Brody?” Mina walked back to where she had last seen him and he was gone. “I gotta find Jared!” Mina called out, feeling herself panic. If she couldn’t have Brody by her side at least she wanted to know where Jared was. Good or bad she needed to know where he was.
“I don’t know. He danced with me a few songs but disappeared shortly after they arrived.” Nan nodded with her chin to the group of guys again. They stopped trying to blend in with the crowd and moved menacingly towards Nan and Mina.
The tingling sensation began in Mina’s body and she knew, it was time, but instead of rising to the occasion, she lost her nerve. “Nan, I have to get out of here.” She began to pull on Nan’s arm. Nan, sensing Mina’s distress, turned and grabbed her hand and headed for an exit.
The first door was blocked by Rapunzel’s tower and the second was right between the group of unknown guys. Mina definitely did not want to head that way.
“The stage. There should be another exit behind the D.J. on the stage.” Nan yelled over the music. They ducked under a column of streamers and balloons and headed up the steps to the stage. Once on stage Mina looked out over the dance floor and could see two groups of people making their way toward the stage. Who were they? What did they want? When they passed through the foggy dance floor and the laser hit them, Mina noticed a slightly blurring of the human form. What she saw revealed chilled her to the bone. They were the Fae wolf pack. One of them looked up to the stage and saw Mina’s terrified face. He ditched the mask and practically drooled with pleasure at seeing her so scared.
“Here!” Nan pulled a curtain aside and they pushed on the exit door that led backstage. Nan spent enough time in the theater department for productions and improv. groups that she knew exactly where everything was. They ran toward the stairs that led down to the side doors but were blocked by a large man.
“EEEP!” Nan yelled as someone grabbed her from behind and clamped a fist over her mouth.
Another figure loomed out of the dark. Mina screamed in fright, but it couldn’t be heard over the thumping of the bass from the D.J.
“Ah, Little Red, Little Red you strayed from the path.” It was the one Jared called Grey Tail. Mina tried to run, but he lunged for her and slammed her against the wall, spinning her so that her head crashed into the brick. Spots flecked across Mina’s vision.
Grey Tail leaned forward and pressed his face into her neck, inhaling her scent. He was feeding off of her fear and it made him heady and a bit unstable. He brushed his teeth against a vein in her throat, and followed the pulse up. “Where is the book?” he leaned down growling into her ear.
“I told you before, I don’t have it,” Mina whimpered in fright.
“She’s lying,” A woman’s voice came out of the darkness; it was gravelly, thin and old.
“Does it look like I have a book on me?” Mina shot at the figure in the dark. Her vision was swimming.
“She may have left it at home,” Grey Tail spoke hesitantly to the dark figure, while still pressing himself close to his prey.
“You searched her home once and didn’t find it, what makes you think you can find it this time? Hmmm Grey Tail, you worthless dog.”
Mina’s vision began to clear and she could make out the wood flooring of the stage and the clicking sound drew nearer. Slowly a pair of red high heel shoes came into view. She knew those heels and was about to comment on them when a hand grabbed Mina’s hair roughly, digging the bobby pins deeply into her scalp, forcing her to look at the speaker.
It was Claire.
Chapter 24
Or what used to be Claire. She had aged considerably within a few weeks. She no longer looked to be in her thirties but now eighties. Her hair had turned grey and was falling out in clumps; her skin was wrinkled and covered in sun spots. She had lost weight, and what once was a beautiful woman was now the epitome of a horrible hag.
“This is your fault.” She gripped Mina’s head and slammed it against the wall again, proving that her body had aged but not her strength. “I was perfect, timeless, until you showed up at my bakery. Once you left, I started to age, slowly at first, and then faster. It took some digging and I had to loose a few faithful followers, but I finally found the reason. Who would have thought that an actual Grimm would walk through my doors? I’m honored, really, to be included in one of the infamous tales and maybe if I had fed on an earlier school tour, I would have noticed you. Believe me, if I had, you wouldn’t have survived long. I still can’t believe I let you waltz through my doors and did nothing.”
Mina shrank away from Claire’s touch. Jared had said that she would eventually age and die, Mina thought it would take years, not days. This made her wonder even more at the depth and power of the tales.
“I’m sorry; I had no idea about the power of the tale and Story until days later. You have to believe me.”
Claire studied Mina closely. “I believe you, but you see, we still have a problem. I don’t want to age. I want to stay young forever. I want it to go back to the way it was before you showed up at my bakery.”
“I can’t, I don’t know how to reverse what was done.” Mina trembled with fear. The men that surrounded Claire stepped forward, flexing their fingers as if they were trying to barely contain something deep within themselves.
“Nonsense, you can. I’ve been told you are the chosen one, and you have the Grimoire, you have the power to change the tale.”
“I don’t,” Mina cried out.
“You do!” Claire grinned evilly. “And all I think you need is some proper motivation. Bring them in, Lonetree.”
Mina didn’t know what to expect and was surprised when a red haired Fae wolf, drug in a compliant Savannah and Pri. They looked somewhat dazed and confused but unharmed. They sat at Claire's feet immobile, as if under a spell.
“Let them go!” Mina struggled against Grey Tail, but he grinned and squeezed Mina’s arms tighter until they felt like they were about to break.
“I loved my husband,” Claire spoke softly. “Do you know what it’s like to outlive a loved one? Do you?” She screamed the last question.
“Yes, I do,” Mina answered solemnly, thinking of her father.
“NO YOU DON’T!” Claire started to laugh maniacally. I used to feel cheated that they didn't inherent my longevity.”
A beeping noise interrupted Claire's rant. She picked up the phone and spoke in a language Mina had never heard spoken. It was breathy, melodic and mesmerizing. The voice on the other end was gruff and clipped. With a sharp click, Claire hung up the phone and studied the girls on the floor in front of her and Mina.
“Tell you what, Mina. I will let you choose who lives and who dies. I only need two of you and the Grimoire. You can't say that I'm completely heartless. I'm giving you a chance to save your own skinny neck.”
Mina stared at Savannah and Pri's unresponsive bodies and contemplated what Claire was saying. The two shallow girls were out of it and completely unaware of their surroundings. If Mina said those two, she could turn over the Grimoire and still live. But Mina wasn't that manipulative or heartless. She knew that couldn't and wouldn't ever be an option. She knew she couldn't complete the tale only halfway. There had to be an ending. This tale didn't end unfinished. Mina had to think quickly. M
aybe Claire thought they were trapped in the Hansel and Gretel retelling still. She didn't know that the Story had moved on and lost interest in her. If Claire didn't know that Mina was now rewriting Red Riding Hood, then that could be to her advantage. But she was going to need help. Looking to her left, Mina caught Nan's angry glare. She only hoped Jared would come in time.
“Sorry Nan, but I choose us. Let Savannah and Pri go. Nan and I will go with you, but not here. We need to know that the rest of the students will be unharmed.” Mina tried to relay to Nan with her eyes that everything was going to be okay.
A cackling laugh erupted from Claire’s cracked lips. “You fool. I knew you would choose to save your friends.” Claire walked forward and through Savannah and Pri, who disappeared into thin puffs of smoke. Illusions, the girls where illusions.
Claire roughly gripped Mina's chin and pulled the stage curtain to the side so she could see the real Savannah and Pri dancing on the dance floor, arms waving above their heads, carefree and obviously alive.
“It's easier when you don't fight it. But I'm warning you, any tricks and it won't be the students who are harmed, it will be your mother and brother.” She turned to Lonetree and Grey Tail. “Take them both, we need to leave. Now! I can feel something. Something is coming.”
Snapping jaws answered Claire. Mina had only a moment to struggle before she was lifted into the air and then hauled over Lonetree’s shoulder. Mina tried to scream but his shoulder dug deeply into her stomach cutting off her breath.
Nan fought harder and spouted incessant derogative remarks at her assailant, until he knocked her unconscious. Mina cringed at the sound of fist hitting jaw.
Mina had a whiff of wet dog, and found it disorienting to be coming from the back of a fully dressed man in clothes. Think Mina, think. How does this story end? She was trying to focus on what was going on and what she needed to happen.
Footsteps, car doors opening, and Mina felt herself falling to land on the metal floor of a delivery van. Scrambling to gain footing she tried kicking at man crawling in next to her in the van. Mina opened her mouth to scream and an old rag quickly filled her mouth, followed by rope around her wrists.