Scareship_Issue8

good is ability if it is never wanted, never used? Your arrogant
parents, so quick to judge what is good and what is evil… at the
time I felt they deserved their punishment. I would show them evil.
I admit, I did not think of you.
When my sister changed the spell I did not even mind. The
punishment was essentially the same. They would lose you.
Sixteen years I waited, twisted by my self-righteous anger. I
laughed as the spinning wheels were burned, laughed when I heard
the time had finally come despite their pointless precautions. Still I
did not think of you. Your parents moved to a new castle and my
sister shut you up in this tower behind twisting rose vines and
ordered your servants to join you in sleep. They had no say in the
matter, but then, neither did you. For a long time I confess I gloried
in my triumph. I had won.
* * *
I do not remember my parents very well. Like everything of
life they have faded into blurred memories. When I think of them, I
think of golden crowns and soft hands. Though you say this sleep is
their fault and yours, it is mine as well. I was not as ignorant as
they wanted to believe I was. I knew there was a secret; I saw how
everyone looked through me, pity in their eyes. I had heard
murmurs of fairies and curses. I should have been careful, wary of
the unknown. When I saw the strange machine, I should have run
but I didn’t. It called to me, pulsed in my veins like a heartbeat,
cried out to be touched.
At first there was nothing. When I woke, or seemed to wake, it
was to this unnatural enchantment where I cannot move or speak
though I am aware, I am more aware than I ever was before. The
breathing of the servants, the sobs of the boys doomed in the vines
for coming to my rescue at the wrong time, you… I am aware of
everything around me. Time means nothing. Every moment that
passes soon feels like a dream I can barely remember.
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