Fractured Fairy Tales (3 page)

He turned his sister around and pressed her face against his chest as the snow swallowed them up, and he stared as a blanket of white wrapped around the two of them. Ellie’s grip tightened and Ayden kept staring. The flakes struck his face and the cold seeped into his flesh. He was about to run for it with his sister in his arms when he felt something strike him hard.

Bowing forward with a grunt, Ayden clutched at his eye as something sharp sent pain rocketing through his mind. Ellie screamed and held him up. The moment she moved away from his chest, Ayden felt another stab go right into his heart.

“Ayden!” Ellie lowered her brother to the gold carpet that shined brightly below them. “We have to get out of here!”

Her brother only groaned, a hand to his eye and a hand to his heart. She couldn’t see what was wrong, she only felt the icy cold growing thicker and thicker all around them. She looked up at the tornado of white and stuck out her hand to try and dig their way out. Her fingertips touched the storm and she pulled back with a yelp, her fingers dry and blue.

“El,” Ayden spoke and she held him closer. “Don’t be afraid.”

“Of course I’m afraid!” she could hardly hear him over the howling of the wind. “You were right about this place.”

Ayden looked up at her, a small smirk on his pale lips, and Ellie gasped at seeing that his left eye blinked silver. She saw her own reflection, as if his eye were a mirror, and when he blinked the silver sank away from her gaze and her brother got back his blue eye. His gaze turned away from the sight of her, his nose slightly wrinkled, and he stared at something behind Ellie.

His sister immediately turned around and witnessed the tornado slowing, growing calmer and calmer, until the white snow was gone. In its place came warm light and the sound of a piano playing somewhere in the distance.

“It is beautiful here,” Ayden smiled. “I never want to leave.”

Ellie’s lips parted at the sight of the estate. No longer crawling with dead plant life or having the damp smell of decay; it shone with golden light and revealed a ball of lavish dresses, masked strangers and circus performers. Ayden stood from his pained position, eyes not blinking, and walked toward the glow of the party.

Ellie, on the other hand, was hesitant. No longer excited or filled with glee, the young girl folded her hands in front of her and watched her brother disappear into the crowd. Performers swung from the ceiling on ribbons of glitter and gold, faces painted like gothic clowns. One girl, with a red glittered hat, kicked out a leg and her shoe flew at Ellie, almost smacking into her.

The girl stepped back, nibbling on her lower lip. The staircase to her left was adorned in a deep red carpet running up the polished marble steps, and high above on the first floor was only shadow. Ice settled in her heart and she looked away, back to the ball where music from violins and more could be heard; where people danced clad in shining jewels and red lipped smiles, where her brother was nowhere to be seen.

The young girl let the red paper still in her grasp fall to the floor, and she entered the masked ball. Crystals of purple and green hung from the high ceiling, dripping with light, and the floor of blush pink tiles sparkled from the reflections of the guests. A waiter wearing a white suit and golden mask over his eyes went right up to Ellie and handed her a drink.

The glass was a thin vial containing bubbling liquid as blue as her eyes. When the waiter was gone, she only stared at it while the others sipped, ate, laughed and joked. But she didn’t drink, didn’t even taste it or went near the display of pastries and cakes nearby.

“What is the matter?” a deep voice was right behind her.

Ellie spun around, and her breath caught in her throat. The man was probably thirty years of age, with fair hair falling down to the stiff white collar of his shirt, and eyes, staring at her from behind a black mask, so intensely blue that Ellie was immediately caught in them. The man, with a face she had only known in her dreams even with the mask on, bowed to Ellie and gave her a light smirk. Even his smile was so much like…

“Pardon my curiosity,” he said calmly. “But you seem saddened by something.”

Ellie didn’t speak. She only stared at the man, at the ring on his left hand, at the dimple in his chin, at the eyes that were similar to hers. The man smiled widely at her and beckoned to a waiter to bring her something to eat. Upon his silver tray was an array of chocolates. Some painted pink or gold, and others plain balls of sugar.

“Try these and forget about your sorrow,” the man winked. “If they don’t do the job, then seek me out.”

And he was gone.

Ellie pushed the waiter aside and searched for the man, but he had disappeared. The one she did spot though was her brother, leaning against a table and staring at the piano player with a half empty glass in his hand. Ellie ran up to him, knocking into several dancing guests, and grabbed his arm.

“I just saw father!” she told him. “He is here!”

Ayden wrinkled his nose and turned his blue gaze, so much like their father’s, to her. His pale lips pulled down, his face darkening. “Why are you here, El? You are causing this place to look so unpleasant.”

“Ayden, didn’t you hear me?” she tugged at his arm, looking over the crowd for their father. “Our father is alive and well! I saw him, and you look just like him! We can go home and be a family again.”

That didn’t make his smile return. Ayden stared at the girl he called sister and was completely disgusted by her. Her skin was flawed, makeup too dark and glitter everywhere, and her dress was an ugly rag compared to the expensive gowns of the other women in the room. He was ashamed to be seen with her, ashamed to be related to her!

“Do not touch me!” Ayden pushed her away, causing the girl to spill a man’s drink. “Go home, Ellie, and forget about me.”

“Ayden?” she stared at him, at his left eye that shined silver. “What’s the matter with you?”

“Now I know why father and mother stayed away instead of going home,” Ayden growled. “They didn’t wish to be with something so ugly!”

Ice. That was all she felt the moment Ayden spoke those words. Ellie was glued to the spot, tears drowning her gaze, as her brother smirked and walked away. His words echoed in her mind.

So ugly. So ugly. So ugly!

Her blurry gaze went up to the piano player who was smiling at her; she was a beautiful woman with auburn hair falling to the small of her back and a wide smile that struck an ache within Ellie’s burning heart. Pressing a hand to her chest, Ellie went up to the piano player, still busy with her melody, and slammed a fist down onto the keys. The guests didn’t even notice, and the woman just kept on playing with that smile on her pretty face.

“Why are you here?” Ellie blinked and tears rolled down her cheeks. “Why did you and Dad leave?” she started to scream. “What kind of a mother leaves her children behind!”

“Children?” the woman chuckled lightly, fingers rippling along ebony and ivory. “I don’t have children, and I’m not even married.”

Ellie pushed aside the ache within her chest and grabbed the woman’s hands, her thumb pressing against her mother’s wedding ring. She frowned, and when the piano stopped playing, a band of guitars and drums started up happily. The young girl, staring at her lost mother, gripped the woman’s hands tightly and stared into her hazel eyes.

“What happened to you?” Ellie asked her. “What has Madam Nix done to you?”

“The madam is the kindest and most generous being I know,” her mother frowned. “Don’t you dare say otherwise about her.”

At that, Ellie could feel several eyes turning to stare at them. She swallowed coldly and breathed out a shaky breath that was a puff of white. “Mom, she made you forget about me and Ayden. We are your children! Your husband is here as well. Please, believe me!”

“No,” the woman said plainly and turned back to her piano.

“Fine,” Ellie turned to the guests looking her way. “I will make the madam release you from her spell.”

Ellie took one step, tears dry and gone from her eyes, but halted when her father came out from the crowd and pointed a finger at her. “Do not disturb the madam.”

“She is keeping you all prisoner here,” Ellie pleaded with them. “You have families out there, but stay here because of that witch!”

She knew she shouldn’t have said that. The music stopped immediately and silence reigned as the guests stopped drinking, laughing and chatting to stare at the strange ugly little girl that was against their madam. Her father was the first one to place his glass on the waiting tray of a waiter and clench his fists.

With another shaky breath of white and the feel of frost crawling up her arms, Ellie bolted from the room toward the staircase. She heard a few guests racing after her, snarling and shouting for her to stay away from the first floor. So naturally, she went right up to it.

She almost tripped when she spotted her brother atop the stairs. He looked at her with that dark gleam in his strange eyes, it made her want to run in the opposite direction. “Ayden, you have to listen to me!”

“Stay away from here,” was all he said.

Ayden hated looking at that girl.

What was her name again?

She was too frail and too
dirty
to be inside the home of the madam. But he stayed where he was so that the girl couldn’t disturb Madam Nix.

Where is the madam though?

He only knew that she wanted her privacy.

Why didn’t she want to see me?

He certainly wanted to see her.

“Ayden!” the girl was grabbed by a man that looked familiar. “You are under a spell!”

The man took her away, down a narrow hallway with her struggles and screams echoing through the room and up the staircase. Something inside of Ayden wanted to call out to the girl…

What was her name?
A part of him wanted to be with her.

As the idea crossed his mind a blink of his left eye made pain rush up and push his thoughts aside, replacing them with the feeling of numbing cold. Ayden stumbled backwards and fell against a wooden door with a glass doorknob in the shape of a heart.

Ayden…

Frowning, the young boy turned to the door and pressed an ear against the cold wood. Someone was saying his name, calling for him.

Could it be the madam?

His heart started racing as he fumbled at the doorknob and managed to pull the door open. Stepping inside, Ayden forgot about the ugly girl, the party and the man with his eyes. He forgot about everything as the door slammed shut and light burst forth to reveal a grand hall.

Ayden was amazed at the cool silver of the walls, white painted flowers adorning their lengths right up to the ceiling that held several grand chandeliers dripping in diamonds. He walked down the length of the room, floor to ceiling windows on either side of him revealing the evening outside where there were black clouds and silver moonlight.

The polished marble floor, as onyx as the evening sky and dotted in golden stars, reflected the moonlight spilling in through the open windows, drowning Ayden with silver. When he finally tore his gaze away from the hall, he spotted a high backed throne atop a stage. It was made entirely out of ice.

The beauty of the throne, and the radiating blue of its clear glass surface, wasn’t what made Ayden stop and stare with a chill crawling up his spine. No, it was the sight of the woman sitting on the throne. Face hidden behind a black veil attached to a top hat. The woman stood gracefully from the throne and allowed hair of the whitest snow to fall down in ruffled curls to her slim waist.

She wore a slim fitting black suit, buttoned up to her breasts and opened to reveal a beautiful pale neck. Ayden became nervous and almost shy to look further upon Madam Nix, but she seemed to stand there, like a frozen statue, just so that he could ravish her with his stare.

Nails of silver and lips as red as blood, the madam descended from her throne down a flight of steps. A black lace train followed her like a shadow, like darkened angel wings dragging across the floor. When her shoes of black leather touched down on the steps, frost crawled out from her heels and layered the surface with their cold touch.

The windows cracked as frost swam up their glass and the chandeliers shuddered as the madam walked beneath their light. Ayden didn’t dare to move, to
breathe
. The owner of the marvellous estate, someone he had once called the Snow Queen, stood before him in glorious beauty that made his heart ache so painfully, and he loved it.

“Ayden…” she spoke from behind her veil.

“You…” he swallowed loudly. “You know my name?”

She laughed, the sound like bells. “Of course. I’ve been waiting such a long time to meet you.”

“You have?” he shivered and she tilted her head to the side.

“You are cold,” she pouted. “I don’t want you to be cold.”

“I’m not!” Ayden then cleared his throat and shrugged as casually as he could under her gaze. “I’m fine, really.”

With the lift of red lips, she clicked her silver fingers, and Ayden immediately felt a heavy fur coat wrap around him. It was thick and very warm, as white as her hair and it smelled of crisp winter. Madam Nix smiled widely at him, at her new toy, and went right up to him.