Cinderella Dressed in Ashes

24 A Slash from the Past

“Fable!” Axel screamed and ran toward his sister as she had suddenly collapsed on the floor.

“What’s wrong with you, sis?” Axel pulled her up into his arms, holding her tightly. Like usual, he tried CPR with her, still convinced he was good at it, but she was breathing, just not responding well. Her eyes turned half-white and then she began shivering.

Axel slapped her on the cheek a couple of times, all the while apologizing for it being too hard. He offered her Sticky Sweet Bones, trying to force them into her mouth, thinking she fainted from lack of eating. For a moment he even blamed himself for eating too much and leaving too little for her to eat.

“How many times have I told you that you were too skinny?” Axel was about to cry. “You never listen to me. What’s wrong, Fable? Answer me.”

Fable, still shivering, was hallucinating and saying something Axel couldn’t understand. All kinds of ideas popped in his head at once. Should he pull his sister out of the Schloss and get her to a hospital? But how could he? The Black Forest was too far away from the hospital to carry her the whole way, and although Carmen was just outside, she only worked when Loki drove her.

“OK,” Axel inhaled deeply. “I get it. You’re trying to worry me so I will confess to deleting the part in Loki’s Dreamhunter Guide about how to unlock the dream. If you wake up, I promise I will tell you everything,” he pleaded.

Fable was still shivering, mumbling undecipherable worlds.

“Please Fable, please!” Axel said. “All right, I’ll tell you what was written in Loki’s phone. The only way to unlock the dream is to—”

Suddenly, Fable gripped Axel’s arm so hard it whitened around her fingers. She tilted her head toward him and looked at him with white eyes as if possessed by a demon.

"Get your hands off me," she bellowed as if Axel was standing a great distance from her.

“What’s going on, sis?” Axel cried. “What’s happening to you,” he gazed sideways at the purple light, and saw it was throbbing with a bluish tint. “I bet it’s all because you’ve been too close to that stupid light. I told you not to stay close, sis. When will you ever listen to me? When will you ever learn that I love you more than anything?”

Fable’s neck twisted backwards as if someone had pulled her hair. This time, she looked like she needed his help, hanging onto him. The color of her eyes changed to a bluish purple, the color of the Dream Temple’s protective light.

"Get your hands off me," she repeated. She sounded weakened and hurt then she uttered other incoherent words about a little boy, a little girl, and a Huntsman.

“What are you saying, sis? I don’t understand!” Axel held her tighter, unable to understand what was happening. He noticed Fable was bleeding from her shoulder as if some invisible force had punctured it with the tip of a knife.

Finally, she uttered a coherent sentence, but he didn’t know what it meant. At least the words were understandable, "You're the Queen's bastard!" Fable howled in outrage. “Get out of Furry Tell,” she added in one last breath before her head and arms fell back.