Fairytales and Nightmares

Perching on the bathroom window, I felt the cool breeze flowing past my bare shoulders and spraying hair strands over my face. I looked down at the picture-perfect scenery, glittering with dark blue and green, before leaping out the fourth-storey window.

I landed lithely on the ridiculously well-maintained lawn. Just as I was about to make my way back to the forest, a piece of paper drifted from above. Catching it between my fingers, I flipped it over to read the elegant handwriting.

“I won’t have it on my conscience if you get stabbed WALKING to freaking BAY HARBOR.”

I smiled. Nate must have put this under the windowsill knowing I would have tried to sneak out. That thought brought to life that warm little feeling in my stomach. A feeling I knew all too well.

I gritted my teeth as a memory of Chip flashed in my mind, slipping through the hundreds of barriers I put up to lock them away.

I’m not about to make the same mistake twice.

I glanced back at the beautiful white house, then to the pitch-black forest. The darkness is where I belong. Happy endings aren’t for creatures, things, like me.

Goodbye, Nate.

I tossed the piece of paper and a knife over my shoulder, walking away from the fairy tale house.

The piece of paper fluttered softly against the grass, a knife stuck through its heart.