My weakness, after all

Part 2

When she woke up some hours later, she didn't feel good and she actually even thought that she wasn't herself anymore. Because she was feeling calm, relaxed, somehow content and those were not good feelings according to her. Maybe she was living into a limbo and it was all a trick of a still sleeping mind, but dreaming was another thing not so typical of Cruella De Vil – at least not a dream like this. So, no, she wasn't feeling good, she wasn't feeling like herself, but the worst part was that for a moment she didn't give a damn.

Silently, she just pressed more her cheek against his chest and slowly moved her arm to embrace him; she remained like that for a while and even closed her eyes again. Oh, how she would have liked not to be herself. Perhaps if she were a normal woman, she would accept that love he was given her, give up her demons and even welcome her happy ever after… An unavoidable chuckle escaped her lips at that thought and that was the sound that suddenly ruined the moment. In fact, he gently grabbed both her shoulders and slowly made her move a bit away from him; in a matter of ten seconds they were face to face and now, looking straight into his eyes, pretending turned out to be not so easy.

"You can kill me, I don't mind… After this" he said, with such a calmness and a determination that left her astonished.

Perhaps it was true that he didn't mind about dying in that moment: he had what he wanted after all, he had a glimpse of life, a taste of darkness, a moment of love, and he had her. But if that night was all he had been living for, then in her opinion he didn't deserve to live anyway. A perspective of his lifeless body and her own thrill of revenge filled suddenly her mind: she was back to be herself completely and it was all thanks to his tragic sentimentallism. She smiled again and slowly approached him until she placed a soft kiss on his cheek. And it was a Judas's kiss.

"Oh, you are so so weak, darling" she just whispered into his ear.

Quickly she stood up and like a thunder dressed up, until less than five minutes later she was ready to disappear and fullfill the duty both of them knew about. He didn't try to stop her, she didn't have second thoughts, but before opening the door she casted a last glance to him. It was a huge mistake.

Despite her being herself again and despite feeling the desire to take revenge on him, somehow she didn't call for Maleficent and simply walked away from the cabin, letting him live.

Perhaps he didn't care about dying, but for some strange reasons she did.

Maleficent was concerned about Cruella or maybe it was more correct to say that she was confused. A lot of days were passed since their conversation about revenge and the animal witch had come back from her journey empty handed. Not only, but she had never mentioned anything about it and acted like nothing ever happened. That behaviour seemed quite strange and maybe in the end Maleficent was concerned after all, but more for herself, because she was still having some trusty issues about her so called "friend". And honestly, looking at her an alcoholic furious girl wrapped in furs, who wouldn't? Besides, as far as she had discovered, Cruella had no weaknesses and that was the part that made her dangerous.

"What about your revenge? I thought you needed my help…" she asked one day, bluntly, while they were heading to the Charmings in order to stop Regina's curse.

Cruella instinctively widened her eyes and stopped in her track. But that uncertainty lasted only for a moment and the next one she was already hinting a smile. "Oh, darling, I managed to do otherwise… " she simply said, but her smile looked actually bitter and that was something that didn't pass unnoticed.

In fact, as the animal witch started to walk again reaching Ursula, Maleficent was left behind and kept on studying her for some moments. If she had really got her revenge, then why was still siding with them? Why was she so evasive about her glorious deed? And why, finally, didn't she look happy? Because it was clear that for a villain revenge had to be the key of happiness, but instead she looked even more desperate than before: the tripled amount of gin proved it.

So, with her mind full of questions and doubts, she decided to take the matter into her own hands and, out of the other two witches' sight, she extracted the gauntlet from the little luggage she had hidden it in. The answers might have been there, in case this time it would have showed something, of course. As hoped but not really expected, the gauntlet did show something after all. Apparently, Cruella De Vil had developed a weakness in the meanwhile and suddenly she was no so dangerous anymore.

A satisfied smile crossed Maleficent's lips as she stared down at the clear image of her ally's weak point. All the previous questions had vanished, but at the mean time a new one appeared – and this time it was simply made out of curiosity.

Who the Hell was that man with a book in one hand and a glass of something in the other?

-The end-