Angel - In Dreams

“Virginia, I have to know. Did you marry him because you’re pregnant?”

What? How could her father think that? Couldn’t he see that she loved him? “Dad, I married Wolf because I love him! Why can’t you just see that?”

“I just don’t want you to throw your life away, that’s all.”

“Throw my life away? I’m finally happy, Dad. I love Wolf, and I’m happy about this baby. My whole life I’ve been afraid to let people in, and now that I have, I’m finally happy.”

Tony looked at his daughter and a smile started to creep up on his face. “I am happy for you then,” replied Tony. Virginia smiled and a tear ran down her face as she hugged her father. “Of course, I’m still going to kill Wolf after we rescue him,” Tony joked. (Well, half-joked.)

“You should like me, you know.”

“What!? Why?” Wolf growled.

She walked over to Wolf again, standing inches from his face. “Because I know everything about you. All of your fears, your secrets. Yet I do not judge you.” Her words seemed almost sincere.

“And you think Virginia does?” Wolf asked angrily.

“She burned you didn’t she?”

“That wasn’t Virginia. That was one of your dreams. You burned me, not her. You were the one who caused all of those images.” He watched as she slowly walked over to the middle of the room, and out of the darkness a mirror appeared. The mirror was large, much bigger than the traveling mirror. It looked beautiful but evil at the same time. She ran her hand over the cool glass and it came alive with a brilliant purple light. Wolf watched as the image on the mirror became an all too familiar one. It was his parents burning. He tried to look away, but like always he couldn’t.

“You mean these?” she asked.

“Look, Dad, we aren’t going to get any help in this village so we might as well leave, okay?”

“Virginia, we need to at least ask for directions or something?”

“Ask for directions to where? We don’t even know where we’re supposed to be going!” Virginia sighed from frustration. They’d been looking for nearly a day now, and had found nothing. Not even a clue as to where to go. Weren’t evil bad guys supposed to set a trap with clues or something?

“Well, maybe someone here has heard of this woman and knows where she lives,” replied Tony.

“What woman are you looking for?” asked a young female voice from behind them.

Tony and Virginia both turned to look at the same time. What they saw was a young woman, no older than Virginia, looking at them. “Excuse me. I apologize, but I couldn’t help but overhear that you were looking for someone. I thought I might be able to help.” The woman smiled at them sweetly, her green eyes shining.

“Uh, we were looking for, a um, a witch,” said Virginia nervously.

“A witch? Well, I don’t think there are any witches in this village. We try to avoid them.”

“Well this is a very old witch. She claims to be the teacher of Snow White’s step mother,” added Tony, hoping the woman wouldn’t think him crazy.

A tiny look of fear crossed the woman’s face

“Do you know of her?” asked Virginia.

“Why do you wish to find her?” asked the woman, now sounding a little nervous herself.

“I think she kidnapped my husband,” said Virginia. She had a feeling by the way this woman was acting that she did know of the mysterious witch.

“She’s kidnapped you’re husband?”

“Yes, and we have no idea how to find her.”

“Well, I have heard of her. You see there is an old tale that says she lives somewhere around here, but no one has ever tried to look for her.”

“Could you help us?” asked Tony.

“I guess I could.”

“Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. By the way I’m Virginia and this is my father Tony.”

The woman’s smile returned as she brushed her black hair from her face. “I’m Andraia.”

Wolf sat in the dark, alone now. The woman was gone. He didn’t know where to - didn’t care either. He looked to where the mirror had been. He couldn’t see it any more. Luckily she hadn’t let the whole image play out. He didn’t know what he’d do if he had to go through the whole thing over again. That’s probably why she had done it. She wanted to keep him sane.

He pulled at his chains again, with no luck. “Cripes! I’ll never get out of here!” he yelled/whimpered aloud.

“So do you know where we’re going?” asked Tony.

“According to the stories, we are on the right track,” replied Andraia, a little annoyed at Tony. He’d already asked that question a dozen times.

“Just ignore him,” whispered Virginia. “This is a really nice thing you’re doing for us.”

“Oh, I don’t mind. Besides, I’ve always wanted to see if the stories were true.”

“Tell me about these stories.”

“Well, they say that a very old witch who lives in these woods was the first to use the magic mirrors.”

“So she really did teach Snow White’s stepmother?”

“You mean Queen Marina?”asked Andraia.

“Yes.”

“Well that’s what they say, but since she told you herself, I guess it’s true.” She paused for a second, hesitating. “I have to know. What did she look like?”

“Well, I uh, didn’t really see her. She was dressed all in black, and she wore a hood over her face.”

“Oh,” she replied, almost disappointed.

“I think we should camp here for the night,” said Tony from ahead of them.

“Do you know any more about Marina?” asked Virginia later that night. She and Andraia sat around the small campfire talking while Tony slept.

“I know that she came from my village. She was the prettiest girl any one had ever seen. She had many suitors, but she fell in love with a prince. The prince was Snow White’s father. The prince didn’t love her, though. He fell in love and married another.

“Snow White’s mother,” put in Virginia.

“Yes. Marina was enraged. She ran away from the village, and somehow found her way to the witch we seek. They say the witch taught her how to use the magic of the mirrors. When she was older she learned the queen had died. She eventually went to the king and he married her because of his loneliness.”

“How come I’ve never heard this story before?” asked Virginia when Andraia was done.

“It is only known around here. Most have never heard of the witch.”

“I hope Wolf’s okay,” said Virginia looking up at the moon.

“Wolf?” asked Andraia.

“My husband. He’s from the Second Kingdom.”

“Is he a wolf?”

“Half-wolf.”

“Don’t worry. A lot of people around here are afraid of wolves, but I’m not.”

Virginia smiled warmly at the woman. “Thank you, for all of your help.”

“Oh no, it’s a pleasure.

“Wake up, Wolfy.”

Wolf bolted awake. He hadn’t even realized that he’d fallen asleep. “What do you want now?” he growled.

“Oh, Puppy, I just wanted to show you something.” She walked over to the center of the room, her black hair flowing behind her. Before she got to the center of the room, the mirror appeared again. Once again she ran her hand over the glass, but this time a completely different image appeared.

Wolf gasped at what he saw. There in the glass was Virginia asleep on the ground, and Tony a little farther away. “Huff puff, what are you going to do to them?” growled Wolf.

“Oh, nothing much, Wolfy. Just watch and learn.” As she said this she began to rub her hand over them mirror again, and this time Wolf saw Virginia, but she was no longer sleeping, she was walking around inside of Wendell’s castle.

“It’s a dream,” Wolf said to himself a little to loudly, for the woman heard him.

“Yes, it is. Another one of those pesky dreams.” She said this with a smile and Wolf watched as she stepped into the mirror and disappeared. She had been doing the same thing to her! Poor little sausage. Wolf watched Virginia’s dream. So far nothing terrible had happened. The he saw her. It was the woman, only Virginia called her mom. Why? Then it came to him. She had taken the form of Virginia’s mother so she could haunt her dreams.

“Mom, I didn’t murder you!” screamed Virginia from the mirror. Wolf whimpered. He couldn’t stand this. All he could do was watch while his mate went through this torture. Of course, she had known this. That’s why she had made him watch.

“Of course you did. Don’t you remember dear? You killed me, then you killed your stupid mutt of a husband.”

“Nooo!” screamed Virginia from the mirror, and he winced when he saw what Virginia had seen. The image showed her outside now, and nearby was a stake like the ones his parents had burned on, except it wasn’t his parents burning, it was him! He watched the horrified realization come over his beloved’s face as she realized she was holding a burning torch in her hand.

“Noooo! How could I have? Nooo!” screamed Virginia. She was about to scream out again, but she felt someone shaking her.

“Virginia! Wake up! Wake up!” It was Andraia.

“What happened?” asked Virginia still dazed.

“You were having a nightmare!”

“What? It was a dream? It was so real.” Then she sighed. It was just another dream, just like the others. This was the second one where she’d killed Wolf.

“Are you okay?” asked Andraia.

“Uh, yeah. I was just disoriented, that’s all.”

Wolf growled in frustration. “Cripes! Cripes! Cripes!” He was alone in the dark room again. Where had that witch gone? Well I’m not exactly looking forward to her return anyway, he thought to himself.

“It isn’t that much farther now,” said Andraia. “But there is a village not too far away. We should probably stay there tonight.”

Tony didn’t argue. They had been walking all day, and he was tired. He’d been watching Andraia most of the day. He’d woken up the night before and found her missing, but he hadn’t asked her where she'd gone. He’d fallen back asleep and didn’t know when she'd come back.

“It’s just a mile from here,” said Andraia.

They arrived in the village ten minutes later and went to the tavern to eat.

“So doesn’t anyone miss you back in your village? I mean, won’t your family wonder where you went?” asked Tony.

“No, I am afraid I have no family,” replied Andraia.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Virginia sympathetically.

“No, I’m used to being alone.”

“So how much farther is the place the stories talk about?” asked Tony.

“Oh, we should probably get there before dark tomorrow. We should go to sleep now, and wake at first light.”

“Oh Wolfy, did you miss me? Sorry I was gone all day. I had some business to attend to.”

Wolf didn’t know what she meant by this, but didn’t dare ask.

“Did you enjoy the show last night? My little pet?”

Wolf’s only response was a growl.

“What a shame. I did.”

The next morning they awoke at dawn and set out again. Virginia was worried about Wolf. She really hoped he was all right. Who was the woman terrorizing them anyway? Maybe she should ask Andraia more about her? “What else do you know about this woman?”

“Not much. No one knows where she came from, and her name is unknown. Like I said not many people even know she exists,” replied Andraia. “Oh, wait! This is the path! I guess at least part of the legend is true.”

Virginia looked at the path. It was even worse than the Deadly Swamp. The path was dark, very dark, and the trees surrounding it were twisted into bizarre positions. That wasn’t the worst part, though. The disturbing part was that there was no sound coming from the path. The rest of the forest was filled with the chirps of birds and the scurries of scuffles and rabbits, but the woods surrounding that path were silent.

“We have to go in there?” asked Tony.

Without answering, Andraia started onto the path. Virginia looked around nervously. She’d always heard that the most horrible sound was dead silence. Now she knew it was true.

“I can’t believe it’s real!” said Andraia ahead of her on the path.

“How will we know when we get there?” asked Tony.

“I guess we’ll just know,” replied Andraia.

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Virginia thought about Wolf, and Tony thought about what he was going to do when he found Wolf.

“Oh my!” Virginia heard Andraia say from ahead.

“What is it?” asked Virginia running to her. She stopped when she saw it. It was amazing. What stood before them was a crystal wall. Virginia couldn’t see any more of it because of the trees.

“I suppose this is what you meant?” said Tony in awe.

“How do we get in?” asked Virginia walking over to it, followed by Tony. She ran her hand over the surface. It was cold, ice cold.

“Oh, that’s simple, Virginia,” said Andraia from behind them, but she sounded different. Not sweet like before, but cold. As cold as the great wall before them.

Virginia turned to look at her. “Andraia?”

“Virginia, Virginia. You really shouldn’t trust strangers.” As she said this walked over to the wall and rubbed her hand over the surface like Virginia had, except this time a mirror appeared. “They might not turn out to be a stranger at all,” she said with a smile, and Virginia recognized her voice.

“You’re...” Before she could finish Andraia grabbed her and shoved her into the mirror.