Chapter Ten:

Five Years Later;

The blonde woman opened another bottle of alcohol as she sat in the room alone and she drank the whole thing in one gulp. This was her third one. After she finished it, she opened another one, her fourth, and was about to drink it when a member of the Gale Force came and knocked on her door.

"Glinda the Good, you're on in ten minutes for your speech about the bans on Animals," said the guard. He left soon afterwards and Glinda got up from the chair clumsily in a ridiculous blue glittering gown. Her hair was in tight banana curls and a tiara was placed in them.

She left the open bottle untouched as she stumbled over towards the mirror and looked at her reflection.

She looked miserable, like a wilted flower that was falling to pieces. Her eyes were hard and cold, not bright and happy like they used to be. Her complexion and figure was frail and colorless from her refusal to eat, and when she did eat she threw it up. Her blonde hair had lost its luster and now looked like dried up hay. But the ironic thing was that when Glinda put on her excessive amounts of makeup, people believed that she was the most beautiful woman in Oz when really she wasn't. Her smile was absolutely fake, a hopeless attempt to bring joy to the people in Oz. They couldn't see fakeness behind it, thank Oz, but Glinda's parents, family, and friends sure could. She drank excessively day and night and had been searching for years now trying to secretly find Elphaba. She had hired agents, private detectives but none of them had ever found anything.

To her disappointment she had kept in contact with Nessarose during these years and found that the youngest Thropp sister was convinced that Elphaba was dead and that if she was not that she was better off to be dead than alive.

Glinda was interrupted mid thought about Elphaba by her husband who came in through the door just then.

"Glinda," he said harshly as he slammed the door behind him. Chuffrey had grown old by now, his hair and beard now fully grey. His eyes were cold and mean, just like they always had been.

Glinda pursed her lips when she saw him, put her hands on her hips, and glared at him, "Screwing one of our maids, were you? Or was it one of the Wizard's maids this time?"

Her comment was greeted by silence for Chuffrey neither denied nor confirmed it.

"Drunk on the job, again eh Glinda?" he mocked her.

Glinda glared at him, "Shut up you old bastard," she spat back. She reached for the bottle and took a swig.

"You're going to die if you keep drinking that much," pointed out Chuffrey as he took off his black coat. Glinda merely laughed.

"You'd just love that, wouldn't you? You're just wishing for the day that I die!" she stumbled over to him and slammed the bottle on the table near his face where he sat, "Well let me tell you something, with all that physical exercise you're getting I'm almost positive that one day you'll just keel over mid erection!"

Chuffrey paused, "At least I'm not in love with a dead woman."

Glinda froze, and her hands began to shake.

"Don't you dare," she screamed, "say that about her! She is not dead!"

"She might as well be, with skin like that and such feelings for you," said Chuffrey, mocking her relationship with Elphaba.

Glinda felt angry tears build up in her eyes and she cursed him. She yelled every curse word she could think of at him, and she slapped him hard across the face.

"It's all your fault, you know!" she screeched, "If you hadn't taken away my only comfort in this marriage we wouldn't be like this! She was my only friend!"

Chuffrey sat there for a moment and then he stood up suddenly and grabbed both of her wrists.

"Don't touch me! Don't you touch me!" shouted Glinda as she tried to squirm away from him. He held tighter and forced her closer to him, "I hate you!"

"Trust me my dear, the feeling is the same for me," said Chuffrey as he let go, but slapped her across the face afterwards.

Without another word he left Glinda to herself and once the door was closed Glinda sank into a chair and began to cry.

She sobbed for the loss of opportunity, of the times that she had missed because she was married, the friends that she had lost, she cried for her loss of Elphaba. It was almost too much to bear, and at times Glinda compensated if jumping out of a window was getting a bit too tempting to resist.

But for some reason she never did throw herself off balconies or drink herself to death. That was because there was a tiny speck of hope still left in Glinda that one day she was going to find Elphaba and then everything would be alright.

That speck grew smaller and smaller as each day passed, and today it was down to nothing.

She couldn't deal with the title of 'Glinda the Good' anymore, the name changing brought upon by the Wizard saying that Glinda was much more sophisticated than Galinda. She couldn't deal with the little sorcery she knew, flying a bubble, conjuring up simple things like weather and making objects fly. After two miscarriages and a stillborn baby, her marriage was wasted. Both of them never slept together anymore. Glinda slept by herself and after one incident where she kissed one of her maids she was usually left to dress herself. Chuffrey slept with everything in sight that moved.

They resented each other, and only kept their relationship for social reasons. They acted like they loved each other, and boy were they both good actors. They fooled everyone into thinking that they were in love when really they loathed each other.

Glinda finally stopped crying and finished what was remaining of the alcohol. She felt as if she went through another regular day as herself that she would go insane. She had to run away.

So when the guard opened the door ten minutes later, he found the room to be empty.

Glinda the Good and all of her belongings were gone.

Glinda wore a white cloak as she traveled around the Emerald City while carrying two suitcases filled with clothes and trinkets and a bottle of wine. She had her hood up and her recognizable blonde curls were concealed from the commoners' eyes in the nighttime. She felt dizzy as she stumbled along the cobblestone streets of the Emerald City. Colors of the various stores and stands seemed to melt into one big mess in her mind. She walked until her head felt like it was going to burst.

She stood in front of a dilapidated old wooden building that was labeled as 'Corn Exchange.' Exhausted and with a horrible headache Glinda entered the building and climbed up the stairs to find a room where she could sleep in.

When she came to the last step, she set her bags down and looked around. There was only one room in this floor and she decided that she wasn't climbing any more stairs.

She looked at the slightly opened door and pushed it open further revealing a dark room. Glinda heard rustling and two voices, and before she knew it a candle was lit.

Whom-ever was holding the candle came towards the door, "Who's there?" asked the voice, a voice that Glinda recognized immediately even in her drunken state.

"Elphaba?" she said softly.

The woman holding the candle moved closer to Glinda and the blonde could see the light reflecting off of the green skin.

"You're alive, oh Elphaba you're alive!" cried Glinda in joy. Then without thinking Glinda came towards her, and kissed her passionately.

The candle was dropped to the floor in surprise.

Dun Dun Da. How do you all think Glinda will react to Elphaba's affair with Fiyero? Not good I hope. See this chapter ended on a happy note! :)

Bubble