Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a beautiful princess.
Beautiful in both body and mind, the princess was loved and adored by all. Every single day the king, the queen, and all of the castle attendants let her know just how beautiful she was. The birds of the kingdom treated her with beautiful twittering melodies. Even the wind, seeking to please her, used a strong gust to cause a crown of white clovers to settle upon her head.
One day, there was a huge ball at the castle. There, the princess met the prince of a neighboring kingdom, and when these two beautiful youths locked eyes, it was love at first sight.
“Oh, beauteous one. Would you lend me your hand in dance?”
“Yes, gladly.”
The room was full of joy as everyone looked upon the couple, as perfect for one another as they were.
However, a wicked witch lived in the forest surrounding the castle, and she was full of jealousy at the princess’s beauty.
This ugly witch was loved by no one and spent her days deep in the woods concocting vile potions. As rumors of the beautiful princess reached her ears, her heart filled with hatred for this woman who wanted for nothing at all.
“I know what I’ll do—I’ll make a special potion just for her. One sip and she’ll be transformed into a pig! Hee hee hee!”
Disguised as one of the castle’s maids-in-waiting, the witch sped to the castle using her magic. At the ball, she approached the princess and offered her the potion, declaring it to be a most delectable beverage.
In that moment, disaster struck! The beautiful princess was transformed into a little piglet. The witch cackled with laughter at the success of her trickery.
Fortunately for all, there was no need to worry. The birds had seen everything and told the panic-stricken room the truth.
“That piglet is our princess! Don’t harm her!”
“That woman is a foul witch! Kill her!”
Hearing this, the prince grabbed the disguised witch and threw her from the castle’s balcony.
The witch let out a frightful scream as she plummeted to her death. As her screams faded, the most mysterious thing occurred—the princess transformed back into her beautiful self.
And so, the prince and the princess lived happily ever after.
✧ ✧ ✧
“Ahh, what a lovely story.”
Cecily Ramps held the book in her small hands and clutched it close to her chest. She was a pretty young girl, with flowing flaxen hair and sparkling red eyes.
Puffing out her rosy cheeks with a sigh, she bathed in the afterglow of the story. Cecily had only just finished reading this picture book, but it had already become one of her favorites. She was certain that she would read it again and again over the coming nights, and that it would never fail to fill her breast with excitement. She was sure of it, for after all, Cecily loved fairy tales which had a touch of the dramatic to them.
Two young lovers meet and then, after many twists and turns, they end up together and find happiness. Such tales bursting with excitement and passion had filled her heart with joy ever since she could remember.
And most of these stories had something in common: the appearance of someone who would somehow impede the two lovers.
A stepmother and stepsisters. Fiendish crones and sinister witches who lived by the sea or in a forest somewhere. Ugly toads... That sort of thing.
Of these, the one that appeared most in her favorite stories was the witch. These witches usually hid away somewhere concocting mysterious potions and using them to cause trouble for the main character of the stories.
“It was a witch who tried to ruin things in this story too. Why don’t they ever learn?”
A potion to transform a girl in the prime of her youth into a pig? Absolutely dreadful. Thank goodness there weren’t any mirrors at the ball, Cecily thought as she put her hand to her breast. If the poor princess had seen herself transformed into such a terrible state, she might have died of shock.
“Unluckily for the wicked witch, though, she stands no chance in the face of true love.”
Cecily let out a precocious laugh. She wasn’t sure herself what exactly love was or what it entailed, but she wanted to experience such a wonderful thing herself.
“A dashing prince atop a white horse...”
Her imagination leapt to this image of a prince she had yet to even meet. Just what would this prince look like? What would he sound like?
“Cecily! You can’t have both love and marriage at once!”
It was a while later, on the day of her tenth birthday, that her mother said those words.
Cecily froze as she took in what her mother, Greta, had said. She had been reading a picture book as usual when Greta had suddenly burst into her room and uttered those words. Cecily still couldn’t comprehend what she meant by them.
“Wh-What do you mean, mom? Daddy loves you, doesn’t he?”
Unable to even stand, Cecily could barely get these words out. After all, that was her truth. From what she could see, her parents got on well; they were still acting lovey-dovey with each other, as if in their honeymoon phase.
All the same, Greta continued coldly, trembling all over, “That’s because I made him drink a love potion!”
Krakoom!
Greta’s words sent a shock through the young Cecily, as if she’d been hit by a bolt of lightning.
✦ ✦ ✦
In fact, the weather outside was equally stormy. Lightning flashed through the sky outside, and thunder rumbled in the distance. The downpour seemed to cut into the very earth, striking it with endless force.
Maybe that’s why the creak of the window frame nearly drowned out Cecily’s tremulous voice.
“A...love potion?”
This wasn’t the first she’d heard of a love potion. After all, they had appeared in her stories countless times.
A forbidden concoction that the witch would use in order to make people her own. When the prince drank one, he would fall in love with the witch instead of the princess.
In her shock, Cecily could only gulp.
“Mom, you don’t mean to say...”
“Yes, you’ve guessed it, Cecily. I’m a witch.”
Cecily hoped that her mother was lying. But Greta only nodded, shattering any possibility of that.
The images of those nasty witches began to overlay with her very own mother.
“Look at my eyes, Cecily.”
Still in a daze, Cecily gazed into her mother’s eyes—red ones so beautiful you felt yourself being sucked into them.
“Red eyes are proof of being a witch. It’s not just me. The girls who live next door, and even you, Cecily—have red eyes, do you not?”
Cecily realized something just then.
Filled with a sudden impulse she rifled through her picture books.
This can’t be...
Each witch that appeared in the pages of those stories had red eyes. So many people around Cecily had red eyes that she had never thought anything of it.
“We live in a village of witches, Cecily. You’re ten years old today, are you not? It is the rule of witch society that all witches learn the truth of their identity on their tenth birthday.”
Cecily was too stunned to speak. She felt as if the foundation of everything she had known up till now was crumbling away beneath her feet, like sand.
“I’m...a witch?”
Her whisper was drowned out by the dark, relentless rain.