The Cursed Princess: A Jensoo Princess/Witch AU

Chapter Four: Nightmare

"So, where am I going to sleep?" I asked, my foot tapping impatiently.

"There." Jisoo pointed to the floor.

"Excuse me?" I shouted. "That isn't how you treat royalty!"

"As long as you're under this roof, we're equals," she stated.

I rolled my eyes as she walked to her room. She pulled out a blanket and pillow from the closet and handed it to me.

"Here," she said. "Night, Jennie."

"Night, Jisoo," I said back.

She closed the door to her room, leaving me alone in the quaint space. It was rather dark in there, as the only lighting was by a few small candles. The moonlight only illuminated a small part of the room. I shivered a bit from the cold, so I wrapped the blanket around myself. It felt quite warm and comfy, almost like a giant teddy bear wrapped its arms around me.

As the night went on, I faded off into a deep slumber. Despite the cold and the darkness, it was quite easy to fall asleep. But that was only the beginning of it all.

While I was sleeping, I had a terrible nightmare. My skin had turned fully green and I looked horrible. My hair was frizzy, my teeth were yellow, hell, even my nose was crooked. Everyone around me turned away, mostly out of fear and disgust. My family shunned me and I was out on the streets begging for scraps.

Just then, Taehyung came walking down the street. I immediately rushed to him, but he pushed me away forcefully. He, like most of the other people, looked absolutely disgusted by me.

"Taehyung, don't you remember me?" I pleaded helplessly.

"Ugh, get away from me, you hag!" he shouted, walking away.

"Wait, please!" I begged before breaking down in tears. "Please don't leave me..."

I collapsed on the street, my cries getting louder and louder. I could hear the people around me whispering my name and I saw them pointing their jagged fingernails at me. Outside opinions swayed me so easily. What would I be if I wasn't beautiful?

"Jennie!"

Immediately, my eyes opened to see Jisoo bent over me, a worried look on her face. Tears were still pouring down my cheeks as my eyes locked with hers. Her hand was resting on my shoulder, her grip still firm as if she had jostled me awake.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "You were crying and wailing. I thought something had happened."

"I-I'm fine," I stuttered, wiping my tears away with my green hand.

"You don't seem 'fine,'" she noted. "What happened?"

I sighed. "Just a nightmare, that's all."

"It's okay," she reassured me. "You don't have to worry about that anymore."

Jisoo chanted something in a language that I couldn't recognize. Probably Latin, or something like that. As she chanted, a purple light surrounded the room, circling us a few times before it vanished. I looked at Jisoo in shock.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Just a little protection spell."

"What'll it protect us from?"

She smiled a bit. "That nightmare you had, it was caused by an evil spirit. I thought I had banished all of them away from here, but I forgot that I moved locations."

"So, they won't come back?" I questioned.

Jisoo gripped my hand lightly. "You're safe, princess. Don't worry."

I couldn't help but smile seeing her beam. Her smile was actually really pretty. But not as pretty as mine, obviously. I looked down at our hands, my green one in her pale one. She didn't even seem repulsed in the slightest even though my hand looked hideous.

"Your hand isn't 'hideous,'" she chuckled.

I raised an eyebrow. "You can read minds?"

"Only when I want to," she said. "And you seemed so deep in thought."

"That's eavesdropping, you know."

"Whatever. But I meant what I said."

"That was obviously a lie." I turned away. "Green doesn't look good as a skin color."

"That doesn't matter," Jisoo said.

"Yes it does!" My voice raised. "What'll I be if I'm not beautiful? What'll I be if no one will want to be around me because of this? What'll I be if I can't break this curse?"

"You'll still be Jennie," she replied. "And that's the most important thing. Have you ever heard the story of Beauty and the Beast?"

I shook my head.

She got up from her spot next to me and walked over to one of her massive bookshelves. She dug through multiple books until she found one with a gold cover. Jisoo gestured for me to sit next to her and reluctantly, I did. She flipped through the pages to find the start.

"Mind if I read it?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"A long time ago, there lived a prince in a beautiful castle..."

I listened to her words intently as she told the famous tale. Every time a different character spoke, Jisoo would use a different voice, some of them so zany that they made me laugh. As she was reading, I couldn't help but notice how she looked all around. I'd always thought of witches as being ugly and repulsive, but Jisoo wasn't any of those things. She was actually really pretty.

"And they lived happily ever after." She closed the book, making me jump from the sound.

"That's like the curse I'm under," I said and she nodded.

"Except yours doesn't make you grow a tail," she laughed. "And it isn't broken the same way either."

"Well, how is mine broken then?" I asked.

"I can't tell you," she responded. "If I did, then you would only fulfill it for your own personal gain, which would tamper with the outcome."

"So, in other words, I'm doomed, aren't I?" I gazed down at my arm, which was almost fully green.

Jisoo gripped my hand again, like she'd done before. "No, you're not. You're going to be able to break it."

"How do you know that?" I questioned. "You're not psychic, are you?"

"No," she chuckled. "But I believe in you."

My gaze locked with hers, as I explored the deepness of her chocolate eyes. They were so mystifying and enchanting, with small flecks of gold flickering in them. Wait, what was I saying? This was the same girl who yelled at me for being arrogant earlier today. I wasn't supposed to like anything about her. I was supposed to hate her.

But I couldn't.

I couldn't hate her because she was actually very kind. I couldn't hate her because she was truly a caring person. I couldn't hate her because she was trying to help me. I was just a hopeless case.

"C'mon." She helped me up. "I'll lend you my bed, but just for tonight."

"But it's yours," I said.

She smirked. "Take it."

"No, I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because-" I stopped for a second, unsure how to put it into words. What was I feeling? "Because that mattress isn't soft enough."

She laughed as she walked back to her bedroom. "Suit yourself. Night, princess."

"Goodnight, Jisoo."