Then, one day, a wicked witch cast a spell on me, and I started (very slowly, at first) to become someone else altogether.
The handsome prince promised he'd slay my demons, and be patient, and when the real me fell totally asleep he promised he'd wait for the 100 years-spell to pass.
At the worst of it, locked away, demons all about me, unable to think for tears falling or feel for numbness aching me, I was abandoned by the prince.
At this point, I succumbed and the real me fell further from the surface; the demons overtook me, and I became the Monster that knights and princes travel the land to slay.
(No wise prophets were there to recognise the innocent person underneath.)
Things got really bad.
Things got really bad.
And worse and worse.
I was abandoned at the worst possible time.
I was blamed for everything that happened to me. Was it my own fault this thing happened to me, then?
Now the prince wishes to roam the world, slaying demons for others, and wants more than anything for some other knight to come and slay me.
Now the prince wishes to roam the world, slaying demons for others, and wants more than anything for some other knight to come and slay me.
And I still need saving, but no one seems to care.
I don't think this is even the happy young man talking now. I'm someone else, still.
1 comment:
This is so beautiful and sad, Liam! So has the story ended? I predict (these fairy tales are supposed to be predictable, but here I'm not sure) that it is revealed, on a blog perhaps, that the 100 years-spell has a loophole. When the happy young man realizes he is dreaming, he wakes up. To shake off the dream is to realize that he is not a monster at all, but to do this he must come to love the monster. Because the monster is there... it is something very real. But the dream is the view that it is monstrous, and the perception of it as somehow wrong and unwanted. The happy young man forgets just a minute about the handsome prince: the best way to soothe the hurt of this Monster, he thinks, is for him to love it, and the happy young man begins to love the Monster as himself. For it *is* himself, in a way. Upon this realization, the happy young man wakes up. And he looks in the mirror... and sees the same characteristics perhaps as the monster, but with an immense feeling of adoration and respect, for this thing that had to deal with so much... And then, seeing this complete person in front of him, the handsome prince is amazed. I mean, why wouldn't he be? But maybe the witch's spell is still at the minute too strong.
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