Fire Rises

Ashes to Ashes

The prince led me outside, across the courtyard to a beautiful garden. I’m sure my face must have been something between confused and awestruck.

“You’ve probably never seen a flower before, huh?” He was standing with one foot distinctly placed in front of the other. He plucked a flower from one of the bushes and lifted it to his nose before leaning forward and offering it to me. 

I rolled my eyes and brushed past him, ignoring the flower. “Of course I’ve seen flowers before,” I left out that the first time had been the day before in the meadow, “I’ve just never seen them grow so… intentionally before.” That was true. The flowers yesterday were sporadically growing around the meadow. They looked so free and happy. These flowers looked happy, too I supposed, but the uniformity was such a starke contrast to the ones that grew wild.

Figures, I couldn’t help myself from thinking, they even keep the flowers prisoner here. I knew these people weren’t evil, but I did note the amount of control they held over certain things. The theme was definitely not going unnoticed: the people in the Dark Place, Clara and the other staff members, and now the flowers. It seemed a little weird for a place that I had always associated with freedom. Maybe I just didn’t understand what freedom really was. 

Archer grabbed my hand and led me to a bench surrounded by what he called 'roses.' The tingling in my body had grown even stronger since the morning- probably from the caffeine in my tea- but with Archer around the feeling fell by the wayside. I tried to ignore the fact that he was holding my hand again and instead concentrated on the delicious smell of what I assumed were these so-called roses that had taken precedence over my senses. 

“Eve, what do you think of this place so far? Be honest.” He smiled his charming smile. I averted my eyes and tried to decide how honest I should be. On the one hand, I didn’t want to lie because lying seemed bad. But on the other hand, if he thought I was doubtful he may just pull the plug on the whole project and send me back to the Dark Place. I decided a half truth was the way to go.

“Well, everything is very lovely. You have the sun here and flowers and food,” and you, but I kept that part to myself, “Your family is lovely and no one has tried to kill me or even each other.”

“But…” Ah, he’s onto me.

“But...” I guess the whole truth- or at least a variation of it- was inevitable. “But I think I need more time to adjust in order to trust this way of life. I can see that everyone needs time to trust me. I understand that, I do. If I can step into this world and have my own apprehensions it only makes sense that everyone else would be wary of me since I come from such a… unique upbringing.” 

“That is the whole point of bringing you here first, though! I never expected you to adjust or trust this place after only one night. I wouldn’t expect much more from any of the children I intend to bring here, either. I can’t ask my people to blindly trust you or any of the other children either. One person is kind of a way to ease into the process for both sides. You will have a chance to trust this place and then convey that trust to the others that will follow behind you. And my people will have a chance to see that you are not your mother; you are not evil.” He sounded so sure and I almost wanted to believe him.

“How do you know that I am not evil?” My eyes felt wet and I wasn’t sure what was happening. My eyes appeared to be peeing and I hated it.

“Eve, you are not evil. If you were, you wouldn’t be here.”

“But how do you know?”

He took my hands again and looked straight into my peeing eyes. How embarrassing, first you vomit in front of the man and now you’re pissing from your damn eye sockets. GET YOUR s**t TOGETHER, EVE!! My thoughts were cut short when he answered, “I asked around to so many in the Dark Place. They all said you should go first. They trust you, Eve. People don’t trust evil people.” My thoughts immediately snapped to the wannabe lion king and his despicable minions. They trusted that beast, but he was undoubtedly evil. Enough people had trusted my mother to make her their queen, of sorts. I wasn’t sold on his thought process in the slightest. He continued and it did nothing to make me feel more confident in his assessment of my character, “Besides, Eve, I can see it in your eyes.” 

My eyes literally glow when I’m pissed, you i***t! Is it the pee? Does eye-pee make someone trustworthy and not evil? I laughed and wiped away the now heavily flowing liquid pouring from my apparent eye-bladders. Maybe this new development is what made me feel tingly over the past day.

The prince- Archer- could see that I wasn’t ready to speak. He kissed the back of my hand and left me on the bench by myself. I stared at the back of my hand in shock that he had actually just done that. When he was out of sight, I reached for one of the roses. It was flawless; pure. I just wanted to see if it smelled as marvelous as it appeared. When my hand reached the base of the flower, the whole thing wilted and turned to ash. I launched myself away from the bench. 

Well that isn’t good, I thought to myself. I dusted off the ash and ran to a different area of the garden trying to create distance between myself and whatever that was. I mentally flipped through possible causes in my mind as I carefully maneuvered around the bushes. 

Maybe I have some sort of perfume on my hand that created that reaction. Maybe people can’t touch flowers, but only look. I tried to remember if I had seen Archer touch any of the flowers. He plucked the one he had offered to me. He must have done it differently.

“Is everything alright?” Archer called from ahead when he heard my approaching footsteps. 

I still wasn’t even close to figuring out what had just happened, but something deep within me knew that I should not share this information with him. “Yes, everything is fine! I was just wondering if we were going to continue with the tour now?”

***

Archer had taken me around the town and introduced me to so many people. Everyone was nice, but no one could hide their fear upon meeting me initially. I was sure the prince could see it, too, though I really hoped he didn’t.

We had visited the clothing store that Sophia had recommended and she was right on target about it being more inline with my style. Though she had spoken so distastefully about the place, it was lovely by any standard- except hers apparently. The fabrics were bright colors with amazingly bold patterns. I picked out a purple outfit that consisted of low rise, loose fitting pants and a crop top that had billowing sleeves to match. When I tried it on I felt like myself even though I had never owned anything like it in the past. I was so excited I even showed Archer, who eyed me like suddenly I was the one who should worry about being eaten. He insisted on buying more for me at the shop, but I refused time and time again. He eventually gave up, but I was sure the concession was just a show and I’d return to find my closet full of similar items.

I had been very careful not to touch any other living things since the flower incident. Archer continued to grab my hand and that seemed to be fine, but as the day wore on, the tingling grew. I was becoming increasingly unsure if I was going to accidentally turn Archer to ash. 

Ha! You should have named him Ash! My inner laughter was sounding a little maniacal, so I decided I needed to eat again. Soon. 

It was peculiar. At home, if you could call it that, I would go for days without eating at times. Here, I was hungry every few hours. To be fair, I definitely was often a complete monster in the Dark Place, but perhaps it was all more hunger driven than I had given myself credit for. In any case, Archer was looking more delicious in a literal way again instead of just the figurative sense, so I decided to ask for a snack. A real one. An acceptable one. Not one the prince’s appendages.

“I’m so happy you asked! We are a block away from one of my favorite places in the city! We will eat there and you’ll have a chance to meet a few more people.”

Grrreeatttt, more people! And just when I am on the cusp of eating their prince. PERFECT! I internally eye-rolled at my sarcasm and I knew that I was at the edge of my limits before I really started acting out. I clenched my teeth and attempted to smile. I imagined I looked more like a deranged jack-o-lantern than a nice lady, but it was the best I could do given the situation. “GREAT!” I said a little too loud and high pitched. 

We stepped through the doors of an adorable pub and took our seats in the center of the room.

This man wants me to cause a scene. It's the only explanation. I couldn’t think of any other reason to put me on such display. There were only a few other patrons in the small, dimly-lit eatery, but it was enough to make me nervous. I fiddled with my hands as a waitress, a woman who appeared to be about fifteen years my senior, approached wearing a lovely blood red cape. 

I wanted to ask her where she found her cape, but decided I shouldn’t risk opening my mouth unless there was food ready to be stuffed inside. She placed a loaf of bread on the table.

Thank all the gods for these people and their perfectly timed bread! This unlikely ally was quickly earning my eternal gratitude.

“Welcome your majesty! Will you be having the usual?” She beamed at the prince, but took a notable step backwards when she registered my face. Was it really that obvious? Considering how hungry I was, it wasn’t that far fetched to assume my eyes may have been glowing a little. I stuffed a piece of bread in my mouth to save this innocent- though very judgemental- lady from my wrath.

“Yes please, Ruby. But will you also bring a little bit of everything else. I’m trying to sell Eve here on my kingdom and I think your food will do just the trick.” He offered her a dashing smile and I almost felt bad for the poor lady as she made her way back to the kitchen on wobbly knees.

“You shouldn’t do that.” Apparently my hunger had made me bold.

“Do what?” He looked at me innocently, but there, deep in his cryptic, mysterious, gorgeous eyes, was a glint of knowing. I was hungry enough to call him on it.

“Oh my god! You know!?”

“Know what?” He leaned forward trying to feign innocence, but the look in his eyes grew more prominent. If there was anything I learned from living with manipulative monsters it was how to spot bullshit. And this, right here, was some bullshit.

“So what? You get off on overwhelming people with your charm?”

He gasped and dramatically placed a hand to his chest, “I assure you I don’t know what you’re talking about!” 

“You do!” I poked an accusatory finger into his arm before I could remember that I was actively afraid of turning him to ash.

“Come on, Eve. I don’t do it on purpose. I just know that sometimes people enjoy it so I don’t suppress it. If it is enjoyed, then it can’t be bad, right?” So he did know. And worse! He just admitted to having some level of control over it.

The waitress returned, blushing, with a bottle of wine and a platter of small snacks. I forgot the conversation for a moment as I tried to decide where to start on the smorgasbord in front of me. The waitress filled our wine glasses and I decided to start there.

“So then, what, you have control over your charm? I mean, surely you know what you do to people. You basically just admitted it.”

“I have some control. My family calls it a blessing, but honestly it feels more like a curse at times. I can ‘turn it up’ so to speak, when I want to. But I can’t really ever turn it down past a certain point.” He’s perfectly sculpted shoulders slumped a little bit and I had to fight the urge to touch his arms. 

You could turn him to ash. Keep your hands to yourself, I had to remind myself.

“So, why did you turn it up for the waitress? Do you… like her?” I immediately wished I could turn myself to ash. 

Oh my god, am I five? ‘Do you like her?’ UGH! The idiotic words rang in my ears. I mean she was so significantly older than me, but she wasn’t that much older than the prince. He was at least five years older than I was. I realized that I had never asked about his age.

He straightened his shoulders and leaned forward again. He flashed his gorgeous smile towards me at full blast and I was immediately aware that he was ‘turning up his charm,’ as he put it. “First of all, she isn’t just a waitress. She owns this place. Second, no, I don’t ‘like her.’ Not like that at least. And third, did you ever consider it wasn’t her I was trying to charm?” I blushed, at the obvious implication that he was trying to charm me. The flattery quickly diminished as realization set in.

“Archer- if that is your real name-”

“It's not…”

“You think that manipulating someone else is how you will charm me? Because manipulation isn’t good, and neither am I? So that must be the way to charm me, right?” My words sunk in and his smile fell. 

Fuck, is calling someone out on bullshit not nice? But then that means letting someone get away with not nice bullshit is nice? I was in a paradox. Suddenly I had that sinking feeling again that this was, in fact, actual hell. Now I knew my eyes were glowing. A few people from nearby tables seemed to notice and leaned further away.

“I’m sorry, Eve. It really isn’t like that. I just want you to feel comfortable here. Plus no one is ALL good or ALL bad. I… I like you Eve. I’m enjoying getting to know you. You’re so different from everyo-”

“No s**t I’m different!” This was definitely not nice and it certainly wasn’t cool, but I felt the flood gates open and there was no stopping the word vomit that was about to flow. “I was born a prisoner in the f*****g Dark Place! Not just a prisoner, noooo, a prisoner surrounded by the most evil and vile creatures were bound beneath. You can’t even begin to imagine the horrors that I’ve seen, lived through, incited! I may not have been born evil, we’ll never really know now, will we? It doesn’t even matter! I had to do unmentionable things just to keep from becoming a target. AND WORSE- while you were sitting up here with a silver spoon- literally!!- in your f*****g mouth, I was tracking down the worst of the worst just so I could do some mental gymnastics around the terrible acts I wanted to commit; things I felt I deserved to do because others had been so foul to me. You don’t know the half of it.” His jaw had dropped, smoke was pouring from my nose, the glow from my eyes was bouncing off every surface I looked towards, and I could feel the eyes of the other patrons on me, but I wasn’t even close to being finished. “Do you know, so many times I hid away and imagined a better place with better people. I tried to convince myself that outside of the Dark Place everyone must have been so… so PERFECT! Because who the f**k would think themselves so far above us, above me, that they could justify locking away a child in that place. I imagined you all, so good. I didn’t even know what good or nice were, but I expected to find nothing but that here. Maybe I was foolish, but it was the only way I could rationalize being condemned to such a miserable existence.” 

I became aware that my eyes were peeing again. I had a lot more witnesses this time, but it seemed like the least of my worries at this point. I picked up my wine glass and chugged it before refilling it and chugging it again.

Welp, I made it this far through my little speech, might as well finish strong. “Then I see you and at first glance you are as beautiful, as perfect, as good as I imagined everyone up here must look. But you aren’t good, you’re just a tick above the best of the worst!” He gasped loudly and threw a dramatic hand to his chest. I didn’t give him the chance to interject. “Your workers are as trapped as I was, the disparity between classes would be laughable- if it wasn’t people’s lives I’d be laughing at-, you use your charm to manipulate your way through every situation, f**k- even the flowers in your garden are under your control; only allowed to grow where you say! But, why should I have expected anything more, anything better, anything good from people that felt it was okay to lock away so many innocent people on the merits of their parents?” I took another swig of my wine and plucked something green and slimy from the spread before popping it into my mouth. It was actually pretty good. 

The outward clues to the evil residing within me were still glowing in my eyes and smoking through my nostrils. I was furious and it hadn’t just been my hunger talking. I tried my best not to look around, but someone to my left caught my attention. Their eyes were peeing, too. A wider sweep of the room revealed more people having the same response.

Oh great, now I’ve infected the bar with my weird eye-pee virus. I looked back at the prince who hadn’t noticed the other patrons’ reactions to my speech. He was far too engrossed with the still leaking smoke. He didn’t look disgusted though. He looked… impressed? He shook his head and seemed to be searching for words.

“Well-” the prince started to talk, but his voice cracked and he stopped himself. A voice that beautiful shouldn’t crack, but it made me smile inwardly to know that my rant had at least rendered him speechless for the moment. I looked at him and now his eyes were also peeing. I started to wonder again if that was my fault or if it was just a normal thing here.

The prince wiped his eyes, shook his head, plastered on a smile, and tried again, “Eve, I’m… I… I know I can’t make this right for you. But I will make it right for the children down there. I will make everything right for the future.” He grabbed my hands. “And I didn’t mean different because of your past, I mean different because you see me. You hear me. Most people can’t see past my… curse.”

Oh you gorgeous i***t, you couldn’t be more wrong. I had specifically not been able to listen when he talked for too long. I could only hear his voice, but not the words. I guess I did see him, if he meant seeing through his bullshit, just now. I definitely did not deserve to be put on a pedestal for that. Maybe it was my strong aversion to pastels that had him falling hard? That seemed like a big leap over something as simple as color preferences.

I was somewhere between cussing him and considering suggesting having him committed when all of a sudden he was leaning for my face. 

Um, what the f**k? Is he…? No, no he can’t be, he won’t... I quickly corrected myself. But he was. This absurdly lovely statue man was trying to kiss me. I stayed very still. I didn’t want to accidentally melt him, but also I had been very curious about those lips for a long time now… like at least 24 hours. I had the world’s fastest deliberation in my brain before deciding that if this was his time to go, then who was I to stop it? 

He leaned through the cloud of smoke that had developed around me, his lips gently touching mine. They felt about as magical as I’d imagined. 

Shocking, how I was able to maintain my internal sarcasm while a Greek God kissed me was beyond my mental capacity. When he finally ended the kiss, he smiled and paused by my cheek, “I really like you Eve. I need someone like you around. I’m very glad to have you here.”

****

“He kissed you? Like kissed you, kissed you?” Clara was having me retell the story for the third time and her reaction had yet to change. 

She had come back with some tale from her day that she was sure I couldn’t top. It was actually a pretty awesome story about coming across some fairies in the woods and helping them find some special plant they needed. After helping them they invited her to a tea party and gave her a robe made from fairy hair that allegedly held some kind of mystical power. She had asked what the power was, but they told her “you’ll know when the time comes.” So apparently everyone here was cryptic as all hell. Her story would have easily won our contest if I hadn’t decided to tell off Archer and he hadn’t decided to kiss me.

“I mean, there was no tongue, but yeah. He kissed me.”

“And he let you rename him? Who just waltzes into a kingdom and renames their crown prince?” I shrugged my shoulders. It was a pretty exciting day, I supposed. But it all felt too easy. Who does let you just rename them? Who does just randomly fall for a girl that has been secretly trying not to eat your fingers for two days straight? I was struggling to trust it all.

I wanted to tell Clara about how strange it all felt. I also wanted to tell her about the flower. That seemed important. But despite our growing friendship and her acceptance of my… quirks, I wasn’t ready to express my concerns aloud. 

“Oh my goodness, it's a fairytale! Your life is an actual fairytale! He must be your true love!” Could that be it? I had heard about the ridiculous prospect of ‘true love’ and the ease that accompanies such far fetched romances, but I had a hard time believing that was what was happening to me. I mean the prince was insanely gorgeous and there was no denying that I was lusting after him, but the more I got to know him, the less love seemed like the right word to describe what I was feeling for him.

Clara dramatically flopped back onto my bed and flung her hand across her head. I giggled at her action and felt better about keeping my thoughts to myself. I didn’t want to ruin her excitement with my cynicism. Instead of burdening her with my apprehensions- and the flower turning to ash part, definitely wanted to gloss over that little fact for now- I reached for my wine and tried to drown out the negativity that I was struggling to shake.

“Maybe! We’ll see, though. I mean, we only just met. I want to get to know him a little more before I just dive in head over heels.” Clara sat up and gave me her most ‘yeah right’ look she could manage. 

“Wait, so he actually admitted to ‘turning up the charm’ whenever he wanted?”

“Yeah! I appreciate the honesty, but it is a little unnerving. It’s definitely his super power and that power could be used in so many different ways.” Clara rolled her eyes at me. 

“You really need to stop assuming the worst in people. Sure, not everyone is totally good, but that doesn’t mean they are inherently bad, either.”

“I told him that he treats his staff poorly.” I had to look down at my wine glass as I said that. I was nervous that Clara would not like that I had let that one slip into our conversation.

“Good! I think a good queen pushes her king to see ways that he can better himself.” Queen. I was no queen. And- even if by some weird twist in reality- Archer wanted me as his queen, wouldn’t everyone in the kingdom question my motives for the duration of my rule? My mother was an evil villain whose entire goal in life was to be a queen. I was taken from the Dark Place as a pseudo princess. Nothing about this scenario screamed ‘happily ever after.’

Clara reached for her glass of wine and took a long drink. “You look like you are thinking a lot of things right now.” 

I scoffed. “My brother and mother always hated when I was thinking.”

“It’s okay to think, Eve. I’m just the help here and even I know that. You can talk to me. I promise I won’t say anything. Sometimes it helps to think out loud with someone”

I reached for her hand. “You aren’t ‘just the help,’ Clara. You’re the first real friend I’ve ever had. Thank you.” Annnnd now her eyes were peeing.

Okay so then it’s me. I have caught some weird, highly contagious eye pee disease.

“Sorry,” she said as she wiped her eyes. “I think the wine is making me emotional.” Well. This was news to me.

“What is that? It happened to me today and then I saw it happen to a few other people as well.” My eyebrows were pulled together trying to get to the bottom of this mysterious liquid.

“What’s what? This?” She held up her eye-pee covered hand. “This… it is crying. The wet stuff is called tears. Sometimes people do it when they are sad or mad or scared, but sometimes people do it when they are happy. Right now I’m happy because  you said I am your friend. You’re my first friend, too.”

Oh great, now my eyes were peeing again. At least I knew I wasn’t contagious now. It was weird that she mentioned ‘scared’ as a cause for this strange phenomenon. I was positive I had incited deep fear in people a thousand times over, but I had never seen this reaction before. Maybe I’m not that scary after all. I took another swig of wine and swallowed the thought down with it. No. I was undeniably petrifying when I needed to be... and when I wanted to be.