The Fruit of Death

Come now, my dears. Settle down. It is time for me to tell you a very special story that holds a special place in my heart. A tale where a so-called 'curse' can sometimes be a blessing in disguise and a 'gift' may in fact be the real curse. This is the story of the Apple Salesgirl.

There was once a time where the human race were gifted with immortality. They could still grow old and frail but they would never be able to die. It was a static way of life and the town in which this story takes place were content with their everlasting life.

The town was located in the centre of a dense forest. Its land surrounded the clock-face shaped town perfectly and stretched for miles, hiding the town from any travellers. The trees in this forest all blossomed with scarlet red fruit - delicious apples that had been bestowed a very special ability from Gaia herself. It was foretold that just one bite from this particular fruit would take away one's immortality, fating the consumer to be the only person able to die. They would be shunned and isolated by the town as a result.

So no one in the town ever dared to eat the fruit. Only a young man called Wally Rose and his wife Lucy had both eaten the cursed fruit. It was just the two of them in a pretty little cottage in the forest that Wally had built with his own bare hands. They never minded the town's cruel treatment of them; they were truly happy.

One day, the couple had welcomed the arrival of their first child. A little girl they had named Ruby. After the fateful fruit's red colour.

When Ruby was only six years old, she used to play many games with the town's children in the forest everyday.

One day while playing hide-and-seek, Ruby had picked a red fruit from the trees out of curiosity and took a bite. The child was now fated to die, just like her parents would.

The children no longer played with Ruby. They wouldn't even acknowledge her anymore.

Ruby had asked her parents what she had done wrong. She was confused as to why her friends no longer wanted to play with her.

Knowing how difficult life would become for their innocent child just for consuming the fruit that had taken away their immortality so many years ago, Wally & Lucy assured her that only the belief in the fruit's curse gave it its power. It was why the town never understood them or the truth behind the delicious fruit.

"As long as we remain optimistic through these hard times, the curse may turn out to be a blessing in disguise...just as the gift of immortality can be a curse as well." Lucy had told her daughter.

"It doesn't change who you are, Ruby. You're still you. Everyone else just hasn't realised that yet" had been Wally's response.

Ruby was determined to show the town that they were mistaken. Even after her beloved parents had passed away, she vowed to change the town's mind about the life-changing fruit.