Fractured Fairy Tales

Tempus Fugit, Mors Venit

After exiting the castle Angela returned to the yellow brick road, simply walking this time. She was unsure of where to go from here, but could only assume that all of the warped characters of this barren Oz were located somewhere along the golden colored path.

Deeper and deeper into the forest she went, her heels clicking against the bricks on the deserted road. The sky grew darker with each step into the forest of dead trees until it was as dark as night with only a sliver of moon to guide her way. She clutched the knife at her side the entire time, looking around suspiciously as the strong wind whipped her hair about.

During her trek through the woods Angela continued to be attacked by roving bands of zombie-like Winkies, making the forest seem even more menacing and creepy than it had when she entered it. However, the father she went the smaller the groups of sickly, yellow Winkies became and the less frequent the attacks grew. Something was keeping them away. She intended to find out what it was and confront it, a nagging feeling in the back of her mind kept telling Angela that whatever the Winkies were scared of held part of her happiness. She gripped the knife tighter and sped her pace up, but not quite to a run so she didn’t bump into anything in the blackness that surrounded her.

When she was nearly at the center of the forest of the Winkie Country all of the trees started to disappear, black stumps replacing the dead trees. Dried blood was randomly splattered this portion of the yellow brick road and decorated the tree stumps. Decaying, hacked off pieces of the country’s residents littered the ground. The closer to the center of the forest she got, the fewer body parts there were and the more stumps there were. Then, eventually, there was the sound of a dull thwack and splintering wood. Angela had reached the domain of what had been keeping the Winkies at bay: the Tin Woodman.

Angela unsheathed her knife and slowly walked toward the Tin Woodman. His back was facing her as he continued to lop away at the three. There was a faint creaking coming from the ball joints in his elbows and shoulders.

Almost upon him, she took a deep breath and one last, tentative step toward him. Suddenly the large silver man jerked around to where he was staring down at Angela. The Tin Woodman stood at nearly seven feet tall with a furnace in his chest powering him that was only visible because of a thick glass door, the fire reflected in his eyes as steam came out of the cone hat on top of his head. He had exceptionally long arms and clutched his axe tightly in his right hand. There was dried blood on the blade of the axe and a bit on his arms and torso mingling with the sprinklings of rust that littered his entire body.

With a jerky motion the Tin Woodman swung his axe at Angela, which she only avoided because of his slow, rough movements. He made no sound, however more smoke quickly shot out of the cone on his head and his eyes glowed brighter before returning to normal. This pattern of jerky attack by the Tin Woodman and dodge by Angela continued on for several minutes until the axe got stuck in the ground. He struggled to pull the axe from the dirt, creaking and squeaking with each movement. Angela seized her opportunity to attack and ran up to the side of the metal lumberjack before plunging her knife into the hollow tin of his arm. However, she was soon confronted by the same problem as the woodsman and was unable to pull it out of him. Once again, the fire within the furnace burned bright in rage as she finally yanked his axe from the ground. He pulled the knife from his arm and used it to make a swipe at Angela. She let out a terrified shriek and ran back toward the trees, stopping dead in her tracks when the knife whizzed past her ear and lodged itself into a tree. Shaking, she looked over her shoulder to see the Tin Woodman laboriously walking toward her. Panic stricken, she tried to pull the knife from the tree, yanking it from the wood just as he stopped behind her. She heard a squeak from her attacker and ducked just in time to see the axe get lodged into the tree right where her head had been moments before. Trapped between the metallic lumberjack and the tree she made one last ditch effort to defeat him, prying the glass door of the furnace open just as he pulled the axe from the tree.

Angela screamed again as the fire within the furnace flared and raged one last time before being put out by the strong wind. The Tin Woodman stood frozen in place, axe in hand, ready to swing. After what seemed like an eternity of stating at her former opponent the tin body disappeared and a glowing orb flew into her body as the axe fell to the ground next to Angela.

She took a moment to compose herself before getting up and dusting herself off. Looking down at the axe, she picked up the weapon before taking the few steps necessary to get back on the yellow brick road.