Merida stands in an empty field, the moon hanging high above her. It's full, her favorite time to ride her horse. But Angus is nowhere in sight. She calls for him several times but the only reply she gets is from the wind. It tugs at her tangled clumps of hair. She breathes it in, letting it fill her lungs.
District 10...how I've missed you.
The stars brilliantly light the inky, blue, sky. Merida sprawls out in the grass, letting it weave through her fingers and tickle her back, looking up at the little diamonds above her. She closes her eyes and lets out a deep breath.
"I'm home," she whispers into the empty air.
When Merida opens her eyes, she expects to see the moon and the stars still, but instead, she is startled by the pitch black that surrounds her. She gasps, her throat burning as though she'd inhaled acid.
"Quickly!" A voice calls through the darkness. Merida looks around frantically for the source. "This way! Quickly!"
"Where!?" Merida calls, panic shaking in her fingers. "Which way!?"
A foggy figure stands a few feet away, it extends an arm toward her.
"This way!" The voice isn't coming from the figure. It's all around her. Merida's head spins. She is overwhelmed with grief and confusion as she takes a step toward the fog.
"What's going on? Who are you?" There's no answer. Instead, the fog becomes more defined and starts to take a shape. At first, it's no one that Merida can recognize but eventually, it takes the shape of someone familiar.
"Fawn?"
The blonde career stands, holding out her battle ax. Merida gasps and stumbles backwards, crashing into something hard.
"Watch where you're going, Red." Tenney looks down at her with a smirk. She tries to push herself away, but he pins her arms behind her back, immobilizing her.
"No! Let go of me!"
She kicks and growls until finally, the boy, reluctantly, lets her go. The blackness becomes filled with the rest of the careers as they surround her, menacingly. Merida notices that Pan is among them, standing beside Oceana.
And then, the circle parts and Merida sees Rapunzel, bound to a wooden post, her mouth covered by cloth. She struggles, her eyes frantic with fear.
She doesn't know how, but Merida is suddenly kneeling in front of Rapunzel, who lays tethered to the ground. The careers are standing in a semicircle behind her, leaning in, over her shoulder. She can feel the cold handle of a knife clutched between her fingers.
"Merida..." Rapunzel begs. "Please..."
Merida wants to cut the chords holding her down, but she is suddenly aware of the hands gripping her own.
"We'll do it together," Pan whispers in her ear. He lifts her hands, still clutching the knife in her palm.
"Merida..!" Rapunzel's eyes swim with terror. "Don't do this!" There are tears in her eyes, as she pleads for her life.
"I- I can't...Rapunzel...!" Merida feels a sinking feeling in her chest. Tears swell to the brims of her eyes, clouding her vision.
Without warning, Pan slams down his fists, bringing Merida's along with them, driving the knife into Rapunzel's torso.
"NO!" Merida screams, tasting a drop of her friend's blood on her lips as it splatters out of an open wound. Pan brings her hands up again. Merida is weeping now, trying so hard to fight against him, but it's no use. He makes her drive the knife into Rapunzel's body over and over again. Warmth covers her hands as they are painted red.
Everything is red.
Rapunzel lays in a heap before her, gasping for breath, holes adorning her beautifully sewn dress. Merida drops the knife and stares at her broken body in astonishment. Rapunzel stares up at her, her eyes losing their focus and eventually gazing into nothingness.
It doesn't stay Rapunzel for long, though. Soon, her body starts to fade away and instead, lying before her in a bloody mess, is Hiccup. She gasps, her throat as dry as a desert. But before she can reach out to touch his lifeless body, it shifts again. She starts to see the disheveled bodies of everyone she's ever known: Her mom, her dad, Jane, Esmeralda, Toothiana, the old woman with the ugly garden in her district, Angus, her brothers... She has killed them all.
Each one is just as, if not, more grueling than the last, until finally, there is no one left. Merida looks around, her eyes stinging with sorrow. There is nothing. It's all darkness. No sound. No light.
Just darkness.
She feels a slight pressure on her ribs when she tries to stand up.
"Merida!" she hears her friends and family calling for her.
But they're dead...
"Merida!" It's an eerie echo through nothingness and it makes the hairs on her arm stand up.
"Merida! Come on you're gonna be late!"
Merida's eyes fly open as she jolts awake. She is covered in sweat, stray strands of hair sticking to her cheeks. She looks up at Esmeralda, who stands at her bedside with a scowl.
"Damn, you sleep like a bear," she scolds. "Get yourself dressed, it's almost time to go." Drowsiness dulls her senses and fear still lingers in the back of her mind.
"Ready for what?"
"Your fitting," Es sighs. "Tooth mentioned yesterday that you'd have to find something spectacular to wear." She rolls her eyes as she says that. "As moronic as that may seem, it's true. Your stylist is waiting for you at her workplace around the corner." Es huffs and starts to walk out but turns at the door. "And please, try to be slightly more humane than usual when you get there. Your stylist isn't one to take lightly to a stubborn teenager." Merida rolls her eyes and throws off her sheets.
"Can't make any promises," she grumbles, hearing the door whoosh opens and then shut again.
Merida takes a long look at her reflection in the mirror. She is relived to see the lack of red on her face and her hands. There is no blood.
It was only a dream.
After freshening up a bit, Merida convinces her mentor to let her walk to meet her stylist. She feels like she could use the air, as tainted as it might be. It was better than being cooped up inside a little cart.
The two of them make there way through the crowded streets of the Capitol, elbowing through the thick crowds. Merida can hear Es mumbling about the ignorance of people in the Capitol almost the whole way. It only takes a few minutes to get there but by they time thy step through the front door, Merida feels beads of sweat dripping down her back.
There is a short, stout woman sitting at a small desk in the front of the room. She doesn't look up at them when she speaks.
"Appointment for District 10 female?" She asks dully. Merida nods and although the woman doesn't look up, she presses a small, red button and speaks into a little microphone that sits on her desk.
"Mal, your other District 10 is here." She drones. The voice on the other side of the intercom that responds is smooth, even through the speakers.
"Excellent, I just finished with the boy. Send her in."
"Other?" Merida looks up at Esmeralda curiously. She just nods, without making eye contact.
So Hiccup had gotten up and gone without me?
Merida tries not to look insulted but its hard enough to convince herself, let alone anyone else. She finally shakes her head.
He doesn't want anything to do with me anymore. I'm on my own from now on.
The little woman at the desk looks up for the first time since they arrived and and raises her perfectly trimmed eyebrows.
"You can hear, can't you?" She says, dryly "Go on in."
Merida nods and passes a quick glance at Es before stepping past the front desk and toward the long stretch of hallway before her.
"It's the last door." The desk lady sighs at her, lifting her chin a bit as though it makes any difference in her tone quality.
Merida walks briskly down the hallway, holding on to some small shred of hope that she'll see Hiccup before he leaves. She knows that they left off on bad terms the night before and it had been eating at her ever since. Even just seeing him long enough to say that she was sorry would be more than enough.
But as Merida nears the end of the corridor, she notices that there is a back exit and all of her hopes are dashed. He probably went out that way, making it less likely that he'd still be there. She sighs when she reaches the last door in the hall and taps gently on the wood.
"District 10?" A voice echoes from beyond the frame
"Um, yes." Merida swallows the lump in her throat.
"Enter."
Merida pushes the door open and steps in hesitantly. The sight of the room makes her catch her breath.
There are animal pelts draped on every wall, many of them have been dyed different colors. The floor is carpeted a velvety red. She can almost imagine how warm it must feel through her shoes. She doesn't have time to take in everything else when she notices the tall figure standing on the far side of the room, facing the wall. When she turns, Merida gasps in surprise. She had seen skin in the Capitol that had been dyed different colors, but this looked to her like was almost her natural tone; the most naturally unnatural thing she's ever seen.
Her skin was deep green all over her body. Her hands were green, her arms were green. All of her was green. Everything except her hair, which was jet black and styled on the top of her head, like horns. Meridan is speechless.
"Well don't look too happy to see me," the woman drones sarcastically. Merida shakes her hair, snapping back into her right mind.
"I... Are you my stylist?"
Wow, dumbass. Why else would you he here? Couldn't have sounded more stupid, could you?
The woman raises a sharp eyebrow, her lips curling up into a smile.
"That I am." She examines Merida from head to toe and scrunches up her nose in what looks like disgust. "And you must be Muh-rih-da." She stresses the wrong syllable almost purposely. Merida frowns.
"It's Merida..." She corrects her, quietly. The woman doesn't seem to hear her.
"We should get started right away if we want to..." she pouts, "make progress." Merida frowns. "Don't frown Muh-rih-da, it's bad for your skin."
Like you would know! Yours is green!
But Merida bites her tongue and straitens up a bit. She decides not to correct the woman anymore. What good will it do? So the stylist will mispronounce her name. So what?
Merida is taken by surprise as the woman grabs the hem of her pants. She tugs at her sleeves and her torso roughly. Merida has to refrain from letting out squeaks of surprise each time she pulls at her.
"I think you'd look good in green..." She says under her breath. "Or maybe a nice blue to match your eyes..." Merida looks away, a bit embarrassed, although she isn't quite sure why. She just assumes that it's because she isn't used to people touching her and scrutinizing every move she makes.
"How do you feel about dresses?" Her stylist asks, looking her in the eyes, just a few inches from her face.
"Erm... I hardly ever wear them," Merida admits. "I'm most comfortable in riding pants and-"
"I think you'd look stunning in a dress!" She clasps her hand together in front of her chest, obviously oblivious to her tribute. Merida rolls her eyes.
"Oh joy," she mutters.
Her stylist pokes at her skin and makes some more noises before heaving a heavy sigh.
"You're so pale!" She exclaims. "Isn't District 10 a sunny place?" Merida shrugs.
"It is, but my skin is just naturally pale. I never get tan becau-"
"Maybe if we give you some caramel colored eyeshadow it will help."
It isn't surprising when she is cut off again by the shallow monologue being performed by her stylist.
Suddenly, Merida stiffens as the green woman snags a lock of her hair between her green fingers. She shudders. The woman makes a tsk noise and sighs.
"It's so unruly and...big," she jeers. "Maybe I should just cut it all off and give you a wig..." She taps a slender finger agains her chin thoughtfully. Merida jumps back, grabbing at her hair and glares.
"No!" She protests. The woman's eyes widen in surprise. "You can dress me up, you can put pounds of makeup on my face and you can interrupt me every time you feel like what you have to say is more important, but this is where I draw the line! You will not cut my hair!"
The woman looks stunned.
"I'm sorry, but do you know who you're speaking to?" She snaps. For the first time since she has arrived, Merida realizes that she, in fact, does not. "I am the one and only Maleficent, the Capitol's finest and most revered stylist." She places her hands on her hips. "If I say I want your hair chopped off, then honey, your hair gets chopped off." Merida narrows her eyes.
"If only that's how life worked." She growls, vehemently. "If only we could pick and chose what other people look like to fit our self-centered, self-absorbed agendas! God forbid someone wants to decide for themselves how they look without being judged by ignorant, bigots like you!"
Maleficent scoffs and turns away from her. The two of them are silent for what feels to Merida like hours, but finally, Mal sighs in defeat.
"The hair can stay," she announces, as though it had been her idea to begin with. "I think I can make it work if we put you in a nice blue dress..." She trails off, her speech becoming less audible as she glides her fingers along Merida's torso and waist, as though measuring her.
It is, as everything tended to be, uncomfortable, but Merida kept still.
"Prepare yourself dear," Maleficent says to her after a short time. "This is going to take longer than I had anticipated."
Author's Notes:
WOAH SORRY I'M LATE ON THIS CHAPTER! I dunno, I wrote the dream sequence rather quickly but then it all kind of went downhill from there. Also my Harry Potter Role Play group is making me emotional and so I've been neglecting my writing... Whoops.
Anyway...I WAS going to make this chapter the interviews also but I thought that would be too much and I'd have to squeeze it in which would rush things. I don't like to rush things. ((Although I have yet to determine how important these interview actually are...))
Hopefully the next chapter will be up by or before... Hmm let's say Saturday night? Yeah let's go with that...
