Author Notes: Hello, my loyal followers and friends! As per the original idea spawned from the incredibly sweet and creative LELE426 written out in the last chapter and the incredibly generous request of THE POWER OF PEGGY! post said chapter, this incredible mini-series has become a threeshot focusing on each of the Schuyler Sisters in this twisted, angsty and hopefully positively-ending threeshot!
Thank you both so, so much for allowing me to continue exploring these characters and world build, and I hope the over two week waiting period will have proved to be well worth. Keep an eye out for the last installment of the 'Dancing Girls' threeshot, and then be prepared to await the release of more fics, both from Lele426's requests, an older request I haven't had the momentum to write for (my deepest apologies), and my own ideas!
The Dancing Sisters Fairytale AU, Pt. 2: The Dancing Curse
If you were to ask any residence of the Schuyler's kingdom what life had been like post the sudden and tragic loss of their beloved princess Angelica, they'd describe to you that of mourning, constant high strung emotion, seclusion and horror. No more true was it for the remaining children of the king and queen, all of which had been sealed up tightly within the walls of their massive mansion with only a select few coming in and even less ever venturing out. Any man, woman or child who dared disobey the extensive, mysterious deadlines would be slain on sight, so the halls and rooms previously lit with constantly activity and residents of all classes and kingdoms grew cold and hollow.
Of course, the most prominent people in the entire country still had only so much power, and after ten long months ten year old John and seven year old Phillip Jeremiah fled their home and had never been again, and only their remaining two older sisters had any clue that they were alive and safe within the home of their beloved Aunt Gertrude since the call of freedom was too strong for them to resist. In the three months preceding their sons' outright rebellious fleeing, all face to face contact with the kingdom was halted save for the massive spike in royal guard staff members and increase in technological advances that ensured nobody would have any reason to appear before the royal family.
Quite frankly, it was past the point of being on Peggy's last nerve, so the courtship request coming from across the sea that would set her and her beloved Eliza free had her counting the minutes until the trip.
"Do make it to the islands, my girls," Phillip Schuyler, a once bright and opinionated man softened by sorrow, commanded to his remaining eldest daughters. "Should you catch word of what may have come of Angelica through these months from those who travel further…You know what to do."
"Do not get your hopes, darling," Catherine Schuyler, a once kind and simple woman hardened cruelly by sorrow, replied to her husband before looking to her eldest duo. "See to it you arrive alive at any cost. Others' lives are expendable compared to yours."
"What a horrendous thing to say!" Eliza exclaimed at once, but nevertheless they shared tight hugs and kisses of farewell with their drastically reduced family members before boarding the ship to see them all the way to the Caribbean Islands.
As the vessel sailed toward the stretching horizon, Peggy took special time in inhaling and exhaling the now unfamiliar, yet home-marked, scents of their home. Though it may have been her prison for thirteen, nearly fourteen months, she would miss it until her next visit despite the internal knowledge her only connections would be through letters until she was twenty one and one hundred percent free from her parents' jurisdiction. Sentiments aside, she was no follower and not one to play complacently like her older sisters, and there was not a chance she'd let out slack enough to be yanked back under anyone's control now that she finally had her complete freedom.
"Tell me more about this pen pal of yours, dear sister!" Eliza exclaimed once their kingdom was long behind them across the ocean. "The things you tell our parents are bland to say the least, so please indulge me in the real story."
"Oh God, you're still talking royal!" The seventeen year old groaned immediately while playfully covering her mouth. "I will tell you nothing until you get out of that toxic mindset!"
"It's hardly toxic!" The eighteen year old replied through playful laughter, and at once the two commenced into childlike back-and-forth and chase that she hadn't been able to do for so many years, not since their mother decided they were 'too old for nursery activities'.
They were at sea for almost six complete days before they finally learned the truth about what happened to their beloved oldest sister. It had been her that woke up first, lured awake by the strange singing coming from beyond their spacious cabin walls, and she'd woken up her Betsey before adventuring out to find who was singing in the absolute black of night. Together the two teenagers held hands and huddled together against the whipping wind on the ship deck, and when Peggy caught sight of the seemingly drunk sailor preparing to leap off over the railing, she couldn't even feel her legs underneath her as she rushed to him and pulled him back to safety with reckless abandon.
"H-huh?!" The sailor's eyes were wide and terrified as he looked her in her eyes. "Wh…what are you doing out here at such an hour, Miss? You ought to be safe and warm in your bed by now!"
"And what in the hell were you doing about to go sailing off into the waters?!" She demanded fiercely while helping the clearly shaken gentleman to his feet. "And who was singing-?!"
Before he could reply, another song started up from somewhere in the pitch blackness of night. It sounded beautiful, she supposed, but in a haunting, disturbing way; the notes were all too wild to put a familiar set of words to, and the pitches were too wildly fluctuating for her to relax. She was just looking over to her sibling when she realized that she was dancing along to the tone in a ritualistic-appearing way, her eyes now just as far away as the young sailor's had appeared before.
"Eliza?!" She demanded sharply as she rose to her feet. "What in the hell are you doing?! Elizabeth! Elizabeth Schuyler!"
It seemed her slightly older sister couldn't hear her, or maybe she simply did not care, but she was swaying dangerously back and forth and all around the top of the deck now. All the seventeen year old could do was hope the (admittedly handsome) sailor would be fine as she chased after her sibling, bare feet feeling frozen against the salty, frigid boards below. Every time she got a proper grip on her, the other would dance away with elated laughter rising from her, the kind that seemed terribly inappropriate in the risqué situation.
"ELIZABETH!" Peggy screeched desperately as her beloved elder sister began to climb up and sit over the unstable, soaked railing. "ELIZABETH NO!"
She knew well what was going on now; her only remaining older sibling was being seduced by the group of sirens that were rumored to live around these parts. Regardless, she held on tightly to the last piece of family she still had and planted her feet as firmly as she could to prevent her from falling, and though it wasn't much she deeply appreciated the young sailor she'd managed to save grabbing onto her to assist. It was only a matter of long, tense and desperate members before her Eliza's body relaxed entirely and she was free-falling forward, and Margarita let out an anguished scream as she desperately caught one slippery wrist.
It was only for a moment, but the enchantment broke for just a moment. Elizabeth was staring up at her desperately, screaming and crying as she took in her treacherous surroundings, and then the ship lurched hard and she was swallowed up by the entirety of the water. The youngest Schuyler sister barely had time to let out a desperate shriek before the sailor leapt over the edge, two life buoys over each shoulder, after the now undoubtedly lost young woman.
"Look around, look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now~" A singing voice that was unmistakably identical to her lost eldest sister sang out warmly. "Look around, look around~"
"How dare you! You've taken all I had left and now you mock me?!" Peggy howled at the top of her lungs, gripping the rails long enough to get a good scowl toward the unknown. "You all ought to be slain for your crimes! May you be eaten alive and burned at the stake so you feel every lick of the flame, you fucking bastards!"
The winds picked up speed immediately, no doubt controlled by something more powerful than she could try to comprehend, and the storm-esque waves began violently tossing her back and forth so much she had to hang on as tightly as possible to what she currently had to avoid being flung off like a fly on a person. With all the strength she could muster, she made a mad dash beyond the door she exited from in the few seconds of regular ocean activity before slamming it shut and desperately spreading against the doorframe to avoid her supernatural murder. This all persisted for what felt like hours before everything abruptly stopped, and when she finally summoned the courage to look out of the small port window, she was absolutely shocked to see her eldest sister, very much alive, sitting on the level flooring of the deck with her eyes half-lidded and content.
"Ang…Angelica?" The youngest of the former trio called waterily as she ventured open the door, likely against her better judgement. "Is…is that really you?"
"It is I, my little Peggy," Angelica replied with a warm smile. "I have missed you and Betsey so terribly."
Peggy immediately ran into her arms and collapsed into exhausted sobs of relief, of anger, of confusion and resurfaced grief. For the time she was securely in her sister's familiar arms, she could hardly care if this was a trick or genuine; she had her back for long to say goodbye, and if this meant her death, this was alright way to go. Much to her surprise and intense relief, however, she was not consumed by this immaculate replica of her lost Irish triplet, or even brutally handled. Instead, she was kissed tenderly on the forehead and was pulled back just enough to look into her sister's eyes, which were a warm amber and practically glowing with radiant life.
"Where have you been all this time?" The seventeen year old whispered hoarsely. "Everyone was convinced you were long dead, eaten by the ocean and drowned not so long ago."
Much to her surprise, the now nineteen year old laughed fondly and sat back; it was only then the youngest realized with a stark feeling of dread that her beautiful legs were now replaced with a stunning pastel pink tail. "You see, Tommy here…well, he made me truly happy! He even let me pick out my own tail, you see?"
"I-I do see," she replied in a tone that she forced to be content for her now undoubtedly cursed sister's sake. "And…and do you know what happened to Eliza?"
Once again, Angelica simply giggled and gestured over to her side. "Tommy spared her and her man because I told him too, of course! She should be done choosing her tail soon, and then we can all catch up!"
As promised, it was mere minutes that felt like lifetimes passing before a tall, dark-skinned man with seashell decorated hair and little coverage for clothes appeared with two shorter figures behind him. He walked confidently, easily scooping her sister into his arms and making her giggle helplessly before he met her gaze just long enough to make her pointedly look to his 'guests'. The sailor from before, a young man was olive skin and beautiful blue eyes, was now a deadly sort of beautiful with his mouth much more plump and large to accommodate for the new way of undoubted siren life he'd now partake in. Wrapped around his arm was her Eliza, whose brown eyes were wide and sad as she held fast to the man- siren- she'd now evidently been committed to her. Unlike Angelica, however, her legs were simply a scaly pastel blue adorned with a few clear scales, one that made her shimmer in the breaking of the dawn despite her resigned posture.
"I'm sure we could include you in on the family reunion," the man holding her eldest sister purred in a thick Southern drawl. "What do you say, little girl? Look around, look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now~"
In bone-chilling harmony, her sisters immediately echoed his refrain. "Look around, look around~"
This was wrong, and she did not have to be told twice. She was once again being forced beneath waves and nature-strength forces to conform, sit still, live a life of complacency and obedience, and she couldn't bring herself to do it. It was very, very clear that their beloved Angie was too far gone to ever hope of bringing back home, but Eliza wasn't; she was sad, she was afraid, she was still alive beneath the façade. She was about to protest and tell this siren what he could do his hands lingering all over her sibling's body, but meeting her Betsey's resolute gaze made her think twice.
Go, Eliza's voice echoed softly within her head with shocking clarity. Be free. Be all that we cannot, and I will learn to be happy among them. Should the time come, I promise that Alexander, God willing Angelica, and I will find you. You must go now or he shall never relent. I love you.
"I…" Peggy's words felt disconnected from her body, which quaked with suffering too terrible to name and felt as broken as her family members looked. "I love you both. Goodbye."
As she rushed back into her cabin and collapsed in a sorrow so terrible she couldn't make a sound, she blocked out the sound of the ship's help being lured to their gruesome deaths. When she reached the Caribbean, she allowed her long-term pen pal, one Mister John Laurens, to court her but not marry her for three years before finally determine she could wait no longer to wed the absolute love her life. When she became pregnant with their first child and they resided in their little vacation condo right by the sea, she spent her joyful days constantly tainted with the sadness of all she'd endured before for her lost sisters.
Above all of joys and sorrows of being Mrs. Laurens and the rebellious rock that somehow kept the living Schuylers somewhat together, Peggy waited for Eliza to fulfill her last promise.