Icarus Juniper's diary

~*~ This is part of Branches, Birches and Junipers, set between Spring Unsprung and Way Too Wonderland.

An Introduction
I’m amongst those who are born to die.

Not born to stay dead, mind you. Simply to die.

It sounds, well, grimm, when I put it like that. But I’m the next brother from the Juniper Tree, possibly the grimmest of all Grimms’ tales.

Why am I speaking with so much calm and clarity about this? Because after 17 years of having this destiny, and 5 years of learning about having this destiny, I’ve accepted it. I live, I die a gory death, and in the space of an afternoon and an evening, I turn into a bird, avenge myself and come back to life. Wow. That sounds terrifying when I put it like that. Whoops.

My name is Icarus Juniper. My hate for destiny burns like a cauldron fire. However, I wasn’t sent to this hexhole of a school to suffer in bitter resent for a forced re-living and retelling of an amazing story of child abuse, filicide, cannibalism and murder. I’m here because as the son of the next brother, I have a duty to my family, the world, and for the good of my tale.

What people don’t get is that for us more obscure tales, if it’s not re-lived, it will literally fade from memory. I support the Rebel side through and through. There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that forcing teenagers to live as their parents and grandparents and so on did is totally not cool. But you know what’s also not cool? Fire Having your family’s legacy die.

At the beginning of the year, I thought everything was sussed. I was going to die, but I was going to live first and after I die, I’ll come back and my family will be happy.

That was until I got a stepsister and when my cousin’s paranoia got the best of him.

Chapter One
“Dad, you should have done this a decade ago,” my hand nervously clutched my MirrorPhone.

I had been excused from class early that day, teachers telling me that my father had an urgent message to deliver. So here I was, hanging just outside the lockers, annoyed.

“Icarus,” my father said. Even over the phone, I could still recognise that he was rolling his eyes right now. “Listen. Your new stepmother’s going to be lovely. You’ll adore her. I know you’re gutted that you–”

“I’m going to ‘adore’ the lady who might kill me. Thanks dad.” I groaned. “That doesn’t change the fact that you should have remarried years ago.”

And then he hung up.

My father really hates confrontations of any sort, and that especially means confrontations regarding his actions. I didn’t want a stepmother. I mean, my tale was already threatened years ago, when dad never got over my dead mother, and never remarried. I never got the stepmother or step/half sister I needed to continue the tale, and at that point, our family legacy seemed threatened.

And then, apparently my aunt Marlene loved our family more than she loved her contrived and forced idea of freedom. Instead of ignoring the issue completely and going “your problem, lol”, she sacrificed her own child for the Marlinchen destiny. Mark was never intended to be the next Marlinchen. He was supposed to be free and unrestrained by destiny, and simply because dad never moved on, Mark never got that freedom.

All because of my dad. My father ruins everything.

Mark and I, we’re close. The same kind of closeness Marlinchen and her brother were supposed to have, even though we’re cousins. Even though I’m only slightly poisoned with guilt that Mark never managed to escape the family destiny, I’m glad he’s the next Marlinchen.

But sorry, I’m just rambling. The Juniper Tree is about family, and you can never be a Juniper without any regard or respect for your family.

I should be glad that my dad’s remarrying. I should be filled with joy that my destiny is able to continue, and that my family legacy won’t die and people will know of and remember the Juniper Tree. I have a stepmother I’m wary of, an oblivious father and a Marlinchen.

Why did I feel punched in the gut though?

My phone rang again. I groaned. Dad was calling me and I didn’t want to know what he was going to say.

“Icarus, I forgot to say. The wedding’s in two months, and you’ll be out of school for two weeks.”

“Sweet,” I said. Even though I didn’t like weddings, I’ll do anything to escape Ever After High.

My father continued to speak. “Also, Lindsay – that’s your new stepmother, she has a daughter. Your age. You know, I’ve always felt a bit guilty about not getting you a stepsister earlier, and I think your Aunt Marlene hates me for that.”

Oh god. Heartfelt discussions are not my forte.

He sighed. Did I sense regret in his voice? “This is to make it up for her. She doesn’t want her son to have her old destiny. Icarus, you’re getting a new Marlinchen.”

Chapter Two
And a new phone, too. I had dropped mine in shock and it shattered on the lino floor.

Once I got to my laptop, I opened it up to check the PageBook pages of my new stepmother. Lindsay die Birke, 37 years old. Her likes were full of gardening pages and charities, and she seemed genuinely sweet in her comments. I felt bad that I might kill her when I was older.

Her daughter Lea was similar. She seemed a lot more shy and reserved, but honestly you could never tell over the internet. Her photos were full of community projects like tree planting and fundraisers. Oh Grimm, I thought. She could rival Mark in terms of how Marlinchen-like they were.

But… no. Mark signed the Storybook already. Sure, a fake Storybook. But it was the Storybook nevertheless and it had Mark as the next Marlinchen. So he had to be the next Marlinchen. There was no other way.

This girl, Lea, whoever she was. She didn’t deserve the Marlinchen destiny. I don’t even think she deserves to be part of our family. Maybe I’m just being overprotective over the Juniper Tree. Whatever – I can’t judge this girl, Lea, whoever she is, simply by a few Pagebook posts on the MirrorNet. I’ve never met her in person. Any prior judgement would be totally rude.

I was about to do some more browsing, but the bell for lunch rang. I sighed, slammed down my laptop lid and ran to the place under the tree where Mark usually sat.

He was covered in birds. Not birds as in girls (please, he's a young child), but birds as in literal birds. Oh yeah, could Lea talk to birds? Did she even like birds? Probably not. The idea of Mark being the next Marlinchen started seeming plausible again.

I sat down next to him.

“So, uh, Mum said that your dad’s getting married?” he asked nervously.

“I’m just glad we’re getting a break!” I said. I looked like I was excited. I wasn’t, obviously, but Mark didn’t need to know that. “You deserve one. And dad’s fiancée? She sounds wonderful.”

He blinked at me, concerned. “Is… is that a good thing?”

“Not sure.” Well, at least there was one truthful remark I uttered. “I wouldn’t know enough to say. What do you think, Mark?”

My cousin waved his hands in a defensive stance. “Iccy! Give me a moment, okay? I need to think.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I tried to spend some time thinking about this, too. She sounds nice and sweet, by I really doubt she should be part of our family. And I really really doubt that she should be part of our tale.”

“So nice people shouldn’t be part of gory tales?”

A laugh echoed out of my throat. Not a comfortable laugh, though. “Mark, if that was true, you wouldn’t be the next Marlinchen.”

He laughed. Like mine, it was a painful laugh, but then again, I was used to that pained laugh. Every time we would bring up destiny, it end up with us laughing painfully.

Why was I so desperate for Mark to be the next Marlinchen? We were both just going to be hurt. I almost felt guilty. Emphasis on the almost. “Listen, you know your soon-to-be aunt as a daughter, right, our age?”

"So what? We'll be at EAH most of the time, right? Can't we just ignore the hex out of her?"

I frowned at him.

“Wait…” Mark continued. His previous embarrassment seemed to be replaced by nervousness. “Iccy, I just realised something.”

Whelp. He was bound to realise sooner or later. “I know. Marlinchen is typically fulfilled by the daughter of the brother’s second wife.” I sighed. “But that’s no threat! You signed the book! They’ll have to make you Marlinchen.”

“A fake storybook. Probably faker than all your exes combined.”

I snorted. “At least I have exes, as in the plural.”

Mark seemed reassured. I felt… bad for him. I’ve always been a rather confident guy and that tended to mean that Mark trusted me with everything, and here I was, probably lying to him.

I think he was still reassured when we left for my father’s house two months later. Chapter Three Car ride home? That was great. We – that was me, Mark and our Rosewood friends – we cracked jokes the whole way. There were some incredibly memorable puns. The roadtrip music was good, and no one complained about the pop punk.

Meeting our new family? My future stepmother was nice. A bit too nice. Yeah, I’ll admit it, I did feel bad that I (might) kill her. Lea was quiet and withdrawn, and seemed like the kind of person who hid behind her mother’s skirts. Everything was fine, and even though my father wanted a replacement Marlinchen, I felt happy about the future of my destiny.

During the week leading up to the wedding, Mark was acting weird. Now, I know what you’re going say, ‘doesn’t Mark always act weird, Iccy?’. No, because Mark has never been this weird.

At first, I wasn’t too fussed. Mark was still talking to the birds – a surefire sign that he was relatively okay.

“Look,” Mark said, gesturing to a bluebird on the window. “It’s telling me that it’s concerned for my health! How cute is that?”

“Actually, he just wants some food,” I pointed out, before my cousin interrupted me.

A sparrow hopped on the window next to the bluebird and twittered. “And this one thinks I need some chill.”

“You’re right about that one,” I said, resigned. The sparrow was indeed telling Mark that he had no chill.

Every time we went to my father’s house, Mark would be surrounded by birds. He could never fully understand what the birds said (and usually what they said was blunt), but they understood him more than they understood me, even though I knew their language better.

There were two things that made me suspicious of Mark this visit – the birds, and Tenley. Mark was (naturally) a productive and diligent person, even though he folds paper airplanes in prep instead of doing homework. I would have expected that he would spend his free time baking and cleaning. But, he made excuses not to hang out with Tenley and I, he would barely acknowledge Lea (our new cousin), and even worse, the birds started talking to me, rallying concerns for him.

I needed to talk to him. I managed to grab a moment when Tenley went out for a few hours, and burst into the kitchen when Mark was baking. I told him my concerns, I tried to reason with him, but I couldn’t control my frustration and ended up yelling at him.

It didn’t go well. I think I ended up shocking Mark, and he dropped the plate he was carrying and hurt himself. Even worse, he started yelling back. I never seen Mark raise his voice negatively. He called me a horrible cousin. I brushed it off. I was a horrible cousin. But then he called Lea one.

I quietened down. “Mark, Lea just entered the room,” I said. “And I think she heard you.”

Mark looked at Lea. His eyes widened in panic, and he did the least dignified thing he could: he left the room.

Oh great, thanks Mark, now I have to apologise by myself. Wherever or whatever Mark is or doing, I really hope he gets his act together and apologise soon.

“Is he okay?” she asked. I think her tone was compassionate, but honestly I could never tell.

“He’s probably fine,” I said.

Lea nodded.

Awkward silence proceeded.

This silence was seriously weirding me out, so without even giving a bye, I turned and left the room. Chapter Four Mark’s hands had been hurt pretty badly from picking up the broken plate shards, and even worse, he acted like he was okay when he obviously wasn’t because Mark winced at the tiniest of movements. I didn’t want my cousin to embarrass himself on the day of wedding so I told him that he should wear gloves. After being handed a black pair of gloves too small for me, he fitted them perfectly, and spent the rest of his time looking at his hands.

The wedding proceeded normally. A small quartet played, and I could definitely have jammed to the classical and baroque music if it weren’t for the fact it was a formal ceremony.

I was counting down the minutes to food, and finally, it came.

Mark clung to Tenley. He looked vacant and distant. It was a wedding, for Grimm’s sake. The guy would usually be so happy, talking to the birds about funny Twitter accounts and pie. But now, he seemed so strange. I couldn’t put my finger to it.

The guy stopped clinging onto Tenley’s arm. Unfortunately, at that point, Mark ended up tumbling forward.

Ah. No wonder why he looked vacant. Poor guy was about to faint. Then, I suddenly realised I needed to help.

“Mark!” I yelled, diving forward to catch my cousin. I missed, but luckily, Lea caught him.

“Look, is he alright?” she asked, concern in her eyes.

“Nope,” I said. “Look, pass him over to me, I’ll go dump him on his bed and we come back and party. He’ll be okay. Trust me.”

So that’s what I did.

The party went on. I asked the birds to check on Mark. Sure, my cousin was important and great (even though he called me a bad cousin), but I didn’t want him to rain on the party mood. It was a wedding, for Grimm’s sake. Even though my father was ruining his wife’s life and our family, it was a cheerful occasion.

I danced with Tenley, mainly, while Lea twirled around with a pretty-faced girl whose name I couldn’t remember, and kissed that girl on the cheek after the third dance. Just as time flew by, a bird flew into me, twittering something about how Mark was finally awake.

Grabbing some food on a porcelain plate, and getting Tenley and Lea to carry some food on plates as well, I sprinted up the stairs to Mark’s room.

I burst in, followed by Tenley and Lea. Handing my cousin a plate of food and apple pie, I asked, “you okay, man?”

“No.”

“Well, you better be okay soon, because I brought pie and you need to eat something.”

Lea said something nice. I forgot what it was, but whatever it was, it was too nice of her, so I ushered her out. I felt bad for Lea. Here was an innocent girl who did community service, who read books like Wuthering Heights and listened to the Carmen soundtrack, now swept into a family where things like child abuse and murder was common.

“Death to innocence,” I mumbled, under my breath.

Mark looked at me, wide eyes with fear. That was when I realised that the innocent one in the family wasn’t Lea.

Chapter Five
“Look, I feel terrible for making Lea feel terrible.”

Two days after the whole wedding and all the after-parties, and after-after-parties, there was a lot of cleaning up to do. And a good portion of that was being done by Mark.

I frowned. “You feel terrible? You’re too compassionate, Mark.”

He looked at me as if my head suddenly fell off. “You can never be too compassionate. Especially when you’re Marlinchen; compassion is embedded in you.”

That was a rather creepy way of putting things, but I didn’t care. Even though the events leading up to the wedding sucked, at least we were being honest about it. I value honesty. It’s something my father never had.

Mark continued to talk “We should throw a party for her! A welcome-to-the-family party!”

“Wait, what?”

Mark, no. Why on earth were we throwing a party for the girl who either ruins our story, or has a story ruin her? I didn’t want to welcome her, or anyone really, to our family. Our family is destructive and horrible. Lea doesn’t deserve to be part of it. No one did. And here Mark was, the kid whose freedom was taken away to ‘save’ our family, planning on welcoming her.

“You’re too hospitable for your own good,” I said, after an awkward silence.

Mark looked at me, surprisingly childlike. “That’s not a bad thing, right?”

I felt bad. Probably almost as terrible as Mark felt. “No,” I said aloud, but in my mind, I was thinking ‘yes’.

“In that case, we’re throwing a party for her, and you’re helping me!”

“What.”

Preparations took all morning and afternoon. Mark baked at least ten pies and cleaned the kitchen and living rooms until they were spotless. I set up decorations and music in a spacious living room in the house that we never used.

Mark was grinning ear to ear at the set-up. He looked so happy, and I didn’t want to take that away from him. I was resolute that Lea isn’t part of the family, even though she’s now my stepsister.

At first, I was so confused on why Mark was so desperate to have Lea as part of our family. I thought that he thought that she was going to take his destiny away from him, and that he would never be the next Marlinchen. Then I realised: Marlinchens are supposed to be hospitable and obedient. And by accepting Lea, Mark was trying to protect his destiny.

That scared me. I don’t know why, but that scared me.