Under the Roses

135 - All the Better to Eat You With

VANESSA

Vanessa felt sick as she ran down the halls, music ringing in her ears. The image of Rapunzel lying limp in the guard's arms was ingrained behind her eyelids. She'd done that. She'd pushed Rapunzel out the window.

Why had she done that?

But Andrina could bring Rapunzel back, couldn't she? She'd brought back her daughter. It was going to work. Everything was going to be fine.

"Excuse me."

Vanessa was startled out of her thoughts, barely able to catch herself before she barreled straight into the most terrifying creature Vanessa had ever seen. Long, tall, humanoid, and yet there was nothing human about them. Black eyes, black hair. A black raven-like creature on their shoulder.

"Wh-Who are you?" she managed.

"There are children here!" the creature said delightedly. A man? No, those black eyes...a demon, surely. "We're looking for the Crimson Queen. Or the demon she's contracted to."

"Red?" Vanessa echoed. "I don't know where she is either. She's...She's dangerous!" Though who was she to say that to a demon?

"Oh, don't worry," said the raven, and Vanessa nearly jumped out of her skin to hear it speak. "We'll take care of her."

"Wait!" said Vanessa. Take care of Red? "You can't! You can't kill her!"

The demon raised an eyebrow.

"She's my grandmother!" Vanessa blurted. There.

"Yeah, well," said the demon, "everyone's related. Well, we're off." The demons went off down the hall.

They were going to kill Red. Vanessa didn't want Red dead. She didn't want her grandmother gone. She just wanted her grandmother back.

The contract. All she had to do was get rid of the contract. The demon would let her grandmother go. Red would be normal again. Everything would be fine.

Vanessa ran into the room Whit had shown them, where the bodies had been kept. Where Alice had been cursed. Where the demon was.

She hadn't paid much attention to how the room looked then, too busy caught on Kai. Now, she was caught on how eerie the room looked. It was dark, since the windows had been covered by thick black curtains, allowing not a single beam of light inside. As she entered, a candle burst to life beside her, making her jump. She hesitantly crept towards the center of the room, where there was a small table. A single dark flower floated in a tall glass dome.

It was beautiful.

Alice had touched it. That was how the demon had gotten her. Would the demon curse Vanessa too, if she touched it?

"Curious, aren't you?"

Vanessa jumped at the voice. "The demon?" she whispered.

"Why don't you call me by name?"

"I don't..." Vanessa's heart was pounding so loudly that she could barely hear anything else. She sucked in a breath. "What's your name?"

Something that sounded like a hiss. "Call me Thren."

Thren. "Thren," Vanessa whispered.

A blazing circle erupted around her and the table, and she jumped again. In the light, she noticed that the floor was completely charred, coated in soot and ash. Then she looked and found a man there.

It wasn't a man. It was a demon. He was looking down curiously at her, dressed incredibly...normally. He didn't look like a demon. Certainly not one that had helped destroy an entire kingdom.