Fireworks, cheering, lights, magic, happiness. Sickening. The Evil Queen, Grimhilde, sneered in disgust as she lowered the telescope that she had been using to spy on the celebratory show going on in the Magic Kingdom. The Overtakers had lost. The game was up. The forces of good had defeated the forces of evil. After Chernabog's destruction, the Overtakers scattered to the wind, all going in different directions. Grimhilde flocked back to the Florida park first chance she got, and she hadn't seen sight or smell of any other villains since... save for one special case...
"Oh darling, you simply must stop torturing yourself," the sultry and melodramatic voice of Cruella De Vil purred as she walked out to the balcony. "The game is up. The villains are simply done for! Dreams and happy endings and all of those perfectly wretched shenanigans are here to stay. I think it's time you moved on."
Cruella had returned alongside Grimhilde to the Overtakers' former hidden cabin on Tom Sawyer's Island. They two women always did have the closest bond of the group. After all, they essentially took control of the entire operation when Maleficent and Chernabog were taken prisoner. They understood the way one another worked: their need for glamor and beauty. Though a bit of an odd combo, they were truly a match made in Hell.
"We were so near to the realization of our goals!" Grimhilde bemoaned. "Everything was going so perfectly! But then those wretched Kingdom Keepers created a befuddled mess of everything."
"Darling, please come inside," Cruella begged. "That blasted music is only going to make us more miserable."
Though almost everything inside of Grimhilde wanted to remain outside and boil in her rage and misery, she ultimately relented that her comrade had the better idea. The two villainesses returned to the reprieve of their cabin where the jingling tunes of "When You Wish Upon a Star" could only be heard in a muted capacity.
Since their return, Cruella had devoted all of her time and energy into remodeling the cabin... or rather, ordering Horace and Jasper about to remodel it for her. Never-the-less, the cabin shone with a style that was uniquely Cruella's: animal print décor, a black and white color scheme with a splash of red, and extravagant furniture that was simply the best money could buy. It was no extravagant castle, but it was cozy and stylish.
Still, even with everything they'd done, the cabin wasn't quite up to snuff. Though it was hardly a persistent issue in the Florida climate, on chilly nights like this one, the drafty walls made it a bit uncomfortable. Grimhilde extended her right palm in front of her and flickers of flame began to swirl above her hand. With a flick of her wrist, she sent the fire streaming into the fireplace, filling the room with warmth.
"You simply must teach me to weave spells sometime," Cruella smiled as she flopped herself down in her recliner by the fireplace. "I'm positively jealous of you and those other witches. Why if I had the spells you girls did, maybe I could have better protected myself against that big bad Whitman boy."
As she recounted that incident, her hand instinctively went to the back of her head. Grimhilde elegantly took a seat in her recliner sitting opposite of Cruella.
"T'was most fortunate that the weasels managed to find you in time to bring you to me," the queen nodded. "Receiving a blow to head with a wrench like that could have ended you permanently."
"Someone really should teach that little brat that it's not polite to throw things," she growled and rolled her eyes. "And they call him a hero. What kind of hero throws wrenches at poor powerless women running away, and then proceeds to get blood all over my best furs?"
"Heroes are always less than they seem," the queen agreed.
Thy two villainesses sat in comfortable silence as they relaxed in front of the fire. Quiet moments were few and far between when one was in the midst of putting a master plan into motion. Down time like this was a luxury many villains would kill to have. Still, the defeat of the Overtakers hung heavy on both their minds.
"What infuriates me the most," Grimhilde said, breaking the silence, "is not the fact that our forces were defeated or that the darkness was not able to reign supreme. It is the fact that once again Snow White has gone unpunished. Chernabog promised us all our happy endings, yet none of us ever saw them come to fruition. I'll never be rid of Snow White... I'll never be the Fairest One of All."
"Darling, if I may be so bold," Cruella replied. "I am positively jealous of you."
"Jealous? Of me?" Grimhilde repeated, positively befuddle. "Why ever for?"
"Well it's no secret that my happy ending was to finally get my cozy puppy coat," Cruella began. "That I'll likely never get to have. But, my dear queen, if your happy ending is to be the Fairest One of All, then you already have it!"
"Dear, don't be coy," the queen sighed as she rose from her seat.
"I'm not being coy, Grim," Cruella asserted as she too stood up and began to strut over to her companion. "Hang that mirror! One wrong opinion shouldn't ruin you that way. After all, I'd hardly call a prepubescent girl with a shrill voice and flat chest the "Fairest" in any capacity. No, when I think of the "Fairest One of All," I imagine a woman more experienced. A woman with graceful curves and a simply flawless complexion. A woman who carries herself in the most regal way possible. Darling, face it. You knock the competition out of the park."
Cruella was now right upon Grimhilde and ran her gloved hand seductively along the edge of the queen's balaclava.
"Do you really believe that?" the queen asked.
"Grim, my dear, I don't often give complements to anyone but myself," she laughed as she wrapped her arms around her companion's shoulders. "I actually think you might just be the only person who I've ever flattered this much. You're special."
Reading Cruella's cues and following the wiles of her own heart, Grimhilde leaned her face in to meet Cruella's. Her companion, however, was far less subtle and plunged in as the queen began to make her move. The ruby red lips of the two women came together in a long overdue embrace. Though the flavor of cigarettes was heavy on Cruella's breath, somehow that just made the kiss all the more enticing for Grimhilde. It was the flavor of Cruella; a flavor she long desired to taste for herself.
"Well that was about damn time," Cruella laughed as they broke the kiss for air. "I know I'm no enchanted mirror, but perhaps when I tell you that you're the Fairest One of All, that can be your happy ending."
"Perhaps it can," the queen chuckled. "And perhaps you do not truly need the puppy coat. Perhaps this cabin could be your masterpiece."
"Well I do so love our little home," she nodded. "Though I suppose if it's going to be our house, the color scheme is wrong. Perhaps a dash purple in place of the red? Really let it scream us."
"Though I do have reservations about simply settling down," Grimhilde confessed. "Contentment is not quite in my nature."
"Contentment? Now who said anything about contentment?" Cruella asked witch a cackle. "We're villains, darling! Overtakers or no Overtakers, you and I still have plenty of mischief to wreak."
An evil grin cracked on Grimhilde's face. "That we do, my dear."
It wasn't exactly a fairytale romance by any stretch of the imagination. But whatever they had, it was real and it was fun. Perhaps villains could get happy endings after all.