I’m part of a wicked set of twisted fairytales that will come out in January 2017 with a group of delightfully devious authors. We’re all doing our own twists on fairy tales and I chose Rapunzel. It’s a modern take, full of capture fantasy naughtiness, and Rebecca ‘Rapunzel’ Sinclair is famous for her long blonde hair, but she wants to be known for more – wants to be more. In fact, she wants to follow in the footsteps of her wealthy CEO of a father, but he’s made some enemies and one man in particular has come seeking vengeance. In this scene she pissed off her captor and so he turned all the lights out, and in her concrete prison she’s not handling it well.

—

It stayed dark for hours, or at least it seemed to, her mind torturing her with imagined shadows. Each time her hair brushed her skin she jumped, whining into the empty space around her, shivering as her eyes started to play tricks. Flares of color that weren’t actually there, she knew they weren’t there. Nothing was there.

Eventually, she started to plead aloud. She begged in hoarse whispers for him to give her back just one camera light, anything real to focus on, apologized for speaking, apologized for shouting at him – but there was no answer.

No change. Just endless black.

After too much time in the dark, too much time where she was sure she would lose her mind soon, she heard the door unlock and beautiful, bright light flooded in. She wanted to run towards it, to bathe herself in the brightness, but then she saw the chain in his bare hands. Heard it shifting as link rubbed against link.

At some point she had stood up and taken a few steps towards him, hungry for the light in the hall, but now she was frozen. In the opposite corner of her safe spot, and he was simply staring at her from behind that damn mask. Her voice wobbled as he adjusted the chain in his grip. “Pl- please turn the lights back on?”

“What will you do for me if I do?” The words sent a chill down her spine.

“What do you want?” She took a tentative step back, and then he let the door shut. Darkness covered her again, only now it wasn’t just a random fear, an imagined shape in the black, now she knew the danger was real.

—

He’s so twisted, I just love it. What all is going to happen to Rapunzel? Welllll, you’ll just have to wait to find out, won’t you, lovelies? In the mean time, don’t miss any other snippets the other authors are peeping on Facebook, and check out these other authors below!