Nerdy Birdie Stories: Poison Apple
So I thought I would do a new series of posts. I have some of my writing on figment, and I thought I would share the ones that I have displayed on the website. I will post a new one when I have finished them and posted on figment.
Please comment on my stories, I encourage it. I would like to hear what my readers think of my writing. One thing I do ask of my readers, that is very very important to me, is please do not steal my writing. I have everything that I have written on paper and computer and it is dated. If you respect me on my writing, thank you.
Summary of Poison Apple
A modern take on the classic fairytale, Snow white. Where Gwen Snow is surprised by her father to meet her new stepmother. She may look normal and nice but something is not quite right that leads to a disaster that no prince would be able to save her from.
If you wish to read the story continue after the break….
I never thought this would happen to me, but why did it have to happen to me?
"You need a mother figure." My father said to me as he introduced me to my new stepmother.
"If you haven't noticed, I haven't had one in the last ten years. Nor do I need a new one." He's treating this as though it is a new phone situation. I looked at my new stepmother from head to toe and began to study her.
She was twenty years younger than my father, taller than him too. She looked like she was really nervous next to my happy hobbit of a father. She wore a vintage style dress she could have sewn herself, and blue pointed toed pumps that looked to be on the expensive side, but it still matched the rest of her. Her dark brunette hair matched the style of clothing as well. When I looked into her eyes, through that nervous expression, the cold black color of them told me a different story.
"You're right she does look like her mother. Her ebony hair looks just like hers. My name is Lilith; It's nice to meet you Gwen." She said with fluidity as if she wasn't really nervous.
"It's nice to meet you too." I said as I tediously shook the hand of the woman I just barely met. I took a look at her professionally polished nails with cute designs on them and compared them to my week old crappy an hour before I left for school. Some how this relationship between me and her might possibly work. I quickly took my hand away, and stared at my father who looked like he was underneath a spell that she had cast upon him to force us to be in this situation.
"So how long have you known before you hitched a ride to Vegas and eloped?" This was just one of many theoretical guess I had on what they did.
"It has been two years since we met?" My father said. I was just finding out about this now? Lilith began to hold on to my father as though she has not yet gotten off the fantasy roller coaster and stepped on to earth of reality. My father touched her hand to try to comforting her. "Are you alright?"
Lilith nodded. She looked like she was getting dizzy with a burst of breathe, she replied, "Yes. No." My father lowered on to the steps of the stair case.
"I'll get you a chair." He said and ran out of the room.
"Are you really okay?" I asked her, she seemed to have more trouble breathing.
"I probably didn't get enough to eat. We immediately flew back to surprise you."
"Well you defiantly surprised me."
I could tell that she began to examine from head to toe, just as I did as soon as she walked into the room. The happy dizzy expression had disappeared. "Nice boots." She said in a sarcastic mean tone that she knew they were the only lucky pair I could find at a thrift store. I knew I wasn't presentable for the surprise that my father just gave me. Yet, I wasn't expected to be. No one informed me about anything.
It seemed like forever for my father to return with a chair for Lilith. I helped my hobbit father get Lilith to the chair. Apparently he did more than get a chair, he made a reservation at the most expensive restaurant in town. Money doesn't seem to be an issue to my father it seems like. Though he was concerned about money because money is his life. He used to be all about saving money after he started he company. But now, he was kind of flushing it down the toilet.
I slowly walked up the stairs to sneak away from the puppy-love couple. "Where are you going young lady? " My father asked me.
I sulked, stopped and turned around to face him. His round nose always seemed to wiggle when he was talking in a serious tone to me. It made me giggle in my head, because if I did it out loud I would have to explain myself. "You said we have a reservation at eight. Well, it is five now and i would like to be super clean for tonight." I slowly took steps backwards up the stairs as i said this to my father.
Lilith looked at what was wearing as I ascended the stairs waiting for his reply. "Oh just let her go. She might as well go change for this special night." she said.
"Alright, but be down here and ready to go by seven sharp."
"Will do." I saluted my father and scurried up the rest of the stairs and down the hallway. Lilith seemed like a friendly person, but that weird feeling was still bugging me that something was wrong. I took a look at my arm and there was a large scratch on it that wasn't there before. It didn't bleed, but it stung a little bit as I touched it to examine it. I just shrugged it off and continued to my room.
For about an hour I spent most of the time getting ready, so I could look presentable in front of my stepmother. I even put a new coat of nail polish, after I removed the week old chipped color that was originally on my nails. I hate dressing up for such occasions. Just as i was putting on a lace white dress that dropped just above my knees and had a cutout in the back,with third quarter sleeves, my computer was ringing. I often chatted with my brothers every couple of days. I was the only girl in the family, and they always missed me. The only reason I don't see them much anymore us because they have lives of their own, but they seem to make the time on holidays and vacations. I clicked the button to answer the call, and four out of six of my brothers showed up on the screen. "Where's Asa and Richard? I asked my brothers.
"Asa is starting his first shift at the hospital, and Richard has wild kids running around. And hello Gwen." said Asher. I waved at the screen.
"That's right I forgot that lazy bum is too busy to come by anymore."I said about Asa as i tried to put the final touches on myself for dinner, using the camera as a mirror.
"So what's the occasion?" one of my brothers asked.
"Our father just got married and we're going out to celebrate." I rolled my eyes to show them how excited I was.
"Our father got married? Why? When?" the same brother asked.
"Is she hot?" asked one.
"What does she look like?" another asked.
"Let's get to your questions before there is more. First off, Yes. I don't know and I don't know. Second, really is that all you think about? Thirdly, the best I could say is kind of like a pinup model." I said just to amuse my brother. "I don't what it is, but there is something not right about her."
"What do you mean?" Asher asked.
"Well, she seemed nervous during her appearance, but when she talked to me it, it was a though there was no cracks in her voice at all.I know when I speak to anybody friends and family my voice cracks all the time. Sometimes I can't form words perfectly."
"I'm the same as well sometimes, and I'm a lawyer." Asher laughed.
"When she looked at me though, after nearly passing out. I don't know how to fully describe it. Time seems to be ticking down before I gotta go; I need to be ready to leave by seven. Bye, love you all!" I waved at the screen.
I got several replies of goodbye back before logging out. I then tied my hair back to cute hairstyle, which unfortunately kept coming apart So I ended up leaving down and curling it. I made it downstairs just at seven, after putting on my boots. Lilith was waiting in the foyer. Not much of her look changed except for the color of the dress was now a black cocktail dress and wore Christian Louboutin pumps. She once again eyed at me from head to toe; I could tell she didn't like ensemble. Frankly, I didn't care.
I was surprised about the rest of the night, I though Lilith would complain about what I was wearing but she seemed nicer for the rest of the night. My father saw the scratch on my arm, I told him that there was nothing to worry about. Lilith didn't make any comment about it, she just sat there and ate her dinner.
The next few weeks seemed pleasant, as Lilith made dinner for us. She tried to take me shopping but I was interested in the book store and the pet store. I could tell that she was trying to bond with me as much as she can because my father had to keep going out on business and just like me, she was bored. One day as I was walking through the hallway to take clean laundry back to my room, I heard Lilith's voice coming from the master bedroom. The door was ajar just a few inches and I peered in. Lilith was standing front of the mirror, sing and speaking to it. There was a few choice words that caught my attention.
"Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of then all? Certainly not Gwen."
"What the hell?" I said under my breath. I quickly realized my comment was too loud and she turned around towards me. I hid next to the doorway before the ominous sound of footsteps headed my way; she opened the door and saw me trying to hide next to the door.
"Hello Gwen, is there anything I can help you with?"
I started to whistle to the air. " I'm looking for a dust bunny underneath the vanity here in the hallway. It was here the last time I swept through, I named it Peter. Have you seen it around?"
She gave me a look as though I was crazy. I am, on the days that I clean. She pressed her lips together and said "No." I continued onward whistling for the dust bunny that didn't exist.
I felt she was staring at me doing this; I stopped for a moment and turned around. " Are you okay Lilith, living in this big house, having a new husband who is gone a lot recently?"
"I'm fine. " She said as she started to relax against the doorway. "What about you, having a new stepmother so quickly?"
"I'm good with it. I just wish I knew before hand so my brothers could have been informed. And so that we all can be at the ceremony that we didn't go to."
"I did ask you father about you and your brothers, but he said that it would be our secret until we arrived to the house with the surprise. he told me everything about you and your brothers. How you're the only girl, and the youngest. As well how your mother passed away. I didn't mean to take a position so quickly. You are a very pretty girl, no doubt about it. But I don't mean to take your mother's place."
"I know you're not, but to add somebody new into the equation our big family, it just seems too big. And i have always had my brothers and father to count on. I don't need somebody else to be part of it. Don't get me wrong, I like you and all, but I have all the family I need. You are just basically, seen through the eyes of my father, dirt that is trying to fill up a hole in my life that has already been filled." That was when I saw her face change from a bit a small smile to a straight line. I knew she wasn't pleased with what I had just said. "I'm going to do some homework now. So if you see a dust bunny lying around, let me know that you have found peter and I will clean him up."
Our moments of friendship, happiness, hearts, and smiles was over. I just hope I didn't push her too far with what I had said.
Later that night when I was deep in my sleep, I heard snipping. Why would I hear the sound of snipping this late at night? I started to reach for my lamp, and suddenly my arm started burning. I shook it off, until I felt it again, again, and again. Then all of a sudden, there was a cracking sound and pain; I screamed. I was unable to breathe. I kicked on what ever was on top of me cutting of my air for what seemed like minutes and finally I felt something fly off of me. Before anything else would happen, I reached for my lamp and turned it on. Lilith was on the floor knocked out. She had a handful of hair in one hand, and a pair of scissors in the other. My breathing became harsh because of everything that has just happened seemed way too fast. I grabbed my cellphone to dial 911, as the phone rang, I decided to run to the bathroom, I had to sneak around the passed out Lilith in order to see the damage that she had done to me.
I looked in the mirror and saw a reflection of a person I couldn't recognize. It was me standing in front of the mirror, but my hair had been butchered. What was once long locks of wavy ebony hair now looked like a curly short mess of what I had as a child. My stepmother had just tried to take my hair and kill me for it.
When I suddenly realized what had actually happened, I looked at my arm and saw that it was like my hair, butchered and broken. Blood was gushing out of my arm because of the deep cuts she had made. It was the same arm that I had scratched on it weeks before.
"911, what's your emergency?" The operator asked.
"Yeah, my stepmother just tried to kill me, and bleeding severely." I said calmly because I really didn't know how to react.
"Alright miss, can you tell me where you live?"
With all the blood that was in front of me, I passed out. I could hear the operator's voice in the distance.
* * *
I woke up a few hours later, I had a few hysterical fits at what had happened to me. Often mentioning, that I wanted to kill Lilith for ehat she did. After I calmed down,my father came by to bring me some of my things and see how I was dealing with everything, because he was told I would be in the hospital for a few days. He left shortly afterwards to take Lilith home.
I sat in the hospital bed reading one of my favorite books, The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury. My brother Asa, who is a resident at the hospital, was in the chair next to me asleep after his thirty-six hour shift. His dark brown hair looked messier, than it was when he first started; wit the gel being the factor that is holding in it's messy place. He was the one who drew the shortest straw, in order to keep an eye on me. The others were trying to come. A man in his late twenties, wearing jeans and a leather jacket stood by the open doorway.
"Are you Gwen Snow?"
"Yes, I am. Is there something that I can help you with?" I closed the book in the middle of my favorite story called "The Rocket Man".
The man pulled out his badge and as quickly as he pulled it out to show me, he put it into his pocket. "I'm detective Liam Hunt. I'm here to investigate what exactly happened last night. It looks like you did a number on her."
Me? Hurt her? I'm the one in the hospital bed, with bruises on my face, my arm slashed and broken. I'm the one who wasn't released because my fits and now have to stay for a few more days as they give me a psychological test and make sure there are no more injuries. I'm the one who got my hair hacked off by a psycho that hates me for reasons I don't understand. The most she got from me was a giant bruise on her stomach from when I kicked her off of me as she tried to smother me with a pillow. I chortled at the detective for me supposedly hurting her as badly as she hurt me.
"But you obviously look worse than her." The detective sat in the chair on the opposite side of my brother. "Your stepmother wishes to press charges against you."
My laughing turned hysterical. It was loud enough to wake Asa up. "I need to press charges against her. She did more damage to me, than I did to her."
"Do you want to?" he asked me.
Asa interrupted before I tried to say anything else. "If you want to continue talking to my sister, you'll have to talk to her with her lawyer around."
I'm pretty sure he believes me more than he does Lilith. I want to talk to him without Asher present."
He sighed, "Alright" he yawned. He began to stretch after waking from his slumber and headed out toward the doorway of the hospital room.
"Can you get me a Milky Way?" I asked before he completely left the room.
"Anything for you little sis!" he shouted oh his way out the door.
"Thank you!" I shouted back in a childish tone.
Detective Hunt laughed at me. "Only girl in the family I'm guessing?"
"Yep. I have six brothers. I used to have seven but he passed away a few years ago."
Detective Hunt cleared his throat,"So what can you tell me what happened last night?"
"I really don't like going into detail about it. I woke up after I heard a snipping noise, then my arm was aching in pain that numbed out, because I had difficulty breathing because I was being smothered, kicked around when I was able to breathe again; I found Lilith on the floor. With scissors in her hand. Everything seemed blurred out afterwards. Even reading this book my mind can only still register is scissors bad, blood not good, hair gone." I held up The Illustrated Man to show him the book.
"Why do you think she cut your hair?"
"That question bring up various answers, but honestly, I have no clue why. I mean I was talking to her earlier that day and all of a sudden, I'm in this hospital bed talking to you." My eyes began to to tear up, just a little bit. I haven't cried since my mother passed away. In such a situation as this one, I need to cry at the moment.
I noticed Detective Hunt getting uncomfortable. He pulled out his card, wrote something on the back of it and handed it to me. "if you need anything else, call me. I also put my personal cell number here as well, just in case you wanted someone else outside the family."
"Thanks..." I said.
"I'll see if I can find anything about her." He started to sit up and leave the chair. "Be safe, Miss Snow."
"I'll try." He smiled before leaving the room. My brother Asa entered a few seconds later with his cup of coffee and my candy bar.
He handed me the candy bar. "So what did you talk about?"
"Not much. Just how bad of a bed head you have."
"Really? Must have been an interesting conversation." He stirred in sugar and cream into his coffee and then started to take a sip of it. "Blegh...awful coffee." he shrugged his shoulders and continued drinking it. " I was wondering if you would like to live with me for a while. You know, until you are fully healed." He sat back in the seat before he left for coffee.
"How about until next semester?' I suggested.
"How about until you solve your problem with Lilith?"
"Like I said, how about next semester?"
"Come on Gwen, you're going to need to face her sooner or later. How much danger do you think you're going to be in?"
"Well obviously, you weren't there when she nearly killed me last night." My voice elevated in volume.
"Alright. Alight. Jeez...we'll see how things go. For now, just relax before the psych test and we'll get you to my place." He got up from the chair again and walked across the room.
"Wait, where are you going?"
"I'm going to talk to our father, about you staying with me and what to do about the Lilith incident. As far as I see she's not a good person, knowing what happened to you last night just a week after she arrived." Then he was gone.
My father came in a few minutes later, he told me that Asher will be arriving at the airport in an hour. He asked me how I was doing, I replied: "Fine, fine. Just in a little shocked still I guess. I just don't understand, why?" he told me he didn't know either, even though he had been with her for two years before they got married Lilith didn't seem the type of person who would do such a thing. He hugged me, kissed me on the cheek, and then walked out. In recent years, I have been distant with him but not this distant.
I passed my psych test a day or so later and was released later that same day. My father and Asa agreed that it was best for me to stay with my brother while everything that happened between me and Lilith was sorted out. I walked into Asa's apartment; it felt smaller than home, then again it was. For now. But it also felt crowded. It felt safe. My brother Asher walked up and hugged me. He told me everything was going to be okay. He told me a joke that always made me laugh.
"There's that smile I was looking for. I haven't seen it personally for so long, I really miss it." He said, before he walked over to Asa.
I walked towards the bathroom to finally take a look at my current state. The reflection in the mirror seemed like a sad shell of the person I was a few days ago. My arm wrapped in a sling after it was sliced and broken, the hair that once sat below my shoulders was now a black bob of curls tied up in a ribbon; I found with my things that were brought to me.
I still wonder why Lilith would do such a thing like this. I never thought this would happen to me. Why did this happen to me?
Was it because I was in her way to get my father? Or was was it when I told her I called her dirt in a figurative sense, because she was thought out as person that was trying to fill the hole my father needed to fill in our life? I wish there was answers.
Asa knocked on the bathroom door, "There is someone here to see you." I emerged out of the bathroom my brother following behind me.
It was Detective Hunt who had visited me in the hospital. "I came to let you know that we arrested your stepmother due to previous charges she had in the past. If you wish to press charges now, you may."
"Previous charges? What previous charges did you have against her?" Asher asked, because of course the lawyer in him had to.
"Well, she had assaulted one of her co-workers four years ago, claiming that Mrs. Snow, then Miss Queen would slash her throat and cut her head off. The emotional damage has taken a toll on the victim and she killed herself two years ago. The family is suing your stepmother."
"That's pretty brutal." Asa said.
"Her history with psychotic breaks goes back to her childhood. She spent most of her life in an insituti..."
"I want to press charges." I interrupted Hunt. If she had done this to others why not put her back where she belongs.
"Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, I am."
"We'll bring her down to the station, for the paperwork. Right now, I think it's time for her to rest." Asher said and escorted the detective out the door.
My other brother Asa gave me a piece of pie. "Where did this come from?"
"Don't know it was at the door when I arrived after picking Asher up from the airport. I told a few neighbors about what happened, maybe it's from one of them."
"Looks like its apple. It smells good too." I took a bite of it. That was the last thing I remember.
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