A Modern Fairytale

The great deception (2)

Valerie glanced about the room—the far corners of it, specifically, and particularly those at the highest points of the place. As she did so, Ulric did not move an inch; his own gaze was focused exclusively on the larger orb. Having decided that she'd observed enough, the fairy flicked a golden spark at the door, closing and bolting it. The spark traveled right in front of Ulric's eyes, causing him to blink and then shift his gaze to Valerie.

"Whatever happens in this room stays in this room," she explained.

"I'm sure," came his reply.

The fallen angel backed away, his attention once again on the orb. He retreated until he was the farthest he could be from the orb that was still occasionally spawning body parts. Contrary to his movements, Valerie slowly inched toward the two orbs. Contrary to his, her gaze landed on the smaller, murkier orb. As she strode towards it, she lifted her arm, every bit as slowly, as if she wished to touch it. As if she were...entranced by it.

"Hey, what are you doing?" His voice stopped her in her tracks—just before her hand would have touched the smaller orb.

At that moment, Valerie turned her head.

☆☆☆

I must be hallucinating. I don't know what other explanation there can be. For someone like me, hallucinations are probably perfectly reasonable...right?

At that moment, what I saw was not Valerie Ginemoux—in any of her forms. There was still that fiery red hair, and she was wearing the same clothes, but when she turned to me...

She was a skeleton under those clothes. It was as if she was a walking corpse—one that had been dead for centuries. Even the skeleton was not intact. The finger that wore the ring was perfectly whole, but many other parts had been reduced to dust. Her face, now only a skull, had two distinct gaping holes where her eyes should be.

I know it must be me because, despite all that I don't know, I knew for sure that Valerie was very much alive.

I knew it must be me because dead fairies don't even look like that. Not after a year, not after a century, not in a thousand years.

It was a human corpse my eyes were perceiving, and she—she is and always will be a fairy, never human.

It must be me. It can't be her. I was under no condition to be making any judgment at that moment anyway. Yes, that's probably it.

☆☆☆

At that moment, Valerie turned her head. She blinked, as though breaking from a trance.

"...right."

She was about to turn back to the orb—she had, in fact, begun to turn back to it—when she sharply spun around to look at Ulric again. This time, she said nothing.

There was an unmistakable horror etched in his features, an expression so rich she spent more energy studying it than mulling over the queerness of it. So petrified was he that she almost didn't dare disrupt the tranquility in the air...the peace.

☆☆☆

She said something. The bony jaw barely moved, but she said something. I heard her voice, but not her words.

It must be me. I must be hallucinating. I may even have forgotten to breathe, but I don't suppose that matters.

She wasn't even doing anything. I knew she wasn't casting any spells—that she had not cast any spells that would cause this. I knew it wasn't her, so it must be me. After the chains broke—what's left of my mind as I knew it? This was exactly what I'd tried so hard to prevent all this time. I'd pictured it so many times, but I tried to prevent it.