Her FairyTale Ending

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
-Antoine De Saint-Exupery

There are times when I find I cannot create an idea to write. I cannot imagine anything worth writing. It is something many people face but I have found that just listening to some music and writing what it inspires me to be worth doing. 

So that’s what I did. I found this instrumental video on youtube and let it play in the background as I wrote what flowed into my head.

 

Grace stood alone.

Her reflection stared back at her as she looked into the depths of the mirror. She didn’t recognise the girl that was looking at her. Pale and mud-splattered cheeks were now a rosy pink; lips soft and stained red, eyes shadowed by a light gold. The girl before her was not herself but something they’d created. Grace missed the messy hair that had once been carelessly tossed into a bun, that was now twisted into an intricate knot decorated with a pearl crown.

Eyes lowering to her throat, she reached up and ever so carefully teased the silver that lined her neck. Her shoulders were bare, the silken material of the dress beginning at her arms and chest, cascading down to kiss the floor. There was no denying the beauty of the gown; it shimmered with flecks of silver through the bright white, diamonds lining the corset. No expense was spared on this. It was breath-taking, but it wasn’t her.

The woman that watched her from the confines of the mirror shimmered and was replaced with another. Her dark brown hair fell in ringlets around her oval face. Her cheeks were splashed with dirt, yet her eyes glimmered excitedly and her dry lips were stretched into an eager smile. She was different to the girl that stood there now. She was happy, content. It showed in her smile.

‘When had she last smiled like that?’ she wondered, as the apparition of her past-self bubbled away. With a sigh, she turned from the mirror, the dress swirling around her legs as she tried not to trip in the heels she’d been pushed into.

It wasn’t that she was unhappy in her new life. It was just that she knew deep down that it wasn’t her life. Being chosen to wed a prince was the dream of all the other girls. Yet why did she yearn to marry a man who did not love her, but the crown? Walking slowly, she passed by murals of past Kings and their chosen Queens. Her eyes flickered over each beautiful face and deep down she worried how she would compare to them. Did she even want to be like them?

She’d always dreamed of leaving her tiny village and simple life. Fantasies of finding her own Prince Charming were not uncommon for her when she was young, just like every other girl. Yet now that Grace was about to get the life she’d always thought she wanted, she hesitated. It wasn’t like she had imagined; not as fancy nor as beautiful. The portrayal given to her in Fairytales made it out to be wonderful and everlasting, but it was hard and joyless at times.

Pausing by a window, the silent girl gazed out at the landscape around her. Since she’d arrived she’d been kept within the walls of the castle. “For her protection,” the Knights had repeated each time she pleaded to be let out. How she desired to walk through the gardens, dance around the trees and just enjoy the air and land around her once more. Was this going to be her life from now on? Hidden behind a castle door for all of time, she thought, with a frown marring her features; never to experience the simple things once more.

Grace had thought this was what she wanted; but the more she dwelled on it, the more she began to question her dreams. Was the small village really so bad? Was living with her family, bickering with her sister and helping her mother in the shop so draining as she thought?

Unconsciously, as her thoughts lingered on her family, a tear trailed down her cheek. She’d ran from them the first chance she’d got, eagerly taken the hand of a stranger who claimed to love her at first glance. It was her fairytale, she couldn’t say no, she hadn’t wanted to. So she went. No goodbyes. No tears. But she missed them terribly; many times she wept to herself, thinking of all she had done wrong and what she would change if she got the chance.

Squeezing her fists tight, she brushed away another stray tear as voices shouted up to her. Leaning out of the window, she gazed down at the young girls, daughters of some Lords who’d arrived for the wedding. They smiled up at her and eagerly waved. Grace gnawed on her lip watching them. She did not smile or wave, instead, she envisioned her sister in their place who began sobbing at the loss of her elder sister. Her chest ached, her throat clogged up and Grace spun from the window. She couldn’t do this. Not like this. She couldn’t marry a man who did not know her or care to know her all for a life she had believed was better for her.

Her footsteps increased as she started down the hallway, and soon she was running. The shiny bracelets she wore caught on the dress, tugging on the seams and she stumbled. She ripped the bracelet from the material, not caring that it tore. The charms scattered to the floor as she yanked them from her skin, the necklace followed, as did the little crown. Her heels crashed against the wall as she kicked them away and burst out the doors.

Voices called out to her as she barged down the large steps. It did not bother her that she bumped into many guests, she did not care that they saw her stained cheeks or torn dress. Her hair flared out behind her as she raced towards the main gates. She couldn’t do this. He didn’t love her, and she knew now that although this life was a Fairytale and she would never want for anything, it wasn’t for her.

She wanted to work with her father, she wanted to spend time in the forest with her sister, sing with her mother; she wanted to live happily. Perhaps not with riches, but she knew now that money wasn’t the only wealth – happiness was what she longed for more. She’d turned her back on it once, but she understood now.

She ran all the way back to her small village. Her once beautiful dress now a mess of leaves and dirt, her feet aching and bloody, her hair windswept and her make-up a disaster, but she was smiling. Her cheeks stung as she smiled, much to the confusion of the villagers who spotted her. 

All that mattered to her was the small house before her as she threw open the little gate. All she wanted was the people that waited inside. Before she could reach the door it was pushed open and a younger version of her with the same messy hair and shining eyes barged out in a tattered dress.

The sisters collided on the path, their arms coiling around each other. Grace clung to her little Melody, as the young girl sobbed against her. She cried more freely now, her tears wetting Melody’s hair. Some villagers wandered closer, drawn by the commotion as Grace’s parents stepped out and engulfed their daughters in an embrace.

As she stood there, surrounded by those she had left, Grace felt it. That warmth that had been absent while she was in the castle, the familiar and welcome tingling in her chest. She was home, and more than that, she was where she belonged. She didn’t need a prince to make her life complete. She needed the people before her. Her family.

Sometimes your very own Fairytale is with the ones that have been with you all along.

 

Image found HERE