The Unforgettable Curse

The kingdom of Fantasia desperately wanted a princess since the very beginning, but they never got one. Finally one day there was amazing news of a little princess being born.The kingdom celebrated this greatly; everyone celebrated with a grand banquet. Well that is everyone except the witch Maly. She, although no one knew, was in fact the princess before this one, but her life wasn’t grand. Her parents hated her and kept her a secret because they thought a princess needed blonde perfectly placed hair and blue eyes, not crazy, black hair with gray eyes. So once she turned thirteen she decided she had enough of their hatred and decided to move out and start somewhere new. She lived in a modest cottage in the forest just outside the kingdom all alone except for her pet raven. She had always had a talent for magic, another reason for her parents to hate her. Princesses weren’t supposed to have magic and use it at their will, they were supposed to just be kind and use that to win over people. They never saw how a person could use magic for good and not evil like all the witches they had encountered before. Her parents, no longer having an heir, decided to try to have another child. They figured since they were able to have a princess once, they could have another one. So three years passed since she left and the new princess was born, this time exactly how her parents wanted. Her parents had forgotten all about her until that day at the banquet when she showed up unannounced. She showed up in a ravishing purple dress, one she had made herself. Her parents suddenly had a wave of memories rush into their brains the then said with surprise, “Maly?!”
“Hello Mother, Father. I thought I should come by and say hello to my little sister and give her a gift,” she replied with grace.
The queen picked up the little baby and hid her away from her older daughter. The king then said, “You’re not welcomed here any longer. You ran away and shall live the rest of your days secluded from the palace. We know your true intentions. You are not getting any closer to the princess.”
“You don’t know the least things about me. You never loved me or cared to get to know me. It’s such a shame I was just going to give my sister this necklace,” she said, holding up the most beautiful piece of jewelry to ever be seen, “But since you so desperately want me to play the villain, why not? I’ll comply. So from this moment on, my new gift to the princess replacing me is for her to fall asleep on her thirteenth birthday and never wake up. The two of you will never raise a child past the age of thirteen. Don’t worry she can still have the necklace as well.” She went up to her mother and put the necklace on the infant princess and then she vanished.
Maly sent the whole kingdom into a spiral. Everyone was angry for the king and queen keeping her a secret and now the new princess had her whole life put on the line, with no way to cure her. There was no one in the world with good magic to help break the curse placed on the child. The town knew one day the princess would fall asleep and never come back to them. They kept her wearing the amulet her sister had given her, to remind them of the sad fate that would befall her. She grew up and everyone absolutely loved and valued her. They thought if she were to ever be married, that would be the luckiest man alive. Another kingdom had heard of all her graces and sent their prince to woo her. The king of that country told the king and queen there might be hope. In their country, they believed that a true love's kiss could break any spell. So the prince and princess were forced to spend a lot of time together in hopes they might fall in love with each other. Eventually the princess fell in love with him, but he was still not sure about it. He told her he loved her, but how can one be sure?
It was the day before her thirteenth birthday and the boy had a huge decision to make. Was he going to kiss her, and hopefully wake her up, or was he going to leave her lying there for the rest of her pitiful life? He decided to take a walk in the woods alone, but then suddenly out of nowhere it started to rain. He tried to find shelter under any of the trees, but none would suffice. He then stumbled on a cottage, yes the very cottage where Maly lived. He knocked on the door and was greeted kindly by Maly. She let him into the house and he started to talk about the princess saying, “I hope Belladonna doesn’t mind that I stay here till the storm clears.”
“Who?” asked Maly.
“Oh, the princess of this land, I’m betrothed to her, but I don’t know that I can marry her. I have to make a decision of whether I love her or not by tomorrow.”
“How very interesting. I heard there was a curse placed on her to take effect tomorrow. How will you marry her if she’s gone?”
“There is a superstition of true love's kiss breaking even the strongest of magic. So I have to be the person to kiss her, but I can’t decide if I love her or not.”
“That’s not true, the person who placed the curse has to put that in motion by some other form, it can be jewelry, clothing, anything really, but the person who placed the curse has to give that thing to the victim before it can work.”
“So she might not even wake up if I kiss her. How did you know about that?”
“I am the person who cursed the princess.”
‘’What?”
“Oh, don’t worry, you're perfectly safe, so is she. She’s my sister, my parents hid me away from everyone. I wanted to meet her, but my parents thought I would hurt her. I cursed her, but I gave her a necklace to wear so that a little reverse spell can work.”
“So if I kiss her I will wake her up and have to spend the rest of my life with her?”
“Not necessarily, it says it has to be TRUE love. Just a kiss or saying you love her won’t work.”
“It’s not that there is anything bad about her, but she’s sixteen years younger than me, I don’t want to ruin her life. I really can’t even connect with her. She is very kind and sweet, but she deserves to be with someone who is closer in age to her, someone who actually loves her. I think I’ve just decided I can’t wake her up.”
“Those are all very good points, but no one will listen to your reasons. They are going to be angry with you. Unless you were to at least try to wake her up, and then when it doesn’t work you vow to find the person who will wake her. It’s noble what you’re doing. I don’t want my sister to end up with someone like you.”
“What’s wrong with me?”
“You're a twenty-nine year old man who was just whining and complaining about a matter with an obvious solution. You can and should just explain everything to everyone."
"I can't. I have certain duties to uphold."
"Alright so kiss her see if it works. If it does then eventually you will love her. Unless I got the curse wrong and it's just a kiss, then you might resent her. Looks like you might be stuck with her, or I could kill you so you don't ruin my sister's life."
"What do you mean if you got the spelling wrong?"
"I was sixteen when I made it and that was only after three years of studying magic. It's a very high possibility I got the spell wrong, so just kissing her might wake her up."
"So if I kiss her most likely I will wake her up. Why can't you just get rid of the curse?"
"I'm trying to teach my parents a lesson. Also I don't have some things I would need to stop the curse."
"I'll get them for you. Tell me what you need and I'll get them."
"And have you die and never return, I'll pass. Besides the curse will be in effect tomorrow, you won't have time. I could give you several challenges so you have more time to think about whether or not you'll wake her up. I can’t delay your challenges more than a week though, otherwise the entire kingdom falls asleep and then they’ll have to wait at least 100 years to be woken up.”
“Why would you do all this? I know you have parental issues, but couldn’t you find some other way to deal with that.”
“You don’t understand. If you went missing or ran away, what would your parents and entire kingdom do?’’
“Search for me I guess. They love me so much, I don’t think they could ever leave me. They would probably die of destress.”
“My kingdom didn’t know I existed, my parents were ashamed of me and hid me away. They left me alone constantly. Only visiting me maybe once a month and when they did, they just scolded me and told me how awful a person I was. I ran away the day they were coming to visit me and they didn’t care. I stayed there for a bit longer to see their reactions finding me gone. They just left rejoicing in my disappearance. They didn’t care to look for me, they were glad that I was no longer a burden to them. Then when I went to see my little sister, they wouldn’t let me and made me out to be a villain. So I decided I might as well be the villain. I didn’t want my sister to see me that way, so I gave her the necklace.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
“How could you, you’ve just met me. My parents always called me the evil witch. So that’s all anyone thinks I am. They forget that even though they had never met a nice person with black hair, gray eyes, and magic that a person gets to choose what they do. Physical traits don’t automatically tell you who someone is and no one can control what you do. Sure I played along for my parents, but that was my choice, they didn’t make me and it had nothing to do with my outward appearance.”
“You’re very wise, even though I know you were just sharing your thoughts, I think you said another way the princess can be woken up without me. You said no one can control you. So technically the curse shouldn’t affect your sister. She can tell herself to wake up.”
“She’s not the type of person to save herself. She’ll wait for someone else to come to the rescue.”
“You are right, but how did you know that?”
“She is everything my parents wanted. She had blonde hair that’s perfectly placed all the time. She has blue eyes. She’s kind and sweet. She is the princess who was taught to be the damsel in distress and wait for her prince to save her. My parents really love that she is exactly how a princess is supposed to be.”
“She may be what a princess is to everyone else in the world, but she never talks like you do. She always puts me on a pedestal and never humbles me. She doesn’t share her opinion, because that’s how she was taught. I wish she was like you and she would take control of herself. I know I have to try to kiss her and wake her, but I want to do that for you. I love you and know that if I didn’t try to save her you would hate me.”
“We met each other today, you can’t be sure you love me.”
“When a feeling like this is so strong, I think I can. Plus if it is true love, shouldn’t you know in an instant. Try looking with your heart, not your brain. A brain can only get you so far.”
“A brain keeps you safe. Your heart doesn’t.”
“Maybe, but I won’t hurt you. Just think about,” Charles said walking out the door as it had stopped raining a little while ago.
Maly stayed up the entire night thinking and trying to use her heart, but it seemed impossible. Soon it became midnight and she knew the curse was in effect. Sure she wanted her sister to be woken up, but she couldn’t bear the thought of him waking her. She knew if he woke her, they would marry and then she would be alone and unhappy again. Maly now knew exactly how she felt, she loved Charles, but was scared to admit it. How could she end up with him? That’s not how stories go. The damsel in distress gets the prince charming and the vile witch gets killed. She thought about it so long she eventually fell asleep with no memory of it. When she woke up it was already one in the afternoon. She got ready and went into town as quickly as possible.
Throughout the town there was great commotion and celebration. It had already been announced that her sister was woken up by the prince and they were getting married in just one hour. She knew she was too late and there was nothing she could do now. In defeat, she went back to her home and started looking through her spell book. She thought maybe she could put another spell on everyone in the town and then have the prince all to herself. She came across the spell that she used to cause this whole mess. Although it was thirteen years ago, she remembered everything she had done so clearly. She even remembered the exact ingredients she used to make the necklace and how if she got any of it wrong it would only take a kiss instead of true loves kiss. She looked at the ingredients again and realized she never put a ravens feather in. Although she had a pet raven, she couldn’t bare the thought of plucking a feather and hurting him. There was hope after all; it wasn’t true loves kiss that woke the princess. It was just a kiss; it would have worked if anyone had kissed her not just the prince.
She ran out the door and straight into town. She ran to the church, as the wedding was being held there. She could hear the wedding procession as soon as she entered the town. She arrived at the church just in time for the priest to say, "If anyone should have any justification for why this marriage should not take place. Speak now or forever hold your peace."
She then flung the doors open and said, "I OBJECT!"
She looked around at the people with shock and horror written on their faces. When she saw Charles' face he looked at her with relief and love. The King finally spoke up, "Maly, what are you doing here?"
"I couldn't let this wedding take place," she replied.
"Typical of you to want everyone to be unhappy just like you."
"That's not the reason. He doesn't love her."
"That's not possible he woke her with true love's kiss," the queen interjected.
"No, the necklace I gave her made it possible for her to be woken up. I used the spell for true love's kiss, but I didn't put in the feather of a raven. The spell since I messed it up only had her be woken up by a regular kiss. It would've worked had anyone kissed her."
"That's not true, he does love me and I love him. We are getting married and there is nothing you can do to stop that," the young princess said while grabbing the sword that was on the prince, "I hate you and I always will. Why do you keep trying to ruin my life?" Belladonna ran forward and stabbed Maly with the sword and left it in. Maly quickly fell to the ground. Charles yelled out, "Maly!" and ran and knelt by her side. Panicking, he said, "Is there a doctor? Someone help! Maly look at me, you have stayed strong and found a way to live. I need you, without you, I'll die of despair. I know you've always been an outcast and no one has ever loved you like this before, but I love you and need you. Please find a way to stay alive."
Belladonna seeing his reaction knew for a fact that he loved her sister not her. She fell down realizing what she did and said, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.''
Maly weakingly sat up and said, “I’m the one who's sorry. I should have never placed that curse on you. I just wanted to meet you and hoped our parents would see that I was good and maybe they would love me. When I got there I was terrified to find them with the look of fear and hatred in their eyes. I should have just ignored them and given you the gift I had prepared. I thought that maybe if they felt the despair of losing another child they would want me back thinking any child is greater than no child. I should have just told them I was here to stay and help my sister grow up and teach her new things. I never meant for this whole mess to happen. I gave you the necklace so this wouldn’t happen, but I forgot the part of you never knew what someone will do.” She stood up almost completely healed by her magic and went to the front door. “I’m incredibly sorry. This is your life not mine. You, for all your kindness deserve a happy ending, I’ll leave now.”
“Wait!” Belladonna called out, “If I deserve a happy ending you do too. We all make mistakes, but when we admit to them and choose to change, we know we are good. He doesn't love me, but he does love you. This was never meant to be how my story ended. If you want me to have a happy ending, I can’t marry him. He belongs with you.”
“If you’ll take me of course,” Charles said walking up to Maly, “I would love to stay by your side forever.” Charles and Maly kissed each other and everyone cheered. The King of the other country decided since Maly was a princess of this land that his son could marry her. Maly used some of her magic to change her dress to the wedding gown she had always dreamed of but never thought she would use. The wedding took place and there was a big celebration. The king and queen of Fantasia even accepted Maly as their daughter again and made her the crown princess. The kingdom of Fantasia was the happiest it has ever been. Belladonna loved having her sister around to help her with all her daily struggles and duties. Maly even taught her parents, sister, and her husband some magic spells to help protect the kingdom. I guess even the worst of people aren’t so bad and everyone deserves a happy ending.