Mable woke up very early the next morning, the alarm on her phone buzzing next to her head. Groggily, she climbed out of the bed and looked out her window. There was just the barest of light on the horizon, enough so Mable could see that the snow had stopped and there wasn't so much as a cloud in the sky.
Good. It was time to leave.
She grabbed her old clothes from underneath her pillow, dragging her jeans on as the cold bit her legs. There was no point in taking a shower this morning, and besides, it would slow her down. She pulled on her sweatshirt and coat, and glanced ruefully at her sneakers, remembering how easily they let in the wet. Sighing, she went the closet and tugged the door open. After a quick search, she found a pair of heavy, fur-lined boots hidden behind the soft slippers and heels.
She shoved them on her feet, ignoring the voice in her head calling her a thief. She'd find some way to return them, she told herself.
She checked for her keys and phone—both in her coat pockets—made sure her hat was situated properly on her head, and took one last look at the room. The coat had big enough pockets that she could shove her sneakers in them and still fit her hands if she needed to. She did so, one in each pocket, and pulled on her gloves.
She felt bad for leaving like this. She had genuinely liked Maddie, Monsieur Lune, Monsieur Carnier and Madame Cecile, and she bet she would have liked Madame Labelle once she had gotten to know her more. But she knew if she stayed, they would just keep pushing her to be someone she wasn't; their savior, the one who could break the curse and set them all free.
She knew she wasn't what they needed, and she sure as hell wasn't who Master Theo wanted. Better to leave now, before they got their hopes up much higher.
She fretted briefly over which door to sneak out. It was still early, but she bet that Monsieur Carnier was in the kitchen preparing for breakfast. She punched down the tug of remorse she felt for missing what, she was sure, would be a fabulous breakfast made especially for her.
So the door in the kitchen was out. Perhaps the front doors, in the foyer.... but they would hear her open the doors. That was if she didn't run into someone beforehand.
She studied the closet door thoughtfully. It could bring her to her bathroom at home. She wondered if it could bring her to the outside of the castle instead.
She strode over and thought of the outside, trying to picture what the scene would be like standing in the doorway. There was the usual shock on her hand, and she pulled the door open, grinning when she saw the shadowed pine trees in the distance. Apparently the closet didn't know or care that she was technically still on the fifth floor.
She walked out into the snow, tugging on her gloves. She went to close the door behind her, but couldn't find the knob. Turning, she saw nothing but the pale marble walls of the castle.
Well, there was no chickening out now.
She supposed that someone else would have a plan in mind, a direction they could follow. She didn't have either of those, but she hoped that if she walked far enough she'd eventually find civilization. After all, she hadn't been that far into the woods when she had found this place.
She trudged along, admiring the way the early dawn played on the tops of the trees and the soft, bluish glow on the fallen snow. Without the sun it was bitterly cold, and she shivered at the nip of an icy breeze when it kissed her cheeks. She pulled her hat a little lower over her ears, silently thanking Madame Cecile for returning most of her things. The boots she had borrowed—stolen, really—were well-made, and her feet and shins were comfortably warm even as she shuffled through a foot of powdery snow. She only wished she could have stopped for a snack in the kitchen before she left.
She turned to look back at the castle, and guessed from the location of the sunrise that was just peering over the horizon that she exited the eastern side of the castle. Mostly it was just windows, all dark, but on what looked like the second floor she saw a large veranda jutting out over her head. She tried to remember what Maddie had told her about the eastern side of the castle. Was that the side with the ballroom? Perhaps it was, because as she walked further she noticed the morning light glinting off of what looked to be floor to ceiling windows.
Shame she never got to see the inside of it. Mable wrinkled her nose. Then again, Master Theo would probably throw a ball the minute he found out she was gone.
Mable continued on, pleased that eastern side of the castle was the side closest to the woods. She was even more delighted when she noticed what looked like a path that led through the heart of the woods.
Maybe this was where she got lost on her way here, Mable thought excitedly, conveniently forgetting that it had taken her a long longer to find the castle that first night, and she had not been on a path. She started walking a little faster, easier to do now that she was in among the pine trees. The snow wasn't as deep here.
She followed the little path for a while, her eyes adjusting as the sun crawled higher into the sky. The woods were less shadowed now, and she could make out a squirrel scuttling around in the brush. Birds started to rise and twitter in the trees, and as she smiled when she saw a flash of red, a cardinal, among the pines. This was the kind of morning walk she had been expecting when she went out two days ago. She brightened as the castle got further and further behind her.
After a while meandering through the woods, the path led her to a clearing. Mable was startled to see a little farmstead, complete with barn. A wooden fence ran around the front of the barn in an oval, the snow cleared so Mable could see the churned mud in the center. Empty troughs were interspersed along the fence line. Close to her was smaller version of the barn, and Mable heard sleepy clucking from inside.
Curious now, Mable waded through the snow towards the fence. A few feet from the barn was a little stone hut with straw thatching, smoke drifting out of a tin pipe on the roof. That must be where the farmer, or caretaker, lived. Mable went over to a small window that was on the side of the barn, and looked inside. She could just see the dark shapes of the cows, and she could see a few pigs grunting over in a small pen in the corner. A cow looked up and lowed at her.
She left the window, and started to wander towards the front of the barn. This farm probably belonged to the castle, she mused. It was too small for a commercial farmer, and since the castle's residents couldn't leave, it stood to reason they needed to get meat and eggs from somewhere. They couldn't just go to the grocery store.
Well, she didn't recall running into a farm two nights ago, so she must be headed in the wrong direction. She aimed for the western side of the woods, still angling away from the direction of the castle. The sun had come up now, and Mable was relieved to feel the warmth of it on her face. She might not know where she was going, but at least it was not a blizzard this time.
She thought of Jeanne and Colette. She hoped they weren't too worried about her. They had probably gone to the police, and Mable sighed. She bet that she would have to deal with questions about where she'd been, and what was she supposed to say to that? She certainly couldn't tell them she's been at some castle in the woods. They'd commit her before she could go ahead and tell them about the closet that took her to wherever she wanted to go.
Jeanne and Colette wouldn't believe Monsieur Lune's explanation about the fairies and Master Theo's curse. Colette would probably tell her the years of looking after their father had driven her crazy. Mable couldn't blame them; if someone had told her they found an enchanted in the woods, she would think they were crazy too. Fairies and curses were just made up stories, and the idea that there were fairies living in these woods, kept hidden for centuries, seemed ludicrous.
But inside her there burned a small, rebellious ember of belief, especially as she stared out into the shadowed woods ahead of her.
She glanced at her phone and saw that it was nearly seven in the morning. Well, the castle residents would be up by now, and probably knew she was gone. She glanced in that direction, but couldn't see it through the trees. Guilt pinched at her when she thought of little Maddie coming to get her, and she wasn't there. She would have liked to have spent more time with Maddie. She would have liked to have explored the castle, to have spent time in the library, the greenhouse, the gallery. But if she had stayed, they would have expected her to fall in love with Master Theo.
Mable snorted to herself as she recalled last night's disastrous dinner. Well, what did they think would happen? Did they really expect for her to dress up nice one night and, boom, be in love? Or for Master Theo to see her in all her awkward glory, and just be smitten? She would have thought Monsieur Lune would have more sense.
She was a little embarrassed by how she had acted, though. She probably could have been more sensitive to the fact that, while Master Theo lived in a castle with servants, he probably wasn't used to socializing with people other than his staff. She could have been nicer, she supposed, but he just made her so...uncomfortable. It wasn't even his appearance, but the way he looked at her. Distant. Judging.
Mable heard a shuffling sound and whirled. There was nothing there.
Shocked out of her private thoughts, she realized that this part of the woods was far quieter than the eastern part. It felt darker too, more ominous.
Suddenly being out in the woods, alone, not knowing what direction to head in seemed like a very bad plan.
Mable was just debating turning back to the farm and maybe seeing if the hut-owner knew how to get to civilization when a voice called out from behind her.
"It's pointless. You should turn back."
Mable spun to see a beautiful woman perched on a fallen tree behind her. She was inexplicably dressed in a sleeveless white gown that didn't cover her bare feet. Long, golden hair flowed down her back to her waist, not quite hiding pointed ears. Vivid cobalt-blue eyes were narrowed in her direction, a cold smile on her face. She was vaguely human-like, but Mable could feel the air of Other emanating from her.
The woman crossed her arms over her considerable chest and studied Mable. "You should head back to the castle." She told Mable, "You'll catch your death out here." Her eyes glittered, as if she had made a joke.
"I-I'm --" Mable stammered.
The woman laughed at her. "Go back to your safe little castle, little one. You do not belong out here."
Mable finally found her voice. "Who are you?" she looked pointedly at the woman's outfit. "What are you?"
The woman smiled and brushed a finger over her ear. "You haven't guessed? I am a Fairy, child." She told Mable loftily.
Mable rolled her eyes. "I'm not a child, I'm twenty-six." She eyed the woman who claimed she was a Fairy. "So, Fairies don't feel the cold?" A normal person, someone who hadn't spent two nights in a castle, would have been shocked, she supposed. But between the past two days and running around in the early dawn numbed her feelings to this little twist in her plan. Running into a Fairy just seemed obvious, at this point.
"No, most of us don't. It's a benefit, along with a long lifespan and endless beauty." The Fairy preened.
Mable resisted the urge to roll her eyes again. "Well, it was nice meeting you, I guess. Look, I know I'm intruding, and I really need to get home. Do you know which direction I should head in?" Once she was home she wouldn't have to worry about this craziness anymore.
"Even if I gave you directions, you would only find yourself back at the castle doors." The woman told her, almost pitying. "People from the castle have tried to leave before, and merely found themselves back where they came from."
Mable felt the air leave her lungs. "You're lying."
The woman shrugged. "Fine, don't believe me. Keep wandering around the woods until you catch a fever and die. It's all the same to me."
"You're wrong." Mable insisted. "Monsieur Lune told me that it's only the castle residents who can't leave."
"My dear girl, there hasn't been a visitor to that castle in centuries, not since the curse. Do you really think he would know if it were only the servants who are imprisoned?"
A soft fizzle of panic bloomed under her breastbone. "I don't believe you." She said flatly.
The Fairy shrugged. "Suit yourself. Try that direction." She pointed to her left. "See what you find."
Mable trudged off, trying to convince herself that the Fairy was wrong. She had to be.
Mable walked for a while, looking over her shoulder. The Fairy was gone. Well, maybe she was trying to play with Mable's head. Isn't that what Fairies did? The nasty ones, anyway. Mable's eyes darted around, but she saw nothing familiar. Maybe that was a good sign; it meant she was getting farther and farther away from the castle.
The trees here were closer together, denser, so Mable didn't have to work as hard through snowdrifts. But the pines kept light from penetrating through the branches, so the world around her was gray and creepy, making her skin crawl. She listened for the familiar trill of birds or chatter of squirrels, but the forest was eerily silent, only the breath of the wind making any sound.
The lack of ambient noise and the shadows made her heart pound, and Mable picked up the pace. A few minutes later, she saw a break in the trees ahead of her, and she shifted into a light jog. The parking lot had to be just ahead.
Mable huffed as she clambered over a small hill, putting a hand on a tree trunk and stopping to catch her breath.
She stared at the castle, the entrance to the outer courtyard only a few feet away from her.
Mable gasped, the panic she felt earlier a burning under her skin. She had been heading away from the castle when she left, hadn't she? She was sure of it.
Perhaps she got turned around. Mable spun so she was facing the opposite the castle, and half-walked, half-jogged in the other direction. The Fairy had to be wrong. Mable had just gotten turned around, that was all. The Fairy had distracted her, and she had gone in the wrong direction.
She would find her way back, it was impossible for her not to—
Mable's breath hitched as she again found herself at the outer gate of the castle.
"I told you so."
Mable whirled to face the Fairy. She stood leaning against a nearby tree, watching Mable solemnly. If her feet were cold from being barefoot in the snow, she didn't show it.
"T-this can't be right." Mable gasped. She felt shaky, like she had run for miles, and her heart wouldn't stop hammering.
The Fairy shook her head. "I'm sorry, for what it is worth. But you can keep running around here as much as you'd like, but you will keep ending up at these gates. That is what happened to the others."
A keening noise worked its way up her throat. "Can't you send me back?" she pleaded with the Fairy. "You have magic."
"Fairy magic is only so powerful. Even we cannot change this spell, or whatever it is. No, the only way to leave is to break the curse." The Fairy shrugged her shoulders.
"How can you not do anything?" Mable asked. "How can you just stand there and let this happen?" Even Mable didn't know exactly what she was referring to; herself or the curse.
The Fairy's blue eyes widened. "If you knew anything about Fairy magic," she said, her voice as cold as the world around her, "you'd know the reason we didn't cast the spell the Master wanted was to prevent this exact thing from happening. Magic doesn't work according to human logic, it is a law unto itself. Once the spell was cast, it made its own rules" Her voice warmed a little, turned encouraging. "It won't be so bad. You might find you actually like staying here."
"How could I?" Her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes. "How could I enjoy living here, knowing I'll n-never see my father or sisters again? T-they don't ever know what happened to me, they won't know that I'm safe." Her voice rasped as sobs shook through her.
The Fairy seemed marginally sympathetic. "I'm afraid that there is nothing I can do to help. The best thing you can do for now is head inside. It is quite cold out here, I imagine, and you will only make yourself ill standing out here. Besides, they are looking for you." The Fairy's icy blue eyes were focused behind Mable.
She whirled and saw a large form hurrying across the courtyard. Master Theo stopped at the bottom of the front steps, lion-like head moving side to side as if he was searching for someone.
Mable looked back over her shoulder; the Fairy had gone.
Numb, she walked back towards the castle. There was nowhere else for her to go. As she walked, she pictured her family's reaction to her disappearance.
Her father, who was so confused most of the time, would hover between worrying about her and forgetting about her. Poor Jeanne, who had practically raised her after their mother died, would be heartbroken at her disappearance. Logical Colette would wonder if Mable had run off, had abandoned them.
They would probably both wonder about that, and Mable wished she hadn't been so curt with Jeanne on the phone last time she spoke with her.
Mable made it to the front gate, and dropped to her knees. It was as if her body was so numb it had simply stopped working. Her lips quivered, tears dripping unbidden into the snow as she started to cry. She would never see them again. Her father, who she loved so much. Her two sisters whose approval she still desperately sought, even after a lifetime of bickering and arguments. They would never know how much she loved them, admired them, because over the years of daily chores and responsibilities it became so easy to forget to say it, to just assume they knew. She wished that she had gotten to tell them, at least once more before this nightmare. She hunched over on the snow and wept.
She wasn't sure how long it took Master Theo to realize where she was, but soon he was standing over her, opening the gate.
"Lady Mable? What are you doing out here?" He asked her. He wore a shapeless, badly stitched jacket over his furry form, though he must not have had boots. His bare paws appeared in her vision. "Are you hurt?"
"I can't leave." She whispered. She didn't know if she was answering him, or if she just had to hear the words out loud. "I tried.... I tried to leave, but the Fairy says I can't."
"What Fairy?" he asked sharply. His gold eyes peered into the woods behind her. "Rianon?" his ears twitched eagerly. "Did you see Rianon? Is she still here?" he started to move past her to go search.
Mable flew up out of the snow and leapt on him, punching anything she could reach. His inattention, his interest in a Fairy, burned out her misery and replaced it with unadulterated rage.
"Ow—Mable, what—ouch!" he yelped, as she pounded her fists on his chest.
"Her? That's who you are worried about?" she screeched. Her fists had a mind of their own as they pummeled his arms, his chest, his shoulders. "I'm trapped here because of you, and you are worried about some stupid Fairy?" She had never been this angry, this infuriated. She wanted to cry and scream and rage until she was hoarse, until she tired herself out so much she couldn't see her sister's and father's concerned faces in her mind.
"This is your fault!" she yelled at Master Theo. In her fury, she didn't even realize that, even as he grabbed her to stop her from hitting him, his paws were gentle as they held her arms to keep her back. He was far larger, his paws and teeth far more dangerous than her fists, but he didn't use them. "This is all your fault. You did this, this curse happened because of you." She shook herself out of his grip and glared up at him.
"You think I wanted this?" he demanded. "You think I wanted to be stuck as this...this monstrosity? You think I want my family, the people I swore to protect, to be imprisoned here because I made the wrong choice?"
"You went to the Fairy!" she spat.
"I did that to save them! So many of my people had died at the hands of those invaders. Labelle lost her mother and father; did you know that? They were killed in the first raid on our land. So many parents, children, aunts, uncles, fathers, mothers...all lost because I couldn't protect them!" His voice had risen to a roar. "So yes, I did this, I chose to ask for help from an inexperienced Fairy, and I paid for it. But considering the fact that people I care about, people I love are still alive, I would make the choice again."
They stared at each other for a long while, chests heaving as they both fought for composure. Mable's cheeks stung as a wind froze the leftover tears. She shivered.
To her surprise, Master Theo took off his enormous jacket and held it out to her. "Here." He told her, gold eyes on her feet.
Mable took it from him and wrapped in around her shoulders. It was delightfully warm, and she caught the faint smell of mint as she draped it around her.
"I know the choices I made hurt others." Master Theo said, finally looking her in the eye. "But I can't regret making them, because if I did, then that would mean the people who died meant nothing. It would mean the people who are still here, whose lives I did manage to save, mean nothing."
"Was there really no other choice?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Even if there was, I am not sure I would have taken it. I couldn't stand the thought of Labelle, or Maddie, or Lune being killed like the others. I couldn't stomach the thought of those men coming onto my lands and trying to take what was rightfully mine. I was so...angry, and afraid that they would take away all that mattered to me. I never stopped to think that me choosing this road would have these consequences." He hesitated, then said, "I never thought that my choice would lead to you losing what matters most to you."
Mable shifted a little, uncomfortable with the silence. "I am sorry, for what I said. About it being all your fault."
He shrugged. "It is all my fault, honestly."
"Ok, then I guess I'm just sorry for hitting you."
He made a noise that sounded almost like a laugh. "You aren't the first. When Labelle loses her temper, she hits twice as hard."
"Well, I'm sorry for sneaking out anyway. And I'm sorry I stole these boots."
"You stole from us?"
"If I was allowed to come and go as I wanted, I would have returned them." She told him defensively.
He cocked his head thoughtfully, making her smile a little. He looked like a confused dog.
"There may be a way to fix that." He rubbed his chin, and Mable wondered if he was going stroke his fur like a beard.
Another cold wind burst through the trees, making the snow glitter and dance as it was blown in the air.
Master Theo shivered. "Why don't we continue this inside? It's cold out here." He held out a paw to her.
She hesitated for a moment, but put her hand on his arm. His fur, she discovered, wasn't coarse like she had thought. In fact, it was soft and silky as human hair. He led her through the outer courtyard, around the fountain and the statues as they headed down the shoveled path to the front doors.
"How did you know I was out here, anyway?" Mable asked. "After all, it's not like I told anyone I was leaving."
"I, ah, went up to your room early this morning. When you didn't answer my knock, I thought you might have gone down to breakfast, but I couldn't find you there either. It was by pure luck I happened to glance out the window and see you darting out of the woods, but by the time I got outside, you were gone again."
Mable bit her lip. "That must have been the second time I tried to leave. I thought the Fairy had lied to me, but it turns out she was right. I can't leave." She blinked quickly so he wouldn't see the tears that filled her eyes.
"What Fairy was this?" he asked her, his voice shockingly gentle. "Do you know who she was?"
Mable shook her head.
"Well, if it was Rianon, I have no idea why she came back." Master Theo sighed. "I have not seen her in...well, since she failed to revert the spell the first time. I should have known she would not return." He glanced down at her sheepishly, "I'm afraid I didn't take it very well when she told me she couldn't turn me back. I got angry, and well..."
"Is that why she ran away?"
"Unfortunately. We discovered soon after that no one could leave the castle grounds. It is odd, because that really wasn't part of the original spell."
Mable's mouth tightened. "So, it's hopeless."
Master Theo led her up the steps. "I wouldn't say that. There may be a solution yet. One thing I have discovered after being stuck in this body for so long," he smiled at her as he opened the front doors. "Hope is a curse that can never be broken, no matter what."