Once Beauty Twice Beast, Moon & Madly, Rumpelstein, Jawigi Read online

  All I knew was that I was about to pass out.

  Only one of the panthers approached me suddenly. Unlike the others, its eyes were still reddened. I took it for an outcast that didn’t want to abide by whatever rules or prophecy the black panthers believed in.

  In a moment of recklessness, it cut my umbilical cord with its teeth and snatched my baby from my weary arms. I was too tired, unable to fight back with my numb arms, watching it holding my daughter in its teeth the way cats grab their infants, and running away.

  What have I done? How didn’t I fight the panther back? The thought of losing my child to a black panther pumped the blood back to my brains, and I opened my eyes again. My daughter was out of sight.

  But it was only seconds before I heard a shot behind the trees, and then there was the sound of footsteps approaching me.

  Slowly, I witnessed the happy arrival of Angel, caressing Snow White in his hands. He had survived the panthers back there, and shot the last one and saved our daughter.

  Angel knelt down next to me, and kissed my forehead before putting my daughter in my arms again.

  “I told you our daughter was going to be born today,” He whispered.

  A week later, back in our castle, I asked Angel about what was going to happen now. We knew who our daughter was – and I will not mention it in this diary – and I wondered what the consequences were going to be.

  “You almost died for her,” Angel told me, embracing me, as we looked out into the night sky from our chamber’s window. It was a lovely night, and I could feel its breeze on my nightgown. “This is what matters. You’re a brave woman. I’m thinking I could stay in the castle and cook while you go fight the intruders,” Angels joked as I gave him a tender look, tilting my head. “But then again, I am a bad cook.” He laughed.

  “Angel Von Sorrow,” I recited his name. “How could it be that a man like you is a descendant of the Sorrow family?”

  He patted me and didn’t reply. It was a tough question, and I wanted to know more about him.

  “Doesn’t it bother you that we’ve given birth to a monster?” I asked. It didn’t bother me. I wanted to make sure he felt the same way.

  “Monster or no monster, she is our daughter,” Angel said. “We’ll stand by her, every bloody step of the way. She’ll be a legend. Snow White Von Sorrow.”

  …. Jacob Carl Grimm had tears in his eyes when I raised my head from my Book of Sands. We watched the pages turn to sand in front of us, and knew that by now this little diary was buried deep in our minds. It was the hardest part after someone read you a story from a book of sand, because it was up to you what to with it next. You could decide to kill it and never tell it to anyone, or you could decide to pass it along to other generations in another Book of Sand. Or, you could do like he did later on: forge the tale and make it a happily ever after one – the Queen’s story was a happily ever after of sorts, anyway.

  “Are you crying?” I asked him.

  “Crying? Huh! I just finished my last drink and feel sleepy.”

  “So you weren’t moved by the tale?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t matter anymore. We’ve cursed them and I want to put it all behind me.” He stood up, ready to go.

  “Wait,” I said. “I told you a precious story. Don’t you think you should give something back in return?”

  “What do you want, naïve Sandman?”

  “Jawigi,” I said. “It wouldn’t hurt you to tell me what it stands for.”

  “Your’s some stubborn, Sandman,” Jacob said and opened an empty page in my Book of Sand. He used his forefinger to write in it so he wouldn’t have to spell in front of the Innkeeper and those unseen visitors in the dark corner.

  What he wrote in the book drew a smile on my face.

  Jawigi turned out to be an abbreviation of three famous names. Morpheus had used the first letter from every name, followed by the first vowel, and put them together in one word.

  Jawigi simply stood for Jacob Wilhelm Grimm. The j and a from Jacob, w and i from Wilhelm, and the g and i from Grimm. What better way to name the Dreamworld but this? It was Jacob and Wilhelm’s world anyway.

  “Happy now, Sandy?” Jacob grunted.

  I smiled and nodded, avoiding the mirror behind the Innkeeper again. Those damn mirrors.

  “I hope you pour good dreams in my eyes tonight, Sandy,” Jacob said over his shoulder as he walked out.

  “Hey Jacob,” I said. “Did you ever hear the phrase, ‘the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world he was someone else’?”

  Jacob stopped in his track then turned around. “Where did you hear that?” he looked worried.

  “I read it in a diary entry. It just didn’t make sense so I thought I’d ask you,” I said.

  “Stay away from those single entries, Sandy,” Jacob advised. “They are full of lies and they will confuse you, and you’re a naïve man. Stick to the real diaries a hundred years from now,” Jacob was at his highest peak in being drunk. He turned around and walked out.

  I waited a minute, gazed at the dark corner with the clicking glasses again, and walked out, too.

  Out in the snow, I pulled a small mirror from my bag, and looked at it.

  “Mary Mary on the wall?” I said to it. “Who is the devious of them all?”

  “You are, my Queen,” The mirror replied to me.

  As I looked in the mirror, I saw that my real face had returned.

  “Did you know the real name of the Dreamworld?”

  “But of course, Mary,” I said. “Now I have control over a big part of it.”

  “And what Wilhelm? Is he still taking the Lost Seven’s Side?”

  “It looks like it,” I said. “He even invented some kind of a lullaby made for children to recite. It supposedly will hint and carry one the truth about some of us for years to come.”

  “I’m afraid my story passes on, My Queen,” Mary said.

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I said. “I have a long way to find and identify the Lost Seven.”

  “As you wish, My Queen. I am amazed Jacob didn’t suspect you’d be the Queen?”

  “No, he didn’t. He was drunk,” I said. “Which reminds me that I am not going to use that shape-shifting spell again. I had to avoid all mirrors in the Inn at all times. I could have exposed myself if it caught my reflection.”

  “Whatever you desire, majesty,” Mary laughed.

  As for you, whoever reads this diary, how hard was it for me to write that I was Sandman Grimm in the beginning to fool you?

  Always remember the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince you he was someone else.

  End of Grimm Diary #10

  Afterward

  I hope you did enjoy reading the Grimm Prequels 7-10 as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it. If you have been following my Facebook page, you’d know that we had a poll about the most favorite characters. So far, Lade Rat, Peter, and the Queen of Sorrow were on top. I’m sure opinions might vary after each set of prequels. But since most of the favorite characters will not appear in Snow White Sorrow – except the Queen of Sorrow –, there’ll be more prequels about them in the coming weeks until Snow White Sorrow is published. There will be a new one about Ladle Rat, Peter Pan, the Pied Piper, and an ensemble prequel where most of them where young and in school together, trying to figure out who the Tooth Fairy really is. This one is going to be the next prequel and it’s called:

  The Grimm Diaries Prequels #11

  Tooth & Nail & Fairy Tale

  If you have the time and could kindly review the prequels, that’d be awesome. You have no idea how much this means to me. An honest review helps me learn and improve as an Indie storyteller. I also answer all emails sent to me if there is something you want to ask about.

  And if you’re already interested in Snow White Sorrow and want to be the first to know about its release date, please join my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/camjace.

 
Thanks again and wish you all a new and awesome year.

  And remember: Evil is a point of View

  Cameron

  To know more about Snow White Sorrow, HERE

  List of the Grimm Diaries Prequels available so far:

  The Grimm Diaries Prequels 1- 6

  1 Snow White Blood Red

  narrated by Snow White Queen

  2 Cinder to Cinder & Ashes to Ashes

  narrated by Alice Grimm

  3 Beauty Never Dies

  narrated by Peter Pan

  4 Ladle Rotten Rat Hut

  narrated by Little Red Riding Hood

  5 Mary Mary Quite Contrary

  as told by the devil

  6 Blood Apples

  narrated by Prince Charming

  The Grimm Diaries Prequels 7- 10

  7 Once Beauty Twice Beast

  narrated by Beauty

  8 Moon & Madly

  narrated by Moongirl

  9 Rumpelstein

  narrated by Rumpelstiltskin

  10 Jawigi

  narrated by Sandman Grimm

  Upcoming single diaries:

  11 Tooth & Nail & Fairy Tale

  12 The Pumpkin Piper

  Other books by Cameron Jace:

  The I Am Alive series:

  I Am Alive volume 1-3: Nice Day to Die, Wheel of Fortune, Through Your Eyes (Ya Dystopian series)

  You can contact me at

  Goodreads

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  my blog

  or

  Twitter

  @cameronjace

  or send me an email

  [email protected]

  ( I answer all emails personally )