Sickly Sweet

The Arena

Sophie swallowed hard as she watched and waited for the mysterious Seven to appear. Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light and seven cute fairies with golden hair and rainbow dresses appeared in front of her.

What.

Sophie wondered which one breathed fire and which one shot poison, but just as she was considering knives, the center fairy flew up to her and tapped her nose.

"Hello!" she squeaked brightly.

"Uh, yeah, hi."

"I'm Vienna."

"I'm Sophie-I mean-I'm L-L-"

She was shell shocked. These were the famed Seven? The ones who assisted Martek in his fights? The ones who won hundreds of battles?

Sophie looked out at the audience, frozen in time. One green monster had a handful of popcorn about to be shoved in his mouth while another tried to steal some from his bucket. One of the fairies was wielding a silver wand that cast blue frost over the monsters, freezing them.

She turned back to Vienna.

"So, you fight with Ma-artek?" her voice cracked and she wanted to facepalm for asking such a stupid question.

"Um, yes, well, we freeze his partner while Martek crushes them. Then we brainwash the audience to think that we're a tough pack of ogres or something."

"Oh. Why do you do that for him?"

"He did us a favor once. Saved my life. I asked him what he wanted in return and he said this. So. Yeah."

"Okay."

"Well, then. We'll be heading off..."

"Wait!" cried Sophie.

"Yes?" Vienna paused at the stage exit.

"Martek. You know he's King Sweete, right?"

Her face crinkled. "What do you mean?"

"You know the guy who murdered his daughter?"

"Yes," said the fairy quietly.

"That was him. He told me himself."

She looked shocked. "It can't be!"

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"I need to see him. I need an explanation."

"Well, okay, but I'd like to talk to him too. I know where he lives, not to sound like a stalker. Follow me."

Sophie led Vienna out the door, the six other fairies trailing behind.

This is so weird.

They entered the dark room with the pair of automatically closing doors.

"Okay, I'll open them and then you guys rush through. It closes on its own, so be careful."

Vienna nodded, calculating how fast she would need to go.

Sophie yanked the door open and rushed through. Vienna flew forward, making it first. Three others made it along with her, but the last three were trapped. Sophie heard a high-pitched scream and said,

"It's okay, all I have to do is open the door."

Vienna went up to the door. Her eyes welled with tears.

"No, look."

Sophie rushed to the black entrance and peered through the crack. Trapped between the door and the frame was a small fairy with blue and yellow skirts.

"Help...please." She gasped, trying to breathe through crushed lungs.

Immediately Sophie whipped open the door but her results weren't as expected. The small fairy fell to the floor and was almost crushed again by the automatic swinging door of death.

She suppressed a giggle at the fairy's hilarious face. Then her eyes filled with tears and she chided herself for being such a monster.

Carefully picking the young winged human up with her right hand, she cradled her and asked Vienna what her name was.

"Jaqueline."

Sophie straightened Jaqueline's wings and looked all six fairies in the eye (the others had made it through when she opened the door again).

"We need to get her rest and medical attention. Let's head to Martek's. There is a Princess there who has been trained to perform CPR and other reviving techniques."

Vienna nodded and briskly started down the street. Sophie hurried to catch up, surprised she knew the way to Martek's.

About five minutes later, they arrived at his palace. The fairies hovered above the welcome mat and exchanged nervous whispers while Sophie stood awkwardly by the door.

"I guess I'll knock."

Rap-rap-rap.

A figure appeared in the stained glass window, distorted because of the different shapes cut in the glass. Even with the distortion, Sophie was pretty sure the figure was Lana. But...why was she shorter?

When the door opened, Sophie realized it wasn't her golden eyed friend but a cute, small little girl. She smiled at them and gasped in wonderment at the fairies.

"I knew they were real!" she exclaimed, grinning at them.

"Excuse me," said Sophie politely,"Do you know where Martek is?"

"Daddy?" the girl asked. Her features formed a sad but cute frown. "Daddy died, tree years ago."

Sophie gasped. "No, I mean Martek, the man who lives in this house."

"Yes, Daddy!" the girl insisted. "Mar-tek. Daddy died tree years ago."

Vienna turned to Sophie, skeptical. "Did you make this up as some sort of prank?"

"No! I would never do that! He was here, I swear, just this morning!"

"Sure he was." Vienna turned to the girl and smiled.

"I'm very sorry for the confusion. We'll be going now. I'm sorry about your Daddy."

She grinned. "Okay." And shut the door. Vienna gave Sophie a look that said,"I can't believe you." And pivoted in the air.

Suddenly Sophie was all alone on Martek's doorstep. And she felt a lot like Cara.