Followers

Saturday, 28 October 2023

Halloween Fantasy

 Halloween Fantasy

By Jane Goodhew


Was it really that time again, it was so hard to believe that it was a year ago that it all happened, it seemed like only yesterday.  Everyone was getting ready to go to the Halloween Ball and had worked hard to make sure it would be perfect.  The rose petals had been stored since summer but still looked as fresh as the day they had been picked.  So many colours, some pastel others more vivid and vibrant for those who wanted to be noticed and there would be plenty that did as this ball was special as the prince himself would be there.  The future king of Fantasy Land, a land full of fairies, pixies, elves and of course witches both the good and the bad.  They all inhabited the gardens of those who still believed in dreams and love and forever after.  If you go out into your garden and are very, very quiet, look carefully, you will see them, busy trying to get the hall ready, sweeping leaves away to be re-scattered later to cover the floor in a thick, luxurious carpet of warm rustic brown and burnt orange which will crackle underfoot as the guests enter the hall and later as they dance around the floor.  The pixies are putting the tables out made of twigs and bark from the silver birch with small mushrooms for stools so that everyone can be seated for the banquet which will take place at 9pm before the dancing which goes on until Midnight.  The large mushrooms provide shelter should it rain, and the spider’s webs keep the draught out and catch any mischief makers who might try to spoil the evening.  As it is Halloween there are often many who would rather create chaos and mayhem than just have fun and enjoy the night and so the spiders keep a watch and throw out the troublesome ones or keep them stuck fast to their web until the night is over.                            

Annabella had looked forward to the evening all her life, she dreamt of growing up and meeting her Prince and then as in the story books living happy and content for the rest of her life with the man she loved and the children they had together.  Life was going to be bliss.  She had been to the dressmaker that very afternoon to pick up her ball-gown made of the most delicate rose petals that he had to offer in soft shades of pink and lavender that would glisten in the moonlight as if they were covered in a thousand diamonds that sparkled and lit up the room but were the dew that had remained upon them and would until the dress was packed away to be made into potpourri as a memento of the evening.  She was so excited she could hardly wait, and she was determined to look her best and not be outshone by any of the other fairies especially as she knew they had come from far and wide in the hope that the prince would notice them.   Annabella had been told from an early age that she was the prettiest girl for miles around and although she was not vain she knew this to be true because her Mother had a mirror just as in the old folk tales that would say who was the most beautiful fairy in the area and it always said ‘Annabella is the most lovely and exquisite in the whole of fairyland, there is no one more attractive than she’. 

Annabella thought of the previous year and a dark sadness overcame her as in her mind she went back there and recalled every hideous moment which she had been watching through her globe and wished she could find a way to make up for all the hurt that had been caused that night even though she was not to blame but her evil twin Pandora.  Pandora had always been jealous of her sister and had teased her ever since she was able to talk and would play unpleasant jokes on her or blame her for things that she herself had done.  She was popular amongst the locals because they feared her and preferred to remain on her good side if there was one.  Just like today, everybody had been working hard to make the evening a great success and it would have been if Pandora could have just left her black magic at home.

 


The hall was full to bursting and everyone was so happy, laughter filled the air and smiles lit up the room as did the light from the full moon.     The pixies had just finished clearing away the last of the dinner plates and the goblets were being filled with pink champagne so they could all raise their glasses and give thanks to another successful year.  That was the last time that anyone who had been there that night knew what it was to smile or to be happy or to give thanks because since then all their lives had been plunged into blackness and an overwhelming sadness that they could not find a way out from.  A wind had come out of nowhere and started to get stronger and stronger until the guests were being lifted off the ground and thrown into the air then as suddenly as it had come, it ended and they came down to earth with a bump.  Stunned into silence they looked at one another as the thunder crashed and the lightening zapped through the hall setting light to the leaves that were tinder dry, the fire quickly spread and panic overcame each and every one of them as the smoke became so thick that they could not see the exit.  They cried out to each other, they tried to fly but something kept their wings from working so they huddled together that was the end, the last anyone remembers because the next day there was nothing to show of the disaster that had just occurred.  When I say nothing that is not quite true because the difference was that everyone who had been there that night had changed, they were no longer young and beautiful and fit and healthy but old, craggy, bent over and their memory was failing, some days they could not even remember their own names.  Annabella and all her friends had been spared because they were too young to attend, this year would be their first ball and they were hoping that a miracle could be performed and that the spell that had been cast a year ago could be lifted, that love would succeed and hate would fail, that Pandora would see the error of her ways and find forgiveness in her heart.   It had not been meant that she would not receive an invite to the ball, it was a genuine mistake, the elf who had neatly hand-written out every letter had not known that Pandora had been born at 11.59pm and Annabella 12.09am so Pandora had been old enough to attend and had felt slighted at being missed out.  She had worked herself up into such a state she could not think straight and instead of going to the Mayor and explaining the error which would have been easy to rectify she instead reeked misery on all those who did go which also meant that all their relatives suffered too when they saw how their children had become.  Since that night no-one had heard or seen Pandora, she had vanished into thin air which is why the curse could not be lifted because only the fairy who placed it could remove it, that or a new love that would last a lifetime and it was that love that Annabella dreamed of.

Copyright Jane Goodhew

                 

 


                                    

             

 

 

                                                                                                             

 

 

1 comment: