a/n This is for wicked'elphaba-fiyero because she's been so swankified =D
Elphaba let out a small giggle as her father whirled her around the huge main hall, singing out of tune to the music rattling off the old gramophone which they always complained had to be thrown out, but never actually got around to doing anything with it. Elphaba thought that after watching it sit there in the corner for her ten years of life, it deserved to be used and her parents agreed. So for her birthday, they played song after song, while she danced with her sister, her mother, her father and even, to everyone's amusement, once with the butler.
Nessarose clapped her hands in joy as she spun too, weaving in and out of her sister and father, skipping and twirling as fast as her little legs would carry her, springing in the air with excitement, while her mother watched from the large arm chair next to the gramophone.
They were the perfect family and so very, very happy.
Elphaba was tall for her age, slim and willowy, with jet black hair that streamed behind her as she danced. Her ivory complexion was so pale it was almost white, contrasting against her hair in a way that made her all the more beautiful. Her eyes were deep brown, always shining with thirst for knowledge or laughter, hardly ever sadness, for her lips were almost always curved into a soft smile that, if flashed at the opposite sex, brought infatuations and flowers to her doorstep.
Nessa had brown eyes like her sister, but they were light, with flecks of gold, and similar pale skin, but with pink cheeks. Her hair was chocolate brown, and curled delicately round her shoulders and bounced when she walked. She was quite small, but also slim, and at the age of eight, already had boys coming up to her and asking her out. Frex had to admit that his daughter's were going to be heartbreakers when they grew up.
Elphaba's father wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes, as he gave his daughter a final turn and she curtsied to him beautifully. "Ah, my sweet, I think it is the time for sleeping," he murmured, as Nessa gave a giant yawn. He gathered his daughters to either side, wrapping his arms around them as he crouched down. "My beautiful little girls," he sighed as they hugged him.
The girls kissed him, then their mother, waved goodnight to all the servants and stroked Ozpaws, the old basset hound that gazed up at them wonderingly through droopy eyes, before bounding up the stairs laughing as they went.
"My beautiful big girl," the girls' father turned towards where their mother was sitting, arms open. She smiled warmly, walking towards him and hugging him tight.
"We're so lucky, Frex," She whispered.
"I know, Melena, I know," over his wife's shoulder, Frex glanced at the stairs, where he noticed Nessa and Elphaba crouched, hoping he wouldn't see them, watching their parents' cuddle with sappy smiles pasted on their faces. He raised his eyebrows at them and they ran up the stairs quickly, giggling.
As Frex and Melena enjoyed their moment, neither of them noticed Ozpaws' warning barks, as he stared at the window through the same eyes that had looked up at Nessa and Elphaba. The same eyes that were never going to see anything again in only a couple of hours...
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"Do you think everyone is as happy as us, El?" Nessa asked, her voice cutting through the darkness. Elphaba emerged from under her tent of sheets where she had been reading by candlelight. "Do you think everyone has a mummy and a daddy who love each other lots? And a sister that is always there to give them hugs and read to them? And a doggie?"
Elphaba smiled and set her candle on the little table that separated the two sisters' beds. The light was small, but bright enough for Elphaba to make out the eight year olds small face, full of innocence. "I don't know, Nessa," she answered, thinking about her sister's words. "I hope so, though. It would be nice if everyone in all of Oz is as happy as us!" Nessa nodded, thoughtfully as Elphaba settled down in her bed. She blew out the candle and rolled over. "Night Nessie,"
"Night, El," Nessa murmured.
A peaceful silence settled over the two girls. Elphaba felt herself just about to slip into dreamland when a low howl and piercing shriek echoed from downstairs and both girls bolted upright.
"Elphaba...?" Nessa whimpered. Elphaba groped for the matches, relighting the candle and rushing to her sister. After seeing she was fine, albeit shaken, she made for the door. "El! You can't go out there! What if something's happened?" her sister moaned at her.
"Exactly. What about mother and father?" Elphaba replied, twisting the handle of the door. Suddenly, Nessa was beside her.
"I'm coming too," she said in answer to Elphaba's unspoken question.
"Okay, but keep close," Elphaba led the way as they crept across the landing, wincing every time a stair creaked. As they neared the bottom the staircase, Elphaba gasped and ran forward, leaving Nessa in the darkness. The younger girl felt along the wall, grabbing one of the candlesticks, then rushing to join Elphaba and using her flame to light her candle.
Elphaba let out a small choked sob as she knelt down, and Nessa saw what she had run to in the light of the two small flames. "Oh, Ozpaws..." Nessa felt tears leak down her cheeks slowly as she saw Elphaba, her big sister, the one she looked up to, her never showed if she was upset or scared, threw her body across the large hound and started crying into his fur.
Nessa stared into the dog's unseeing, glassy eyes and stroked his nose softly. She frowned through her tears as her hand came in contact with something sticky. Holding her fingers near the candlelight she stared at the red liquid clinging to her skin.
Blood. Nessa held her hand so close to the candle it burnt her skin, but she hardly registered the pain as she noticed that the blood trailed away from the dead dog. Shaking Elphaba's shoulder, her older sister restrained her sobs, wiping her eyes on her sleeve in a very unladylike way, which would have got her jokingly scolded by their mother in normal circumstances. Nessa pointed out the path of blood, as Elphaba slowly got to her feet, following the trail warily.
"Either Ozpaws got hurt then moved, dripping blood behind him..." Elphaba muttered as she tiptoed along in front of Nessa, the tears in her voice becoming stronger as she talked about the dog. "Or someone put blood on Ozpaws, which is logical because he didn't have any wounds and only blood on his nose, and then trailed it away so we would find- oh!" Elphaba stopped herself from screaming and covered Nessa's mouth with her hand before Nessa could shriek too. There in front of them, covered in blood, staring upwards with glassy, unseeing eyes and faces set in an expression of fear was-
"Mummy?" Nessa squeaked from behind Elphaba's hand. "Daddy?"
Elphaba turned instantly, wrapping her arms around her sister, pressing Nessa's face into her shoulder so she wouldn't see the bodies of their parents any longer. She buried her face into Nessa's hair, tears pouring afresh out of the girls' eyes, making Elphaba's shoulder and Nessa's hair wet. After a couple of minutes of sobbing on each other, Nessa murmured, "What do we do?"
She broke out of her sister's arms slightly, so she could turn her head up to see Elphaba's tear stained face. Nessa looked up to her sister, both figuratively and literally. To Nessa, she was invincible, right beside her when she was sad, picking her up when she fell, reading her to her when she felt lonely. She was so smart and brave and knew so much, even the really hard things like times tables. She read books with no pictures and did sums that had numbers bigger than a hundred in them. She would know what to do.
"I... I don't know," Elphaba whispered mournfully, and that was when Nessa knew they were in trouble.
"Crying about mummy and daddy?" A voice stabbed at them through the darkness, high and taunting. "Oh no, I don't know what to do!" The voice mocked as Elphaba swung her candle wildly, trying to locate the person. Small flashes of green light were dancing round the room, briefly illuminating the bodies of her parents and Ozpaws. A deep cackle echoed around the two girls, as Elphaba stood bravely in front of Nessa, who clutched at her sister's shoulders in fright. "Here's news for you kid: you're parents were scum. They shouldn't have this house. They shouldn't be rich. They should be my slaves."
"Who... who are you?" Elphaba cried, not wanting Nessa to see she was scared.
"Oh, my dear Elphaba, you should've been my child," the voice continued, dancing around them, sometimes so close they could have reached out and grabbed the person, other times distant, from the corners of the huge hall where only hours ago they had all been dancing. "I would've raised you properly – into sorcery, into Wickedness itself. You should've been mine!" a flash of green light flickered in one of the corners and Elphaba impulsively turned towards it. "My child, stolen away from me, my baby, my Elphaba..." The voice was getting closer and the two girls were backing away, shocked into silence at the words they were silently refusing to believe.
"I'm not... I... I'll never..." Elphaba wished the tears would go away, they made her sound useless, defenceless and she wasn't. She was strong and brave and Nessa needed reassurance. Taking a deep breath, she said loudly, with only a slight quiver of her bottom lip. "I'm not yours. I'll never be. Melena Thropp is... was my mother. Frexspar Thropp was my father. I don't know who you are and, what's more, I don't like you,"
Suddenly, there was a hand around her throat, squeezing the oxygen from her body, slowly cutting off her life. She rasped and Nessa screamed as the owner of the voice was finally seen in the candlelight.
She was deadly white, with grey under her eyes, a sign of lack of sleep. Her hair was piled high, but ragged and messy, as though she had slept on it and never re-done it, but once must have looked grand. Dark lines of smeared eye makeup trailed down her cheeks. Her lips were dry and chapped as she hissed at Elphaba.
"I killed Frexspar and Melena, do you think I can't kill you?" Elphaba squirmed, feeling less and less air get into her lungs with every gasp of a breath she tried to take. Darkness was spreading swiftly from the corners of her vision to the centre until she was staring into blackness; she assumed the blackness of death.
"Elphaba!" Nessa was crying, backed against the wall helpless to do anything, watching as this... this thing of a woman strangled her sister.
The woman growled and Nessa suddenly felt excruciating pain zip through her legs. She screamed louder, yelling her sister's name, for her mother, her father, tears pouring down her face as the pain faded away. She tried pushing herself into a standing position against the wall, but her legs wouldn't hold her and she collapsed onto her hands and knees.
"Are you ready to die, my little Elphaba?" the woman sneered, although Elphaba couldn't see it, teetering on the ledge of death, trying desperately not to fall off. She tried to focus on Nessa's screams, something she knew how to handle, using her knowledge to steer herself away, distract her from dying.
When Nessa's scared, she thought, desperately clinging to life, she likes to be read the story about the little girl and her dog, Dodo, no, no, no Toto, and how they end up in-
"I said, are you ready to die?" The woman shrieked, in her face. Elphaba felt the blackness grow deeper, she felt like she was falling, no flying, no dropping, down...
"No..." she gasped and let the darkness overwhelm her.
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Much to Elphaba's surprise, she woke up.
She kept her eyes tight shut, not daring to believe she wasn't in Hell. The first thing that made her realise she was still alive was a male voice, quite young, probably about nine by the sound of it. He was asking... asking Nessa about her father.
Nessa. Elphaba nearly cried in relief as she heard her sister's voice. She was talking timidly, almost whispering in reply to the boy's questions. Elphaba's eyes flew open to be met with... nothing.
Elphaba blinked a couple of times, then opened her eyes a wide as they could go. "Nessa?" she was ashamed of her voice, whimpering like a kicked puppy. "Are my eyes open?"
"Y-yes," Nessa's voice shook
"Then... why can't I see?"
"We don't know...but..." Nessa took a deep, wobble breath. "We think it might be the same reason that you're green."
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a/n, okay so obvs this is AU. Well done if you noticed that, lol.
Oh and to elaborate on wicked'elphaba-fiyero's swankifiedness, she originally had the idea of a blind Elphaba, and wrote about it in her story He's a She!? (which you HAVE to go read, because seriously, it is a-MAY-zingggg!), and she allowed me to use her idea-y thing (which is exactly how I phrased it to her) Thank Elle =D
So please review because if you do I'll look at and review your stories, because I think that's fair, don't you?
DefyingPopular xxx