by Cameron Jace
“I found her!” Donnie’s voice echoed from inside the castle.
Loki turned around and heard the sound of separate movements. Big Bad and Dee must have still been alone. He heard Dum accusing Donnie of being like the boy who cried wolf, pulling pranks on them.
“I’m not joking,” Donnie shouted nervously. “She is—“his voice echoed like he was in an empty room. “I can’t believe my eyes!” he yelled hysterically.
Alert, Loki stood with his Alicorn ten feet shy of the castle’s entrance, trying to figure out what was happening inside. He turned to see if Axel had changed his mind and decided to stay, but he was gone. Loki felt lonely again, just like he’d always been in the Ordinary World.
“What is it?” Big Bad yelled at Donnie from somewhere in the castle. “Where are you? I can’t see anything.”
It was obvious that most of them had split up in the castle, and that Donnie was alone somewhere. Loki was unable to locate each of them.
“I’m coming, too!” Dum cried out. “I can’t find my flashlight. Wait!”
Loki was still watching, fixed in place, confused about who was who. It was all happening very fast, and death was inevitable. Something bad was going to happen. If Big Bad was climbing up the stairs, why couldn’t Loki see his flashlight shining against the windows?
“Oh my God!” Dee shrieked. Her tone implied fascination rather than fear. “I found her glass coffin just like in the fairy tale. It’s so beautiful.”
“Found the damn flashlight,” Dum cried out. Light showed through the window on the first floor. “I’m on my way. Where are you Donnie?”
Loki saw her climb up the stairs, jumping two steps at a time. Before she reached the second floor, her flashlight spotted Big Bad, standing frozen atop the stairs.
“Here you are, baby,” Big Bad said.
Loki knew that if Axel was still here, he’d want to expose Big Bad for cheating on her.
“What coffin?” Donnie cried out.
“We‘re coming,” Dum said, panting next to Big Bad. “Where are you?”
“I don’t know but I see a faint light coming out of one of the rooms in the corridor,” Dee said. “Is that you guys?”
“What damn light?” Donnie asked. His sound was a bit muffled. Loki wondered where he was, too. Didn’t he just say he saw her?
“It’s our flashlight,” Big Bad said. “Where are you guys?”
“The coffin is empty,” Dee said.
“Of course it is—” Donnie shouted.
“Where are you guys?” Big Bad and Dum were furious.
Loki understood now that Dum and Big Bad thought Dee and Donnie were in the same room, while they apparently weren’t. Loki knew from their voices.
“—it’s after midnight. Why would she be in her coffin?” Donnie said with a trembling voice. “She is right in front of me. That’s what I’ve been trying to say from the beginning.”
“Where are you?” Big Bad pleaded for the last time.
“I’m in the cellar!” Donnie screamed in pain.
Big Bad and Dum hurried back down the stairs. Dee dashed out of the coffin room, which Loki saw was on the second floor now.
“Stay put,” Big Bad yelled. “We’re coming for you. I have my stake.”
“Don’t bother,” Donnie said. “You can’t save me.”
“Hang on,” Dum yelled.
“She is so beautiful…I don’t mind dying in her arms…” Donnie said and let out a final moan.
This last sentence made Loki curious. What did Donnie mean when he said he didn’t mind dying in her arms?
Loki rushed into the castle with his Alicorn in his hand. Inside, he bumped into the three of them in the hall.
“Who the heck are you?” Big Bad groaned at Loki with a stake in his hand. It was a plastic stake, meant for kids. Loki couldn’t believe his eyes; a light saber from Star Wars would have been better.
Big Bad decided that waiting for an answer might not be a good idea, so he raised his plastic stake to kill Loki.
“I’m not the vampire,” Loki screamed at him. “Do I look like Snow White to you?”
“You’re the boy from the parking lot, Loki Blackstar,” Big Bad growled in the dim light. “Guess what? My name is Big Bad, and I’m going to kick your ass!”
“Seriously?” Loki frowned. “You’re stealing my line now?”
Before they got into a fight, and before the girls finished climbing down the stairs, something white appeared out of the cellar as if floating in an aquarium.
It was her.
Snow White, the vampire princess, glided like a ghost in the air, her white dress swirling around her body, reminding Loki of his mother.
Bite me! Why does she have to remind me of my mother? Do I need more reasons to make killing her such an impossible task?
The Tweedle girls screamed, dropping their flashlights. Their squeaky voices confused Loki, and he dropped his flashlight, too. Listening to it crashing to pieces against the marble floor almost took his breath away. Loki remembered how Axel had said that flashlights conveniently stopped working just when needed in horror movies. The whole place faded to darkness, except for the pale princess’s skin and dress.
Dum’s flashlight still flickered infrequently on the floor. It had fallen on Big Bad’s tool bag, ending in an awkward position that sent its round beam toward the stairs.
Flash on. Flash off. As if they needed more scare factors in the situation.
The impact of the moment left Loki paralyzed, scared to go pick up the flashlight from the floor. The vampire princess levitated an inch or two above the third step of the staircase while the light blinked on and off at her.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
Next to the blinking, the flashlight also acted as a ticking clock. Loki hoped it wasn’t counting down their death.
The vampire princess’s white dress was spattered with Donnie Cricketkiller’s blood—Loki wondered if he should’ve been thanking her for getting the world rid of bullies like him. She continued floating above the stairs like a marionette, swinging loosely on the invisible threads that controlled her. Loki thought she was examining them, her prey, having had an appetizer in the cellar.
The mixing shadows in the castle prevented Loki from seeing the vampire princess’s face. He hadn’t seen her face clear enough when he was outside, and he was dying to see it now. He wondered what the sixteen-year-old goddess of scare looked like up close and personal.
The Tweedle girls shielded their faces from looking at her, knowing that meeting her eyes meant their inevitable death. Having already done that, Loki knew that if he wanted to go home, he’d have to look death in the eyes again tonight. He had to stake her to stay alive.
This annoying, blinking flashlight, now I see her, now I don’t.
Loki noticed her hair was combed neatly, looking as fine as nurtured silk cascading down her shoulders. Was she really a princess? That red ribbon in her hair made her look so innocent, if only she wasn’t spattered with red blood.
It was obvious that she was around sixteen year old. The fairy tale twisted demon princess was so young it was impossible to believe that she had been scaring this town for a hundred years. Based on her beauty, it was equally impossible to believe she was a vicious vampire. Seeing her, made Loki want to argue with his eyes. Something about her was beautiful in a wicked way.
Stop it, Loki. You know demon girls are your weakness. She uses her looks to kill the likes of you, the way she did Donnie Cricketkiller. Remember when he said he wouldn’t mind dying in her arms?
Loki had never analyzed a vampire he was about to kill, but he couldn’t help it. Her white dress looked royal, 18th or 19th century style; it was expensive, canvassing her body like angry ocean waves longing for peace, longing for a shore, and showing her bare slim arms. Her small figure added to her wicked innocence, and led one to believe she’d been a normal girl before she turned into a vampire, maybe centuries ago?
She was also we
aring a pendant, the shape of a red, partially bitten, apple.
“Stay put,” Loki whispered to the others, not taking his eyes off the observing princess as she floated down a couple of steps. Finally, he could see the lower part of her face, from her nose down to her chin.
Blood was dripping from the corner of her lips, onto her dress, all the way down to her bare feet, finally landing on the stairs. It trickled down farther to the floor like red mercury. The flickering of the flashlight made everything look like a slow motion movie. Loki felt as if he were in a cheap vampire discothèque, dancing for his life.
Sometimes, Loki thought that monsters themselves weren’t that scary. What emphasized the scare-meter were the added effects; rain, storm, dark, screaming girls, trickling faucets, creaking doors, and certainly a flickering flashlight.
“Stay away, monster!” Dee screamed, flashing a digital cross she had on her phone app at her. “You horrible looking brat!”
“Seriously?” Loki gritted his teeth. “Stupid Minikins,” he wanted to advise her against being rude to the vampire princess, let alone flashing the cross-app.
But he was too late.
Snow White attacked Dum on the spot.
Boy. The vampire princess moves fast.
Dum was executed as fast lightning from the sky could ashen a poor soul.
It was hard to see what Snow White did to her in the dark, but Dum let out a short scream before she supposedly rested in peace, and stopped talking forever.
Every one held their breath while the princess disappeared in the dark. It amazed Loki that no one ran for their lives. Fear did that to the people, paralyzing their thoughts and blinding them to the available solution.
Loki saw Big Bad stupidly approaching Snow White with his plastic stake. The vampire princess backhanded him and sent him flying. Loki saw it happen, but it appeared as if she hadn’t even touched Big Bad, as if she had the power to move things with the stroke of her hand. The scene was laughable; Big Bad was at least twice as big as she was, and she still managed to send him flying through the air like a huge cannonball. He ended up slamming against the wall like the frog in the fairy tale the Princess and the Frog— Charmwill had told Loki that in the original version the princess had thrown the frog violently against the wall.
“Who’s the fairest of them all now?” Loki couldn’t help himself, talking to the unconscious Big Bad. He was also calming himself down, knowing he had no clue how he would stake her if she attacked him.
I came last, so I guess she will finish me last. There is a pecking order, right?
Loki noticed that he was standing in a perfectly darkened spot now, and supposed that if he didn’t move she wouldn’t see him. If he survived this, he would go back and research how to kill the vampire princess. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to be able to kill her tonight.
“What is going on in there?” Axel yelled from outside the castle. “Answer me, Loki!”
It was a good and bad thing that Axel had returned. The good thing was that Axel was out there. The bad thing was that Snow White had turned her attention to Loki.
Thank you very much, Axel Crumblewood!
Dum’s corpse smacked against the floor, falling onto the bag with the flashlight, causing the light to alter its direction, highlighting the Snow White princess.
“Some flashlight,” Loki spoke to it as if it could hear him.
Snow White floated in front of Loki, her dress and black hair waving awkwardly and horizontally to the left as if the castle had turned on its side. She let out a soft sound as if saying ahhh after a great vein-filling meal. She stretched her arms sideways and tilted her chin slightly up. Her eyes turned demonic black and she levitated another inch higher.
If he could only be brave, pick up the flashlight, and see her face. He had never been so curious about a demon’s face before, and he knew it could cost him his life.
Loki saw her villainous eyes again, blocking whatever soul hid beyond her monstrous persona–-if there was any soul left in the undead princess. A golden glint flashed in her eyes for a fraction of a second, so intense that it lit up the aura around her as if she were a fairy or a firefly lost in the dark of night. The glint was short lived, but enough to see that she looked diabolically enchanting.
Something about her was spellbinding. Her anger had a childish halo to it, as if she wasn’t made of real evil; some kind of evil candy maybe, something you’d like to taste even though it would kill you. Maybe she was just a bratty princess playing with her toy fangs.
Loki froze in the moment, looking at her. He could see nothing else but her face. She had consumed his mind and soul, and he was resisting the feeling of wanting to know her story, her real one.
He understood why Donnie stood staring at her and called her beautiful instead of running away. There was something about her that was indescribable. It was like having butterflies in your stomach when you fall in love, a feeling that could only be expressed with a brush in paintings, a beautiful song that could make you cry, a rhyme in a poem, or the delicate choreography in a dance. She was horribly beautiful in a way that could only be described using an oxymoron like terrifyingly amazing, wickedly lovely, or bloody white. Loki wanted to shake his soul free from her, but he knew he was too late.
Those she lays her eyes upon, don’t live long enough to tell about it.
They were right. Loki was taking his last breaths in his mortal life as she finally decided to come closer.
The vampire princess approached him slowly, soaring over the breathless air in the castle, like a long lost demon Loki was bound to face, like karma that came calling after years of waiting. Elegantly yet beastly, carefully yet deadly, she came down to him.
Loki felt that both of them had a lot in common. He could see it in those black eyes. Looking at her was like looking into a mirror that only reflected the darkness he possessed; the darkness Charmwill had told him about. Loki felt like asking her the same question he’d been asking himself all the time: Who the heck am I? And who the heck are you, wicked princess? Do we both have the same darkness inside us, and is it so awful I deserved being banned, and you deserved being turned into a demon?
They shared a certain pain, and it struck Loki as ironic that they both wanted to kill each other. It was inevitable, though, one of them had to die and one had to live. Only Loki was the weaker of the two.
Loki held his pose, hoping she wouldn’t sense his fear. Mesmerized by her presence, he waited for her to come even closer. He thought that when she was close enough, he’d give it a shot and stab her with the Alicorn. He hoped this Alicorn was really special because he needed it now. He’d even tried to whisper ‘Ora Pedora’ to it, but nothing happened.
It’s my only chance. It’s my job, and for all I know she is tricking me into liking her like she did Donnie.
He was eye to eye with his tormentor.
Snow White stretched out a hand and touched his face with the back of her smooth hand, sliding it across his cheek. She did it slowly, almost tentatively, yet it made Loki’s skin crawl. How was she capable of stirring all these contradicting feelings in him?
When she pulled her hands away, he felt undone. Why did he feel like he wanted her soft hand back on his cheek?
Focus, Loki! It’s your weakness that caused you to spend the last year in Ordinary World.
She tilted her head and looked at him like cute dogs do sometimes, as if he were a baby she was supposed to love and take care of, but slit its throat afterwards.
Loki let her run her fingers across his other cheek. It was a feeling of pleasure and pain. He stared at her, held his breath, persuading himself that she wasn’t close enough to stake her.
Who are you fooling, Loki? Do it! Just do it!
Once it showed on his face that he was about to stake her, she choked him with the same hand that caressed his face, pressing hard against the veins in his neck, her fingers marking the flesh as if it was clay. Her reflexes were too fast.
<
br /> Loki missed her heart, and staked her in the stomach, which was a careless mistake. It had to be the heart.
Loki cried out. She didn’t.
It was an intense moment, Loki still gripping the Alicorn that was half-buried in her stomach while Snow White was still gripping his neck. They could have both died right then, him staking her, and her asphyxiating him.
She pressed her thumb against his Adam’s apple so hard it forced him to twist his head in pain, unable to readjust his body to stab her again.
How could this tiny girl do that?
She lifted him off the floor with her hand as her black eyes turned bloody red. Loki wrapped his arm around hers, trying to defend against her attack.
She pulled the Alicorn out of her bleeding stomach and threw it into the darkness, stabbing Dee. Like a skilled knife thrower, she hit Dee square in the head.
On the other hand, Snow White’s wound didn’t cause any real damage. It would heal in a matter of minutes. Loki had seen it before. For the moment, Loki had to concentrate on the fact that the vampire princess was choking him to death, and there was very little he could do about it.
A sudden ray of light came from behind and hit her in the face.
“Leave him a-al-alone,” Axel stuttered. Loki was surprised Axel had the courage to venture into the castle, trying to save him—or die with him.
Snow White didn’t flinch, and disregarded Axel’s presence, but shied away from the white light aimed at her eyes as they turned from red to black again. Nobody seemed to acknowledge Axel’s presence, even demons.
Instead, Snow White continued staring at Loki in a way that made him feel guilty, as if he were the one grasping her by the neck.
Then something amazing happened.
The fine tender skin of her face loosened up. Although she was undead, Loki saw some of her life force coming back into her pale face.
It was true. Her face was white as snow. Her lips, curved in the shape of a broken heart, red as blood; cherry blood, strawberry blood, or life-saving blood. Her hair was as black as if it were cut from the fabric of the mysterious souls of night. Her eyelashes were like ancient Roman feather fans, majestically waving like a ship’s sails flying in the stratosphere.