The crowd roared in appreciation, yet she barely heard them. Her eyes tracked the position each of her brothers held at the doors.
Yet as the clock continued to strike, her brothers remained in their mutant swan form. It was then Princess realized with a certain horror, had the old hag been wrong?
When she stopped singing, the music quieted behind her. She stared out into the audience.
“My good people, do you know that potentially every one of you are in danger from the proprietress of this club? The lovely Madam Valentina, who you fawn after every night, is nothing more than an evil conniving witch.”
She pointed to her brothers who still stood guard at the doors. “Look what she has done to my brothers! Turned them into grotesque swan creations, to be enslaved and tortured! Forced my father to marry her, and abandon his family! Turned the man I love into a deadly nightshade creature who can only live a normal life in dreams! She’s taken everyone I love from me, and I will no longer be silent!”
The audience quieted all eyes forward onto Princess.
Then the clicking of high heeled shoes came from beyond the stage.
Valentina approached.
Princess was strangely unafraid. If it was now her last minutes on this earth, she had spoken the absolute truth. She could exit this life at least knowing love, even if it was only in dreams.
Hands on hips, Princess waited for her adversary to make her way on to the stage. Valentina’s face was an angry scarlet as she strode to Princess. With one swift motion, backhanded her cheek with such force, Princess had to catch her balance.
“You bitch!” Valentina screamed. “You deceitful interloper, I should have killed you and your brothers when I had the chance! Now, your brothers will kill you!”
She clapped her hands, and instantly the six brothers rushed the stage, leaping on to it with one mighty bound. To Princess’s horror, she would be torn into pieces by the people who once loved her the most.
“Kill her, kill her immediately!” Valentina shrieked her command.
As her brothers converged upon her, Princess made eye contact with her eldest brother, Xavier, as he raised a mighty wing to strike down her petite figure.
She stood straight and tall, and did not cower in fear. “Xavier, do you not know me? Do you no longer remember your little sister, Princess?”
He stopped mid swing, and her other brothers stepped back from her.
Valentina grabbed a handful of his feathers, and ripped them from his flesh. Xavier doubled over in pain, as blood dripped onto the stage floor. At once, Princess rushed to him, wrapping her arms around him, and kissing his face, her tears falling freely from her eyes onto his cheek.
Then, it happened. Skin that covered Xavier fell from his body and his true form appeared, bloody, but not seriously wounded. One by one, each of her brothers lost their grotesque skin and took back their human forms.
The audience gasped at the spectacle that befell them. They believed this to be part of the show, a surprise theatre production for their titillation and amusement.
But all was not over. Valentina stepped close to Princess, lifted her hand, and flicked open the onyx rose on her finger.
Valentina took a breath inward, and Princess knew she was about to be poisoned. There was no escape. She would die momentarily, or be transformed into some mutant being as her brothers, and her lover had been.
Just as Valentina began to blow, a shrill whistle split the air. Simultaneously, Valentina lurched forward, a look of shock and disbelief crossed her features. She stumbled a few steps, and dropped to her knees. A trickle of blood escaped her mouth before she fell forward onto the stage, an arrow pierced her back.
In the background, the audience murmured.
From the shadows emerged Erich, in his deadly nightshade form, and tossed aside the bow. Princess ran to him, but he held up his hands at the last second before she vaulted into his arms, and took several steps back from her.
“Erich, I love you, I love you! You’ve saved me! Take me from this place!” She cried out to him.
“And I love you, my Princess, but you know what I am, and what I am made of. Surely, if you come away with me, in time you will die just from being in my presence.”
His words would not deter her.
“I do not care if I die, as long as I can spend my remaining time with you. I will be lucky to have you and your love in my life, no matter how brief. I will go to my grave remembering the love we share in those fleeting dream moments.”
She took a step closer to him.
“I love you.”
The tendril of nightshade that framed his face, dropped to the floor of the stage.
She took another step.
“I love you.”
The tendrils which wound around his muscular arms fell.
“I love you.”
Slowly, the purple hue that colored his skin and lips melted away to reveal his true form beneath.
“I love you,” she repeated once more, not being able to stop the smile on her face.
With the final sentiment, his eyes returned to the glacial blue she only knew from their dreams.
Princess leaped into her lover’s arms, lips crushing against his.
“Only your true love could free me, Princess,” he mumbled against her lips.”
“That’s the missing prince!” Someone yelled out from the audience. The audience responded with rapturous, near deafening applause, believing not only that the play ended, but the prince thought lost to his people and his kingdom, was now found.
“Prince, huntsman…whatever you may be, with my eyes opened wide, carry me away from here so we can make a home together forever.”
He lowered her to her feet, but his arm remained protectively
