Write by the Cards: Day Ten
A Temptation
If you’re new to The Rebel MFA Way, welcome! This is my daily work for my Write by the Cards: 30 Day Challenge that I’m hosting. Learn more here. Scroll down to the end to see my behind-the-scenes commentary and source material.
Just when the character felt they were making progress, they were tempted by {draw a card}.
Janet did not like rules. Nor did she appreciate being told what to do. Yes, she had heard strange tales about the woods outside her small town. She’d been told to stay away, that people who wandered too deep sometimes never came back.
But Janet had never been one to heed warnings. Curiosity pulled her beyond the edges of the trees one autumn night, the world soft and shadowed beneath a rising harvest moon.
It was in a clearing, tangled with ivy and half-hidden under moonlight, that she first saw him—Tam. He stood there, motionless, like a figure in a dream, his eyes dark with something that looked like sadness, or maybe fear. The two of them watched each other, neither moving nor speaking, and in that silent space, Janet swore she knew him.
When he finally spoke, his voice was low and heavy, edged with warning. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither should you,” she replied, a smile tugging at her mouth.
They met many nights after that, always in the half-light, with only the trees as their witnesses. Tam told her about the Fairy Queen who ruled the forest. That he wasn’t sure when he came to live there because under her influence, he’d begun to forget himself, the lines between his thoughts and hers blurring, until he could no longer tell where she ended and he began.
But with Janet, he remembered fragments—moments of who he’d been before the Queen’s spell had fallen over him. She could feel his struggle, the part of him that wanted freedom, and her heart ached for him. It was then she decided: she would not let him slip away, not into shadows that did not belong to him.
One night, Tam came to her trembling. “Tomorrow,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “Tomorrow, the Queen will claim me fully. I’ll lose myself entirely. There will be nothing left to save.”
Janet held his gaze, fierce and unflinching. “Then I’ll come for you.”
In the deepest part of the night, when the moon had waned and the stars hung faint above the trees, Janet returned to the clearing. She waited, hidden in the shadow of an old elm, until the Queen’s followers began their procession. The Queen led them, moving with a cold grace. Janet shivered but did not look away. And there was Tam, at the Queen’s side, his face hollowed and drawn, eyes dimmed like embers buried in ash.
As the Queen turned her back, Janet rushed forward, seizing Tam’s arm. He gasped at her touch, and she could see the light in his eyes flare for an instant before flickering.
“Hold on to me,” she whispered, her voice steady despite the fear hammering through her veins. She wrapped her arms around him, clinging as he began to change.
First, his skin so cold it burned her hands, and she felt her fingers growing numb. She closed her eyes, feeling him slipping, but she held on, her arms tightening against the chill. Then he shifted, his body blazing with fire, a terrible heat searing through her skin. She cried out but did not release him, her fingers digging into his shoulders.
He changed again, turning into smoke, slipping through her hands as if he were nothing more than mist. But she breathed him in, holding his essence close as if by sheer will she could keep him from dissolving entirely.
At last, he was solid again, trembling in her arms, and she felt the warmth of his heartbeat under her palms. The Queen turned then, her eyes blazing as she realized what Janet had done. Her voice rose, shrill and sharp, as she stretched out a hand to reclaim Tam.
But Janet spoke first, her voice low but unbreakable. “You have no claim here,” she said, the words rooted in something ancient, older than the Queen’s grasp. And with that, she stepped back, pulling Tam with her, out of the Queen’s reach.
The dawn broke, pale light spilling through the trees, and Janet felt the weight of the night lifting. Tam’s face softened, his gaze clearing, as he looked at her with something like wonder.
“You came for me,” he murmured, voice cracked and hoarse.
She smiled, her hands still holding his. “I told you I would.”
Together, they walked out of the woods, leaving the shadows and the Queen’s fading power behind. The world felt sharper, clearer, with each step they took, until the morning light washed over them completely.
And Tam, free at last, looked back only once, his face lit by the gentle warmth of dawn.
Behind-the-Scenes Commentary
Honestly, at this point, I’m just riding the wave of fantastic stories that are meeting me each day. This card felt doubly special because it does speak to the “temptation” aspect — the protagonist, Janet, is not one to miss an tempting offer. But also, it feels a bit metaphorical for standing up what you believe — heart and soul — against those who are more powerful and influential then you. There is hope in this story — that a mere mortal girl with determination and grit can overcome the intimidating Fairy Queen.
This is a myth that I want to return to and work with in more depth because I feel like there are so many opportunities here and I just didn’t have the time to really delve into it as much as I wanted to.