Our Fairytale: Part V

Vultures circled overhead, eyeing the lone rider who slumped low within his saddle. A fortnight had passed since Bobby began his quest to retrieve the spell book and in that time his journey had taken him over the tallest mountains and driest deserts. Barely a drop of water remained in the canteen he squeezed to let the last few beads of moisture fall onto his parched tongue. He tossed the canteen aside, watching it bounce along the rocky terrain before coming to rest by the bones of an animal carcass that the vultures had already picked clean. Alone and without any provisions, he wondered how much longer he could muster the courage to continue this quest that seemed hopeless, as both his strength and determination were failing him. His bones ached, his body was exhausted, and a terrible despair had begun to torture his waking mind. Bobby felt so alone. But in that darkest moment he looked upon the ribbon that was tied around his wrist and the most curious thing happened. He smiled. Even in his lowest moment, the princess's memory could still make him happy. Her memory gave him the strength to keep going, despite all the pain and uncertainty of where his journey might lead. 

"I love you my princess," Bobby whispered as he readjusted himself and sat high in the saddle, suddenly full of energy and vigor. A simple memory of his beloved princess transformed him into a new man. 

When the sun was just beginning to set and surrender its last rays of light to the starry night above, Bobby came upon a foul swamp that stretched far into the horizon. Though he urged his horse onward, the animal refused to enter so Bobby was forced to continue his trek on foot. His progress was slow through the waist-deep water, though his sword made quick work of the vines and branches that hung low and threatened to choke the life from any man who ventured too close. Without the sunlight to offer direction, Bobby relied on blind intuition to guide his steps until finally a dim light was visible just ahead. Its golden rays were curiously alluring, though somewhat unsettling, as its presence in the swamp was most unexpected.

The light came from an open passageway that beckoned Bobby near and, upon entering this corridor, he discovered that a thousand golden rings lay on the ground around him. Each ring shone its brilliant rays upon the bewildered visitor's face as he reached down to pick one up. Inscribed within the ring's surface was a man's name, and as Bobby collected more of the rings he found that each bore the name of a specific person. The rings lined the floor of a tunnel Bobby walked through until finally he came upon a great underground cave filled with huge piles of rings, some reaching over a hundred feet tall. The tunnel emptied at the peak of one such pile and as Bobby stepped onto its surface he slipped and tumbled all the way down, a wave of clanging rings following him like an avalanche of gold. As he crashed to the ground, he gathered himself and looked up to see a tall marble pillar before him, upon which a demon sat reading a book of spells.

 

"Lost loves, all of them," Baphomet said, admiring the mountains of golden rings that he had collected. "Some were just beginning to blossom, while others had the benefit of long years together to momentarily stave off my intervention, but the names of every pair of lovers whom I have torn apart are written on each of these wedding rings, rings that shall never see the hands for which they were destined." 

He closed the book of spells with a loud clap that echoed off the cavernous walls. "Rarely do I entertain visitors here, rarer still ones whose love owes its ruin to me. I believe these belong to you."

Baphomet tossed down two rings from his lofty perch atop the pillar that landed at Bobby's feet. Bobby picked up the rings and read the names on each. Upon one ring was written the princess's name while the other bore the name "Robear".

Bobby examined the rings closely, feeling the cold metal in his hand before saying, "You are mistaken demon, for I am not Robear. He is my twin brother. I am Bobby the Contrite."

"Bobby the Contrite?" Baphomet asked in disbelief. His laughter filled the cave with such force that even the mountains of rings shook and sent rivers of gold tumbling to the floor. "Would you try to fool a jeweler with shards of glass, or deceive a farmer with worthless seeds? Why then do you weave your deception before he who trades in lies? Your ruse may have worked on unsuspecting townsfolk but it will not have the same effect on me. I know you very well Robear, perhaps even better than you know yourself. I watched you hold the princess's hand in Charleston before sharing a first kiss. I was there when you seduced her in Panama City as your naked bodies intertwined. And on a cold winter night in Boston I smiled when you abandoned her and rode off into the horizon, offering the heartbroken princess neither a reason or apology. That is when her heart broke and she fell asleep...that is when I claimed her for myself. You are the reason that the princess has fallen asleep for these two long years. You are the reason she has never again known true love." 

A single tear rolled down Bobby's cheek as he stared at the golden rings within his hand that bore the princess's name...and his own.

"Ah yes, a tear, the raindrops that water the gardens of remorse," Baphomet prodded. "You are a man full of regrets that have led you to ask the princess for forgiveness after all these years. But have you already forgotten that you abandoned her so callously? What makes you think that she would even welcome you back into her life?"

Bobby thought for a moment and boldly answered, "Because my heart no longer beats for itself, but instead for two bodies that share one soul. Two years apart have neither lessened nor extinguished my love for the princess. That time has instead changed me...it has matured me. When I finally became the man she needed me to be, I fell in love with her."

"In love with her?" Baphomet asked, shaking his head. "In love with her?" he again repeated. His laughter could scarcely be contained as he rolled around atop his pillar, nearly falling off.

"It is true," Bobby insisted. "As if by magic."

"Magic indeed," Baphomet snickered. "Magic has little to do with your newfound feelings, for it was by this potion that your fidelity for that woman was stirred at all."

He tossed the potion bottle that the princess had sipped from all those years ago to Bobby. "Though that empty bottle has caused her eternal sleep, it was her love for you that sealed her fate. So great was her love for you Robear and so much of herself was she willing to give, that she drank the potion, believing that doing so would cause you to fall in love with her. Yet your love for her was never real...it is nothing more than a lingering effect of this potion and the princess's misplaced hope."   

"You are full of lies," Bobby said, clutching the empty bottle in his hand. "My love for the princess proceeds from my heart, not the effects of some potion or anything else. My love for her is true and everlasting...I am in love."

Baphomet paced atop his pillar, contemplating Bobby's declaration before saying, "Even a broken clock tells the correct time twice a day, just as a liar may sometimes speak the truth. Hear then this truth Robear: You are a disgraceful man, full of fear and indecision. You are a most loathsome creature indeed, and if the princess should ever awaken from her sleep she would scoff at your attempts to win back her heart. She does not love you anymore Robear, for you are a vain and selfish man."

"I am not that man anymore!" Bobby yelled. He unsheathed his sword and pointed it skyward towards Baphomet. "The princess will not remain asleep forever because of your lies. Relinquish your book of spells willingly or I will cut you down and forcefully take it."

"Hollow threats from a hollow man," Baphomet scoffed. "You will receive neither my spell book nor my sympathy."

Bobby raised his sword and prepared to strike the marble pillar upon which Baphomet was perched. "My sword can fell the fiercest of foes and its blade finds power in the sturdy arms that wield it."

"Whatever strength you possess will surely leave you," Baphomet cautioned. "for unbeknownst to you there is a poison that courses through your veins. When you kissed the princess's lips you tasted more than simply a lover's touch, for at least a drop of the potion remained in her kiss, the very potion that condemns all whose hearts have been broken to eternal sleep." Baphomet's thin lips curled back to reveal blackened teeth as his forked tongue prepared to weave its tales. "The princess will never wake up Robear. You broke her heart and have condemned her to a life without ever again knowing true love."

With those words, a thousand tiny barbs pierced Bobby's heart and delivered unto it a pain such as he had never felt before. His heart suddenly felt very fragile, as if the slightest touch might break it, and the same drowsiness that had seized the princess on that bridge in Boston all those long nights ago suddenly began calling for Bobby as well.

Still Baphomet's words did not relent. "The princess will never open her eyes Robear. She will never look upon your face again. She will never awaken from her slumber."

Bobby's eyes grew heavy, his breathing slowed. The potion that relied only on unrequited love to release its poisonous snares suddenly flooded his body and pushed him ever closer to a deep sleep from which he would never awaken. Bobby's heart was breaking.

"You are a wanderer Robear," Baphomet continued. "And an aimless drifter is all you will ever be. Abandon your pursuit of the princess, just as you did all the those years ago, for it is too late to right the wrongs you have done to that poor woman. Abandon her, for you are lost Robear."

With heavy eyes Bobby looked upon his hand to see that it was bare. Of all the terrible sights his eyes had seen, none was more tragic than the ringless finger upon which a wedding band should have been. He picked up the golden rings that bore the names of two lovers, one destined for his hand while the other for the princess's. The golden rings felt so very cold upon his skin, as if they had never been warmed by a lover's touch or the warmth of her heart. He thought of her in that moment, how happy she would have been if only he had offered her this ring, the loving words she might have said. Yet, for all the words she had ever spoken to him, only these could he now remember:

"When you feel lost, think of me and I will always come to guide you back home. I love you Robear, despite all of your flaws, despite all of your misgivings, because I know that in your heart you are a good man and you will always come back to me, just as I will always come back to you."

"I will always come back to you my princess...and my love," Bobby managed to barely whisper.

And as he spoke those words a strange thing happened. His thoughts were no longer on the book of spells or the poison that polluted his body. He did not see mountains of golden rings or the demon that looked down upon its prey. He saw only her face. A beautiful face. The most beautiful of faces...smiling, laughing, and saying those magical words: I love you Bobby. All his apprehension, all his uncertainty, all his fear disappeared in that moment...for no evil thing can withstand the power he now had within him, the power that was given to him by a princess so beautiful: Love. And with this greatest of gifts, all of Bobby's strength triumphantly returned.

He rose to his feet and with both hands swung his sword as mightily as any blade had ever been cast, striking the pillar with the strength of a hundred men. Metal met rock with a terrifying crash, shattering the blade like glass and sending shards of jagged metal flying in every direction. The entire cave shook from the force of the clash and piles of golden rings were scattered like dust in the wind, yet for all the fury unleashed in that greatest of blows, the pillar itself was unscathed.

"Just as I said, your strength has no power here," Baphomet taunted as he laughed and danced atop the pillar's summit.

With no sword left to vanquish his foe, Bobby became greatly distressed, until he remembered the princess's hair ribbon that was still tied around his wrist. He took the ribbon and straightened it into a single cord, then looped it around so that he held each end in his right hand while the remainder dangled freely. Bobby picked up the empty potion bottle that Baphomet had so carelessly discarded and placed it in the rudimentary sling he had fashioned from the ribbon.

While Baphomet continued to dance, oblivious to the happenings far below, Bobby swung the sling over his head three times in a great circle before releasing one end and sending the bottle hurling towards Baphomet. Just as the demon heard the whistling missile approach, the bottle struck him in the forehand, slicing his face open in an explosion of blood and glass. Baphomet let out a great scream, stumbled backwards, and fell from his pillar onto a pile of golden rings that did nothing to cushion his fall. The demon lay motionless, dead, as his lifeless fingers released their grip on the book of spells.

Bobby retrieved the book and took his leave, pausing only to thread the hair ribbon between the two golden rings that bore the names of both the princess and himself. He hung the ribbon around his neck and tucked it beneath his shirt, so that both wedding rings rested close to his heart.

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On the night I arrived back home from seeing you in Boston, I remember laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling and wondering if I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. I picked up my phone and began to dial your number when I stopped myself. I was scared. I knew that I had just hurt you very badly and I thought that if I ever spoke to you again it would only hurt you even worse. I thought that because of all the terrible things I had said to you, it would be impossible for me to ever cause you anything other than pain. And so I went away. I bottled up my feelings for you deep inside where I thought that they would eventually die.

But that's not what happened. Your memory was too strong. I began thinking about you every day, more and more. I thought back to the late night conversations we had about all of our hopes and dreams; I thought back to the intimate moments we shared together, some for the very first time; and I thought about the kindness you showed me, the way you look when you smile and how you always made me feel happy. I was so happy when we were together, in a way I had never been before. And that's when I had the most startling realization of my life. I was in love with you...and always had been.

Maybe it doesn't make sense to you. Maybe it never will. But it is the truth. I have asked you for so much, likely more than anyone else in your life ever has, but I am asking you to do the most difficult thing of all right now. I am asking you to trust me. I am asking you to trust me when I tell you that I truly am in love with you and that I want to spend the rest of our lives together. I am asking you to trust me when I tell you that I will never hurt you again. I am asking you to do these things because trust is the foundation of every healthy relationship, and I am willing to do anything to earn yours back. I am willing to do anything to show you that I am committed to you and you alone. That is why I wrote you a novel. That is why I am writing you this fairytale. That is why I will move to Boston tomorrow if you ask me to. The relationship that I want to have with you is the most important thing in the world to me because you are the most important person in my life, and there is nothing that you could ask of me that I would withhold. I trust you more than anyone, and I will do everything I can to show you that I love you more than anyone too.

I fell in love with you Ornela...as if by magic.