Only one more to go.
My hands are freezing, even in my gloves. The wind on the roof is biting, but it's the best vantage point around. I can't afford to miss my target. It took a hefty payoff to get this location; I may never get another chance.
I see six dark shapes pass over my head. They know I'm close. They can already taste freedom.
I've lurked in so many dark, forsaken places since the curse. I can't help but reflect on the past as the moon rises.
It all traced back to father. He'd racked up the kind of debt you couldn't pay with money. If it had only been money, we'd never have been in this mess, and she never would have entered our lives.
He hid us from her, as best he could, but Stepmother was cunning. She had connections of her own, connections that led her straight to our safehouse. She made me watch as she skinned my brothers in front of me and gave their skins to her henchman. She thought she'd break me.
She did leave the black feather coats, a mercy in her mind, I suppose. With nothing else to do, I placed them on each of my brothers and watched them transform, all wings and long necks.
My father didn't believe me at first. But, how else to explain why my brothers all clung to her so suddenly, hanging on her every word? How else to explain their coldness toward me?
The old witch helped him to see the truth. She told us how to break the curse, at a high cost, of course. I cut out my own tongue and watched her devour it. In return, she gave me the tools to sew my brothers' skins into enchanted coats that would allow them to recover their human forms. All I had to do was track down the six henchman and reclaim the lost skins.
Now the finish line was in sight. Six years for six skins. Poetic.
The door opens, breaking my reverie. I rip off my gloves and train my sniper rifle on my target. I'll have my brothers back by morning.
~
A link to the challenge: Fucked Up Fairytales.
And for those less familiar with the source story, here's a link to the original Brothers Grimm version.
About the Creator
Catsidhe
Pronounced Cat-she: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat-s%C3%ACth
What can I say about myself?
A mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a walking coffin
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Comments (1)
I feel like this is connected to the Black Swan dance. I never watched the balle, but the cartoon "Johnny Test" referenced it, I think. It also reminds me aboutthe story of a father and his son that each put on a belt only to discover that they're cursed. The best transform them into wolves and they couldn't take them off until a whole month went by, the next full moon, or whichever came first.