by Amy Marie
She nodded. “Good.” She went back into the house, and I leaned against my car, waiting for Grace to return.
I heard her long sigh before I saw her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
I faced her, holding up my hands, my palms facing her in surrender. “Look, I don’t know exactly what Rosanna said, but it’s bullshit.”
“Sure it is,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Can you just leave me alone? It’s been a long night, and I’m sick and tired of your games.”
“I’m not playing any games,” I said, taking a step towards her. “I haven’t talked to Rosanna since I dumped her on prom night for what she and her friends did to you. I haven’t talked to any of them.” She looked at me curiously, so I kept going. “I told you I’d always admired you, Grace, and that’s the truth. I don’t know why I didn’t say anything back then. I don’t know why I didn’t have more courage to stand up against them and tell them to stop bullying you. It seemed like you didn’t care, so I guess I just figured you didn’t. Maybe I was a coward. But you weren’t, Grace. You were amazing. Prom night...when they added the category and edited the slide show...I had no idea. I’d done a run through of everything before prom, so I knew something was off. I was so mad but I was caught off guard, so I made the announcement, anyway. You owned it, though. I was so proud of you when you marched up onto that stage with that beautiful smile on your face. I was so impressed by you in that moment. What happened after that...well I never would have anticipated that. I promise I had nothing to do with the water balloons, and I got you out of there as soon as I could.”
“Red is so not my color,” she said after several excruciating seconds, and I exhaled in relief. She was making jokes, so everything was going to be okay, right? “That was you? The one who helped me off the stage?” She took a few steps closer to me.
“You don’t remember?” I asked, surprised. I’d talked to her the entire time I helped her out off the stage and out of the cafeteria.
She shook her head. “My eyes were blurry from the dye...and I kind of blocked most of that out, anyway.”
“Yeah...it was me. I got you out of there and told the faculty what happened. You never came back to school, but a bunch of the football players got suspended...and Rosanna.”
The corner of her mouth lifted slightly. “Good, I’m glad something good came of it.” She kicked at a few rocks in the driveway. “It really doesn’t change anything, though, Jonah. We’re too different.”
“What’s wrong with being different, Grace? I want to get to know you. I’d like for you to get to know me, too.”
She sighed, wrapping her arms around her body, the plastic bag with what I guessed was ice cream hanging from one hand. “There’s nothing wrong with being different,” she finally said.
“Then give me a chance, Grace. Let’s go on a real date.”
Her gaze shifted back to me, and her eyes locked with mine for a few silent moments.
“Please,” I added, smiling at her and putting my hands together in a praying gesture. I wasn’t afraid to beg; I’d be on my knees next.
She blew out another breath. “Okay, fine. I’ll go on a date with you.”
“Yes,” I said, pumping my fist into the air.
“Don’t make me regret it, Jonah Bell.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
She shook her head, trying to hide her smile, but I still saw it. I waved as she disappeared inside the house, feeling goofy as hell.
I had a date with Grace Adams, the most beautiful woman in Marchen.
Epilogue
Grace
“Where do you want these?” Jonah asked, holding up a few books that had been on my nightstand.
“This box here,” I said, pointing to a small box on my bed.
I walked over to the window and looked outside. The sun shone through the trees as a light summer breeze blew, causing shadows to dance across the bright green grass. The rose bushes on the far side of the yard added a vibrant splash of red and pink to the landscape. There were blue skies as far as the eyes could see.
It was a good day to move.
Jonah set the books in the box and came behind me, wrapping his arms around my middle and resting his chin on my shoulder.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
My gaze shifted across the yard as I thought of the past year. The highs and the lows. I’d come back to Marchen with very little, and I gained so much.
I turned in his arms and looked up at the man I’d fallen madly in love with.
“I’m thinking about the future,” I said. “Our future.”
THE END
Jennifer L. Allen Acknowledgments
I appreciate the opportunity to join the Fractured Fairy Tales Anthology for the 2020 Sexy and Sassy Signing (SaSS). I enjoyed my first SaSS signing so much and hope to be a lifelong SaSSer! Big thanks to my editor, Aimee Lukas, for her friendship, her help when I was stumped, and her work. Thank you to my assistant, Karen, for being there for my whims and for trying to keep me organized. Thank you, Natasha, for being my BFF. Thank you to the Chapter Chicks for being such a cool group of people. Thank you to Brad for always being my number one and for always being there. Thank you to my family for being supportive of this wild side ride I’ve taken, particularly my Aunt Barbara who passed away at the end of last year. At her funeral services, my cousin told me that every time I released a new book, she’d have him go online to buy it for her. I hope she’ll read this one, and I hope she enjoys it. <3 Thanks to the bloggers and anyone else who promotes these stories for us. A big thank you to all the readers who take time out of their day to check this story out, and the ebook anthology! Books would just be a bunch of words if it wasn’t for you. Much, much, love to all.
Part Nine
Shadows Of The Night by Julie Mishler
A Red Riding Hood Poem
Shadows of the Night
In darkness I hide
Lurking in the shadows of the night
The light of the moon my only guide
As I search for what has been lost
My cloak adds an extra layer of security
To protect my solitude
So no one can see
The real me hidden underneath
I was once so full of life
I had a plethora of hopes and dreams
I had fierce faith and steadfast beliefs
I wished on the stars each night
I beseeched the Angels, Gods and Spirits
To hear my cries and grant me all that I sought
The biggest of my desires was the grand illusion of true love and happiness
I would have sold my soul to the devil himself
For the chance to have it all
In my greed I could not see
The blessings already bestowed upon me
I wanted more
I craved more
I needed the void within to be fulfilled
In my selfish quest I lost myself
Now I search alone at night
Fighting against the ghosts of my past
Slaying the demons that continually haunt me
Trying to find my way back to who I once was
Not this broken shell hiding in plain sight
To once more stand tall in the light of day
~Julz~
© JMM 2020
**Art work by Jesse Batista, Inklings Of A Restless Mind
About Julie Mishler
Julie Mishler resides in a small Pennsylvania town. She has always had a way with words, but started to write and share those words publicly in December 2011 after strong encouragement from family, friends and fellow authors. Prior to releasing her own book of poetry in 2014, Julie wrote poems/pieces for a number of other author's books, anthologies and has done personal commission pieces for display in people's homes. When Julie isn't working on a new poem, quote or spending time with family, she enjoys reading, photography, art, and music
.
**AUTHOR PAGE**
http://bit.ly/2xu5xYc
Also By Julie Mishler
Words from the Heart
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2vm60sf
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2uoLJkw
**UNIVERSAL LINK** https://bit.ly/2lX63ql
Part Ten
Ella’s Prince: Book Three in the Fairytale Chronicles by Julie Morgan
An Alice in Wonderland Retelling
For my shining star who can light the darkest of rooms simply with her smile.
Prologue
The world was cold and silent, only the howling of the wind interrupted the stillness of the land. Snow had just fallen, and Joseph Rose shivered in the dampness of his shoes. He held his rifle to his shoulder and listened for the telltale sound of the mad wolves.
It was the night of the blood moon, the night when a bite could transform a man into a beast. The beast would lose their humanity and their soul. The only other option was death; once the curse was given, there was no going back.
Joseph looked up to the skies as the evening air cleared the clouds. The moon was full, red, and centered over Switzerland. It was then he heard it, the howl.
He looked over to his sister, Scarlett, and her fiancé and fellow huntsman, Chris Middleton, hidden behind a large trunked tree. Her white coat covered her crimson hair, and he could barely see her behind the bark. She peeked around just enough to make eye contact. Joseph nodded once, as did Scarlett.
Then chaos erupted when a massive, black creature leapt through the air.
Joseph gasped and held his rifle up to fire but missed, the bullet barely grazing the wolf’s fur as it landed on top of Joseph, pinning him to the ground.
“No!” Joseph screamed and punched the maddened animal in its mouth. The beast snarled and blood dripped onto Joseph’s face. He punched it again and this time the blow threw the monster off his body.
He raised his rifle, but it was too late. The wolf trapped Joseph once more and bit the side of his neck. Blood sprayed across the white snow and Joseph’s scream filled the air.
“Fuck!” He clutched his neck and heard a loud yelp sound from the wolf. When he looked to the animal, he saw it was dead from an ax blow to his head. Scarlett had killed the beast.
“Joseph, No!” Scarlett screamed and pulled her brother into her arms. “No! Oh, God, no!”
“I’ll go get help,” Chris called and ran off into the distance.
“Joseph, no, please, no! Help me, someone, please! Help me!”
Everything began to fade, then darkness claimed Joseph and in an instant.
It was a rare instance when death was imminent that the person would live rather than die. Joseph’s eyes opened. He blinked a few times and saw everything was red and appeared . . . dead. The people in front of him looked like nothing more than ash figures waiting to be blown away in the wind. He felt his lip curl into a snarl. He sat up and found his neck was stiff. He reached up and felt the blood had dried on him. In the place of the animal bite were stitches.
“Why the fuck didn’t you kill me?” he screamed. “Where’s my sister? I’ll kill her myself!”
“You’re not yourself right now, Joseph,” called one of the doctors. “We’re going to do everything we can to reverse what happened to you.”
“What needs to happen is you need to put a knife to my throat and kill me!” he seethed and laid back down on his bed. He felt something sharp poke his neck. “Ow, what the fuck?” He pulled out a tranquilizer dart and growled toward the cell door. “I’ll kill you for that!”
“Not if you’re sleeping,” the doctor answered.
Before the darkness of sleep took him under, a slender man with a stovepipe hat approached from the shadows.
“Yes, yes, I do believe I can help him,” the tall, thin man whispered from the shadows of the room. “But he’s not ready. Soon, but not yet. Shortly, his sister will seek my aid and then, and only then, I shall give him what he needs.” He pressed the tips of his fingers together and grinned a sinister smile. The man’s eyes glowed a terrifying green and he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
And so began Joseph’s nightmares of the thin man that night.
A few months had passed, slowly and painfully. Joseph continued his testing, the shock treatments, whatever the doctors wanted to do. He’d given up the fight a long time ago and begged for death each time the cell door opened. This was not living. Scarlett should have taken his life when he’d been bitten. This was her fault. Her and her goddamned need for forgiveness.
However, today was different. Today, she came with a hat. It wasn’t just any hat, this top hat of sorts had gears that moved and ticked in the rhythm of a clock.
“This hat is special.” She swiped her hand across the top of it and continued. “It will control the beast inside. It will give you your humanity back.” She looked up and met his gaze. “It will give you your life back. All you need to do it wear it.”
One of the doctors took it from her and handed it through the bars to Joseph.
“Please, put it on,” Scarlett implored.
Joseph snatched the hat from the doctor’s grasp and held it out in front of him. What did he have to lose? If this could keep him from getting tested on further then he would wear it. Hell, if it shut up his sister, he’d wear it.
He lifted it up and rested it upon his head. And when he did, a chatter of voices erupted in his mind, loud and frightful. Horror struck him and his body jerked. He ripped the hat off and shook his head, as if he’d received a blow .
“Joseph, please. It’s our only chance to get you back!” Scarlett pleaded.
Joseph stared at the black hat with the steel, copper, and gold ticking gears. There was a red strap of fabric around the crown.
Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.
He closed his eyes and once more put the hat on.
Once the hat was planted firmly on his head, the voices invaded his mind: Don’t wear it! He’ll kill you!
Find us, Joseph. Find us! Free us!
Don’t do it! The voodoo man has killed many for his own personal gain. He’ll kill you too!
Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.
He pressed his eyes tightly closed and gritted his teeth. As the ticking continued, the voices slowly died away. He took in a deep breath and opened his eyes once more.
The world around him had changed. The axis had shifted. Where everything was once red and muted, vivid color had come back to him. There was a slight haze to it, but he could live with that.
He stood and held his hands out in front of him.
“This is the first time I’ve seen him this calm,” the doctor said.
“Release him. Now,” Scarlett ordered. “Joseph, I’m taking you home.”
“No,” Joseph said and met her gaze. “Not yet. There’s . . . I think there are some people I need to find.”
She approached the cell. “Open it, now, dammit!”
The doctor sighed. “This is against my better judgement, but all right.” He left the room and a moment later, the familiar sound of the mechanism groaned. Steel rubbed against steel as the cage was unlocked.
Scarlett pulled the cell door open and rushed inside. She threw her arms round her brother and squeezed his neck.
Joseph fisted his hands at his sides. “Why didn’t you kill me when you had the chance?”
“I couldn’t,” she said and sobbed into his chest. “You’re my brother. I couldn’t kill you.”
He took her by the arms and held her back. “We made a pact years ago. If one of us were ever bit, we’d kill the other, so as not to fall to the curse. You let me go through the agony of it, and, now, even with this fucking hat, I suffer.”
“Joseph,” she said through a whisper.
“Get away from me,” he told her and stalked past. “I need to be alone.” He heard Scarlett cry behind him but he didn’t care. Did he have his soul back? He wasn’t sure, but he was free, and that’s all that mattered. H
e was free and there were others he needed to find.
Find us Joseph. Free us!
Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.
He stepped outside the cavern he’d been held and, in the distance, a white rabbit appeared. He smiled and sprinted after the animal.
PART ONE
Joseph Rose
Chapter 1
Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. This chime played on a loop in Joseph Rose’s head nonstop. The gears upon his top hat constantly moved, winding round and round, giving the man life after it had been ripped from him that one fateful night. Under the blood moon when he’d been bitten by the savage wolf his sister, Scarlett Rose, should have ended his life then and there, but she hadn’t.
Despite test after test and experiment after experiment, it had all gone wrong. From the electric shock therapy to injecting him with concoctions the doctors had created, nothing worked; each only ended in failure. The worst of the experiments, though, were the shock treatments. The nurse would place a leather strap in his mouth, then whisper, “Soon, it’ll all be over and you’ll be yourself once more.” She would smile down at him, and often, the smile would shift . . . it would change into something horrific. Joseph hadn’t been sure if it was the meds injected into him or the shock therapy fucking with his mind.
The curse that came with being bit under the blood moon should have been death. It was worse than any death could bring, though. Death would have been a blessing. The moment he’d been bitten, he’d lost his soul, his mind, and his will to live. Joseph wanted to die, needed to die; it’s what the hunters did. They’d seek out those turned and end them, then and there, but Scarlett wouldn’t have any part of it.