The Fairytale Life of Doris McQueen [#1] ✓

TWENTY-ONE

Chapter 21

It took them around two hours to reach the end of the Fairy Tale Road. It may have been humanly impossible to drive that fast in the old battered pink car that Doris sat in but Gemima drove it the faerie way-magically fast.

Gemima parked the car as close to the central town square of Bremen as possible. A few tourists were about (human and faerie both) but they didn't seem surprised by the strange-looking trio.. Doris with her dirty and jaggedly torn gown and glass slippers, Adam with his bruises and dirt-splattered sneakers and Gemima with her beautiful yet determined face and blood plastered hair near the temples made a very strange-looking trio.

Doris wanted to ask how a the cursed castle was in such a town. She looked all around her but there was no sign of a castle. Beautiful, old-looking buildings yes but no cursed castle. Before Doris could enquire, Adam asked the question, "Where's the mighty and lonely castle where our beast lives?"

"Don't," warned Gemima turning to look at him angrily, "call him a beast."

Adam gave a shaky laugh and shrugged, "Yeah, fine. No calling him beast."

Gemima nodded and turned away.

Adam whispered to Doris, "I still can't get over the fact that your aunt's boyfriend is a beast."

Doris sighed. Ever since Doris had told Adam about Brandon and Gemima's tricks all Adam could talk about was the beast. The part about Gemima being behind all of their problems shocked him but after two long hours to get over the shock he was busy wondering about how such a huge beast living in such a huge, cursed castle had never made it to the news.

Doris had told him that faerie updates never made it to the news but that didn't drown his spirits. She guessed he was happy that the deal was going to be fulfilled. She should have been happy too. They still had about six hours and soon only two statements would be left on the deal. It was the second of these two statements that bothered her.

Earlier Doris had tried to calm herself about the subject concerning the resurrection of her dead mother because she had felt her Aunt Gemima could manage that somehow. Now, Doris was not so sure. Gemima hadn't ever talked of how such a thing was possible. Doris felt that Gemima hadn't thought of anything further than setting free Brandon. Gemima had never been concerned about the fulfilment of the deal. She had her own reasons for accompanying them and after they saved Brandon her ride would come to an end. And this was why Doris couldn't share Adam's high spirits and happiness. He felt he was going to meet his family, alright his foster family, in a few hours while she felt that they might all die in a few hours.

Doris was trying to cope with her thoughts by repeatedly telling herself that everything would be fine and the deal would get fulfilled in time. That was how she coped with tests, exams, difficult sums or any other problems and she had seen that my convincing herself that everything would be fine, everything did turn out to be fine. She hoped it would work this time too.

Gemima stopped in front of a bronze statue. The statue was interesting. It showed a rooster standing on a cat standing on a dog standing on a rooster.

"The town musicians of Bremen," Adam said.

"What?" Doris asked.

"It's a fairytale," Adam answered her.

Doris hated how Adam being a boy knew so many fairytales while she, in spite of being a girl, knew nothing. Well, he had a loving family. Then she remembered how Adam's family had been ripped apart. He hadn't always lived with his foster parents. There had been a time when he had lived with his real parents-King and Queen of Topaz-and this made Doris guilty of always having imagined his perfect life. Adam acted so normally that it was difficult for Doris to remember that beneath the happy, helpful exterior there was a Prince who had faced several hardships and was probably as lonely and sad as her.