Ugly: A Faerie Tale Retold

Chapter Seven: The Faerie Queen

As blow after blow fell on my arms and neck and head, my exhaustion and dizziness combined to give me the feeling I was not a part of this scene. It was someone else being beaten, someone else whose week of sleepless nights had just been wasted by jealousy, someone else suffering. Ella sobbed, but it sounded very far away. Mother and Claudette shouted, but I didn't hear any of their words. I was too tired to fight back or cry out or pull away.

Finally, the torture stopped, and Ella was at my side in an instant. "Thisbe! Are you all right? Can you hear me?"

I nodded, trying to focus my eyes on her blurry face. "I'm sorry, Ella. You wanted so much to go...." I couldn't understand why my vision wouldn't focus. Then I realized it was because I was crying.

Ella pulled me into her arms. "Oh, Thisbe, you did everything you could. It just wasn't meant to be. Don't think about it. I'm worried for you. Are you all right?"

My arms smarted, and my head roared with pain, but I'd experienced all that before. "I'm fine. Did they leave?"

"They've been gone a couple minutes. You passed out for a moment."

I blinked and straightened. "Really?"

She nodded, her chin quivering. "I thought you were really, really hurt."

"No, I'm all right. I just... I should go to bed." I wiped my eyes, but the ruins of her dress hanging loosely over her willowy frame made them burn with tears again.

"I'll help you up. Here." She put her arm around me and tried to pull me to her feet. It was a good thing I didn't need her to support me, because the poor thing was so delicate, I could feel her trembling under half my weight. I was about to pull away and tell her I was all right on my own when the front door swung open.

We both jumped back, expecting Mother to return, perhaps with a sword or axe, but there was no one there. A gentle wind blew in, and we glanced at each other, shivering. Ella clutched my hand until my fingers hurt.

"Didn't Madame lock the door?"

"I don't know. You said I was unconscious when she left. I'll go shut it."

She wouldn't let go of my hand as we crept forward. As I placed my hand on the doorknob, a voice outside the door said, "Psst."

Ella yelped and grabbed my arm, and I instinctively pushed her behind me. "Who's there?"

"It's all right, girls. I'm not a thief. Just a faerie, that's all."

The setting sun fell on a child-sized figure, and I squinted to see an old woman with a twisted cane, smiling toothlessly.

"A... faerie? Mother used to tell me stories about faeries, but she always said they were young and fair and had wings." Ella's grip on my arm loosened a little.

"Some don't, some do. Some are old, some are new." She cackled like a rusty hinge. "Beauty isn't everything, mes chéries. In fact, it's almost nothing."

She hobbled toward us, dragging a lame foot. Her old, sunken eyes gleamed, and her crooked smile was so broad, I couldn't help smiling back. Perhaps she was a little crazy, but she seemed harmless enough.

"Do you need a place to stay, ma'am?" I asked. "It'll be night soon."

"Oh, Thisbe! But we don't know her. And what would your mother say?" Ella must've been too surprised to whisper.

"Mother won't know. They won't be home until early in the morning, and we can let her sleep in the guest room. Would that be all right, Madame..." I gestured to her to supply her name.