True Love to Save a Soul
Who can know the lengths we will go to for those we love?
Only those who love truly will know.
- Up to 1,000 words
- Genre = Fairy Tale
- Location = A desert island
- Object = a bandage
“Once upon a time…”
Arianna snuggled down in the blankets as she listened to her mother’s voice, read the story she had heard a hundred times. She was almost ten now and knew fairy tales were not real but after such a horrible day, she welcomed the comfort the story would provide. Arianna always loved the stories of princesses and their fairy tale kingdoms. She imagined herself in those many books, waiting patiently for her own prince to come and live happily ever after. He would stay, unlike the father she barely knew.
Gabriela looked down at her daughter as she read, watching as Arianna’s breath evened out while she recited the words almost from memory. She breathed a little easier herself, seeing the calmness radiating from Arianna as she drifted off to sleep. Today had been a close call, and Gabriela was mentally kicking herself for not paying more attention. Fortunately, her daughter seemed to have forgotten all about it, though the bandage wrapped neatly around her ankle would be all the reminder Gabriela needed.
She moved to the window and gazed across the lawn as the soft sounds of Arianna’s snores evened out. From here, you could see the remains of an old dock, which had not been used in a hundred years or more. She let her thoughts drift back to the first time she set eyes on Arianna’s father, back to when she came to live this cursed life, alone on this desert island.
He was so young, so handsome, this prince destined to rule the Kingdom. And she, Gabriela, so naïve. Theirs was a whirlwind romance and in what felt like the blink of an eye, they were married, and Gabriela was soon pregnant. It was then it seemed, her husband Sam, transformed into more of a beast than her beloved. Quickly, she lost touch with her dearest friends, being told that she was too “delicate with child” to go out and socialize. Her husband whisked her to this desert island, stating the doctors had told him the fresh air and calm water was best for her and her unborn child. And then he left.
Gabriela turned as she heard the rustling of sheets as Arianna rolled to her side. The blanket, now loose, seemed to purposefully reveal the bandage, a reminder that Gabriela had not kept a close enough eye on her daughter today.
She closed her eyes as a single tear slid down her cheek and she thought of how horrible it would be if something happened to Arianna. Quietly, she slipped from the room and closed the door, holding the knob for the extra few seconds that would keep the latch from clicking too loudly in place.
She stifled a gasp as she turned and saw him, Sam, and she realized then she had lost track of time, lost track of the shifting hourglass sands. His hand, rough on her bare arm, scratched a physical reminder of the pain in her broken heart.
“What happened?” he demanded through clenched teeth.
“Arianna was chasing a rabbit and she fell”, tears gathering in Gabriela’s eyes while they pleaded with Sam to not let loose his anger and wake their daughter. The tears now flowed; a familiar path they found each time Sam returned.
He wrapped his fingers through hers, the gentleness like a worn memory that served to slow her tears. She argued in her head this was not real, this was not the prince she fell in love with. Slowly, she followed the gentle tug of his hand as he led her down the hall to the front porch and out into the night.
“Gabriela”, he started, his lips pressed so tight she knew it must be painful. “I know you have grown to hate me, to resent me, for bringing you here and abandoning you and our daughter. But you must know all I have done was to protect you both, to shelter you, for I could not bear losing you or our sweet princess. I have something to share with you and I beg, if there was ever a place for me in your heart, you will see what I have to show you.”
Gabriela nodded her head slowly, confused, for this man, the voice, the tenderness, this was the Sam she married, not the Sam she had seen one night at each full moon for the last 10 years. And then, before her eyes, his hand passed over the air in front of them and images came to life. Speeding past she saw things in reverse, her standing at the window, Arianna falling in the pit at the edge of the forest, and then prior visits from Sam, leading back to the birth of Arianna. All these images raced back in a barely visible blur and then it slowed, their wedding and the charming Sam she fell in love with, the moonlit proposal he had made. But then, her parents sitting at the table with a weathered old witch, signing a scroll. It was here that Sam’s hands made to pause this indescribable set of memories. “A pact.” Sam answered the unasked question though she could see the words clearly. “Your parents were so afraid of dying, they were willing to sell your soul, and the soul of our unborn child, to split the whole of your unlived years between them, so they could live on together. But this witch was no true evil witch, for she served my father the King, seeking out those in the kingdom who would partake in dark magic. She came to me and urged me to bring you here, where your parents would be unable to find you. My love, my heart…your parents have passed away. I am here, for it is now safe for us, all of us, to return to the Kingdom. For Arianna to know she is a true princess and us all to live happily ever after.”
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