Briar Rose and The Infinite Heart

   Once upon a time, in a kingdom far away, a king and a queen wish to have a child, but find that they can’t. Refusing to take no for an answer, the king decides to invite the fairest fairies of the land to help them create one from scratch. Using limbs of other failed childbirths and some magic they can make a daughter that is alive and, most importantly, beautiful as the infinite sky above.

And so, each fairy that comes brings one limb and a blessing of beauty. Torso, legs, feet, arms, a neck, and a head. One by one a vaguely human shape came together in the center of the table. They ate while they celebrated the birth of their soon-to-be daughter.

The fairies were almost done when another fairy emerged, slamming the door closed as she walked in and demanded, “Why was I not invited?”

Murmurs from the other fairies started immediately. Why wasn’t she invited? It was obvious to anyone with eyes. This was the ugliest woman in the land. They wanted a beautiful child; any gift that this fairy could give them was not worth their effort.

Even so, she was here now. They couldn’t very well ask her to leave. Slighting a magical being as this any further might result in the destruction of the kingdom, and so they kept quiet as the angry fairy approached the girl’s body with a gift of her own. A hand and a dark light that must be… probably more like a curse than a blessing.

“Hey, wait,” a fairy said, “That hand is missing a finger.”

“That it is,” The Ugly Fairy said. “Specifically, the one you point with. A hand like this will make normal tasks like writing and spinning thread difficult.”

“Well,” The king said with an awkward laugh, “a princess shouldn’t do such a thing anyway. The servants can do those things.”

“Even so, she will try. That is my blessing. Before she can turn into an adult, she will die while trying to spin thread.”

One of the fairies stood and said, “Now wait a second, that isn’t a blessing. Surely you must follow the rules.”

“I am. It’s a blessing that the princess will forever be known as beautiful, because she will die before that beauty has any chance to fade.”

And with that, not a single person could argue. The blessing was given to the child and the Ugly Fairy left, leaving the king, queen, and other fairies to mourn the child before she was even born.

“We aren’t done yet,” One fairy said, “I haven’t given my gift yet.”

“Oh, thank you!” The queen cried.

“Please say you can fix this.” The king said.

“I can’t remove the Ugly Fairie’s blessing, but I can add something that should fix it.”

She placed an organ on the girl’s torso. It beat like a drummer, and the fairy said, “I give this child a heart, and the blessing that with it, she will never die.”

And with that, the room cheered with happiness once again, completely unaware of the terrible fate they now drew to the princess.

Fifteen years later, in that very same kingdom, walks a beautiful princess. A girl with long blonde hair; the fairest in the land. Her name is Briar Rose. She catches the eyes of all like a flower attracting bees; all they can do is stare.

“Miss Rose, please come back. You haven’t finished studying,” her teacher said.

“But how can a study while the spring flowers are all in bloom? Please, I need to leave and see them all.”

Knowing that she doesn’t have the authority to stop her, and also acknowledging that couldn’t disappoint her even if she did, she relents. “Go on now. Just please be back before dinner.”

“I will!” she said, but she never is. The servants always have to retrieve her from whatever conversation she’s started with the locale townsfolk. As irritating as it is, no one can truly hold it against her; she may not be very smart, but she more than makes up for that with a huge heart. She’s so kind that people don’t know how to say no.

She walks down the castle courtyard. Even with the heart that the fairy gave her, the king still decided to ban thread within his kingdom borders. Feeling that she is more than well protected from the Ugly Fairy’s ‘blessing’, they let her roam wherever she wants.

As she’s smelling the spring roses, she comes by another woman. An older woman who happens to be spinning thread, and because of the ban, she has never in her life seen anything like it.

She comes right up to the woman and asks, “What is that? What are you doing?”

“I’m spinning thread,” She explains, and she holds it out to the young princess, “Would you like to try your hand?”

“Yes please!”

As Briar Rose takes it, the older woman smiles a little too brightly. In truth, she has been waiting for this day all too long. This is the Ugly Fairy in disguise. Here to enact her true act of revenge for not being invited to the party, she planned on killing the young princess herself.

She attempts to hold it, but with her bad hand it’s very difficult. After a few moments she decides that it isn’t her but the tool. To figure out what was wrong with it, she turned it close to her eye to see what the problem was. She ended up sticking right in her eye.

The Ugly Fairy screamed as the young princess fell over dead. Why the hell did she do that? She had wanted Briar Rose to die, but she didn’t expect it be like that. Her trick was that she would get a splinter while trying and that would poison her to death. This…. Was far more gruesome.

She turned away, not wanting to look at the body a moment longer while trying to be happy that her revenge had been achieved at last. It was hard with the feeling of dread that settled in her stomache.

From behind her, Briar Rose stood once again. Her skin pale as if deathly sick, and the spindle still in her eye. She didn’t pull it out. Didn’t even think to. With the death she just suffered, there was only one sense left now. To live. Speaking of which, she was getting rather hungry.

As the hours grew late and darkness set over the kingdom, the king and queen grew worried. They’d sent several servants out for their daughter. None of them had returned.

“This can’t be good.” The queen said.

The king agreed. He took his sword from the mantel piece and told his wife, “This must be the work of the Ugly Fairy, I’m sure of it. I will go out and end this once and for all!”

“Please be careful!”

“I will.”

The only regret he had was that he hadn’t done this fifteen years ago. He could have stopped the cursed blessing from ever reaching his daughter. Now, he had to acknowledge to himself that she may very well be dead. The heart she was given must not have been enough.

He opened the door and was faced by his daughter. Covered in blood and the spindle still in her eye, but none of that mattered. All the blessings of beauty that had been given to her did not allow people to see anything about her other than she was beautiful, and so, the king hugged her without a thought to the spindle nor the blood.

“I’m so glad you’re alive.” The king said.

Briar Rose was not capable of talking nor understanding world, but she had an insatiable hunger. Without thought, the young princess bit right into the kings head.

The queen screamed as she watched the blood spill from her husband. Her daughter ate and ate until his head was gone. She realized grimly that with all that was given to her daughter all those years ago, there was one very important thing they forgot…

A brain.