Short Story(fiction)—Modern-day Rapunzel

Note: This is a collaborative fiction piece that I worked on along with my friends, Anngie and Rachael who are extremely talented in description and dialogue.

Rapunzel woke up with sweat rolling off her face and her heart pounding. Yesterday’s dream was, her falling down the stairs. She shuddered at the thought.

She fell from her lonely window, her big skirt puffed like a parachute as the wind propelled her. ‘I am going to die, I am going to die,’ she thought then.

Rapunzel had been having nightmares for around many months now. It seemed like forever since she stepped onto the first floor of the tower. Rapunzel never paid attention to herself, only to her game. Her videogames absorbed her with flashing lights and bright colours. But lately, she only laid in a bubble of happiness as the subscribers rolled in. Her mother, the witch, couldn’t care less yet bought everything Rapunzel wanted…..

After entering the bathroom, Rapunzel stood in front of the mirror and stared at her appearance. God! she was beautiful. She touched a bald spot on the back of her head only to find it scaly. Her magical, twenty-one-metre long golden hair had slowly started falling. Holding the pair of scissors, she held a chunk to her side and sliced her hair with a lousy smile hiding her pained expression. In seconds, brown crept from the bottom. She mixed the black paste and spread it slowly on the newly short hair and the hair covered the floor. Blackwater seeped through her fingers as she washed it.

As she got out of the shower, her hair was a reflection of her heart.

Dark and black.

Present-day:

“Yoooooooo! Epic gaming move!! lets goooooo victory royaleeee~~” Rapunzel sprung up from her gaming chair, her fist punching into the air in blissful triumph. A victory screen animation flashed on her PC.

“Losers,” Rapunzel smirked and lifted her can of coke later pouring the content in her mouth before tossing it over her shoulder. It bounced off her deflated basketball. Her chameleon was perched on a skateboard by the side, silently staring at Rapunzel as if she were some lunatic. Maybe she was!

Ripped gaming posters and messy paint stains watched her quietly from within the shadows of her bedroom, drawing toward her, the only light source in the pitch dark room.

A notification flashed at the bottom of her screen. Rapunzel’s eyes lit up like green lanterns in the night.

“Yo thanks Bearvio! Thanks for 17 gifted subs! Da real MVP is here!” Rapunzel lounged in her chair, grinning at her PC as cash came in faster than her mum could ever make.

Out the single round window of the sanctuary of her tower, the sky was growing dark, the sun bidding its farewells in brilliant shades of blues, reds, yellows and oranges, and the wind softly whistling.

“Rapunzel? Rapunzel! Come down to eat!” yelled her mother, who appeared more like a witch to Rapunzel. She groaned.

“Coming, Mum!” Rapunzel’s eyes did not waver from the screen. I mean, she was in the middle of a twitch stream!

But of course, Rapunzel ended the stream and made her way down the spiral staircase to the kitchen for dinner.

Meanwhile…

Eugene scurried deeper into the forest, his feet carrying him through the marsh with uncertainty.

Don’t look back, don’t look back!

His mind raced swiftly like a racecar, almost beating the feeling of his intake.

I can’t get — — Thud!! he still was able to crash face-first into a cobblestone brick wall. Thousands of nerves signalled immense pain to his brain.

“Ouchh….”

Eugene focused on the wall. Curious, he looked up and gasped at the humongous tower that lay in front. The walls were blank as a canvas except for a single tiny window. From his view, it was a perfect hiding place. Eugene drew a sharp metal blade from his pocket, and without a second thought, stabbed it into the cobblestone. To his surprise, the blades stayed a few inches deep. He took another and stabbed it a bit higher.

It was as if he had only just suddenly realised that he had climbed a whole tower — gee — a whole ten-metre tower.

It felt like his heart was pounding out of his chest.

His eyes slammed shut. Don’t let go. That’s all he had to do.

But when did he ever listen to himself?

Eugene screamed.

“Yo, are you done screaming your heart out?” asked a girl with deep green eyes.

Eugene flushed red.

“AHhhhhhhhhh- who said I was screaming huh- I certainly wasn’t screaming aha…”

“Yo, you drunk?”

“Maybe?”

Rapunzel smirked

“P-please. Help me….” Eugene said, his voice trembling.

She hesitated and yet pulled him up and Eugene landed with a loud thud on the floor.

Eugene stared at Rapunzel, as she applied ointment onto his wounds. . Rapunzel continued on her way but she was freaking out on the inside. Who could blame her? Cooped up in a tower since she could ever remember and then this guy comes along, she had to sacrifice her scared ps4 controller to this wretched dud.

Rapunzel’s face was white and scrunched like a lemon. Was she that repulsive?

But she muffled her terror and continued to apply it.

Eugene drew in a long breath and whispered.

“What’s that doing over there?” He pointed trembling fingers at a reptile, its beady eyes piercing into his soul like stabs.

“That’s my chameleon,” Rapunzel replied calmly.

“…I like your PS4. I wish I had one.”

“Oh, thanks.”

A good few minutes of awkward silence passed.

“You know I could help you um… fix that… if you-.”

Rapunzel abruptly stood up, ran to the controller before shoving the broken thing into his hands and pushed him.

“Woah Woah, slow down there. Also, I’m not going to just fix it for free. Everything comes at a price.”

Eugene winked. Rapunzel shot daggers at him, pausing. He took a step back, on the edge of the tower.

“Let me come here again and I’ll fix it.”

“Deal.” and set me back down through the window. Just for a moment, she felt a bit better about him.

Rapunzel woke up the next morning feeling lethargic. She almost tripped over the various empty bags of chip that laid across the floor.

I can’t believe I lost my ps4 controller because of that fool.

Heading to the bathroom, she combed the messy black tangles out of her hair and headed back to the room. She went over to the cage with her pet chameleon in it and took him out. Unfortunately, the pet chameleon was not black, she had previously attempted to dye it black by using food colouring but was stopped by her mother. She truly despised her mother for not letting her do what she wanted and wanted to run away from her, but then, she would have to leave the tower which she would NEVER do. Rapunzel turned from the cage towards the tiny window near her bedside and…

“AHHHH — ”

Eugene was there again, peeking through the window, his brunette hair a mess and his face filled with tiny scratches.

The same man to whom she had lost her PS4 controller yesterday.

“What. The. Heck. Are. You. Doing. Now.”

“Oh hey there… Again..”

“Did you fix my controller?”

Eugene hopped through the window using all his might, taking out the daggers that he had previously stabbed through the cobblestone wall leaving small indents.

“No, but I need help… and here it is,”

Eugene grabbed the black controller out of his leather bag and handed it over to Rapunzel who snatched it off. Unfortunately, the controller was damaged beyond repair, the buttons had fallen off and some areas even exposed the metal wiring inside the controller. Rapunzel frowned at the sight of her belongings.

“That was my favourite controller! Now I’ll have to use the blue one…”

Rapunzel threw the already broken controller across her room near the pile of clothes stacked in the corner.

“You’ve got to believe me, I’m so sorry.”

“If you were sorry, you would’ve gotten a new one instead of trying to repair it. Do you even know how to repair a controller?”

“No, but I — -

Eugene was cut off with familiar distant chatters of men from Rapunzel’s window. They were talking about some criminal selling…

Oh, shoot.

Eugene’s body froze at the moment he desperately needed it not to. A man’s head could be seen outside the tiny window of Rapunzel’s room and as it ascended higher, a navy blue uniform shining under the afternoon sun.

The police.

Curious, Rapunzel took a few steps closer to the window as the man sprung in, dusting his pants. He looked directly at Rapunzel and Eugene, switching between their glares every few seconds.

“Good afternoon ma’am and sir. I hope I’m not intruding.”

Rapunzel’s stare was different, her eyes wide with fear and terror. Although Eugene was the first person she had seen other than her mother, this man seemed…. Odd.

“Our men are tracking a dangerous individual the other day that had gotten away. We last saw him around this area and were wondering if you happened to see him.”

Rapunzel’s eyes flashed towards Eugene’s. Then back to the man. Then Eugene’s again and then it hit her.

“An odd man you say….”

Well, that’s it. My life is over. I’m gonna live the rest of my life rotting in a cell for selling drugs. It’s not that big of a deal anyway, why do the police even care this much. Rapunzel won’t save me, after all, I’ve done she won’t side with me. I’m so screw — -

Soon, Eugene’s thoughts were interrupted by this.

“No, I’ve never seen any men running around that fit your description sorry..”

What..?

“Are you sure ma’am?”

“I mean… I saw your men frantically running around these parts yesterday but not any suspicious man.”

The officer stopped for a moment and went into deep thought. He then lifted his head towards the two.

“Then who’s the young bloke next to you?”

Both Rapunzel and Eugene were stunned for a moment.

What would they say to the police? That Eugene was this random guy who just so happened to break into Rapunzel’s room and break her belongings?

Before Eugene could speak up, Rapunzel did.

“He’s my boyfriend. We’ve been living here together for about 2 years now.”

The policeman sighed and nodded at the response.

“Alright then, must’ve been a mistake on our part. Sorry for the inconvenience, our men will head out now. Have a good day.”

With that, the officer headed out the window, climbing down steadily down the ladder. Rapunzel and Eugene looked down through the window at the men.

There were about a dozen men waiting below for the other to return holding guns of all sorts and equipment. They saw the officer that interviewed them chatting with the other policemen and a few moments later, the mellow ambience had returned from before.

Eugene let out a sigh of relief, sitting against the wall with the tiny window. He looked up at Rapunzel who eyed him suspiciously. He chuckled at the sight.

“Thank you for saving me….. Thought you would hand me over to them.”

It was then Rapunzel’s turn to laugh.

“It was nothing. Besides, you are quite an interesting person. Now tell me why those men were looking for you.”

“Alright. Alright. I guess I have to tell you now after all.”

Both of them sat down near the tiny window as the sun started to set in the distant, never-ending orange sky. The setting sky stretched far and wide, giving them a huge much-needed hug.

“Ok… let me begin from the very beginning…”