Mess of a Fantasy (Darise Ever After High Fanfiction)

Chapter 21: Envy is a Witch.

I remember the swirling motion of the wind, rustling all of the trees around me, ripping the underdeveloped leaves clear off some of the branches. A roaring, humming noise became increasingly louder. The closer it got the more my ears rang. I remember sitting on a tree stump in the midst of the madness, my knees pulled to my chest and my arms wrapped around them to keep them warm. I watched it all go down. The detachment and disruption of nature reminded me of a harsh, late summer hurricane. I pulled my red hood down another time, something I often did in a struggle to feel secure. Bright lights flashed through the voids caused by distance between trees. That's when I knew everything was coming to an end.

Today had felt different from the moment I woke up, before dawn. Clouds enveloped the sky, and it never brightened as the morning went on. Tired today, I wandered toward the faint sound of rustling water. When I arrived at a narrow creek amidst a clearing, it hit me. I knew this place. The wishing well on the other side, the skinny log chopped into two pieces facing each other with an old fashioned campfire setup in the middle, and the worn spot in the grass to which someone's silver heeled boots had attributed to its wear and continued on in a secret passage through the line of foliage behind it. It was the setting for many of the videos Darling had shown me of her and her best friends goofing off. She talked about it often. It was their hideaway, and the only way to get there was a self-created pathway through the woods behind her friend Luke's house. She hadn't been there since the fall because of school and the impossibility of hanging there when there's feet of snow on the ground.

With only my luck, footsteps sounded from the direction of the pathway. I stumbled backward, but didn't find cover in time. Luke appeared, standing on the worn spot at the end of the path. "Cerise?"

I turned and made a beeline for the forest a few yards behind me.

"Wait! Cerise! Please don't leave.Your friends are worried about you," Luke called after me, but I was already running.

I ran as far into the trees as I could before I tripped over a stealthy vine poking through the dirt. I fell forward onto my knees. I knew they were bleeding, but I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't go back to the creek to wash them out. That's when I curled up on the tree stump. I cried for a long, long time.

At my lowest point in ages, I didn't think of much. That's why it hadn't occurred to me that Luke must've called someone and told them he'd seen me. That's what all the noise and the wind and the lights were. The first helicopter.

They found me.

I didn't move, and I wouldn't move. Not until someone who truly cared about me came for me.

All that came for a while were unfamiliar faces with unfamiliar voices and alienating causes. They kept saying my name. Everywhere. On walkie talkies, into mirrorphones and to each other and me. It was overwhelming. I wouldn't move and they knew it. It was chaotic for what felt like forever, and I put my head down to block it all out.

Then the wind picked up again, the lights flashed and the humming reoccurred. Moments later, Raven and Dexter were running toward me. Their arms wrapped around me, and they were so warm. They were talking, but I was so dazed. Raven was crying. She just kept hugging me. Maybe she was trying to distract me. I heard the yelling. The boy I loved strained his voice, screaming with angry tears at the blond princess who started this all. But Darling was screaming too. It started as a petty argument, what I expected it to be.

"You can't hit her, Daring! She's a girl!"

"Who wants someone who runs away when you tell them you love them?"

"Who would marry someone who made their true love's life miserable?"

It escalated into much more though. Threats were called from both sides. Big, bad threats. Darling using all of her unusual multitude of strength to hold her bigger, stronger brother back... Then the authorities dragging him away the instant Apple started crying.

Darling came running over shortly after. Her face was red and puffy and her eyes shiny, but the tears were gone. "I couldn't stop him," she whispered, breaking into tears again. It would be a long time before I heard from the boy I loved again.

But most of all, I remember the look on her highness's face as the Charming twins and Raven guided me to the helicopter they'd arrived in. He was gone and so was the original helicopter. I glanced over my shoulder and stared at her red lipsticked smirk and increasingly green, ridiculously blue eyes. Envy's a witch, Apple White. Envy is a witch.

The End

(But you know what they say about the end. The end is only the beginning...)

[A/N: Bye bye, Mess of a Fantasy. I'll miss you. Please stay tuned and do not remove this book from your library. I will keep you updated about any news of a possible sequel. For now, please let me know your final thoughts on this story. Xoxo, Zoey]