Chapter Five

Adam stayed out until three in the afternoon to take as many notes as possible of the area. He wanted to get more information about the city of Apfel, but he was wary of entering and the Queen finding out that he had yet to find out about any sort of information of her mistakes with Snow White. In the few hours he had been in the area he had learned the land, the resources, and even found a few good spots to camp should he ever be stuck in this Realm for a really long time.

Since this Realm was two hours behind the Anti-Disney Realm Adam decided to return to the castle for dinner and to gain more information about the Queen. It was rather odd how she had never truly spoken of what had happened with her and Snow White. Queen Grimhilde was a jealous, zealous, and truly vain Villain. He was not entirely sure of her age, but he definitely knew she was ancient. How else would she have survived for this long?

On certain occasions he found her sucking the youth from a foolish town girl in the Anti-Realm to try to regain some of her youth back. She only ever sucked youth from females, more than likely because of their chemical and physical makeup. The one and only time she ever tried to suck his own youth away had ended terribly and set her back about five hundred years. Adam always had to wear an extra layer of clothes, buttoned up high to the neck, no skin except for his face to ever be exposed. When the Evil Queen Grimhilde created him in her cauldron she literally made him from her poison apple recipe, which left him with a toxic skin that could never be touched by others. If his skin ever came into contact with humans, animals, insects, and even nature they would wither away, burn, melt, or die of suffocation depending on how intense his emotions were. He liked to live his life void of other human and species contact.

Climbing the mountain for the third time, he exited this Realm through the Door Between Realms and entered the Anti-World. As he arrived, the grandfather clock was dinging the hour of five o'clock. Varuo was curled up on the bench and peeked an eye open at him. "So you've finally returned?" he mumbled.

"So it would seem." Adam merely watched as the cat stretched with a yawn before dipping the tip of his tail to write down something.

"Dinner is at six." He yawned as he curled up in a ball now that he had finished his business with him.

Adam continued on his way and exited the room with the wardrobe. As he exited, the old butler from before stood outside the door, as if he was waiting for him.

"Master Adam'' he spoke in his wobbly voice. "You have returned. Do you need anything, sir?"

"Yes, actually." Adam nodded. "I need to go to the library to do a little research for my current mission. I have learned a lot today, but I am sorely missing a few pieces that I need to complete the mission."

"But of course, Master Adam," he gave a shaky smile and began to shuffle his feet into a walk. "Please follow me, Master Adam."

The man walked much faster than Adam had expected and was pleasantly surprised to see how close the library was. For as large as this castle was it seemed like all the doors moved around a lot; that or this place was more magical than he realized. The butler bowed politely having served his purpose, then disappeared when Adam blinked.

Upon entering the library he spotted Dalmatia sitting in a large fluffy chaise, ankles crossed as he looked through what looked like old fashion magazines. It was rather alarming at how silent this fool was for how loud he was and how long he had kept Adam up last night. He certainly liked to talk and it was rather difficult to shut him up once he got going. Adam walked past him quietly and, much to his surprise, he had gone completely unnoticed. Starting in the Storybook section he went to Row Q aisle, he started to look for the Evil Queen or even Queen Grimhilde.

Skimming the shelves, he quickly found the book that had all of the Queens in Disney and found Grimhilde, though with that said, there was little to tell about her. In summary he saw that she was a royal from the neighboring county who married the widower king and became the queen. She was full of youth and beauty, but her negative feelings of jealousy and vanity towards Snow White were the real reason as to why she became the ugly old hag that Adam came to know.

Odd, the Evil Queen never once mentioned being jealous of Snow White, only that the little brat had apparently stolen her youth and beauty and used it to turn everyone against her. . .

Adam placed the book back on its shelf and continued to search, but never truly found anything about the Evil Queen, or Queen Grimhilde. He frowned at the fact that there was little information on her. With a soft sigh he quietly stepped over to the Row S aisle and checked Snow White's profile. Other than her story and a nice profile written about her, there was little to no information given about her other than she was awakened from her spell with a kiss.

For a library of the Anti-World in the Castle there sure was quite a lack of information.

Adam frowned and placed the book back on the shelf and began to wander over to the history section when the butler from before stood in his path.

"It is time for dinner, Master Adam." He spoke in a whisper so low that Adam was surprised he even heard it despite how silent the library was. He only blinked and looked to the clock on the wall and saw that it was 5:50 pm. "This way, Master Adam," the man spoke and shuffled his way out of the library. With no choice, Adam merely followed the butler and rejoined the other Recruits for dinner in the main hall.

There was clattering of silverware on the plates, talking echoing around the room, obnoxious laughter in the air, and an excited buzz from his fellow Recruits. He sat in his seat across from Jane who was seriously ignoring any sort of conversation to be had to eat her meal. Mr. V and Ms. Scatter were discussing something in heated whispers and kept glaring then smiling at one another. Adam shook his head and found himself thankful that Jane was silent for her meal since the buffoon Jack beside him was ever so boisterous as he spoke around Malfie. Malfie was the poor fool who was caught in the middle of Jack and Dalmatia's conversation, though he didn't seem to mind since he kept staring at himself in his mirror. Adam picked at his food, it was quail and apples again; he hated quail. He could stomach the apples, but he hated the texture of the quail.

"How is the food, Adam?" Mr. V asked, almost as if he were avoiding more conversation with Ms. Scatter. Adam raised an eyebrow at this as he saw Ms. Scatter fume and her eyes turn red.

"It is fine," he pushed the quail around his plate. "The apples are delicious."

"Not a fan of quail?" he raised an eyebrow at him with a curious smile.

"Not particularly," He put his fork down. "No."

"Would you like anything else, then?"

"Not this evening," he shook his head. "I'd have to think about what I would rather have. Just preferably not quail."

"Very well then." He gave a shrug and looked at Ms. Scatter. "I'll have Ms. Scatter send you a menu list so you can choose what you would like or have a preference to."

"Thank you?" he raised his eyebrow as he watched Ms. Scatter scribbled something down on her clipboard.

"How did your mission go today, Adam?" Mr. V asked as he sipped his whiskey.

"I gained much field knowledge of the Realm of Apfel, however. . . I know nothing of the Evil Queen or Snow White."

"What's odd. . ." Mr. V's brows furrowed. "The Evil Queen didn't tell you what happened?"

"No," he shook his head. "She only ever spoke of her successes, never her failures."

"Ah, I see." He nodded and took another shot of whiskey.

"I tried looking in the library before dinner, but even then I discovered very little. Nothing at all really since I already knew of the information that was written." He frowned. "I can understand with the Evil Queen since she probably came from a more ancient time, however, it is rather odd with Snow White since she is a popular princess in the Disney world."

"You'll have to do more field work to discover the story then."

"Is the story not in the library?"

"Not currently, no." He put his hands on the table. "But none of y'all's stories are."

"What do you mean by that?" Jane glared up at Mr. V as he stood and began his walk around the table. What an odd habit of his. . .

"Exactly as I stated, Jane," he smirked rather nervously. "You see, part of the contract that your Original Villains signed was to tuck their stories away as well as the princesses, fashionistas, princes, and other protagonists."

"Why is that?" Jane demanded as she stood. "How else are we supposed to complete our missions of Happy Endings?!"

"That is the point there, Miss Jane," he smirked and she snarled at him. "The Happy Endings are to be for you Recruits, not the Villains. The Villains have each received their own second, third, and even fourth chances and have all screwed them up at different times. You each have had to pay for the penalties in your own way. Now I'm giving you your own chance to find your own Happy Ending. That being said. . ." He circled back to his seat and stood with his hands on his cane. "The stories had to be taken away so that you could all decide your own fate without any bias towards your Villains."

Silence spread around the room. Jane, being agitated already, snatched her bottle of rum and a glass and stormed out of the room. Mr. V made no motion to stop her and allowed her to leave the dining room.

"How much of this was truly in the contract?" Adam finally asked. "There is no way that the Villains would have so easily signed those contracts knowing that we could have our own Happy Endings."

"Oh contrary, monme," he chuckled. "There was no clause stating that they were the only ones having their Happy Ending. If you choose your own happiness over theirs, it is all the better for you because ultimately the Villains will have their own Happy Endings of sorts."

Adam's head began to ache with all this ridiculous nonsense. His head ever so carefully rested in his hand as he tried to process this. Too much was at stake, and despite the possibility of Adam having his own Happy Ending, just what exactly was that supposed to be? He had never once been allowed to think for himself and only did as commanded. Now that he was given a choice of what to do, he felt more lost than he ever had before. Just what was supposed to be his Happy Ending when nothing in this world made him happy? The Evil Queen had done everything in his life to ensure that he did not have any secret pleasures or enjoyment out of life. His only purpose was to serve her. . .


Author's Note:

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you're enjoying it so far!

Please leave me a review and let me know how I'm doing!

Thanks so much for coming along the journey with me!

Ko-fi/Sarahthewriter