Once Upon A [Fallen] Time

by Samreen Ahsan

She kept walking with hasty steps. I didn’t know why she was in such a hurry. I followed her silently. She never bothered to look back at me. She held the skirt of her dress and climbed the stairs barefooted. I could see the jewellery twinkling on her ankle. It looked rare and precious. But then again… everything on her was magical. I couldn’t deny it.

  She knew the way to my chamber. She pushed the door open and entered the chamber with frustration. She threw the cloak on the bed and sat on the edge. She was taking deep breaths, trying to gain control over herself. I stood by the door for a while.

  “I must applaud you for your performance,” I said, sarcasm dripping from every word, as I closed the door behind me. “No one in this kingdom has ever succeeded in seducing King Stefan.” She didn’t say anything in return, except for throwing daggers at me. I walked into the dressing chamber, still frustrated at how she had provoked King Stefan. She was walking on hot coals, and she had no bloody idea she’d burn her feet if she kept on doing this foolish act. She thought she’d keep on accepting danger and I was there for damage control?

  I took off my cape and tunic, and searched for my hunting clothes when she entered the dressing chamber without any warning. I turned around as I heard her steps. We both froze. She stared at my bare chest, but I had no clue what she was thinking. A moment of seduction passed between us, but we both stood our grounds. All my anger and frustration wavered at the way she looked at me—with longing and unspoken desire.

  But then she blinked and looked down. “I’m sorry.” She closed her eyes and turned around. Her back was facing me now. She needed to change her dress; else, I’d definitely rip it off of her body. “I need some clothes.” She craned her neck to her right. “Perhaps you could lend me some of Veronica’s clothes?”

  What? Was she punishing me again? She was not done yet? Did she have to take V’s name to annoy me? My anger returned.

  “Why don’t you ask your beloved King Stefan,” I put on another tunic as I continued, “Since he has been dancing on your whims and desires this morning.”

  She turned back around. “You think I liked doing it?” She folded her arms. “Edward, you’re a jealous, stubborn arse.”

  I stepped forward and caged her in with my body. She retreated—her back against the wall. “Don’t you dare talk to me like that.”

  “I will and don’t you dare stop me. If you have a problem, then find a way to send me back where I came from.”

  “You’re not going anywhere unless I command you.” I seethed, pulling away from her, taking out my hunting boots.

  “Why? Why do you want to imprison me?” She just wouldn’t shut up, would she? I ignored her question. “And where are you going?” Instead of replying, I looked for my crossbow. Veronica had always taken care of my belongings and reminded me where I’d kept things, but ever since her death, I had not allowed anyone to enter my chamber—except for cleaning, and for the gong farmers who had the backdoor entry to the privy but no one was allowed to enter my private chamber. I didn’t need anyone to put me to bed and change my clothes. I hated anyone invading my privacy. “If you’re looking for your crossbow, you left it at the stables last time you were with Ulysses,” she said softly. I stared at her, speechless. She knew everything about me—I had no bloody place in this world to hide.

  I came out of the dressing chamber and sat on the edge of the bed. She followed quietly and sat next to me. We stayed in silence for a few heartbeats. I didn’t know about her, but at least, I didn’t know what to say. Sometimes, you have no words for an argument and silence is the only solution—this was my moment. I didn’t want to say anything. She had always made me speechless and I had nothing to say in return.

  When my anger died, I stood up from the bed and walked towards the door. “If you want to come, feel free to join me but I’m going hunting. You need shoes for now—you’ll find feminine shoes in the dressing chamber.” I didn’t look at her. “I’ll wait outside.”

  I was about to walk through the door when her words turned my world upside down.

  “At least stop lying to me, Edward.” I held my breath. “I know you’re going to the village to visit Emma.” I shifted uncomfortably. She had the habit of laying out all my pages in front of my eyes. “Silently, without even letting her know, you keep track of all her life’s activities—her needs, her—”

  I grabbed her by her bare arm and pushed her against the wall. “If you don’t learn to shut up, lady, you’re going to ruin yourself.”

  Instead of fearing the future king, she laughed—she bloody laughed at my face.

  “You want me to fear you, Edward?” She poked a finger into my chest. “It’s you who is afraid of hearing the truth.”

  I pulled away from her and left the chamber without looking back. It was better if she stayed within the walls. I couldn’t even think of taking her with me. She had already wrecked everything around me. Taking her with me was too risky. When I reached the Great Hall, about to exit towards the stables, I ran into King Stefan unexpectedly.

  “Edward,” he called out my name.

  I halted in my tracks and turned around to look at him.

  “King Stefan,” I acknowledged his presence. What was he still doing here? He had a council meeting with the lords.

  “Lady Farrow is taking a rest?” Something twisted inside me. Why did he want to know what she was doing?

  “I don’t know.” I averted my gaze.

  “What do you mean you don’t know? You don’t know where she is?” I didn’t know why he was so concerned about her. She was my prisoner. He wasn’t supposed to ask me about her.

  “I’m here, Your Majesty,” I heard her voice behind me. My back stiffened when her step towards us grew louder.

  I noticed the shadows of lust dancing in King Stefan’s eyes as he watched her. I turned and noticed she had put on the cloak again, this time clipping it properly.

  “It is really a pleasure to see you once again, Lady Farrow.” He took her hand and kissed it. “I thought you were resting.”

  “I thought I should meet my friend in the village and apologize for not attending her wedding yesterday.” She put up a fake smile again. “I was requesting Prince Edward if he could accompany me—”

  “I have other chores,” I interrupted.

  King Stefan noticed my shoes. “You can go hunting tomorrow.” His gaze dropped to her. “I would have taken you personally, Lady Farrow, if I didn’t have some important business to attend to. But if you can wait until tomorrow—”

  I cleared my throat. “I will take you. Follow me.” I turned around and walked towards the exit.

  Bloody hell!

  King Stefan would personally take my prisoner to visit her friend in the village? To the person who didn’t even exist? Did she have any idea what he would do to her if he caught her lie? And the stone-hearted king had never even visited the village.

  “Thank you for your hospitality, Your Majesty. We shall meet at dinner.” Her steps were heavy as she ran behind me. I didn’t look behind. I kept my steps fast-paced while she struggled to keep up with my speed. I glanced at her once she had caught up with me. She was smiling—perhaps even laughing at the situation. I realized she was enjoying controlling my perverted father. He was truly dancing on her whims.

  As soon as we entered the stables, she ran to my horse. “He’s Ulysses, isn’t he?” I didn’t respond. “He’s beautiful.” She rubbed his neck. Apparently, my horse also looked smitten, the way he welcomed her.

  What the hell is going on? Is she hexing everyone around me?

  I called the stableman and ordered him for a carriage. “The lady wants to visit the village. Prepare the royal carriage.”

  “What does that mean?” she asked. “You are not taking me?” She was treating me as if she was my master.

  “Your Highness,” the stableman bowed awkwardly and left us in privacy.

  I saddled Ulysses and pulled him out of the stables with a halter. She followed me like a
shadow.

  “Edward, I will ride on Ulysses. I’m not going in any carriage.” As if!

  I really wanted to laugh at her loud mouth and boldness.

  “I’m not King Stefan who’d listen to your—”

  “Edward, please. Stop being an arse.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re jealous of your own father.”

  “Jealous? You think I’m jealous? You foolish woman, do you have any idea what you’re doing? You keep telling one lie after another and you think he’d never know about it? You have no idea what he does when he catches a lie!” I hissed at her. “You can’t even see the storm coming for you. You’re hastening your damnation and you find it bloody funny?”

  Her eyes softened. “You worry about me,” she smiled. “Why, Edward?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I make sure I don’t let him harm my captives.”

  “Am I just a captive to you?” she asked. “Is that all you think of me?”

  I had no answer. Instead, I pulled her up from her delicate waist and placed her on Ulysses’ back. She needed to eat properly—she was too damn delicate. “Time to go.”

  I mounted Ulysses, too, and headed towards the castle’s exit.

  “If you don’t like the hand that fate’s dealt you,

  fight for a new one.”

  ― Masashi Kishimoto

  CHAPTER 6

  STEVE

  JUNE 12th 2015

  “Mr Bernard?” Miss Watson looked at me. “Do you have any idea what this means?”

  I was sitting in the grand office of the royal historian from British Monarchy behind Westminster Abbey. Myra’s parents had not left me ever since they’d arrived at my apartment. They had been my shadow, stalking me everywhere. Tyler had been watching all this with silence.

  I had come here to seek the help of Julia Watson, but instead of helping, she glanced at Myra’s parents, horrified after having watched the video on my phone. She was the only person besides Tyler who had witnessed Myra talking to Edward through the mirror. Plus, she had a deep knowledge of Hue rulers and the castle. I was hoping she had some clue regarding her disappearance.

  “This could lead to endless possibilities.” She was rubbing a pen against her cheek.

  “Miss Watson, I don’t need to know the possibilities. I want to know if you have a solution. How can we bring Myra back?” I asked, trying my hardest to stay patient. “She could be in trouble.” I was shit scared of what those medieval sadists were capable of doing to a woman.

  “Have you seen the movie The Phantom of the Opera?”

  “Huh!” I chuckled. “You think some ghost took her? You want me to believe that shit?”

  But then I recalled that one time a few weeks ago when Myra and I had been in the chapel. She had been looking at the mirror intently while I had been busy on my laptop, sitting on the altar.

  “Steve?” she had called out my name.

  “Hmm?” I hadn’t bothered to look up from my screen.

  “Have you seen The Phantom of the Opera?” she had asked.

  I had glanced at her, chuckling. “Where the ghost was obsessed with the opera singer?”

  “He wasn’t a ghost,” she had replied in a subtle tone, her gaze never leaving the mirror, as if searching for something. I had looked up from my screen, wondering where the conversation was heading. “Everyone thought of him as a ghost but in truth, he was just a man in love.”

  “He made the girl disappear,” I had added. “Obviously, one would treat him as a ghost.”

  “It doesn’t matter if she opened the door behind the mirror or travelled through it,” she had said.

  “Yes, it doesn’t matter,” I closed the laptop lid. “What matters is that you should realize the character of the phantom was a figment of some writer’s imagination. It was fiction.”

  Myra hadn’t said anything. She had just stared at the mirror.

  “And you’re expecting me to believe she actually travelled through time?” Julia’s words pulled me back to the present. As if!

  “What else does it look like?” I looked at her. “You and I both know she has been communicating with Edward from the fifteenth century. What could it be?”

  She glanced at Myra’s parents who were waiting for her response. “Witchcraft?” she suggested. “Perhaps it was never Edward in the book or in the mirror.” We all stared at her. “Perhaps it was simply witchcraft. Some crazy magic.”

  I slumped back in my chair and sighed. What if she was right? What if Myra was under a spell that made her hallucinate? That made her imagine Edward? But if it were true, then how had her hand disappeared through the mirror? How had she passed through the mirror if she was only hallucinating? I’d been there! I knew what I’d seen.

  “You’re saying our daughter is under some influence of witches,” Myra’s mother said, her voice shaky.

  “Mr Bernard, if you remember,” she ignored Mrs Farrow’s question, “I told you that Myra may have some connection with the Hue Castle. We know the castle has been cursed for so many centuries, maybe the people working in it were cursed too—not just the royal bloodline. Maybe Myra was someone’s baby, who brought her to the restoration in 1993. Maybe the parents died during restoration—”

  “I don’t believe this,” I interrupted.

  “And you believe in her travelling through time, Mr Bernard?” she argued.

  Touché.

  “It’s also possible that the parents were poor and had no other choice than to leave Myra outside the castle. She may have born out of wedlock. We don’t know how long she had been there—hungry.” Mrs Farrow’s face darkened as she listened to Julia Watson’s words. “She may have been taken care of by the witches around the castle. We all know a baby cannot survive alone,” Julia Watson continued, looking at Myra’s devastated parents and then at me. “So now, maybe… the witches want her back. Your meeting with Myra, your inclination towards Hue Castle for your game, Myra accompanying you there—Myra having the power to be filmed inside—I doubt it was a coincidence. Maybe the witches and their magic called her back.”

  “Miss Watson,” Myra’s father cut in, “We are not going to believe that our daughter was cursed. She has been a perfect child ever since we adopted her. She never even threw a tantrum nor did we ever notice her talking to imaginary people.”

  “Mr Farrow,” Ms Watson replied, “Based on the video, we cannot say if it’s the magic or the curse that made her disappear. Only Myra can answer that. I really don’t know how to help you. I wish I could, but…”

  “You promised to take care of my daughter, Steve,” Mrs Farrow sobbed, looking at me like I had pushed Myra through the mirror. I hated this drama! Every time someone said something new, she’d start crying. It was getting hard for me to listen to them all the time. “I told you never to take her there. It was mother’s instinct that warned me. I want my daughter back.” Her husband rubbed her back, trying to comfort her.

  “Unless…” Julia Watson looked at me. “Talk to Bakr—remember the old man in that bookstore? When he saw Myra, he told her that someone had been waiting for her. The way she read the book…”

  She was right. How had I not thought of that? I stood up from my seat.

  “Thank you for your help, Miss Watson. I’m taking the next flight to Casablanca.” I didn’t want to waste a single moment. Every minute was precious; I had to speak to Bakr as soon as possible. How could I miss that man in this story?

  At one end, Myra’s over-protective parents had been stalking my every single activity. They warned me if I left the city without informing them—they would press charges against the Bernards and moreover, my parents agreed. They were equally concerned about Myra. And on the other hand, the producer who had signed the contract had been calling me since this morning to work on the film screenplay. I had been avoiding his calls, asking him for some time. It was a foolish act I did by sharing the entire story of the game with him. Now if he planned to film inside, he’d come to know that there was
nothing he could film. He didn’t know about Myra’s power. All he knew from press releases about the storyline for the game and then offering me motion picture, Excalibur and Universal producing the movie together. I took some advance money from him before I launched the trailer and booked the castle for twelve months. Returning him the advance money was impossible—not because I couldn’t afford it—but it could jeopardize my company’s name. The movie and the game were supposed to be launched together next year. He had already issued a press release and that woman had just fucking disappeared.

  “I don’t want to pry as I see it’s your family matter, Mr Bernard, but I’m equally concerned about Myra,” Julia Watson said, standing up too. “In this twenty-first century, it’s hard to believe that a man from the past could pull her into his world—”

  “I will bring her back—no matter if I have to go back in time to convince her,” I promised. “I won’t let her live with those sadists.”

  Hope dawned on Mrs Farrow’s face. “What will you do?”

  “I’m not letting this story end here. I’m not going to be the villain in this story. I was the hero and I will remain the hero in this triangle.”

  I straightened my jacket and looked at Julia Watson. “You have been a great help. I will meet Bakr as soon as possible and see if I can find a solution.”

  “Would you mind if I joined you?” Miss Watson asked.

  “You’re not going alone, son. We’re coming too,” Mr Farrow said before I could even consider Julia Watson’s request. He was probably worried I’d make a run for it.

  I looked at everyone for a while.

  “I would love to take you all but do you think Bakr would tell me the truth if he saw the crowd around him?” I looked at the parents apologetically. “I promise I won’t run away but that man is an ass. I know he won’t tell me the truth—if he knows the truth—so easily. He knows me and Julia Watson but taking you two—”

  “We will beg him to tell us the truth.” Mrs Farrow’s eyes begged.

  I sighed and closed my eyes. I couldn’t blame them. They were her parents and damn her—she might even be enjoying her trip to Edward’s world and the secrets of Hue Castle.