Fairy tales are a load of bull. At least, that's what Valerie Lockhart believes.
Not the part about magic or fate or fairy godmothers - though she highly doubts that those exist either - but the part about happy endings. The happy endings in fai...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Fairy tails are a load of bull."
It was an ordinary Friday night, in an ordinary town, at an ordinary college party. Naturally, the party was full of ordinary college students who were either so drunk that they couldn't see straight, or acting as though they were. Valerie fell into the former category, having drunk half of her body weight in beer and the mystery mixture they were serving at the ping-pong table.
"I mean, what even is a 'happy ending'?" Her words were slurred to the point that one could barely make out what she was saying, and adding that to the fact that the music was loud enough to rattle the windows, Valerie's companion had no way of hearing her. But of course, Valerie, being the headstrong female she was, wasn't deterred from her mission of enlightening her companion of her pessimistic- sorry, realistic views on life.
"How can you possibly call it 'happily ever after' when there is no definite end? It's only the end because the writer decided to call it that, but that doesn't actually make it 'the end'. It's only a piece of the never ending cycle of life, and calling it the end won't change that. If you call a tree a rose, it's still a tree. Or something like that. You should quote me."
Quoting, however, seemed to be far from her companion's mind at the time, because just as Valerie finished her monologue on the absurdity of happy endings, he turned an awful shade of green. And threw up all over her.
~
"For all their flaws, humans truly know how to throw a decent party- I'll at least give them that."
Hayden lifted an eyebrow and decided to ignore his friend's comment in favour of taking another sip of his lukewarm beer. They had been standing around in the crowded living room of a college fraternity house for over an hour, and it had long ago become boring. Hayden's muscles ached with the need to move, to fight, to just do something other than stand around and wait. But orders were orders, and he had been given his.
"If we're gonna be here for the rest of the night, can't we just enjoy ourselves? We hardly ever get out, and on the few occasions that we do, we just have to stand around and look pretty. "
Hayden rolled his eyes, even though he silently agreed with Rowan. He, too, wanted to enjoy a bit of his limited time away from the restrictions of the Circle, but that didn't mean that he was going to act on his desires. The mission came first, and any distractions could cost an innocent life.
Chugging the last bit of his awful beer, Hayden crushed his plastic cup in a big hand and threw it in the trash can from across the room.
"Suck it up, Rowan," Hayden said, his keen sea green eyes scanning the room, waiting for the first sign of danger. "We could be here a while." He only got a grunt as response.
The moment the party went from careless adolescent fun to a life or death situation wasn't announced with battle cries or any grand gestures. No, the moment the party went to hell was just like all the moments before and after it, and would even have passed by unnoticed had it not been for the tickling at the back of Hayden's neck that told him that the wait was over.
Hayden's eyes met with those of his friend, and without having to say a word, they both went their separate ways, scouting the house to find the thing they had been sent there for. Some called it a sixth sense- the way they knew within their very being that there was danger- they called it the Sight. And using this nifty little gift, Hayden found the form of a young male from across the room.
He sped up, his heart beating in time with horrible electric music, his eyes never leaving the male with pale golden hair. Upstairs. Hayden sent the single word to Rowan's mind along with an image of the male mounting the stairs to the upper level. A flicker of conformation was his reply.
Ten steps, maybe more.
That was the only thing separating him from his target. That, and the bodies of drunk college students. The latter obstacle deemed much more challenging to overcome.
Five steps.
He was gaining on the other male, close on his heals. The end to the constant stream of young bodies was in sight; he was so close to reaching the stairs- to reaching the threat. All he had to do was- stop.
Hayden stopped. He was mere step away from the staircase, but for a horrible second he stood motionless, frozen by a blood curdling scream.
~
Valerie's scream pierced the room so loudly she thought she might break glass. Usually, she wasn't this melodramatic- really, she wasn't. It suddenly just all became too much. Everything this past couple of weeks built up to this exact moment of utter despair. Factors that lead to her outburst include things like:
a.)Her brand new Guns n Roses shirt was covered in vomit that resembled Walt Disney's Flubber
b.)The sickeningly warm liquid was slowly making its way down her cleavage
c.)The pressure of her first year in college was slowly eating away at her very soul
and d.) Her freakin' Guns n Roses T-shirt was covered in vomit.
Her scream only died out when she finally had to stop for air. Wow. That's why they tell you to let it all out sometimes. If it weren't for the fact that she was covered in some random guy's stomach fluids, she might have felt a sense of relief. But she was covered in some random guy's stomach fluids, and relief wasn't the emotion she was feeling at the moment.
Embarrassment at her outburst had her cheeks transforming into ripe tomatoes. For a sickening moment, Valerie could feel every eye in the room on her, and she wished that she could be swallowed up by a black hole. Cheeks on fire, she ducked her head to cover her face with long ebony curls, and darted out of the room as fast as her legs could carry her. Finding a way to the stairs was made easy by the fact that people all but jumped out of her away, afraid of getting some of the vomit on them.
Her gaze focused on the ground, Valerie ran up the stairs to find the sanctuary of the bathroom that waited above, oblivious to everything else around her. With a one track mind, the dark haired girl stalked to the nearest bathroom and shut the door behind her. As she locked the door, she let out a relieved breath, happy to finally be alone. The only problem, as she would soon find out, was that she most definitely was not the only one there.
