Sleeping Beauty...and Zombies

 I wanted to post something, but I couldn't think of anything new to write. With that being said, here's the story I had to write for my summer reading project senior year just for the hell of posting something.

It's obviously based on the Disney version since it's the only version I know like the back of my hand.

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Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, an evil witch named Maleficent placed a curse on all the living in the kingdom: once someone died, they would become part of her army of the walking dead and feed on the brains of the living. The king declared war with Maleficent. After years of fighting, the king and his army subdue Maleficent. In return, she promises to lift the curse for 100 years. The three fairy guardians of the royal family, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, prophesize that when the curse returns a princess will be born, and she will be Maleficent’s downfall.


One hundred years later, the queen gives birth to a beautiful baby girl named Aurora. Fearing the fairies’ prophesy, Maleficent places a curse on the newborn princess: if she is touched by a solider of the undead on her sixteenth birthday, she will die. To ease the fears of the king and queen, Merryweather alters the curse, saying that Aurora will only be put into a deep sleep, only to be awakened by true love’s kiss. 

Fearing for their daughter, the king and queen entrust her to be raised by the three fairies. For the next sixteen years, they raise her as Briar Rose and train her to be a very skilled warrior. They teach her two essential rules:


Don’t talk to strangers and don’t get touched by the undead.

………..

Sweat dripped down her face, stinging the small cuts on her cheeks. She was completely surrounded; the cursed beings of the undead inched closer with the lust of crushing her skull to little bits and feed on her brain. Gripping her blade tighter, she slashed at the enemies inching closer, finishing them off. Just when she thought she was done, more appeared from behind the trees.

Some peaceful birthday this turned out to be.

With a groan, she renewed her stance and readied herself for battle once more. This was getting old, she thought. Whoever was constantly sending the brain-lusting creatures needed to pick another way to attack. Zombies showing up whenever she stepped foot into the forest? Ha, she thought, what else is new?

“NOT THE BERRIES!” she cried, her blade slashing through a creature as it reached to grab the small, woven basket by the nearest tree. “I’m NOT having another pie full of corpse again!” As the creature disintegrated, the swarm continued forward, increasing in number.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

…

“Did you hear that, Samson?”

The horse lifted his head from the creek he was drinking from at the sound of his owner’s voice. He knew exactly what the sound was. Pretending as if it was nothing to worry about, he continued to drink.

“Great. Just when I thought I could finally catch a break-“

Samson whinnied in protest. The last thing the poor, tired horse wanted was to ride into yet another battle. The cut on his shin from their previous encounter has not yet healed, which made it harder to gallop at full speed. The stallion looked at his owner, a pleading look in his features.

“Come on, boy,” his owner said, “last one of the day. Then we’ll go home. I promise.” Samson released another whinny in protest. He did NOT want to go into another battle. He would not have it.

His owner sighed. “Oh well. I guess I’ll feed those fresh carrots to my father’s horse.”

Samson’s ears perked up. He just HAD to use the carrot bribe, didn’t he? The horse grunted in defeat as his owner mounted him. “Atta boy. Now let’s kill some zombies.” His owner let out a battle cry as Samson galloped further into the woods. The sounds of the undead got louder and louder as they entered a small clearing. When they were at a safe enough distance, the Samson’s owner pulled back on the reigns.

“Oh no! She’s outnumbered!” Samson looked through the zombie swarm to see a young woman, completely surrounded by zombies. It took Samson a few seconds to realize that his owner dismounted and was already fighting through the swarm to get to the girl.

The young man swiftly swung his sword, cutting the heads off of any undead that blocked his path. He eventually got toward the center of the sloppy circle that the undead had formed around the girl. Thinking quick, he cut off the hand of a zombie that reached for her ankle. The woman looked up at him in surprise. She was strikingly beautiful; her hair shined like the sun, her eyes a beautiful ocean blue, and her lips as red as a rose. For a second, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her…

“Look out!”

The young man snapped out of his daze as a zombie creeped up on him from behind. With a swing of his sword, he took it out in one swipe.

“You all right?” he asked the young woman as she stood.

“I’m fine,” she replied, quickly picking up her discarded sword and slashing an oncoming zombie clean in half.

“That was a close call,” the young man said, also killing an oncoming zombie.

“Yeah it was,” she said, stabbing three zombies through the neck. The young man spotted a zombie creeping up behind her. As he quickly finished off the zombie in front of him, he turned to kill the one creeping up behind the girl...

...her sword barely missed his arm as she delivered a killing blow to the zombie.

“Holy-“

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m no damsel in distress,” she said, continuing to fight off the rest of the swarm.

“I didn’t say you were,” he gasped as he is attacked from behind. The girl’s blade cut off some of his hair as it hit the zombie in the head.

“Now for you, I think it’s the other way around.”

“Excuse me?“

“Well, that looks like the last of them.”

The young man looked around at the disintegrating corpses around them. Letting out a sigh of relief, he took one quick look around them to confirm that it was indeed the last one. Sheathing his sword, he turned toward to the woman, who slung her sword and sheath on her back.

“Darn it all,” she said as her gaze landed on the destroyed berry basket. “Great. Now what am I supposed to make tonight?”

“Hey.”

The woman turned around to face the man. “Oh, you’re still here?”

“You’re skills are amazing,” he said. “Where’d you learn to fight like that?”

“Years of training,” she replied. “My aunts raised me to be a fighter. I’ve been fighting all my life.”

“Wow. That’s amazing. What’s your name?”

The young woman looked at him, a smirk of pride gracing her rose-red lips. “Rose. Briar Rose.”

“Makes sense.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh…um…what I meant to say was that it…suits you because…oh, forget it, I’m just embarrassing myself.”

Briar Rose giggled. “And your name?”

“Philip. Prince Philip.”

Briar Rose’s eyes widened. “Prince! You’re a prince! Oh, I apologize for being so rude, those wretched creatures always get the best of me-“

“It’s all right,” Philip, laughed, “those wretched creatures get the best of everyone. No worries.”

Briar Rose sighed in relief. Her gaze went back to her destroyed basket. “Oh, I guess we have plenty back at the cottage-“

“What were you picking them for?”

 “Pie. My aunts were going to make a special one for my birthday tonight.”

“It’s your birthday?” Philip asked. “How old are you?”

Briar Rose smiled playfully. “Really? You would ask a woman her age?”

“Oh. Um…pardon me, I tend to get a bit nosey.”

“I can tell,” she laughed. “Well it’s late, I should probably be heading back-“

 “Want me to escort you?” Philip blurted out. Briar Rose looked at him in alarm.

“No no no no no I can get there with no trouble! But…um…would like to come for some dinner?”

Philip pondered her offer for a moment. Dinner with a girl he just met? Risky, but it sounded pleasurable. “I’d love to.”

“I live at the small cottage in the glen,” Briar Rose said as she started walking in the direction of her home. “I’ll see you tonight?”

“Yes you most certainly will.”

Briar Rose stopped and turned to face the prince. “Thanks for covering me earlier.”

“No problem.”

A genuine smile graced Briar Rose’s beautiful face as she turned and walked away. Philip sighed and turned to lean on Samson. “Jackpot,” he whispered to his trusty steed, “I really hit the jackpot.”

….
“I’m back, ladies! Aunt Flora? Fauna? Merryweather?”

The small cottage was dark and all closed up. Sighing, Briar Rose found a candle and lit it.

“Oh my goodness!” she gasped as her eyes fell on a beautiful blue gown sitting on a chair. Setting the candle down, she gently lifted the gown and held it up to herself.

“SURPRISE!”

Briar Rose turned to see her three, plump aunts, big smiles on their faces. Her Aunt Fauna held out a 3-tiered birthday cake as her Aunts Flora and Merryweather stepped forward to hug her.

“Oh, you darlings-“

“WAIT.” Aunt Flora stepped forward, snapping her fingers at Briar Rose. Sighing, she shrugged off her purple wrap, stretched out her arms, and sighed again as her other two aunts joined Flora to do a body inspection.

“No major gashes,” Aunt Flora observed.

“No broken bones,” Aunt Fauna added.

“What’s this bruise from?” Aunt Merryweather interrogated, pointing at a reasonably large bruise on her right shin.

“Aunt Merryweather, really?” Briar Rose groaned. “I landed on a tree root sticking out of the ground.”

“Nothing touched you, correct?” Aunt Flora asked.

“Well one almost did-“ all three aunts gasped in shock and horror “- but he cut off its hand before it could-“

“He?”

“Rose!”

“You met a stranger?”

“Oh, darn it.”

“You met a stranger.” Aunt Flora threw her hands up in exasperation. “After all these years of telling you NOT to talk to or make contact with strangers, you talked to AND made contact with a stranger!”

“I was surrounded!” Rose defended, “He was riding through the forest and helped me! I couldn’t say ‘no’ when I was completely outnumbered!”

“You’ve been outnumbered plenty of times and you never needed reinforcements,” Aunt Merryweather said.

“I know, but I was ridiculously outnumbered. So he showed up and helped me. He was very skilled. I invited him over for dinner as a token of my appre-“

“ROSE!” the three older women gasped in shock.

“Oh…DARN.”

“What has gotten into you?” Fauna asked, a gentle yet stern tone in her voice. “Why are you all of a sudden…er…oh, what’s the word I’m looking for?”

“‘REBELLING,’” Merryweather snapped.

“Merryweather, hush!" Flora cut in, "but yes, why are you rebelling my dear?”

“Have you forgotten everything we’ve taught you?” Flora asked, a hint of despair in her voice.

“Of course not! I just…got excited, that’s all!”

“That’s no excuse to talk to a stranger, let alone inviting him to our home!”

“What if he works for…for…”

“Who? Maleficent?”

The three aunts gasped at the sound of the name. “Rose!” Flora scolded, “do NOT say that name in this house!”

“Why not? It’s not like she’s going to pop in at the sound of her name!”

“You never know…”

“Merryweather!” Fauna snapped. “Enough!”  Merryweather “hmpf’d” and sat down in the nearest chair.

“Maybe we should tell King Stephan about the boy,” Flora whispered to Fauna. “Maybe he can make an exception for her to see the boy-“

“King Who?” Rose cut in. “What are you talking about?”

The older women looked at each other and sighed. It was time.

“Listen, Rose,” Flora started, “your real name isn’t Rose. It’s Aurora.”

“...Wait, what?”

“Princess Aurora, to be exact,” Merryweather added.

Rose stood there, staring at the three elder women in front of her. A princess? Her? A princess? “You can’t be serious-“

“Oh, but we are, Ro…Aurora,” Fauna said.

Rose was in complete shock. Princess. She was a princess. She had a king father and a queen mother. She had a castle, and servants, and…weapons. Every castle had an armory, she thought, and with those weapons she could put a large dent in the zombie population…

“I need to lie down,” she said, quickly making her way to her room.

“Rose!”

“Let her be, Merryweather,” Flora said, “she just needs a few minutes for all of this to sink in.”

Rose laid on her bed and put her pillow over her face. Sighing, she prayed the makeshift darkness would help get rid of her blistering headache.

……….

 Philip rode up to his castle with his head held high. He had Samson at a steady trot, which in a way reflected his rider’s happy mood. There was no doubt that the young prince was looking forward to his dinner with Briar Rose that night; the image of her parting smile was still fresh in his mind. Inside he was hoping that she was excited too.

The real problem was how he was going to tell his father.

King Hubert was really set on Philip’s betrothal to one Princess Aurora, the daughter of his old friend King Stephan. He would tell Philip about how their marriage would unite the two kingdoms and create peace throughout the land, as well as double their armed forces against Maleficent’s army of the undead. In truth, Philip wasn’t looking forward to finally meeting Aurora anymore since he met Briar Rose.

 What if he told his father he wanted to marry her instead of the princess? “That wouldn’t be a pretty sight,” Philip sighed to himself.

 Philip dismounted Samson as they neared the palace stables. He led Samson to his stall and fed him three large, fresh carrots as a token of his appreciation to his noble steed. After ordering one of the ranch hands to look at the gash on Samson’s leg, he went to find his father.

…….

Aurora followed her guardians silently through the forest as they only had so much light left to get them to their destination, her three aunts – who turned out to be fairies – leading the way. She felt naked; her trusty blade wrapped in a cloth and tucked under Flora’s arm, since the gown they made her did not accommodate carrying weapons.

 Are princesses supposed to be damsels in distress, she thought? Pathetic.

They had a few close calls during their trek, but the three fairies quickly finished them off without even stopping. As impressive as it was, Aurora still had the urge to slay the wretched undead on her own. As strange as it was, she considered it to be a stress reliever.

There were still many thoughts going through her mind. For one thing, she still was adjusting to the fact that she was a princess. Ahead waited a life full of dresses, fancy princess things, and no fighting. The thought of not being able to fight sent shivers down her spine.

They reached the palace as soon as the sun began to sink lower into the sky. Flora led their party through a secret entrance in the back of the castle, and they continued their journey inside. Many secret passages and steps later, they reached one of the higher towers.

 “In here, dear,” Flora said, leading Aurora into a small room. “Merryweather, the door. Fauna, the drapes.”

Aurora sat down at a small vanity and stared at herself in the mirror. Her hair was smoother than usual, her cuts from earlier barely visible on her cheeks. As she took in her much cleaner than usual appearance, her three fairy guardians joined her reflection.

“We have one more gift for you, dear,” Fauna said gently.

“You're giving my blade back?” Aurora asked, a little hope in her voice.

“No,” Merryweather said, frowning slightly at Aurora’s groan of displeasure.

“Princesses don’t carry blades,” Flora said sternly – Aurora buried her head in her hands. “But they do wear these.”

 Aurora lifted her head to see Fauna placing a silver tiara gingerly on her head.

“We made it from your blade,” Fauna said softly, “so you can truly carry it wherever you go.”

Aurora stared at the tiara with wide eyes. Shaking, she reached up to touch it. Her blade, her most trusted weapon. She killed tens of thousands of undead with that sword. And now it was reduced to a head accessory.

Aurora’s eyes started to sting. Her nails bit into her palms, drawing blood. How could they, she thought. How could they take away the one thing she treasured most? It was at that moment that she did the one thing she hasn’t done since a girl:

She rested her head on her arms and sobbed.

“Now dear-“

“Hush, Fauna. She just needs some time to herself.”

“Will she be all right by herself, Flora?”

“I’m sure she’s thankful for this, Merryweather.”

A gentle clicked told Aurora that they finally left. Slowly, she lifted her head and stared at her pitiful reflection, her face and eyes red and full of tears. “Pansy,” she snapped to herself as she wiped her eyes in her sleeve. When she opened her eyes back up, she noticed something that wasn’t in the room before. Curious, she turned to look at the fireplace.

The warm fire was replaced by an eerie green ball of light, which lit up a hidden staircase.

Raising an eyebrow, Aurora concluded that she should probably investigate this strange phenomenon. Thinking quickly, she grabbed a fire poker and followed the mysterious orb up the stairs. When she reached the top, the orb disappeared in front of an old wooden door. Taking a deep breath, she slowly opened the door…

 …and was greeted by about 50 zombies squished into the small room.

“WHAT THE-“

Aurora readied her stance, but only to realize that her poker was gone. The undead inched forward slowly…

“Stay back! STAY BACK!”

The zombies started grabbing at her, tearing her gown, pulling her hair, and taking her crown. “Hey! I SAID STAY BACK YOU VILE-“

Aurora suddenly gasped in shock when a zombie grabbed her bare wrist.

All of a sudden she felt extremely dizzy. She stumbled to the side, hoping to grab on to a wall for balance, but instead fell over and lost all feeling in her limbs.

The last thing she heard was evil laughter as everything went black.

……..

“Achoo!”

Philip fell forward as far as the chains would let him. “So musty in here…”

The night quickly went from being exciting to the worst ever. When Philip arrived at the cottage Briar Rose described to him, he was greeted by the last thing he wanted to see: a swarm of zombies and Maleficent herself.

It didn’t take them very long to take him and Samson into custody. The zombies knocked him unconscious, and the next thing he knew, he was chained to a wall in the darkest, mustiest dungeon cell they had. But there were still things that worried him:

Where was Briar Rose?

Was she all right?

Did Maleficent kidnap her too?

A small click snapped Philip out of his thoughts. Slowly the door to his cell opened and a horned, green-skinned woman stepped inside.

“Maleficent.”

“Hello, your highness,” Maleficent said mockingly.

“So you personally torture all your victims, huh? Well let’s get this over with before I purposely sneeze all over that robe of yours.”

Maleficent snickered. “Oh, aren’t you feisty,” she sneered, “not as feisty as the young woman a recently finished, though.”

Philip’s eyes widened.

“Oh, she was a fun one, that peasant girl. Or should I say princess?” Maleficent looked over at Philip’s shocked expression. “You didn’t know that peasant girl was Princess Aurora, did you? Well she was fun to be rid of. Thought a fire poker could fight off a swarm of my undead.”

“You witch,” Philip gritted through his teeth.

“Oh, don’t worry, she’s still alive. Just in an endless sleep. Only way she can be awakened is by true love’s kiss.”

“Well then, I just have to-“

Maleficent roared in laughter. “What, you think you can get out of here so easily? Oh, you’re quite humorous, Prince. I won’t let you out for another 100 years, so make yourself comfortable.”

“100 YEARS?”

“Sleep well, your highness,” Maleficent sneered as she walked towards the door.

Philip was on his feet struggling at his chains as her maniacal laughter slowly faded away. Grunting in defeat, he plopped back down on his stone bench and racked his mind for something, anything…

“Philip!”

“WHOA-“

“Shh!” said a plump woman in red as she smacked her hand over his mouth. “We need to make this quick and quiet. Fauna, the chains. Merryweather, the lock.”

Philip tried to question these women’s motives in protest, but it only lead to the red one telling him to hush as the green woman melted his chains and the blue woman melted the lock.

It took him a few extra seconds to realize that these women were fairies.

“Now listen, Philip,” the red one continued, “We’re not going to waste any more time here. Now, close your eyes and brace yourself.”

Philip knew these women meant business. Nodding once, he closed his eyes. For a brief moment he felt like he was flying, but it ended too soon.

“Open your eyes and follow us! Quickly!”

Philip opened his eyes and immediately realized that they were nowhere near Maleficent’s mountain headquarters, but right outside King Stephan’s castle. He looked around at all the people around him and realized that they were…asleep…

“Hurry Philip! You need to waken Aurora before they reach the barrier!”

Philip looked behind himself to see a mob of the undead, led by Maleficent – who managed to transform into an enormous fire-breathing dragon - heading toward them in the distance. Philip broke into a sprint as he followed the fairies up the stairs to a room in the highest tower, where he was greeted by the sight of the beautiful Princess Aurora in a deep, enchanted sleep. Slowly, he walked up to the bed she laid on.

“Here goes nothing.”

Philip took a deep breath, leaned over her, and gently placed his lips against hers. For a brief moment, he thought it didn’t work…

…until he was greeted by a strong head-but by the blonde.

“OW WHAT THE-“

“Oh, sorry! I just had to be sure you weren’t a…PHILIP?”

Aurora leaped off the bed and embraced the prince. “Oh, Philip! I thought I’d never see you again! Wait…you’re a prince, and I’m a princess…so that means we can be-“

“Believe me, I’m just as happy as you are,” Philip quickly interrupted, “but right now we got other things on our hands.”

“Like what?”

“LIKE THE DRAGON HEADING STRAIGHT FOR HERE!” Philip practically screamed, pointing out the window. Aurora gasped in horror.

“Is that Maleficent?” Aurora gasped.

“Apparently,” Philip said, “and she’s got an entire army with her. We need to fight through them in order to get to her.

“But I don’t have a-“

“Use mine,” Philip said quickly, handing her his sword and sheath. “I’ll improvise.”

“Are you sure?”

Philip smiled. “Trust me,” he said. “The fairies are already down there giving us a head start. We should probably go help them.”

“Right.”

The prince and princess ran down the many stairs as fast as their legs could carry them. They soon caught up to Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, who had already made a good dent in the army’s numbers. Aurora felt back to normal as she quickly fought through the undead, slashing throats and chopping off heads.

“AURORA! DON’T WORRY ABOUT THEM! GO FOR MALEFICENT!” Philip yelled. Aurora wasted no time following his order as she sprinted toward the dragon, killing as many of the undead that got in her way. It was a matter of time before Maleficent made a move to kill, but Aurora was prepared.

She’s been fighting her whole life, after all.

Maleficent moved into an attacking position and Aurora readied her stance. She was ready. If she defeated Maleficent, the zombies would disappear forever. She realized that her sword was glowing; the fairies must’ve enchanted it somehow.

“Throw it, Rose! THROW IT!”

Aurora took a deep breath, gripped the sword, and sent it flying toward Maleficent.

It hit her right in the heart.

Maleficent let out a roar of agony. Black smoke started coming out of her giant mouth as she threw her head back and gave one last roar before she evaporated into nothing. Aurora looked around and one by one, the zombies followed suit. The dust from the undead slowly rose into the air, and the sun started to peek out from behind the trees.

Philip made his way next to her and took her hand in his. Flora, Fauna and Merryweather appeared on either side of them and they all watched the sunrise together. Aurora smiled, took in a long, deep breath of fresh air, and squeezed Philip’s hand.

“Finally. It’s all over.”

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Just a friendly reminder that my birthday is in 6 days.