'Once there was a magical fairy princess that lived in a castle made of sugar. Her name was Sashabell. She lived with her mommy, daddy, and little sister. Everybody that saw her loved her because she was really nice and gave out candy but she was really lonely. One day she went to town to buy more candy but on the way a man tried to attack her. He was mad and had a red face and pulled out a knife. He yelled at her to give him her money. Sashabell said that she needed it to buy candy for her friends but that made him even more angry and he said that he was going to kill her. He was going to kill her with the knife when a knight in shining armor came on a magic white unicorn with rainbows for hair and pushed him away. The man begged for forgiveness but the knight was angry at him and wanted him to have a time out for what he did to Sashabell. But because her heart was so pure she told the knight to let him go and he did. After the man was gone she thanked the prince and offered to take him back to her castle. Then they fell in love and lived happily ever after. The end.'
"That's a nice story." I told Sherry, my little sister. I still can't believe she wrote a fairytale about me. Again. At least her punctuation's good this time.
"It's not a story, it's real!"
"No it's not,"
"Why not?"
"Castles aren't made of sugar."
"Then what are they made out of?"
"Diamonds." Hey, if I'm going to be a fairy princess, might as well live in luxury.
I watched her scribble out sugar and write in the 'diemond.' Well you can't win every battle.
"Is it real now?"
"You wish kid."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm never going to find a guy that likes me."
"What are you talking about?"
"The story. You wrote another story about me."
"No, not everything is about you." She stuck her tongue out at me. Real mature for a nine year old. "And it's not a story. I wrote it down in a magic book. It's real now."
"No it's not. Sashabell doesn't exist. Sasha does. That's me."
"It's not about you. I came up with the name. It has nothing to do with you."
"And it happens to have my name in it?"
"Hmph, I came up with it on my own. Sashabell is nothing like you. She's like Tinkerbell because her name ends with 'ell' too. And she's a fairy princess." She stuck her tongue out at me again.
"Then why does she have one younger sister like I do?"
She paused for a moment. I waited and smiled. Then she ran out of the room shouting. "Mommy! Sasha's being mean to me!"
That little devil. Our parents always believe her. I ran after her, "She's lying!" I called out. It was hard running across the house trying not to trip over the Halloween decorations. I kept my eyes on Sherry so I didn't notice the pot of slime on the ground. I didn't really know what happened. One second I was gaining on Sherry, the next, I'm on the ground covered in slime.
I'm about to say something but my mom beats me to it. "What is this mess?" she screamed.
"Um, funny story," I laugh sheepishly.
...
"Trick or Treat!" the band of little monsters on the doorstep say. Scream. Wail. Announce. I don't care. It's all the same to me.
"Whatever," I say and I give each demon spawn a handful of candy. I was supposed to be at the movies with my friends for this year's Horror Fest. Basically, each of us brings one of our favorite scary movies and we watch them at one of our houses. But thanks to a certain little cretin, I'm grounded. That's how I'm stuck in a stupid, itchy fairy costume throwing candy to the masses. Sherry kept teasing me on how I was turning into Sashabell. As if. It's not like a guy riding a rainbow unicorn is going to come out of nowhere and save me.
"Ugh, stupid candy bowl." I throw the empty bowl on the ground. It's only ten and all the candy's gone. Mom said to give out candy till midnight. I don't know how but she always finds out if I don't finish a task she gives me. I take my wallet and start walking to the store. Even though I'm seventeen, my parents won't let me get a liscense. Too young my ass. My sophmore friends are learning already. I'm just glad that the store is only a few blocks away.
I hum 'This is Halloween' from the Nightmare Before Christmas on the way to the store. Can't help it. It's an addicting song. Then I feel something weird in the air. Something's changed. I'm not alone anymore. I stop humming and look around. There's nobody there. The only thing out of the ordinary is the house of mirrors that the Franklins put up every year for Halloween.
House of Mirrors...mirrors..mirrors reflect...like diamonds...House of Diamonds....Castle of Diamonds? I'm looking way too far into that dumb story. I start walking again when a twig snaps. Suddenly I'm on the ground with a guy with a red devil mask hovering over me.
"Give me all your money!" he hisses. Just like the story. I laugh at the idea but the man takes it the wrong way. "You think this is some sort of joke? A Halloween prank? Am I joking now?" he asks bringing a blade to my throat.
This is real. This is actually happening. I'm about to scream when someone knocks over the masked man. Someone dressed as a knight... that for some reason is riding on a rainbow unicorn. He punches the guy over and over until he's on the ground sputtering, "I didn't mean it! It was a joke!"
"You sure? You see anybody laughing? I know I'm not laughing." He brings up his fist to punch him again when someone yells "Don't!" It takes me a moment to realize that it's me. I walk up the them and put my hand on the knight's fist.
He looked surprised at my touch. It was as if he just noticed that I was there. When he looked me in the eyes I jolted. They were so blue. I'm never going to look away. He didn't either. I don't think he even noticed when I lowered his hand. "Don't." I repeated. I turn to the man who attacked me. It's hard to believe that a minute ago that the sobbing mess threatened me with a knife. "Get out of here." I told him.
"What?" he and the knight asked. "You're letting him go?" he said as the man asked "You're not calling the police?"
"Go before I change my mind." I say. The man gives me a nod before running off.
Then it was just me and the knight.
"You didn't have to do that." he muttered.
I'm still in shock from what happened. It was exactly as Sherry wrote it. He takes my silence as anger.
"Are you okay?"
I nod. I find my voice and croak, "What's with the unicorn?"
"Oh, this? Something my sister found. It wasn't part of the costume before then she decided that it was a good idea to glue it on. Nice right?"
I smile.
"I don't live far from here. You should sit down." He leads me back to the house of mirrors and knocks on the door. A few seconds later a woman dressed as a witch opens the door. "Welc- what happened to this girl? Anthony, you better start explaining."
"Later mom, she needs water."
As she rushes to the kitchen, Anthony leads me to a sofa. "Thank you," I whisper.
"No problem. It's not every day that you get to save a princess." Princess. I start to laugh.
"Did I say something funny?" he asks furrowing his brow.
"No, this just seems like deja vu."
"Did that freak rob you before?"
"No, just something from a story I read."
