Page 291 of Naughty Nelle

“At my birthday party, I wished that you would marry Jane! Please, Papa. Pretty please! Make my wish come true!”

Gallant’s eyes find mine in the crowd. The King turns my way. So does The Queen. Soon, all eyes are on me. My body doesn’t know whether to freeze with shock or melt with joy.

Marcella is so red she clashes with her dress. “Ha! You little brat. You told your wish, and now it won’t come true!”

Calla pokes her tongue out at the skank. Mentally, I do the same.

“You’ll pay for that!” Marcella seizes Calla. The little girl screams.

“Marcella, let go of her!” pleads The Prince.

“You’re too late, lover boy!” Marcella’s raspy voice is almost unrecognizable.

To my horror, her skin starts to peel off like a snake’s. Her face dissolves into a ball of wrinkles; her bottle-blond hair goes gray and wiry, and her plump lips grow thin and cracked. Her body shrivels, and her skin turns scaly. Even her cannonballs shrink, until they’re no more than droopy, dried out sausages. Her minutes-ago clingy gown hangs loosely on her hunched, skeletal frame.

All her magic potions must be wearing off at once! She’s turning into an old hag! But not just any old hag! Oh my God! This can’t be happening! It can’t! But it is! She is turning into my mother! My evil mother…Nelle Yvel!

The Prince stands frozen with shock as the woman, he almost married, grips Calla by the neck. Calla’s porcelain face turns blue, her breathing shallow. She’s suffocating! I can’t let my mother hurt this precious child! I can’t! I can’t!

“You may have destroyed my life!” I shout. “But you won’t destroy hers!”

Taking her by surprise, I plow into her and knock her to the marble floor. She lets go of Calla.

“Run, Calla!” I yell. Out of the corner of my eye, I see her run safely into Gallant’s arms.

My mother staggers to her feet. “You bitch! You were always a problem child!”

“No, you witch!” I scream back. “I was always there for you!”

“No, you just got in the way! You were too beautiful for your own good.”

Me? Plain Jane?

“I could have married a king if it wasn’t for you!”

“I didn’t—”

“Shut up! When that prick banned me from his kingdom, I vowed I would get revenge by destroying you. And that beautiful child of his.”

What is she saying? That she always intended to kill Snow White?

Catching me off guard, she rakes her brittle fingernails down my face. I wince as warm blood trickles down my cheek. Another scar, but what’s one more when I have so many.

Recharged, she goes at me with ruthless force. Kicking. Clawing. Punching. Pinching. Defending myself against her vicious assault, I accidentally tear off the detachable train of her gown. It meanders across the room like a river of blood.

“You’ve ruined my dress!” she shrieks. “Now, you’re really going to pay!” Slamming me to the floor, she claws at my beautiful black gown, shredding it to pieces.

“Stop it!” I scream. But she keeps at it.

I have no choice. Without thinking twice, I clamp my fingers around her withered neck and, with all my might, start squeezing the life out of her. I squeeze tighter and tighter. As she writhes and wheezes, a terrifying reality sets in. I’m strangling my own mother!

“You can’t destroy me,” she hisses.

“Yes, I can,” I hear myself say. I’ve wrestled with evil long enough. Now, this battle must end.

Her face turns gray. Her body convulses. The heels of her ruby slippers bang to the beat of her life as it ebbs away. Transfixed, as if under a spell, I watch her take her final breath. Her body quiets, and her lips spread as if she’s about to shoot me one last smirk.

Suddenly, a monstrous green and yellow snake bursts out of her mouth. I bolt back in horror as Gallant cries out my name. As it endlessly slides out, the lifeless shell of my mother disintegrates like a crumbling rock. All that’s left of her are her ruby slippers and a heart-shaped mound of black dust. And the smell of rotted flesh.

---