Chapter 2: Return to the Past
As Aurora started climbing the ruined stone bridge, walking carefully, watching her every step, some little seemingly ill-intentioned creatures wearing armours, spikes, and black iron shields moved towards her hesitantly. Maleficent's minions, who didn't manage to find the princess while she was hiding into the woods with her three so-called good fairies, were not many, maybe fifteen or twenty at most, since a great amount of them was killed by Maleficent herself two years ago, transpierced by lightning, as she was mad with anger after she heard of their miserable fail.
But then, Maleficent had succeeded in finding her, and her servants' failure was sure to be forgotten in favour of many other troublesome events.
Aurora stopped in her tracks and greeted the slaves of the Mistress of All Evil with a sincere smile. One of them took a wary step towards her.
"Who goes there?" He croaked in a hoarse voice that was meant to be frightening but was in fact filled with anxiety.
No one should have driven to the fairy's domain for years, everyone thinking she was dead under Phillip's sword, Queen Aurora thought bitterly. At that thought, a strong wave of hatred invaded her mind but it was quickly replaced by the fierce desire to go forward and reach her goal.
The Queen headed in the minion's direction, without any fear, and her smile grew apologetic.
"Hello Hector. Do you remember me?" She asked smoothly, as if she had never faced memory issues before.
"Oh, Princess Aurora! Well, er... I mean... Your Majesty, I... Thought I'd never see you again... Uh... It's a pleasure, but... I don't know if I mus' get you in, 'cause you know, uh... Mistress's a little, uh..." The brave servant sputtered, accompanied by his comrades' nodding who all had absolutely no wish to disappoint Maleficent again for she ordered them not to let anyone enter her home.
A glow of fear was floating in their eyes, and Aurora could not help but understand them perfectly, even though sadly.
"Yes, I am aware. Maleficent doesn't expect me. But... I need to see her. It's... It's important. Please, let me talk to her. And if she gets angry, I will tell her it's not your fault, but mine, for I forced the way. Deal?" The Queen offered, joining her hands against her chest in a pleading gesture.
The little monster growled some unintelligible words before ordering his companions to let Aurora through, she thanked them with a grateful smile. Aurora got into the abandoned castle and walked slowly, alert to every noise or move which could occur around her, until she reached the throne room.
Her heart beating wildly, her eyes fixed on her feet, she first didn't dare to look up to meet the eyes of the one she feared and valued so much. Calling on her all her strength, she forced herself to rise her head.
That was when she saw her.
Seated on her throne in a weary half-lying position, one hand on her scepter, the other delicately posed on the stone armrest. Head to one side, her gaze cast on a undetermined spot on the horizon. Her lips pursed into an eternal grin of annoyance — or was it melancholy? — she was patting her long red nails against the stone in a gesture which could vaguely remind of impatience.
Maleficent.
She was here. After all this time believing she was dead in the hands of her dear husband, there she was. Alive. As tall, as elegant... as beautiful as ever.
"Maleficent..." Aurora murmured between trembling lips, when she finally recovered the use of speaking.
The fairy turned her head and looked down at her. For a moment, the Queen believed she caught a gleam of surprise crossing those black pupils, but if surprise there was, it quickly merged into an ironic grin that distorted the thin red lips.
"Your Majesty. Please forgive my rudeness if I do not welcome you in good and due form. I must say I wasn't expecting you so very soon." Maleficent replied, clearly amused as one green hand brushed her staff's yellow ball.
Aurora slowly climbed the steps that still separated her from the fairy, who seemed content to only observe her with a nonchalant gaze, and yet without so much as lifting a finger to try and stop her from coming any closer.
"Maleficent... Why? Why did you never tell me you were still alive?" The Queen asked, beautiful traits contorted with pain, when she finally faced her.
"Oh, really? And why, pray tell, would I have done that?" The fairy questioned back, raising a disdainful eyebrow.
"Because... because I... I thought you were dead and... If I had known you were still alive, I..." Aurora started, putting her head down, fighting all her might to hold back tears.
Maleficent stood up abruptly and moved towards Aurora, swift and graceful. Dark endless eyes locked with purple.
"Oh. And what would you have done if you had known? Tell me, princess. Would you have told your dear prince and aunts you did not want to marry and that you would rather go and search for an old enemy, who lived at the other edge of the country? So? Do tell, I beg you! What would you have done, O princess?" Maleficent finished her rant in a harsh tone, hitting the ground with the edge of her scepter in a show of pure rage.
''I... No. I... I would have found you, I would have told you that... I'm sorry for what Phillip did to you, I would have hoped you would forgive me for... for running away that day, whereas... whereas I..."
Maleficent straightened back, ever so slowly. She let out a chilling, mocking laugh which resonated painfully in Aurora's ears.
"How quaint!" Maleficent exclaimed, voice sickeningly sweet, as she was slowly approaching the Queen, dark eyes blazing with obscured wrath. "You would have apologize. Oh dear. How silly can you possibly be, thinking that I might attach any importance to any excuse you might come out with? But do not worry yourself further, princess. You are certainly not to blame. And even in the instance that you had made a single mistake, I would not have been scarcely prepared to listen to any of your pathetic apology. Now, please, at once, have the decency to declare your intentions by coming here in my castle and disturbing my peace so late."
''I came for... I came to get some answers,'' Aurora answered with new determination, daring to look up at the wicked fairy, who merely arched a curious eyebrow.
Maleficent took a last step towards Aurora, so that when she bent her head to look down at the young woman, their faces were mere inches apart, cold breath blending with hot, shuddering breath.
Aurora swallowed, struggling to meet the overwhelming, intense gaze. Her body reacted oddly to the sudden proximity established by Maleficent, tiny tremors hot and cold swirling in her low belly, skin crawling, goosebumps on her arms and neck, and mouth dried out.
"And what do you possibly wish to know that your handsome prince and lovely aunts did not tell you already?" Maleficent asked, haughty as she looked the Queen Aurora up and down, staff hitting the ground with a thundering noise.
Aurora could do nothing but avert her eyes, for she couldn't bear to hold the piercing, mocking gaze.
"I... I want to know why my aunts lied to me. Why Phillip told me he killed you, while he obviously didn't. And... how did the curse break, whereas you were still alive and able to carry it out? You would never allow the spell to be broken if you were still here to prevent it, I'm sure of it, so... I don't understand. Why? Why everyone is lying to me? Why... why did you lie to me, too?" She finally rose shining blue eyes that clashed with Maleficent's empty orbs. "Why didn't you tell me you were still alive? Why? Why didn't you come and kill me yourself, since you still could? Why, while I come to you today, trying to understand why my life has been such a bunch of lies, you're talking to me as if I were nothing?" She concluded in a desperate howl, until her voice broke into sobs.
She let herself slide down and fall on her knees, at Maleficent's feet, head down, arms closing around her frail form, body rattled with sobs, gasps and labored breathing.
She had lost everything. Her innocence, her happiness, her passion. She had given away her life thrice. Once to old, inept fairies who hid their true identity, her own true identity from her, twice to a man she met in the woods and who tried to kill someone she— Well, someone she cared about. For some unknown reason, she now knew she cared for Maleficent. And thrice, to a woman who haunted her nights and days, but in the end, who lied to her as well, just like everyone else did, and forgot about her altogether. The people she trusted the most had betrayed her, lying to her from the very beginning until the very end. And... the person she truly cared for, the woman she thought was dead was very well alive but seemed to be happier without her. Well, supposing Maleficent could ever feel happiness in the first place. She simply forgot to tell her she wasn't dead, and then, she had forgotten her, plain and simple. She abandoned her.
Maleficent leant slowly towards Aurora and took the princess' chin in her thin hand, her scarlet nails digging slightly into the girl's skin, not enough to be painful. She looked into the Queen's purple eyes, and her smoldering black gaze now bordered on soft and soothing. Blood red lips contorted into a wistful smile.
"You are not nothing," she whispered, without once losing eye contact with the human girl.
She straightened back in a wrinkling of fabric and extended a lean, green hand towards the Queen.
"Now, please afford me the pleasure to stand up, Your Highness. Sitting on your knees, on the ground, is not a place worthy of a woman of your condition, especially not of a woman like you." She ordered, her voice authoritative, but devoid of any scorn or contempt.
Aurora glared at that long and thin hand, white-skinned with green glints, outstretched towards her. Then she looked up at Maleficent, who stood still, black eyes fixed on her and her only, seemingly ready to wait for centuries in that posture. Eventually, the Queen took this offered hand and let herself be dragged to her feet by its raw strength. Once up, Aurora refused to let go of that cold hand she was holding firmly into her tiny warm hands. Maleficent couldn't stop staring at their intertwined hands, frowning, wondering perhaps what the queen was trying to achieve by keeping her fingers hostage.
"Please, I can't live like this anymore. I can't keep living a lie any longer. I want to know, I need to know. In only you I can trust, except for the fact you just forgot to tell me you were not dead..." Aurora pointed out in a humorless chuckle. "But I know I can trust you. I believe in you. In the past, you've been the only one to tell me the truth everyone was hiding from me. I beg you, Maleficent. Tell me the truth, once again. You owe it to me, after all." She let her purple eyes, glowing with purpose, lock with Maleficent's unreadable glare, as she squeezed her hand ever so slightly.
After what seemed like a lifetime, Maleficent eventually gave a stiff nod. Was it a sign of acceptance or bitter defeat, Aurora couldn't say. Nevertheless, the wicked fairy gently removed her hand from the Queen's and turned her back on her, marching towards her throne.
"Very well, you win. So do tell, what do you wish to know, princess?" Maleficent inquired, sounding impossibly weary as she sat back on her chair of stone.
Aurora smiled warmly. For the first time, she had won against Maleficent. The same, she was sure, couldn't be said of many people. Not even of the brave prince Phillip, who yet bragged about how he had so gallantly put an end to the existence of the so-called Mistress of All Evil.
"I want to know everything. How you found me, how the spell was carried out and finally, how it was broken." The Queen retorted in a firm voice as she met Maleficent's expectant gaze.
Maleficent chuckled before her lips raised a subtle, imperceptible smile.
"Very well. Your wish is my command, princess. But please, do take a seat. I am pretty sure you will soon need one in order to hear what I have to say..."
Maleficent waved her left hand in the air and a similar throne of green stone appeared next to the one she was sitting on. In a graceful, but no less formal gesture, she invited Aurora to sit on her right. The Queen took a seat and turned her head to the fairy, waiting for her to start speaking with sparkling blue eyes, just like the child who is waiting for stories to be lulled to sleep. Maleficent sighed deeply, and only now, Aurora could tell she was older than she looked.
"If that is indeed what you desire most, princess," the woman said in an odd, melancholic voice, "then who am I to deprive you of such a wish?"
Two years ago
The violet flashes only started to fade away in every corner of the throne room of the ruined fortress. The deep rumble of thunder exploding against the walls of stone was slowly decreasing. Purple lightnings were still emerging from the bowels of the Forbidden Mountains. There were no more servants of those who dared to come to the Mistress of All Evil to confess they had been looking for a baby for sixteen years.
How foolish they are! Is such an idiocy even imaginable? Maleficent was wondering, as she let herself fall on her throne, weary by such mindless incompetence, if she should better do the dirty job herself, since she apparently could not trust anyone to perform the task she had assigned. She sighed tiredly.
So many years devoted to such a grand, vaste research... All of it for naught!
"Oh. They're hopeless. A disgrace to the forces of Evil. Ah..." She was utterly exasperated, when suddenly an idea struck her devious mind. She turned towards her faithful companion, the black raven Diablo.
"My pet. You are my last hope. Circle far and wide, search for a maid of sixteen with hair of sunshine gold and lips as red as the rose. Go, and do not fail me." She ordered firmly, leaving no place for an hypothetic disappointment, as she watched the raven spreading out its wings and taking flight towards the forest.
She sat again, lost in thought. No, this could not be. Of course, Diablo would find the princess Aurora, she had no doubt. But maybe, just maybe...
Yes. This task was hers, and hers only. After all, the princess was her victim, her prey. She was hers to find, and hers to take. Yes, she was hers. Why should she wait for the princess to be brought to her in a silver platter while she could hunt her down herself? Didn't they say the hunt itself brought more pleasure and satisfaction than giving the last blow?
At that thought, a scary and toothy grin formed on Maleficent's red lips. She stood up, stretched her arms skywards as a hollow laugh echoed endlessly in the empty fortress.
She disappeared into a blaze of green and yellow flames.
One week before her sixteenth birthday, Briar Rose was walking into the woods, like always, at the request of her aunts who asked her to pick some wild strawberries for dinner. She must admit those imposed daily trips weren't displeasing at all. These trees, these paths, these bushes had become her second home, her secret garden. She knew any shrub, any stream, any flower.
These woods were her shelter. The place where she could express herself freely, say what she truly thought, what she desired, without anyone to glare at her, to reprimand her for her sheer honesty. Here, under those trees, no one could prevent her from living her dreams.
But she knew the very instant she would come back to her aunties, she would have to conceal her deepest desires. That was the reason why she would never try and shorten her afternoon wanders in the forest.
This night, like every single night she could remember, she had a dream. Always the same, for years. A dream which seemed all the more truthful, all the more real, than the day before.
Propped against a tree at the edge of the creek that meandered through the woods, near her aunts' cottage, Rose soaked her tiptoes into the cristal water and reminded herself of this dream aloud, voice dreamy and absent, under the protective gaze of the forest' creatures.
"I was in the woods, not so far from here. I was walking. Then, all of a sudden, a shape appeared in front of me. Like a mirage, a miracle. A woman all dressed in black, with a skin so white it almost looked green. There were horns above her head. It was frightening, and yet it suited her in a way I cannot describe. I didn't know anything about that woman, after all. I didn't know where she came from, nor what she wanted. She was staring at me with harsh, threatening dark eyes. They were piercing through me, as if trying to swallow me whole like two bottomless abysses. It seemed she wanted to harm me..." The young girl interrupted herself in a frown, as if living her dream for a second time.
"But strangely, I wasn't afraid. No, she didn't scare me. I cannot say why, I wanted to get closer, to talk to her, to touch her... I wanted to know who she was. So I got closer, very, very slowly. I feared she would run away or disappear as quickly as she materialized. Finally, when I was only a few meters away from her, so tall, and so overwhelming, and so magnificent, and so..." She sighed, leaning down against the tree trunk. "She reached out to me and... I don't know why, but I took her hand. It was smooth, yet cold. She dragged me towards her, and she lay her free hand on my waist, without a word. And then..." Briar Rose kept talking, as if to herself, smiling, sliding her fingertips on the surface, creating several tiny circles that perturbed the calm water.
"And then, we danced, and danced, and danced... I couldn't stop. But, after a while, the woman stopped, and smiled at me. And she looked so sad. I asked if something was wrong, but she only raised a hand and stroked my cheek. Oh, her hand on my cheek! It was so soft, so gentle... I wanted that touch to last forever. Finally, she was going to leave, I knew it, but I didn't want her to. I took her hand to hold her back, and she turned back to me. Then, I asked "who are you?" She looked down at me and smiled again. I knew something was wrong with that smile, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then suddenly, she took a step towards me. One step, two steps, three steps. Her face was only a few inches from mine, and... She slid a hand behind my neck, she put her head down and whispered in my ear "I am your worst nightmare." I was petrified. Then, she bent over me, and the hand still set on my waist pulled me even closer, and I was pressed against her, and she leant in closer still. I couldn't look at anything but her lips as red as blood. There were getting closer and closer as well. I did not know what to do, it was kind of scary, but... Oh! It was so intoxicating. And then... Then... I woke up." The maiden sighed, removing her hand from the icy water.
"This dream has been haunting me for years... It is strange, is it not? Maybe it does mean something?" Rose wondered as she stood up to join the path which lead to the clearing, followed closely by her forest friends.
When she arrived on top of a cliff, where a majestic oak was proudly taking roots, overlooking the land and the royal castle far away, Briar Rose placed her basket on the longest tree branch. She delicately folded her refined hands on the handles, in order to rest her head upon it.
"Still, there is something disturbing about this strange dream..." She started again, thoughtful, as if her mind were wandering off miles away from where she actually stood, looking at the horizon where the great pure white castle stood, the King and Queen's palace.
Birds, does and squirrels around her were emitting little cries that almost resembled exclamations of curiosity, encouraging her to end her enigmatic sentence. Rose smiled, for she knew she could tell them everything without fear. At least, they would not judge her.
"That tall, dark woman. I know deep down that she was dangerous, but..." She interrupted herself again, as if unsure of whether she should speak her mind or not.
"She was so beautiful." She murmured then, almost sadly, closing her eyes in distress. She shook her head, as if trying to regain her senses, and thus renouncing to hang about that troubling thought.
What would my aunties say?
Briar Rose took her basket back and turned on her heels, entering the clearing where a beautiful carpet of berries was waiting for her. She would do what she was supposed to do, which was pick up some wild berries like her aunts had required of her, and then she would go back to the cottage, where she ought to be, like the good girl she was supposed to be.
Like the good girl she was pretending to be.
Far away from excited, curious birds, and beautiful, dark strangers.
No more wandering in the woods for today, she told herself reluctantly. Enough time for dreams already. Time to get back to reality, Briar Rose.
But, as she bent down to put glossy red berries into her small basket, thin lips pursed into a terse line, she did not notice the tall, black shadow that never ceased following her, towering over her from afar, hiding behind a tree, dark orbs piercing holes into her oblivious, golden head...
