Sleeping Beauty Busted

Modern dark twist to the timeless fairy tale.

Sleeping Beauty Busted

 

        Not so long ago there was a young girl who was pretty and rich, but not very happy.  Jewel was blessed with many gifts, but she never appreciated any of them.  Feeling abandoned by her mother and unloved by her father, she grew quite depressed over the years. 

        Jewel dabbled in alcohol and drug use from the early age of twelve.  It wasn’t until she turned fourteen that she hit rock bottom though.  While her father was busy at work and her younger sister was at school, she decided that she was going to take her own life by overdosing.  Jewel wondered into the bathroom and searched through the medicine cabinet.  She poured out several handfuls of several different medicines and downed them with a glass of her father’s whiskey.  She paid little attention to which kinds of pills she took, but there were sleeping pills and pain pills in there with a large dosage of aspirin and decongestant as well.  

       Two hours later her little sister found her passed out on the bathroom floor.  Screaming and crying, he sister managed to call 911.  She was still by Jewel’s side when a handsome EMT answered the call.  He arrived on the scene in a matter of minutes and was kneeling by her side in no time.  He paused for a moment to admire Jewel laying there like Sleeping Beauty.  She looked so beautiful and peaceful that the EMT couldn’t help but fall in love with her in that instant.  There was an immediate connection to the damsel in the worst kind of distress.

       There was no time to waste though.  Jason got right to work, checking her vitals and seizing up the situation. He and his fellow paramedics rushed Jewel to the hospital so they could pump her stomach and save her life.  Due to the quick thinking of her sister and the quick arrival of the paramedics, Jewel was foiled in her attempt to end her own miserable life.  Even still, Jewel remained in a coma for several days due to the large amount of sleeping pills she’d downed.

       Despite the constant beep of the heart monitors and hiss of the respirator, she looked absolutely heavenly.  Her long red-brown hair was soft and silky even in her near-death state and framed her pale face.  Her long eye lashes hid her kind hazel eyes.  Jewel’s small, fragile body looked graceful and poised even her deep sleep.

        Her family and friends fell apart when the heard the news.  They had loved her with al their hearts and didn’t understand why she would do such a thing.  Without her, their leaves were meaningless.  They fell into a deep depression themselves and life all but stopped for them during this crucial time.

        Years passed and Jewel transformed from the teenage girl she once was to a mature woman even more beautiful than she’d been before.  The natural process of transformation could not be stopped even her state of suspended life.  The caterpillar will always become the butterfly.  Her family’s visits were once daily, but soon then became weekly and then monthly.  They could not bare to see her like that, but they could not bear to pull the plug on her either, so they waited for a miracle.

        It just so happened that the EMT who’d rescued her was back in the hospital visiting a friend.  He was walking down the hall when Jewel caught his eye.  Jason stopped in front of her door and just stared at her.  After a few moments, he ventured cautiously into her dark and quiet room. 

        “Oh,” Jason gasped, for she took his breath away.  How could this angel still be on earth?  And then suddenly he remembered.  This was the girl that he’d saved four long years ago.  Only she had grown up  and become a woman during her years of unconsciousness.  He sat beside her and took her limp hand in his.

       “You are so beautiful.  I never understood why you were so sad.  What made you want to this?  Nothing could be so bad that living was much to bear.  How could the world have been so cruel to you? If only you could see the beauty that you are.  Your sensitive soul radiates beauty even as you lie here in between life and death.  Why couldn’t you see the gifts you brought to this world merely by living and breathing?”

       He sat there in silence and just gazed at her for the longest time.  Finally, he could not resist the urge, so he leaned down and placed a tender kiss on her velvety red lips.  “I love you,” he whispered.

       Slowly, her eyes opened and then she blinked and stirred softly.  Jason was taken aback. He couldn’t believe that she was suddenly conscious.  Overwhelmed wit job, Jason leaned down to hug and kiss her once again.  She responded to his kiss passionately, inviting him into her very soul.

      When Jason had pulled away, she said, “You are the one I’ve been waiting for all this time.”

      “I didn’t know it until now, but I’ve been waiting for you too.”

      Then the doctors and nurses came rushing in to find out how this miraculous recovery had come to be.  For four years nothing had changed one way or the other and suddenly, she was awake.  Her family had to be called so that they could rejoice in the news.  It wasn’t long before they were at her side as well, weeping and hugging her.  They embraced Jason as well, thanking him for waking their beloved Jewel. 

       A couple of days later, Jewel was released from the hospital.  There were so many things she had to catch up on.  She would have to complete school and educate herself on all the things in popular culture that she’d missed while in her coma.  Jason was more than happy to help her readjust to life once again.  He also helped her no longer desire the life of escape that she’d once lived.  Jewel found she no longer desired alcohol or drugs, just Jason.

       Not quite a year later, Jason and Jewel were married and Jewel never took her life for granted again.  She awakened to the beauty of love.