Ever After

For every fairy tale fan - An ideal bed-time story for children of all ages   

Once upon a time a princess, pure of heart, whose loveliness no poet dare impart, lived locked within the highest tower, her lot to bide the daylight hours, without solace or respite. The tower’s guard was, the familiar and the feared, a fire breathing dragon, to whom she would adhere. The princess stood day after day at the only window, and there she’d pray a prince, brave and bold, might hear of her plight and take upon himself the heroic deed of dispatching the dragon.

Until one day, as she waited, pondered on her prince belated, she thought to herself “Fuck this. I refuse to inhabit the position forced upon me. I won’t be enslaved by the oppressive ideology embedded within the conventions of this narrative”. And so the princess, disposing all poetic devices and other pretensions, chose to ignore the expectation that a woman should be a symbolic object, a trophy contending to the egotistical desires of dominant male subjects, and incapable of anything else. She picked the lock on the tower door with her metal hair pin and, intent on revenge, descended the staircase.

 

A mass of corpses; evidence of the dragons permanency, lay decomposing at the towers base. She contemplated having to extend, to the creature, deaths invitation. Then she noticed a particularly important detail that all of her post-humorous, would-be saviors seemed to have missed: the dragon didn’t care much for instigating violence, nor was it particularly concerned with the princess’s escape. The dragon seemed content wandering about placidly, eating fruit that had fallen from a near by tree. The princess approached and, once close enough, extended her arm to stroke what little of the dragon’s underbelly she could reach. The dragon, startled by this gesture and understandably hesitant, recoiled at first and then realized the princess was not trying to impale him with a long shiny piece of tempered steel.

“H-H-Hello, k-kind stranger” the dragon spoke softly, “Please keep scratching, if you will, I-I can’t reach that part of my tummy.” Having instantly connected, the two of them, both needing of a little company, spent the next few hours sitting beneath the night sky engaged in a conversation about all manner of things. During this conversation the dragon unintentionally revealed that an evil sorcerer was responsible for the princess’s imprisonment. After a failed attempt to convince her otherwise, the dragon reluctantly agreed to take the princess to this evil sorcerer.

           

Elsewhere, while the king raped the Queen, the nameless prince sat in the adjacent room of the castle, readying his armor.

“I hereby swear that I shall slay the wicked dragon and save the princess”, he bellowed so that the reader might be awe stricken by his phallic masculinity. Without regard for anything but the intended task, the prince entered the throne room, un-caring that his armor had damaged the delicate wooden archway in passing. He wished his father goodbye and then set off. The king, not bothering to withdraw from inside the queen, shouted over his shoulder “Good luck on your noble quest my beloved son”.

 

With the dragons help the princess soon reached her destination, finding there, the evil sorcerer hunched over an open book, inside a modest, candle lit dwelling of clay and straw. The air inside this dwelling was warm and smelt vaguely of jasmine. He sat crossed-legged, books piled around him, in the centre of a massive pentagram that had been etched into the concrete floor.

Her voice like ice, she spoke “I want answers sorcerer. Why imprison me within that tower? What have I done to make you want such a thing?”

He looked up at her, startled by her presence at first and then in a moment of recognition he replied “I wanted no such thing and please don’t call me that”. He was quite attractive the princess noticed as the candle light danced across his pale face.

“Why then?” she said

 “Why do you think?” he replied and she responded with impatient eyes. He stood up to meet her glance. “The narrative requires of me a suitable antagonist to create conflict and convey the traditional humanist theme of good triumphing over evil, blah-d, blah, blah” he spoke in a dry tone. He sighed and broke eye contact “and what better villain for a prince to dispatch than one with a belief system that is feared by dominant ideology.” The princess noted then that the books scattered beneath their feet were not of sorcery per say. He obviously dabbled in the occult but, as it would seem, mostly astrology, with a little Wicca in the mix. There also lay a condensed version of the Christian bible, book-marked and neatly placed beside a recently lit candle. “If you want someone to blame, then blame the king and his son, they orchestrated this whole affair. They and their alike are the puppeteers behind the curtain” he said. She stood silently imploring him with her stone gaze. Conceding defeat, he continued “I’m not a sorcerer, my name is Jake, and I’m sorry I locked you in that tower.”

The princess remained still, taking a moment to process. ”Mine’s Ella and I shall accept your apology Jake, if you grant me but one favour?”

“And what might that favour be?” he asked and she outlined her terms. Soon after, with the dragon’s assistance, she left Jake and returned to the tower to await her prince in shining armor.

 

Before long the prince reached the tower. Coming to a halt and dismounting his white stallion. He moved towards the stairwell entrance on foot, his sword drawn and ready for the dragon. To his disappointment there was none to be seen. He stopped to ponder this a moment then ascended the stairs and pushed the unlocked door open.  The princess stood by the window waiting patiently.

“Fear not my love” the prince announced, “for I have slain the dragon, the wretched creature is no more, and now come quickly I will save you from this place, take you to be my bride and we shall live happily ever after”. The princess remained a statue, silent and un-moving. “Come! Now my love! into my arms!” he demanded. Without saying a word Ella turned to face him, grabbed his wrist, twisted his arm behind his back and collapsed his legs with her foot to the back of his knees. The clank of his armour echoed down the stairwell as he fell to the floor with her on top of him, her knee pressed into the small of his back. She held him down for a few minutes while he struggled like a drowning fish, helpless beneath her wrath.

“This is my revenge for the part you’ve played” she whispered in his ear, then stood and casually walked out the door into the stairwell. Remembering the favour Jake had granted her she paused and reached into her pocket for the key. She locked the tower door and discarded the item. As she again descended the stairs she called out for the dragon, fearing the worst. To her relief he stood waiting for her at the base of the tower. She smiled and stroked his underbelly.

“Should the prince escape will you devour him?” she asked.

“I-i-I’m a vegetarian, I’m sorry, I-i d-don’t eat m-meat and I-i-I’ve only ever killed in s-s-self-defence” the dragon replied.

Scratching him again, she smiled, “that’s ok”. Finding the prince’s stallion not far from the tower, Ella said her farewells to the dragon, promised to return soon, and then set off towards the castle, intent on revenging herself upon the prince’s father.

 

Back in the castle the king was once again upon Queen Kate. She no longer bothered to contest or fight, knowing well enough he would only have his guards hold her down and then perhaps, if he felt particularly charitable, they would take turns with her after. He was more violent than usual on this occasion. She could not help but whimper, choking on the tears as they ran down her face. The sound of her head smashing against the marble throne reverberated through the castle, over and over and over and over. The maid entered the room and placed a bottle of red wine and two glasses on the table.

Chancing an intervention, she said aloud “My lord please do taste th…”.

Queen Kate cut her short “Silence maid, learn you place”. Those five words; a tiny glint of agency; they were all the self-sacrifice that could be conjured, but self-sacrifice they were for all three knew well that were the kind interrupted the maid would have been met with hard words and harder blows. So the maid Kacie withdrew to the back of the room, were she stood silently, her face pale with grief as she witnessed the affair like she’d done countless times before.

 

At that moment Ella entered the room. The guards, presuming she was but a helpless woman, had admitted her entrance without question.

“Now it’s your turn to pay for your part in this” she said to the king.

 He climbed off of Kate, stood and turned to face Ella, “Hold your tongue! Though a princess you may be, a woman you are and how dare you interrupt the queen and I! Now where is my brave son? Why are you not on his arm?” he said.

“Why he remains in the tower my sweet king”. She grabbed his shoulder, applied force and stepping around him kicked his calf with the back of her foot. He fell backwards onto the floor with a thud. Hearing the noise two guards rushed in.

“What is all this about?” one of them spoke.

“Guards, restrain her now!” the king ordered and the guards complied, each taking an arm and holding it behind her back.

“Shall we throw her in the dungeon my lord”

“No, tie her up in that corner and then leave us be, ill deal with this whore in a moment”

“As you wish my lord”. The guards tied Ella’s arms behind her back and her legs together. They gagged her with a piece of cloth, shoved her so that she fell down in the corner, and then left the room.

 

“My queen, thou art as beautiful as the morning sky, this I have said time and time again, and shall do ever after” said the king as he quickly finished with the queen. He filled both glasses with wine and handed one to Kate. He raised his glass and tilted it slightly forward. “To you and I, my love” he said warmly, the words like salt to an open cut. Kate’s glass slipped through her fingers, hit the floor and shattered. The king became infuriated by this. Slamming his own glass down upon the table he grabbed Kate by the throat with both hands. He choked her until the color of her face faded to a deep purple and her eyes began to roll back into her head. Then he relinquished his hold, leaving her to suffer, gasping for air. “You know you bring this down upon yourself, if only you could hold a simple wine glass!...and you! Maid! Clean that up now” he shouted as he shifted his attention towards Ella, turning his back on Kacie and Kate. “Now to deal with you little bitch” he said through a sadistic smile. At that moment something happened to Kacie, some invisible boundary broke, and behind it something dark and beautiful flourished: a perfect rage. She chose to ignore the expectation that a woman should not differentiate herself from a doormat. She picked up the base and neck of the broken wine glass, which had remained in one piece. From behind she forced the broken glass into the king’s rib cage, making sure to cover his mouth with her free hand so that he couldn’t scream for help. She twisted the glass and pushed it in deeper until the king went limp in her arms. Then she carefully, not out of reverence but rather a need for stealth, laid the corpse down upon floor.

 

 Kate’s body sat naked, exposed, her back arched and pressed against the throne, her hands quaintly on her lap. Her body shivered without her wanting it to, and convulsed on occasion. Her eyes stared blankly at nothing in front of her. Kacie, after untying

Ella and disappearing into another room, reappeared with a cotton sheet, and a pail of warm water. She tended to Kate’s wounds and covered Kate’s body.

Embracing her tenderly, she whispered into Kate’s ear “Never after”. These words seemed to revive her. Her eyes slowly came to life and danced about the room absorbing all. She wept, a little at first, and then uncontrollably. The two sat this way for some time, limbs clumsily entangled, neither wanting to let the other go. Ella waited patiently by the archway, respectfully watching as Kacie and Kate shared this brief moment of intimacy. “Its ok now” Kacie said, kissed Kate softly on the lips and then withdrew from the embrace.

“The king’s guards… they will surely kill us all” Ella said indifferently.

“Probably” Kate replied “but first let them see how weak I am when I’m not being held down”. She took the kings sword from his lifeless body.

by zer0 (Viewed 179 times)