Snow White Sorrow (3 page)

“Some worm,” Justina said.

Pickwick really wished he could talk now, and scream that Justina could not be blind. How did she know about the worm? Instead, Pickwick occupied himself with the rotten apple healing itself afterwards. The apple looked so juicy and delicious now, having been cured of the worm that was infecting it. Pickwick licked its lips.

“See? I told you,” Charmwill said, and pulled out his pipe. He felt proud, puffing Dragonbreath in the air. The ship shook slightly when he did, and Pickwick wondered if it was the dragon’s time to wake up. “Like the apple, you should give the boy a chance. All the apple needed was to get that worm out of it. In fact, the darkness inside the boy could be the weapon he could use against evil if nurtured and taken care of, if you only let me show him the way.”

“Alright,” Justina gave up, waving her hands in the air, almost blushing. “I’ll free the boy, but under the three conditions of the Council of Fairy Heaven.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Charmwill winked at Pickwick with victorious eyebrows, still drawing on his pipe. Pickwick winked back.

“Rule number one is that the boy will be sent to the Ordinary World as a mortal, which means he could die like any other human,” Justina said.

“Agreed,” Charmwill said with the pipe in his mouth.

“Rule number two: the boy will be sent to the Ordinary World without previous memories. He will not remember anything about his past. You will have to tell him that he’s a half-angel that used to live in Fairy Heaven, though.”

“That’s a bit contradictory,” Charmwill commented. “Why would I torture him by telling him he was banned from Fairy Heaven if he was destined to live as an amnesiac mortal?”

“Because of rule number three, which is that he has a choice to continue living as a mortal in the Ordinary World or seek forgiveness and go back to Fairy Heaven.” Justina said. “In that case, erasing his memories is for his own good, so he doesn’t think about the girl that got him banned.”

Charmwill rubbed his chin, “I thought that he was doomed not to be forgiven. What has changed?”

“Your desire to save him is what changed,” Justina said. ”If someone as prestigious as you decided the boy should be saved, why not give him a chance to repent? As Justice, I believe in wrong and right, but I also believe in strong willed hearts.”

“And what does he have to do exactly to be forgiven if he ever chooses to return to Fairy Heaven?” Charmwill said.

“He has to kill ninety-nine vampires in the Ordinary World,” the Godmother raised a forefinger in the air.

“Ninety-nine vampires?” Charmwill’s heart missed a beat. “That’s an absurd amount to kill for a mortal without powers.”

“These are the rules upon which I am allowed to unshadow him. You will have to teach him to be a mortal vampire hunter, and if he desires returning home, free and forgiven, he will have to do as I said. It’s the only thing that’d cleanse him of the darkness he has inside him.”

Charmwill considered the offer for a moment, looking down at Loki’s chained shadow. “Like I said, I accept,” he nodded back at the Godmother who signaled to the mermaids to pull the coffin up to the ship.

The mermaids opened the glass coffin, hypnotized Loki by staring at his shadow a tad too long, and freed him from his chains. Charmwill knocked on Pickwick’s beak,
tic-to-tic-tac-toc
, and it turned into a book, which he started drawing in. As he drew, Loki began to come back to life, taking the form of the human Charmwill designed in his book.

“You’re not planning to change his looks in the Ordinary World, are you?” Justina asked.

“Not at all,” Charmwill said, turning the book back into Pickwick. “I only gave him black hair, instead of blonde, as the prophecy reads.”

One of the mermaids wrapped a thin necklace made of seashells around Loki’s neck and kissed his mouth, murmuring something about the second life the boy was just given. It was part of the waking ritual. Everyone stared at the unconscious boy in the glass coffin because he looked like a male sleeping beauty.

Within minutes, the mermaid’s kiss would wake Loki up for the second time in his life. He was going to be reborn, and have another chance in the Ordinary World. The mermaids couldn’t stop staring at him. There was something mysterious about Loki that made them believe that he would save the Fairyworld from the imminent evil that was prophesized. Pickwick was sad that Loki would wake up in the Ordinary World, oblivious to all of this.

“What are those black tattoos he has on each shoulder?” Charmwill asked.

“They are black stars,” Justina said, “it’s how the Council of Heaven brands banned angels—or half-angels in his case. It will stick with him until he kills the ninety-nine demons or dies as a Minikin.”

Pickwick raised his eyebrows because he didn’t know what a Minikin was.

“We call ordinary people who aren’t related to the Fairyworld, Minikins,” Charmwill explained to Pickwick. “’Kin’ means ordinary human in our fairy language, and ‘mini’ means small and helpless. So, why does he have two tattoos, and why are they on his shoulders?” Charmwill turned back to Justina.

“They’re placed where he should have grown wings if he’d passed the age of sixteen without breaking the Council’s rules, and would have been promoted to angel,” Justina explained.

Charmwill didn’t comment. He ordered the mermaids to move Loki to his canoe so he could sail him back through the fog to the Ordinary World.

He is also not allowed to use his last name,” Justina said. “Will you choose a new one for him?”

“Blackstar,” Charmwill smiled, looking at a sleeping Loki. “Loki Blackstar. I like it,” he added as he turned around to walk away, “sounds badass.”

“What did you just say, Charmwill?” Justina looked furious.

“It’s just a word I learned in the Ordinary World,” Charmwill blushed. He wasn’t supposed to say such words in her presence. “It means…nobleman.”

The mermaids and Pickwick snickered for they knew that the word meant otherwise.

“Yes, he’s going to be badass,” one of the mermaids agreed.

“Oh,” Justina said. “One last thing, Charmwill,” she said. “Can I ask you why you’re doing this? Really? Saving a damned boy? There must be another reason than just believing in a prophecy.”

“Of course, there is, Godmother Justina, and it’s very simple,” Charmwill said stepping down the zigzagged dragon’s tail. “No one deserves to die before knowing who they really are.”

Charmwill climbed into his canoe and rowed away with Pickwick and the Boy Who was a Shadow. Soon enough, the boy would wake up and Charmwill would have to teach him a lot of things. He raised a finger again to test the wind and commented on how the day had gotten even better. A smile landed upon his face as he puffed the pipe again.

“I hope the Godmother doesn’t find out that I enchanted the rotten apple. It’s a little magic I learned,” Charmwill told Pickwick. “She thinks she can balance the good and evil in the world by sitting on her lazy butt next to her scale. Little does she know that it needs hard and dedicated people and strong hearts to outsmart evil in this world. I have a feeling only two kids in the world can do that. One of them is Loki Blackstar; the Boy Who
was
a Shadow.”

2

Deadly Ever After

The screaming Cinderella ran up the stairs. She held the rim of her blood-spattered dress while the wooden steps creaked underneath her. Her predator, a Prince Charming with fangs, climbed after her with a chainsaw.

“I love you, and can’t live without you. Kiss me or die. Mua, ha, ha!” Prince Charming proclaimed.

Cinderella threw him a flirty look over her shoulder before he caught her by her dress and pulled her a step down to him. He rolled her back into his arms theatrically and embraced her. Instead of killing her with the chainsaw, or kissing her, Prince Charming bit Cinderella on the neck, a true love’s bite.

Everyone at the party cheered happily. Boys and girls saluted the couple on the stairs, raising their half-filled glasses in the air while pink silly-string poured from the second floor. The bass in the music throbbed like a mad frog, croaking from inside the walls, and everyone danced frantically. A girl’s dress, smeared with blood-like red syrup, hung loose like a crescent moon from the ceiling. It had the party’s theme written on it:

Deadly Ever After

And a little below, it read:

Dead is the new cool.

The masquerade party bustled with teens at the secluded Haunted House at 112 Ocean Avenue. The place was decorated like the setting of a cheap horror movie. Everyone was disguised as a fractured fairy tale character mixed with unusual vampires and other legendary monsters.

“Silly Minikins,” Loki mumbled, gazing at the kissing couple up the stairs. They were making out now; biting was only an appetizer. “Who believes in that lame true love fairy tale kiss?” Loki was leaning against the kitchen door with tensed up shoulders, hands in his pockets. He was trying his best to avoid the girl who’d spilled her drink on him minutes ago. “Why did they have to ban me here in a world where I don’t belong?” he sighed, staring upward, which he often did when he had no one to talk to. The ceiling never replied.

Another girl bumped into Loki, spilling her drink on him, too. She wore pink bunny ears and had a moustache drawn on her face. Loki closed his eyes and pursed his lips, swallowing his anger like a bitter pill, wondering why these Minikins couldn’t just leave him alone.

“I’m
so
sorry,” the girl said, poking her head out from under her boyfriend’s armpit. “I hope I didn’t ruin the party for you.”

Loki opened his eyes and lowered his head, then gazed at her with a fake smile on his face. He wanted to show her how irritated he was, but Charmwill Glimmer, his guardian, had told him he wasn’t allowed to express his anger toward the Minikins while he was in the Ordinary World. Loki had to pretend he liked them while in fact everything about Minikins seemed shallow and stupid.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Loki said; the smile still stamped on his face. In his mind, he imagined slapping her with frog legs across her cheeks until all she could say was
bbblllrrr
—Loki hated frogs, so he couldn’t think of a better punishment.

The girl with bunny ears checked out Loki from top to bottom. “Yummy,” she said, licking her strawberry-stained lips, unable to take her eyes off his outfit.

While everyone else was disguised as vampires, werewolves and fractured fairy tale characters, Loki wore a Scottish kilt, which made him look out of place. He didn’t care. He liked the kilt, and thought its absurdity reflected the idiocy surrounding him. His costume attracted the girls who deliberately spilled their drinks on him in order to start a conversation. Still, Loki never got the message. In this world, he was a stranger in a strange land.

“Why the kilt?” the latest girl inquired, shooing her boyfriend away. Loki took a step back. He wasn’t fond of girls, especially curious ones; in his experience, they usually were demons in disguise. He was told he was banned from Heaven because he loved a demon girl, so was he always on high alert.

“I am a vampire hunter,” Loki said, still plastering the fake smile on his lips.

“What do you hunt?” she asked again, eager to make conversation.

Loki couldn’t believe how dumb Minikins were. “Beetles,” Loki tilted his head, wondering why she didn’t laugh and leave him be. He’d been unshadowed for almost a year now, and if there was one thing he’d learned about Minikins it was that they hardly ever picked up on verbal signs. You talk politely to some, hinting that you want to be left alone, and they just never get it.

“Ah, sorry, I drank too much tonight,” the girl dressed as a bunny said. “But you’re funny…and cute. I didn’t know vampire hunters wore kilts.”

“I hide my stake underneath it. It’s my secret trick,” he winked at her.

Now, please go.

It was true. Loki had even told the bouncer at the door that he was hiding a stake underneath the kilt. The big man had laughed at what he thought was Loki’s sarcastic joke. It frustrated Loki when the Minikins didn’t take him seriously, even if it had helped him fool the bouncer and enter the party with his hidden stake.

Loki wasn’t there to celebrate true love kisses or document the Minikins’ preposterous behaviors, lives, love, parties or otherwise. He had one thing on his mind; to stake the vampire he was hired to kill, grab some cash to pay for school, and get a bit closer to finishing off the ninety-nine vampires he had to kill before his sixteenth birthday. Today’s vampire was going to be number thirty-eight.

“Stake? You got a stake under the kilt?” the girl’s eyes shone brighter, taking a step closer.

“Hit the road, or I’ll rip your ears off,” another girl, wearing a latex outfit making her look like a devil, interrupted. She sneered at the girl with bunny ears and pushed her away. It was Lucy Rumpelstein, the girl who hired Loki to kill the vampire tonight. “He’s mine,” Lucy grinned, pursing her heart shaped lips. The bunny girl showed displeasure at the interruption, but walked away immediately.

Somehow, Lucy had a messed up idea about fairy tales, which led to her wearing the devil costume. It was an expensive one, with horns and white fur with silver sequins around her neck. Loki thought she was as weird as the rest, but he didn’t mind when it meant an opportunity to kill another vampire.

“You know it’s never a good idea to tell a girl that you have a stake under your kilt,” Lucy mocked Loki, handing him a drink. “Stake under the kilt? What were you thinking?” she rolled her eyes. “You sound like you’re from another planet,” Lucy laughed while Loki put the drink away.

“Whatever this drink is, it tastes weird,” Loki said, “kinda salty.”

“I’ve never tried it. The bartender said it’s called Baby Tears. It sounded cool so I thought I’d grab you one.”

“Thanks for pretending to be my date.”

“It’s unusual how a good looking guy like you isn’t much into girls,” Lucy said as she sipped strawberry juice from a straw. “Are you gay?”

“No. I’m a half—angel—“Loki stopped, almost biting his tongue. He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about his past, which ironically he couldn’t even remember. “I’m a vampire hunter,” Loki said a little louder, hoping she didn’t notice what he had just sad.