Monster University- Drake

“I look at my prey, I hate what I am. I hate this need to hunt; but I am afraid of death. That is why I am in this situation to begin with… that fear of death… I stand here writing in my ancient diary while I contemplate drain the woman who is sitting alone in the corner…I HATE MYSELF!”

Drake put his journal in his desk and turned the key, locking it away. He looked at the mess of people. He had a party each week; a part of him, that he hated, needed them. He had tried to go without. He had tried so many times. So many times it would drive him mad and he would satisfy this thirst in the most horrific of ways.

He is grateful for his roommates. Cameron, Frank and Lucas all understand the curse he lives with; the death he must inflict so he could live. He is happy he found them many centuries ago. With this new world they knew they had to blend in, so they decided to mainstream and go to college. So many careers demanded the paper over experience. Maybe next time he could be one of the business owners. They were what the dean had called freshmen.

He is far from a fresh man… he died over five hundred years ago, but afraid of death he took a deal to grant him immortality. He has been called many things; in fact, he is the basis of that silly little book Dracula.

He knew Bram Stoker; a crazy little man who was obsessed with the beings that went bump into the night. Ever since Drake had tried to drain him, that was until he tasted his blood; they had tainted it with holy water; sadly, the little insane man thought it worked against vampires. In a way, he was right; it only worked because he believed it would. Holy objects only work if the person believes it does. He was only evil in the fact he needed fresh flowing blood to live.

After all, in the blood is the very essence of the soul. Blood is life, it is why most ‘monsters’ crave it. Blood is life. And without life, there is death. He hated that part of this curse. He didn’t really think when he was offered the escape from death. After all, his fear back then was not living up to his family name. Dying before he could prove himself as a Dracula! He should have taken time to think; but he was dying, and he became a killer who shattered the lives of not only his victims, but of their entire families.

Cameron is the one that suggested coming to the new world. So they took the chance. It was a chance to start over somewhere new. There were many places in Europe where they were still hunted. They bought a house, bought some fake documents and signed up for college. Good Lord, what they would do without their contacts they didn’t know, and Bo was one of the best at getting the fakes with Sebastian. After all, what could it hurt to come to a new world? To live some place different for once. Besides their victims…

Sadly, they cannot escape their curses. Some may be have clauses in their curses but he has never meet one to escape their curses. Nobody had ever escaped. Nobody ever would. They can be changed, they can be amended, but they would all remain forever cursed.

Drake sighed and walked- well glided- over to his prey. He watched in her eyes as he flashed an award winning smile and sat down next to her. “Hello, my dear. I am Drake.” Drake knew nobody was immune to his charms, his thrall. After all, Old Man Abe had something right about vampires. Thrall, blood draining, hell he even had the brides correct, but he never kept them for long. He sent them out on their own after he had his fill. After all, after a while the Thrall would wear off and well new vampires who weren’t controlled were never fun to deal with; and he for sure didn’t have the patience. Which is why since Old Man Abe killed his last three he never made any more, he didn’t have the patience to deal with them. Only his true brides would be forever loyal. He flashed his smile and started his thrall toward his prey.

“Hi…” She started and blushed. The blood to her face made Drake’s desire for her blood stronger. “I am Sam.” She was a shy, timid woman.

“Nice to meet you, Sam.” Drake took her hand in his, and held it there. “Would you like a tour of the house? Maybe a drink?” Drake pulled her up with him.

“That would be great.” She said and got up to go with him; she seemed to bask in his attention.

Drake kept her hand and grabbed a potent drink from Lucas along the way. “Well, let’s start down stairs…” Drake started and led the shy young Sam to his room. There was a reason he chose this type of woman. Shy, timid, not many friends, far from home, would be a few days before she was noticed missing. She was the perfect prey.

“Oh, your room is in the basement…” Sam said in shock when they walked into his windowless room.

“Oh, yes, this is my room.” Drake came up behind her. “Do you like it?” Drake asked as he pushed her hair away from her neck. He bent and kissed her neck before she could respond. He touched the tip of his tongue to her neck and heard her gasp for breath.

Sam was torn between fear and desire. She had come to this party on her friend’s suggestion, and then her friend had left her when she went to dance with her newest boyfriend. “I…”

Drake turned her around and kissed her; and pushed her toward his bed. He felt as she fell back onto the bed and he climbed in with her. “I hope you do…” Drake laid down almost on top of her and planted a string of kisses along her neck.

“Drake…” Sam struggled for thought, but she knew she didn’t want this. “Stop.”

“No…” Drake said, and he felt his fangs extend. He struggled against the monster within himself. He tried to push himself away from her, but he was too weak… he had gone too long without the flowing blood of life.

“NO!” Sam struggled to get free. She screamed and hoped that someone heard her; never knowing the rooms in the house were built to be sound proof for many different reasons. Then she went silent when she felt the pain in her neck.

Drake bit her. He hit the sweet spot where the blood flowed quickly and freely and he started to drain her. She went silent with the first bite, but she continued to struggle.

Sam tried to get away, but she started to get weaker and weaker. Soon she could not move… and she felt cold.

Drake knew when she gave up. He knew the moment she accepted her death, and a tear escaped his eye as he completely drained her. Once the last drop was gone, he rolled to the side, and exhausted from his gluttony of blood, passed out.

Drake awoke the next day and looked at the body beside him. Sam’s eyes staring into space; clouded over with death. He sighed and picked up the phone.

On the fourth ring it picked up. “Tony’s Cement Shoes. You Kill ‘Em, We Sink ‘Em.”

Drake sighed, but only those who Tony trusted would have the number, anyway. “Is Tony in?” Drake asked.

“Drake, my man! Tony is on his way to your house. He knows when you have a ‘party’.” The person on the other line stated.

Drake could almost see the quotation marks that he was sure Tony’s clerk, and nephew, had made. “Bleu, very funny. Tell your uncle to charge the account.” Drake hung up the phone. He looked at the body for a moment, shook his head and wrapped it in the white sheet; just a few spots of blood on it. Drake took one last look at the scene and then at the time. He picked up his books and left for class. He pushed the body of the young woman, whose name had been Sam, out of his head; never to be thought of again… Or at least he told himself as he pushed her from his thoughts…

Monster University-Rachael

Story One

Rachael

“I watch the monsters day in and day out. They never notice me the lowly human. But I watch them. I know them. I know their weaknesses, their strengths, their desires. They don’t think anybody could ever figure it out. Ha! One only has to watch and listen to see what is really going on. Nobody watches. And nobody pays attention to the dying girl. The girl that is quiet and mousey, the girl that doesn’t say two words unless she is in class or spoken too. No nobody notices the dying girl. And because of that, I can watch them. Study the monsters. And learn how to kill them. I don’t have the strength to kill them. To get rid of the evil that plagues this town. But I hope that some day that humanity won’t be lost to them. I hope that some day that someone will have the strength to take them down. But I watch. That is all I can do. Watch and record. And now I want to share this all with you. Share with you how I came to find out how things go bump in the night. And the stories of Monster University.”

Rachael sat and watched the new students. Rachael was a professional student. She chose this life because she was dying. She always knew she would die young. Terminal Genetic Conditions. She snorted. People ignored her. She was always quiet. Afraid of trying to find friends. Afraid of falling in love. Why do so when you are just going to leave them? Even her parents were distant after they diagnosed her at eight. Two years later, her very healthy baby brother and sister were born. They were the only ones she really cared about in life, anyway. She always sacrificed for her brother and sister. They were her life. She gave them everything that she refused to give anybody else. Because of that, most people thought she was lost in her head a lot. Her books, her stories, her writings and musings. That she refused to get a job, even with her many degrees. Cemented that she was a bit touched in the head. But really, she was watching. Observing. Writing what she saw. And as the new students moved in and the town got a new bar, a new restaurant, new businesses… okay, let’s be honest, not that strange. They were in a college town and people moved in and out all the time. Sometimes families moved to be with their kids; sometimes people moved to make a go of a business in a college town that would have many people for at least eight of the twelve months of the year. The bonus with this town is that it was very, very close to the larger towns in the state. And was considered a larger town in of itself. So even ‘seasonal’ businesses could make a go of things year round.

One day Rachael was helping with the registrations. And she noticed some strange behavior in a group of kids. Now it was a college campus, and strange and abnormal behavior was normal. But some of these kids were speaking as if they were misplaced out of time. They dressed as if they looked into a catalog and just picked clothing to mimic what the model was wearing.

So, Rachael did what Rachael did best and observed them. She watched them every day and eavesdropped in on their conversations. She wrote down everything. She listed everything. She discovered the truth not long after they all started. They never noticed her and talked around her. They were monsters! Vampires, werewolves, mummies, zombies, undead killers, they were all real! What could she do?

She knew she could never fight these monsters. Instead, she stayed in the shadows. She documented the monsters. She watched them day in and day out. She was dying, and they killed to live. It made her mad. It pissed her off. She watched them kill to live. She watched them kill for sport. She watched them laugh about it. She watched them live life when she would die.

She vowed somehow that people would know their stories. Their weaknesses and their powers and their rituals; so that one day people could rise and bring them down. She wrote these stories and hid them when she was finished.

She followed them. She got to know them. She probably knew them better than they knew each other. This went on for months. She would put the pieces together. And being a woman who was used to being in the shadows, she knew how to stay hidden.

One day Rachael had just finished documenting the last of the monsters in town. She found the rituals they had to perform. Their weaknesses. And their strengths. She wrote them as short stories. She left the bank to be surrounded by the very monsters she had been hunting. She had messed up just a few days before. She had known it too. She had gotten so angry that one of the women was so bored with life that she was just going through the motions. That she kept doing her rituals only so she wouldn’t have to pay the price of burning in hell.

Rachael yelled at her when she went to the bar to watch one of the last monsters. She had yelled that she wished that she could live. She wished that she had the opportunity that the soul sucking monster she was had; but she was dying. She messed up and quickly finished her documents. She had to. Her will stated to publish them. To publish them as fiction so that way people would read them. But those who were smart, those who could put the pieces together, that they would understand that they were after a while. And maybe one day hunt them down and destroy them all.

Now she stood surrounded by them. Taken into a back alley into the city. She swallowed. She took a deep breath. She closed her eyes, for she knew her time had come. She asked one thing. “Let my parents bury my body…” She whispered as her world went black.

“These are my words. My stories. Read them. Understand them. And watch for the monsters hidden within our society. If you are reading this. You know my story. A girl who died too young. Her genetic condition taking her quickly as she left her ultimate piece of work in a safe deposit box to finish. These are my last words. I know when I leave this bank I will die. Be aware of the surrounding people. You never know which may hide a monster within. And if you are brave enough, strong enough, powerful enough… Please finish what I wanted to start and destroy them all…”

Monster University

I will start republishing the stories of the 1st set of Monster University Short Storiee. 1 or 2 a day.

The reason, is that I do want to complete the 2nd set. Throughout the next few months. I will post them as I complete them.

Newly edited.

Each with its own cover.

Exclusive to my website.

Will post 2 today.

I hope you enjoy them!

Raven’s Second Fall

A Monster University Story
All Rights Reserved

“Demons aren’t supposed to feel the virtues. We can feel the Deadly Sins. My favorite has been lust. Sex is something in of itself. When I was warned to stay away from the Angel, of course I didn’t. I started going to the bar and talking with her. Flirting with her. When she moved and became a cadet at the police academy, I would make sure to run into her when she came to work random shifts at the bar. Or even when she came to the diner or bar to talk to Morgan and Jo. When I first realized my lust had skidded into the unmentionable virtue and I was going into a downward spiral of appreciation and… affection, I started to sleep with anybody and everybody. I was running from the feelings, of course, I am a Demon! I don’t… love… I went home with a different mortal each night, had se, made a deal, and then did t again to keep my thoughts off the Angel. And I did this until it didn’t work, and I started calling her name no matter the body I was with at the time. So, I started causing battles with her instead… Sometimes fighting could be just as good as sex…”

Raven sat upon the bar stool at Jo’s, he had no real idea why he was here. I stopped picking up random mortals, the high just wasn’t there anymore. The Angel had destroyed him. He went from the model Demon to… to this excuse for an immortal Earl of Hell. If his minions saw him now, they would revolt, rebel, they would re-something anyways. The Angel. That was why he sat at the bar with a beer and was depressed. He sat watching her bring out her wings, it was past closing time and no mortals were in the bar. They were almost all gold, meaning she still tried to be a good little Angel. Sinning only when needed, a lie here, a lie there, about her past. Or stealing to live. There are grey’s too. Her sins she had chosen. Cursing is what she told Jo, but Raven wondered if any of them were lust. If she had given into any of the Deadly Sins. He got up and made his way towards the girls. Drunk enough now to be stupid enough to ask the question. Frank and Lucas grabbed his arm. “Let me go.” He slurred out as he tried to continue that way. He had to ask HIS Angel a question.

“You are drunk,” Lucas drawled. “Sit down.”

“I gotta ask the angel a question!”

“Why?” Frank didn’t really care, he was just trying to delay him from going over there and embarrassing himself. Anybody with even a half of brain can figure out the Demon fell once more, this time for a Fallen Angel that had the power to say no to Satan.

“Because she makes me a worse demon than the one in the book she has fallen in love with!”

“Which one is that?” Lucas sat back with his hands behind his head and smirked.

“That one! Where the angel, who really revels in the deadly sins, and the demon hid the fact that he reveled in the virtues. The pair she calls the ineffable husbands! That demon is a disgrace to demons! Cares about kids, kind regards of what he says, in love with a blood sinning angel! And I gotta ask MY Angel a question! While I am drunk! Or I won’t be able to ask her!”

Lucas let go, “well, go on, I am curious what question could make a demon nervous!” He laughed as he drained the rest of his beer.

Frank looked like he wanted to protest, but he let Raven go; it would at least give them some entertainment while his mother and Bo were out spoiling his daughter.

Raven stumbled over there. “Angel! Angel!”

Alyssa looked at Raven and tilted her head. “What is it, Raum?” She still insisted on calling him by his real name.

He smirked, “You want to keep calling me by my name, perhaps I should call you by yours, after all your signal is still branded upon the back of your neck.”

“What is it you want, Raum?” Alyssa sighed, it wasn’t like anybody couldn’t look up who she was, it was obvious after all, her signal, as she kept her hair short.

“Well, Anael, I was wondering, if any of your grey feathers are because you have had sex?”

Alyssa spit out her drink. “What? No! And the feathers would be a deep rich royal blue if I gave into lust. Even if there is love behind it. Alyssa was growing flustered at the questions. She knew he was just picking another fight, and she didn’t feel like fixing up the bar, again. “Leave me alone, Raum.”

Raven sneered and then jumped. “Come one, Anael, you think you are so much better than me! We are both FALLEN! We are both the same!” He threw her against the wall, it buckled under the force and broke the frames that were upon it.

“WE ARE NOT THE SAME!” Alyssa screamed as she used her wings to push herself from the wall and push him back. Before she took to the air and used gravity to come down upon him with her full strength, pushing him through the floor.

The fight was destroying the bar, Jo was a bit peeved, but it wasn’t anything that hadn’t happened before. Raven moved and finally got an amulet around her neck. And with that it gave him the boost he needed, along with his connection to hell, to get her on the ground.

“It is the eleventh hour, what will you do dear Angel?” Raven smirked as he held her throat in his fist.

“Let me go, Raum!” She struggled to be let go. “Where did you get this amulet?”

“At my eleventh hour, I had implemented plans A thru Z on how to get over you, I had gone into apocalypse mode and put all my avoidance skills to the test. But I can’t get you out of my mind or heart. If I can’t have you in a romantic way, I will have you thinking I am the enemy. After all, fighting can be as good as sex, when one wins dominance.”

Alyssa used what strength she had, though it was being contained by the blood stone forged in hell, a blood stone that was once the soul of an angel made diamond, corrupted by hell, around her neck. It was just enough to push him back, and his back hit window busting it, but not going through it.

“If you want me come,” Alyssa panted out, it had been three hours of none stop battling and it was now the Devil’s hour. “Come and get me.” She stood but swayed.

Raven paused and smirked, he rubbed the sweat and blood from his face and kept his hand upon his chin as if in thought. “Want you in what way, Angel? Don’t get me wrong, both involve ropes, but it is an important distinction to make before we proceed.”

Alyssa blinked, “what on this forsaken Earth do you mean?”

“Think about it a moment Angel, what else could I do while I had you tied down?”

Alyssa’s eyes went wide, and she sputtered. ‘You think I mean sex?” She dropped the pool cue she had been using. “I can’t have sex! I am an Angel! It would mean giving in to the Deadly Sins!”

Raven moved closer, “you are a Fallen, Angel. That means you can give into any sin you want. Including the Deadlies. I think you would look perfect with Royal Blue Wings. Only sin a deadly can’t over take is murder. A few black with the Royal Blues, maybe some Violet for that Pride of yours.” He was right up close to her, his own pool cue, long forgotten. “Come on Angel, join me in the Sins.” He unleashed his own wings.

Alyssa gasped, she saw the Wrath Red, Lust Royal Blue, Sloth Sky Blue, Gluttony Orange, Greed Yellow, and Envious Green. Al of them mixed black. It made her swallow. They were gorgeous. She backed up and her back hit the wall.

Raven smirked as he sauntered towards her and pined her between his arms. “See what they could become? Come join me, Angel.” He brushed his lips against her skin. “You are a Fallen. You can do what you want. You are a free agent. You aren’t even bound by Hell, not like I am. So, join me, join our own side.” He smirked, he could quote her favorite book. “You ruined me you know.” He placed one hand on her hip. “I can’t even be a good demon. I am stuck in this look of that unmentionable virtue, a downward spiral of admiration and affection.” He kissed her neck again. “Join me…” He kissed up her neck until his lips hovered over hers. “Join me in our second fall.”

“Raum…” Alyssa bit her lip. He was tempting her, so tempting to let him lead her down that rabbit hole. “I… I was…” Alyssa swallowed, “I was always the purist of Angels. I fell for my love of humanity. I fell to save a human, because I loved them. I love these damned broken souls. If I give in, them that angel I was is truly gone. And never coming back.”

“That is a good thing!” Raven placed his other hand on her hip and pulled her towards him. “Do you want to be that angel that followed orders like a good little girl? Do you want to be the angel that stood by and watched as the beings you love were hurt, killed, tortured, or destroyed? Do you want to be her? Because I didn’t like her! I didn’t love her! I fell for the angel that is becoming a cop. I love the angel that is secretly getting justice and vengeance for those who hurt kids! The spells and the curses and leading our monster family towards them! I never in all the eons I have been alive, as an angel, or as the human that got tricked into making a deal with the devil, or as a demon, ever let myself feel the virtues. Then you skid into my life and destroy me! Not because you are an angel, not because you are GOOD,” he spat the word. “But because you have a set of standards, of rules, you live by! You FELL, because you couldn’t do it any longer. When I was an angel I fell because I didn’t want to choose a side! I became human because I didn’t choose a side, reborn loads of times, before I made a deal with Lucifer, and gave him my soul. I became a demon and remembered everything. You stand for something, I fell for anything because I didn’t. That is why when I fell the second time it was without noticing! It was without resistance! I fell Angel, and it is for who you are now, not who you were then, for this woman standing in front of me right now! With her anything but white wings! With wings that will go from this gold to a deep rich blue, to a deep rich black as you embrace the Fallen Angel of Justice and Vengeance you are! Don’t be afraid to embrace the change… because you are leaving the shallow end, you are leaving the sand, join me! Join me in the ocean of desire, join me on the mountain top of love. Join me Angel in this fall!” He then kissed her with all the lust, want, affection, appreciation, desire, and love he felt for her. When his lungs screamed for the air, he didn’t really need he pulled back. “Join me, Angel. My Earth Angel, join me.”

Alyssa swallowed, she looked up into his eyes, through her lashes, her hands had found their way into his hair during the kiss. She took a breath. She never felt anything like she was feeling now. “Show me.” She straightened and with more confidence stated. “Show me how to Fall.” She stated as she pulled his head back down so she could run her lips over his, whispering, “show me how, Raum.”

Raven pulled her closer and kissed her again and he flapped his wings and used his abilities to disappear from the bar, he felt her powers repair it. He internally chuckled, his Angel would always have the streak of having to do what was right. And he would never change her core being, he just wanted to bring out who she truly was, and that was HIS Angel.

He fell the first time because he was a coward who didn’t want to fight. As a human he made a deal he never should have, and had always regretted, especially after getting his memories back. He no longer regrets it, for as a Demon he finally found his completion, in a Fallen Angel who, was just enough of a saint to hide among the humanity she fell to protect. No, he would never regret his choices, because this second fall, was worth every pain and moment of hell he had ever gone through.

For he fell to meet his Angel.

Sleeping Death

Once upon at time there was a vain Queen and King, they had a child who was as pretty as can be. They hired three witches to bless the child with beauty, grace and pose.

But there was a fourth witch that was not invited. She came to the christening and gave this proclamation. “This beauty, Briar Rose, shall have her beauty, grace and pose, as long as her heart beats within her chest. The moment her heart stops beating, she will lose all three. Her body however shall never die!” The witch then bent and kissed the sleeping beauty on the head.

She turned on her heel and disappeared from the castle, she left to ponder who words, what they meant. The Queen bent and picked up her child; they found the note left by the witch. “Briar Rose shall prick her finger on a spinning wheel on her eighteenth birthday. That prick shall stop her heart from beating, bringing about the curse I have placed upon her.”

The Queen and King were worried about the curse, though they did not know exactly what it meant; did not know how her heart would stop beating but her body would not die? So they sent the baby to live with the three witches they had hired to make sure of their daughter’s beauty, grace and pose.

The years went by and the young Briar Rose grew up with a normal childhood, never once told that she was the heir to a mighty kingdom, which meant that one day she shall be Queen. She grew up as Twila, the ever loving peasant girl, who had the beauty of a queen.

On the morning of her eighteenth birthday she went upon her day as she normally would have; she got up and picked flowers, feed the animals, and went about her day. The witches, that were in charges of raising her, went to her after lunch as they needed to fit her for her new gown. One that was fit for a princess; as she was now of age, she would now go home and become the princess the land needed, it was time to return to the world of royalty.

They did the fitting and left to get some much needed supplies for the birthday celebration that was to happen that night. After all it would be her last night with them and they felt the depressed at that very thought.

Well they were gone; the other witch took her opportunity to lead young Twila to the spindle of her curse. With a bit of magic, she had Twila follow a small bird to the spindle that spun on its own accord, it weaved a string that was black as sin.

The witch used the bird, and spoke in a soft tone, she instructed Twila to prick her finger on the spindle needle. Which, of course, the young princess did, without hesitation. In that very moment her heart stopped beating. She fell to the floor. The three witches appeared instantly, but were too late to stop what had happened. Instead they froze time, they froze her and the kingdom in an endless sleep, that could only be undone by true loves first kiss. So they protected the sleeping kingdom until they could find a cure for the curse on the young princess, however they never found one. For many years, many decades, the kingdom was frozen in time. Many princes to come ‘save’ the sleeping princess, however the witches prevented anybody from reaching the sleeping princess, thus they left her in the frozen state.

One day a prince from a far away kingdom heard of the sleeping kingdom and thought of the land to be gained from such a union. So he set out across he many lands to get to the kingdom. Once there he faced the three witches, the first put up a field of knifes and spikes, that had to be carefully navigated, and could not be torn down. However this Prince, upon his birth, had been blessed by witches of his own kingdom, with the smarts, and a sword that could cut down any object within its path. He cut through the maze of blades, and made it to the second task set froth by the witches.

He reached a room of fire. The flames would burn through anything. The witches were sure that the prince would never make it through. However, also upon his birth, he was given a shield that would protect him from any supernatural danger. It allowed him to cross the flames of the witches’ passions. It allowed him to face the third and final task.

A monster of the worse sorts, part dragon, part Griffin, colored the deepest of blues with eyes the color of a sunset. A creature that was sure to kill the prince. The prince knew he would defeat it. He was gifted strength, brains and pride upon his birth. He fought though the flames of the creature dodged the spikes upon its tail, evaded the razor sharp teeth that tried to chop down on him, but in the end his sword met the creature’s heart, and it turned to dust.

The three witches looked on in shock as he stood by the bedside of the cursed Princess Briar Rose and he leaned down and kissed her. The moment the kiss ended, she awoke. But she was no longer human, her pale skin, had long ago shrunk. Her beauty she once held was gone; in its place was death. The prince’s kiss had broken the spell which froze time, but not the curse.

The Princess opened her eyes, she got up and then Briar Rose did the unthinkable. She attacked the prince! She bit him. He stabbed her with his sword, but still she came at him. He ran from her, and fell down the stars and broke his neck. The witches waited, their breaths held. They waited to see what would happen now as the undead Briar Rose started to move. Her beauty, her grace, and her pose all gone from her once lovely soul. She did not grow up royal; yet she is the one that paid for the sins of her parents.

The witches watched as the prince’s body also started to move. The curse had extended itself to her victims. The witches watched as Briar Rose set the neck of her undead prince and they went off together, to wreak havoc among their kingdom.

The Queen locked herself in her chambers and cried out in pain as she watched her kingdom become the kingdom of the undead. She cried out to the witch that placed the curse upon her daughter, the one they didn’t invite because of her views of the world. “Hekate! Come to me! I beg you! Come to me! Make me a deal!” The Queen needed to stop the pain of her soul, the pain of seeing her daughter as a zombie. Her soul was drowning in the pain.

“You called Queen Emma?” Hekate appeared.

“Make me a deal! Anything! Reverse your curse! Allow my daughter a life full of happy ever afters.”

“You put you and your family above your people. You hired witches to bless your children, though you know it curses another! You make sure your children know all the comforts of life, while your people go hungry, while they freeze, they know all the hardness and pain, while you and your children know only comfort and joy! And you have the nerve to ask me to reverse the curse? To reset time?”

“Yes! Please I will do anything!” The Queen begged.

“Fine. I will reset time on these conditions and these alone! One, the child will be raised far from you. She shall be raised a poor child, that way when she is queen she will be fair. Two, no longer will you hire the witches to bless the children of royalty. Instead each child born in the kingdom will be bestowed one blessing and one hardship to overcome. And last but not least, your life for hers. You shall die in her place. It is the only way I can reverse time. I need to balance the universe. I took her soul, her life, so yours will be the price to save hers.” Hekate said with a sneer, sure the Queen would not take the offer.

The Queen looked out the window and watched as her daughter took a spoon and scooped out a heart from some poor soul and watched as she ate it. She could not bear this pain. Death would be welcomed for a chance her daughter would live. “Deal.”

Hekate was in shock. “So be it!” Hekate snapped her fingers and time reversed, the conditions now set in blood and soul.

“King Richard! You have a beautiful baby girl! Briar Rose! She was gifted with grace, but cursed with the inability to sing.”

“Fantastic!” The King said with a smile.

“But my King, we regret to inform you the Queen has died in child birth…”

“My wife is gone…?”

“She looked at her daughter and said ‘For you my life.” Then she decreed that she shall be raised by the three witches away from the kingdom until her eighteenth birthday, when she will marry and she said she shall become the queen she never was, then she passed, sir.”

“Then may her wishes be fulfilled.” The King stated and walked way from the servant and his daughter, who would never know the curse once bestowed upon her…