Sleep

Rapunzle

Have you ever felt true love die inside you? Your sole shatters, your dreams fizzle out, you shining ray of hope extinguishes.  I finally find Mr. Perfect and he is engaged.  I slam the copper book shut. 

Should I even bother trying to sleep?  As soon as I lay down thoughts flood my head.

You should have been nicer to that girl, she did nothing.  But she needs to be independent, and not wait for a man.  I will save the day! I will find Phillip!

Thoughts are dangerous.  One minute, you think about your love, and the next your on horseback barreling toward the woods.  How does this happen? 

After riding in darkness, I see a blue glow.  I've been to this house before, last time, I was chained to the wall with hair a quarter mile long.  It wasn't a house, it was a tower, covered in thick vines, the kind that carried Phillip away.  Again I scaled the tower, this time heading up and not down.  Inside was a brown haired man with green eyes and a scar on his arm.

"Phillip!" I breathed overjoyed. He was bound with vines to the wall where I had once been chained. With concentration, I turned the vine to embers, and hugged Phillip, who was now able to hug me back.

"You made the vine disappear, I knew you were air's child," Phillip poked at the embers. 

" and I knew I could find you," I smiled.  It felt like hot chocolate pumped through my veins when he put hit arm around me.  He turned to face me and leaned in for a kiss.

"You're engaged," I whispered.

"A while ago Aurora and I made a pact when she fell in love with someone else, that we would call off the engagement and marry who we wanted.  She had loved a servant James.  And as a man, I wanted to be independent and choose for myself, so we both agreed to it, without consulting our parents," he laughed, and brushed a strand of my hair behind my ear.  

"Besides, no one is around," he said, drawing closer, lifting my chin until my face met his.  I drew closer and draped, my arms around his neck as we kissed. 

Fireworks went off inside my mind.  A full on celebration.  It reminded me of a very good sleepover I had with my friend Kate... Wait.  What? I was picturing a futuristic, weird world that seemed so familiar, but so distant, as out of reach as the stars. 

"What's wrong?" Phillip said. 

"I just remembered something that... I don't know.  But it wasn't the kiss, I liked that," I smiled.

"In that case-"

He drew closer to kiss me. I leaned in and we connected again.

Phillip made a fire and we set up camp, just the two of us. It felt so right, and I was happier than I ever was.

"Can we live out here? Just you and me?" I asked in the evening 3 days later as we sat by the campfire.

"Escape from palace life, and have it be just you and me? I love that idea," he turned toward me and cupped my cheek. He leaned forward for another kiss. We stared deep into one another's eyes. His eyes were a bright, beautiful green, the color of emeralds in a brilliant blue sea. We got closer until our noses touched and I closed my eyes.

Then, a horrifying sound of a dagger breeching skin.  Phillip rolled over to reveal the shiny glint of a knife dug in his back.  He coughed up blood and wheezed for air. 

"No!" I screamed and cried.  I dug out the knife, and wrapped my coat on the wound that grew dark and wet alarmingly fast. My insides had been turned loose, my head spun and ached, and filled with salty tears.

"Rapunzle," Phillip tried to say, which caused nasty coughing.

"Don't talk, stay with me, please!" I cried, "Phillip!" I screamed.  My throat felt like it was blistering from the yells and sobs. His chest went up and down in a choppy uphill battle he was going to lose. Phillip reached out his hand shakily and I grasped it, kneeling over him and sobbing.

"I love you," I said, and he lightly squeezed my hand in reply. I felt his hand go slack and his pulse that was once rhythmic be cut off.

******************************

I stood over the rocky ledge. At the bottom was the roaring sea, murky and chaotic. I envisioned Philip's emerald eyes, his smile, the feeling we had when we kissed. Three or four steps back, then I leaped forward and sprang off the cliff, falling to the sea, just as my mother had.

When you hit water from high enough up, it feels as hard and solid as concrete. Once I made contact, the lights went off, and I felt my body become weightless as it dissolved into sea foam.