Belle

Wicked picks up the frog around the middle and holds him high in the air. I scream as she yells. “This! This is your prince! Your great prince!” She laughs and tosses Amphi to the ground.

“Amphi!” I yell.

Amphi scrambles away, his long bow legs wobbling from little use. Wonderful kneels and holds out her hands. He hops onto her palm and she gently pushes him onto her shoulder. He’s a frog, a green, stout, slimy frog. But it’s still his eyes, and I can see how scared he looks. So I’m going to have to be brave.

Wicked’s cold wolf eyes turn on me and I feel a shiver run down from my nose to my toes. “You, girl, you don’t think I’ve forgotten about you now do you? I would never forget you the way you forgot me.”

“Please you’ve made your point,” My father yells, “You’ve already taken one of our children, please spare her!”

Wicked throws her head back and barks. “Save your dignity king, I have no mercy to give.”

I swallow, “What are you going to do to me?”

She smirks, “I’m not sure, I could kill you, turn you into a frog, make you an ugly hag, cut your tongue, make your eyes disappear; the possibilities are truly endless.”

“Please, please;” My head turns and I see my mother, her hands clasped tightly to her chest, her lip quivers and her eyes fill with tears.

“I may not be merciful, but I’m not cruel; your little girl will remain safe,” My eyebrows draw together in surprise and my mother gasps.

“Really?” My mother’s face sparkles with hope.

“For now,” Wicked replies.

“For now?” My mother repeats with a quiver in her tone.

Wicked raises her hand and points her finger at me, “You will be beautiful, the most beautiful in all the land, you will kind, you will be loved. All who know you will agree that you are everything your name makes you out to be: beauty in statue, beauty in grace, beauty in tone, beauty in quality, beauty in appearance, beauty on the outside, beauty on the inside, beauty, beauty, beauty. But only someone youthful could be all these things. So on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, when she becomes a woman and grows into herself. She will die.”

I feel my heart drop into my chest and my mother screams, “No!”

Wicked laughs as my hands begin to tremble and yells, “Fools! Keep your friends close and your enemies closer!”

And just like that she’s gone. I stand, I don’t move. My mouth is open and I look around. Slowly I start to see the crowd, their shocked faces. I can hear their thoughts, I can hear them pity me. Oh look she’s the girl destined to die. That’s her, the one without hope. The one who has her days numbered for her. I can feel the pity and resentment bubbles up inside me. I spin around faster, faster faster.

The panic in me flies around like a thousand bumblebees stinging my insides. I feel my throat swell and the hot tears come. Suddenly I open my mouth and scream. I scream so long that the noise that had filled the hall of panicked people thinking about me dissipates. I scream and clutch at my face until I feel I hand on my shoulder, I start sobbing and I turn and bury my face in her shoulder.

“It’s alright dear,” Wonderful whispers, she places her hand on my head and strokes my hair, “It’ll be alright.”

“I’m going to die,” I yell.

“Everyone’s going to die dear, but you forgot, I can help.” She holds me arms length away and I look up at her.

“You can’t undo her magic,” I say, my eyes wandering onto the green shape that once was my brother. He lets out a bellowing ribbit.

“But I can alter it,” She says.

“How?” I ask.

“Here,” She places her hand on my head and I stare at her shoes, “You will have all the blessings she gave you, but they will continue when you wake up. For though you will fall asleep on your sixteenth birthday, the single most powerful thing in the world: true love’s kiss, will wake you back up.”

She lifts my chin and then taps me in the middle of my forehead with her pointer finger. I feel a warm tingly sensation fall through my body, like a pleasant waterfall of peace. “Better?” She asks.

I nod, “But what about my brother?”

She sighs and lifts him before her face so they are eye level, “You have the same blessing as she, at true love’s kiss your spell will break.”

I blink as he bolts. He begins to hop desperately towards the staircase. “Stop that frog!” My father yells.

“No!” I yell. The room breaks into a frantic panic as they try to catch Amphi without accidentally squashing him. I see Amphi hopping for the stares he’s never gonna make it.

I run up and pick him up, I hold him in my hands and run up the stairs as the hall goes into an uproar. I run through the palace halls and don’t look back, praying that no one saw us leave. I want to give Amphi a fighting chance to get to Ella.

I make it to the entrance and pull the great oak doors open. I run down the great steps and over the moat to the edge of the forest. I kneel down under a tree and give Amphi a big squeeze.

“I love you brother.” I put him down in the dirt and get up to leave but he turns around and looks at me with his big bulging eyes.

I know he is thanking me, he cocks his head and I kneel down and whisper, “Go find her, I’ll be alright, we both have to find someone now or all is lost.”

He hops toward me and puts a twiggy slimy hand on my knee. “Thank you,” I whisper, “Really I’ll be okay. Now go find Ella.”

I smile and nod encouragingly at him. He slowly hops away and I watch him. I straighten my knees and stand. He stops and turns to look at me. I nod and he takes one more look and then, I think he smiles, as much as a frog can smile and hops away. I wonder if I’ll ever see him again.

I hope he comes back soon; afterall, my days are numbered.