Bara was moved from a boat to a car and then to something soft. A bed? Heavy lids opened only enough to take in partial views. A light hand stroked and cleansed her body with warm water and then wrapped her again in coverings. She was taken care of like a baby, and always there was the elixir.

Everything was so very pleasant, but there persisted a sense that she should resist this comfortable haze. She just couldn’t. The darkness was too enveloping.

Was this dream to be her happily ever after? A paradise but without free will.

Fortunately forever exists only in fairy tales. Night came to an end and so did the dream. Day won back its sway. Bara opened her eyes and finally found focus in the waking reality. There was something odd about the light. It was too bright, and there were no multi-colored polygons reflected onto the floor from the dorm window. The sound of lapping water returned, but it sounded less crisp, muted, as though coming from a long way off. She sat up, suddenly remembering her last coherent moments before drinking from the elixir … the man in the black cloak, the hand over her mouth, and then the sudden black-out. Kidnapped. Her eyes darted around. She was being held prisoner but not in any dank cell.

She lay in a four-poster bed with dragons carved into the dark wood of its four posts. A red velvet bedspread lay across her lap. The sheets beneath were bordered with lace, and the lace didn’t end there. She wore a nightgown with humongous frilly sleeves. It was otherwise a diaphanous silk gathered at the bust. Beside the bed was a bouquet of purple lilacs, her favorite spring flower. How her abductor knew that was a mystery. Where he’d gotten the flowers in the dead of winter equally so. The walls were papered with an ivory damask. The damask matched the nightgown, not a shade off. She’d been dressed and placed as sleeping beauty. No detail was missed.

***