📚 Short Stories From The Immortal Quill – Issue #10
Beauty Bites Back
“Don’t invite her in unless you want your drama blood-drained.”
The Quill hovered midair, crackling with enough tension to singe Red’s cloak.
A distant boom echoed through the walls of the enchanted keep - like thunder in heels.
“She’s here…” Goldi whispered, clutching her teacup like it was holy protection.
Cinderella, ever the ice-glazed opportunist, perked up. “Oh, perfect! I invited her - figured she could tell her side before Snow turns the Quill into a snow-dagger again.”
Everyone froze.
"YOU WHAT?!" the room erupted in unified chaos.
“You invited Beauty?” Red barked, already morphing a claw.
“You invited a VAMPIRE?*” Snow looked genuinely betrayed.
“Oh hell no,” Tink snapped. “We are not doing this again. I am still vacuuming glitter ash out of my wings from the last time a vampire crossed the wards!”
“She’s still technically one of us,” Cinda offered with a smile that could curdle cream. “Besides, she said she wouldn’t bite. This time.”
Suddenly - like a shadow swirling in silk—the candles dimmed, the chandelier flickered, and a gust of cold, unnatural wind swept through the hall.
The doors creaked open on their own.
And in she glided.
Beauty.
Hair like ink. Gown like darkness wrapped in gold. Fangs barely showing beneath her flawless smirk. And those eyes - dripping with secrets, sass, and a vengeance that had lived for centuries.
“Well,” she purred. “Nice to see my favorite coven of chaos still at each other’s throats.”
“Takes one to know one,” Rapunzel muttered, not meeting her gaze.
Snow folded her arms. “We didn’t invite you.”
Cinderella cleared her throat awkwardly. “Technically I did, but - ”
“Shut it, spy,” Snow hissed.
Beauty stepped fully into the room, and for a second, the entire keep seemed to shudder. But the wards held.
Barely.
She held out a single gloved hand, and the Quill fluttered down into it, like it wanted to spill her tea.
“Let’s clear something up, shall we?” she began, voice dripping velvet and venom. “That story they tell about me? All roses and libraries and Stockholm Syndrome chic? LIES.”
Tink snorted so hard she actually hiccuped pixie dust.
Beauty’s fangs flashed. “The Beast? Not a cursed prince. A vampire. Full. Ancient. Glamoured himself to look like a tragic figure, boohoo poor hairy man with a spooky castle. Made me feel bad for him.”
Goldi gasped. “Oh no he emotional-manipulated you?”
“YES, honey. He gaslit me with literature.” She twirled the Quill with dangerous grace. “Made me believe I was saving him. Thought it was love. Then BAM - he bites me, turns me, and suddenly I’m in the castle forever, sipping blood-flavored wine and hosting dramatic dinners with ghost candlesticks.”
Red side-eyed Cinderella. “Still wanna hand out vampire invites, sparkle boots?”
“She said she brought macarons…” Cinda said weakly.
Beauty smirked. “And I did. Rose and raspberry. Topped with crushed garlic just to prove a point. I have control, unlike some others.”
She side-eyed Snow with a fangy grin.
Snow hissed something in Elvish and clutched a frost crystal.
“But here’s the thing,” Beauty continued. “I didn’t stay locked in that tower. I turned. I trained. I took over the whole damn region. Beastie? Let’s just say he’s sleeping. Permanently.”
Everyone in the room collectively ooOOOohed.
Rapunzel clapped once. “Okay, THAT was iconic.”
Beauty tilted her head. “I didn’t ask for this life. But now that I have it? I own it. And if anyone wants to come for my immortality, they’d better bring a wooden stake and a backup plan.”
Suddenly, the Quill leapt from her hand and zapped right back into the air.
“Wards say your time’s up,” Tink chirped, floating just slightly higher than Beauty’s reach.
“Of course,” Beauty said, stepping back into the shadows like a walking curse.
She winked at Snow. “Oh, and darling? You may be the fairest... but I’m the deadliest.”
Then she vanished in a swirl of crimson mist and sarcasm.
The room exhaled all at once.
Goldi leaned in. “Soooo... who’s next?”
Snow glared at the door Beauty had just ghosted through. “Oh, I’m still talking to whoever keeps putting vampires on the guest list.”
“Technically, you're last,” Red reminded her. “Unless we let Wendy sneak in.”
“DON’T YOU DARE,” Tink screeched.
World of 4EverMore | Bloodthorn Publishing | Short Stories
🩸✨ A Bloodthorn Publishing™ Original
From the twistedly magical minds of the Immortal Quill™ Storytellers, welcome to the World of 4EverMore™ - where fractured fairytales wear combat boots, myths misbehave, tea spills itself, and chaos is couture. ☕️
Featuring your immortally iconic favorites:
• Goldilocks (paranoid and perfect)
• CindaSpy™ (that’s Cinderella with a security clearance)
• Red (badass in boots)
• Snow (soft goth apple queen)
• Dorothy (click it and rip it)
• Beauty (rose-stem sharp)
• Wendy (shadow-slick rebel)
• Alice – Queen of Ink & Lore™ herself
• Loki (divine trickster snack, taken 😘)
• Ivy (Rumple’s sister, lethal in Louboutins)
• and Rumplestiltskin (unhinged, unmatched, unstoppable)
✨ Guest appearances may include sentient teacups, tragic ballgowns, questionable prophecy scrolls, and one flirty, possibly dangerous Elven stranger...
🪄 Storytime just got a whole lot more immortal.
Bloodthorn Publishing™ • The Immortal Quill™ • World of 4EverMore™ Universe 💋🔥
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