A Grim Fairy Tale

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Anthony started to go back to his own side where he had been sleeping.

"I was dreaming about the day I lost my father." Vagatha said.

Anthony stopped, turned around, and re-approached her. They sat down together by the fireplace, with Raphael once again nuzzling real close to her.

"I was six years old." She began. "Papa was leaving to go chop wood in the forest. I begged him to bring me a long, I told him that I hated being away from him all day and that I could help him with his work. But he and Grandmother both insisted that I was too young and that the forest was too dangerous. I complained that I wasn't so little anymore, that I was just as brave and strong as my papa was, but they didn't still didn't want me to go. Later that day, after Mother left, I asked Grandmother if I could go pick some wild flowers for the table at dinner. As usual she agreed to go under the condition that I promise to stick to the path ans to stay away from the forest. I made my promise and at first I really did intend to just stay on the path and pick flowers, but after awhile I took note of the forest and it didn't really look all that dangerous to me. So I thought, if I could go for a walk in the woods and come back in one piece, Papa and Grandmother would finally believe that I'm old enough to go hunting, exploring, and help my father with his work."

"Did it ever occur to you that you might get lost in there?"

"As a matter of fact it did and to prevent that I collected some pebbles from around the cottage and in the garden, and dropped one along as I walked in the woods. That way I could just follow it back home."

"You were pretty clever for a six year old."

"That's what I thought." She sighed. "I thought getting lost was the only thing I had to worry about. I didn't think about what could find me in those woods."

Vagatha's face turned pale and a chill went up her spine. Despite it being so long ago, the image of that monster continued to haunt her days.

"I was right in the middle of the forest when I suddenly felt like someone was watching me. I was still and quiet, unable to move or speak. Like I was somehow paralyzed. Then I heard a growl come from behind me and that's when I saw him."

"Who?"

"A wolf. The most hideous, monstrous wolf I had ever seen. It was like a hound who had come straight out of hell. I'll never forget those big pointy ears, those big soulless-yellow eyes, and those big, blood-stained teeth. It was a face like the devil's. I ran and I screamed, he chased me, I wasn't very fast back then and he was going to catch me."

Her body was trembling and her heart was racing. Anthony could feel it.

"My father heard me scream, he ran to find me. He grabbed me just before that creature swallowed me up with his hot jaw and he threw me up into a high hollow tree. I could only sit there and watch as that wolf tackled my father and ripped him apart, eating him alive."

Tears were re-forming in her eyes.

"I screamed for help as loud as I could. I screamed even when my throat turned horse and sore. I just kept screaming for somebody, anybody, to come help my papa. But by the time the other villagers came, it was too late. My father was dead, his corpse halfway eaten, and it was all my fault."

She buried her face into her hands, sobbing so hard, she almost couldn't breathe.

"If I had just stayed on the path! If I had just kept my promise! If I had just listened to my father and grandmother, then Papa would still be here!"

Anthony slowly wrapped Vagatha up in his arms and laid her head to rest on his shoulder, not caring at all that she was soaking his shirt and jacket with her tears. Again he just held her, but this time he held her the way his mother would hold him as a boy when he was sad like this.

"It should have been me!" She wept.

"Now don't say that!" Anthony protested.

"But it's true! I was the one who wandered off the path and went into the woods when I didn't know anything about them! I was the one that wolf wanted to eat! He just got in the way!"

"He was your father Vagatha. That's what fathers are supposed to do. They're supposed to love their children so much that they'd be willing to give up anything for them. Even their lives."

"But I didn't ask him to do that!"

"You don't need to ask fathers for that. Or mothers or grandmothers or anyone who looks after you. It's an instinct. Something they know to do and want to when a child they love is in danger. And I know this is probably something you don't want to hear, but I think it would have been worse if your father had failed."

Vagatha suddenly tore away from him.

"How can you say that?"

"Because of how you described him to me. Vagatha, if your father loves you as much as you say he does, then he probably would have still died if you had been killed that day. Died of a broken heart. He would have lost all will to live, cause he would have believed that he had failed his most important duty. To protect his daughter. Keeping you safe and happy til the day he died was his life goal the minute you were born."

"How do you know that?"

"Cause my mother is the same. She'd gladly die for me, a spoiled brat who only makes life harder for her. But she loves me so much that she'd trade her life for mine without a second thought. She says that without me, she couldn't bring herself to keep on living and that she'd end up taking her own life. And I bet your father would say the same thing. Believe me, if your father had to die so you could live then that's how he wants it. That's how it's supposed to be."

"Then why?" She choked. "Why do I feel like it's a mistake that I'm alive and he's not?!"

Anthony didn't have an answer for that. He wasn't sure if anyone did. So he didn't give her answer or pretend that he knew one. He just spent the night being her shoulder to cry on until she fell asleep again.