The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 24
No. I didn’t like this at all. I mean, I didn’t much like being taken away from Chelle and locked in a cage, but I liked it even less when they took me out of the cage and placed wires all over my bod
Fairy tales are real.
Rose Briar is a diabetic college student without insurance. She’s been scraping by through a combination of maxing out credit cards and relying upon the kindness of strangers.
Unfortunately, she’s spent every dollar at her disposal. There’s no money left to buy her life-saving insulin.
Without her medication, Rose falls into a diabetic coma. She tumbles into a deep slumber and wakes up in a fantastical place called the Dream Realm, where fairy tales and legends of old are still very much alive.
She has one chance to wake up.
She must trek across the world, visit the most powerful object in the land, the Obsidian Spindle, and entreat with the fates; the only beings powerful enough to send her soul back to Earth.
But evil forces don’t want her to leave. They will stop at nothing to capture her and make sure she never goes home again.
Now, with the help of her half-gorgon girlfriend and a mysterious red rider, Rose must race across the land fighting dragons, monsters, and the forces of the Wicked Witch, Nimue, in order to reach the Obsidian Spindle before her body dies on Earth and she’s trapped in the Dream Realm forever.
Will she be able to wake up? Can she survive? Find out by reading The Sleeping Beauty today. If you love mythology, fairy tales, and dark fantasy, then you’ll love the first book in The Obsidian Spindle Saga.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.
No. I didn’t like this at all. I mean, I didn’t much like being taken away from Chelle and locked in a cage, but I liked it even less when they took me out of the cage and placed wires all over my body.
They brought me into a room that looked like it was straight out of a 1950s sci-fi movie, complete with a bank of knobs and switches on a big metal case along the far wall. Closer to the door, an old computer in a wooden frame blinked green against a black screen. Compared to the rest of Urgu, the room was something out of the distant future, but to a girl from the twenty-first century, it looked like a relic of the past.
“Excuse me?” I asked the gray, shimmerless fairy connecting a suction cup to my left cheek. “What are you doing? I know I keep asking, but I really want to know.”
The gray pixie didn’t respond. None of them responded to me. It was as if I was speaking a different language. Then I wondered how was it that everybody in Urgu spoke English.
A jet-black fairy covered in dark glitter turned from the computer monitor. “It’s because in here all language is translated into whatever you speak. Or I should say, perhaps, that we all speak the same language, but hear it differently.”
“Fascinating,” I said. “I mean, this whole situation is terrible, but that, at least, is interesting. Another one, though. How can you read my mind?”
“You’re connected to my flipperjig, here. I can see everything inside of your brain. Now, I know you have questions,” the pixie said, standing up. He didn’t have wings like the rest of the pixies, so he walked along the ground. “Unfortunately, I think it’s best not to fraternize with the Wicked Witch’s test subjects. It’s too sad when they don’t make it. Scientific objectivity is our first priority.”
“Oh. I’m sorry for bumming you out, buddy, but I’m not a lab monkey. If you’re gonna kill me, could you please tell me what’s going on at least?”
“Well, you are asking so nicely—and honestly, it’s not a rule that I’m very good at sticking to. After all, I am so very proud to be a part of the great work of the witch of the east.”
“What is it, then?”
The doctor pixie paced back and forth as it talked. “As you are by now no doubt aware, once you enter Urgu, the only way to leave is by death, which is suboptimal, or through the only door which leads back to Earth, behind the Obsidian Spindle.”
“I think I knew that. Did I know that?”
“Well, you know it now at least.”
“I suppose so.”
“And as you are no doubt aware, the Fates have refused to let anyone through the Obsidian Spindle, not since the god Hypnos vanished without a trace.”
My heart sank. So much for our great escape plan. “That part I’m pretty sure I didn’t know.”
“Oh. Well, now you know it, don’t you?”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“What you might not know is that we believe there is another way through back to the other side.”
“Back to Earth?”
“That’s right. You see, there is a barrier that separates this world from Earth, and from the rest of the universe. It is incredibly powerful and incredibly stable. However, it, like everything else in Urgu, is powered by dreams, and since Hypnos’s disappearance, there have been no more dreams. That makes the barrier weak.” The pixie hurried in his pacing, lost in scientific permutations. “We think, if we direct a charge—a dreamer’s soul—at the perfect frequency and it hits the barrier, we can puncture the barrier and return to Earth.”
I blinked. “And what? You think I have that frequency?”
He stopped pacing and looked at me. “Well, I’m not sure yet. However, you did just come through the field and into Urgu. Chances are, there’s some sort of residue on you which could give us a key to the frequency.”
“And what happens to Urgu when the barrier falls?”
The pixie smiled. “It’s not what happens to Urgu that is important, my dear. It’s what happens to Earth. People cannot survive without dreams, but we can. While the dreamless world devolves into madness, we will make our strike. We will take over the earth.”
“That’s crazy.”
“No!” The pixie snarled, baring his jagged teeth at me. “What’s crazy is being stuck here for generation after generation with nothing to do but plot our escape. The Fates could let us go, but instead, they choose to stay cooped up behind their hydra, bound inside their onyx tower, and force our hands.”
“Maybe they have their reasons.”
“Maybe,” the pixie said, settling down and giving a shrug. “But we don’t care about them, now do we?”
“I do! You’re going to turn everybody on Earth mad!”
“Only a little. Don’t worry, they’ll still have nightmares after all. Although, you won’t have to worry about that.”
“So, you’re going to kill me then?” I asked, trying to stay brave. I was still mostly dead, after all. Still, I couldn’t keep my bottom lip from quivering.
“Yes,” the pixie said. “You truly are remarkable, you know. Your soul resonated at the perfect frequency to penetrate the barrier to Urgu, a feat that has not been accomplished in a hundred years. I believe that means you can become a conduit between Earth and this place. I have tested my theory on hundreds of dreamers over the years, but they were old souls by the time our tests began and had no body back on Earth waiting for them. Unfortunately, it didn’t work—”
“Because they had been dead for a long time?”
“Precisely, but you are different. You are fresh, and thus, have a body waiting for you.”
“And what if I don’t? What if my body is dead, too?”
“Let’s not think like that,” the pixie said with a smile. “Positive energy. Because you see, it is your connection to your body that makes you so special. We hope to use that connection to establish a link back to Earth and use it like a sword to cut the barrier in twain. The process will kill you, but free us. You will be a hero to our people.”
“I don’t want to be a hero.”
“Too bad. I did not want to end up here, but we play the cards we are dealt, yes?” The doctor played with the dials on the ancient, wooden computer. “You’re going to feel a slight pinch. I would like to say it gets better, but it doesn’t. That pinch will become a dull ache, then a throb, next comes a piercing migraine, and eventually you will vibrate so fast that you explode. Hopefully, by then, you will have helped us locate what we need.”
“No, thank you,” I said. “I’d rather not.”
The pixie stood next to a giant lever. He wrapped his hand around the knob. “I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice.” Without another word, he flipped the lever, and the pain began.
At first, he was right. It didn’t hurt too bad, but soon it was excruciating enough that a scream emerged—despite me, without my permission—from the depths of my soul. I tried to focus. I tried to think. I tried to remember Chelle, and how much I loved her.
I needed to stay alive for her, but a few moments later the pain was so great I couldn’t think of anything else, and that’s when I knew I was going to die.
Fairy tales are real.
Find out by reading The Sleeping Beauty today. If you love mythology, fairy tales, and dark fantasy, then you’ll love the first book in The Obsidian Spindle Saga.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.