Rage Against The Mirror

Velope adjusted the sari, skirt, and blouse she wore - the traditional feminine garb of Daedalia, a golden bellychain encircled her waist. It was a fine garment fit for the vixen princess: She looked radiant and pure... She was getting married to the love of her life: The jackal prince Larkin of Daedalia. Long had she wished for this day to come. 

Velope smiled into the full length mirror she stood before. But the more she stared at the mirror, the more she began to loathe the reflection. 

Mirrors. Mirrors had ruined her life. 

She had listened to the dark whispers from the other side when she was a child, as her twin sister had encouraged her to. 

The words told her things she was not meant to know: secrets too dark that had begun to twist her perception of the world around her. Velope had learned magics to disguise herself - how to kill and listen to those things unseen. 

Magics to follow in her paternal grandmother’s footsteps. 

She had stalked the night and killed without mercy. The ghost of the mad convicted killer was whispering in her ear, encouraging her.  

Sure, the ones she killed were against her religion and her adopted country of Daedalia, but Velope had been the one to resort to pre-meditative murder. She killed, and killed again, and soon she started taking things a bit farther. 

Leaving taunts for the families of her victims... Mutilating corpses and writing messages...

None suspected her: a charming vixen rubbing shoulders with the nobility. But eventually her sins caught up to her.  

Her loved ones found out the truth and they were shocked and reproachful, but worst of all was their disappointment. Then an enemy of hers had discovered the truth, a daughter she had taken a father from, and as a consequence she took the man Velope looked up to as a father from her: She even called him ‘Papa.’ 

Even in death, he warned her to change her path. 

Velope still had not changed her ways immediately, even though she began to doubt things. It was Larkin and his mother - the Queen - that hadn’t given up on her and were trying to change her ways. 

She loved them even more now. They had saved her from herself. Unlike her sister: dead, slain, and insane. 

“I’m not who I once was,” Velope said to herself. “I am a good person now.” 

A cackling laugh. 

“Do you really believe that?” 

Velope stared at her reflection, dress covered in blood, fur soaked in gore. 

“I’m not you anymore!” Non-reflection Velope growled. 

“You’re fooling yourself,” Corkscrew replied fiendishly. “Deep down you know you haven’t changed. You’re just putting on a performance like you used to. You’re just dying to get a chance to kill again…” The reflection smirked, her ears flattening against her skull, tongue slathering from the bloody muzzle. “You remember the thrill don’t you? The taste of your victims blood? The shrill screams of prey?” 

“Shut up!” Velope retorted. 

The reflection flashed her fangs. “Have I struck a nerve?”  

“I’m a good person now!” Velope shouted. “A good person!”

“You don’t actually believe that, do you?” Corkscrew said, strutting in her bloody ninja garb on the other side of the mirror - her long brush flicking mischievously. “Accept the truth, Velope: you will always be nothing but a murderer, a monster.”

“AHHHHHH!” Velope shouted as her fist struck the mirror, the glass cracked and her reflection laughed, mocking her further. Blood ran freely from Velope’s fist as she remembered all the pain and death she had caused, the loved ones that she had hurt as a consequence of her actions. 

“I’m!” Velope punched the mirror again. “NOT!” Another punch, blood soaking her fur. “YOU!”  

Finally the mirror was shattered and the vixen knelt on the floor among the shards, tears falling from her muzzle to land on the floor with the glass and blood. 

“Velope?” A calm male voice said behind her. 

It was Larkin, the red furred jackal prince. 

“I’m a monster, Larkin!” Velope sobbed as he took her in his arms.

“Shh, hush now,” Larkin said, kissing her head.

“I’m unworthy of love, or happiness. I don’t deserve any of this!” Larkin’s gentle vixen bride lamented as she sank her delicate snout into his chestfur.

“No, Velope: You’re not that person anymore. You deserve a second chance.” 

“I don’t Larkin, I really don’t,” Velope whimpered.

Larkin sighed. “Lets get those paws bandaged.”

Larkin chose to bandage her wounds himself, never above getting dirty himself. 

“Listen to me Velope. You were a little kit and your mind was influenced by dark forces. Anyone at that tender age would fall for such influence.” 

“Todd never did,” Velope murmured as her tears fell on Larkin’s fur. 

“No one ever tried with Todd. He has no magical affinity. Magic is a great gift but if you’re not careful it can leave you vulnerable to corruption.” 

“You’re sounding like Gray now,” Velope sniffed.

That old gray-muzzled jackal was old when Larkin’s mother was young - some whispered he was even older than that. 

Larkin kissed his love again. “You can’t change the past, Velope. You know what me or mother would give if we could go back and stop everything that happened? If we only knew what was happening to you and Orphea! If we just had some inclination!”

“...Then none of this would have happened! Papa would still be alive and I wouldn’t be a killer!” Velope shouted.

Larkin flattened his ears. “But we can’t do that, can we?”

Velope sighed. “No,”

Larkin continued, “So all we can do is make our future better than our past. Remember Selthia? She did terrible things, but she atoned for them, and mother found it in herself to forgive her. You’re more of a victim than she was even. Remember that.”

Velope shook her head. “I wasn’t a puppet or mind controlled, though… I had free will.” 

“...Which was manipulated and twisted to suit others' desires,” Larkin recalled.  

Velope whipped her furry face. “You just can’t give up on me? Can you?”

“I’m never going to give up on you, Velope, just like I will never stop loving you - despite everything. Because I see you for who you truly are. We all have the capacity to be good or evil. But you’re shining brighter every day.”

Velope gulped. “You’re a fool, Larky!” She said as she drew him closer, lingering on his clear green eyes. 

“Come here, you fool.”