The Tower of Tattle

🙞🙟🙤 Part III: The Stairwell

XX2 The princess respectfully declines.

No, this was surely wrong. This wasn’t how love worked.
This isn’t how trust works. She simply shook her head adamantly,
gazing firmly even while the worm snickered.

“To each their own, you little nitwit!
Different strokes for different folks, and one woman’s apple
can always be a little girl’s poison!”
But the princess refused to budge. How would she ever
look her mother in the eye, if she cowardly eavesdropped
on her very feelings? “I’m like my mother,” the princess said with confidence.
“And she’d never stoop so low. So neither will I!”

And she woke up slowly,
fretfully, the worm giggling all the while, as she came back to our realm.
“I have to go eat the apple,” the princess said solemnly.
“I have to show mother that I’m just like her.” She jumped out of bed, and raced all the way to the entertaining room,
where she’d so often sat in her mother’s lap. And she’d do so today! Maybe!

Oh, goodness, the princess never asked,
if becoming queenly meant she’d be too old for that! Now she was nervous,
but promises were promises, and surely even queenly girls still sometimes,
spent childish times with their mother. The queen was there, as promised,
as was that scary apple. Perhaps it was scary like responsibility, and the fear she felt right this moment,
was the fear of obligation. Maybe she’ll grow up from childhood,
just right now, once she takes a bite.

Nibble, nibble, nibble. A good three nibbles to show her mom,
just how serious she was. The apple really did taste sweet.
What was she so scared of? And she really did feel sleepy,
but in a good way, just like her mother said she would.

“Mother… when I’m regal and queenly, can I still lay here, on your lap, just like this?”
the princess asked weakly, sleep taking over. “Of course, my love. Even when you’re an old woman,
mommy will always give you her lap.” Of course, thought the princess.
Because she’s just like me, And when mother’s too old…
I’ll let her lay in my lap, too. A few sweet words,
just three beautiful ones, failed to leave the princess’s lips.
She tried to whisper them, but she was just too sleepy.
That was okay, though. She’d tell her when she woke up.

And as the princess drifted off to an endless sleep,
her final moments, if it’s any consolation to the reader,
were happy. THE END

“W-what?” I stutter out.

“What a crummy ending,” Shiori says, angrily stomping her foot. “I feel like I just lost a year of my life. Ugh! This is the part where I’m supposed to go ‘ohhhh, what a wonderful story!’ Blegh!”

“Yeah… what a dumb story,” I breathe out hard. “I really hate it when they end like that. Some stupid lame ambiguous ending! Don’t write if you can’t even come up with an ending, right?”

Shiori stops dead in her tracks, and looks back. She’s worrying about me. Her mouth’s halfway opening a little dumbly, like a fish trying to talk. But she closes it and doesn’t say anything. Just looks like she’s a bit anguished.

“I don’t get it. Seriously, I’m lost. I guess I didn’t understand it at all.” I say, not really to anyone at all. “Why bother having dumb rules if you’re just gonna break them?”

“...yes, you’re right. I don’t understand it, either. ” Shiori says.

“We wrote in that she loved her, right? It has to follow that, right? I don’t get it! Did she love her or not? The ending should make it clear!”

“It… should have. It was a bad ending. It truly was.”

“I-I’m not getting angry at you.”

“I know you aren’t. You’re okay.”

“Yeah… that’s it. I’m done now. Got it all off my chest. Just needed to vent for a sec.”

The door opens up, right then, which means we found our way to the cellar, thank goodness. That means we won’t need this stupid book anymore. In fact.

“Umm, hold Yorick for a moment…” I hand him off carefully to Shiori. Then I grab the vannaknoe that had ‘The Princess’s Tale’ and throw it hard to the ground, giving it a few good stomps with as much as my admittedly small body can manage.

Then I start kicking it.

I’m kicking as hard as I can, and I think I actually sprained my ankle now.

Shiori dives in unexpectedly to grab the vannaknoe, and rolls and scuttles a bit to the side. I stop a kick midflight, and figure out I definitely sprained my ankle. I’m just looking at her perplexed, breathing hard, but now that I’m here breathing this hard I don’t know if I’m perplexed by her or me.

“These things are gross little creatures… but they’re still creatures. The um, glue would’ve worn off,” she says, keeping her tone as neutral as possible. Like she’s walking on eggshells around me. Somehow that’s so very, very distressing. “It’s okay. You’re okay. You didn’t really know.”

“I’m sorry…”

“I know you’d never hurt anything if…” she pauses, knowing there’s no polite way to say it. “... if you were in your right mind, you know.”

“I don’t know where this is coming from,” I say, realizing my eyes are blurring just a little bit. “This is so stupid. I feel so stupid right now.”

“It’s not stupid. Here. Here, come on. Yorick’s sad and wants to comfort you, okay? Hold him.”

Yorick’s so sweet. All I can do is sit down dumbly and hold him close to me. Honestly, every emotion I’ve ever had worth admiring was probably centered around protecting this thing. Ugh. The blurriness in my eyes is getting a lot worse. And I hear a really ugly noise come out of the back of my throat. Oh, please no. I don’t think Yorick wants a snot shower right now.

But as I’m holding the little thing, I keep thinking about the princess in her mom’s lap. I can’t understand it. Why didn’t she love her?

Weren’t they supposed to be the same?

Didn’t we write it into the story?

How hard is it to hold someone? You just… ugh! It’s so easy. It’s the easiest thing in the world. Doesn’t it feel good? Shouldn’t it feel good to hold your daughter? It makes me happy to hold this little blob, right? Is it that hard to hold your kid?

It hurts. It just really hurts. It hurts so much, and I can’t stop myself from crying.

“She wasn’t some stepmom, right?!”

“No…”

“And they were supposed to be just like each other, right?!”

“Yes. They were…” Shiori pulls me into a soft hug.

“I-I don’t g-get it!” I get out between little sobs and hiccups. “What’s she want? What’s she thinking? Why would she hurt her?! The story said she loved her!”

I’m crying into Shiori’s shoulder by now, and she’s just softly rubbing my back while Yorick nuzzles against my neck. It feels nice, the way she gently pulls my hair to the side so I stop crying into it. I can feel myself calming down a bit, hear my shuddering breaths stop shaking like crazy. For a while she doesn’t say anything. It’s just me, letting out those tiny, shuddering squeaks. Until slowly, slowly, it quiets down…

“Sometimes people are just…” Shiori sighs. “...they’re like Yon-shi. You remember Yon-shi?”

“...mmhm. Yeah.” Muffle muffle.

“You can’t even trust his secrets. Not even their bare soul. The queen was just one of those people, you know?”

“The princess…hic. Didn’t do anything, though.” Muffle muffle.

“Of course not. She never did anything. She was an angel. Always was.”

“Then… why?”

“Because… the queen was just a bad person. That’s all. That’s the simple, sad truth.” Shiori hugs me a little tighter. And that last truth gets me crying again. For a little long while. Even though there’s nothing left to say.

ENDING 8 REACHED: The Princess and the Apple.

You’ve reached the Cellar.

GO TO: The Cellar Entrance ZZZ