The time had come for the princess to leave her home and join the frog-turned-prince in his kingdom. She was nervous and a bit frightened, as things had turned out quite unexpectedly. Faithful Heinrich, the servant of the young king, arrived with the carriage that would lead the princess off to the unknown place she would now call home. As the coach pulled up and Faithful Heinrich stepped down, the princess felt her stomach drop with fear. There was something within her telling her to be afraid, to turn back, to run.
“It’s just nerves,” the princess thought to herself. “Besides I don’t have a choice.” Faithful Heinrich opened the door and turned his attention on the princess, offering his hand to help her in. The princess took in a sharp breath. There was something off about this man. His skin was sallow, pitted, and dark circles ringed his eyes. And his eyes. There was something deeply unsettling about them, almost unseeing like there was no life behind them.
“Run! Turn back! Escape!” Her thoughts screamed, every muscle in her body tensed to flee. But her father was watching, and the prince was waiting. Slowly, fighting every one of her instincts, she took the man’s hand. She started at the touch. His hand was ice cold, corpse-like.
She looked back at her father, pleading with her gaze. He smiled and nodded prompting her along. She looked to the prince sure he would notice the strange state of his most faithful servant. The prince smiled at his bride, showing no acknowledgment of the condition of the man before him.
She stepped into the carriage. The prince followed behind her, and Faithful Heinrich shut the door. Heinrich took his place in the back and the coach headed on its way.
The journey seemed to last forever. The princess could not relax, every hair standing on end, every muscle tensed to flee. Finally, she turned to the prince.
“Does your servant seem off to you? Do you think he is sick, perhaps?” the princess asked him.
“Whatever do you mean? Good old Faithful Heinrich is my most beloved and loyal servant. He is most helpful and welcoming. You will find he has many special talents to help you with whatever you need,” the prince responded and smiled. “Don’t worry yourself, dear. It is all to his design.”
This last statement by the prince confused the princess and sent alarms through her mind. “What is he talking about? What design? What is going to happen to me? What is Heinrich?”
The princess turned around and looked towards the spot where Heinrich sat. He was looking straight at her with his dead eyes and an unsettling smile.
https://film-grab.com/2015/02/02/the-magician/#bwg1132/70227
Riley, this was great! I was so excited to see a story continuing where we left off in The Frog King with Faithful Heinrich, and I think you did a wonderful job! The way you described Heinrich’s close to rotting appearance added to the overall unsettling feeling of the story, and I love how you played on the natural instincts of the princess to tell us something was wrong.
I would love to read a further continuation of your story, as it wrapped me in well and left me wondering what would happen next!
I agree with Zoë, I love how you continued the story of the Frog King. You captured the unsettling appearance of Heinrich well and left me wanting to read more. It was smart to change a character who in the original seemed to be a well loved, especially because in the original we hardly see any interactions or scenes with the original Heinrich. Nice work!
This was a really compelling continuation of The Frog King! This reminded me of those pictures we looked at in class showing the aftermaths of each fairy tale, but done in a much better and more tasteful way. You described Heinrich in a most unsettling way, and the inescapable situation the main character is put in makes it feel very tense.
You captured the uncanny valley very nicely with Heinrich. The horror for me came from your acknowledgment of the lack of agency the princess had. Knowing something is wrong but not having the choice to react to it is terrifying to me. Your story really helps center the reader in the horror of her situation. I like the cliff hanger you ended off of but I also wish you could have continued with it a but further.
While it’s exciting to see what happens next in the story, I think having it stop abruptly here might make it seem more horrific because then the reader will have a million guesses about the ending. I think this is one of the basic mechanisms of horror – horror often comes from people’s imagination rather than from the objective thing itself.