Snow White Sorrow (13 page)

All of a sudden, the fun was gone…

The front door slammed shut on its own behind Loki, and a spiraling breeze swirled against the windows, blowing the white curtains inwardly into ghostly waves as if there was an invisible big bad wolf puffing the house from the outside.

“You have demons in your house?” Loki flinched, flashing his Alicorn.

“Well,” Axel shrugged. “It’s my sister,” he started breathing heavily and his eyes rolled to the top of their sockets as if his sister was plastered to the ceiling.

“Your sister is a demon, too?”

“Of course, not,” Axel said, fidgeting. “She is a witch; a wannabe witch.”

“Stop it, Fable!” Axel shouted at the swinging chandelier dangling from the ceiling. Books started falling from the shelves and the tree-column swayed slightly. The house seemed to crumble and rumble as if they were standing in the belly of a whale that’d just had a heavy meal. Loki ducked to avoid a couple of flying dishes. It devastated him that he was still a mortal, and was about to die in a silly wannabe-witch’s attack that he could not stop.

A skinny, cute girl, with pink-framed glasses and braided pigtails, showed up, stepping out from another room. She looked about fifteen, and she was holding a heavy vellum book of spells with her small nimble hands.

“Sorry!” Fable raised her voice against the flying objects, sounding overly apologetic as if she’d overcooked a meal with a bad recipe from the internet. “Wrong Spell!” she wiggled her nose then adjusted her glasses, trying to keep her balance as she looked back into the book. Although Loki wanted to escape this madness, he couldn’t escape Fable’s cute attitude. He thought she needed to unbraid her hair and lose the glasses, though. Never had Loki felt so attracted to a girl he wished was his sister.

She is a witch, Loki. Not so different from a demon. When will you ever learn?

Loki noticed that the cover of the book she was holding read:

Magick and Voddoo for Dummies and the Unfortunate

Voddoo
was written with two Ds and was missing an O. No wonder her spells had gone bad.

“Just a sec,” Fable raised a forefinger. “If I can get the page turned in the wind; the solution is only one page away, but most of the pages are stuck together with grime, so it’s going to take a minute.”

“Wet your finger with your tongue and flip the page!” Axel yelled, holding onto a tree, five feet up in the air.

Fable wet her finger and flipped through the next large page, which was the color of an old treasure map.

As the muddy roof rumbled louder, Axel hugged the tree tighter with his hands and legs like a monkey on a circus pole.

“I hate this,” Loki announced, his legs fixed to the floor. His arms were stretched as if surfing on angry waters.

Axel’s face looked like it was being sucked by an invisible vacuum cleaner.

“I found it,” Fable cheered finally. “
Mumble, jumble, stop your rumble,
” she chanted, reading from the book, but nothing happened. “
Tumble, crumble, stop your mumble,
” she followed.

“What kind of spell is that?” Axel protested. “How many times did I tell you to try out spells before you actually
use
them?”

“Wait a sec,” Fable flipped more pages. “Here it is.
One, twice, thrice and done. Wind of madness, just be gone.
I command you from higher ground. Stop it now, no spellbound. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh, and Whoosh
,” she tapped her feet with every
whoosh
.

It was incredible how the room suddenly seized, and relaxed from its grumpy tantrum. The curtains stopped fluttering, nothing fell from the shelves anymore, and whatever seemed to be sucking on Axel’s face was gone.

“Are you guys alright?” Fable let the book fall, thudding against the wooden floor. She looked genuinely worried behind her embarrassed, grey eyes.

“I think so,” Loki said, panting.

“Great. I’m Fable,” she stretched out a hand toward Loki, and he shook it gently. “I’m Axel’s older sister,” she said.

Loki raised an eyebrow because he thought she looked younger than Axel.

“No. No. I’m just messing with you. I’m younger,” Fable laughed with dimpled cheek.

“Fable, such a lovely name,” Loki said.

“It’s short for Fabulous,” she said proudly. “And I’m not messing with you this time. I was named Fabulous.”

“Pretty neat,” Loki said. “And Axel is short for what?”

“Why would Axel be short for anything? I’m Fabulous, he isn’t,” she stuck her tongue out at her brother who was still panting. “I don’t think my parents knew what to call him so they just named him Axel.”

“What kind of logic is that?” Axel protested. “There must be a great guy I’m named after, like Axelus the Great. He was a Greek god.”

“There’s no such thing,” Fable said.

“Maybe I was going to be named Excellent, only our parents didn’t know how to spell it.”

“Whatever,” Fable waved her hand. “Sorry about that madness, Loki. Axel doesn’t usually bring friends back to the house. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have messed around with the spell. Want Pookies? I learned how to bake.”

“Pookies?” Loki said.

“Yeah, cookies made from pigs,” she said. “They’re sweet, pink, and have pig’s noses that make funny sounds when you squeeze them.”

“Cookies made with a recipe from the
Voddoo
book?” Loki questioned.

“You noticed? It’s misspelled,” she said, shielding her smile with her hands. “That’s why I got it cheaper. Almost for free,” she whispered and nodded her head at Loki as if both of them shared a genuine secret. Although Fable’s beauty wasn’t as obvious as Lucy’s, Loki couldn’t resist her charms.

“Enough Fable,” Axel interrupted. “Go back to your room to study. Loki and I have business to take care of. Besides, I ate all the Pookies this morning,” Axel played older brother then headed to the refrigerator, ate chips from a bag that looked like they were two days old, and gulped from an open can on the way. He opened the refrigerator, pulled out a plate of red jelly and placed it on the counter. The jelly shook nervously on the plate. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you,” he talked to it, reaching for a spoon. “I’m just going to eat you. Yum, Yum.”

Loki exchanged looks with Fable. She seemed like she wanted to scream and pull her pigtails out. Somehow, this was enough to prove to Loki that the house wasn’t made of candy, or Axel would’ve eaten it long ago.

“Do we have any Coffincakes left?” Axel asked Fable with a mouthful of jelly.

“Coffincakes?” Loki wondered.

“Yeah, those little coffin-shaped cakes that you can open and eat the carrot-corpse inside then eat the cake, I mean, the coffin as dessert,” Axel explained. “You never heard about them? Where are you from, man? They’re just like Coffinmuffins.”

It was official; food in Sorrow was wickedly peculiar, insanely eccentric and bordered on madness.

“Can’t you ever stop eating?” Fable growled at Axel. “You ate all my food.”

“Because you ate my Sticky Cinnamon Frogs yesterday,” Axel fired back, swallowing. “Besides, all you ever eat is bread.”

“I don’t eat bread all the time. I use it to find my way back from when I go to the market and back. Don’t worry about Axel eating everything,” Fable said to Loki, picking up her book of spells. “I have apples in my room, if you feel hungry; Bad Apples, Mad Apples, and Poisoned Apples.”

“They’re not really poisoned apples, or?”

“Of course not,” Fable laughed. It was a mesmerizing laugh; the laugh of a girl who rarely left the house or faced the dangers of life. Still, Loki adored her perkiness. “You just faint for a couple of minutes after eating them. It’s like taking a nap after a heavy meal. Everyone loves Poison Apples in Sorrow,” she elaborated.

Loki saw a small spider crawling on Fable’s shoulder. When he tried to swoosh it away, she stopped him.

“Don’t hurt him. It’s Itsy,” she patted it as it tickled her neck.

“I told you my sister is a wanna-be witch. What I didn’t tell you is that she is also very weird,” Axel laughed.

“And this is Bitsy,” Fable pointed at a motionless tarantula, lying on the floor next to the couch.

“He looks—“Loki said.

“Dead—“Axel suggested, thrilled at making fun of his sister.

“No, he isn’t,” Fable explained to Loki. “He is just depressed. He broke up with his girlfriend.”

“He’s depressed because you charmed him with the wrong mood-lifter spell last week,” Axel said, throwing the spoon into the sink. “Now seriously, go back to your room. Let the big boys do their work, and don’t forget to do my homework, too.”

“I don’t want to go to my room, and you’re not dad, you know,” Fable insisted, hugging the heavy book to her chest. “Can I please join you in whatever you’re doing? I’m bored,” she said, adjusting her glasses.

“No you can’t,” Axel insisted. “Girls should listen to their big brothers, be polite and not ask too many questions.”

“That’s a bit sexist,” Loki tried to interrupt.

“Shhh,” Axel eyed Loki. “Don’t talk about sex in front of my little sister.”

“Axel,” Fable barked, “you’re the dumbest brother in the world,” she mumbled something else and waved goodbye to Loki who felt for her, and then went back to her room.

“So how come she is into magic?” Loki asked Axel.

“She wouldn’t be if our mother hadn’t been.”

“Your mother is a witch?”

“Was, she and dad died when I was like three. I don’t really remember them.”

“Oh. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t sorry me. They’re the ones who’re dead. You should be sorry for them. My dad was a woodcutter. Mom was a witch; at least that’s what I was told. All I know is that she was a lousy witch. Isn’t it funny that my mom failed at being an evil witch? Maybe that’s why the Bullyvards pick on me so much. I mean if you’re going to be a witch, then be a freakin’ kick-ass spell casting, ingenious witch. What happened to raw, evil, villainous role models?”

“You wish your mother was evil?”

“Why not? She could’ve taught me what to do with Ulfric Moonclaw when I see him again,” Axel made a claw of his right hand and made a goofy evil face. “I mean, listen to his name, Moonclaw. It oozes with evil. He should worship his parents.”

“Don’t you think it’s bizarre you hate the guy but like his name?”

“Not at all; I like your name, too, by the way. Loki Blackstar. It sounds like a fictional hero’s name, but I still like it.”

Flawed logic aside, it was still hard to think of a villain with the last name Crumblewood, or even a hero for that matter.

“So who takes care of you and your sister?” Loki slumped back on the comfy, big red couch. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt comfortable with the company of a teen he’d just met. It was a strange feeling, but a good one.

Man, this couch feels so much better than Carmen’s backseat.

“We have a foster parent who picked us up two years ago from the Orphanage of Sorrow,” Axel said. Loki thought this explained why Axel and Fable didn’t have friends. “Her name is Mircalla. Strange name, I know, but she is a fantastic woman. She pays for everything and takes care of us although she doesn’t spend much time with us. She’s kind of like our fairy godmother, and she is awesome.”

“Why she isn’t here now?”

“She visits every week or so. She has other orphans to take care of all around the world, so we practically have the house to ourselves.”

“Interesting,” Loki thought Mircalla reminded him of the way Charmwill took care of him, only Charmwill never paid the bill or bought him a house. “I would love to meet her,” Loki said, although he didn’t mean it. By the time Mircalla came to visit again, he should have killed the vampire princess and left.

“She’ll be back in a couple of days, which means we’ll have to clean the house before that.”

Loki thought he clicked with Axel and Fable because they were orphans like him. Aside from his lost memories, Loki hadn’t had the chance to even know his father’s name, and his mother refused to tell him. All he knew from Charmwill was that he was a great Dreamhunter who’d been shadowed after falling in love with his mother who gave birth to Loki.

Loki touched his pocket where he kept the Dreamhunter’s notebook. He hadn’t had time to read it to figure out how he’d kill Snow White in her dreams. He planned to stake her first, and take her somewhere safe where he could learn the process of killing a demon in her sleep. That was if he managed to get over his fear of demons girls. Loki suddenly realized he was wasting time. He needed Axel to tell him about the obstacles he had to pass to get to the castle.

“I’m logging into the Snow White forum, Harum Scarum, so we can acquire all the info we need,” Axel brought his laptop over to where Loki sat. He picked up Bitsy, the silent tarantula, from the floor and threw him at the window. The spider stuck on the glass without complaint as if it were a big hairy magnet. “Useless dead spider,” Axel mumbled. “If only Fable didn’t love you so much.”

“What about this forum?” Loki asked.

“I know you won’t believe me, but teens are secretly infatuated with the Snow White vampire princess,” Axel said. “Here, you’ll find all the secrets, speculations, and conspiracy theories about Snow White, and what really happened to her.”

“Assuming she is the real Snow White,” Loki rolled his eyes.

“Well, that’s what the boys and girls say,” Axel said. “On this forum, you’ll find the names of the teens she killed, those who’ve tried to visit the castle recently, and those who claim they have seen her and came back. They are liars by the way.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t I tell you back in school that whoever lays eyes on her, never lives long enough to tell about it,” Axel faked an evil laugh. “Mua, ha, ha.”

“So enough with all that; get the info we need and let’s go to the Black Forest.”

“Easy, Loki, if we eat, wash, and rest for a while, we’ll be ready to go out a little before midnight. That’s when the boys and girls go there.”

“Why do we have to wait until midnight?”

“Because she’s a vampire, and wouldn’t come out in the sun? Gosh. What kind of vampire hunter are you?”

Loki tapped his fingers impatiently, not commenting about Axel still wanting to eat again. If Axel were a demon, he’d have eaten him and Fable already.