Chapter 15: Diverging Redemption (Roof Version)

Audrey had witnessed a lot of things back in Auradon that had brought pain and suffering, but never in her life had she seen somebody get punched on the face. She had seen people who got assaulted while already being jerks to the point that she actually came to agree that Chad Charming deserved to get sprayed on the face by Evie, but she never imagined seeing a decent person like Beatrice getting randomly punched by one of the Four Bratty Kids in a public street. Audrey wasn't happy with the site, especially when she saw Beatrice pulling herself off the ground only to get more punches, this time from Augusta Gloop and N Tina Teevee.

"What is wrong with you?" Audrey tried to pull them off Beatrice but she only managed to push away Augusta. "Leave her alone!"

"Spare your useless magic on someone else." Vincent Salt made his way past her and through his friends who made room for him to face Beatrice. Her face didn't have an inch without purple hues. "I just had enough about the traumatic pranks you threw on me, Deetz!"

"And us!" Augusta pointed out.

"SHUT UP!" Vincent snapped at her as if he were the world's main priority.

"Aw, what's the matter?" Despite her bruised face, Beatrice managed to crack a grin. "Your mommy didn't have enough money to buy you a new ferret coat? Oh, I forgot! Wasn't she mobbed last week by environmentalist hippies?"

"You'll stop laughing when your undead bones are finally crumbled to dust!" Vincent cracked his knuckles. "Those latest pranks of yours specifically targeting me and these three? Talk about ruining our lives! I don't care what's your latest idea of sadistic entertainment is lately, but by the time we're through, you'll be the one who's too traumatized!"

"Don't!" Audrey put herself between Beatrice and Vincent the moment she saw the Bratty Kid roll up his fancy sleeves. "She didn't pull those traumatizing pranks on you! I did! Why are you bullying her for it anyway when she hasn't pulled a prank herself in three days?"

"Uh, uh, you're cute but you're still a newbie in Macabretown." N Tina forced Audrey aside. "We may be the Four Bratty Kids of the Bratty Kids, but we aren't total idiots!"

"Everyone knows that Deetz is capable of cheating at a chess game without snapping her fingers," Vincent said. "If she's not the one summoning physical pranks that defy the laws of reality, it's because she manipulated someone else into doing it. I figured out that there was no way a foreigner would prank great people like us without being influenced by a toxic being like that hybrid!" He pointed a finger at Beatrice who, to Audrey's surprise, did not hide with a smile her hurt expression.

"Well then why don't you guys hit me as well? I took part in her pranks, so I'm responsible!" Audrey insisted.

"Hey, I wanted to, but my mom says that doing so would label me as xenophobic!" Bexley raised his hand in defense. "And Vincent doesn't want to get a bad reputation."

Audrey scoffed in disgust. "Bad reputation? I had every reason to go along with it and you guys are jerks!" Audrey pulled herself off N Tina's grip and pointed at her. "You are a know-it-all techno geek who can't even bother to look up social chat rooms and online dating and you let Vincent take all the credit!" She then pointed at Augusta. "You eat ridiculous amount of fats and sugar, I don't even understand why you're still so thin unless you underwent surgery because peer pressure made you think you needed an hourglass figure!"

Augusta rubbed her stomach in embarrassment.

"You are obnoxious and hypocritical!" Audrey then pointed at Bexley. "You claim to be a momma's boy, and yet you still won't tell her about that long-distance boyfriend of yours!"

Bexley rubbed the back of his hair in embarrassment. "She's competitive and conservative…"

"Stupidity and dignity, make up your mind! And you…" The moment Audrey pointed at Vincent Salt, his so-called friends ran to hide behind a bench across the street as if to shield themselves from a hurricane of angry raccoons. "You wear a landfill that might as well be the last garbage on Earth that even Cruella De Vil herself wouldn't wear and your hideousness in and out actually make my second ex-boyfriend look sympathetic!"

Very few people can detect when they've pushed somebody's button, and the ones who usually don't detect are either oblivious or egotistical. For the smart people who manage to see the signs such as a twitching eye, nails scratching, steaming nostrils, or even growling, know they are in a world of trouble. The Macabretown natives who had the misfortune of being present, however, knew that trouble was rising when they saw Vincent toss off his fur coat and not even caring that it landed into a pile of mud. Even the nearest black cat decided that now was not the best day to cross someone's path and ran its way back to its cat lady.

"Oh shit…" Beatrice cussed.

"VINCENT'S ANGRY! VINCENT'S ANGRY! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!" Augusta hugged N Tina tightly.

The next minutes were outright chaos. Vincent charged at Audrey and pinned her to the ground, but she folded her legs, kicked him away, and jumped back up. He managed to throw a punch on her cheek and she retaliated by holding on to a lamppost and performing a somersault on him. Vincent's collision caused two innocent newspaper stands to be crushed and further crushed when he threw one of them at Audrey. Keep in note that Audrey didn't use any magic at all in this exchange of brute force. Singlehandedly, she had engaged in her first physical fight and it was against a mere mortal whose personality was far worse than her older one.

Vincent's 'friends' ran up the nearest fire escape to avoid Audrey as she ripped off the bolted bench from the sidewalk and threw it at Vincent before the latter went on to throw rocks at her. Beatrice, for her part, stood as far possible as she could without missing the show. She still couldn't believe that Audrey stood up for her against the brats and was singlehandedly putting the gang's leader back in his place… when deep down, Beatrice knew she deserved that punch.

"ENOUGH!"

Before Vincent could get the chance to attempt another attack, he received a cane whack on the stomach and fell on the ground. The moment he turned to lie on his back, the tip of the cane met his neck and threatened to push in. Horrified hatred took over him when he saw the twenty-two-years-old chocolate haired, pale skinned man dressed in a magenta trench coat with blue epaulettes, candy cane striped pants, and brown shoes.

"Not a pleasure to see that calorie-provoking face of yours, Wonka…" Vincent choked in spite.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR SPOILED CHILD OPINIONS!" Willywaffle Wonka shouted at the top of his lungs, scaring Vincent Salt to cower in fright and for Bexley, Augusta, and N Tina to fall down the fire escape. The angry boy removed his cane and shoved Vincent to his friends. "GET LOST BEFORE I DECIDE TO GIVE YOU THE SAME TREATMENT MY FATHER GAVE TO YOUR BRATTY PARENTS, ONLY I'D MAKE SURE THAT NOT EVEN THE WORST CANNIBAL COOKS IN THIS TOWN WOULD WANT YOUR REMAINS!"

And to his words, the kids ran away screaming.

Audrey went to Beatrice. "Are you OK?"

"Am I OK? AM I OK? Dude, you were awesome!" Beatrice squealed. "Where did you learn to crush people like that?"

"I didn't. The most I've done in sports was cheerleading." Audrey tapped on her head to straighten her messy hair. "Kind of felt good…"

After making sure the brats had run past the horizon, Willywaffle went to express his anger at Beatrice, only he didn't terrify her as he terrified his foes. "What the fudge do you think you just did, Beatrice?"

"Believe me, I'm as confused as your are as to why they attacked me…"

"Beatrice!" Willywaffle snapped. "When I said I'd like them off my back, I didn't mean that you ought to get their attention on the eve of my departure! And when I said that I didn't like where this was going, I knew that things weren't going to go well the moment I put my foot out of bed!"

"Hey, give her some slack!" Audrey snapped at him. "She kept her word and didn't pull any pranks! I pulled the pranks, I should have gotten the trash, and so I should have taken the responsibility! It's not Beatrice's fault if the idiots thought that she was responsible behind all this!"

Willywaffle let out a more exasperated groan. "Wake up and smell the sour chocolate, newbie! Beatrice manipulated you into purposely using your magic to harm Salt, Gloop, Beauregarde, and Teevee because she wanted to make sure that I'd invite her, you, and her squad onto my train ride tomorrow!"

"I know."

Audrey's sincere comment caused both Beatrice and Willywaffle to look at Audrey as if her sentence made her an alien. "You what?" They both said.

"It didn't surprise me. Besides a family of gingerbread countryside cannibals, it became clear that so far the only friends Gothy and I made were con artists. It took me figuring out a loophole wish so Crystal could come with us and the first time I saw that billboard that Mrs. Deetz posted on the outskirts of town made it clear that Beatrice wasn't going to be easy. I saw the evidence when she scammed the twins back at the spa, so I asked Crystal what to expect from Beatrice, and she told me to act dumb because Macabretown folk don't really expect much from foreigners and often try to scam them."

Beatrice's eyeballs fell into her throat. "You… double-manipulated me?" She gasped in embarrassment.

"I'm not buying it." Willywaffle shook his head.

"Well Crystal did make it clear that one way or another, Beatrice was going to manipulate things with her parents to soften up her punishment and the better way for her to not do punishments herself while still being mischievous was to find a substitute prankster," Audrey continued. "None of this makes sense, but here's one that does. You know that Crystal and Beatrice always spend minutes together whenever Crystal gets wished to Macabretown, but they hardly spent anytime together since they got here. Don't you think it would have made more chaotic sense if Beatrice asked a professional prankster like Crystal to help? Rather than an amateur like me?"

Beatrice's jaw dropped when Willywaffle actually thought about it. "Well you're not wrong there…"

"And besides, I took great pleasure in beating up Vincent Salt."

Willywaffle chuckled. "I actually waited before intervening. I enjoyed the ramble. Have you ever considered becoming a professional wrestler?"

"NO!" Her response shocked them. "Unless it's for emergencies, I'm no longer physically fighting anyone!" Audrey took a sniff of her shirt and grimaced. "Ugh! I need a shower!"

"Let's go home." Beatrice pulled her sleeves down. "Even after the ramble, I still don't feel like going to the festival tonight."

"Wait a minute."

Beatrice turned, expecting a cross remark from Willywaffle, but he gave a small smile instead. "Make sure you guys aren't late tomorrow. My train leaves at 10am sharp."

Later, at the Deetz house

Beatrice went through the freezer and pulled out an ice pack for her eye. When Audrey came downstairs after taking a shower, Gothy was not happy.

"Fighting with a local? Are you nuts?" Gothy freaked out. "Audrey, we already got away with Crystal's psychotic dad and some insect-fairy prince by a hair! Do you know what could have happened if someone figured out that you were an Auradonian princess?"

"That waxing has cleaned my slate and Beatrice and I did nothing!" Audrey snatched a glass of blood orange soda that sat at the kitchen table.

"Even if we didn't do anything, it still would have happened…" Beatrice sat roughly on the nearest chair.

"Don't beat yourself up, Beats." Crystal gave Beatrice a gentle punch on the arm. "I envy you. I haven't seen any of the prank carnage since we got here and I missed witnessing Pink Fingers beat the crap out of Vincent Salt!"

"You're missing the point!" Gothy snapped.

"Relax, Gorgeous. We've just got a confirmation. A, Audrey can physically fight so she's not helpless, and B, she did it for a good cause. Besides, she had every right. Vincent Salt is an asshole." Crystal smirked at Audrey. "You actually thought he made your second ex-boyfriend sympathetic?"

"Yep."

"Remind me, it's the same ex-boyfriend who ha smore hair than brains and that you traumatized via closet confinement?"

"Also that."

Crystal grinned further and raised her soda glass. "Cheers to badass Pink Fingers! May she keep roughhousing the idiots that Nature has invented!" Her statement also made Audrey raise her glass. "And thanks to her, we've guaranteed our ticket out of Macabretown!"

"I'm still surprised that your parents didn't fuss about it," Gothy turned to Beatrice. "I mean, you're not exactly the picture of perfect child, but random citizens attacking the mayors' daughter?" Gothy noticed that the latter wasn't listening. "Beatrice?"

"They probably wouldn't be hitting me if I was normal…"

Ironic info about the author is that she grew to loathe in any possible statement the concept of 'being normal'. So when Beatrice, the chaotic child, grimly made her statement, it was a miracle that neither Crystal nor Audrey choked in their beverages. It was a miracle that Gothy didn't back away in fright at the sudden lack of enthusiasm Beatrice portrayed. It was a miracle that the Bloody Bambi didn't choke as it continued to choke through the leftovers of the rosebushes. It was a phenomenal miracle that just like that, the girls heard the sounds of a car crashing in, doors bursting open, and the Deetz parents bursting into the kitchen to drag their daughter out.

"You need an hour-long lecture on why you should never be normal, young lady!" Beetlejuice was so enraged that the guests actually saw the steam puffing out of his ears.

"Don't worry, BJ! Hopefully this is just a 30-minute teenager depression that will go away!"

The guests were still speechless after the Deetz parents dragged Beatrice upstairs for a very long conversation.

"Beatrice still won't go to the Fall Festival tonight," Audrey said to break the silence.

"She just needs time to feel less depressed and by the time we come back from the festivities, she'll be her chaotic self again." Crystal shrugged. When she saw that her empty cup was dirty, she summoned a crystal ball to clean it up.

"I still don't see why those brats attacked her physically or why she didn't do anything to fight back." Gothy sat next to Crystal. "Couldn't she just snap her fingers and turn them to beetles?"

"She didn't bother. She already knew they'd be onto her," Audrey said.

"And your last-second story you gave to Wonka about double-manipulating Beatrice? Was that real or phony?" Crystal amused her by juggling her glass and constantly transforming it into different shapes.

"A bit mixed. I already knew she needed me to prank the brats to get onto Willywaffle's good side WITHOUT breaking her promise of no-direct-pranks…" Audrey stared at Crystal. "She's already as much of a trickster and con artist than you are."

"Hey, in our defense, tricking others is a force of nature, not because we decided on our own!" Crystal raised her hand. "You meet a lot of fae, goblins, sorcerers, witches, ghost, demons, and other sort of supernatural chimera sent by nature and regardless if they serve good or evil, they live through the eternal chaos of others. The line that separates tricksters like Beatrice and I is our semi-humanity. Her mother is by blood, nature, and soul a human why I was fabricated out of stolen blood in Jareth's lab. Beatrice and I comprehend the line we are on and we do not dare cross it. Our half-sense in humane emotions is what keep us from the abyss of madness while our half-bindings in magic keep us from becoming vortexes of never ending power."

Gothy was confused. "And in English?"

"We half-human, we decent people, but we also half-supernatural, so we have obligations to follow," Crystal mockingly responded.

"Beatrice has her limits… for powers and morality," Audrey gave Gothy the better explanation.

Crystal agreed with her. "I've met a lot of rich folk of high status who either trap their kids in gilded cages or spoil them rotten to the point where the kids act like they can screw all the rules. Beatrice is in the middle. You saw it. Beetlejuice and Lydia outright adore her and give her a happy childhood but they still discipline her when she misbehaves. She loves pranks but has a hard time obeying to no-pranking punishments, so she slithers her way around. She gets a lot of things but she never uses her parents' status on others. She's very sweet and fun to be around, by the townsfolk her age treat her more like the funny friend they don't like having around."

"They can't all dislike her that way." Gothy shook her head. "You don't dislike a friend that you still keep around."

"You clearly haven't seen the stone foundation where they keep recluses barricaded from society. Full of people the townsfolk don't want walking around because they're too dangerous even for Macabretown." Crystal grimaced. "I heard she drove Count Olaf nuts last year, he actually thought Carmelita Spats was quieter than Beatrice! And he hates her first name!"

"Wait, why does Beatrice even hang out with criminals in jail? This doesn't make sense! I haven't seen a single cop since we crossed the mist! THIS REALLY IS A WORLD OF ANARCHY!"

Audrey and Crystal could only stare as Gothy ran around the kitchen in a panic.

Later

Very much as Beatrice predicted, Audrey declined going to the Fall Festival in order to keep her company. The night had fallen and the macabre-themed fireworks were illuminating the sky as Audrey pushed the trapdoor leading to the roofdeck. She found Beatrice sitting on a cushioned bench and hugging some Frankenstein-version of a Dalmatian plushed toy.

"Made some muffins." Audrey held up the tray of cinnamon and blueberry muffins that were still warm from the oven. Just when she finally got on the deck, Beatrice's arms stretched to catch the tray and gulp down the dozens of muffins as if she were a massive cobra swallowing a nest of rats. A mistake that caused her to choke, cough, and hiccup, releasing muffin-shaped bubbles out of her mouth.

"Thanks… but I don't feel like talking about what happened." Beatrice crunched the tray with her bare hands into a silver ball that she threw into the basketball net that hung on the chimney. Why the Deetz have a basketball court at the same area they ate, Audrey would never know.

"Do you mind me sitting next to you then?" Audrey got her answer when Beatrice cuddled up to give her some room. The cushioned bench was so soft as Audrey sat on it. For the next few seconds, she satisfied Beatrice's silence via observing the distant festivities before finally cutting it.

"My time at Macabretown was really great. I look forward to coming back here once we find Cassandra." Audrey gave a smirk at Beatrice.

"Hm-hm." Beatrice shrugged.

"I mean it. So far, it's the only place I've been to that doesn't outright hate me or tried to kill me. I know it was because of the stench removal, all thanks to you…"

"Your attempt at flattering me isn't helping." Beatrice shook her head.

"Attempt? Manipulating others' feelings isn't my thing, that was my ex's!" Audrey got frustrated. "Manipulation, everyone has done that! My family manipulated me into doing what they wanted, my demon is trying to manipulate me, and nearly everyone I know tried to manipulate me! You manipulated me to get out of Macabretown, I'd be enraged if I were a simpleton, but I'm not! Because despite your ways, I know how really sweet you are…"

That last sentence caught Beatrice off guard. "Me? Sweet?"

"Yes, because you care!" Audrey held Beatrice's trembling hands. "You prank, you lie, you fool, but deep down you know that you care about others, that you want to help them and have friends, but because the only ways you can do things forces people to be suspicious of you."

Beatrice still had trouble taking the frown off her face and keeping the tear from escaping her right eye. "The only 'friends' who tell me that kind of thing are the furthest."

Audrey wiped away the tear from Beatrice's cheek. They continued to stare at the distant, festive lights, probably the only present in the entire town that made it seem like the only star in total darkness.

Audrey: Back then, nobody cared that I was a soul in despair.

They did nothing, so I found my way.

It isn't easy, but I'm getting my repair.

They cared less, so I went away.

Beatrice: From one bad seed to the other,

My half-side makes it harder to connect with another,

But you remind me that's the direction.

I construct my path.

I control my wrath.

I follow the new fate in store

Until it leads me to the door.

It's changing, it's my direction.

My diverging redemption, my diverging redemption,

My diverging redemption, my diverging redemption.

Audrey: This world showed the possibility

That greater change is a part of destiny.

I drowned in the dark, but then I saw the light

I ran and learned to continue the fight!

Beatrice: From one bad seed to the other

Audrey: You're my friend irreplaceable by any other

Both: And you remind me of the direction.

I write my story's end.

You'll always be my friend.

I follow my new fate in store

Until it leads me to the door.

It's evolving, it's my obsession.

My diverging redemption, my diverging redemption!

Beatrice: I never had a friend like you.

Audrey: You motivate me towards something new.

Both: I find my new destiny.

I stick to my family.

I follow my new fate in store

Until it leads me to the door!

It's changing, it's my direction!

It's evolving, it's my obsession!

My diverging redemption, my diverging redemption!

My diverging redemption, my diverging redemption!