Fractured Fairy Tales

Omina Mutantur, Nos Et Mutamur In Illis

She sat on the cold, hard tile floors of the science lab with her legs pulled up to her chest. She stared blankly at the door as the tears started to fall. Nate stood right outside the door, talking and laughing with his friends. About her? About something completely unrelated? That was always the worst part.

Despite everything he did, she never knew what he was talking about afterward. Sometimes he continued to ridicule her, which she could handle better. Sometimes he would act like he had done nothing at all, acting like he had no idea what Angela was talking about when she built up the nerve to confront him.

Angela stayed in the lab for the remainder of her study period. She didn’t want to leave when the bell had rung, she wasn’t done feeling sorry for herself, but she had to. She barely heard anything the teacher said in her last period, she felt completely numb as the lesson flew into one ear and right back out the other. She could barely bring herself to get out of her seat when the bell rang, everything had felt heavy to her since the incident in the lab. She felt like one of her mother’s fragile glass figurines, like she would break in half if she picked up anything heavier than a piece of paper.

“Angela, is something wrong?” The teacher held the door open for her, a concerned look on her face.

“I’m fine Mrs. Thompson…just tired.” She shuffled out of the classroom without making eye contact with her teacher.

She sat on the curb, trying to compose herself before driving home. No one stopped to ask if she was ok, they just kept walking around her. This was normal for everyone because she got like this quite a bit.

Finally she got up and shuffled to her car. She fumbled with the keys, but finally fished them out of her backpack. When she looked up, there was Nate. He looked at her the same way someone looks at something they’ve decided to simply throw after breaking it beyond all recognition. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sounds would come out.

“What?” He looked at her expectantly, a cocky sneer on his face.

She quickly closed her mouth and looked down.

“Whatever. Freak.” He got in his car and slammed the door.

She got in her car, turned on the radio, and pulled out of the parking lot. She didn’t listen to the music on her way home, it was just white noise. She needed something to keep it from being quiet so she wouldn’t have to think until she got home.

Angela pulled into the driveway and ran into her house. She threw her backpack into her room, and hurried to the bathroom where she locked the door and slid down till she was sitting on the floor.

“Why am I such a coward? He does all that shit, and I can’t even call him out for it. I’m never gonna be happy again at this rate.” Angela started crying again and slid down even farther so that she was lying on the cold bathroom tile.

Angela closed her eyes and let the thoughts come. They swirled around in her brain and reminded her of everything Nate had done since they met. Her constant tormentor. She could feel all the memories start to eat away at her, begin to consume her all together. Finally, a pained moan made her jerk back up and open her eyes.

“What the hell?”

She looked around to see the land of Oz. A decayed, muted, crumbling, warped land of Oz. She got up shakily and was promptly greeted with a strong breeze. Her jeans and t-shirt had been replaced with a pair of shorts, stockings, high heels, and a striped blouse with a skull on it.

“Please, help us…”

“Who said that?” She whipped around quickly, only to be face-to-face with a very sad, sickly pale young woman.

She leaned against a long pink staff with a large diamond on top. Her frizzy blonde hair blew in the breeze. A silver crown sat on top of her head and she wore a lilac and pink dress that looked like something from the 50s as far as style was concerned. The skirt was covered in glittery gauze and was poofed out enough to rival any Disney princess. Her gray eyes had a half crazed look in them and her face was begging for some sort of relief.

“Who are you? Wh-where am I?!”

“I’m the Good Witch of the North. Or what’s left of her,” She let out a heavy sigh, as if talking were a struggle for this strung out woman, “And you’re in Oz. Or there about…”

Angela blinked a few times and stared at the woman. This is what she had imagined the Good Witch of the North looked like when she read The Wizard of Oz as a little girl.

“Why am I here?”

“To restore your happiness. This entire world is filled with the places you’ve come to love, and everyone here has gone crazy. I’m the only sane one left, but I’m slipping.”

“I have to do what?”

“Restore your happiness, restore your innocence. Kill the warped ones, that will fix everything. You have everything you need.”

“I don’t have any-” Angela looked in her hand to see she was holding a large knife.

“You have to purify Oz first, and then move onto the next area. Do this until you’ve made it to the Christmas Ghosts.”

Angela nodded and tried to remember everything she had read from the time she was ten until she was thirteen. She didn’t notice the Good Witch lurch forward until she was right in her face.

She screamed, dropped the knife and jumped backward as the Good Witch fell to the ground. A rapturous look was on her face, she finally had the relief she had been looking for. Angela gulped and pulled the knife out of her stomach. The Good Witch’s body turned into a glowing white orb and darted into Angela’s body.

“The fu-wait…I feel a little bit better.” She took a deep breath and looked toward a large black castle in the distance.

“I have everything I need, I might as well use it.”