Once Upon the End (Half Upon a Time)

by James Riley

  The jump didn’t look quite so bad from closer up, so without thinking, Jack pushed off and went for it.

  “Without thinking” was actually a very accurate description, for if he had thought, he might have realized that the branch, while sturdy enough to support him, would still flex a bit when he jumped.

  As it was, his fingers passed through nothing, only to smack into the windowsill at the very last moment, catching him. His heart racing, he pulled himself up and into the house, deciding that this was the very last time he’d ever steal, no matter how many worlds needed saving.

  May’s bedroom may have looked exactly like the painting in the Story Book, but stepping into that painting was even odder than seeing it in front of him. He looked around, drinking it in, trying not to think about what had happened to May back in the Wicked Queen’s castle . . . and then realized that being in her room was kinda creepy, and he shouldn’t just stand there not moving for any longer.

  Besides, he had a house to search.

  Flipping through his Story Book pages as he opened May’s door, he came to the picture of the wooden box that May’s grandmother had mentioned, or would mention later that night, when the Huntsman came. “Someone broke into the house, May,” the Story Book had the Queen saying. “Someone stole my heart box.”

  The picture showed a mostly obscured box covered by books, clothes, and a bunch of unrecognizable things. Fortunately, he didn’t have to know what they were, he just had to . . . well, recognize them. How hard could that be?

  An hour later, he knew exactly how hard that could be. How many things could two people actually own?! The entire house seemed filled with objects, as far as Jack was concerned. They lived like royalty (no surprise), with almost as many books as the school had!

  Just then, a thump right outside the house made Jack’s heart stop, and he looked around frantically for somewhere to hide. The door he’d come in led to the front of the house, and from the sound of it, whoever had just returned was coming in that same direction. Behind him was nothing but wall, except for a small half door mostly covered in piles of books.

  Well, he couldn’t replace the piles, but at least he’d be out of sight.

  He pushed the piles out of the way quickly, then yanked on the door. It didn’t move, so he yanked harder and harder, and the door exploded open with a loud creak as he heard the footsteps outside stop.

  Jack quickly pushed his way into a tiny alcove filled with more books, clothing, and a bunch of things he’d never seen, then pulled the door shut behind him. He pushed himself back, only to run up against something hard and . . . boxlike. . . .

  Of course. He couldn’t have found this five minutes ago?!

  The footsteps were in the house now, slowly walking from room to room. Whoever it was must have heard him and started looking for him.

  Maybe it was time. It had to be the Queen herself, and now was as good a time as any. He felt around behind him in the darkness, moving more by memory of the Story Book picture than anything, until his hand felt the wood of the heart box. He quickly pulled it to him and opened it, reaching a hand inside to feel something . . . pretty disgusting.

  Then the disgusting thing ba-bumped in his hand.

  It was her heart.

  The Wicked Queen’s heart.

  HE HAD THE WICKED QUEEN’S HEART IN HIS HAND. AND IT WAS BEATING.

  IN HIS HAND.

  His mind couldn’t take this kind of crazy, but what choice did he have? The footsteps stopped right outside of the half door that hid him, and he knew that he might not ever have another chance.

  He took out his knife and took a deep breath.

  Then he stabbed his knife right into the Wicked Queen’s heart.

  It didn’t even make a dent.

  “Hello?” said a voice. “You called about a leaking sink? I’m here to fix it. . . .”

  And just then, the door swung wide open.

  An old man wearing rumpled gray clothes and holding a box of tools stared at Jack; and Jack, one hand holding a beating heart and the other clutching his knife, stared back.

  The old man paused, then slowly closed the door.

  Then the old man ran, screaming.

  Well. Uh-oh.

  CHAPTER 33

  May sat alone on her bed, knees pulled against her chest, staring at the dress made of gold that lay draped over a chair across from her. Goblin maids (still holding evil-looking axes and swords) had brought it earlier and taken her last one away. Apparently, becoming the Queen’s heir was more formal than being judged a traitor.

  She would appear before the Queen, wearing the Queen’s dress, and pledge her eternal loyalty to her Majesty. And for that, she would get to live, and live well, as a Wicked Queen in training.

  She stared at the dress, mentally running through the pledge the goblin maids had delivered on an elaborate scroll of linen. “I offer my loyalty and my love to Her Royal Majesty, for now and ever more,” it began, then went on for a few more pages, or turns of the scroll, or whatever they called it.

  Six months ago, a gold dress would have been for a school dance. A pledge would have been of allegiance. And goblins would have been . . . well, nowhere. In books. If there. She didn’t read a lot of fantasy. Never found it believable.

  And yet, there was another whole life that she had been meant to live, where a gold dress would have meant a royal ball, a glass slipper, and a fairy godmother.

  Neither of those lives existed anymore, not really. She was never going to make it back to school, dance or no. She wasn’t ever going to live with her stepmother again and leave her slipper at the ball.

  Now, she was either going to join the Queen, or she was going to die.

  May hugged her knees tighter and went through the pledge again. “I offer my loyalty and my love to Her Royal Majesty, for now and ever more.” She had to do it. She couldn’t just die. To give up, to say no to the Wicked Queen . . . she couldn’t. She couldn’t! She wasn’t that person. She wasn’t a character in a story who could do the crazy thing, the life-ending thing, and be satisfied that she’d made the right choice.

  But joining the Queen . . . could she really live with herself? She’d seen how the Queen’s subjects had lived, back in the safety of her stepmother’s home. Even there, even protected by the fairy queens, she’d known that taking one step outside would have meant capture or worse. Just like what everyone else still living in her town had to deal with on a daily basis.

  Could she really say yes to the Queen, knowing those people still lived in fear for their lives?

  Yes. Yes, she could. Those people had, hadn’t they? They weren’t rising up or anything. They weren’t protesting. They weren’t rebelling.

  No, they weren’t, because they had more to worry about.

  They had families and friends.

  May had neither of those things. Not anymore.

  This woman wasn’t related to her. There was no blood there. She had believed the Queen to be her grandmother, but that was just more lies. It wasn’t real. Or if it was, it wasn’t anymore. Now there were magical curses and shadows living in the place of people’s hearts.

  All that mattered was that there wasn’t a heart there now, and the woman felt nothing for May. Even if May still felt something for her.

  The gold dress just lay there staring at her, another Cinderella costume for her to wear, another act to put on.

  Someone knocked on her door and said in a goblin’s guttural voice, “Ten minutes, Princess May.”

  Princess. That’d been fun at the beginning. Everything had been happier back then, back at the beginning, with princes and houses made of candy and rescuing Snow White. Giants, talking wolves, and invisibility hoods. Then, they’d found her grandmother, and—

  Not her grandmother. The Wicked Queen.

  May stood up and walked over to the dress, feeling it between her fingers. Gold wasn’t soft. How could anyone be comfortable in something like that? And where had it come from? Golde
n thread led to Rumplestiltskin in her head, and she smiled at the thought of Jack hanging upside down outside Malevolent’s castle.

  What would Jack do here? He’d join the Queen . . . he already had. But he hadn’t meant it. He’d had a plan. He’d tried to rescue them after all. And after everything, he wouldn’t betray May. Phillip had, yes, but . . . there had to be a reason. But Jack hadn’t even done that. Jack would make the pledge, she knew. Because living another day meant another day to figure something out, a way to escape.

  And somewhere, she knew, she knew he had done just that.

  But for her, there was nowhere to escape to, nowhere to go.

  Phillip wouldn’t give his oath without meaning it. He was such a fairy-tale prince . . . no lying, no trickery. He’d tell the Queen no, no matter the consequences.

  “Five minutes, Princess,” said the goblin at the door. “Do you need help?”

  “Not me,” May said, picking up the dress. “I’ve got this, all on my own.”

  The throne room practically burst with people, goblins, trolls, ogres, and assorted shadows floating overhead, each one looking like a trick of the light when you stared right at it. May waited outside with her goblin guards, both of which were sweating and shaking as much or more than she was.

  Someone was announcing several apparently important people in the throne room, and each time, someone moved to stand in front of the Queen on her throne, bowing low. The Queen would acknowledge each one with a nod, though every few people, she would gesture, and goblins would take the unlucky lord or lady away, their screams echoing through the silent hall.

  “The Princess May, to declare her loyalty to Her Royal Majesty!” called the voice, and May’s guards started forward, almost stumbling over her feet. May followed a step behind, and gasps went through the crowd.

  May smiled at the guests, the torches shining off the golden dress that May had ripped to ribbons, dropping the pieces like flowers as she walked through the throne room in her jeans and PUNK PRINCESS shirt.

  “What is this?!” the Queen asked, her eyes narrowed to slits.

  “Oh hey, Your Majesty,” May said, throwing another piece of dress into the air. “I thought I’d add some festiveness to this whole thing. It felt like it was getting a little depressing.”

  The Queen looked to May’s left and right, and goblins grabbed her by the arms and dragged her forward, forcing her down to her knees before the throne. “I take it that this is your way of refusing to become my heir,” the Queen said quietly.

  “I mean, I thought about it,” May said, the goblins shoving her head almost down to the ground. “I didn’t think I’d have the guts to do this, actually. But then I remembered something.” She pushed back against the goblins and looked the Queen right in the eye. “I remembered that I’ve got more heart in my little finger than you do in your whole body. Though, to be fair, who doesn’t?”

  The crowd began to murmur, each of the assembled nobles looking at each other nervously. May couldn’t blame them. The heart she’d just bragged about was about to burst, it was beating so hard.

  “You choose death, then?” the Queen asked, her eyes striking May’s like bolts of lightning.

  “There’s a boy I know,” May told her, struggling against the goblins to stand up. The goblins, nervous about being killed in whatever magic destroyed May, released her almost thankfully, backing away slowly. “His name is Phillip, and he’s a prince, but that doesn’t really matter. Phillip taught me something a while ago, back on a pirate ship. He said that when you do something good and noble, you’ll win.”

  The Queen stood up, lightning sizzling in the air.

  “He was wrong,” May told her with a shrug. “You won’t always win. Sometimes you’ll lose, and sometimes . . . well, bad things happen. But not trying? Not standing up to people like you?” She smiled. “Then we all lose. So no, I don’t choose death, because that’s giving up too. But I’ll never join you, and I’ll keep trying to take you down for as long as I can.”

  The room went absolutely silent for a moment.

  Then someone, somewhere in the back, shouted, “Down with the Wicked Queen!”

  And that’s when things got ugly.

  CHAPTER 34

  The ground shook every few seconds now. The air smelled of rotten meat and mountains of sweat-covered clothing. And shadows fell across the entire land as the fireball that was the sun was blotted out entirely.

  The giants had arrived.

  Phillip stood with his back to a chimney on the roof of a farmhouse as the first six slowly walked toward him, spread out with hundreds of feet between each one. He was alone, of course. Penelope had tried to come with him, but he had made her promise to stay back.

  If he failed, after all, someone needed to go find May and bring her home.

  “HUNGRY!” shouted the closest giant.

  “EAT!” shouted another.

  “KILL!” shouted a third.

  A mile or two behind them, the seventh giant, this one towering over the others as if they were children, laughed. “You’ll get your fill, boys!” the seventh giant shouted, his voice traveling all the way to Phillip’s ears clearly. “Just make sure you leave the thief to me!”

  That one would be trouble. But the first six were the primary concern.

  But he still needed to wait.

  The ground shook again and again, and as the giants approached, Phillip had to hold tight to the chimney to avoid being shaken right off the roof. Another few seconds, and they’d be in place. All he had to do was wait and make sure he wasn’t seen.

  “Watch out that they’re not hiding in the houses there,” the seventh giant shouted.

  Phillip sighed, then stepped out from behind the chimney.

  Not two hundred feet away, a giant with a fire-red beard and hair stumbled backward in surprise. “HUMAN!” he yelled, and Phillip watched as the surprise turned to eagerness. It only took thirty seconds, which was quick for a giant. “EAT THE HUMAN!”

  “Eat the human, yes,” Phillip said quietly, holding his arms out, his sword still at his side. The seventh one was too far back to see what was happening, which was fortunate, as this never would have worked otherwise. If it even worked to begin with.

  The red-haired giant grinned and slowly reached down for Phillip, licking his lips. Off to either side, Phillip heard the other giants shouting about their own human treats, and from the corner of his eye, he watched five other giants reaching down to various houses with various soldiers waiting as well.

  “TASTY HUMAN,” the red-haired giant said, and Phillip braced himself. The hand descended, growing to the size of a small cottage, and he could see entire feet of dirt beneath the creature’s fingernails.

  “Very tasty!” Phillip told it. “Better hurry or I’ll get away!”

  The message took a few seconds to reach the giant’s brain, but when it did, the giant redoubled its efforts and bent over the house, his hand spread wide to grab the tasty human.

  Just as the hand came within a few feet of Phillip, the roof opened up, and the prince fell right through.

  The giant’s hand followed, reaching right into the farmhouse after the disappearing prince.

  “NOW!” Phillip shouted as he fell toward a large pile of hay on the floor of the farmhouse. The sewn cord noose hidden within the farmhouse’s walls pulled tight, trapping the giant’s hand just as Phillip slammed into the hay below.

  “PULL!” he shouted, throwing himself out of the hay toward the barn door. Above him, the cord yanked hard, and the hand followed Phillip right out the barn doors.

  Outside, teams of horses and riders galloped out of the haystacks they’d been hiding within, each one attached by a smaller cord to the large cord holding the giant’s hand. And just as was happening in five other farmhouses, Phillip’s horses all ran off toward the castle, yanking the giant forward.

  The scream behind him was so loud, Phillip almost lost his footing as he ran, but he knew he did not ha
ve time to trip. The giant’s falling body would take exactly fifteen seconds to hit the ground, and anything on that ground would be crushed to a pulp. Phillip planned on being nowhere close.

  But while the other five volunteers all ran sideways, out of the way of their falling giants, Phillip ran forward, toward the legs of his redheaded, toppling giant.

  The giant’s collapse exploded a tidal wave of earth in every direction, and Phillip watched it coming as he sprinted toward the giant’s feet, then jumped at the last possible moment to avoid whatever he could. The earth leapt up to meet his feet and pushed him higher, sending him flying into the air.

  Fortunately, this was not his first toppled giant, and he flipped in midair, then landed carefully on the ever-shifting ground, still running as quickly as he could.

  Wave after wave of earth came rushing at him as the other five giants hit, destroying the farms of far too many of his people but never even slowing him down.

  There was no time, after all. The seventh giant had already seen what was happening, and though Phillip often lost sight of the monster in the trees, the giant’s quick footsteps told him what was happening.

  “I told you all to watch out!” the giant shouted. “The thief did this! He will pay, I will ensure it!”

  “It was not the thief!” Phillip shouted, and climbed as quickly as he could up the nearest, tallest tree. He stood at the very top on two fairly sturdy branches and waved his arms at the approaching giant. “It was ME!”

  The giant slowed its run and stared down at the insect-size human waving at him. “You smell of the thief, but you are not him . . . or of his blood, like the other one,” the monster said. “I have no time for you!”

  “I just killed six of your kind,” Phillip told him. “One more, and I match my father’s record. Face me, if you are no coward!”

  The giant stared down at him, then laughed. “Perhaps the thick air down here has clouded my mind, little human, but I guess a quick snack won’t turn my appetite.”

  The others didn’t know the plan here. He had let Penelope and his mother both believe that they would capture all seven giants the same way. But they would not. Jack’s father had known this, and together they had come up with a plan.