Unnatural Instinct: Wish

You stagger as you try to catch your balance, gripping onto the nearest goblin. You pull back with a shriek, only to fall into the arms of another. They’re all still laughing. Twisting around, you yank at the snake-like mask of the nearest goblin. You’re so shocked to see what lies beneath you can’t even scream.

You can only stare at the darting tongue and predatory gleaming eyes. Its scales seem to change colour from green to yellow against the light. Noseless. Earless. It hisses as it laughs, revealing a long set of sharp poisonous fangs.

You almost trip over your feet as you turn and shove your way through the mass of goblins. Breaking free, you race down the hall of mirrors towards the doors waiting up ahead. But no matter how far you run you can’t seem to reach them. Much like the stairwell, the corridor seems to stretch away forever.

You slump to your knees with a sob. ’Allan.’

Hanging your head, you weep, your tears pattering the obsidian floor. Steadily, the music gets louder. The goblin’s laughter changes. Now you can hear the rhythmic click of heels, the soft thud of men’s shoes, the gentle hiss of women’s dresses sweeping the floor. You can see their long colourful trains: pink, yellow, blue. They sweep away, revealing a familiar pair of tall black boots. You do not move. You won’t move.

He doesn’t give you a choice, hauling you to your feet and whisking you away through the crowd. The other couples dance around you, looking so elegant, so human, in their suits and dresses and styled hair that it’s hard to believe that it’s all a big fat lie. The goblin with the horns and demon mask glides past you and you can’t help but shiver to think what lies beneath.

The Dark Prince doesn’t talk and you’re too defeated to beg. So you dance along with him, the lights whirling around you in dizzying circles, the music throbbing in your ears. You feel drunk. Then you glimpse something impossible, unbelievable, extraordinary. You stare aghast over the Dark Prince’s shoulder. As he turns, you twist your head around, your eyes fixed on the woman staring back at you, appearing as shocked as you feel.

She’s standing in the hall watching you and the “party”, dressed in house clothes, looking disorientated and confused, her hair a wet tangle, mud plastering her legs and waist, having just made her way through the marshes.

And you’re suddenly looking through her eyes, back to a day that isn’t so far gone and yet seems like forever ago—a dazzling, elegant woman dancing with the man of her dreams. You remember the jealousy. You remember the confusion, the desire, the want.

Now, looking back at the naive, desperate woman that was once you, you can’t help but reciprocate those same emotions. All you want now is to go back. All you can do is envy her her dirty clothes and freedom, her access to her life, shitty though she thinks it is. The irony!

The Dark Prince spins you around. Desperately, you look around his shoulder.

‘Don’t do it,’ you shout, your voice hardly discernible against the music. ‘Go back! Go back to your family!’

And yet even as you shout, you know it’s futile. You know for a fact you can’t hear yourself. Your past self has no idea what’s lying ahead. You have no clue about anything.

The music stops, leaving your ears ringing in the sudden silence. Everyone stops dancing, including the Dark Prince, though he’s still holding you tightly against him. You can still feel the vibration of the music through the soles of your feet. Everyone is watching you. You can feel their eyes on your back. The goblins. Those hideous goblins.

The lights switch off.

‘Nice try,’ the Dark Prince hisses in your ear.

You can’t see a thing. You start to tremble with fear. What’s he going to do? You stifle a shriek as he hoists you off the floor. All you can do is hang onto him as he marches through the blackness.

‘All I wanted was to dance with you,’ he says as he pushes open a door and climbs down some stairs. A thin film of moonlight is coming through the windows, revealing his sparkling eyes behind his deranged mask. ‘Why do you have to make things so difficult?’

He reaches level ground and pushes open another door. ‘I gave you everything you wanted. I’m exhausted. And you don’t care.’

His footsteps thud in time with the beating of your heart.

‘I can’t leave my family.’

‘But that’s the deal, remember? You said it specifically: “I wish you could keep me. I wish it very much”. Remember?’

‘You deceived me.’

‘You wanted the Dark Prince—and you got him.’

‘He’s not real!’

’I am real.’

‘I still don’t even know who you are!’

He’s walking along another corridor. Up ahead, two goblins are waiting by a door. Their masks are grinning: Pig Snout and Toadface. They push the door open to reveal his bedroom. The four-poster bed rears above you, intimidating and frightening.

‘Stop! I don’t want it!’

You thrash in his arms. You wriggle and squirm. You manage to slide from his grasp. But more hands are upon you as the goblins converge to help him. You’re being pushed and shoved and carried, the goblins’ grips brutally tight as they propel you towards the bed.

‘No!’

The Dark Prince has already removed his jacket and is unbuttoning his shirt by the time they hoist you onto the bed. Sniggering and hooting obscenely, the goblins pin you to the mattress, one on your arms, one on your legs.

‘Be quiet!’ the Dark Prince shouts. ‘Remember who made you.’

The two goblins immediately silence.

‘You can’t do this!’ you scream as he pulls off his shirt. ‘How is this love?’

‘Take off her clothes,’ he says dismissively.

The goblin at your feet releases you. You try to kick out but she grabs onto the waist of your dress and rips it open as easily as tissue paper. She rips away your skirt, she tears away your sleeves and bodice, then returns to your feet, pinning them down again.

The Dark Prince’s shadow falls over you. He’s completely naked, just like you are. He’s never been so menacing. His masculinity, in all its entirety, from build to muscle to erection, has never been so scary.

‘You can’t do this,’ you say.

He’s glaring at you, his perfect mouth thin. The muscles in his arms are so tense his veins are bulging. The two goblins are looking up at him, waiting for their next instruction.

‘Leave us,’ he tells them.

They look at each other, surprised, before releasing you. Immediately, you pull yourself up against the headboard, wrapping your arms around your knees as they leave.

The door clicks shut behind them.