Mixed Messages
Chapter 21
Transition Elements

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The princess's face contorted in a silent scream against the gold and blue crusted room. She gritted her teeth, stretched her entire body towards the ceiling, and gasped, as the mummified witch ground spiny teeth and spidered bony fingers along her ribs.

The witch released and the princess toppled into a padded chaise. She let her head sink into the round pillow beside the armrest while her red high-heel clad feet dangled off the other end. She brushed the back of her fingers across her face as the last traces of purple dissipated from her cheeks. She lifted her white button down shirt and the yellow shadows of round and oblong bruises quickly faded into porcelain skin. She touched her ribs, searching. She wiped tears out of her eyes, and said "I don't know what's worse, the broken ribs, or the healing."

Antonia braced her bony corpse against the back of a greenish great chair, transformed back to her human form, wiped a wrinkled hand through grayish hair, and trying to catch her breath, gasped out, "You should never... have allowed the beast... to beat you like that."

Antonia slumped down in a couch, breathing heavily, and allowed her head to settle into it's gold tinted fabric. She wiped a napkin against her pallid forehead, massaged her wrinkled forearms, flexed worn fingers, and finally flicked her red fingernails in the air.

The doctor set a green thermos bottle, marked with a red A, into Antonia's hand. She slowly sipped and swallowed while the doctor's face turned green and contorted in disgust. He covered his mouth with a handkerchief, started to hunch, and rushed out the door.

Color started returning to her face. She glanced at the princess through yellow eyes sunken deep into red circles. She waited and glanced to make sure the room was completely empty, locked the door, and asked, "Princess, do you have a sister?"

The princess finally caught her breath, pressed ice into her side, and said, "Yes. My father has another daughter. She's, I think, six years old."

"Six?" Antonia snorted, "You're forty-four."

The princess wrinkled her nose, and grunted, "Her mother is thirty six."

Antonia chuckled.

"Well, at least my father finally came to his senses about her mother."

"Does she have Hexenbiest powers, this sister of yours?"

"Yes. She was born with considerable powers."

"This Amanda girl says she is your sister's sister."

"Her step sister."

"She said her father is a Grimm, and he has a family with your sister's Hexenbiest mother?"

"Yes."

Antonia sat silent for a moment, then pushed up, walked to the window, and cracked it open, allowing a cold breeze to caress her flushed face. She gulped out of the thermos, wiped the crimson off her lips, and said, "A Grimm and a Hexenbiest? A family? How?"

The Princess spun an impossible tale of bitter enemies, hell bent on murder, vengeance, destruction, and betrayal, a Gypsy Queen's curse, and inexplicably, a child.

Antonia shook her head in disbelief. "And now this Grimm and the Hexenbiest have mingled each other's blood."

"This Hexenbiest has given birth to two male Grimms."

"What?"

"And the Grimm has fathered a Hexenbiest. My Grandmother Lascelles says they're quite adorable."

Antonia's whole world swirled and sloshed. She caught a chair and slumped into it, wiping her pale forehead. Worry crossed her face. She peered out the window, expecting to find the four horsemen of the apocalypse sharpening their swords. She finally whispered, "That's just an ancient legend."

The princess pushed up against her chaise and finally lifted to her feet. She stretched full upwards, towering over the old witch, and tilted her head.

Antonia sneered, and grunted, "Leave it to the Gypsies to summon Mater Decapitare, by mistake"

She groaned and rubbed her yellow eyes. Their white slowly returned as she sipped from her thermos.

The princess chuckled, and said, "I hear Amanda quite likes you."

"She seems like a nice enough girl."

"She could use a friend in the castle, especially given the phobia most Wesen have of Grimms."

Antonia groaned and stared out the window.

The princess laid a gentle hand on Antonia's back, and said, "And perhaps you could too. A Grimm is a powerful ally."

She passed her phone to Antonia, and played a video.

Antonia gasped, "A Reaper? That quickly?"

The princess flipped to some pictures of the Verrat inside the airplane. Antonia slowly paged through them, and said, "This can't be right. She's just a girl."

The princess chuckled, touched Antonia's shoulder, and said, "It's a good thing she likes Hexenbiests."

Antonia rubbed her neck, gulped, and said, "Yes. Yes, it is.."

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Amanda's stomach growled as she made her way down a maze of gold crusted staircases and marble lined hallways. She finally snuck into the shabby bowels of the castle. Every person she passed froze, and then disappeared the instant she tried to ask them anything. She groaned, dropped her head, and trudged, as her nose drew her onward.

She found the stainless steel kitchen, passed crates of onions, bunches of beets, tubs of flour, and shelves of spices, until her quarry stood before her, tall, gleaming, brushed stainless steel. She pulled the refrigerator open and rummaged through a crate of eggs, bunches of fresh parsley, and raw beef and pork on the hunt for some cheese when the refrigerator door slammed shut, nearly catching her wrists.

An older woman wearing a permanent scowl etched on her face, a black smock, and a white hat pushed her hands into her hips and declared, "No pilfering my kitchen!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know. I'm just looking for some food."

"Dinner was three hours ago, and I won't have you contaminating the princess's groceries with your filthy hands. This is a sanitary kitchen! Out!"

Amanda dropped her head and groaned, as her stomach growled again.

The woman stood, blocking the refrigerator, and extended one finger towards the door.

Amanda was trudging out of the kitchen while the cook groused, when Antonia walked in.

Amanda's face brightened,

"Amanda, it's good to see you. How are you doing today?"

Amanda pulled up her shirt to show Antonia her ribs and back. The black welts had already yellowed and were dissipating into shadows on her olive skin.

"That is remarkable. I've always heard Grimms recover quickly, but I didn't expect you to heal like this."

"I'm just so hungry."

"You need to eat so you can heal. Come, child."

Amanda looked back into the kitchen and the woman glared at her. She hunched her shoulders and groaned.

"What's wrong, child?"

Amanda simply frowned and looked at her shoes.

Antonia noticed the cook's scowl. "Hmm? I'll have a word with her."

Antonia marched over to the woman, crossed her arms, and glared. She woman straightened and stood like a statue as all the color drained out of her face. Antonia said "The princess's sister would like a snack. Please fix her something."

The woman's eyes twitched as she stood bolt upright, hands clapped tight to her sides. Antonia extended one finger towards the refrigerator. The woman nodded, and said, "Of course. Anything for her highness's sister. What would she like?"

Antonia and Amanda sat across from eachother at a small wooden table dressed with a crisp, white table cloth. Antonia snacked on a fresh salad, a hard boiled egg, and a blood sausage while Amanda wolfed down a rare roast beef sandwich and a glass of milk.

They talked and Amanda told her about being kidnapped, her parents, and her friends.

Antonia told her about her daughter, and how she was not interested in learning anything about her powers or the old ways. That she just wanted a "normal" life.

Amanda's face wilted. "My parents wanted that too. I think I ruined everything. I hope they are still alive."

Antonia rubbed on her shoulder and focused her eyes.

Amanda paused, staring into the memory of mother and Misty, talking with her, smiling, and laughing. She buried her head in her arms and sobbed, "It's all my fault."

Antonia rubbed a hand on Amanda's back, and said, "Shhh, child." She exhaled slowly, quirked her brow, muttered under her breath, and focused her eyes again.

Amanda saw Adalind's face, smiling and telling her everything would be OK. She smiled, wiping the tears out of her eyes. She sat back up and dug into her sandwich.

Antonia gazed past the darkness in the back of the empty kitchen, slowly shaking her head, and wondering.

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Dusty snowflakes fluttered through the dark and landed on the blonde hair draping Sandra's ear as she huddled next to Misty, leaving a white dusting across her head.

Banging cut the silence and Sandra gritted her teeth. The container doors creaked and groaned open, and dusky evening light streamed in. Icy air flowed in while a plume of steam floated out.

The gray haired man turned up his nose, and grunted, "You two stink!"

Silence answered him.

"I've got all the hot water you can stand, and a warm bed in the house."

Sandra held her hand up, blocking the light, and said, "And?"

"Perhaps we can come to an arrangement. You're my best female fighter. It's supposed to be forty below tomorrow, I'd hate to have you freeze to death."

"And her?"

"There's plenty of room. I've got a kingsize bed. Can either of you cook?"

"Both of us."

"Any other skills?"

"She's a trauma nurse, I'm an accountant."

He smiled. "So, you're tough, and useful. I'm in short supply on both counts. I'm grilling steaks tonight, if you two are interested."

Misty cupped her fingers over her eyes, against the light streaming in, and said, "I need to get her wounds cleaned up. That salt you rub into them isn't exactly helpful."

He waved a hand with a gentlemanly flourish, and said, "I've got whatever you need, in the house."

Misty laid a hand on Sandra and whispered, "For Amanda."

Sandra exhaled, rubbed her face, and took Misty's hand. They slowly crept out of the steel cargo container, and followed the man through the knee deep snow, into the icy dusk.

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1.8k 2/20/21 r1