Once upon a time there lived an old woman who was incredibly vain. She liked to use an elixir to remain young and beautiful, but one day as she was collecting herbs for her elixir, she stumbled upon an infant left all alone. This woman while self-centered and vain, was also secretly lonely. She took this child in and raised her as her own. She taught the young girl everything she knew about alchemy and herbs, eventually even revealing her knowledge of the secret elixir.

This young girl, who the woman had named Rapunzel, grew up all alone locked up in a tower in the middle of a secret grove, hidden away from the world. To pass the time, until her mother would come by, she would make potion after potion, each capable of different things. Eventually she would make her mothers elixir for her. This went on for some time until the mother forgot how to make it herself.

One day the girl was tired of being by herself locked up in the tower, with only her mother as infrequent company. So she stopped making the elixir and demanded that her mother stay with her permanently or allow her to leave. The mother seeing the behavior of her daughter became enraged that she would not make her elixir anymore. Rapunzel realized that her mother cared more for her youth and beauty then she did about her daughter. Overcome with emotion, Rapunzel picked up a knife and stabbed her mother in the heart. The mother was so shocked she fell down on the floor where she had stood looking up at Rapunzel. But the girl claimed that if her mother truly did not love her and had no heart then she should have nothing to fear, for she would not die.

However the woman began to grow quite old and withered in appearance as more of her blood flowed out of her wound. As Rapunzel watched her mother fade and die, she came to the conclusion that her mother really did have a heart; it just had never belonged to Rapunzel. Once her mother's body had become dust and ash on the floor, she set about cleaning the area up, her long hair trailing along behind her. At first Rapunzel was happy and felt free, and she devoted her time to her studies and experiments. But eventually she became lonely again, as now no one came and visited her anymore.

One day a young man came stumbling through the grove having gotten lost on his way to his destination. As he came upon the tower he looked up and saw a beautiful woman with golden hair shining in the sun looking down at him in surprise. Calling up to her, he said, "My fair lady, I have gotten lost on my way to town, would you mind telling me where I am?"

Seizing her chance for company she called back down to him, "If you were to join me up here I show you the way more easily, my prince."

Enchanted by her beauty, he looked around for a door, but could not find one. "My Lady, how am to join you if there is no door?"

Looking down at the young man, anticipation having made her forget one important detail, called out, "I will toss my hair out the window, for it is long enough to reach you and stronger than any rope. You may climb up it to reach me."

Finding it strange that she wanted him to climb up her hair, the young man looked up to see cascades of golden locks come billowing down from the window high above the ground. It trailed down the length of the tower and fell in a small pile at his feet. Grabbing hold of the tresses with both hands, he tentatively pulled himself up. Continuing to use her hair as a rope, he climbed all the way to the top of tower, reaching the window and falling inside. Once he had gotten in, he looked up to see the maiden who had helped him. She was small and lithe with glowing green eyes; he also realized that her hair was much longer than he had at first thought. It hung draped from the rafters and around furniture, making several circuits around the room.

As he stood up she gave him a large cheerful smile almost as radiant as her hair. The room they were standing in was spacious even though it was small; the walls were made of brickwork that was interspersed with red and brown flecks. The ceiling was high and made of darker brickwork, there was a small window high up showing a bit of the sky. Other than that the tower was pretty sparse and lonesome looking.

She came up over to him and looked him up and down, staring intently into his face and every little detail she thought interesting. "My name is Fredrick, I'm a tailor in the city to the west. However on my way back from visiting another town I became distracted and before I knew it, I had gotten lost in these woods."

"Oh, no, that is terrible. I am called Rapunzel." She said leaning into him, her smile bright as she looked up at him. "But do not fear, for now you have met me."

Drawn in by her glittering eyes, he moved further into the tower following her as she led him deeper into the room. He soon realized the tower was bigger on the inside, much bigger than it looked. There were other smaller rooms spiraling out from the main room. One them had food set out as if she were about to eat when he showed up.

"I'm sorry, if I disturbed your meal." He said a bit sheepishly.

"Not at all." She said over shoulder coyly at him, "In fact I would much rather eat with someone, rather than by myself. Your timing was perfect."

And with that she sat down at the table and beckoned him to sit down opposite her. Forgetting why he was there in the first place, he obliged her and sat down at the table. They had a pleasant meal together, he told her tales of the city he lives in and the adventures he had been on. They laughed together and hours passed without either noticing.

Once the sun had started to go down, Fredrick came to his senses and realized that he had spent too much time in the tower, he should have been home by this time. When he broached the topic with Rapunzel, she seemed to go quiet and turned away from him. "Why don't you just stay here with me instead?"

Her question startled him and he took a step away unknowingly. "I'm sorry Rapunzel, but I can't do that. I have a job waiting for me and responsibilities that I need to oversee. I really enjoyed getting to know you, and I promise I'll come back and visit you."

Rapunzel stayed quiet, her back still to him, "I had fun with you too." She eventually said in a small voice. "You could just forget everything out there and stay with me forever."

Feeling bad for how the wonderful day was ending, Fredrick took a few steps toward her. "Please don't be sad, I mean it, I promise I'll come back soon to visit you." He put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Before he could even take a step away from her in surprise, Rapunzel whipped around and hit Fredrick in the head with a frying pan. Without a single word, Fredrick toppled over onto the ground, crumpling into a pile at Rapunzel's feet. There was a small trickle of blood coming from his head, but other than that he seemed to be breathing.

Taking a deep breath and setting the frying pan down, Rapunzel grabbed him under both arms and as best she could carried/dragged Fredrick over to a cushioned chair. Once she had pulled him up into a sitting position, she proceeded to get strands of rope and tie him to the chair. Before long, Fredrick woke up a little groggy and his head feeling wrapped in fog.

"What happened?" he asked his voice thick as a moan left his lips.

He looked up and surveyed the room around him as it slowly came back to him where he was and what had happened. The room had gone very dark, but he could just make out a figure sitting on the table in the far corner from where he was. As he tried to get up, something caught him around the waist and arms keeping him seated. He looked down and saw that he was tied tightly to the chair he was sitting in, not able to budge an inch.

"Why did you tie me up?" his panic started to rise, but he forced himself to remain calm.

Rapunzel got up slowly from where she was sitting shrouded in darkness, and walked over to him, almost in a lazy manner, like she had all the time in the day or night for that matter. As she came more into the light and Fredrick could make out her face better, she still wore that cheerful bright smile, as if nothing was different. She continued to walk around, until she was directly behind him, then she said right by his ear, "Did you have nice nap, Fredrick?"

Confused, he tried to turn his head toward her, but could only see her in peripheral. "Why are you doing this?"

She came back around until she was facing him again, "I'm lonely Fredrick." She said, her voice low and sad. "Do you know what it's like growing up without friends, only your mother coming by every-now-and-then to see you. And then even she doesn't come by anymore. You're just left here all by yourself, day in and day out."

"Then why don't you leave?" he asked

"Because the world out there is full of evil people doing evil things." She turned away from him and walked back over to the table. "It's much safer if we just stay here together forever."

Fredrick was very confused, the only evil he saw was Rapunzel, the darkness that swirled inside her eyes, the gleam in her smile. What he was no longer confused about was the fact that his life was in danger; he had no idea how Rapunzel planned on keeping him here. "What are you going to do?" he asked hesitantly.

But Rapunzel did not answer him, instead she moved off into the kitchen where Fredrick could here sounds of her bustling around as if to make breakfast. Seizing the chance while she was busy in the other room, Fredrick began to pull and twist the ropes binding him to loosen them up. As he was doing this, he managed to slip one of the strands off the chair arm and thus allowed his hand to pull out although is chafed some skin off in the process.

Having managed to loosen the rope, he proceeded with working the others off as fast and as silently as he could. Once that was accomplished and he was free of the chair, he slowly stood up and made his way to the window. Fredrick was not sure how he was going to get down, but anything was better than staying here in the tower. He had almost made it to the window when he felt a great weight land on his back forcing him down onto the ground. Something rough slipped around his throat and tightened until he could no longer breath.

"You were going to leave me?" Rapunzel shouted next to his ear. "After everything we shared, all we meant to each other? You were just going to leave me here all alone again?" her voice became manic as she tightened the rope more around his throat.

Fredrick struggled against the ropes as they dug into his skin, he was starting to run out of air. Rapunzel was stronger than she looked; her grip was unbreakable. Realizing in a panic that this might be his last moments on earth, Fredrick gave one last heave to try to break away, but he could not break the rope around his throat. As his vision started to dim, Fredrick's last thought was that he should have just stayed home, after all the stars were not in the proper alignment to be traveling anyway.

Once his body had gone limp, Rapunzel released her hold on the rope, her fingers still stiff from holding them in a clenched position for so long. Suddenly all her energy went out of her and she collapsed gasping onto Fredrick's still warm back. As she lay there next to him she contemplated what she had just done. Did she really just kill someone, sure she had stabbed her mother, but it was her mother's fault for having a heart and never sharing it will Rapunzel. Naturally if she had been as heartless as Rapunzel had thought her to be, she wouldn't have died from a simple stab wound. As Rapunzel continued to catch her breath, she heard a slight moan come from underneath her.

"Fredrick?" she asked as she propped herself up on her elbows.

Fredrick's body lay motionless and growing colder by the second under her, Rapunzel drew her face closer to his. Another soft moan escaped his mouth; she swiftly rolled him over so he was face up. His pale eyes looked up at her blankly, "Fredrick?"

His lips didn't move, but she could have sworn he moaned again just now. "Oh Fredrick, thank goodness. I didn't hurt you did I?" she said as she got up in a kneeling position.

Rapunzel stared at his face for a moment, "Oh, good. I'm glad to hear that I didn't hurt you." She stood up and looked down at his pale face. "What's that? You need help up?"

She grabbed ahold of Fredrick's shirt on either side and pulled his upper body up until he was sitting slouched forward slightly. Then she proceeded to get behind him and put her arms under his and with a combination of pulling and dragging she managed to get him sitting properly in a chair. Once that was done Rapunzel pulled up another chair close by and sat down next to him.

"I'm so glad that you decided to stay, Fredrick." She said as she leaned closer and kissed him on the cheek, "We're going to have so much fun together."

"Forever."

A young man stumbles into an unknown grove, he looks lost and disorientated as he slowly makes his way over to the lone tower looming in the middle of the glade. Seeing a light up in the single window he calls up hopefully, "Hello up there, I'm lost. Can you help me find my way back to town?"

As he waits expectantly, a long trail of golden hair flies out of the window. Shining in the last rays of the sun as it comes to a small pile at his feet. Entranced, the young man puts his hand on the silky hair and begins to climb up to the solitary window where a pair of glowing green eyes await him.

The End

Hope you enjoyed your little jaunt through the dark and twisted depths of my mind, but beware, this is only the tip of the iceberg...

comments and critiques are welcome