Authors: Cameron Jace
“Talk to me, Loki,” she pulled him by his arm. “How could she ask you to save her, and you still want to kill her?”
“Stop it, Fable,” Axel said. “She is definitely playing him. Can’t you see what this diary says about her manipulating those she feels soft for?”
“Yeah?” Fable snapped. “According to your diary, she has a soft spot for Loki. After all your research why didn’t you ask you both ask the most important question? Why does she have a soft spot for Loki?”
“That’s what’s bugging me,” Loki made a fist. “So please stop talking about it. I have to kill her, and you’re not making it easy for me with all your theories. My life depends on it.”
“Your life?” Fable and Axel said in one breath.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Loki brushed his shoes against the floor and watched it for distraction.
“I don’t know what he means, Fable,” Axel said. “But believe me; you didn’t see what she’s capable of.”
“Say something, Loki,” Fable pleaded. “I thought I liked you. Don’t make me regret it.”
“I don’t know what to think,” Loki snapped. “Axel’s discovery and that diary he found says we’ve uncovered the mystery behind one of the greatest fairy tales of all time. If that’s true, it means we’re going to change history if we tell the world about it—well, at least the fictional history of fairy tales. Which should be fantastic, but I’m sorry if I don’t share that feeling with you, because the truth is that I don’t care. I don’t belong here. I don’t believe in fairy tales, and I don’t want to. I came to kill her and that’s what I will have to do.”
Loki took one last look at the siblings, and something struck him as unusual.
“I’m going back to finish her,” Loki said slowly. “I advise you to stay away from me. I should thank you for the help, but my life is nothing but trouble, and I don’t want you to catch my curse.”
“And our life is all pink bubbles and ice cream,” Axel rolled his eyes. “I’m the most popular, un-pathetic, loved, boy in school. Can’t you see that?” he mocked himself.
“And my life is great, too,” Fable said. “My mother was never a lousy witch, and no one ever mentions this in school, or belittles me and reminds me that I’m nobody. I’m just walking on sunshine.”
“Alright, stop mocking me. I understand,” Loki said. They were telling him that he’d been whining all the time and that if he thought he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, they were no different from him, only they faced their fears and enjoyed their days. “But it’s time to split. The journey ends here.”
“Where are you going,” Fable said.
“It’s daylight, and I think the vampire princess should be sleeping in the coffin somewhere in the castle. It’s the perfect chance for me to get the job done,” Loki said. “Axel kept convincing me that we should go after midnight yesterday, but after I gave it a second thought, it makes better sense to visit her when she’s asleep during the day.”
Axel fell from the chair, trying to catch up with him. Fable’s tender hand touched Loki’s. “Wait,” she paused. “I think we should come with you.”
“Why?” Loki wondered.
“Why?” Axel snapped, standing up. “This is the great adventure I’ve been waiting for all my life. I feel like Tom Sawyer!”
“And you?” Loki gazed back at Fable.
“I’m actually worried about you, Loki,” she said.
Axel’s face blushed with anger. “Take your hands off my sister.”
Fable blushed and pulled her hand away. “Stop that dirty mind of yours,” she said to Axel. “Loki’s a good friend. What’s wrong with you?”
“I have to protect you,” Axel fell over some books.
Loki and Fable laughed, and Loki knew that what she said was true. What he felt toward Fable was a brotherly feeling. It was only intensified because none of them had felt this way before. Fable never really felt safe with Axel, and Loki had never felt the magic of caring for a little sister—even though he was sure he’d be gone soon and never see her again.
As they left the library, Loki thought about it and knew why Fable was really coming with them. Unlike Axel, she wasn’t just out for a great adventure, and it wasn’t only because she cared for him. Fable was coming along in hopes that she’d be able to persuade him not to kill Snow White when the time was right.
13
The sun splayed through the big windows and illuminated everything inside the Schloss; the marble floors, the painted ceilings, and century-old chandeliers. There were a number of golden-framed portraits on the wall, portraying battles where people rode unicorns instead of horses. Loki noticed one of the unicorns was ridden by a woman wearing a cloak; the unicorn was hornless. It made him grip the Alicorn in his hand tighter.
There were also a few pieces of ancient furniture scattered among the vast space of the entrance hall, and they were covered with white, clean blankets. It looked like someone was taking care of the Schloss, and Loki wondered who it could be.
Loki fidgeted at the thought. The castle made him feel uneasy, even with the dreamy sparkling morning sunlight that painted the air, hinting to a misleading sense of security. Everything looked friendly and inviting that one couldn’t help but to explore further. Had it not been infested by a vampire at night, Loki would have fallen for the trap.
There was no evidence of last night’s victims, no traces of blood or signs of struggle. It was just a charming, empty castle in the middle of the Black Forest. Even the Swamp of Sorrow wasn’t as creepy as it was yesterday night. They’d been surprised how easily they crossed the swamp and forest before reaching the castle—which made Loki worry even more. Again, something about this whole island and the castle was wrong, but he just couldn’t put his finger on it. Axel was right when he said that this place had a soul of its own.
“Wow,” Axel said. “This looks nothing like the haunted castle from yesterday.”
Loki gave a couple of inspecting gazes, expecting a sinister detail to hold him back from advancing. He couldn’t find any.
“Awesome,” Fable said, dancing in circles with her arms stretched out, like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music. “I’ve always dreamed of a castle like this. Can we move in here, Axel?”
Loki couldn’t help but adore her. He didn’t bother telling her that it was best if she didn’t dance around so she wouldn’t wake up the vampire princess.
“You think she hid the bodies in the basement?” Axel asked. He stood reluctantly in front of the door leading to the basement.
“She isn’t a serial killer, Axel, and she has nothing to hide,” Loki said. “Relax; I always save the cellar for last.”
“Um—” Axel said. “Because there are two things I hate the most, you know—“
“Not really. “
“Cellars and attics, that’s where all things scary happen.”
Loki took the fancy spiral staircase upward, the one the flashlight barely managed to illuminate last night with all of its blinking. “We need to get upstairs. Remember Dee saying she’d found Snow White’s glass coffin up there?” he said. He could hear Fable and Axel’s footsteps behind him. The staircase was wide enough a carriage could pass through it. The steps were covered with a red carpet, and potted plants were placed on one side—real plants. Who was taking care of these plants?
Loki found himself murmuring:
Snow White One, Snow White two,
Sorrow was coming out for you.
“Boy. It takes some time to climb these stairs. I should’ve bought a bag of Sticky Sweet Bones with me,” Axel said wearily. “I bet those 19
th
century kings and queens rarely got anything done other than climbing up and down the stairs.”
“It’s a royal castle. Every thing has to be large and majestic,” Fable spoke her mind, fascinated with the Schloss.
Loki pulled out his phone and read the notes he’d copied from the dissolved page he’d read in his Dreamhunter notebook. “Tell me if you see any mirrors,” he said. “We can’t kill her without at least two mirrors.”
“Stop saying kill her!” Fable reminded him.
“Slay her?” Loki teased.
“Why mirrors?” Axel wondered.
Loki said. “Part of the killing ritual is laying her body in the coffin between two opposite mirrors to enter her dream.”
“If I were you, I’d worry about stabbing her first,” Axel panted. “And what’s that dream thing you keep talking about?”
“I’ll tell you later, now just look for mirrors I can use.”
“You two are just awful, talking about
Snow White
like that,” Fable said.
“Honestly, I hated the Snow White tale when I was a kid,” Axel said. “She was a pale girl who should’ve tanned more. Her father was absent and weak while her stepmother belonged to an asylum for the beautifully insane. I like Jack and the Beanstalk more. Jack was badass. He stole from giants.”
“Is that why you eat so much, to fight giants?” Fable said.
On the second floor, a long hallway led to a number of rooms on the right; ten rooms or more of wooden double-doors with golden handles the shape of a crow’s head. Loki started pushing the doors open then peeking into the rooms. The doors squeaked against the floor, and it took considerable strength to push them for they were very heavy. Only a hunk like Big Bad opened the doors with ease. The squeaking sound echoed in the huge, almost vacant, space. Loki heard a couple of birds flutter away somewhere.
“Those are really big doors,” Fable said, pushing hard with all her might, causing her body to bend over as if she was stretching in an aerobics class.
The rooms were ridiculously large, almost empty, except for an occasional bed with a nightstand, and large wooden wardrobes.
Fable welcomed each room with a happy dance of her own, tapping on the floor with a rhythmic tempo and stretching out her arms at her sides. She was excited, looking at the high ceilings as if waiting for the rain.
Since the rooms looked safe, Axel started opening more doors, feeling brave, silencing the fear inside him with the irritating sound of squeaking doors.
Axel pushed another door open and Fable dashed into the room with her dancing routine. Axel kept two forefingers crossed in the air, arching his back and examining the rooms like a bad cop with a crucifix in a B movie, the one who usually had two scenes left before he died.
“Don’t worry, Loki,” Axel said. “As long as I believe in the cross, I’m safe and protected.”
“It has to be made of wood or silver,” Fable suggested.
“If you really think it works, why didn’t you use it on her yesterday?” Loki said, walking back to the hallway.
“I was still weakened by my disbelief, but today I’m stronger,” Axel said, trying to sound old and wise, like mentors do in movies. “Ever hear the saying, ‘What doesn’t bite you makes you stronger’?”
“I want what you had for breakfast, because it must’ve been some good stuff,” Loki said. “Oh, wait. I forgot, the boogeyman ate your breakfast.”
Fable laughed; it was a snicker, almost like a sneeze.
Loki opened another room, and it was as empty as the rest. Was it possible that Snow White didn’t sleep in the castle? And why were there no mirrors anywhere? Such castles usually had mirrors, a lot of mirrors. Fairy tales were all about mirrors.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall?” Loki whispered, rubbing his fingers together as if tempting a horse with an imaginary cube of sugar in his hand. He turned back to look for a bathroom. There had to be at least one mirror in there.
“Hey,” Loki said to Axel and Fable. “Did you find any bathrooms?”
Looking out in the hallway, Loki couldn’t find Axel.
“Axel, where are you?” Loki wondered.
There was no answer; only Loki’s echoing voice.
“Fable?” he said.
There was no sign of Fable either, no sounds of clicking feet or singing to an invisible rain.
Loki swallowed hard, and pulled out his Alicorn.
“Stop playing tricks and come out now,” the loneliness of his echoing voice worried him.
What happened to them?
He hurried his pace, pushing more rooms open, merely glancing inside, and looking for them.
They weren’t here.
And not there.
“If you’re trying to pull a prank on me, it isn’t funny!” Loki said.
Three rooms away, he saw the sun bursting into the hallway which meant the room had been opened before he’d reached it. He approached it cautiously, listening to the cacophonic drumbeat of his heart. A light, too bright, was shining out of the room.
“Are you there, Axel?” Loki asked, two steps shy of the room’s entrance. The sound of his footsteps approaching added creepiness to the worrying symphony in his brain.
Loki stopped before the door, raising his stake with his back to the wall. He cocked his head–which Snow White had been twisting yesterday—trying to sneak a peek into the room.
And then, something wicked this way came.
It was a black creature, fluttering its large wings towards him, and hitting him in the head. Loki fell back in the hallway.
On his back, he took a second look at it and saw a huge crow, the size of a man, rustling its large wings, crossing over the staircase to the chandeliers, then flying away through an open window on the other side.
Loki picked up his Alicorn again and stood up, wondering if the room was full of other crows. He had to face whatever else was waiting for him in the room.
“Stupid Loki,” he mumbled. “Neither Axel or Fable should’ve come with you. This is your war. It isn’t fair if something happens to them because of you,” Loki noticed this was one of the longest mumbling episodes he’d ever had. He suspected that it meant he really cared about them.
Finally, Loki found Axel standing in the middle of the room, right in front of him. Then he saw the horror on Axel’s face. He looked paralyzed with an inanimate stare in his eyes and with an open mouth. Loki thought he looked like he was made of wax, standing with his hair as stiff as a witch’s broom, his face pale as if he’d just been bitten by a vampire. Loki stayed put, watching the goosebumps on Axel’s arms.
Axel was speechless, his eyes reluctantly shifting sideways; looking as if they were someone else’s standing behind a statute of Axel in a celebrity museum. Loki got the message, and stared in the direction of Axel’s gaze.