Chapter 24: The End of the World as we Know it

Seeking feedback on my work-in-process novel, Jack and the Beanstalk Cafe.

Start from the beginning: Chapter 1

Previous Chapter: Chapter 23

Where we left off: Jack starts the spell to kill all the vampires, Gillian included.

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Gillian

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“Stop him!” the Count shouted at his men as soon as he realized that Jack was not speaking the correct spell. But Jack’s whole body was glowing now. No one could come near him as he spoke the ancient words.

“Keep going! End this!” Gillian didn’t even realize she was screaming the words out loud as the guards held her back. This was it. This was the only chance anyone would ever get to destroy the Vampire King and all he stood for.

But then, before the last word was completed, Jack stilled. Gillian watched, as if in slow motion, as his head turned to meet her gaze. It was in that second, the fraction of a heartbeat where he’d hesitated, that the glow around Jack flickered and her father made his move.

The Count swept in and knocked the beans from Jack’s outstretched hand and the glowing runes evaporated.

Her father’s guards immediately stepped forward and pulled Jack’s hands behind his back, dragging him away from the rune drawings as the Count shouted more instructions. In response, the vampires at Gillian’s sides tightened their grips on her arms and began to pull her backward through the hallway.

All the while, Jack’s eyes never left hers.

***

Drip, drip, drip. The sound of water seeping through the stone of the underground walls was Gillian’s only company while she sat motionless in the dungeon cell.

She was on the hard wooden bench that served as a bed in the same cell that Alice had escaped from earlier that day. Or had it been the day before? Gillian had lost all sense of time as she stared sightlessly through the iron bars that closed her in to the small room.

Her tears, long since dried, had briefly been a source of comfort— something to distract her from her inner turmoil. But what was the point of tears anyway, she thought. Her cries and pleas, her grief and pain, not even her strength and power could do anything to prevent what was surely happening in the castle above her. The curse was probably broken. Her father was likely raising a vampire army right then, as she sat helpless on the hard bench. She was useless.

Gillian was sure the Count would have found a way to break Jack and force him to say the correct spell. Torture was something of a favorite hobby among her father’s men, but they had all learned from the best— Count Vlad von Karnstein himself. Gillian knew that no matter how good Jack was, how much he wanted to kill the vampires, he could not withstand what her father was most assuredly doing to him while she rotted below in her cell.

Gillian’s hands clenched at her sides as she fought the surge of adrenaline— her fight or fight harder response to tear through the castle and rescue Jack.

But why was she so eager to rescue Jack? Hadn’t he been the one seconds away from killing her? His first choice when faced with the power to activate the runes was to end her life? Gillian shook the thought away. She knew it had been the best course of action. Using that chance to kill all the vampires really was a stroke of genius on his part. And, of course, she agreed that the vampires should die. Herself included.

Gillian, with her human feelings still floating in her memories, had always been different. Even as a young girl she knew that her thirst for human blood was wrong. She was wrong. An abomination who should have died a natural death hundreds and hundreds of years before.

And yet.

She couldn’t stop the involuntary twinge in her chest, the pain in her heart that caused her eyes to prickle again, at the prospect that Jack had hated her in the end. It was foolish. She knew that.

Everything she’d done in the last week had been foolish. To get close to a human again. Let him into her home, into her heart. She’d known better. What had she expected to happen? It was always going to end up with one of them in a body bag.

And yet.

Here she was, facing what was probably the end of the human world as they knew it, thinking about a boy. The boy who had wormed his way into her heart with his crooked smile and adorable dimple. His easy laugh, the way his glasses always slipped down his nose, and his stupid little nickname for her.

How could that same man be so ready to kill her? Without even a goodbye. With barely a second glance her way.

With barely a second glance, Gillian repeated to herself.

But there had been a second glance, hadn’t there? He’d paused the incantation at the last second. He’d hesitated and looked up.

He’d looked at her.

Gillian sat up straighter in her cell, her pulse skittering.

He’d hesitated. That fraction of a second where he’d looked at her had to mean something. Right? What reason could he have had for pausing the spell?

Gillian’s mind raced through the last moments before Jack had activated the runes, looking for clues. She had noticed immediately when her father’s compulsion had failed on Jack. As soon as the magic was flowing through him from those cursed magic beans, she had seen the almost imperceptible drop in the tension in his shoulders. What had been mechanical, forced movements turned into Jack’s natural state— albeit anxious and scared.

She’d watched as his brilliant brain worked out a solution. And then he’d looked at her. It was the horror in his eyes that had confused her. Why had he looked so terrified and… had that been sadness?

Gillian closed her eyes to picture Jack’s face in that moment. Yes, she decided. That look on his face for the few seconds they had locked eyes was the look of someone who had just witnessed a tragedy. Or perhaps, was about to see one.

Had that been the moment he’d decided to enact the spell that would kill all the vampires? Gillian didn’t want to let herself hope. Didn’t want to be let down once again. But was it possible that Jack hadn’t wanted to kill her? Maybe he just hadn’t seen any other way to save the world from the Vampire King.

And then, there was the hesitation. The deep sorrow that filled his eyes as the glow of the spell had flickered around him.

Gillian’s heart was now beating erratically as her thoughts swirled. Jack hadn’t wanted to kill her at all. He didn’t hate her.

Jack didn’t hate her.

Standing abruptly, Gillian paced around the cell. Maybe there was still time. Maybe it wasn’t too late to save Jack and stop the curse from breaking.

Glancing around for something, anything, to help her get out of the cell, her eyes landed on the bench. A memory flashed through her mind from when she was a child. William, the castle’s blacksmith when she’d been younger, had always had a soft spot for Gillian. One of the many times she’d been locked in the dungeon as a child, William had kept her company and told her a secret about the construction of the cells.

“With the right leverage, and the proper application of strength,” he had said. “The door will lift free.”

Without another moment’s hesitation, Gillian lifted the bench and wedged the legs under the iron bars of the cell door. Pushing down on the end, the force applied to the fulcrum dislodged the cell door and it clattered to the floor with a bang.

Gillian leapt over the fallen door and dashed up the stairs to the main castle, canines glinting in a feral smile.

Jack was coming home with her.

Next Chapter: Chapter 25