Little Red Cinderella and the Three Beanstalks

Previously...

Ezu...

"Hey..." I said, my eyes growing wide. "Ezu... he went chasing after that Mary girl... in only his underclothes..." I said, my voice dropping low. Jack's jaw dropped, and an unintelligible noise squeak out of his throat.

Suddenly he grabbed my hand and was racing off down the hall, dragging me along. It was all I could to to keep my footing, and I noticed that even Jinx, who had taken off the moment I was whisked away, had trouble keeping up with Jack's long strides.

"Where... are we going?" I gasped.

"Ezu is running around town after that ornery girl half naked! Like hell am I going to miss that!" He called back, and the hallway was suddenly filled with his ringing laughter.
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We shot down the hall like bats out of hell; me trailing behind, my hand still clenched tightly in Jack's, like some demented a rag doll.

Jinx had given up trying to fly at such an insane pace and instead latched onto my head, his tiny feet clinging to my hair for dear life. We dashed down the twisting, labyrinthine hallways, passing countless, identical doors, and narrowly skirting corners as we turned into adjacent halls. My slippered feet slipped and slid on the hard wood floorboards, but Jack, true to his nature, didn't let me fall once.

Eventually, just when I was thinking we would never get out of this maze, we came to a hallway with a dead end, with a heavy oak door set into the wall ahead. At first I thought we were going to turn around and go back, but Jack kept on running forwards. To my utter dismay, he didn't slow down either.

I saw the door rushing at us, and I saw Jack lean forward as he ran, evidently picking up even more speed. I barely had time to take a breath to let out a shout, a warning, anything; but before I could make a sound the wall was upon us.

In one fluid movement, Jack spun on his heel so his back was facing the door, pushed down the door handle with his elbow, kicked the door open with his foot, and swept me into his arms bridal style.

I didn't waste anytime taking a breath this time. I simply let out the loudest, longest shriek I could muster and clung to Jack for dear life. We didn't even stop moving; once the door was open Jack spun around again, my hair whipping at my face with the force of the turn, and promptly leaped down the first three steps of the stair way that lay beyond the door.

I would have screamed again, but it was too late. Jack didn't even bother with the stairs, instead he swung one of his long legs into the air and over the wooden banister beside us.

"Hold on tight, Rikki!" He said. I gasped as I looked down and tightened my grip on Jack's neck desperately. The staircase was one of those old fashioned corkscrew ones, and it was high enough that if we fell, the impact would kill us.

Jack, however, seemed unperturbed by this little fact. He grimaced and shifted my weight slightly, making me choke as I tried to scream while practicing deep breathing exercises.

"Not quite that tight, Rikki, unless you want to strangle me." Jack coughed. I slackened my grip on his throat, just a tiny bit, and began trying to reason with the boy.

"Jack, what the HELL do you think you're doing!!!!" I shrieked. Well, maybe reason isn't the right word...

"Do you want to kill us?! Oh Jesus Mary and Joseph, don't tell me you're going to do what I think you're going to do!" I wailed.

"Oh come on now, don't you trust me?" Jack said, pouting slightly.

"No!" I snapped back.

"Oh well. Too bad." Jack shrugged, and he kicked off from the ground.

If Jack had thought I screamed loudly before, that was NOTHING compared to what I managed to belt out this time. We shot down the spinning banister like bullets from a gun, picking up speed with every second. Jack managed to keep us upright by shifting his center of balance and leaning into the curves; though this was not due to any help on my part. The good first couple of seconds were spent by myself struggling frantically and kicking my feet, though what I had hoped to achieve by this even I didn't know.

After one heart-stopping moment when Jack nearly did loose his balance due to my squirming, I thought better of my actions and instead remained very, very still. And I contemplated the new cuss word I had just learned thanks to Jack, and how I could properly use it in a sentence with the word, "Ezu".

Eventually the wild ride ended, and Jack shot off the edge of the banister. My breath caught in my throat as we soared through the air, nothing keeping me up but Jack's arms, for half a second.

Then we hit the floor. Jack wasted no time; I think he quite literally hit the ground running. I barely had time to survey my surroundings before we were upon another door, before which Jack faltered for a split second. He couldn't open it while I was still in his arms, so he dumped me unceremoniously on the ground, wasting only enough time to make sure I didn't face plant to my doom.

I glanced around and saw we were in a kitchen. More pots and pans than I had ever seen even in even the biggest department store hung from the ceiling and lay scattered on the table top, some simmering gently on an old fashioned stove. I could smell food, and suddenly realized I was very hungry. I hadn't eaten since... well, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten.

But I had no more time to worry about my empty stomach, as Jack now had the door open and was dragging me through it. I suddenly realized he had brought me into a room I recognized. It was the bar that I had run into after I first came to the town, telling the woman about Ezu right before I passed out. There was to bar to my right, the wall behind it lined with hundreds of dusty bottles. The rest of the room was filled with round, stained tables and rickety old chairs, many of which were missing a leg. A dusty window let in a little light, but despite that and the few gas lamps that burned on the walls, the room was extraordinarily dark.

Yet Jack still didn't give me a chance to get a baring to my surroundings, and we were off again, heading for the front door.

"Auntie! I'm going out!" He shouted, his voice echoing in the large room. He didn't wait for a reply, and simply threw the door open, pulling me into the sunlight.

I blinked in the sudden flood of bright light, blinded.

"What the-- where the hell are we going?" I spluttered, shielding my eyes. Jack paused from his war path to look at me incredulously, one eyebrow raised, nearly vanishing into his dark brown hair.

"What part of 'Ezu is running around town half naked after the bitchiest girl in town' don't you get? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!" He insisted. I sighed heavily, knowing I couldn't win.

"Fine..." I muttered. It wouldn't be so bad. Ezu totally deserved this after all, for not mentioning he was taken. Even though it was none of my business. And besides, a tiny part of me maybe wanted to see Ezu again, without his shirt on...

No! No way! Now where the hell had that thought come from? I shook my head, like a dog trying to dislodge a stubborn flea.

"But where is he?" I asked, trying to think about other things. Jack paused and glanced around. I did likewise, the effects of the near blinding light having worn off mostly. We stood in front of the inn. Across the dirt road was what appeared to be a butchers, and next to that was a building selling produce. I could see thick, black smoke rising from a building some ways off and could hear the sound of metal on metal, and assumed it was a black smiths. Beside that was a tanners, evident by the long, thin pieces of hide stretched out in the sun to dry.

Beyond that were rows of cottages, all haphazardly placed with no evident order or organization. I looked as if the inhabitants of the town simply found a place they liked and built a house there.

But Ezu and his girlfriend were no where to be seen.

"Trust me." Jack said, grabbing my hand again and taking off down the street at a quick trot. "We'll know when we get close."

And know we did. We hadn't made it fifty feet down the street, just coming up to the first cottage, when we heard the screaming.