July-5
1799 Words
Several people scurried out of my way as I rushed by, and I burst into his room. What I saw is burned in my memory. Henri sat with Clarissa’s head in his lap, his back against the wall, holding some sheets of paper. His words danced from his tongue as he sung to her of his love.
I rushed further into the room, and my disguise faded. He saw me, and his smile turned dark. Clarissa sat up, and a look of fear descended over her. They had been caught in their lie. Neither had ever seen me angry, and for how many years had I allowed myself to be good? I swallowed every bit of lies and nonsense handed to me, and I ignored myself. But at that moment, I decided that I would no more. I needed release and, looking back now, I am ashamed at what I did, but my anger burned bright.
Henri made to stand and talk with me, but I would have none of it. Clarissa pushed herself off of him and then stood, imploring me. “Please, I am sorry. Let us talk. I can explain.”
Her words flowed out like a bird who squawked at me, and I ignored her and pushed past her.
“Calm! Calm! I can explain.” In his nervousness, Henri’s French accent labored forth as he came toward me with open arms.
I ignored him and brushed his hands away, resting my palm on his face. The tingling of my magic came alive and his words came to me. I could see his thoughts, how he had courted Clarissa with the same words he had me, using even some of the same songs. Unfolding before me, I could see that he had used me, and I had allowed it. His words of love were simply to fill him up with light and joy until he moved on to the next person. He had never truly opened himself to me. I had already been forgotten, and his new conquest was full in his grasp.
When the prince and I were together, I remember the pain I had felt at learning that there were other women besides me. It hurt to look in the mirror and to keep my faith in myself, but at that point my marriage with the prince had dissolved. I had known that we were no longer together. With Henri, my bright and beautiful Henri, I had given all of myself to him, and in return, I was a deck of cards to be tossed aside. A new toy had come and I, pregnant and alone, was of his past.
This flash of insight and memory washed over me. I heard yelling from behind me and realized that several attendants had called for assistance. Clarissa pushed herself off the floor and rushed to insert herself between Henri and me. “Please, listen!”
I pushed her away with my right arm and ignored her crying. Instead, a dark thought took seed within me. I unleashed my magic and could feel the heat in my left hand. Henri’s memories opened to me and I saw the truth.
By a fountain, out in the gardens outside of the Château, he restrung his lute, and two of the French nobility asked him about me. “Are you falling in love with that English woman?”
“No, of course not!” The contempt in his voice, echoed in my head. “She is my summer diversion. A small appetizer, if you will.” The nobles laughed, and the scene faded.
All the secret talks we had, the shared moments, connections between us, were an act, and his true feelings rolled off his tongue with ease. I heard him clearly. I saw the truth. He had used me to ease his boredom, and now I was no longer necessary.
I focused and stirred the dark seed within, and reservoirs of energy came to me. Black tendrils in the ether came to my beck and call and I threaded them through my hand. The light dimmed in the room, and I heard Clarissa gasp. My hand absorbed the light as I funneled my hatred and vengeance into Henri. He pulled back, but I remained calm and in his mind, I said, “Speak.”
“What are you doing to me?”
“What are you doing to me?” I repeated.
He fell back against the wall, trying to flee. “Stop your dark magic on me!”
“Stop your dark magic on me!” I chanted back at him.
He pulled with all his might against me, but he could not remove my hand from his face.
“Help me get her off of me. Help me!”
I dug deeper into his thoughts and shouted, “Help me get her off of me. Help me!”
Clarissa pulled at me and screamed in fear, pleading at me to release Henri. Instead I opened myself up, and all my hatred, fear, anger, loneliness, and hurt poured out of me. His eyes unfocused and he wobbled on his feet. “I do not know what she is doing to me. But I cannot, I cannot. Stop!”
I allowed a slow smile to show and said, “I do not know what she is doing to me. But I cannot, I cannot. Stop!”
I released him, and the black tendrils in the room surged into him, blocking out the remaining light, and I left my voice in his mind. My mark, as I had cursed him.
He grabbed at the sides of his head and screamed in terror as my thoughts chased after his. Every thought he had, he would hear me repeat back to him. His betrayal of me was complete, and my revenge just and full. Clarissa, terror in her eyes, backed away from me, and at that moment I could have released my magic upon her, too, and taken them both down into the dark pit within me. The surety that I would not be powerless again and I would make them both suffer fortified me.
The light returned to the room, but the dark tendrils thickened, dropping from the sky like tar. The substance spread out, looking for victims and I pulled back, watching Henri fall to the ground, sobbing in tears.
Clarissa fell to Henri’s side, shaking him and then turned to me, begging, “Release him. Please, you are hurting him!”
I stood firm. “You both deserve to suffer for what you have done.”
Clarissa had no response. She looked at me as though she had never met me before, having never seen me so distraught and angry.
“I am with his child. And I returned to tell him.” I knew nothing else I could say. “None of that matters now.”
Realization dawned on Clarissa’s face, yet she stood by Henri’s side. “Please, have mercy on him.”
“How do you feel right now?” My Fairy Godmother had entered the room unknown to us.
Surprised by her sudden entrance, I said the truth. “I feel free.” I stared at my left hand as it pulsed with power.
“Good, allow yourself to feel this anger. Make it your own. Harden it around your heart and use it as a weapon to strike down those who would hurt you.”
Clarissa looked past me and pulled Henri to her and backed away to the wall. “What is that monster?”
I turned and saw the Fairy Godmother’s beautiful face, not a day older from when she had first given me my glass slippers that I now wore. “She is no monster. She is my Fairy Godmother.”
Clarissa continued to pull Henri away and shield him with her own body. “Please, leave us alone.”
Without a sound, my Fairy Godmother had moved next to me and whispered into my ear. “When they made love, do you think they thought of you?”
I clenched my fist and my anger surged.
She spoke softly within inches of my ear. “When he spent himself in her and she writhed in pleasure, were you in their thoughts?”
A dark rage built up within me, and I wanted to erase them both from my site. I wanted to see them suffer for their betrayal. I can admit that now. I hold now the deep shame of how much I hated them at that moment.
“Use your magic to wash them clean.” My Fairy Godmother’s hands were on my shoulder, and she kept whispering to me. “Release your magic, and I promise you that you will feel justice.”
I raised my hand and gave in. I pulled light and air into me and my emotions swirled within, filling me.
The door breaking behind us distracted me, and I turned back, surprised to see the prince and Renée. The prince had his sword drawn, and he rushed toward my Fairy Godmother, yelling, “Sophia, you are deceived!”
Renée threw off her cloak and raised her hands and waved them at my Fairy Godmother.
Backing away, my Fairy Godmother released me, and my vision cleared. My anger drained from me as I watched her face shimmer, splitting into a myriad of living tendrils that peeled away, revealing the face of a fox. Half animal and human, the creature laughed, and the sound pierced through us, shivering me to my core.
With a wild lunge, the prince tried to decapitate the creature, but the blade melted away in the air, and he fell forward, off his balance.
New arms grabbed me, and I saw Renée’s face. She had cloaked herself in white magic. The black tar-like tendrils of dark energy that continued to fall from the ceiling edged back, and in my daze she shouted at me. “Release Henri, and the fox will go!”
Still drunk with power, I did not listen to her request.
Renée touched her left hand on my forehead, and I heard a chime inside. “Clear.”
For a moment, I listened. I saw your father on the ground writhing in confused agony, his sanity slipping from him. Clarissa knelt by his side, comforting him, and my Fairy Godmother, now a grotesque monster that licked its chops, coming toward me. The fox creature called after me. “I will find you and visit you soon. Be fearful, for I will come for you.”
It pointed at me, and my glass slippers tightened around my feet and began to pulse with an eerie yellowish light. Ignoring them for the moment, I chose to act, and with sudden clarity I realized what I had done to Henri. With a wave of my hand, I freed him. Renée pulled me close and she shifted, changing. My vision left me, and I remember flying through the window and being free. The fox creature reached for us as we shifted and flew out the window, but its reach would not suffice. We heard its guttural cry and its hatred call after us, and then it vanished from sight.
I could see the prince going to help Clarissa and Henri, and then all faded into blackness. For a long time I fell into sleep, and Renée carried me through the clouds.
- Writer
