July came, and Jon set a beautiful scene up in the restaurant with lights and candles. He gave Audrey another gift—earrings that resembled the pendant he had previously given her. The table was adorned with champagne, an abundance of fruit, a big lobster, and a mousse cake to top it off.
Suddenly, Audrey decided to perform a spell to switch emotions and see how Jon was feeling. Jon felt quite Lucky that day; everything was going well. He felt like he could go wild that night, but he knew how to manage his emotions. Audrey, on the other hand, was struggling to handle her feelings. When she cast the spell, she unleashed a wave of sexual tension that she had never experienced before. She wanted to know what Jon felt, but before she knew it, she found herself kissing him deeply, trying to get as close as possible.
“Let’s get out of here,” Jon said. She was excited, while he felt troubled by his emotions. He felt good but had a calm restraint that blocked his feelings. Usually, he would take advantage of such a situation, but he knew better. Audrey was swept up in her heated emotions.
In the car, she whispered, “Reverse!” She fell back in her seat, exclaiming, “Jon, I don’t know what came over me.”
Jon replied, “That’s fine; I’m feeling it too. I understand what you’re feeling, but I’m just confused.” An unspoken emotion now tied them together. It shocked Audrey, and when she went to bed that night, all she could think about was the monster she had become, wanting to ravish him whole. She could still smell his lingering scent, which smelled so good. Hugging her pillow, she fell asleep.
In her dazed state of mind, her dreams took flight, and the next thing she knew, she hit her head on the ceiling. She almost got caught by Luca, who hurried downstairs to see what had happened. “I heard a thump on the floor of my room. What is all this, Audrey?” he asked, noticing ivy sprawled across the room, which was filled with exotic flowers, the likes of which felt too fantastical to be real.
“Nothing happened, Luca. I’m fine. And about the room—you said to make it feel like home,” she replied.
“It looks like a forest,” Luca said, looking around the room. “Well, I’m going to sleep.” He murmured, standing by the door frame, pausing for a moment before continuing as he looked at Audrey. “Don’t forget you planned a trip to the fair tomorrow. So get some sleep, and try and keep it down, will you?” He complained before heading back to his room.
Later that night, Audrey decided to call home for Zelda, finding something unusually wrong with her. She’d only ever flown in her sleep as a child, and though she didn’t understand why it was happening again, she knew Zelda would likely be able to help.
“Zelda, I’m flying in my dreams,” Audrey began as she looked into her magic mirror, the reflection showing Zelda’s face instead of her own. “I don’t know why, but I need it to stop. What can I do?”
Zelda responded after a moment’s pause, “There’s a whole lot of different reasons why it could be happening, and without any clue as to why, we can only try going down the list. The start, you can try and drink some warm tea before bed, preferably a leaf meant to relax you. If that doesn’t work, you can try exhausting yourself. It could be a lack of exercise is making your wings restless. And if that doesn’t work, then you’ll have to tie yourself down to your bed with some rope or vine. Don’t forget to lock your door with a spell, either, Audrey. Don’t want any humans walking in on you while you’re mid-flight.
Audrey listened to Zelda’s suggestions quietly until she got to the end, in which case she began to panic slightly, “Really?! I’d have to tie myself to the bed?” She asked, grimacing at the thought. It wouldn’t be something she could easily do by herself.
“Yes,” Zelda confirmed, sensing her unease. “It’s a last resort, Princess. If nothing else works, it is highly likely you have some sort of heightened emotion plaguing your body. Fear, anger, sorrow, even joy. It’s not always an obvious tell, and there’s no easy fix the issue other than to face the offending emotion directly, Zelda added. “If you wind up needing the last resort, I recommend you do some inward thinking.” She finished before ending the call.
Audrey laid down on her pillow, letting out a sigh of frustration and worry. She’d hoped and prayed before sleep, that it wasn’t the worst case scenario for her.
Later that morning, she went to buy a box of tea and a bundle of rope big enough to wrap around herself twice and attach it to the bed, just in-case.
That day, she went to the fair as she’d planned with Luca. The scent of fresh popcorn, cotton candy and caramel wafted through the fair. Luca, deciding to show off his skills, first showed Audrey how the games were played, though Audrey proved to be very good at them, surprising Luca as she began winning all the top-shelf stuffed animals. Luca clicked his tongue, feeling outplayed. But he decided he’d see how Audrey fared against roller coasters. This particular fair was notorious for an intense ride which the guests had dubbed, “The Oubliette.”
The Oubliette was a circular cage which could hold up to twelve people at a time as they descended into it, each person would then be tied to a manacle at the wrists as they stood with their backs against the walls. As the ride began to move, the entire cage spun slowly, gradually picking up speed. Once it reached the peak of its rotation speed, it shot up into the air, pausing its rotations for a few moments, before hammering back down onto the ground. The attraction filled with screams as it repeated the process a few times, Audrey’s screams included as she yelled at the top of her lungs; her heart pounding in her chest. She couldn’t understand how anyone could find such things fun and even wondered if the ride had broken somehow, seeing as how it kept going and going.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Luca couldn’t stop laughing as he took in Audrey’s expressions, he intentionally positioned himself across from her so he could get the best view of her screaming her heart off. He had been in her position once, but had long since gotten used to the ride.
When they got off, Audrey’s hair was disheveled and she looked exhausted. She turned to Luca with a glare and asked, “Why would you torture me like that?! It was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced! Is it because I beat you at all the games, Luca? Is that why? Are you a sore loser?”
Why would anyone want to go on these roller coasters? she wondered, as she stormed off. Luca chased after her, still laughing. “Come on, it was fun!” He said as he caught up to her. “But I guess if you can’t handle something like that, you’d probably like something a bit more tame.” He added, still chuckling softly as he thought about the perfect ride to appease Audrey’s anger.
“I think I know which one you’ll like.” He says, as he points up toward a long curved and bumpy slide, clearly intended for kids, and obviously so as a majority of the people enjoying it were kids alongside their parents. He grinned as he looked at Audrey, her gaze following her finger. Though she didn’t seem any wiser to the fact that it was a kid’s ride.
Audrey let out a sigh as she examined the slide from a distance. It wasn’t a roller coaster and even children could enjoy it, so she figured it couldn’t be bad. With a nod, she began walking toward the attraction.
Once she climbed up the set of steps leading to the top of the forty-foot-tall slide. She sat down and slid herself down, her body momentarily hanging in the air with each bump as she comfortably picked up speed along the slide’s long length. Once she landed at the end, she had a big smile on her face and stood up. “That was best thing ever! It was so fun! I wanna go again!” She exclaimed, rushing along with a group of kids back up the steps.
Luca laughed as he shook his head. He intended it to be a slight taunt and challenge. He didn’t expect Audrey to actually like it.
Once Audrey satisfied herself a few times, she rejoined Luca, already planning to revisit the fair, though next time with Jon. She could already picture the fun she would have, doing all the things she’d done with Luca but with Jon instead.
As the two sat down, taking a break from all the fun to have a meal, Luca decided to bring up topic of their families, feeling that if Jon couldn’t ask her, he’d do it himself. “So, Audrey. Think your family is missing you?”
Audrey took a moment to respond, surprised and caught off guard by the sudden question. “Probably. They were always so overprotective.” She replied honestly. “How about your family? I haven’t seen any hint nor word of them.” She asked, curious if Luca held a good relationship with his own family.
They continued talking for a few minutes, Luca mentioned that his relationship with his family was good, but that he hadn’t been keeping in contact with them as he was often too preoccupied with work. “—and now I’ve got you to take care of.”
Audrey nodded, and appreciated the help Luca had extended her, even if she felt it was the least he could have done as he was the sole reason she got stuck in the mortal realm. Though she didn’t like to admit it, she did rely on Luca for everything. “Hey, Gina’s the one that does all the heavy lifting!” She countered with a grin, referring to Luca’s housemaid. Gina was a tall and robust woman with a funny accent. She reminded her of Zelda in a lot of ways, often cleaning up after the two of them, washing and folding their clothes along with taking out their trash.
Audrey really liked Gina. She even considered her to rival Zelda’s own care taking abilities, always managing to leave the manor smelling like fresh flowers as she played music on the radio. Audrey had really loved Gina’s taste in music, finding each song to be incredible.
She decided to Luca about Zelda, sharing her experiences with her servant and telling her all about her and the ways that she differed from Gina and the ways they were similar. Once their chat ended, Audrey’s thoughts returned to Gina’s music, she wondered how she could listen to music in the same way Gina did on her radio, without having to have a device plugged into an electrical outlet. She decided she would ask Gina about it later.
Feeling the conversation slow to a halt, the two wrapped up their day at the fair and returned home after their meal. Though Luca didn’t learn as much as he would have liked about Audrey’s family, he did learn about Zelda and considered it some sort of progress. He would find more situations to talk about Audrey’s family, but for now he would take his time doing so.
The next day, Audrey waited for Gina to start working. Once she heard the telltale signs of Gina’s arrival; the clinging of keys and cleaning tools on a maid cart, she rushed out of her room and approached the housemaid. “Gina! Do you know if there’s anyway I can listen to music the same way you do, but without having to connect anything into an electrical socket?”
“Yes, of course.” Gina replied, her usual accent making Audrey smile. “An MP3 player or a smartphone can do this. All you need to do is look up the songs you want on the internet and then download them.” She explained, though not halting in her cleaning. “But you will need to buy a speaker or a pair of headphones to listen to it with good quality.” She added, running her feather duster across Luca’s home decor.
“Thanks, Gina!” Audrey cheered, glad for the information. She wasn’t quite proficient with the internet yet, but Luca had taken a whole day to teach her and she could manage her way around it without Luca’s help.
Immediately, Audrey opened a laptop and began researching MP3 players, learning what they were and where to get one. She had Luca’s chauffeur drive her across the city to buy one, the used electronics store inconveniently on the far side of the city away from the manor. When she got there, the store attendant showed around a few devices and even showed her how to use it with headphones, of which the quality she found to be fantastic, far more so than with Gina’s radio.
Excited, she turned to the store clerk and nodded her head. “Yes, I want these! I’d like to buy them.”
The store clerk led her to the counter and accepted her cash—money lent to her by Luca—before handing her the receipt and items in a plastic bag. Once Audrey returned home, she spent the next few hours exploring songs, downloading and adding her favorites to her MP3 player. By the time the sun went down, she had filled it with nearly a hundred songs. Happy and satisfied, she went off toward Luca to show it off before he went to sleep.
Luca’s eyes widened in surprise as he looked at the old, twenty-five year old device. “Wow. That’s impressive.” He said, his words genuine as he felt a rush of nostalgia, not realizing Audrey wasn’t aware of just how old and outdated the device was. He listened to a few of Audrey’s songs, curious as to what her taste in music was, and after about an hour, he excused himself to prepare for sleep.
Audrey herself was still much too excited about her MP3 player and when she returned to her room, settling into her bed, she still had the headphones on her head and the MP3 player in her hand, deciding to sleep while listening to some of her newly favorite songs.