Fable

Once upon a time there was a young farmer's daughter named Mable. Mable was a kind girl, the sort of plain faced sweet heart who everyone adored - on a strictly platonic level. A younger sister to all was Mable, every man's untouchable cherub. Mable and her family lived in a small dusty village down the lane from the Royal castle. Although Mable had never entered the castle herself she often dreamed of it, lustfully gazing upon the mighty iron gates as she made her way past towards the taxation office. The peasants of the land, including Mable's own family, were told to give weekly offerings to the royal family through which ever means they could. Often Mable and her siblings went hungry in order to ensure an offering was presented. Her eyes would bore into the walls surrounding the castle and she'd urge her stare to melt the mortar and allow her to pass through. She had so many wants within those oppressive barriers. To dance like a heart attack to the bizarre tune of the mellifluous mandora. To feast greedily on the rich spread provided by the lesser man, the great unwashed, the lowly and the meek. To laugh at those beneath her and be utterly content with her own pompous superiority. 
   Alas, Mable walked on. Trudging through the manure and the waste - where she belonged. She could make out the patient form of Gial from this distance, leaning heavily against the wall as if it was all that was keeping him standing. Gial the tax man was a vibrant fellow. In the face of the loathing and jealousy that faced him on a daily basis he was surprisingly spree. His face always lit up when he saw Mable, the meager farmer's daughter.
'May!' he'd exclaim as she walked towards the window through which the donations would be made. He'd chat to her enthusiastically and she'd smile softly back, her heart aching as he took everything she worked for. On the particular day this tale begins Gial slipped a considerable amount of grain back into Mable's worn sack.
'You've brought a little too much my May.' he cooed, offering her a sly wink. Mable's face broke into a huge grin of relief and she held onto Gail's look, the contact of their eyes lasting moments too long the air began to escape from Mable's lungs and her breast started to heave.A man came up behind Mable, starling her and she averted her eyes, thanked Gail and walked away. She turned back just in time to steal one last vision of his forlorn face, half hidden by long streams of golden hair, before it was blocked to her by the other man's sheep clad back. She sighed to herself, adjusting the pitiful surplus of grain from one raw hand to the other, and continued back to her farm. 
   As she was walking she noticed vultures over head. Her eyes followed them awfully, noting their majestic form, their murderous circular dance. They had the appearance of being entirely still and infinitely in motion simultaneously - it frightened her. She could see her farm sign looming larger on the horizon and she continued to watch the birds as they glided overhead, dipping and rising like crashing waves on a mournful shore. Suddenly she was taken aback by their sharp menacing dive towards the ground in front of her. They shot like a lightning bolt to something, someone, on the ground. She cried out in anguished protest and sprinted forward. She threw the grain to the side of her as she ran, hoping to entice the birds elsewhere. As she felt the bag empty her heart was filled with regret but still she charged forwards.
'HEY!' she screamed, voice hoarse with strain. 'Stop!' her throat burned with every inhale and her vision started to fog, beads of sweat racing rapidly between her eyes. Yet still she ran and as she reached the grounded mass the birds dispersed, taking off soundlessly to rejoin the sky. Angels of death returning home. She slowed to a stop and stood above the thing on the ground. She looked at it in utter confusion. It appeared as if it was mildly human, she could make out limbs and extremities but it looked as of someone had elongated them all. It also appeared to be dead. Phosphorescent skin like substance was stretched over docile turquoise veins, decaying muscle clearly visible under every inch of putrid membrane. She couldn't see it's face as the back of it's skull was facing in her direction. There appeared to be a swollen segment of stagnant brain visible through a crack in the yellowing skull cap. Then, against all clarity, against all science - it moved. It turned its face towards her in a jerking clockwork motion. The bones cracking in it's neck as it forced it's face around, neck twisting too far to be human. Eye-less sockets aimed at her, their emptiness magnified by the scraped away brow area above them. A half corroded nasal passage was visible due to the non-existence of a nose on this monstrous face. The muscles pulled back and the face split into a huge harrowing grin, ripping apart the skin on either side of the mouth so sinew and vein just hung loose with no where to go like forgotten rags on a washing line.
'Thank you' it rasped. It's hard-as-nails voice curdling Mable's blood. 'Why must the buzzards feast on me?' it sang, rising to it's abnormally long feet. Each movement looked out of focus and each limb was so bizarre in size Mable could hardly focus. 'Why can't I feast on them?' It began to move forward. Mable, who until now had been frozen to the spot - foot half poised for action, backed away. The creature moved fluidly, sending each of it's long limbs forward like strokes of a paintbrush, foot dragging swiftly behind. 'Now I must rewards you my savior, oh sweet savior.' A blacken tongue extended from its tattered mouth and licked it's perished lips. 'Sweet, sweet human.' it reached towards her and lightly scratched at the skin of her face with fingers like whips. 'What would you wish? You may only receive but one.' Mable held her ground firmly, staring through the monster's eye sockets. She had two choices, she could run; run as fast as she could behind her screaming and crying and trying not to think of this creature. She would tell her father and he would come with his rifle and no doubt the decrepit eye sore would still be bound to this spot by it's gaping wounds. Or... She thought of Gial. His perfect features, his soft peach skin, not withered by manual labour. Not touched by blazing suns or biting winds. She looked down at her own stubby hands, rough callus fingers and cracked dry skin. They were worlds apart. 
'I want to... I wish to be the most desired woman in the land. Please.' the creature's smile flew wider, it's blackened teeth gleaming like a knife. 
'Your wish, sweet saviour, is my command.' it lunged towards her, mouth wide, Mable turned to escape, her heart leaping through her chest, but she fell to the ground. The creature perched atop of her, both of its metre long feet resting on her shoulder - but she felt no weight. She gazed up at the skeletal abomination as it clambered over her, wrapping it's spidery body around her silently screaming face. It squeezed her like a boa breaking its prey. She lost her breath for a moment, and then it was over. 
    'Enjoy. My sweet.' it breathed the words at her, a putrid hot stench hitting her entire body. A black rip in the atmosphere appeared to the right of it, producing a scream-like noise of such intensity Mable fell to her knees. The thing stalked over to the black mass as it whirred and wailed and stepped through it, offering Mable a salute-like wave with its spindle fingers. With that the vortexual apparition disappeared, and the demon with it. Dumbfounded Mable sat, her fingers dug deep into the moist soil. She rose to her feet and sprinted towards the nearest clear reflective body of water to examine her new face. But all she saw was the same plain features staring back at her with a look of frozen disappointment touching them. She felt anger bubble up inside her as she thought of the zombie jester who'd just departed. Dejectedly she stood, thinking about whether or not there would be any grain left on the dusty floor worth retrieving. She decided against it and with a sorrowful glance at the space she'd found the beast she turned to return to her farm.
 
Mable walked away from the river, her feet dragging behind her. She felt overwhelmingly melancholy but with each dragging step the rage sitting stagnant at the pit of her stomach began to rise. For one marvelous moment she had imagined she'd been in reach of everything she coveted in this life. She'd watched it glow in front of her; a burning orb of opportunity, and she'd danced for it like a carefree moth. But the light was distinguished and the dream was no more and as she walked she became increasingly certain of who's fault that was. That being. That monstrous being. It tantalized her with the promise of greatness, it bore in her the notion of possibility - and now the need can not be smothered. She would have to live with this desire for the rest of her life, never able to rid her mind of such a perfect vision. She could feel herself sinking back into the certainty of her mundane existence. She felt the plain of her features mocking her as they sat atop her face. 
    She sighed listlessly as she passed the sign for 'Home bridge farm'. Home was in the title but never in the ambiance  It was the only place she knew but she felt it did not know her. She did not belong in a place so tame, a place so placid. Somewhere where the only interesting things that happened came out of an animal. Her heart was full of adventure and longing for better things. She could see beyond this place and it's dreary continuity. She could dream. It often occurred to her that maybe she was the only person who could, everyone else seemed so happy to be stagnant, to be stuck in mediocrity. And that is why she thought the demon had appeared to her, it could sense in her what no one else possessed. A spirit? A soul? Evil? There had to be something, and she had to carry on believing that before the inadequacy got her and everything she was disappeared. 
   She decided she would take a nap as the day so far had exhausted her petite body. She could not see nor hear anyone in her home and with the existence of six siblings and two parents she found that to be somewhat of a miracle so decided to utilize the perfect moment - and sleep. She had barely lain her head on the lumpy pillow of her shared single bed when sleep gripped her. She dreamt she was falling into a black abyss. It engulfed her like water and she felt as if she really were drowning in darkness. Monstrous faces loomed in and out of sight as she fell, all the while screaming and screaming for light. She could feel a fire cracking beneath her. The heat from the roaring flame grew stronger, caressing her at first and then consuming her, until eventually Mable forgot about the eternal dark and screamed for the pain instead. She fell into the fire and was surprised to discover that at the base of the flame the heat didn't hurt her, but rather caressed her with a sweet and moreish sensation that left her entirely satisfied with every lick of the fiendish flames. 
   The door slammed in reality and she left the light embrace of the fire and awoke in her same old bed once more. She sat up and rubbed her sleep-touched eyes. Getting out of bed she noticed she was drenched in a cold sweat so she decided to change. She had three dresses for the summer months and as two were dirty she had no choice but to choose the smallest one of the three. She heard her father's heavy boots walking up the stairs and quickly shoved on the dress. It sat too high on her thigh for comfort but being as it was her only option she let it slide. 
'Father?' she called. She heard his steps stop and a shuffle symbolizing a change in direction outside her door.
'May?' he inquired. He pushed open her door gently and poked his head through. But once he saw her his warm expression changed, it became one of adoration and longing. His mouth hung open like a slobbering dog after a bone. His eyes lingered on the segment of thigh she couldn't quite cover with her floral number. She coughed uncomfortably and his eyes rose to hers. 
'Where's mother?' she asked shyly. 
'She's not here.' Her father growled back. 
'Well i'm going out.' Her father's face contorted with rage at her statement. 
'Where?' he hissed, moving towards her. 
'Just out.' Mable replied in a small voice. She backed towards the wall and away from her towering father. 
'To see boys no doubt? My daughter will be no hussy.' He raised his hand and slapped Mable hard across the face, splitting her quivering lip. She burst into uncontrollable sobs as she sat on the dirty floor amongst the carcasses of moths, spiders and dust bunnies. She couldn't catch her breath as she howled and stared at her father in disbelief, his expression was one of resolution and commitment to rage. She clamored to her feet and ran past him, narrowly missing his attempt to grab her by ripping the sleeve off her already tatty dress. She ran out the house and into the sunlight and lost her breath again at what she saw. 
   The entirety of the world was different. Light sat differently on objects and produced no shadow. The hues of color between entities conflated together seamlessly turning the world into a runny oil painting. The trees all in efflorescence, the flowers too, everything glowing with an eerie, almost unbearable beauty. The animals and trees passing all seemed to lilt to the song of their surroundings, humming uniquely with every opulent slip of the ear. She stopped running and her tears slowed. As they fell to the floor they glimmered with an opaque perfection. The world was a panacea that stole all her worries and qualms from her angsty mind and released her into a dazzling carefree haven. She looked down and despite being the same, looking the same, she could feel her own beauty, pulsating off her like she was radioactive with it. She was pulchritudinous. She was marvelous. She was the physical embodiment of perfection. 
   As much as she longed to hold onto the feeling of invincibility coursing through her at that moment, she had to remind herself of what had just happened with her father. She decided as she could not return home, she would go see Gial. She tried to pay as little attention to her surroundings as she walked as even the sheen to a blade of grass bought a tear of utter bliss to her eye. 
She reached Gial's hut and saw him rushing around his office in an obvious frenzy. 
'Hi Gial.' she breathed. He looked more breathtaking than any of the things in this new world, as he was the center of it for her. Butterflies pounded against the lining of her stomach. She was so excited for him to see her, this her, this beauty. 
'Oh hi May.' he said in an offhand manor. He continued to look through papers and files and paid Mable no attention. Disgruntled she sat down in the corner of his hut on her usual pine chair and breathed a sigh. 'I'll be with you in a moment May, I just need to find this paper. How's your day been?' Mable stared at her lap and told him the story of her father's aggression towards her back at the house.
'...And now i'm not sure if I can even go home.' she sniffed, tears forming in her eyes. She began to sob and she heard Gial run over. She felt a hand on her naked thigh and she looked up, locking her eyes onto his. She felt his gentle hand tightening painfully. 
He was looking at her with an expression she has never seen on any human being, let alone Gial. One of his eyes was twitching uncontrollably straining closed as if trying to see her better. The other was bulging. They seemed to be screaming her name behind their blazing fury but it was lost in translation, stolen by something else, something stronger. Mable's tears subsided and her father slipped from her mind. 
'What...'
But before she could inquire further Gial was clamoring at her face and whining like a wounded animal, snuffling up and down her cheeks. He lay his kisses wherever they could reach on Mable's stunned face - frozen with disgust. This is all she'd ever wanted, her entire reason for bargaining with a demon. Here, with Gial. But it was all wrong. He wasn't kissing her like he loved her, like he longed for her. He was kissing her like he had to, it was forced and angry and possessive and she didn't like it. 
'Stop.' she said dejectedly. But he didn't. His kiss grew frenzied, his touch monstrous. He carried on as if her screams meant nothing, as if she was nothing - nothing but an object he longed to posses  to dominate. She separated the two of them in her mind, this Gial - grunting above her and the Gial she'd loved for years. They were not the same, just as she was not the same in this new world. She closed her eyes as she couldn't stand the enchantment of her new found perfect world surrounding this ugly, atrocious occasion. It just didn't feel right, to feel so repulsive in the presence of such pinnacle excellence. 
    And within ten minutes Mable was lying in a ball on the floor, silent tears pouring from her vacant eyes and Gial was fastening his trousers. She felt dirty and broken, she could no longer remember what life had been like before all this. Before the pain and the blood and the lust. Before the demon. They felt like someone else's memories. No warped colors, no glitter, no ripped undergarments and shattered psyches. Gial sat across from her and just stared. His eyes were fixed on her bruised lips, flinching every time they opened. There was a look of lazy ecstasy breathing through his features. 
'I need to leave now.' Mable spoke. Her voice a monotone, devoid of all feeling. She walked out into the evening, the colors more beautiful than they had been all day. Shades of blood red mating with blues in the sky, two perfect swirls like bodies entwined in copulation - producing daughters and sons of equal fascination to dance with them around the setting sun. 
   Mable knew she couldn't live like this anymore, she had to end it - somehow. She walked methodically to the lake, too numb to feel anything. She was barefoot and pants-less. Her dirty hair sticking to her damp face, strands of it coagulating with the moisture. She reached the end of the lake and kept on walking. She believed that if she kept swimming, longer than her abused body could bear, she'd fall silently to the bottom of the mossy water and disappear - consumed by the softly rippling body of water until her last air bubble defeated - burst. 
    She dipped a delicate toe into the cool aqua and felt automatic relief. It'd all be over soon. She engulfed herself in her wet salvation, feeling the burning pain and cool relief of the lake touching her damaged skin. She emerged her head beneath the break of the water. Her hair flew around her like a whirlwind. Entirely consumed by the water's embrace she felt safer than she had in her entire life. The were no sounds. All she could feel was the ambiguous amount of space beneath her and the faster advancing distance to the sky above. 
   Then she felt something else, something grab her limboed wrist. Felt it dragging her hastily upwards. She opened her eyes. She was ripped from the lake, sound and color impacting with her simultaneously as she burst through the skin of the water. Soon she could smell a familiar and repulsive burning. She was being ground against a chest of scale like texture. Her face buried in the nape of the monster's neck she could feel its collar bone roughly gyrating against her bruised chin. She could smell freshly cut grass again, it collided with her senses and became her, as all pleasant things had done that day. She was on dry land once more. 
'Let me go' she screamed, thrashing and clawing against her condemned savior. 
'Feisty one aren't you?' it giggled, the sound a thousand rusty bells chiming. Her face collided with the dewy grass as she was abruptly dropped from the midpoint of the creature's twelve foot height. She looked up and followed its body as it twisted and turned, walking circles around her like a ribbon in the wind. It's body snaking to a ninety degree angle and back up.
'What did you do that for?' she inquired  malice in her voice. It circled closer to her, its crusty scabbed face almost stroking hers. 
'Getting even' it hissed. 
'But I didn't want your help.'
'No one ever does.' it spoke, it's face turned towards the heavens. 'You humans are all the same, you cry for me, you require me, in your pathetic monotonous lives, you yearn for me. Then, when I finally arrive, you rue me, you vanquish me, you despise me. But no one does so more than me. Oh no sweet, cursed savior  No one wishes me destroyed more than myself. Do you think I enjoy being? Stalking the underworld alone, forever cringed from. People look away from me, they dub me a monster and they are right. The only beings that ever desire me are the buzzards and even then it's fleeting.' the creature extends a bony wrist which snaps, it's shriveled hand dangling by a minuscule segment of sinew. 'But you dear Mable.' its voice fiery and hateful, a chorus of voices, all feeling the same degree of loathing 'You waste this gift I've bestowed upon you. You treat it like a curse.' It's hand sucked back up to its wrist and curled round to point a long dry finger at Mable. 'But you're the curse, you and your human limitations' She sat stunned for a moment on the floor, barely aware of the methodical drip of her sopping clothing and her uncovered genitals. 
'I don't want this anymore, I want you to take it away. I don't want to be wanted.' The beast surveyed her with it's vacant eyes, it's grotesque skin billowing with the summer's evening kiss. 
'Okay.' it said. And it rushed towards her like a blizzards breeze, unfathomable mania on its twisted features. It gathered her up like a wounded puppy and placed her atop it's head. Long disheveled arms wrapped around her entire body squeezing her until she screamed, her ribs cracking beneath their grasp. Then, with a final cackle from the Demon's thousands of voices, it was over.
    Mable fell to the ground, the unique metallic taste of menstruation consuming her taste buds. She choked violently, squeezing her eyes shut. 
'What is that?' she screamed. But it wasn't her usual melodic vocal retort that her panting mouth produced, but a baritone rasp with the edge of multiple voices. She pried open her eyes and saw the world as if she were under a sunless sky. Everything surrounding her was the negative of what it had been before the beast had caressed her. Colors were inverted and solid forms danced like mirages in heat. The beauty had left everything, there was not an evanescent glimmer of it to be found. She was surveying the scene from twelve feet off the ground and below her she saw a small girl kneeling on the ground clutching her head. She recognized the girl as herself despite the girl's purple hair and blue skin. She reached forward and a long spindle of an arm advanced from where her pink soft extremity should have been. 
    The girl on the floor stood and extended Mable a haunting smile, her teeth black and lips stretched firmly. 
'What have you done?' Mable rasped, her voice hoarse and chilling. She felt so out of balance as she tried to move the demon's long, towering body with her own exhausted mind.
'What I've always wanted to do.' The girl standing before her replied. She flicked Mable's golden hair and pointed to a place on the ground in front of her. The black vortex appeared once more only this time the screeching wail of it's spinning existence sounded like sweet music to Mable's deformed ears. The girl on the floor moved silkily towards Mable and placed a hand against her scabby tarnished knee cap and gave her a gentle push. Mable began to teeter and eventually fell backwards, her large form disappearing into the singing vortex. 
    As she was consumed by a hellish burning sensation all around her she took one last look at the demon in her body. Stunned and disoriented she couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was as if she was watching an old home movie that she didn't remember recording, as the girl who was her but wasn't moved independently from Mable's thoughts. She knew the monster was in there, just like she was in its vile body. But imagine, per say, if you looked in the mirror one day and in addition to you maybe not liking your own reflection it didn't like you back. The demon's continuous smirk was plastered on Mable's old face, it looked at her with pity and distaste and she couldn't escape it's mocking gaze. And as she continued to fall back into the gaping vortex the faux Mable watched and offered her a sly wink.
'Good luck.' it giggled grotesquely, and with that - the vortex closed.

Some would say this was a cautionary tale, about a girl condemned to the underworld. A tale that warned of 'be careful what you wish for' and the dangers of vanity. But no, this was a tale of triumph for the ancient demon, who banished the young girl, who punished her for her vanity; and who became the most beautiful woman ever to walk the mortal earth.