UnEnchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 1)

“Hello? Who’s there?” She took a few hesitant steps in the direction she’d heard the noise. “You can come out; I’m looking for a book. Maybe you can help me?”

A glow began in the back of the store and the sounds of children laughing intensified. Mina gulped, but followed the light as it grew brighter and seemed to pulse with its own rhythm against a back wall. When she finally reached the wall, the light disappeared and she was encased in darkness. Letting her eyes adjust, Mina turned and was confronted with a pair of red angry eyes. Jumping back, she stumbled and knocked into something furry that shifted from her weight. Mina screamed.

When nothing reached or lunged for her, she reached out her hands to touch the angry glass eyes she had seen earlier. They were part of a life-size giant bull, but it was either fake or dead. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Behind her stood another life-sized animal, this one a very large stag, frozen on his hind legs.

The stag and bull were lifelike and magical in their realism, neither touching the ceiling nor the floor. They’d been set about six feet apart in front of an intricately painted forest mural. The stag was on his hind legs, head angled as if challenging the bull. Mina touched the soft fur of the stag and felt heat emanating from the life-sized pieces. The stag swayed and slid a few inches to the right. Pressing her head to the wall, she could see that the animals were attached to sliders on the wall. Perhaps it was some sort of puzzle.

Taking a few steps back she looked at the two animals and decided that they were on the verge of being joined in battle. The bull looked angry, but the stag bore another expression entirely; it fearful and determined at the same time. This must have been a very talented taxidermist. She first went over to the heavy black bull and pushed as hard as she could, half expecting it to come alive at any second. Grunting and biting her lip Mina struggled with the bull piece until she had moved it to the center of the wall.

When she knew she had pushed it as much as she could, Mina tackled moving the large stag piece. Unbelievably it slid with ease toward the bull, almost eagerly. But at the current rate, as she pushed the stag, she realized it would be positioned dangerously in front of the bull’s horns. The thought made her uncomfortable, so when the stag had nearly reached the bull in battle in the exact center of the mural, she pushed up, so the rearing stag would have the advantage. She turned and heard an audible click over her shoulder, followed by ominous creaking.

Mina only had a moment to react as the giant bull, unhinged from the wall and fell forward toward her, horns aiming for her heart. Leaping to the left, she dodged the heavy piece as it collided with the stone floor under the stag, breaking in half. When the dust settled, a door appeared where the bull was moments before. “How can that be?” Mina thought. There was nothing there but the mural moments ago.

Dusting off her hands, she looked toward the stag and blinked in surprise. It was gone, but there was no door what the stag had once been. She supposed she had no choice but to try the door that appeared behind the defeated bull. She opened it slowly, looking behind her shoulder for Nan, reminding herself that it was better if she weren’t involved. The door led to a dead-end circular room, built of large stone blocks. She looked around the walls for clues but found nothing but solid stone. Wait!

Below her, there was something carved into the floor. Crawling on her hands and knees, Mina did the best she could to wipe away what looked to be hundreds of years of accumulated dust. Whoever cleaned the shop upstairs hadn’t bothered with this place. Her fingers could feel the distinct outline of something. Getting excited, she blew on the engraving, scattering dust particles everywhere. They were all over her clothes and hair, making her sneeze, but it didn’t deter her.

“So that’s where you went!” Mina spoke quietly as her fingers traced the outline of a fighting stag, glorious antlers in full array. It looked as if it were a seal or cover for something. Mina stood up and looked around the room for something to break the seal. Finding nothing, she turned and stepped on the stone circle in an attempt to head out of the room, but the ground shifted beneath her, causing her to drop to her knees.

The stone circle was dropping from underneath her into what looked to be… nothingness. Scrambling, Mina leapt away from the circle and dug her fingers into the cracks between another stone in the floor. The stone circle stopped moving and waited, almost patiently until her fingers gave out and she slid back into the hole to land ungracefully on her backside. Once properly seated again, the stone circle continued its descent, although slower, as if not to scare Mina further. It didn’t help, she was still terrified. Finally she heard a loud thump, and the floor stopped moving. She could tell by a burst of air she’d descended to a larger room, though it took a few minutes for her eyes to adjust in the near-total darkness.

Mina wasn’t sure how she’d get out of here, and thought about calling for help, but felt power gathering again, warning her that something was about to happen. Never leaving the circle of light cast into the hole, Mina waited. A small voice inside warned her to not step off of the stone circle. What if it decided to float to the ceiling again, shutting her in the dark forever? What if she ran into the bull out there? There were too many “what if’s” to convince herself to not leave the stone tablet. That was until her eyes alit on a clear glass coffin.

Mina averted her eyes, afraid of what she might see within. It could have been the bones of a small child or animal. When her mind was through playing tricks, Mina cast another glance to see that the glass coffin was not a coffin, but a glass chest. Instead of holding remains of someone who passed away, it held a yellowed scroll. Her heart began to thud with anticipation. Was this it? Was that the Grimoire?

Everything was surreal, misty and cloudy like a dream. Mina had no choice but to step off the stone and approach the chest to open it. Fortunately, it opened as soon as her fingers touched the lid, the scroll began to unwind of its own accord, and the yellowed paper seemed to resonate with a hum of power. Upon the scroll were words written in many different languages and dialects, along with beautifully crafted pictures.

Staring in awe, the painted pictures began to move and walk and speak. She heard voices and singing, the same children’s laughter she’d heard upstairs, all coming from within the scroll. Reaching a tentative hand up to touch the scroll, Mina recoiled as it shifted, and fell heavily to the bottom of the coffin, now a large leather-bound book.

Wow, that’s huge, Mina thought. How am I supposed to carry that around? She watched in amazement when the book, as if hearing her thoughts, slowly began to shrink into a smaller, thinner book. Mina felt like cheering. She had done it. She had found the Grimoire, and it was even shape-shifting to suit her needs. It would help her.

“Thank you,” she whispered to the book. Then, after some thought. “That’s still rather conspicuous,” she said out loud. Another bright light appeared and the small book morphed into a school math book.

Mina laughed out loud. “Better, but not quite. I’m terrible at math.” Mina encouraged the book to keep trying and it finally changed again, this time into a slim red spiral notebook.

“Perfect. No one will expect a notebook.”

She picked up the notebook up and was surprised by how light it felt. She was even more surprised to learn that it was blank. The pictures where gone, the writing, everything had completely disappeared.

“So how are you supposed to help me?” She held up the book to the light as if expecting an answer. Feeling slightly let down, she touched the cover lightly and whispered. “I hope you know what you’re doing, because I sure don’t.” The book seemed to warm up in answer.

Mina took the notebook and tucked it under her arm while stepping back onto the stag platform, hoping and praying it would take her back up, into the world above. She breathed a sigh of relief when the stone rose into the air, taking Mina with it. It thudded softly as it clicked back into place. Mina was now back on the first floor. But as soon as her feet left the seal, the color seemed to fade from the room. It was as if she had unplugged the store from its battery source and it was now draining. Walking a little faster toward the front of the store, she tripped on a rug and saw that the store itself was shrinking! The shelves had gotten closer together and the rugs were moving beneath her feet.

Mina began to run and had to dodge as slowly books, figurines and various pottery on the shelves started to topple over. At first it was only a few items, then she heard thunks and glass shattering all around her. The walls began to twist and a few papers flew past her, knocking into Mina. She had to hurry and get out.

Running now, she saw the entrance, but by now the door she’d first entered was two feet smaller. Mina threw her shoulder into the red door and it gave out with little resistance. She flung herself out of the room with both feet, landing in a heap on the sidewalk, scraping her elbows and knees on the hard cement. She never knew the Grimm curse would be so physically exhausting.

Groaning and brushing grit from her damaged elbows, she turned over to look at the store and saw…a blank brick wall. The building had disappeared! Sitting up, Mina looked to the left and saw the pottery store and Rosie's Flowers, but there was no longer an unmarked store in between them, just a plain brick wall. Quickly getting to her feet, Mina tried to not draw any more attention her way; she was already getting a few uncomfortable stares. Where was Nan?

Something felt wrong. The sun wasn’t where it was supposed to be, it was almost evening. Mina looked at her watch and saw that it had stopped at 1:11 PM. Glancing to the clock in the square it was closer to 7 PM. Mina had been in the store for six hours? That wasn’t possible, was it? Why hadn’t Nan ever come back in? Where was she?

Instead of waiting, Mina decided to head home, cutting through the back alleys between roads, something she had done hundreds of times before, so she could call her friend. She never noticed when a dark shadow separated from the wall and followed her.

Chapter 11

When the man neared, Mina felt the dread run across her spine, giving her an instant in which to react. She jumped back, but the attacker made a grab for her hoodie. She heard the tear of cloth as a piece ripped off in his hands.