Cedric's Giant Curse

Chapter 9: Night Escapade

Chapter 9: Night Escapades

Cedric tossed and turned in a fitful state of sleep for hours after Sofia's lullaby had ended. It seemed that, while he may have forgotten about the day's horrible events while listening to the young princess's song, his unconscious mind wouldn't allow him that leisure. He experienced nightmare after nightmare of stealing Sofia's amulet from her, being able to gain a power and come so close to taking over the kingdom only to have the amulet curse him at the last minute, foiling his evil scheme.

The strange thing was that he never woke up once before the nightmare would begin again, the amulet finding a different way to curse him with each new dream. At one point the amulet had cursed him by giving him a bird's beak, and in another version of the nightmare it turned his hands into giant metal fists. But while the curse changed with each new cycle of the dream, one detail remained constant throughout. As he stood in the middle of the throne room before everyone in the castle, the royal family seated on their thrones, the throng of people would point and laugh at his cursed self, jeering and shouting insults at him. Even the king, the queen, and their children laughed and mocked him. All of them except Sofia who just stood and stared at him, a mixture of sadness and anger twisting her delicate features. That look she gave him, of hurt and betrayal, cut him deeper than any mockery could.

But it was the final version of the dream that tortured him the most. As the dream looped once more, he found himself standing before King Roland and the rest of his family in the throne room, demanding that he hand over his crown and the right to rule Enchancia. The Amulet of Avalor hung around his neck, and as the king refused to give in to his demands, he gripped the magical jewel tightly in his hand, wishing for it to grant him a power. The amulet complied with his request as its purple glow shone brightly through his fingers, causing the royals to gasp in shock. Cedric felt his body stretch upwards as he began to grow taller, looming over the frightened monarchs. A wicked laugh burst forth from his lungs as he continued to grow bigger and bigger, the crowd of people that had suddenly appeared running around frantically at his feet, trying to escape.

Soon, however, the dream Cedric began to realize something was amiss. As he looked down at the forms of the royal family below him, huddled together in fear, he noticed that they seemed to be getting even smaller the more he stared at them. In fact, the whole room was still getting smaller. His evil laughter died away as it donned on him what was happening. The amulet was still causing him to grow! Something bumped him hard on the head and, bending his knees, he looked up to see the ceiling only inches away from his face! He frantically grabbed at the amulet as he grew and grew, having to bend his legs a bit more each time as he hit his head over and over again against the ceiling, sending plaster and bits of the ceiling raining to the floor below. He desperately pleaded again and again in his mind to the amulet to make him stop growing. He was getting too big! But his pleas were deaf to the amulet as it lay cold in his hands. It wasn't working! He couldn't stop growing!

In the other nightmares before, all of the castle staff and the royal family laughed and scorned him upon bearing the amulet's curse, but this time nothing but screams of terror met his ears as he continued to grow uncontrollably with no end to it in sight. He was forced onto his knees as his head bonked against the ceiling once more. He placed his hands against the ceiling as if that would stop him from getting any closer to it. But he was wrong as his head was pushed painfully against the ceiling again. His growth seemed to accelerate significantly all of a sudden. Before he had a chance to do anything about it, his head was pushed right through the ceiling into the floor above. He heard the screams intensify below him as large chunks of the next story caved in and fell to the floor around him. But it didn't stop there as he grew very quickly through the other remaining floors of the castle until he burst out through the very top.