Chapter 14: Delora's Inspiration

With the purple curtains shielding the guest room from any possible sunrays, Gothy could have easily slept in peace if the sounds of running water turning off didn't wake her. She groaned and sat up on the divan bed designed to resemble a Venus flytrap. Her groans worsened when she saw that the door connected the guest room to the nearest bathroom was wide open and she had to witness Crystal stepping out of the shower.

"Morning, Gorgeous." Crystal didn't even turn her head and casually grabbed a hand towel to rub herself dry.

"Really? Second night we spend in someone else's house and you still keep the bathroom door open?" Gothy forced the comfy blanket off her and forced her messy hair down.

"I'm sorry. Would you have preferred for me to continue watching you in your sleep and scare the living daylights out of you?" Crystal chuckled as she put on some pants. Gothy blushed when she realized that Crystal actually never put undergarments while dressing. No wonder she thought she hallucinated seeing too much flesh. To think Audrey manages to sleep easy while sharing a room with Beatrice, Gothy thought.

"Already set out your clothes for you." Crystal pointed at a pile of clothes that rested by the nightstand closet to Gothy's bed.

"OK, just what is your deal?" Gothy stomped both feet on the ground. "Are you expecting to gain something from trolling around and getting all… flirty with me?" Gothy shuddered as she struggled to say 'flirty'.

"No. I get flirty when I do one-night stands. I'm just trying to do my best effort in wooing." Crystal closed the bathroom door after putting on her last piece of clothing, a maze-patterned leather jacket that squeezed tightly around her waist.

"Wooing?" Gothy spat. "No, no, no, no! I got standards!"

Crystal's casual expression dropped. "Are you… being biased?"

"What? No?" Gothy shook her hands in defense. "I just… don't like being meaninglessly flirted with."

Crystal frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Gothy sighed and sat down on her bed again. "I've dealt with this too many times… I'm was very anti-social back on the Isle because of my family's problems and when I actually stepped out to be near other people, I suddenly got the treatment only my mother would appreciate! Guys and girls only flirting with me because I was pretty and as Mother Gothel's offspring, I'm 'supposed' to only value my looks!"

Crystal said nothing. She merely sat down next to Gothy and said nothing for the next six minutes until she finally found a topic. "Finding Cassandra to fill up the lack of family love isn't the only reason you left your old home, is it?"

Gothy shrugged. "She's probably the only family relative I can tolerate."

Crystal cupped her hand on Gothy's cheek and had her turn to stare at her. The latter could feel some… tingling sensation. "I know that look," Crystal said. "You abandoned your little brother."

Gothy recoiled from Crystal's hold. "H… How…"

"Goblin Princess, remember? My whole dad's story was about how some girl regretted wishing her baby half-brother away and his idea of wooing was to make her run his Labyrinth. Not to mention there were a lot of girls like her who didn't succeed the way she did… and they paid their price." Crystal put her hand down. "My best guess is that your mom had a notorious record for passing flings, you were the result of one of those flings and the paternal identity was never bothered to be revealed, and her last fling was the last straw for her."

Gothy gave a small nod. "Pretty close," she said, impressed.

"So who's the loser who gave your mom your half-brother?"

"Frollo."

It probably took Crystal ten minutes to break out of her petrified shock to get of her seat and walk to the bathroom. After finally flushing out her barfs, she walked back to her seat. "I'm sorry. This is revolting."

"Tell me about." Gothy rolled her eyes.

"Frollo? Your mother, Mother Gothel, had a fling with Judge Claude Frollo?" Crystal was still under shock.

"Accidental fling."

"Accidental… how do the most mentally abusive villains on the cheap side of the world have a one-night stand by accident?"

"Let's just say that when the Evil Queen throws a New Year's Eve party, you need to double-check her recipes for homemade beverages."

"Ouch… and they…"

"Never understood how they woke up the next day in the same bed in her house. They acted as if it never happened… and Mother Gothel realized she was expecting."

"And your half-sibling?"

"She immediately shoved him at Frollo's door 2 hours after she delivered him." Gothy sighed in exasperation. "Thank goodness her time of passing flings was terminated."

"I really hate to be condescending, Gorgeous, but I can't help but notice the hypocritical humor here. Am I to understand that you ditched one half-sibling just so you could find your other half-sibling?"

Gothy frowned. "There was nothing hypocritical. Charles and I spent our childhoods hating one another."

"How ironic. The kids of two mentally abusive villains, unable to connect," Crystal said sarcastically. "And yet, you managed to get along just fine with me and Pink Fingers?"

"It's different with you and Audrey. OK, you're a bit of a creep but you at least try to interact with me like a civilized person, and Audrey has mental delicacy that needs proper attention than her previous earnings. Charles and I, on the hand, always had something to hate about each other. He hated how our mother at least acted like I existed while I hated how he at least had an identifiable father figure beating around. I wanted to be left alone and nobody would give me space when I was in public, and when he stood out, people ran away from him like he was the Grim Reaper. People thought I was too vain and pretty to have a personality, and they thought he was a grey-haired gremlin with a massive brain. The one thing we probably have in common besides hating one another is that we carry the same dagger."

Crystal blinked. "Wow. Some family."

"Oh, it gets worse. His dad doubled on the hypocrisy. He had no idea that Mother Gothel originated from a group of gypsies that were all but exterminated by fanatics like him. Her extended vanity made her the sole survivor until my half-siblings and I came along. And nobody on the Isle of the Lost besides me and Gaston's son Gill are aware that the first time the Isle's barrier was breached… Charles was the only one who got an eruption of Roma magic."

"Shut up!" Crystal was shocked. "You got none of it while your half-sibling pretty much got magic under the nose of his paternal?"

"Believe me, I tried until the barrier was closed and when I first got to Auradon." Gothy shook her head. "It doesn't matter. We're leading separate lives right now. By now, Charles must be ecstatic about using magic as he pleases and moving out of the Isle."

Later

The Deetz family had a generally manageable lifestyle in their house when it came to chores. With the pickiness the Ghost With The Most and the hybrid had about hygiene, Lydia was the one who cleaned the house up and down, from the filthiest cobweb hanging on the ceiling to the termites hiding behind the furniture. With the distaste the two women in the house had of contributing to gender stereotypes, Beetlejuice was the one who cooked every single meal. With the agreement that she wouldn't prank her own parents, Beatrice was responsible for double-checking the efficiency behind every single booby trap in the house.

The family was outright creepy and kooky, but Audrey really enjoyed her second day as a guest there. The moment Beatrice's parents had gladly accepted hosting the guests until Beatrice could work out her prank-free agreement with her friend, the hybrid had insisted for Audrey to sleep with her in Beatrice's room. It did shock the others that despite the room's mess and Beatrice being the loudest snorer in Macabretown, Audrey slept with ease. And while Beetlejuice was capable of cooking both human and ghostly food, Audrey found out she actually liked his scarab pancakes.

Lydia had Crystal and Gothy pose as cameos for her reality show due to two background actors calling in sick. Beetlejuice gave his daughter and Audrey a ride in Doomie, his sentient car (once again, the Bloody Bambi distanced himself a bit). Barely a few minutes after pulling Doomie out of the garage, Beetlejuice turned on the radio station for only five minutes to quickly listen the rapid news of USA-FM.

"Up next at 8:30am on USA-FM, your international radio station for the United States of Anarchy. If you live in the northwest areas by the shores of the northern seas, start panic shopping! It's that annual time of year when zombie viruses have those bar fights that remind you just how fucked up humanity really is! And don't cross paths with Jombiui Changjoja, he's been making contaminations no different than World War Z!

"For towns living around Macabretown, keep enjoying the remains of the Fall Festival while you still can! And remember to send tributes for Willywaffle Wonka, his father said that he'll need them for an EPIC trip he's heading to this weekend towards the Troll Lands! And now might be a right time to go Halloween shopping! I heard Beatrice Deetz has been prank-free for two days, it's so creepy!"

"Hey, Dad!" Beatrice grinned. "I'm on the morning news!"

"International morning news!" Beetlejuice grinned as he continued driving.

"Off in the east, things are getting both hot and cold! Hot side, we've heard just last night that head honcho heirs of Villainapolis and Gotham City have finally left for their 6-month long honeymoon! I heard it's so long because one mother-in-law REALLY wants grandkids by next year! Cold side, we heard of a blizzard in the Seussian Lands that really messed up the main train line. If you're intention was to go there on the main line, you're going to need at least three different trains on the secondary lines to get there from the west! Advertisement is on the way soon! Don't forget that this network is sponsored by Lady De Mort herself!"

"Dang it!" Beatrice groaned when her father turned off the radio station. "I hoped we'd take the main line from the Troll Lands to the Seussian Lands!"

"Well when you put it into that perspective, my Sugar Beetle, it's probably safer to constantly transfer trains," Beetlejuice pointed out. "You know this time of year is particularly tricky in the east."

"Why's that?" Audrey asked from the back seat.

"The east is where the biggest cities are, remember?" Beatrice turned on her seat to look at Audrey who was sitting behind her. "Compared to Macabretown, the cities in the east are bigger, larger, are very… open about their competitive nature. Things go wild. It's basically paradise for thrill-seekers, hedonists, and gang leaders in turf wars."

"Humanity is the purgatory before the actual purgatory," Beetlejuice nodded and bit his lip in frustration. "The other side is suffocating in rules and prejudice. Here, in the United States of Anarchy, the only real authorities are the individuals who have more influence and power than anyone else to govern turfs, counties, districts, businesses, and even label the trash cans that belong in their domains."

"Villainapolis…" Audrey pondered. "It sounds almost like the Isle of the Lost…"

"I think the name was mostly used for marketing." The ghost with the most shrugged. "Many supervillains have established dominance over the city's territories, but they're generally open-minded about the antiheroes and superheroes who either live there or commute between Villainapolis and New Heroes."

Audrey scoffed. "New Heroes? The town's name sounds an awful lot like someone's bad idea to promote a shampoo!"

Beetlejuice sighed and shook his head. "And to think a former supervillain had standards when he tried to sell his own brainwashing shampoo." He made a turn and parked by the Musical Academy of the Corpse Bride, where the girls got off. "Now remember, Sugar Beetle. Have fun, but keep listening to your mom. No pranks all day!"

"My lack of pranks is giving everyone bigger chills than being trapped in a sandbox full of sandworms, they'll be begging me to resume my antics!" Beatrice boasted.

"Aw. My Sugar Beetle is growing up so fast!" The mayor gave his daughter a quick kiss on the cheeks before driving off to work. After his car disappeared at the next right turn, Audrey and Beatrice walked up to the front door of the Musical Academy, the building itself bearing the appearance of an abandoned church that underwent a massive amount of boarding and painting to cover all the holes on the roof and the broken stained glass windows. One of the board patches covering a window had a painted illustration of an angel made out of tears falling from heaven and the words 'TEARS TO SHED FROM HEAVEN' were spray-painted over the painted depiction of Heaven.

They didn't even have to knock. Delora Cadavrariée, the daughter of the Corpse Bride, immediately opened the door. "Great, you're here!" She clapped her hands before dragging them inside. The interior of the church had been altered so that the mass hall was now a cobweb-designed theater and the benches meant for the audience were gray and cushioned to resemble tombstones. The stage curtains were night blue with butterfly patterns and the walls were plastered with promotional posters of what Audrey imagined were probably posters of the diverse productions at the academy.

"I'm so glad you could come here before you have to leave Macabretown!" Delora clapped her hands and spiders came down with cups bearing blood orange soda. "I'd be bummed if I couldn't get inspirations from Audrey herself before we can finally produce the musical about her."
Audrey chuckled nervously as she drank. "Still not sure why you wanted to write a musical about me."

"Girl, she does it for anyone she meets!" Beatrice rolled her eyes. "We had productions like Beetlejuice and Lydia: The Untold Romance, Lecter Cooking In The Rain, The Heir and the Troll…"

"Oh! The Heir and the Troll is among the most romantic musicals I ever got to direct, produce, and compose!" Delora sighed dreamily.

"And I can still never put my finger on how you didn't get a single controversy for Red Sheets' Resistance!"

"Please, The Four Bratty Kids' Kids, or TBKK, was definitely the worst play!" Delora gagged. "And those idiots ask me why I never reproduced the play on DVD!" Delora threw away all their cups before they could even finish and pushed Audrey up on the stage. "But you're new, Audrey! You scream novelty that Macabretown and the rest of the anarchists out there have yet to discover! I want you to tell me things about you, your old life, your dreams, and most importantly, your love life!"

Audrey groaned. To think that of all the times she didn't have to think about her problems back in Auradon anymore, she still felt pain at the idea of recalling her failed relationships.

Inside her heart, Audrey felt rising levels of despondency, a word which here means 'she really did not want to think about her ex-boyfriends, her old rivals, and the new hidden figure trying to slither his way into her life.'

"What was that?" Audrey turned her head around. "Delora, do the walls talk or is it just me?"

"Nah, it's just Lenny," Beatrice said as she pointed her thumb at the seat next to the one she was sitting at. The girls (except Delora) had been unaware of when a dark-haired boy dressed in gray had shown up in the theater with his typewriter. "The son of Lemony Snicket."

"My scriptwriter and novelization author." Delora snapped her fingers at Lenny. "Keep writing as we go, Lenny. I want to create a new production to release before any Demonic Contract Ceremony occurs any time soon!" Delora went back to Audrey. "Don't be surprised with my acting, I improvise as I learn. Let's see… if you could describe your old family in two words, what would it be?"

"Uh…" Audrey thought about it. "Wealthy… and demanding?"

"Got it." To Audrey's startle, Delora dropped on her knees, tightly clutched onto Audrey's legs, and cried. "WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME? YOU SUFFOCATE ME WITH YOUR EXPECTATIONS! IS IT SO HARD FOR YOU TO ACCEPT ME FOR WHO I AM?" Delora spun herself off her knees and faced a blue spotlight. "THE PRESSURES OF BEING AN ARISTOCRAT! IS IT SO HARD FOR MY PARENTS, MY SERVANTS, OR EVEN THE STABLE HORSES, THAT I CRAVE FOR ADVENTURE? DO THEY NOT HEAR HOW MY HEART ACHES, LONGING TO TRULY MOVE ON, BE MYSELF, AND BE WITH THE ONE RIGHTFULLY MEANT FOR ME NO MATTER HOW HE SOILS HIS IN-LAWS?" Delora took a deep breath and straightened herself as the spotlight turned off.

"Wow" was all Audrey could say.

"You got this, Lenny?" Delora asked.

Audrey was an aristocratic girl whose family was very abusive, a word which here means 'they made her miserable because they forced their society's pressures onto her without considering her opinion.

"OK, seriously, why am I hearing this echo over the walls but I don't see him talk?" Audrey exclaimed.

"Unreliable narrating." Beatrice shrugged. She snapped her fingers and a can of worms appeared on her laps.

"OK. Next part." Delora used her bony finger to lift Audrey's chin so human eyes could meet semi-corpse eyes. "In few sentences, describe why you broke up with your ex-boyfriends."

Audrey gulped. "Well… My first boyfriend dumped me after another girl used a love spell on him, they still loved each other even after she removed the spell, I had to witness him proposing to her, and I got brainwashed into evil until they saved me. My second boyfriend was just for rebound and I saw how useless he was to the point that I locked him in a closet. Overall, I dated these guys specifically because my family told me I had to be with someone of my rank."

Delora had a sad expression plastered on her face and gently hugged Audrey. "I'm sorry. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for…" Delora paused, stared one more time at Audrey, and backed up to squeal and dance. "Oh my bones! You summoned a demon!"

"WHAT?" Audrey shook her head. "I would never!"

"It's Macabretown," Lenny said quietly. "Summoning a demon is like riding a bike on every Tuesday for us."

"I need DETAILS!" Delora shook Audrey. "Who's the demon? What's his function? How did you meet? What is your contract… OH MY BONES! You're from the other side of the mist, so you never had a Demonic Contract Ceremony! I could present the musical about you at your Demonic Contract Ceremony! When is your Demonic Contract Ceremony?"

"Uh… Beatrice, help me out?" Audrey pleaded.

"The DCC is the public version of the deal with the devil in Macabretown." Beatrice stuffed her mouth with worms before continuing to talk. "The contract terms are agreed on privately between the demon and the mortal client and the DCC is when they shake on it in front of a bunch of people, the Fallen Angel himself binds the contract as unbreakable, we feast, we drink, we dance, and we move on to the next festival."

"It's like a demonic wedding, except your validating your contract and not getting hitched!" Delora continued to pace in excitement. "We should totally have Mrs. Deetz organize the ceremony! The first Demonic Contract Ceremony was actually her second attempt at marrying Beetlejuice!"

"I will not have some stupid ceremony with a demon I barely know!" Audrey snapped as she felt the anger boil.

"Barely… know?" Delora exchanged a nervous look with Beatrice. "Oh my bones, you still haven't signed a contract with your demon?"

"Obviously."

"Audrey, that's terrible!" Beatrice feigned horror that the others bought so well. "Everybody knows that mortals who summon demons are obliged to create contracts with them! Otherwise, the mortals' souls will be damned to Hell upon death and forced to serve the demons they have failed to diplomatically negotiate with!"

Audrey felt her body paralyze. "He never told me that part… He didn't get into the details of the contract! He just kept talking about how I need him and that I was better as the Queen of Mean!"

"Well the supernatural isn't know to give humanity the simplest effortlessness, a word which here means 'what would be the point of life itself if everything was simple'." Lenny continued talking physically while typing on his typewriter at the same time. His comment made Audrey pause because he was right. What would be the point of life itself if everything was simple? If everything had been so simple, would she have never changed the course of her life and wound up in some marriage with a prince that she wasn't sure she cared for but still went with it because her family had told her so? If everything had been so simple, would she have continued to hate Mal? If everything were so simple, would she have remained as the Queen of the Mean? No wonder the demon's words now implied that if things had been so simple, she'd have practically begged for his help to rid her of her desolate isolation. What can I say? I prefer shrews over wrenches. His last words echoed in her head.

"Oh, he's good." Audrey bit her lip and sat down on the boarded stage, with Delora imitating her.

"What?" The semi-corpse asked.

"The demon. Look, promise none of you will say anything to Gothy and Crystal, but I've only spoken to the demon in my nightmares."

"How many times?"

"Two. The first time was after Gothy and I crossed the mist… after I got bit by a Corona bloodhound, and the second time was when Crystal had us sleep over at her place… after we crossed the portal to the Underground and my hair got, well…" Audrey tugged on the braided ponytail Gothy had helped her with this morning. Even after a week of getting dirty, washing, and brushing her hair, the glitter still wouldn't come off.

"And when did you summon him?"

"Last month."

Both Beatrice and Lenny whistled. "WOW," Delora was shocked. "That demon of yours must have some massive patience. You realize that a human month is the equivalent of two years and a half in Hell?"

"You think I had a manual when I randomly burst into song notifying me that bursting into a musical could summon ad demon?" Audrey raised her hands in exasperation.

"Oh, it will be fine. Beatrice tossed her empty can into a trashcan across the room. "You just take your time in figuring out ideas for terms."

"Gee, like what?" Audrey frowned.

"Maybe not the clichéd, over-used 14th century junk?" Lenny kept staring at his typewriter.

"Don't go for stuff like 'I want power,' 'I want you to make this person love me', 'I want to be a millionaire', 'I want to destroy my enemies…'" Beatrice listed.

" 'I want you to revive my loved one from the grave', 'I want to win all the next lotteries'…" Delora joined in.

"I want to be a famous author who writes children's literature with depressing themes about adults' uselessness, society's corruption, and the anguishing misfortune of orphans pursued by villains seeking to steal their fortune," Lenny added.

"OK, I need you to stop imitating your dad. You're creeping me out." Beatrice snapped her fingers and Lenny's typewriter grew legs so it could jump off its own and lead Lenny into a wild chase out of the theater.

A massive grin appeared on Delora. "I can see it now. My next musical masterpiece. I'll call it My Fallen Angel!"

"What?" Audrey didn't say that because of the title but because of how Delora quickly went back to using her as inspiration for her next ticket-seller. The blue spotlight appeared again on Delora, only this time the spiders hanging on the ceiling were dropping glitter.

"A story about a young duchess… It seems like her life is ripped off from any fairytale… The basic maiden with beauty above earth that her family wants to control while she wants to have her own adventure… Underneath her mansion's house is a domain between Earth and Hell where a demon resides, a demon she unknowingly summoned in a time of desperation and in need of guidance! Before they can create a contract, he viciously murders the duchess's suitors, one a cheater and one a gold digger, and goes into a serial killing spree where there's no man left in the kingdom to ask for her hand in marriage! Her parents think she's cursed, so they send her to be cleansed in a convent, but the demon whisks her away to his domain, and while doing so, he sees that her beauty… can only be compared to that of a fallen angel on its way down from Heaven! She is like a shooting star from outer space, the golden rain of Zeus that seduced Danae, the rain of fire that plagued Egypt, the sparks that come after the fireworks explode… He is instantly smitten! He begs to create a contract with her, he is ready to pour all his sinful love for her, such a damned beauty! But her useless teachings force her to reject any attempts to deal with this devil! The years go on, and she ages into an old maid, and the demon is so shattered by her renouncing him that he lets himself get stabbed in the heart by a silver dagger and he spends his last minutes crying about how they could have spent eternity loving one another! As he fades away, she dies as well, and their ashes disappear. End scene!" The spotlight turned off and Delora looked at Beatrice and Audrey with excitement while the latter were both speechless. "So what do you think?"

"Um… besides the fact that it looks like a massive hybrid of Victor Hugo's tragic masterpieces, the Phantom of the Opera, ancient mythology, and the typical Shakespeare romance sap? You could actually get this musical translated into 666 different languages and Audrey's demon would never let you present this play in any decent theater in Hell," Beatrice said.

Delora scoffed and crossed her arms. "Oh, the tears that misunderstood artists shed!"

Minutes later

It took ten minutes of teatime for Delora to thank them for coming and to promise Audrey great tribute should My Fallen Angel become a success. The sun was beginning to set over Macabretown.

"Let's head back to my house," Beatrice sighed.

"Isn't Macabretown doing another night of the Fall Festival?" Audrey asked. They stopped by the traffic light and waited as the pedestrian light was still red. Amusingly, the red pedestrian light kept flashing pictograms of someone smashing a sandworm.

"What's the point of going to the festival I attend every year if you're not even going to come tonight?" Beatrice shot a glance at Audrey. "I know you don't plan on going. You probably don't want to think about the stuff Delora and I said."

Audrey took a deep breath and spoke calmly. "Look, I agree that I… didn't take the whole summoning by accident well. I haven't thought much about it since he and I lost touch during the past week, but you and Delora made it clear that I can't just dodge. So… I'm just going to have to toughen up and be prepared if I finally encounter him. It's not going to be easy and I could be doomed for life, but I'll work on it. If I wanted to chicken out, I should have just stayed back in Auradon. Besides…" Audrey surprised Beatrice with a hug. "For a goofball, you definitely show you care. I know that in your own twisted way, you got my back."

If Audrey hadn't been so happy and confident in her hug, she would have noticed that Beatrice wasn't smiling. For someone who adored chaos, guilt was not something she liked to feel, especially when she knew things that Audrey didn't.

"Um, Audrey?" Beatrice hesitated as Audrey gave her space. "I don't know how to say this, but…"

Just as the red light turned to green, Beatrice landed on the road after Bexley Beauregarde had snuck and punched her on the face.