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31_days2006-10-23 02:33 pm
luckychan.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2006-10-23 02:33 pm
[October 23] [Jigoku Shoujo] Dancing with Red-Hot Shoes
Title: Dancing With Red-Hot Shoes
Day/Theme: October 23rd, Fairy tale ending
Series: Jigoku Shoujo
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing: One of Enma Ai’s many clients
Notes: Can be read without having watched the series, actually. (I myself have watched until Episode 6 only, and yet I was already hooked enough to write a drabble for it. ^^;) It’s enough that you know that the Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl), Enma Ai, takes revenge on her clients’ behalf; but of course, with these things, it comes with a price.
It was too late, far too late, but now she knew that no fairy tale ending was ever complete without having someone else suffer.
She was familiar with the earlier, more gruesome versions of such fairy tales, versions that are no longer told to children, these days. Rumpelstiltskin tore himself in two in his anger when the Queen found out his name, Cinderella’s evil stepsisters had their eyes pecked out by birds, the Ogre Queen died in the pit of vipers she had prepared for Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White’s evil stepmother was made to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she dropped dead.
Of course, it was only justice: they suffered because of the pain they inflicted on other people. It is only what they deserve, she kept telling herself, as she saw in her mind how her stepmother had screamed in agony, again and again.
The woman had it coming: she made everyone’s life miserable. Her father had died a broken man, the company he so worked for was coming to ruin, and even the money he left his daughter that woman had stolen. And even her own fiancée, the prince she thought would finally save her, was lying in a coma, a victim of her stepmother’s scheming.
It was just like any other fairy tale, she knew. She was the lonely princess, made to suffer by an evil stepmother; and help had come at last then, in the form of a little girl with red, red eyes, staring at her in the darkness. Watching, waiting.
“You make a covenant with me as you pull the string,” the little girl said then, giving her a black straw doll, “We shall take revenge on your behalf, and ferry that woman straight to Hell.”
She made the covenant, and everything happened as she wanted it to be. Her stepmother was tormented for all the evil she had done (spirits of all the people she once abused came to haunt her and made her dig and dig a hole in the earth until she could take it no longer, at which point she suddenly realized she was digging a grave—her own), and then the little girl pulled her into Hell, and even then, she still screamed that she had done no wrong.
She felt sorry for the woman then. She was surprised, because she thought retribution was supposed to be the only thing she wanted, and it was never supposed to be make her miserable.
And everything also turned out as she wished. Her father’s company was finally hers again, and it was steadily growing into the big, booming business her father once dreamed of. Her fiancée, finally awake, married her, and they were going to finally have a child.
“But you must pay the compensation,” a little voice at the back of her head kept saying throughout the years: it was the voice of the little girl, still watching in the darkness, still waiting. “When you die, you yourself shall go to Hell.”
The seal on her chest was a painful reminder of her part of the bargain, and she wept every now she remembered, regretting her having wrought vengeance on her stepmother. For even fairy tale endings, and even justice, come with a price. And she learned this too late, far too late for her soul.
Thus her fairy tale ended: the evil stepmother died, her prince loved her, and she lived happily ever after.
But after that—
Day/Theme: October 23rd, Fairy tale ending
Series: Jigoku Shoujo
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing: One of Enma Ai’s many clients
Notes: Can be read without having watched the series, actually. (I myself have watched until Episode 6 only, and yet I was already hooked enough to write a drabble for it. ^^;) It’s enough that you know that the Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl), Enma Ai, takes revenge on her clients’ behalf; but of course, with these things, it comes with a price.
It was too late, far too late, but now she knew that no fairy tale ending was ever complete without having someone else suffer.
She was familiar with the earlier, more gruesome versions of such fairy tales, versions that are no longer told to children, these days. Rumpelstiltskin tore himself in two in his anger when the Queen found out his name, Cinderella’s evil stepsisters had their eyes pecked out by birds, the Ogre Queen died in the pit of vipers she had prepared for Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White’s evil stepmother was made to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she dropped dead.
Of course, it was only justice: they suffered because of the pain they inflicted on other people. It is only what they deserve, she kept telling herself, as she saw in her mind how her stepmother had screamed in agony, again and again.
The woman had it coming: she made everyone’s life miserable. Her father had died a broken man, the company he so worked for was coming to ruin, and even the money he left his daughter that woman had stolen. And even her own fiancée, the prince she thought would finally save her, was lying in a coma, a victim of her stepmother’s scheming.
It was just like any other fairy tale, she knew. She was the lonely princess, made to suffer by an evil stepmother; and help had come at last then, in the form of a little girl with red, red eyes, staring at her in the darkness. Watching, waiting.
“You make a covenant with me as you pull the string,” the little girl said then, giving her a black straw doll, “We shall take revenge on your behalf, and ferry that woman straight to Hell.”
She made the covenant, and everything happened as she wanted it to be. Her stepmother was tormented for all the evil she had done (spirits of all the people she once abused came to haunt her and made her dig and dig a hole in the earth until she could take it no longer, at which point she suddenly realized she was digging a grave—her own), and then the little girl pulled her into Hell, and even then, she still screamed that she had done no wrong.
She felt sorry for the woman then. She was surprised, because she thought retribution was supposed to be the only thing she wanted, and it was never supposed to be make her miserable.
And everything also turned out as she wished. Her father’s company was finally hers again, and it was steadily growing into the big, booming business her father once dreamed of. Her fiancée, finally awake, married her, and they were going to finally have a child.
“But you must pay the compensation,” a little voice at the back of her head kept saying throughout the years: it was the voice of the little girl, still watching in the darkness, still waiting. “When you die, you yourself shall go to Hell.”
The seal on her chest was a painful reminder of her part of the bargain, and she wept every now she remembered, regretting her having wrought vengeance on her stepmother. For even fairy tale endings, and even justice, come with a price. And she learned this too late, far too late for her soul.
Thus her fairy tale ended: the evil stepmother died, her prince loved her, and she lived happily ever after.
But after that—