Nevermore

The day after

Sophie woke up in an intense sweat, gasping as she relived the events of the night before. Her father...dead ... Agatha and Tedros...dead.  Killed by her evil love, with an axe."What have I done?" Sophie thought, her cheeks colouring with shame, guilt and loss. Until she remembered who she had done it for. 

Agatha and Tedros had betrayed her so many times. Agatha, making a fool out of her. Agatha believing Evelyn Sader over her. " Its not me!" Sophie had screamed, but Agatha had stayed firmly behind her prince and tried to banish her home to her father, who had never loved her. All he cared about was his new wife and his new sons.  " Well, at least he got what he deserved," Sophie thought bitterly, burrying her head in her pillow. And now here she was, the first villain in 200 years to get a never after. Groaning, she fell back into a long blissful sleep.

" Sophie?" A voice called. 

Sophie didn't reply.

" Sophie!" 

Sophie opened her eyes wearily to see her true love standing over her, shaking her shoulder. "What is it?" Sophie asked, sitting up, rubbing her eyes.

"Nice to see you're finally awake," he said. 

" I'm tired, Rafal. This isn't like me to ask, but can I have a day to rest?" 

"I know that you'd like that but this afternoon we're publicly executing that old wizard, his league and all the students of evil who betrayed the school. You can relax until then."

" Ah, okay." Sophie blinked a few times, processing this information. " But- we need students at the school of new evil. We need evil's future." 

Rafal grinned. " I know. Already thought of that. I'm going to go round kingdoms and personally pick out some nevers."  Rafal looked really proud of himself as he said those words. 

Sophie nodded her head a few times in agreement. 

It was silent for a few seconds, neither knowing what to say. "I've left a dress for you to wear to the execution." Rafal mumbled.

" Okay." Sophie replied, before giving him a peck on the cheek. Sophie flushed red for a second, wondering how she could be thinking about the past when she had everything she could ever want right in front of her.

Rafal's eyes sharpened as he bent down to whisper in her ear. "  You seem distant. You better not be thinking about your dear friends, my love. Its too late for them. I killed them, remember?" 

Sophie gulped. " No, of course not," she bluffed.

Rafal gave her a stern glare. " I'll see you this afternoon." And with that, he leapt off the window and flew into the distance, most likely to hunt for new students. Sophie sighed, raking a hand through her hair. She needed to get Agatha and Tedros out of her head, immediately, and there was only one way to let them go. 

Sophie gazed at herself in the mirror. Beautiful blonde hair, green eyes... beauty. Her looks were from her father, but her soul from her mother's and mother's alone. She glanced at the dress waiting on the plush armchair - it was black and was made of cotton under a layer of lace, up to her knees, probably. It was almost gothic, in style. 

Sophie was about to turn away when she heard a sort of scratching coming from behind the chair. It was the storian on the desk, writing on a black leather book, starting a new page which read 'Nevermore ', and began writing. ' Once upon a time...'. Sophie tiptoed forward as the storian drew a picture of Sophie watching Rafal go - a scene that had happened just a minute before. She turned away, her mind fogged, and got dressed in a silky black gown, dotted with diamonds, and swept on a cape, pulling the hood over her head so you could only see the glimmer of her emerald green irises.

Sophie cautiously stepped onto the window of the tower and was hit by brilliant gusts of wind, as she gazed down at the schools for evil. Carefully, she edged her way down, using loose bricks, as if she was on a climbing frame. " I can do this...I can do this.." Sophie muttered to herself, using it as a motivation from looking down at the spiralling landscape below. 

Sophie heaved in relief as she got to the bottom, staring up at the blue sky above her. She was about to smile...but it faded as quickly as it came, like a light snuffed out.

 She darted into the blue forest, hoping to find a stymph that had survived the good-evil war. Luckily, she found a lone one, napping at the blue brook - well what used to be the blue brook as it was currently dirty and full of filth because of her and Rafal's reign over the school. Sophie snarled, remembering when a stymph like this had chased her around, trying to hurt her but not Agatha... but now the stymph would obey. A blast of hot pink light burst out of Sophie's fingertip, wounding the stymph as she tried to tame it. " Let me ride you, or you die," Sophie threatened, glowering at the sorrowful creature. 

Five minutes later, Sophie was flying on the bony bird, trying her best to direct it to where she wanted to go (it wasn't going well to say the least). Eventually, Sophie reached her destination and hopped off the stymph who tried in vain to fly away. " Stay," Sophie warned before cocking her head. " Unless you want a swim in acid?" The stymph backed away and rested on a dead tree branch, staring at Sophie. 

With a deep breath, Sophie looked around at the garden of good and evil. Sophie wrapped her cape around her tighter, as if trying to get rid of the nausea. Slowly, taking her time, the witch of woods beyond headed towards Evers Embankment. There were rows of beautiful glass coffins there, two by two, a princess and her prince. Sophie stood at the newest grave, her face pale and sad. The coffin read 'Princess Agatha and Prince Tedros of Camelot. Perished in the Tale of Sophie and Agatha.' 

Sophie studied their joint hands, with a grim face. " They still love each other in death," Sophie thought miserably. With a deep breath, Sophie embraced her thoughts and emotions with a pained smile. " I miss you Aggie. I miss you Teddy. But...I'm happy now" Sophie thought, " its time to move on to the future." Just like that, all her thoughts and feelings of Agatha and Tedros bubbled out, leaving Sophie with a huge sigh of relief, the guilt and pain gone. 

With a sweep of her black cape, Sophie moved into the growing fog, ready and prepared for the execution. Ready for her future with her true love.