by Holly Hook
I rubbed my elbows where I had landed on them. The air here was different. More fresh. More crisp, but with a hint of dread that gathered in my stomach. I'd felt that before. It was as familiar as the lines on my palm. Almost a part of me.
This was Fable's dark region.
The place I had come from.
And the place I had returned to, both in and out.
I stood next to a long mirror bordered in a golden frame. It was tall enough to fit a man through it and it shimmered with the silver mist inside. On the other side of the glass, I could make out the darkened downstairs bathroom of Haven House and the closed door.
Eric was gone.
My heart sank and I thought of those brambles trying to get into the bathroom and eat him. I wasn't there to chase them away.
"Eric!" I screamed.
My voice echoed off the stone walls of the room and back at me as if laughing. Everything seemed sinister here.
But then he emerged from the mirror, toppling to the floor.
"Eric!" I said, leaning down to help him up. The blood on his pant leg had crusted now, but there was no fresh bleeding. Eric waved me away and got up on his own. He faced the mirror as if making sure nothing else was coming through it.
My mirror.
The border was made of carved vipers and roses and apples. Even carved brambles. They all twisted together in a morbid collage of death and pain. This was so much like the scribbling in my dream journal. I had carried more of me in that book than I thought.
And King Henrik had stolen it from me. And Alric had kept it.
The silver mist died, leaving the bathroom in its place. The scene remained still as the candles flickered on the other side.
"What's going on?" Eric asked.
"Mara," echoed a voice from deep within the mirror. I couldn't tell if it was male or female. "Your rival is dead. You are now the fairest in the land."
I'd heard that voice before. A chill swept over me. I knew that, when I was still in Fable, I had longed to hear those words just as much as I longed for Eric. But now they were laced with poison and hate. I could sense Eric staring at me and I waited for some blow between my shoulder blades, but it never came. He was waiting to see what I would do.
I swallowed down the regret.
And turned away.
Eric hadn't moved. He waited there with his fists balled. I was still the failure. Still the villain. That wasn't even close to changing yet.
"You know," Eric said. "I think I remember our relationship here. It's coming back now that I'm in Fable again."
I allowed a bit of hope to rise inside of me.
Until Eric spoke again.
"You never let me out of the castle much."
I stood there, trying to remember. Things were coming back, like a tidal wave of memories. My huge castle, dark except for torches and purple carpets. Purple curtains. A purple bed I had tried to lure Eric into. Brambles with red flowers, flowers as red as blood. Brambles I had ordered to keep him there at all costs.
And Sara, the daughter of the former queen there. Sara, who hated the dark region and wanted to escape to the lighter one. And Eric, who I caught one night promising her that he would help her reach it.
I found them kissing in the dining room.
They fled after that.
Eric cut through my brambles with his sword and they managed to escape into the dark forest. I consulted my mirror to see where they were: in a cottage on the border of the light and dark region.
I went in search of them, but those stupid dwarves managed to hold me off with their hammers and their strength. And when I returned to my castle, my mirror was gone. Stolen by King Henrik and his magician Alric, according to one of my guards. They were getting more powerful in the next kingdom from all the gold they were hoarding.
And if I could get all that gold and my mirror back, my own power would grow.
I'd be able to get rid of Sara after all.
I went into the depths of my castle. Over the next several months, I gathered the ingredients for the poison apple. It would be a gift to Henrik and Alric. I'd kill them first. Take my mirror, find Sara, and kill her next. I dipped the apple into a cauldron of purple poison I had made from the worst ingredients in the dark region. Bramble flowers. Vipers' venom. I wanted Henrik and Alric to die and then I would take their kingdom, their gold, and their power.
And I set off towards the castle. I walked for days until I reached the border of Henrik's castle grounds.
And then Alric found me.
Made me surrender the apple.
He sent me to the other world, where Sara and Eric had already fled along with the dwarves and Eric's parents, Tom and Stephanie. Alric must have changed their memories to forget about me.
And instead of taking his power, I helped him gain more.
"Eric," I said, coming back to the present. "That apple wasn't for Sara."
"What?" he asked. His voice echoed off the stone walls like mine had.
"It wasn't for her. I made it for Alric. And Henrik, but he's not here anymore."
"That poison apple was for Sara," he told me. "You made her take a bite out of it, didn't you? I think I remember something about that. It's fuzzy like all my other screwed up memories, but it's there."
"I think Alric was making me do that. He was at your house, waiting. It was his magic that made her reach for the apple. I didn't want to kill her."
That was a lie.
For a few seconds, I had.
"You did," Eric said. "You were always jealous of her. I don't blame her for wanting to get away from you. Twice."
I sighed. "Okay. I was jealous of her. But not anymore. My target with that apple was Alric, not her. I wanted to kill him for taking my mirror. He tricked me into thinking it was just Sara all along."
Eric's expression softened. "If you're right, then kill Alric."
I didn't even balk. I wanted the man dead. I was dangerous, but he was even more so. He would kill Eric if he found him here. He might even try to destroy me. "Let me see what's around here that I can use."
I ran to the window. The light was dim outside, like it was about to storm, but no rain was falling. You could never tell when the sky would open up in the dark region.
I glanced down to see what was around. I had almost made it here before, but had never managed to get into the castle.
The lawn was clean and trimmed except for some ravens that pecked the ground. Even from here, I could see hints of red in their eyes. They would serve Alric for sure and my magic wouldn't be able to hold them off for long. If those birds caught us, Eric and I wouldn't last very long.
"See anything?" Eric asked.
"No," I said, studying the dark forest that surrounded the castle on all sides. "Wait. There are some brambles out there in the forest." The red flowers stood out like glowing splotches of blood. The forest was full of them.
I could use that.
"No more brambles," Eric said.
"It's all we've got," I said, whirling on him. "If you want me to hold Alric off when the time comes, then you're going to put up with them. They won't hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you. I got the one to leave you alone back at your house."
"We need to hurry," Eric said. "The darkness is spreading in the other world. It's probably taken the whole town by now. What if it spreads across the whole planet and Alric can claim that, too?"
"That's what I'm worried about." The dark region was supposed to be full of darkness, which needed a home. Fable was like that. A dark side, and a light side. It wouldn't be any fun if all of Fable or the other world went all dark. It would be a bit like everyone having the same opinion about things or wearing the same clothes. "We've got to stop it. Where do you think he would keep Sara?"
Eric rubbed his hand through his hair. "He'd want her close to this mirror if he plans to take her out and add her to his glass coffin collection. And that's not in this castle. He has another place he'd have to take her to in ord
er to do that."
"Then he wouldn't have taken her down any stairs," I said, eyeing the brambles in the forest. I muttered some commands to them, and at first nothing happened. But then they began to move, uprooting themselves from the ground and growing larger as they curled and writhed out of the forest. It was so creepy that it scared even me for a second, but then I remembered that I had nothing to fear from them. An army of thorns crawled across the grounds, closing in, and I tore myself from the window. I didn't want Eric getting freaked out about this.
But he was over on the other side of the throne room, closer to the mirror.
And next to the large red curtain. It looked like the curtain that hung over the stage back in the high school, which felt more and more distant the longer I stayed here.
And he pulled it back.
"Sara!" we said at the same time.
She was lying there on her back, on top of a wooden platform, and encased in a long glass box. Alric had already put her in a glass coffin and she was sitting here, ready to go back through the mirror to wherever he stored his victims.
And all around her were more people, all lying still in glass boxes like hers.
The light was dim, but I stepped closer so I could see. Sara lay there, surrounded by seven ugly little men. The dwarves.
And Stephanie.
Alric had taken them all.
"Sara!" Eric scratched at the glass, dropping the lettuce. "How do I get them out?"
"I don't know," I said. "Hit the glass really hard? You're supposed to be the one to free her. If the story goes right, there's a way." Then I remembered the lettuce that I still held. I tossed it to him, where it rolled to a stop.
Eric faced me. He brought his fists down on the glass coffin.
And the glass cracked.
I didn't notice the temperature dropping until it was too late.
A force knocked me off my feet, making me fall forward. I landed on my face on red carpet and cold stone. Eric hit the wall next to me and a torch flickered, then came back to life.
"I have to commend your bravery," Alric said. "Not many dare enter my lair like this. Not many dare enter it at all."
I managed to push to my feet. The man in black stood there, holding the side of one of the drawn curtains. Ravens cawed outside. He was summoning them.
He reached up and lowered his hood. I hated his whole clean shaven look.
"Mara," he said as I stood. "You could have kept Prince Eric. I gave you a gift and you chose not to take it. How ungrateful."
Eric glanced at me, then back at Alric. How close were the brambles? The ravens couldn't stop those. They must be drawing close to the window by now but I didn't dare look at it.
"I was on your side, Mara. All I took was your mirror. And you tried to kill me with that apple. Something so obvious wasn't going to work on someone as powerful as me." Outside, a raven screamed in pain. Alric glanced, then snapped his attention back to us. "And I am more powerful than you are, sad to say. I think I'll be adding the two of you to my collection. And there will be no one there to break you out again. There will be no one left in your story after this."
"What's the point of having darkness swallow everything?" I asked. "There won't even be a world to rule if that happens. Everyone will be dead. Unless you want to rule two worlds full of corpses?"
"The strong will survive," Alric said, "And they will listen to me. Fable is filled with people living out the same stories again and again, with no free will. How is that for dark? You want that to continue?"
I didn't know what to say. He'd gotten us into a trap.
"Eric can't survive in a world like that," I said at last.
"He could, if you kept him properly."
"He's not a possession."
"Of course he is. Use your power to keep him. Make him love you. Sometimes, you need to possess the one you love."
Eric peeled himself from the wall. He moved closer to Sara's coffin.
"Back," Alric ordered him, and he slid against the wall again. "I don't need you breaking all of them out after I've put in so much making this display." He eyed the cracks on Sara's coffin and frowned. "And that came pretty close." He walked over to it and held his hand over the damage.
And with a cold creaking sound, the glass healed, sealing Sara inside.
A faint clawing sound came from outside. Another raven screamed in pain. Alric backed away and the air grew colder. Eric fought to peel himself from the wall. He was trapped.
I stepped between him and Alric in an effort to block the magic.
Alric backed towards the window. The air got more electric. He had something planned and I knew it would involve two more glass coffins and a trip to wherever he kept people.
"Eric," I said. "Get them out and get out of here."
He moved. Beat on Sara's coffin again. It creaked.
Alric scowled and raised both his arms. "Stay still. This will be over quickly." Glass formed from the air and shards danced around them. They formed two clouds of shattered death and clinked against each other like a million razor sharp teeth. Each fragment shone with sharpness and pain.
I stood my ground. Eric pounded on the coffin again. Something cracked.
Brambles curled over the windowsill like a hundred green tentacles. Reached up behind Alric.
And clamped down like a hungry snake, snatching him.
The wizard screamed. Brambles tightened around him and stabbed. Beads of blood flew as he thrashed. The glass shards rained to the carpet as the thorns stabbed into black fabric. Alric's face contorted in pain. He screamed again and the castle around us trembled.
I turned to Eric. "Get them out of here!" I shouted. Ravens cawed. Alric was summoning them. "Get her back through the mirror."
Eric slammed his fists down on Sara's coffin another time, and this time it shattered.
Glass rained all over her and onto the floor. Alric let out another scream. Eric shook Sara, but she didn't react. I faced Alric again, willing the brambles to tighten around him. They obeyed. He tried to cry out, but they were constricting him like a hundred green snakes. Blood ran down his face. Alric was helpless in the trap I'd made.
"Kill him!" Eric shouted behind me. He grunted. He must be sitting Sara up. He still had the lettuce. He could use it.
A raven flew in through the window and dove at me, and then another. The brambles reached up and snatched them. They screamed in agony, joining Alric. More birds tried to come in, only to retreat as the vines filled the window and blocked their way through.
"How you doing?" I asked, turning around.
Eric had Sara sitting on the platform in a bed of broken glass. She was a doll of paleness and beauty. He had his arms around her navel, pumping, trying to dislodge the apple in her throat. He tried several times, tears forming at the corners of his eyes, and then Sara made a hiccup sound and something white and red and purple shot out of her mouth to land on the floor.
Sara blinked.
She was alive.
Her eyelids fluttered.
"No!" Alric shouted. I turned back to him. My mistake was taking my focus off the brambles. They had loosened, even though they still filled the windows and kept the birds out. Alric managed to free an arm. Sara muttered something.
"Squeeze him!" I shouted.
The brambles obeyed and caught his arm in a tangle of blood and death. Alric grit his teeth as more glass forming in the air rained to the ground. The floor around him was sparkling.
"Help me," Eric said.
Sara was blinking now, but she still looked out of it. The poison might still be in her system. The lettuce still sat on the floor under some broken glass, so I scooped it up and tossed it to Eric. He caught it and brushed the glass off.
"Sara," he said. "Eat this. You'll feel better." He tore off a piece and held it up to her mouth.
For a second, I wished there was still some broken glass on it.
But only for a second.
If this made Eric happy
, so be it. I wouldn't see him miserable and dead even if it killed me.
"Mara!" Alric shouted. "Release me. You can rule Fable by my side. Why do you want to help those two? You are going against your nature. They're going to kill you. You know that."
I turned to face him. His face was streaked with blood and some of it poured into his eye. The brambles tightened around his chest, my order renewed. But he was holding up. He hadn't given in.
"Kill him," I ordered the brambles.
He had taken something that was mine and he wasn't going to keep it.
Alric said nothing. He stared at me with hate as the brambles thickened around him like a cocoon of pain.
And he smiled.
I didn't watch. I turned to the other prisoners in glass and pounded on Stephanie's glass coffin next. It shattered after a few tries. Eric was already beating on one of the dwarves'. I should jump back through the mirror. I knew it could take us back out of here, to a world where the darkness might be retreating now that the story was ending the way it should.
But Alric could follow if he survived.
The coffin broke and Stephanie blinked. She muttered Eric's name and sat up, trying to get her bearings. She was more alert than Sara had been when she first woke. None of the apple's poison had gotten into her system.
"Mara?" she asked, facing me.
"Go," I said. "Go through the mirror." I whirled around and found Sara beating on another dwarf's coffin. It cracked and shattered. It was the one with the black beard, the one in Tony's Adventure Time T-shirt. He blinked and sat up, taking a breath.
"Alric..." he growled, and faced me.
I shrunk back. I knew that I could order the brambles to destroy him in a heartbeat. And I should. This dwarf had hit me on the head with a hammer. I checked Alric. I could no longer see him through the vines, but the air in the room was getting colder again like he was ready for do something big. We might not have a lot of time.
"Don't kill Mara," Sara told the dwarf. "Get the others out! We need to go."
The vines tightened in a ball around the wizard. He was silent. They still squeezed harder. No blood seeped out. The ravens cawed outside in a maddening concert, trying to get in to help their master. Wings beat and beaks tore at brambles.
