When Writers Go Bad: Chapter Eleven
For a moment, everyone just stared. Chauvelin started uttering oaths under his breath, Valjean was praying. Emily still sat demurely in her chair, a look of expectancy on her face.
"Who wants to tell me what their doing out of bed?" she asked, of both the characters and her own three egos. Lita had since moved from the light switch to her creator's side.
"Well, you see," began Cosette, "we, uh, were taking a walk."
They all were fish eyed and nodded furiously in agreement.
"An evening walk!" praised Shadow13. "What a splendid idea! But," here she paused, staring very hard, "how did you get out of your rooms?"
"It was the damndest thing," Marius replied. "You see, they were all….unlocked."
"Just swung right open!" agreed Chauvelin hastily.
"Really?"
They all nodded again.
"Shadow," the teenager summoned, "were the doors locked when I went to bed?"
Mournfully, Shadow softly replied "Yes, they were locked."
"So it would not seem entirely likely for them to unlock of their own accord, would it?"
"….No…."
"Well," Marguerite tried, "they were…..damaged! During the electric storm last night! Yes, that was it!"
Once again, they all nodded passionately.
Shadow13 turned to Shadow. "You didn't tell me there was any damage done to the lock system last night."
Shadow guiltily nudged at the ground with the toe of her boot. Sighing, she gave in and replied "There wasn't any damage."
"None at all?"
"Every bolt was perfect."
Shadow13 turned back to the literary characters, who now looked rather frightened, huddled in a mass heard, as she glared coldly. She handed the pistol to Shadow, rising from her chair. The girl blinked, staring at it.
"Shadow," her creator instructed, "create mass chaos."
With that, she walked past the characters and out the door, locking it behind her.
Shadow was holding the gun at arm's length, looking rather disgustedly at it. Everyone was trembling, staring at her. Shadow thrust the pistol into Lita's hands.
"Here, you do it," she said with a shudder.
"Me? Oh, no, absolutely not!" refused the DragonRider, shoving it back at Shadow, who only pushed it away again.
"I don't like guns…." She responded slowly, drawing away from it. "They make me edgy….."
"I'll do it!" announced Ellen, snatching the pistol from Lita before either of them could stop her.
"Ellen, no!" they both cried simultaneously; too late. Ellen, who's aim was terrible, had cocked the hammer and was about to fire it at someone's head when Lita managed to tackle her, sending her arms upward. The gun went off, firing the cartridge at the ceiling.
The pistol proved to be the one Shadow13 had designed for fluff dust, and the cartridge proved to merely be a bag of the previously mentioned dust. Upon hitting the ceiling, it exploded in a rather pretty way, sending clouds of dust down upon everyone. Shadow yelped and covered her face with her cape. Lita and Ellen managed to hide behind a pile of already filled bags and escape the onslaught.
The smoke cleared while fits of coughing could be heard. Ellen, had, indeed, done exactly as Shadow13 had asked; mass chaos was achieved.
Christine was draped over Javert in a rather suggestive way, Marguerite was clinging to Chauvelin's arm, and Percy was doing his damndest at wooing Cosette, who was in love with Erik. None of the gentlemen receiving the attention seemed pleased, except Erik, and Raoul and Marius were crying.
Shadow yelped, and stood there, too surprised to do anything. Lita smacked her palm to her forehead and groaned while Ellen looked rather proud.
"When you want mass chaos, you know who to call!" she stated confidently. Lita seized her by the shoulders and shook her rather violently.
"You idiot! How are we going to fix all this?"
Shadow managed to rip the two apart, and then went to work searching the shelves for a small, grey leather pouch.
"What are you just standing there for?" she demanded, tossing brown bag after brown bag in search of the grey one. "Help me find the anti-fluff dust!"
The anti-fluff bunnies generated around St. Valentine's Day, or whenever Shadow13 was in a particularly cynical mood. They were grey with yellow eyes, and very short hair. They often sneered, and were the least favorite of Ellen.
All the bags were tossed off the shelf, and still the grey one could not be found. In the mean time, the noise the confused characters were creating was deafening.
"Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime!" Christine was sweetly singing to Javert, who looked extremely uncomfortable with her arms wrapped around his neck.
"Please, madame!" he insisted, trying to pry her off. Raoul was singing to her, clinging to her ankle as she tried to shake him off in turn.
"Anywhere you go, let me go too! Christine, that's all I ask of you!"
Marius and Cosette were both singing A Heart Full of Love, while Erik was actually rather pleased to have someone pinning for him for once, though Marius was heart broken.
Chauvelin had given up on trying to pry Marguerite from off his arm, sitting on the floor, head resting on his free hand, which was balled in a fist. Shadow decided that if they couldn't find the bag, they might as well break up the party. Lita was busily tugging at Lady Blakeney, while Citoyen Chauvelin was starting to snarl "Get her off my arm….."
"Look, I'm trying my best here!" she snapped. "Ellen, I swear, I'm going to kill you for this!"
"What did I do?" she whined, trying to separate Sir Percy and Cosette, the former trying to steal a kiss.
Finally, it was all too much for Shadow, who snapped loudly "All of you shut up and let go of each other right now!"
Blinking like fish, anyone attached to anyone else very slowly scooted away, if reluctantly. Shadow was seething.
"Very good," she complimented through clenched teeth, her fists twitching, a vein on her forehead sticking out rather pointedly. "Now, get in a line. We're taking you back to your rooms. We will solve this problem in the morning."
Everyone seemed heartily disappointed, except for Javert and Valjean, the former thankful that the opera singer was off him, the later glad that he hadn't even been entangled in the fiasco.
To Be Continued….