Hello fellow fans of Ever After. This is my first ever fanfic and I do plan on finishing this story but I would really appreciate some reviews, comments or anything else that you think might improve this.
Thank you and enjoy!
Ch 1. "I'm not crazy...right?"
Ash and smoke filled the dark sky. Cries of the wounded and dying could be heard all around me. My heart broke at the sound of their weeping. But I knew I couldn't heal them. I could only continue to walk among the broken bodies. Never had I felt so cold and...heartless. It was if I was only seeing a painting or watching a film and could feel no remorse for the poor unfortunate souls. I had only one goal...and it was now in front of me
A young woman was on her knees hovering over something. She had the most perfect pale-white skin and long dark hair that fell in loose waves that reached her waist. The dress she wore was in shreds and her once-perfect face was pierced with bloody cuts and bruises. She held a sword in her hand tightly as she shed crystal-like tears. It almost looked like she was trying to wash away the blood. It didn't take me long to realize she was in mourning and she was hovering over a body.
"What happened here?" I asked her. She looked up but did not turn to face me. She could only look forward.
It was a mistake," She said through bitter tears, "If I had known this would be the price, I never would have agreed to this."
I moved to the front of her to view the corpse. It was a girl. Her hair was short and wavy at the ends with a light blue streak zigzagging across her bangs. The face was heart-shaped with high cheekbones and full lips. The eyes were closed so it would look like she was only sleeping. At least she would have been if her body wasn't so twisted in a terrifying display.
"She was a fool... She tried to block but she was only thrown hard and...her damn body just broke." The girl finished and choked back a sob. But I found something oddly familiar about the corpse. The short hair... the face...It only took me a few moments to realize it...The broken girl...was me.
"Fable..."
"Fable...? Fab-le? You there? Earth to Fable!" My friend, Chris' voice pulled me out of my vision and back to reality. My eyes blinked, but instead of a smoke-filled sky and a battlefield, I was in a park; it was cold and drizzling. I was on the ground; under a tree with my headphones still blaring out Imagine Dragons', "Demons". Chris was sitting right next to me, waving his hand in front of my face. Henry, my other friend, was still lying on the ground buried in a Stephen Hawkins' book.
"You ok?" Chris asked me. I nodded in response.
"Yeah...I think so...Did anyone see that?" I uttered. It had seemed so real...The smoke...The bodies...Those screams...That girl..."Oh God I saw my own dead corpse!" I thought disgusted. I was so sick that it felt like my stomach was turning into a hot knot; twisting and twisting my innards until something unpleasant would come out.
"See what?" Chris looked at me and then all around us; as if trying to see what I was talking about.
"The girl...she was right there." I pointed to the spot where I was talking to her. But she was gone along with my body. "With me ..."
Henry finally looked up and spoke in concern, "Fabes, you sure you're ok? There wasn't any girl. We've been here the whole time and no one else has come."
"He's right, Fable." Chris agreed, "Maybe the mist was playing with your eyes." But I shook my head,
"No, she was there. Right there..." I pointed again; I know I saw her, "I was with her... I was with her...I was de-,"
"Maybe you're just hungry." Henry interrupted "How about grabbing a burger at WB's?" He jumped up, wiped the dust from his faded blue jeans, and gave me his best puppy-like smile. I could roll my eyes in annoyance. "Of course, he would think of food right now." I couldn't help but think.
"Or you could just be stressed out, Fable." Chris suggested, "You have had a lot dumped on you the last few weeks." He too stood up and reached out to grab my hand. I took his and he pulled me up.
"I'm not stressed. I know I saw her. I'm not crazy." I argued a little too loudly.
"We didn't say that." Chris told me calmly, "But it couldn't hurt to get some food in you. And..." he added in a teasing voice, "it is WB's. Your favorite." I still shook my head in response. But he wasn't the one to give up. He then pulled out a reflective blue debit card and smiled, "My treat, Fable."
My stomach growled and I smiled back, "Double-decker? With cheese?" I asked in a sweet, innocent voice.
"With barbeque sauce and ketchup." he responded.
Suddenly I felt more relax and I couldn't miss a chance to tease him, "And a large order of curly fries?"
"Annddd she's back." Henry spoke up sarcastically. Chris winked at me and said,
"A large coke to gulp it down too. The whole nine yards, girlie." He waved the card in front of my face and I snatched it from his hand.
"Fine! I'm sold!" I giggled. We then started in the direction of Chris' grey pickup truck.
As we walked, I remember where we were. It was late in the Friday afternoon. We had decided to meet at The Moving Cactus, a little strip mall at the edge of town, for our hangout day. Being that none of us went to the same school; it was always difficult for us to hang out together, so we always tried to schedule a day for us to be together.
The Moving Cactus was made up of restaurants, little hole-in-the-wall stores, and had a park with a lake behind it. I remember we had met around 4:00 and joked around for a while. Then Chris pulled out the Stephen Hawking's' book that he was going to lend Henry. He was so excited that Henry jumped down on the misty grass to start reading right then and there. Chris and I decided to listen to music so we pulled our phones and headsets and spread ourselves out under a tree. We took turns listing to each other's music. That is when I must have had the vision. But I know it couldn't have been a vision or anything like that. Things like that don't just happen. I had been really tired and stressed when I came here. Maybe it was just a dream. Although, a dangerous feeling in the pit of my empty stomach told me otherwise. Wanting to ignore it, I pushed it to the far end of my mind and began to hum to the song playing on the radio. A few minutes later we were pulling into the WB dinner's parking lot.
"Oh man!" Henry said excitedly, "I can smell that food from out here!" With that he leaped out of the truck and dashed into the diner. Chris and I couldn't help but roll our eyes together as we followed him in.
"Nose like a hound dog, right?" I sarcastically asked Chris and he let out a chuckle in agreement.
"Yeah and the stomach to match."
"I wouldn't tell your wallet that, Chris." I snickered. Chris pretended to be surprise and took out his wallet in mock shock as if it was completely empty.
"Well, you did say your treat." I giggled.
"For you!" He pointed out, "Not the Bottomless Pit here." We both continued to laugh as Henry grabbed a booth and waved us over. Once seated, a waitress in her mid-20s came over to take our orders. She was very tall with very bright and short hair and spoke with a weird Northern accent whenever she smacked her gum,
"So what will it be, kiddos?" She let out a short laugh. "Though judging from this guy here, I don't recommend caffeine."
"We'll have three cheeseburgers with barbeque sauce and ketchup and a side of curly fries each. Three cokes and ..." Chris pretended to be hesitant to tease Henry, "A hot fudge sundae."
The waitress wrote down the order quickly, "Anything else, sweetie?"
"Fable?" Chris asked. But I waved my hand in response,
"No thanks, Chris. I think that's enough for us." Then I winked at him.
"Okay, big spenders. I'll be back with your orders." And with that, she turned on her perfectly pink heels and began to walk off.
But Henry called after her, "Oh hey, by the way, cool contact lenses." and he winked at the woman.
Chris and I can't help but scoff in annoyance. Of course, Henry would want to flirt in anything in a skirt; the guy was a true Casanova. But the waitress stopped and turned to face us. "What contact lenses, sweetie?" and with that, she disappeared into the kitchen.
I didn't seem to notice her eyes but they certainly weren't hard to miss. They were a bright golden-yellow unlike anything I'd ever seen; kind of like the sun when it reflects over water. "But they had to be fake, right?" I thought. But Henry looked confused at the waitress's remark.
"What?" I asked him.
"She said they're not lenses but that's not right." He answered back.
"So? What's so wrong about that?" Chris remarked as he fiddled with the beaded shades on the window.
"Dude, they were like cat eyes!" Henry pointed out.
"Yeah right." I scoffed, "Henry, you're joking, right?"
"No, I'm serious. Didn't you look at them? Her pupils were silted like a cat's!"
"Your eyes are probably tricks on you." I said like Chris when he told me the same thing in the park.
"Fabes, I'm not joking. Look at her when she comes out. You'll see." Henry insisted.
"Whatever." I scoffed but I couldn't help but keep an eye on the kitchen door; waiting for the purple-haired waitress to come out.
"They probably are contacts and she just wanted to tease you. Don't take it so seriously." Chris told him reasonably. Just then, the waitress walked out with a large tray of food. She had a large grin on her face and seemed to even wink at every man in the diner who passed her a smile. "I guess Henry's not the only one who likes what he sees..." I thought with sarcasm.
"Okay, kiddos, here you go. Three cheeseburgers and a hot fudge." As she handed me my food, I notice a change in her. Her facial features suddenly became more sharp and regal-looking. Her hair became a light purple and much, much, much longer. I thought it would be a trick of the light but that wasn't it. It was like she morphed into something more elegant and...paler. "Something wrong, kitten?" She purred when she caught me staring.
"N-n-no." I answered nervously. She gave me a small nod and walked back into the kitchen.
But Henry caught me staring and spoke in a soft voice, "You saw something, didn't you, Fabes?"
"A little." I confessed.
"I told you." He gave a nudged to Chris and pointed to the door.
But Chris only took a bite out of his burger, "And I'm telling you that you're reading too much into this. God, can the two of you make something out of nothing."
"I don't know, Chris. It is a little weird, don't you think? I mean wearing cat-eyed contact lenses while working in a diner? In the middle of November?" I asked while popping a fry into my mouth.
"Maybe she bought them during Halloween and wanted to freak out her customers by wearing them here. It's surely working with you two." With that he took another huge bite, "And she definitely seems like the type who likes the attention if you ask me."
"Okay fine. If she just wants attention," Henry pointed at the counter again, "then why has she been staring at Fable since we got our food?"
I turned to look and sure enough, there was our waitress; just staring at the three of us as if we were a couple of chickens she wanted to puck for dinner. I had to admit, I felt a little creeped out. I self-consciously began to stroke the handle of my knife in my pocket; something I always did when I felt scared. Chris caught what I was doing and gently removed my hand from the blade and instead held my hand in his own under the table so Henry wouldn't catch us. My fear slightly dimmed as I felt a warm comfort from him and I took a deep breath.
"Okay, that's little creepy." I agreed with Henry. I look at back at her in suspicion. She saw me and flashed me a sickening-sweet smile. My face then curled in disgust and I shuddered as if an ice cube had just been slipped down my back. She must have seen my discomfort and gave me a wave in response like we were already friends. I had enough. "That's it." I slipped my hand out of Chris's and got up from the table.
"Fable, what are you doing?" Chris asked with caution.
"What does it look like? I'm going over there and telling her to knock it off." I said in tense voice.
"For what? Like I said, you two are making something out of nothing."
"I'm getting a really bad feeling about her and I'm going to tell her just that."
"Fable, if you have a problem with her then call the manager and calmly explain to them what's wrong." Chris tried to reason with me but I didn't hear him, I was already half-way to the counter; although I could hear him groaning in frustration.
"Can I help you with something, sugar girl?" The waitress asked with a sly grin as she spotted me. She leaned over the counter; just inches away from my face as if we were best friends sharing a secret. But I could feel my heart racing and my head spinning as I looked into those golden viper eyes with sudden panic and fear,
"I-I...uh...I mean my friends and I...were just wondering what...your...deal is." I tried to appear hard and confident but in reality I was nervously twirling the small knife in my pocket again. I remembered to keep my breath steady and prayed she couldn't hear the drumbeat of my heart banging against my chest.
She tapped her long neon green fingernails against the counter in a swift claw-like motion. Then she said in a soft purr, "Deal? What are you talking about, sugar girl? I'm just..." She paused dramatically with her hand in a flourish-like movement,"...seeing an old friend. It's been sooo long since I've seen you, Fable La Fae."
I took a step back and grabbed tighter on my knife. She gave me a sly smile and looked over my shoulder to give the boys a playful wink. I turned and saw Chris shift uncomfortably in his seat. Henry just looked away awkwardly. The waitress tossed her head back and let out a loud laugh,
"You know, you look just like her, sugar girl... Sweet little face...innocent-looking eyes...like you could do no wrong...So much like her." She purred again. That sly grin of hers grew wider with each word she spoke. I pretended to brush off the remarks. I stood tall and tried to stare her down but something about those reflective eyes sent a chill down my spine.
"L-l-like who?" I asked shaking. She held out her hand and grabbing my chin; as if to study it.
"Oh...we had such fun together..." the woman continued, "Yes we did...Those eyes... They're like hers." I quickly pushed her hand away from me.
"Get away from me!" I hissed at her. I took a few more steps back. She was dodging my question, I knew it. "What do you want, lady?"
"Want?" She cocked an eyebrow, "Can't a woman talk to her best friend's daughter? I haven't seen you since you were born and this is how you treat me. It's like you don't even recognize me. Now that just breaks my heart." She pulled a piece of cloth out of her cleavage and pretended to dry imaginary tears from her eyes. "Your mother would be so ashamed to see you act like this."
That was the last straw. Nobody talks about my mother like that. No body. There was no way this woman could have known her. My mother didn't have a best friend. Especially one who looks like a performer from Cirque de Soleil. Trust me, I would have remembered. Mother had no one left but me; she always told me that. Her parents died before she turned 13 and was raised by an aunt along with her brother. Her aunt then died of cancer ten years later and her brother left the country. He never made contact with Mother. Then before I was born, she found out he was killed in a shooting in England. I was all Mother had left. This woman was lying to me and I finally had enough of her.
I walked back to the table and I turned my back on the waitress. I didn't even want to see her but at the same time I wanted to go back and punch her in her stupid, catlike grin. What she just pulled was so sick; it made me want to pull back up that double cheese burger. It was all I could do from bringing up tears.
"What's wrong, Fable?" Chris asked me softly. "What happened? Did you find out what she wanted?" He looked down at me and his eyebrows twitched up. He knew something was up. It was like a superpower of his. Man, did annoy me when he did that.
"Nothing. You were right. She's just some weirdo." I pretended to study the table. Tears began to blur my vision. "Forget about her, ok?" I rubbed the tears out of my eyes and got out of the table again. "Listen, Henry, I got to go. Chris, I'll see you at home. Just bring my leftovers and I'll eat them later, okay?" After what just happened, I had no appetite. With that I walked out of the diner and into the rain. There was only one place I wanted to be when I thought about my mother.
The cemetery.