Chapter 1
The fire light of the torches flicked wickedly against the stone walls that seemed to suck in every drop of light, swallowing the glowing red without mercy. It was if a portal was opened inside the once grand and welcoming warmth of the great Manor, and it lead directly to the deepest layer of hell, a layer of hell in which the Devil was about to reclaim her throne.
"Pull! Pull!" Cruella shouted at Alonzo, her weak and trusting assistant. Just weeks ago, Alonzo had felt the gentle touch of her delicate hand across his face, and now she was commanding him, like a slave driver would command a slave to work. In the tender embrace of that memory, Alonzo didn't feel like a slave, he deluded himself into thinking he meant something to Cruella, and that the only thing keeping them from forming a closer relationship was the iron hide that just earlier that afternoon had reformed itself around her heart. Cruella knew better ,though. The object of her desire was not the servant pathetically trying to open the door she demanded access too, her desire, her passion, her hellfire, lie just beyond that door
"Stand aside, Worm!" Cruella commanded, as she gripped Alonzo by the collar and tossed him against the stone wall, his small frame crumbling into the black corner like a forgotten piece of furniture. An unparalleled rage Rose in Cruella, partly because Alonzo could not fulfill the task she gave him, and partly because this task only existed because of what he did to her. That disgusting pig , he took from her soul the one thing she loved in this world, and made her mad crazy at the sight of it. When she, or rather Ella, had returned back to De Vil Manor after her prison sentence, it was not safe. She was surprised that Ella had not had Alonzo burn it, she's thankful that the fear of burning flesh was also very prevalent in her. This rage, however, was nothing new to Cruella, it was her second best quality. The number of times she had taken male designers and tossed them several meters back, out of her office, and onto the floor, would have made anyone who had not known of Cruella De Vil laugh at the idea. That was the Beauty of Cruella, like a tiger, she was lethal, while at the same time being absolutely gorgeous, a deadly combo.
She took hold of the wooden planks that barred the door shut, and pulled. What was once a sturdy oak plank had now been reduced to the strength of a popsicle stick, as Cruella screamed, she tore it off effortlessly, and chucked it backwards at Alonzo, further punishment for disobeying her. In less than ten seconds, the door was free, a pile of wooden planks laying behind her. As Cruella opened the door, which bear resemblance to the shape of an iron maiden, she stood stunned. Her love, her heart, her soul, lay before her. She stepped forward, slowly turned, and fell back, into the pile of fur.
"Oh mummy's home, and i'll never leave you again!" Cruella cried as she took every fur around her and gripped it tight, greeting each piece as if it was a lost child. As Alonzo looked in on Cruella, he found it remarkable how happy a few pieces of fur could make someone, especially someone like her. As Cruella lay across her beautiful furs, she slowly became perplexed. She sat up,her fits of laughter turning into frustration, hitting her clenched fist against the fur that she, only a moment ago, swore to never abandon. Cruella sat up, dissatisfied with her situation, she looked up to Alonzo, demanding answers from him. "Why do I feel incomplete? What could be missing from my life? Cruella De Vil who has it all! The softest, the rarest, the whitest, the blackest, the strippiest, the spottiest, the-" at the mention of that word, the dam holding back the memories in Cruella's head burst, and with it a flood of emotion. "The Spots!" she thought "My beautiful coat! And...him" Cruella soon remembered an evening in Paris, alone with that man, surveying a freshly delivered crate of illegally poached chinchilla fur skins. Perhaps the only man she didn't despise, Jean-Pierre Le Pelt. She had to respect this man, hardly a man at all when she first met him, She being 26 and he being 19 at the time, a weazel poacher from the south of France, she took a chance on him, and it turned into the most confusing time in her life, she felt things she had never felt before, and hated herself for ever thinking such things. Those thoughts were forbidden in her eyes, a distraction from her business, from her domination. Cruella swore to never let something as idiotic as a man conquer her heart, and come between her and her furs.
Cruella snapped back at the thought of her fur, staring daggers at alonzo. "Where is it? Where? Where is it?!" as soon as she looked to her right, Cruella saw it. Illuminated by the massive cauldron of flame at the center of the stone cave, against the wall, was her new object of desire. As Cruella gets up, her knees weaken at the sight of the drawing, her hands trembling at the touch of the sketch paper, her long black claws gently stroking the parchment. "My dalmatian puppy coat, the coat of dreams, the ultimate fur coat!" the word dalmatian brings out the rage in Cruella once more "My coat, which was denied me by that canine cabal, for which I have lost THREE YEARS OF MY LIFE!" Cruella shouted in a rage she did not even sense building up inside of her. Nevertheless, She was not about to sit in her pile of furs, letting bygones be bygones, Cruella was forming a plan, and she would have her puppy coat.
"Alonzo!" she screamed, making him shutter uncontrollably "We are going to make them pay!". Alonzo perked up, smiling "Oh yes Madam, how much?". Cruella rolled her eyes, thinking how idiotic Alonzo was. That thought only a flash in the fiery pan that was Cruella's mind. She schemed as she walked around the cauldron, discussing her plan to kidnap the puppies of her parole officer Chloe Simmon. Alanzo looked on with bewilderment ,
"S-sounds w-w-wonderful" he forced out.
Alanzo was never a bad kid growing up, but as he started working for Cruella, he found himself involved in many illegal and deplorable acts. He remembers clearly waiting on Cruella and her henchmen, as they gifted her a siberian tiger stole. Not only was this animal endangered, but this particular tiger came straight from the London Zoo, the same zoo in which the two henchmen left the skinned carcass of the tiger. Alonzo instantly had thoughts of reporting the incident to the authorities, but this was Cruella De Vil receiving this gift. Her slim and saultry figure wrapped in her tight black gown, adorned with feathers like a goddess, made alonzo shake as he walked around her room. As her long black nails removed themselves from her face, covering her eyesight in anticipation for her gift, Cruella gasped, taking the tiger stole up the stairs, and wrapping herself seductively in it, marching up to her mirror and asking it "Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" the tiger stole, puppeteered by Cruella, replied "You are". Alonzo has moments where he knew he was on love with Cruella De Vil, and that was one of them. She looked like a temptress, a dominating evil queen, taking the life of a beautiful animals just to further her own desire, and Alonzo loved it, after all he himself was a naturally submissive man, why wouldn't he fall in love with a woman as dominating as Cruella. "No" Alonzo thought "I don't think I will report this". Now, three years later in the secret cave basement under the De Vil manor, Alonzo was thinking the same thing.
"Alonzo!" Cruella Screamed again, jolting Alonzo out of his trance, "I need you!"
"I'm yours!" he replied, eager from his memories to prove to her he was loyal.
Cruella was aware of Alonzo's feelings, but make no mistake, She only kept him around because she knew her illegal activities would go unhindered by him. All it took was a wink here, a outfit with no underwear there, and within a month of his original employment, Alonzo was seduced by Cruella De Vil. After that, all Cruella ever did was shout at and hit alonzo, she thinks he liked it more anyways. Either way, Alonzo was just another man she used for her own personal gain.
"Alonzo, I need you to furnish yourself with a torch, a large sack, and rubber soled shoes! Meanwhile, I need a furrier…"
Cruella did not know why she thought of Le Pelt when she remembered her puppy it was because Ella had mentioned him earlier, albeit in a fit of rage, referring to Le Pelt as a murderer. Perhaps it was the illegality of it all, how forbidden her business with Le Pelt was, buying and selling the most rare and expensive furs, from the most endangered animals, Cruella is almost sure that she and Le Pelt are responsible for the extinction of a few different animals, she always claimed to be able to smell when an animal they recently skinned was close to extinction, and she loved it. Forbidden, that was a word that stuck in Cruella's head when she thought of Le Pelt. Like the apple on the tree of knowledge, and Cruella the beautiful Eve, she wanted another bite, even though she has been told not to go near. Despite fur being the only thing she ever admitted to loving, Cruella cannot help but bring Le Pelt in on this plan, wanting to rekindle the partnership they had years ago. "Strictly business" Cruella thought to herself.
She looked back at Alonzo, "And I know just where to find him!"
With that, Cruella gave a diabolical laugh, and bolted towards her room. She had a mission, and it started with the London Le Pelt Fur Fashion Show.
