Behind Closed Doors
Chapter 3
"I must speak with Morrible right away. Now!" said Glinda looking at Cherrystone, her composure and color back.
He stuttered for a moment, and then regained his focus.
"Um- yes, yes Your Ozness. Right away, if you would follow me out to a carriage," said Cherrystone walking out of the Palace and to the carriage house with Lady Glinda in tow. She followed him at a steady pace, whatever had happened in her mind in the Palace long forgotten or replaced. She walked out as Glinda, the ruler of Oz, not that shaking woman that he had seen reading the note. Cherrystone wondered what that had been about but obviously the whole Wicked Witch situation was very vexing on Glinda, and it must bring terrifying memories to her mind.
He hailed a carriage and opened the door for Glinda. She thanked him, and got inside, and he then preceded to get inside as well when Glinda stopped him.
"I will go alone, thank you Commander," she said icily.
"But Your Ozness, go alone to Southstairs? There are many dangerous criminals there and your husband will not like if you-"
"My husband does not know how dangerous Morrible is! And I will be going alone, now make yourself useful Cherrystone and leave! I don't need protection from her," she snapped at him.
And with that Glinda slammed the door, and the carriage pulled away leaving Cherrystone stunned at Glinda's behavior.
He watched as the carriage left the Palace on its way to Southstairs when he called to his men.
"Let the Ozness' husband know that she has gone to Southstairs alone to visit Morrible, and see if he wants to be with her," he said looking at two soldiers. They saluted him, and nodded, "Right away Commander!"
They left, and Cherrystone was left to wonder what was so pressing, disturbing or important that Glinda had to go alone to talk to Morrible.
Inside the carriage, Glinda reread the note with an ache forming in her heart.
Fiyero, Elphaba….
Just their names brought pain to Glinda's mind. It had only been two years since their deaths, but it was just enough that they were still in Glinda's mind.
The words of the letter were already sealed in her mind; she didn't even have to look at it anymore to read what it said.
Dearest Elphaba….
Miraculously I've managed to escape, thanks to the spell you've cast on me. I've still had to pay a great price but my love is still strong for you. I only hope that you will still want me when we next meet.
Tell No One That I Still Am ALIVE.
My only hope- our only hope is for all of Oz to think I'm dead.
Fiyero
Glinda sat back in the carriage, her head hurting and thought about the note. Glinda could have sworn that Fiyero had died. The Gale Force had come and put him up on that pole, and left him to die that day when Nessa had died.
But in the letter it said something about a spell. What spell?
Tell No One That I Still Am Alive…. Is that why Elphaba said, "We've seen his face for the last time."
Glinda shook that thought out of her head. It was impossible; they were both dead. Morrible must have planted this note to drive Glinda insane, and she had succeeded. But now Glinda was going to confront her, and make her tell the truth so that the guilt would subside and she could sleep at night.
But something about all of this kept nagging Glinda. How in Oz would Morrible think of something like this while she was in Southstairs? She was deranged, and there was no way that she logically thought this all out.
As the carriage halted, Glinda dismissed the thought knowing that she would soon know the truth, and she stepped out of the carriage and looked at the building that was Southstairs.
Glinda had never been in Southstairs, and personally she never wanted to be. With it's high cylinder towers on each of the four main points of the grey building, and the gates from one tower to the next rising high above the sky, and its small, limited window space, Southstairs was a scary place where no one ever came out alright.
They came out in pine coffins.
The guards outside of the entrance saluted her, "Lady Glinda," they murmured as she walked by.
"It's Your Ozness to you gentlemen," she remarked sharply glaring at them, but then she moved on inside.
The cold, damp insides of Southstairs were daunting. Candles illuminated some of the places, but mostly it lay in darkness. On every wall were multiples cells with high bars made of the toughest steel in Oz, and two or three inmates in each cell.
"Your Ozness, what do you need?" asked a guard who appeared next to her.
"I need to see Madame Morrible right away, thank you."
The guard nodded, and motioned for her to follow him, "This way if you please Your Ozness. Is it just yourself?"
"Yes, it is," answered Glinda with an even look.
The Guard nodded, all suspicions gone, and led her down a long hallway that reminded Glinda of a tunnel, to a small cell in a corner. This cell was the only one in the wall, and it was away from the other prisoners. It also had five guards surrounding it.
"Here you are, Your Ozness, Madame Morrible," announced the guard who had taken her down there.
"Thank you… sir-"
"General Teaville, Your Ozness," he cut in giving her his full rank and name.
"Thank you General Teaville," replied Glinda with a smile, "I would like to be alone with her for a bit if you don't mind."
"But Your Ozness," protested General Teaville, "She is a very dangerous witch and we really don't trust her-"
"Must I remind you that I am a witch also? She taught me everything I know. I think I can handle her, General," said Glinda calmly, glaring at him with her eyes.
General Teaville bowed his head in shame, "Yes your Ozness, I meant no disrespectation, I was only looking out for your safety. But if you wish…"
He dismissed the guards at her request, and looked at her before he left.
"We will be right over there if you need us, Your Ozness," he said pointing to the other corridor on her left.
Glinda nodded, and thanked him. Then he left, and Glinda turned and faced the dark cell.
The cell was completely dark, but even with that Glinda could still make out the outline of Madame Morrible in the shadows.
"So," purred a voice from inside the cell, "You wanted to speak with me alone, is that right dearie?"
Glinda squinted and got closer to the cell, her fingers wrapping around the bars, and her face pressed against them.
"Yes, Morrible," she replied.
Suddenly the dark figure in the shadows leapt up, and came up to the bars, scaring Glinda causing her to jump back in fright.
It was Madame Morrible all right. She had the crazy wild white hair, bright lipstick, and outrageous clothes on.
She was now grasping the bars from inside the cell, and staring at Glinda.
"Did I scare you dearie? You jumped back like a cat would do from water," remarked Morrible with a little laugh.
Glinda swallowed whatever fear she had growing in her throat, and composed herself, and strode up to Morrible, and came straight into her face.
"Did you write that note at Kiamo Ko? Did you do that to mess with me? To cause all of the guilt and everything else to drive me mad?" asked Glinda with a harshness to her voice.
Morrible laughed at her, "That old thing? So the Commander decided to show you that. Well dearie, I did not write it. Fiyero did. You can check because that's not my handwriting. I do not have that nice cursive, but then again who knew Fiyero did?"
"No you wrote this note. It has to be you. Elphaba told me that Fiyero was dead! She got a note saying that he was dead that night!" exclaimed Glinda, trying to figure out why Morrible was lying and accidentally letting the truth slip out.
"She told you that on that night? But you told everyone that you were taking a bubble bath with your newly found boyfriend. Ah, and the little princess's lies come undone!" squealed Morrible with glee as shame crossed Glinda's face.
"Alright fine I was there. I saw all of it. The melting, the screaming, everything. But you already knew that didn't you Morrible? That's why you planted that note and gave it to Cherrystone so that I would go crazy with grief, admit it!" snapped Glinda, her eyes fierce, straightening her posture so that she was as tall as Madame Morrible.
"I already told you that it wasn't me dear. Maybe that was the note Elphaba read that night. I don't know. Maybe the flying monkeys know something…." She said as a twisted smile came across her face.
"Flying monkeys? You mean Chistery and the others? I didn't realize that they were still there?" said Glinda surprised.
"Oh yes, they fled like a flock of birds though when I arrived to someplace. But they are still there," said Morrible.
She paused, "So what else did that Commander tell you that I said? I bet he left some of it out…"
Glinda swallowed and tried to remember everything that Cherrystone had told her.
"He said that you thought that she was alive due to rumors from eye-witnesses and the note. And I must ask you, Morrible, who eye-witnessed her return if there even was one?"
"I did," croaked out a weak voice to Glinda's left. The voice had come from the first cell on that corridor.
Glinda turned around surprised, and called out, "Who said that?"
The voice scoffed, "Oh right. You never could remember my name. Over here Your Ozness!" the voice called out again.
This time Glinda went over to the cell, leaving Morrible.
The figure in the cell was oddly shaped, almost built like a robot or tic-tock creature, and something gleamed whenever light hit inside of that cell.
"You must come closer so I can see you. My eyes are growing weak. And who, may I ask are you, and explain to me how you saw the Wicked Witch after she was melted?" demanded Glinda with her hands on her hips, looking very regal.
Her blonde hair was in a bun, and even as she leaned near the cell to look, pieces of her hair blocked her view.
Finally the person came closer, more like creaked to Glinda than walked, and she gasped as she saw who it was.
"Tin Man!" she gasped, "It is you. I didn't realize that you were still here. I told them to release you the day after your imprisonment because I found the culprit who had stolen that vase. I will gladly get you out now on account of your-"
"No need, Galinda. I like it here. I'll just rust away till I am nothing," replied the Tin Man shrugging at her, his body covered with dirt and rust.
Glinda shook her head in disbelief, "But I can have you released. Don't you want that? After all you've done with the Matter Of Dorothy and everything it is the only thing I- wait, you called me Galinda?" her tone was shocked.
The Tin Man put on a wry smile, "You really don't know who I am. Figures," he muttered under his breath, "Well anyways, I don't want to be released, and I will gladly tell you what happened that night either way."
Glinda could only stare with her mouth open.
"I was there, when Dorothy supposedly 'melted' Elph- I mean the Witch, and afterwards the Scarecrow said that he was going to go help clean up the mess. So the Lion, Dorothy, and Toto and I all started to leave when something caught my eye. I told the Lion, and Dorothy to start heading down the cliff with Toto, and they did. Then I saw the Scarecrow leaving through the back entrance with someone else. Someone who had green skin and a black dress on. I asked him about it later on while we were traveling back to the Emerald City and he never gave me a straight answer. He avoided the question, saying that I must have been too traumatized and made it all up. But I know what I saw," argued the Tin Man heatedly.
"So you saw the Scarecrow helping someone out of the castle who had green skin?" whispered Glinda, not believing her ears.
"Yes, he thought that he was alone, but I was hiding in the shadows. It was a while afterward the melting, say six or seven hours afterwards."
Glinda tried to remember when she had left Kiamo Ko that night. She had left about an hour after the melting, after being summoned to the Emerald City, where she was supposed to be, to tell the Ozians the news. So in short, she had missed the Scarecrow leaving with this supposed "Elphaba."
"And then?" prompted Glinda wanting to know what happened next.
But just then the Gale Force and Chuffrey coming to Glinda's aide interrupted them.
"Chuffrey?" exclaimed Glinda confused and frustrated that she was so close to knowing the truth when he had burst in, "What are you doing here?"
Chuffrey stroked his beard, a habit that he always had, and grabbed her wrist, "That's not relevant right now. The point is, why are you here all alone without any guards around you? You do know that she could kill you!" he scolded, not letting go of her wrist, and bringing her close to him.
"Chuffrey let go! I was never in any danger. You're being paranoid. Now let go, I'm not finished yet," she said trying to free herself from his grasp. But Chuffrey grabbed her shoulders, and made her stand still.
"No, Glinda. You're tired, and scared. You need to go home. You've been through a lot right now, and you need rest. I'm going to have the Gale Force take you home, and I will be there shortly. I just need to deal with these prisoners first," he said glaring at Morrible.
"What?" cried out Glinda as the Gale Force took her by the arms and dragged her away.
"Goodbye Miss Galinda, I do hope you enjoy ruling Oz. You seem to pay better attention to the Ozians than you ever did to me," remarked the Tin Man as she stopped the guards for a moment by digging her heels into the ground.
She looked up at him, her enraged face ever more prettier when it was flushed.
"Miss Galinda? No one has called me that since Shiz! Who are-," she started to say when realization finally kicked in.
"Oh, is that you, Boq?" her voice was choked up.
He nodded, and her eyes filled with tears. She tried to move forward to say something to him when the guards grabbed her once again. But this time she smacked them, and got free. She walked up to Boq's cell, and wrapped one hand's fingers around the bars lightly.
"What ever happened to you to get you like… well this?" she asked, ignoring Chuffrey's protests to step away from the cell.
"It was all Elphaba's fault, she came to Nessa and said that she needed her help. And then she ended up casting a spell that made her stand up on her own two feet. But that made Nessa want to run away with me, and I wouldn't have it. They both were such liars! And then I told Nessa that I was still in love with you, and she got angry, and I think Elphaba used her spell book to shrink my heart and turn me into this. It was all her fault. She wasn't the person that you knew. She was evil and she deserved to be dead; I'm glad that I was there when she died. She deserved it," hissed Boq.
Something inside Glinda snapped, and she lunged for Boq, nearly clawing at him.
"She did NOT deserve to die, and you know it, Boq! You're the one who deserves to be dead! You're so heartless that you can't even realize that she was trying to help you! How could you even SAY that about her! Chuffrey, PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT!" she screeched, as Chuffrey picked up the tiny, infuriated blonde and pulled her away from Boq's cell.
"Glinda, calm down will you?" he shouted at her, restraining her with his arms from attacking Boq again.
She finally stopped trying to get free, and she collapsed against his chest, sobbing. She didn't even realize that they had already gotten out of Southstairs and into the carriage until she felt the lurch of it, and saw the scenery fly by her eyes.
Chuffrey held her close, and stroked her hair, "Once we get back, I'm having the Emerald City Palace doctor look at you," he said firmly.
Glinda, who was still sobbing against his chest, didn't even protest the matter though if she was not crying she would have. There was no excuse for how she had acted, but for reasons unknown she could not explain what had made her act like that.
Unless she wanted to tell the truth about Shiz, Elphaba, Fiyero, and everything else, she could never tell anyone why she had acted like that.
Whoa! This was one fun chapter to write. Hehe, thoughts? Suggestions? Let me know!
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