Through The Looking Glass

By: Ruler Ra

If this were some kind of fairy tale it would sound something like this-

Once upon a time…

There was a brave and charming prince that saved a beautiful princess, who was trapped by her stepmother, who was also a very wicked witch. Several dwarves and animals helped him defeat a horde of angry trolls and slay the dragon. He then outsmarted the evil witch and rescued the princess from her prison tower. And then they all lived happily ever after. The end.

Only this isn't a fairy tale. This is the real world.

Fairy City is one of the largest cities in the nation. It is a massive city, filled with the usual hustle and bustle of any other. Fairy City deals with crime and unemployment, zoning laws, and prostitutes, and racial disturbances. The only difference is that Mary Goose, better known as Mother Goose, the author of numerous books, made most of the residents famous. She is a psychic that claims to be able to see the future, only no one believes her, so she used some creative license to make the residents here seem more likable and friendly and wrote the stories of their lives. Ms. Goose is shunned in Fairy City, and makes ends meet by running a psychic hot-line, willing to tell the story of any who ask.

His name is Prince Charming, named after the artist formerly known as the same. He is heir to his father's Internet conglomerate of child pornography websites and voyeur dorm rip offs. He is every woman's dreams made flesh, a modern day Adonis. He lives in Fairy City and is a prominent club owner, yet still tries desperately to spend as much of his father's money as he possibly can. He is not the smartest resident of Fairy City, but he has gotten this far in life by his unmatched looks and charm. Countless numbers of women have fallen for him, thanks in large part to his piercing blue eyes and long flowing black hair.

His nights are spent drowning his rich boy sorrows in as much alcohol and magical powder as he can. His days are wasted explaining to whatever so-called princess he decided to bring back with him that she's not cheap and he will call her, sooner or later, and than sleeping till it's time to return to the night life. Most of his nights are the same as the one before. Drink, snort, dance; drink, snort, fuck; drink, snort. So similar they have begun to melt into each other, so much so, that it's becoming increasingly more impossible to say on what day he did what. Until tonight, it started like any and every other day. Prince, already high on some of the magic powder that gets snorted instead of sprinkled, entered one of his more frequent hangouts. He knew tonight would be special, it's his birthday after all, and this is his place, The Prince's Ball.

The Prince's Ball is the newest, hippest club in Fairy City. It has become the center of numerous police investigations in the few weeks it's been open. Accusations of money laundering, prostitution, rampant drug use and deals going on in bathrooms, and several murders have taken place at Prince's new spot. Yet, it still remains one of the trendiest hot spots in all of Fairy City. The music blares, drinks flow; people dance in and out of the Ball, and the line to enter runs the entire four blocks the club inhabits.

Everyone who was anyone was there, Pinocchio Van Kleece, who had an abnormal lust for life-like adult mannequins, was there with his wife, Blue Fairy. His father, Gepeto, had created one of the nations most prestigious and wealthiest toy manufacturing companies. A few years after Gepeto's death, Pinocchio took control of the company, spending enormous amounts of money on magic powder that gets snorted instead of sprinkled. He's recently started rebuilding his image after being caught in a compromising situation with a prostitute, a twelve-year old boy, and some of his own products. He was now sitting at the bar talking to some faceless member of the media.

Pinocchio's wife, Blue Fairy, who was onstage performing one of her hit songs, is his sole reason for living. He says she is the only thing that makes him feel like a real man. Blue Fairy is an extremely popular blues singer, who is almost always surrounded in scandals, the latest being her private love affair with the hip-hop musician, Humpty Dumpty. She keeps her past a secret to most of the people around her, even her husband, due to some sort of tragic accident that took the lives of most of her family.

At the foot of the stage observing the show, sat Humpty Dumpty, who is the most popular rapper on FMtv, Fairy Music Television, and has been for the last two years. Always accompanied by his group, All the Kings Men, Humpty is on the top of the world. His only fear is that without his group to keep him together, all the pressures of fame would make him crack.

Working security, as usual was Big "Bad" Wolf, a personal friend of Prince's. Recently released from prison for the murder of Grandma Ridinghood, grandmother to "Lil" Red Ridinghood, an ex-prostitute turned adult film star. Wolf was captured by the Three Pigs, triplets that used to work for the Fairy City police force before starting their own private investigation agency, after breaking into and hiding out in one of their houses. Wolf has been released because of a lack of evidence, the body of Grandma Ridinghood has never been found.

Prince has begun walking through his club, he sees the super model Alice, staring into a mirror as always. Right behind her was her manager 'Cheshire' Kat Hughes, who is known throughout Fairy City as one of the most annoying people alive, never giving a straight answer or asking a direct question. On the dance floor, Prince saw Fritzy, a schizophrenic dwarf that had seven different personalities, dancing with Queen of Hearts, a friend of Prince's father, rumored to have ties to the Red Heart Gang, and the heads of her enemies mounted on her office walls. Prince saw countless other faces he knew, but like any and every other night, they all started melting into one another.

Then suddenly he saw her, right next to the mayor of Fairy City, "Old" King Cole. She was everything he ever imagined an angel would be. She was gorgeous and she was new. He didn't know if it was just the magic powder or if she really was real, but either way he needed to find out who she was. He raced over to where she was, but before he could reach her, the lights turned out and everyone began singing "Happy Birthday", to Prince. Dim lights came on and several members of the staff pulled out a giant cake and a couple minutes later out popped "Lil" Red. Dressed in nothing but some pasties and a thong she began singing the rest of the song by herself. After the last verse, Red simply gave Prince a kiss, as the clocks chimed midnight.

"Save it Red," Prince told her, still searching for his mystery woman.

"Your loss than Mister Charming," she said, a sarcastic grin on her face as she turned around and was lost in the mass of the crowd.

The lights came back on, the music began playing again, and everyone resumed their previous fun. Prince then realized his mystery woman was gone. He walked over to where she was and saw absolutely nothing. About to brush it off as nothing more than a magic powder induced hallucination, and god only knows how many of them he's had, Prince noticed something strange. On the floor where he noticed this woman now sat a glass ring. Prince picked it up, put it in his pocket and went about the rest of his night, still thinking about her.

To be continued…