The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 6
I woke up groggy and in a lot of pain from my fight the previous night. I popped two aspirin, and then two more, before stuffing the bottle in my backpack.
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.
I woke up groggy and in a lot of pain from my fight the previous night. I popped two aspirin, and then two more, before stuffing the bottle in my backpack. I was glad Rose was feeling well enough to leave the van and venture out onto campus before me, but part of me had hoped she would be next to me when I got up. She had not been healthy for a long time, and it often took all her effort just to roll out of bed and get to class. Sometimes, she couldn’t even do that, so I found myself taking notes in some of her classes, most of which I didn’t understand.
I felt one of the snakes on my head yawn and looking in the mirror I saw it was Albert, the longest and most animated of my brood.
“Good morning, Albie,” I said with a smile. I pulled a jar of dead crickets from behind the bed and fed him one. That got the other five snakes on my head excited, and I spent the next five minutes satiating them until they were pleasantly stuffed and settled back down on my head to nap again.
I stared at myself in the mirror for a full five minutes after that, watching the snakes sleep, and wondering how Rose could have fallen in love with such a hideous creature. I shook off the thought. I didn’t have much time for it. I had an early class and needed to shower before it.
I pushed myself up, every bone and muscle creaking in my body as I did, donned one of my wigs, and a shower cap, then headed toward the gym, where I could ride the stationary bike for half an hour to warm up my muscles before hopping in the shower.
When I got there, a crowd had gathered. Flashing ambulance lights shone against the gym. Something was wrong, and my stomach immediately dropped. Then I saw Jamil, in the crowd, her thin hands clasped tightly against her mouth, and my gut dropped into my knees.
“Jamil,” I said walking up to her, “what’s going on?”
Jamil turned to me, tears in her eyes. “It’s Rose. I found her… I don’t know what happened, but…”
I didn’t need to hear the rest. The doors swung open to the gym, and two EMTs were pushing Rose out on a cart. She was hooked up to an oxygen tank and looked barely alive, her skin a sickly and pale shade of death.
“Rose!” I said, rushing forward through the crowd. “Rose!”
Jamil pulled me back. “You can’t do anything for her now. Come on. I’ll take you to the hospital.”
My mind blank, I let Jamil guide me back to her car. If anything happened to Rose, I didn’t know what I would do. I didn’t know how I would live in a world without her.
“She’ll be okay,” Jamil said, opening the passenger’s door to her car. “She’s a fighter.”
I wanted to believe her, but I didn’t, or I couldn’t. Either way, I broke down crying.
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.