Chapter 7: Descent into Madness
It was probably the Bathory blood in her.
Gothel did not want to admit it at first. But with the combination of the withdrawal from Seroquel and the shot of whiskey she took from the small flask from her handbag just after Mr. Grimmney told her he still hadn't thought about the promotion, the effects were devastating but just as liberating. Gothel's anger boiled in her like the combination of highly volatile chemicals. And what she did to the trespassing boy in the Tower freed the caged animal inside her. She felt as if she was being reborn. She was not going to be afraid anymore. She knew her supply of mood stabilizer and anxiety treatment had finished, but she had no plans to replenish them.
To hell with the drugs, she thought. If this is what withdrawal feels like, so be it.
"Who is that boy?" Gothel yelled at Rapunzel, the girl who thought she was her daughter, with the craft knife still in her hand. Realizing that there was no trace of blood on the thin knife, Gothel felt angrier now that she had failed to cut into the boy's skin.
"I don't know!" The girl cried.
At present, her alien-like ugliness made Gothel loathe. And that loathing, not surprisingly, was causing her drug-like happiness. No one was going to recognize Rapunzel as Rachel Kingsley now, no matter how many of that computer-generated age progression posters they print out and pass around. Rachel Kingsley on the poster was a happy, pinkish skinned girl with luscious dark brown hair and sparkling emerald-like eyes. How on Earth did they think the baby they had lost could turn out to be that healthy and happy-looking? Idiots. Gothel sneered in her darkening heart. After years and years of put downs, secret captivity and installation of self-loathing upon the girl, Gothel was proud of her final handiwork – a girl whom she could manipulate with her words, cut her beautiful hair and shaved her head bald and then scared her to death about HER effects on the world outside. Rachel Kingsley on the posters was a fantasy. She had become Rapunzel Bathory, an insanely strange-looking girl nobody would love; nobody would take any notice at. And if people knew what Rapunzel had done to their old house and the dead reading tutor, they would even fear and shun her too. And the goodness of Rapunzel's ability was only known to Gothel alone. Somehow, the words written by Rapunzel in that enchanted book and fountain pen that were meant for Gothel alone had come true. Gothel won a lottery once and was able to get a new apartment and furnished it according to her taste; antique furniture, a painting studio for Rapunzel, large mirrors with curly frames.
In the light of the recent development, Gothel was even thinking of going to see the voodoo doctor Facilier again and consult him about the book, the pen and the progress made by the girl. But the trip to Facilier would take her three days. If the situation arose, she will make that trip.
How she loved the girl. She loved her so much that she would never, ever let her go. And Rapunzel had succumbed to dependence on her that she did not talk about the outside world anymore. She thought the girl was satisfied with the sight from her window and the painting gallery where she painted grey minarets-infested skyline, sights of people walking desolately from aerial view, and the annual River Leith event at night with the lights in it.
But then Rapunzel showed her the University's Medieval Weekend flyer with the portrait of Rachel Kingsley on it. And Gothel was jolted by the past which had came back to haunt her.
Gothel picked the thrown book from off the floor. She read the latest entry and the sight made her feel flame burning in her ears.
"You're writing verses! A healing incantation! So, you are a WITCH now? Hoo hoo, my little witch!" Gothel made strange teasing noises. The girl cringed, and Gothel wouldn't know whether the girl was afraid or annoyed.
"He was badly hurt. I just did it. I wasn't thinking."
"He didn't seem hurt when he shot off, running away like a scalded cat!"
Despite her teasing and belittling, Gothel realized that Rapunzel had shown a new aspect of her ability. She was reminded of the girl's true mother. The woman had said, words are magical, words are powerful. When Gothel snatched the baby in her pram during a sales day in the University bookshop, it was just because of the spite in her heart. But when Gothel knew what the girl's true mother had said happened to her child, Gothel had risen to the occasion of raising the little girl like a martyr. She knew it when a dead rose plant in the kitchen (Rapunzel's idea) bloomed again when Rapunzel wrote these simple words in her drawing book. My rose has bloom again. It wasn't even grammatically correct. Rapunzel was six.
And Gothel had stayed close to the University just to watch the publishing royalty couple suffer their loss. She wondered about how they had fought over the question of who had caused the baby girl to have gone missing. She wondered how they had argued over who had let their baby out of sight first. She wondered how they could sleep at night with guilt and blame infesting like cancer in their hearts. Were they still the perfect, happy couple after that? She sneered. They, who had tossed aside her one and only magnum opus without a care, her only shot at fame and fortune, the manuscript of Darker Ever After.
Her twisted plan had worked well. She had lived meagrely and modestly, just to maintain her invisibility so she could witness sadness eating away at the University town's most famous and respected couple. She could have asked Rapunzel to write her untold riches and fame and popularity, but she was content just watching people crumble. That alone brought her limitless joy. Anything else was just a bonus. And everything was just as she expected to happen. Everything was according to plan.
But she never expected the boy to cross paths with Rapunzel. And he now was the only other person besides her who had discovered her ability. Gothel realised that she needed to take a definitive action in damage control.
"Your first day out and you're already ungrateful. There'll be no more days like this!" Gothel threw the golden wig to the floor and pulled Rapunzel's arm.
"We're going home, Rapunzel."
"But the Tower, Mother," Rapunzel said, probably still thinking about enjoying her few hours of freedom outside their perpetually locked apartment.
"Forget the Tower. I promise you that nothing like this will happen again in your life," Gothel said, thinking of what the girl could do for her next. What if her powers were growing and she could use it for something bigger, better. Screw the Tower when she could own the theme park of misery, just out of spite towards Mr. Grimmney.
"I don't want to go home!" The girl resisted, which was very alien to Gothel. Gothel paused. She had to rethink her strategy now that Rapunzel is out in the open. She still had to drive her back to the apartment. Everything must be done in orderly fashion. Gothel retreated and put a gentle smile with sympathetic eyes on her face.
"Oh Rapunzel," Gothel started anew.
"I know how scared you were. That man was a trespasser. I don't know what he wanted to do with you. Maybe he wanted to harm you. And I know how you wanted to be like other people. But you're not like other people. That gift of yours is very hard to control. You are lucky today that you saved a person's life. But still you didn't know what he was doing in the Tower and how he could enter this place without a pass card. For all that we know, he could be some kind of a wanted criminal, desperate to find a hiding place. And he found you here. If I hadn't got to you in time, he could have hurt you, taken you hostage, destroy you, oh -" Gothel said long-windedly with dripping drama. She saw there was still incredulity in Rapunzel's transparent face. There was something that Rapunzel knew and she was not telling her. Just a few minutes with a handsome stranger and she was already in rebellion! Gothel thought angrily.
"And where could you go? You have nothing. And I have been taking care of you all along. Where shall you sleep when it gets dark and cold? What will you eat when you get hungry? It's not going to be easy to live out there, Rapunzel."
Gothel still saw steely resolve in Rapunzel's eyes. The girl was turning eighteen any way. Her quest for freedom had started. Maybe that thing she did with the craft knife was a little over the top.
"And look at you, dear. Only a mother can love you."
With that final sentence, Rapunzel's face softened. She had broken the girl's spirit with that last sentence. She was ready to say more if that didn't work. Gothel took Rapunzel's hand and led her down the stairs.
"We're going home."
In Gothel's heart, if she ever saw that boy again, she swore she was going to cut him in half.
She would know then when she would live up to her name and make her shunned and secret ancestry proud.
