Fractured Fairytales: Rapunzel

[Adam Valerius]

  He was dreaming. In his dream, an angel with wings of gold and hair the colour of wheat was wrapping her milky pale arms around him. The warm sun shined down on him and he gazed into her sunset-coloured eyes, really gazed, as she rewarded his faith in love with the return of his vision. He sighed, cursed himself a blind fool for his imagination.

  He could almost hear her singsong voice, so melodic and perfect. What a cruel trick, his hearing played on him.

  And then something brushed his cheek, and it was familiar-but-not. Adam started, reeling back so fast he almost fell, and he was quick to throw his hands up to catch the offending party's own. He was rough at first, unsure of the intentions of the one who stood before him, but something made him instantly loosen his grip. The voice --

  "It can't be," he whispered. "It can't be, because she said you were dead," he repeated. He felt his sightless eyes water at the mere notion that this was truly his angel, his Avalon, standing before him. Adam was a grown man and didn't cry, but this was worth crying for - crying for his love, his beautiful angel who had been slain because of his stupid desires.

  "You're not real. This is my mind, playing tricks," he said. Still, he held her hands - gently, as he had when they first met. Finally, he whispered - "Please, don't be in my mind," he pleaded.