The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 62
There was nothing to do in the dark cell except sit alone with my thoughts, and I hated them as much as I hated myself, and the position I’d put myself in by being gullible and naïve.
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.
There was nothing to do in the dark cell except sit alone with my thoughts, and I hated them as much as I hated myself, and the position I’d put myself in by being gullible and naïve.
My thoughts had never been nice and polite, especially to me. They made me feel horrible things, so long ago I decided to fill my life with mundane tasks as often as possible to drown out the voices telling me to do terrible things to myself.
“You are worthless.”
“You are pathetic.”
“You are weak.”
The longer I remained alone in the dark, the more my thoughts bombarded me with their negativity. I pulled my legs closer to my face and rested my head on them. I took a deep breath to calm my mind, but the minute I exhaled, the flood of my past transgressions crashed upon me.
“You will get Chelle killed trying to save you.”
“The queen will die.”
“Your body is already dead.”
That might be true, but the thing was, even after everything that happened, and the fact I was probably going to die, my travels in Urgu had been the absolute best time of my entire life. I didn’t have to worry about insulin, or money, or anything. I was just able to live in the moment.
That sounded weird, given that I came near to being fried by pixies, eaten by dragons, and drowned in the Cursed Sea, but it was still true. For the first time in my life, I actually had agency. I could influence things instead of having stuff just happen to me. I didn’t know if I could go back to my mundane, painful life, where I had to beg for scraps.
Perhaps it was better that I died. Then, I could never return to Earth again.
“Now, don’t think like that,” I heard in the darkness. “This place is not worth a beauty such as yours.”
I stiffened. “Who’s there?”
Two bright purple eyes appeared in the darkness. “Do you not recognize me, child? Before I was imprisoned here, every human knew my name and feared whispering it out loud.”
“Hera.”
“Brave girl. Brave. It’s a pity what must be done to you.”
“Nothing has to be done. Whatever you’re going to do, you’re doing it because—well, I’m still kind of fuzzy on the whole reason why, actually, but I know it’s you who wants to do something crappy to Urgu.”
“It’s not my fault,” Hera said. “I wasn’t imprisoned here by my own free will. I just want to get back to Earth, and the universe at large. Anything else is collateral damage.”
“You’re not going to get away with this.”
“And who’s going to stop me? The other gods agree with me. Their imprisonment in Urgu has always been unfair and unjust. Zeus and his ilk had no right to force us here. Returning to the universe is our birthright. Being cast out, our tragedy.”
“They’re not the ones about to destroy the Dream Realm. You are.”
“That’s because the others don’t have the stones to endanger humanity. They fear the wrath of Zeus. I have no such fear. He will burn for his betrayal.”
“And your vengeance is worth all our deaths, huh?”
There was a long silence. “Yes.”
“At least you’re honest. Not that that’s any comfort.”
“It might be, in the end.”
The door opened and two guards entered. I looked at them, resigned to my fate, then back at the eyes, but they were gone. Part of me wondered if they were ever there to begin with.
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.