A Fairy Tale - Part 2

Days, weeks, months passed and still the girl woke up every morning and climbed out of bed and went about her business and despaired.

She sat in class and struggled to see the teacher’s notes through the darkness that clouded her vision; she ate lunch with her friends and worked to hear their words over the hateful whispers pouring constantly into her hears; she listened to great men and women speak in the chapel and tried to find joy to counter the tremendous weight of sorrow that was upon her shoulders.

And meanwhile, whenever she was alone she fell in bed and closed her eyes and had no recourse but to exhaustedly listen to the voices or else take the scissors and fight the only way she knew how – by hurting herself.

Every day that went by where all she saw was terror and darkness and despair was another small victory for the evil genius who hovered on the edge of her existence. Every tear she shed brought a malignant smile to his face, and every mark she drew on her arms was greeted by a tremendous cackle from that beast.

She looked around her and all she saw was darkness. She looked to the heavens but her view of the sun was clouded by the leering faces of the ghosts of her past. Somewhere in the depths of her heart she knew that her past was not all darkness; she had memories of laughter and sunshine and friendship and tears that were shed for joy. She knew that if she could just get a glimpse, just a fleeting, blurry, stop-motion glimpse of a smile or a sunny day or a friend’s face she would have the strength to carry on another day.

And a fleeting, blurry, stop-motion glimpse of a friend’s face came, and she carried on another day. But when she woke up the next morning the darkness was more intense than before and the whispering had turned into full-fledged screaming into her ears.

“I hate you. I hate you!” she screamed into her empty bedroom, and she didn’t know if she meant it more to the shadows torturing her or to herself.

At the edge of her consciousness each second was a picture of blood. Just an inch away from her grasp in every moment was the knife that had somehow become her best friend. And merely a fraction away from that was the thought of death, and as the days wore on that thought became more and more powerful and she became more and more convinced that not only would it be best for her to die, it would be best for anyone who’d ever come into contact with her if she were to simply erase herself from the earth.

And then it happened.

It was a cold, snowy night sometime in the winter. She found herself walking down the road, alone except for her constant companions, Doubt and Sorrow and Regret and Hatred and the shadows and the ghosts of her past. And they were all whispering in her ear about one thing.

“The tallest bridge in America is up ahead,” whispered one.

“Just think how great it would be to jump,” said another.

“A split second of blissful freedom,”

“And then instant death,”

“The best-case scenario for all parties involved!” finished the last one triumphantly.

She had just decided that they were right (and how stupid had she been for taking so long to understand) when she heard a different voice at her side.

This voice caressed her ears where the others grated; it filled her soul with warmth where the others made her wonder how it was possible to be so icy; the mere sound of it shot joy into her heart where the others sent only despair. And the words it chose? Simple and kind.

“Lies,” it said. “They are all lies.”

She stopped walking and turned all about, trying to see the speaker of the voice while the shadows scurried madly about her and tried to block her view.

“Don’t listen to the lies, beloved,” whispered the voice, and through a chink in the armor of her tormentors she saw the speaker.

She’d never seen a more beautiful man. The most beautiful part about him was the kindness in her eyes. She looked into them and something shifted in her heart, and she felt love for the first time.

“Who are you?”

“I am the Prince who has come to rescue his damsel in distress.”

“Take them away,” she begged.

He smiled. “Don’t believe the lies anymore,” he said before the cloud made him disappear again.

She turned and walked back the way she had come, ignoring the frantic hisses urging her to go towards the bridge.

“Not tonight.”

In the next few days, whenever the shadows spoke terror into her heart, she closed her eyes and remembered the stranger’s kind eyes and his words: “I am the Prince who has come to rescue his damsel in distress.”

Outside her room, the evil genius trembled with a mixture of fury and terror. He had been so close, had worked so hard to keep the Prince away, and now, in the moment of triumph, he had arrived to destroy everything!

The girl carried on each day, surrounded by her cloud of blackness, but things were better now: she could catch glimpses of sunlight in the darkest of hours, or hear snippets of joyful music when the hateful voices were at their loudest. She lived each day in the hopes of seeing the beautiful Prince again, of hearing his melodious voice and feeling that strange warmth in her heart again.

“Where is he?” she murmured to herself.

“I’m right next to you,” she heard the mellifluous voice speak next to her.

She sensed the shadows stir as they sought to drown him out, but the Prince said “Enough!” and they parted ways. And there he was, standing straight in front of her, and the path was clear. She could escape this cloud of blackness!

She took a step and felt the darkness move with her. The Prince smiled and reached out his hand. With trembling fingers, she reached out too and he took hold of her fingers.

“Will you take me away from them?” she begged, staring deep into his kind eyes.

He smiled sadly. “The shadows will always find you again unless you defeat them once and for all.”

She felt her heart drop and despair bite at her heart. “You’re not going to rescue me?”

“I will walk by your side and I will fight your ghosts for you. But you have to believe the truths I tell you or the lies will never go away.”

“I have been believing the truth this whole time.”

His eyes were dark when he looked at her. “What you have been believing are lies, beloved. What I say to you is the truth: you are worthy; you are loved; you are precious and beautiful in my sight and you have much to offer the world. If you defeat these liars with me you will be able to see sunlight again and walk freely again and you will reach out your hand and touch people and make their lives better. If you hold my hand and walk with me through the darkness you will emerge on the other side and you will give a precious gift to the world.”

She looked into his eyes and knew that he spoke the truth. “You will stay by my side?”

“I will never leave you and I will never abandon you. You will travel through the darkness, but I will be there to fight the terrors away. You will never be alone.”

“Why did you take so long to come to me?”

“I’ve been here this whole time. You just couldn’t see me because the shadows were too strong. But my light is stronger than the shadows and I will destroy them for you if you will only trust that I am with you, even if you can’t see me.”

She stared deeply into his eyes for a long moment, and then she knew.

“I will trust in you even when I can’t see you. I will know that you are by my side even when I can’t feel you. I will believe the truths you tell me even when I can’t hear them over the lies. You are my Prince, come to rescue this damsel in distress.”

“How’s that for a story?” I opened my eyes and looked over at Ella.

She nodded her head slowly.

“What happened to the evil genius?”

“He suffered a great loss that day. But he didn’t let it get him down.”

“Oh?”

“He’s still out there, searching for poor damsels to ruin.”

“The Prince doesn’t defeat him?”

“Someday, the Prince will destroy him completely. But today is not someday, Ella. Today the poor damsels have a chance to fight back before he ruins their lives completely.”