Aurabella

The rustle of old newspapers tucked away under the old and rickety bed caught the princess's attention.

"Who's there?" She let out the question into the air, but no reply came back answering her query. Of course, there would not be any. She had been alone ever since she could remember.

"Is that you Mr. Mice?"

She laid down the wooden brush that glistened under the moonlight on a vanity table that was in the same condition as the bed.

Her walk was graceful as any other princess in the world, but there was a touch of delicateness and humble that was rarely seen in a noble person nowadays.

She kneeled and bent her body slightly to see under the years old bed. "I have not seen you in decades," she said with a hint of excitement.

She was not at fault for acting as such for she had not know nor seen any other creature that looked anything alike to her. She knew not the feeling of having friends.

"Come and play with me."

"Ah, so this is the princess who has been the talk of the town?" A low and husky voice came out from in between the dusty papers.

She felt a hard and firm blow that had her fell back on her bottom. "The famous Princess Aurabella."

She was beyond terrified by the uninvited guest, but she gathered all the courage she had to get up and face the owner of the dark mysterious voice.

"I know not of what you are discussing about, but yes I am Aurabella," she replied with a steady and firm voice that beyond a shadow of a doubt had amused the creature.

"I like your braveness, my princess. It tasted sweeter than nectar."

Her posture had not faltered, but the sentence had piqued her sense of wanting to know, wanting to learn.

"What are you?" She asked, stepping closer to the black shadow that danced under the candlelight. It had no fixed shape as she did.

"I am what your heart desired, I am what your heart sought." The shadow creeped out of the small and undusted space- slowly yet surely.

The shadow swirled in the air- in a mix of thick liquid and smoke. She had never seen anything as such but then again she had not seen a lot of things that had a mind of its own. A thing that could think and speak as it deemed to be fit.

"I could be your happiest, sweetest, most blissful dream, my dear," the woman said as she ran a slim finger that felt as cold as ice yet as smooth as silk.

"Now, tell me what you wish and I shall grant it to you."

"Freedom," the princess whispered.