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Chapter 51
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2024-10-29 19:42:56This can't be happening.
The massive ball of silver light hanging in the air unfurls, opening up like the petals of an incandescent metallic rose.
In the circle of luminosity, a wavy ribbon of radiance seems to move in a slow pattern, weaving in and out of itself like a twisting knot of smoke.
As my eyes adjust, I make out its real shape.
Impossible.
A long, coiling body covered in glinting scales like a thousand tiny mirrors, reflecting the light of the full moon. A coffin-shaped head bobbing slowly on an invisible current. Two wide, glittering green eyes shining like emeralds.
Even though it must be at least twenty feet above us, I can clearly see a series of markings on the underbelly of the serpent, darker scales or scarring, running down its length like Hieroglyphics or some ancient script.
A figure-eight on its side. A cross looped o
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She sits high up in the branches of an ancient blackthorn tree, draped in a darkness blacker than midnight.They’re still searching for her.She can hear the faraway shouting, the breaking of twigs underfoot, even the beating of their hearts.Now she watches those five blazing hearts dancing through the dark far below, glowing like red embers in the dying fire.Her eyes travel further afield, to the heart of the forest, where a nimbus of brilliant silver blooms in the shadows.She smiles as the cold wind tugs on her hair, and she sends a tune out along the breeze, towards the silvery light.The oldest song she can remember.A lullaby.Soon, she’ll be free.She’ll destroy it. Music made magic, the chain unbroken for a thousand years.
FABLE Chapter 1
Just one second,A beautiful momentI’m falling fast, I can't forgetOver and over, your story's rewrittenUnbreakable chain, my déjà vu...The dream always starts off with me sitting at the back of the bus. Everything's tinted gold with soft fall light, hazy and honey-colored like an old photograph.I'm sitting with my two best friends. Just like I was on that day. Evan is to my right, watching the sea cliffs and fir trees roll by outside the window. Mia's on my left sharing my iPod, each of us with one earphone.It's fitting that we're listening to Déjà Vu by Fable, because I feel the strongest déjà vu at this moment – like I've lived this over and over countless times.As is the way with dreams, I can't remember where we're going or where we came from, but that's ok.My math teacher Ms. Blythe is at the front of the bus with the driver, wearing the same white blou
FABLE Chapter 2
I make good on my promise and climb into the backseat of Alix's car with a few minutes to spare."Just in time," Zee says with a glance at Alix. "I was on the verge of murdering him."Alix is slapping his hands against the steering wheel in a steady beat, "car drumming" as he calls it. He says it's to get drumming practice in while he's driving; I suspect he just does it just to annoy Zee.He doesn't turn around, but I see him wink at me in the rearview mirror before curling his lips into a wolfish grin."Hey Ashling," he says as he puts the car into reverse. "Welcome back to the land of the living".Alix is one of the most wanted guys in the senior class, and he knows it. With a tall, tan, muscular physique, chiseled features and dark wavy hair courtesy of his Greek ancestry, he's built up a reputation as the Adonis of Huntson High.At least six girls in our sophomore class have a crush on him. Zee and I know this all too well – as Al
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"AND WE'RE BACK," the radio announces. "If you've just joined us, after the ad break we'll be talking to the boys of Fable. Don't go anywhere!""No freaking way!" Zee says. "They just had an ad break!"Alix lets out an exaggerated sigh. "Well obviously Zee. The station's squeezing in as many ads as possible around the interview so they can sell more stuff."The car jolts forward as it screeches to a stop at the traffic lights. "It goes along with being commercial fake rock sellouts. I mean, they're basically a glorified boy band with instruments."He's done it now. Zee turns her head very slowly to face him. I don't want her to start shouting or something and cause a car accident, so I put my hand on her shoulder.Zee's pretty easygoing most of the time, but when it comes to Alix she's like a banshee."Just because the only thing you'll listen to is obscure bands with impossible to pronounce names, doesn't mean you get to trash what I like," she says so
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BY THE TIME WE reach our lockers it's just five minutes until first bell. I hear Jamie's voice before I see her – she sounds like she's super upset about something.Jamie's what some people might call a drama queen – literally, because she's the unofficial star of Huntson High's drama club, and figuratively because she's totally OTT and melodramatic.As we near her I see she's wearing a sequined silver cardi over a dress with a photo of the Fable boys printed on it. She mentioned that she did a bit of online shopping just for the concert, and I guess this is it.Her long brunette hair is swept up in a messy bun to show off the shower of oversized golden stars dangling from her ears.It must have taken her hours to get ready this morning.Jamie never does things half-heartedly. Last year when she was getting into character for her role as Dorothy in the school production of The Wizard of Oz, she wore her hair in braids every day for weeks.An
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"HEY GHOST." A FAMILIAR voice pipes up just behind me.I steel myself for a moment. I'm so tempted to ignore her, to just close my locker and walk away.I turn around already knowing who I'll see. Beth, Bailey and Becca – or the Three Bs, as they're known at Huntson High. Beth is the Queen Bee, and Bailey and Becca are sort of like the worker bees. They do everything for her; they even carry her bag and her phone.Jamie says the reason people call them the Three Bs isn't because their names all start with B, but actually because they’re all "Blonde Brainless Bitches". She's wrong though – Bailey gets good grades and she’s sort of nice, and Beth and Becca aren't really blonde.They only started dying their hair blonde last year after they became obsessed with Fable and Alastaire said in a TV interview that he only dates blondes. Alastaire's elite fans, or “Alastaire’s Angels” as the media calls them, are like a
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THE REST OF THE MORNING goes by excruciatingly slowly. My first three periods are the worst. Chem, math and physics. The deadly trio.The fact that I'm still feeling down about the concert doesn't help matters.My next class is art, which I actually like. Plus it's one of the few classes I have with Jamie, Grace and Zee.We usually meet up at our lockers before walking out to the arts building together, so I'm not surprised when I hear Jamie's voice as I'm about to turn the corner by our lockers. She sounds upset.I stop dead in my tracks when I hear her say my name.I'm not totally sure what it is that makes me press my back against the wall and stand listening, concealed around the corner where they can't see me. I'm only a few feet from them, and they could leave the lockers and turn the corner at any time, and this would be very weird to try and explain to them.I don't usually randomly eavesdrop on my friends. But there's something in Jamie's voice
FABLE Chapter 7
AFTER SCHOOL I WALK to The Night Owl. Most Fridays the girls come with me. Everything's on the house for us – the Night Owl, along with the restaurant upstairs, is owned and managed by my parents.Ever since they met and fell in love at chef school in Seattle (pretty romantic I guess), they dreamed about starting a business together.The only complication was that my dad wanted a haute cuisine restaurant and my mom wanted a cozy little coffeehouse.So when my gran offered to put money down on a building, they decided on a compromise. Fine dining restaurant upstairs, coffeehouse downstairs.When they first moved in eleven years ago, the building had been abandoned for ages. I was only five years old, so I don't remember much – but whenever I look at it now I can still see the blanket of moss and ivy growing all over the facade so thickly you could barely see the walls.Today a small group of tourists in flannels and hiking gear are standing outsid
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FABLE Epilogue
She sits high up in the branches of an ancient blackthorn tree, draped in a darkness blacker than midnight.They’re still searching for her.She can hear the faraway shouting, the breaking of twigs underfoot, even the beating of their hearts.Now she watches those five blazing hearts dancing through the dark far below, glowing like red embers in the dying fire.Her eyes travel further afield, to the heart of the forest, where a nimbus of brilliant silver blooms in the shadows.She smiles as the cold wind tugs on her hair, and she sends a tune out along the breeze, towards the silvery light.The oldest song she can remember.A lullaby.Soon, she’ll be free.She’ll destroy it. Music made magic, the chain unbroken for a thousand years.
FABLE Chapter 51
This can't be happening.The massive ball of silver light hanging in the air unfurls, opening up like the petals of an incandescent metallic rose.In the circle of luminosity, a wavy ribbon of radiance seems to move in a slow pattern, weaving in and out of itself like a twisting knot of smoke.As my eyes adjust, I make out its real shape.Impossible.A long, coiling body covered in glinting scales like a thousand tiny mirrors, reflecting the light of the full moon. A coffin-shaped head bobbing slowly on an invisible current. Two wide, glittering green eyes shining like emeralds.Even though it must be at least twenty feet above us, I can clearly see a series of markings on the underbelly of the serpent, darker scales or scarring, running down its length like Hieroglyphics or some ancient script.A figure-eight on its side. A cross looped o
FABLE Chapter 50
The forest is bathed in bright silvery moonlight as we make our way along the trail from the car park.Despite Felix and Alastaire's spat, the evening served its purpose.Satisfied now that they'd met – or rather, interrogated – the band, my parents were totally happy to send me off with them at the end of the night with my overnight bag, a flashlight and the remaining strawberry cupcakes in a tupperware.We agreed I'll stay with the guys as long as it takes to get the album recorded – maybe up to a week or longer – and I'll phone my mom to check in every day.It'll be so much better not having to do this long walk twice a day. And staying over at the cabin's gonna be fun. Like a summer camp. Even if I'm feeling sort of nervous about being around Felix after the… thing… that happened in my bedroom.Now, as I pick my way along th
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I'm putting the finishing touches on a strawberry cupcake when I hear the doorbell ringing, followed by frantic knocking.I run to the front door, and swing it open.Kitty's standing on the front porch, looking like she just stepped out of The Great Gatsby. She's wearing a chic forest green silk dress, and her bob of dark hair is tied back with a filmy white scarf, which trails down her back. Fluttering in the breeze, the scarf makes it look almost like she has a set of translucent wings. A pair of huge dark glasses – the sort celebs wear when evading the paparazzi – in combination with the scarf wings makes me think of a bug.In fact, Kitty looks a lot like a dragonfly right now – a dragonfly crossed with a gorgeous glamazon heiress.As soon as I open the door, she's visibly relieved.She turns towards the road and gestures behind her, at a black Jeep parked just a
FABLE Chapter 48
The rest of the week slips by, and Thursday night arrives way before I'm ready for it.After practicing with the boys for hours on end from sunrise to sunset, plus the long walk to the cabin and back every day, I'm exhausted.The last thing I feel like is having to sit through a long dinner while my mom tries to convince the boys that she's "hip" and "knows how to use the Facebook" – while my dad cross-examines them like a detective in an 80s cop show.Plus, knowing them, they'll have prepared a ridiculous feast of epic proportions for the boys. The last thing I want is to give off the impression that we're trying too hard.To make matters worse, I've barely seen my friends this week, and I know I should ask them if they want to come over tonight. They could show up after dinner, and hang out with the guys a bit.But the memory of Felix blatantly ignoring Zee and Jamie the othe
FABLE Chapter 47
By the time we wrap up and leave the recording studio, I’m feeling on top of the world.Elliot was totally right. As soon as we started jamming, everything just fell into place.The boys had already written most of the music and lyrics for the new album. They’d been practicing the songs for weeks, and the only thing missing was the acoustic guitar.At first they just played through what they had, and I slipped in, adding the sound of my guitar to the music they’d already created.It was clear to see why Felix was so determined to include acoustic guitar on the new album. Without it, the songs had the same old familiar indie rock sound of their previous singles. But with the addition of the extra sound, everything seemed to take on a mystical, romantic, almost eerie quality.After hours of revisions and experimentation, we have the first song ready to record.
FABLE Chapter 46
By the time I reach the boys’ hideout, it’s already past 9am.Someone’s gonna be sooo pissed.A mental image of Felix impatiently sitting on the steps outside the front door with a scowl plastered on his face pops into my mind, and I find it oddly satisfying.Let him wait. I’m not his slave.But as I leave the forest and walk across the clearing towards the cabin, I can see that the steps are empty. He’s not waiting.Maybe he forgot.I’m glad to finally be finished the long walk – I bought my guitar along in its case today, and it gets surprisingly heavy after almost an hour of carrying it.I pause at the foot of the steps, looking up at the carpet of brilliant red roses clinging to the front of the cabin.As the princess lay slumbering, around the castle the
FABLE Chapter 45
I wake up crying.The image of Mia with a bloody rose blooming from her lips makes my stomach turn, and I realize I'm about to hurl.I make it to the bathroom in the nick of time, and I throw-up up until I taste bile.Afterwards, I take a hot shower, scrubbing away the night's memories and terrors.If only I could forget it all.Forget the nightmare. Forget the accident. Forget Evan and Mia.Once I'm done in the shower, I change into skinny jeans, a white cami, and my red hoodie.The same hoodie that the Alastaire's Angels tore to shreds the night of the concert. I never did ask Felix how he mended it so quickly. Although it's not like he would have mended it personally. Maybe someone at the hotel did it.I run my fingers over the seams, looking for some stitch out of place, a clue, but it's as perfect a
FABLE Chapter 44
I'm standing beneath a starry sky on the edge of a jagged cliff.Ocean waves crash against a rocky shore far below, churning up swirling sea foam bathed in silvery moonlight.My hair whips around me; the wind stings my eyes.I stand for a long time, looking down at the raging seas.Somewhere in that dark ocean, the bus is sinking, a metal coffin falling forever.I can feel the cold interior slick with blood; I can hear my classmates calling me.There's a tug in my chest, like an invisible string pulling me forward.Somehow I know that if I look too long, I'll float out to sea, and I'll never be able to swim back.So I focus my attention on the pale white ribbon of sand that stretches like a snake out along the base of the cliffs far below, glowing faintly with trapped moonlight.A procession of figures in silver
