AN

Wow, Demi Brackensick liked my story! I'm honored. I love your story All Is Fair in Life and Death. Hope your still writing it. And thank you to all you lovely reviewers, they were very encouraging and if you have any ideas for a oneshot just let me know. Anyway, remember that this has really no continuity except for their school grades and relationships. This chapter is unreasonably silly and unrealistic.

Disclaimer-I own nothing.

Ever After High

Chapter 2

"Oh, NutMeg..."

Megara cringed at the sly voice of her approaching guardian. No matter how calm he seemed, she knew that there was always a storm brewing under Hades hood, literally. She just hoped whatever he wanted her for wouldn't take long, as she had plans with her friends.

Hades entered her room, a cloud of smoke wafting in after him. Meg finished brushing her auburn hair into her signature high ponytail before reluctantly turning to face Hades. "What do you want?"

Hades clucked his tongue in disapproval. "Now is that any way to address your master, Meg, my little flower?"

Meg grit her teeth. "Bite me."

Suddenly Hades was right in front of her. "And just where do you think your going?"

Meg took a step back, but Hades hand on her shoulder stopped her from retreating any farther. "Out."

He sneered at her. "Fine, whatever. I don't really care what you do. But, oh you'll love this. Meg, my sweet, you can't leave through the front or back doors."

Meg furrowed her eyebrows. "What the hell? Then how do I get out of here?"

Hades smile chilled Meg to the bone. She had a bad feeling about this. "It's simple, doll. Through your window of course."

Meg gasped. "But... but that's on the fifteenth floor!" Hades knew she had a debilitating fear of heights which is why he sadistically made her live on the highest floor of his huge mansion. It took all she had just to glance out her window every day. She could never leave through it.

Hades chuckled. "Isn't it though. Well, good luck, babe. Oh and don't even try to escape any other way. We'll be watching." And after blowing a cloud of smoke in her face, he practically skipped out of the room.

Meg flopped onto her bed dejectedly. What was she going to do? Knowing him, Hades would have his little minions Pain and Panic posted at the doors. While she knew she could take them physically, they would probably make enough noise to get their master's attention and Meg would have to face more than her fear of heights. She did not want that.

But she also didn't want to stay here. Her friends were probably already at the arcade, eating pizza and laughing and generally having fun. She wanted to be apart of that fun. Meg pushed herself from her mattress and stood shakily. She walked slowly over to her window and pushed it open.

The arctic breeze hit her face and she stumbled back in shock. Quickly, Meg threw on her heaviest coat and swapped her sneakers for a pair of nice warm uggs. Once back at the window, she hesitated. She couldn't believe she was even considering this. Meg thought of Hercules, her brave, strong Wonderboy. He would do anything to get to her, so why shouldn't she return the favor. But ultimately, it was the thought of Hades returning that pushed Meg to open her window wider, reach out for a nearby tree branch, and with a squeal of utter terror, propel herself into the tree.

She clung to the tree desperately, her arms and legs firmly around the trunk. Meg told herself to calm down, take a deep breath and slowly, very slowly, make her way down. But her body betrayed her as she looked down and the breath left her body. She clung even tighter to the branch, not able to move down or back to her window. In short, she was effectively trapped.

Mocking laughter rang out and Hades head appeared through her window. "Well, what do you know! I didn't think you'd make it this far?"

Meg gulped and swallowed her pride. "Please... help me back in."

Hades shook his head. "Nah, I think I'll leave you right there. Tah tah!"

Meg felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness as Hades closed and locked her window. She sat there motionless, clinging to the tree for another ten minutes before the shrill ring of her cell phone broke the silence. Meg gingerly reached for the device in her pocket, careful to move slowly and answered. "H-hello."

"Meg!" Belle chirped happily. "We're having the best time!"

"G-glad to hear it," Meg replied, shivers wracking her frame.

Belle's tone grew worried. "What's going on? Where are you? Why aren't you here yet?"

Meg thought about how to break her situation to her best friend. Finally, she decided to go for blunt honesty. "I'm k-kind of stuck in a tree."

"WHAT!"

Meg cringed at her volume and would have covered her ears, but she dared not upset her precarious balance.

"How did that happen? Are you okay?"

Normally, Meg would have responded with a sarcastic joke or remark, but her heart wasn't in it. "Not really."

"Oh, jeez," Belle muttered to herself. "Hold on."

Meg heard shuffling on the other line before Belle began shouting. Luckily, she was holding the phone away from her mouth so that Meg's ears were spared. "Herc! Hercules! Meg's in trouble!"

"Where is she? What's wrong?" Even over the phone, Meg could hear his urgency and it made her smile. What would she do without her big lug.

"Apparently she's stuck in a tree."

"What is she, a cat?" Meg made a mental note to slap Flynn when she next saw him.

"Okay, put her on speaker," Hercules demanded. Belle complied and soon Meg could hear them more clearly. "Meg are you still there?" Hercules asked.

"Y-yeah, I'm s-still here."

"Where are you, love?"

"In a t-tree outside my w-window."

She heard gasps over the line before Hercules shushed them. "As weird as that sounds, you can explain later. I'm on my way."

"We're coming too!" Belle exclaimed. Meg didn't have to ask to know she meant herself and Adam.

"We'll come too, if you'd like," Mulan piped up.

"No," Meg interrupted. "I appreciate it, b-but that's m-more than enough p-people."

Meg heard doors open and slam shut, followed by the revving of an engine. "Alright, hon, we should be there in no time," Hercules said reassuringly.

"In the meantime, why don't you explain to us what happened?" Adam suggested.

Meg willed her teeth to stop chattering before she began speaking. "Well, Hades said I couldn't leave through any of the doors and that I had to go through my window-"

"Jerk!" Belle broke in hotly.

"Belle..." Hercules reprimanded.

"Sorry," she aplogized sheepishly. "Go on."

Meg smirked briefly at her friends antics before continuing. "So yeah, it took me a while to get enough courage to attempt doing it, but finally I made it to the tree. But then I couldn't go any farther and then Hades came back and locked my window."

"Wow, that's low," Adam remarked. "Especially with your fear of heights."

Hercules remained eerily quiet. Unknown to Meg, his expression was a storm cloud of rage. For the next few minutes silence prevailed, and Meg grew anxious. "Are you guys here yet?"

"Pulling up now," Belle whispered.

Meg rolled her eyes. "Why are you whispering?"

"In case Hades is nearby. He scares the potatoes out of me."

Meg smiled fondly to herself. Any other teenager would have said 'he scares the shit or even crap out of me', but not her goody-goody best friend. It was so cute.

Meg heard the car engine turn off and the sound of the doors shutting with slightly quieter than normal bangs. The crunching of footsteps followed before Belle broke the connection. At first Meg was baffled but then the three figures came into view far below.

"Whoa! Your way up there, aren't you?" Adam marveled.

Meg glared. "Not helping, Mr. Broody!"

"Sorry," Belle apologized for him. "He had too much cola at the arcade."

Meg snorted with laughter. "Any other time and I would be fascinated."

Suddenly Hercules jumped up, caught on to the nearest branch and began hauling himself up the tree. "Herc, what are you doing!" Meg called down to him frantically.

"Coming up after you," he answered resolutely.

"No," Meg protested. "How will you coming up here help me get down?"

Hercules hesitated for only a moment before continuing his climb. "You can ride down on my back."

Meg's eyes flew wide with shock. "What?! Are you crazy? Your crazy! Guys, tell him he's crazy!"

Belle cocked her head in thought. "Hmm, it might be the only quick solution, Meg."

Meg frowned in distaste. "You can't be serious."

"No, she's right," Adam spoke up, quick to defend his girlfriend. "The alternative would be for us to somehow go fetch a ladder, which would take time and it's freezing out here."

Meg's shoulders slumped in defeat. As much as she hated to admit it, they were right. She'd been outside long enough and was chilled to the bone already. There was no way she could wait for them to find a ladder.

Before she knew it, Hercules was perched on a branch beneath her. "Okay, Meg. Carefully, climb down onto my back and hang on tight."

Meg wondered how the tree was supporting Hercules's muscular frame, and she worried that she might upset his precarious balance by moving. "I don't know, wonderboy..."

Hercules smiled up at her reassuringly. "Come on, you can do this. Your my big tough girl, remember?"

Meg let out a drawn out sigh. "Fine." She clenched her eyes shut and began to lower herself gingerly. She had to let go of the tree to wrap her arms around Herc's neck and her stomach gave a violent lurch of fear as she rocked backwards with a squeak of fear.

"You got this, Meg. Just take a deep breath and calm down."

"Easy for you to say," she grunted through her teeth.

"Your almost there," Belle called up incouragingly and Meg decided to just take her word for it instead of foolishly looking down and probably throwing up on her boyfriend in the process.

She opted for burrying her head in Herc's neck and holding on for dear life. They finally reached solid ground and Belle and Adam had to help pry Meg off of Hercules. She winced when she saw the claw marks she'd left in his neck from digging her nails into his skin and apologized profusely.

Despite her protests, Belle gave Meg a consoling hug and she couldn't find it in herself to pull away. Meg was still shaky on her feet so Hercules insisted on carrying her to the car. When she didn't fight him as vehemently as he expected her to, he knew she was really out of it.

Once back in the car, Adam volunteered to drive so Hercules could cuddle with Meg in the back. Meg remained somber as they drove to the arcade and out of respect for her feelings Belle and Adam kept their chatter to a minimum. Only after they pulled into the parking lot did Belle turn to confront Meg.

"Look, I know your sort of traumatized right now, but cheer up! Things will get better. You just need to unwind."

Meg was skeptical, but kept silent. Belle seemed to sense her weariness and nudged her playfully.

"I mean it, Megara. Just try."

Meg cracked her first smile in ten minutes. "Ooh, she full named me. Now I'm scared."

Belle laughed and linked their arms together. "Move it, smart mouth."

The group made their way into the arcade and was greeted by the boisterous sound of their friends shouting.

"HA! I kicked your butt again, Flynn! Who knew I was this good at fighting games!" Rapunzel gushed.

"And all without a frying pan," Flynn grumbled.

Rapunzel bopped him on the head before turning to the new arrivals. "Oh, hey Meg, glad to see your okay! Wanna beat up Flynn in Tekken?"

A wicked glint lit up Meg's eyes. That was a sure fire way to cheer her up indeed. "I would love to."

Meg selcted Christie Monteiro from the character list and watched as Flynn picked the muscular Miguel Roja. They made it all the way to the final round before Meg defeated him and her group of friends cheered her victory. "Wow you suck, Rider."

Flynn sulked away and let Aladdin step up to fight her next. She was defeated and quickly found herself being immersed in the general craziness that was her friends. Soon she managed to put her little incident with Hades to the back of her mind and just enjoyed the food, games and fun.

Once the arcade closed and everyone started to leave, Meg's anxiety about returning home surfaced. But Hercules refused to let her go home and eventually cooerced her into staying with him for the night. Later as they snuggled beneath the blankets on Hercule's bed, Meg leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for saving me, you big lug."

He smiled at her adoringly and pulled her closer. "Anything for you, beautiful."

AN

So yeah, this was kind of cheesy and meaningless and I'm sorry if you didn't like it. Hopefully my other chapters won't be so weird. Feel free to submit any of your own ideas. Review please!