Darkness Swallows Us
Chapter One The Baby Swap
EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO
Mother Gothel met up with Frollo in the bell tower, a baby wrapped in a blanket in her arms. "Where's the hunchback child? You know this teleportation spell only works for a few minutes, right?"
"He's in the next room, napping. I don't want to hear an infant's snores when I'm trying to keep my composure."
"You better take good care of Rapunzel, though," Mother Gothel said.
"Of course I will. She will prove of better use to me than the monster-child."
"Do you really trust Bruno's prophecy?" Mother Gothel asked. She had sent a raven and been in communication with Frollo for a few months. According to a man from a distant continent who supposedly had powers to predict the future, only by obtaining Quasimodo would Mother Gothel get to keep her youth that was so precious to her. She didn't understand how that worked, the flower was in Rapunzel's bloodstream, right? But Bruno insisted. And Frollo, he said, needed Rapunzel in order to capture the gypsies, to locate the place where they had hidden themselves.
"I mean, you're not going to be dead if the prophecy proves false, right? You can still use the teleportation spell and we can trade back."
"I'll be an old, feeble woman, barely having the ability to pronounce the chant for the spell, or unfurl the scroll with my gnarled fingers, or made the armadillo sacrifice. Who knows if I can even catch an armadillo in that state?"
"Have Quasimodo do it," Frollo said. "He loves frolicking critters."
"A fit companion for a princess, then?"
"Hardly. A princess who looks fondly at a hunchback, that will be the day when the world is lost, the Black Plague returneth, the human race in danger of going the same way as the dinosaurs."
"Now you're starting to sound like Bruno," Mother Gothel said, punching his arm. Being youthful meant not only making it in the looks department, but also playing around a bit. And Frollo looked like someone who could use a little joy in his life. Too much trying to spoil the joy for others.
Mother Gothel preferred her way of life. Eschew everyone, she had done so for so long. Unfortunately, she had become dependent on Rapunzel since the flower she required to retain her youth had been converted into a potion to keep the queen alive. But still, she could raise a child. She was very happy to have a daughter, well, technically, she already did, but that was another story. Still, Bruno's words terrified her. She didn't want a son, though, she'd certainly treat him better than sourpuss Frollo here. But…maybe Cassandra and Quasimodo could be a couple at some point in the future. That would be something.
Frollo led her into the adjoining room, where the napping two-year-old Quasimodo started away at the sound. "Da-da?" he said. "Whozat?"
"This is someone who will take you on an adventure," Frollo said.
Quasimodo was too young to know what an adventure was. Not to mention he had never left this bell tower. He watched as the woman passed the baby to Frollo.
"That a baby?"
"A little girl, Quasimodo," Frollo said. "Her name is Rapunzel."
Before he knew what was happening, the woman scooped him up, golden light appeared around both of them, and Quasimodo barely had the thought "I have a sister," or something to that effect, not quite as eloquent considering his age, before his surroundings altered. He knew he was still in some kind of tower, but there were no bells.
"Where bell?" he asked.
"Don't have any here," Mother Gothel said, setting him down. "But I'll see if I can find you a small one to clang."
"Da-da says when I big I can ring bells in his tower."
"That's very nice," Mother Gothel said, not bothering to tell Quasimodo that that was unlikely ever to happen. She presented a plush dolphin for him. "I got a toy for you here."
"Awesome!" Quasimodo said. He took the dolphin and was off scrampering around, playing with it. Mother Gothel noticed that his play needed a little more zazz so promised herself she'd get him another toy so he could have it interact with the dolphin, perhaps a T-Rex, when she visited the market. Along with the bell. And she'd encourage him to pretend that the toys were in a bell tower.
NOW
Dolores bit into a persimmon, feeling a bit depressed. Mariano was courting Isabela again. And she just had to sit here, listening to the rats crawling in the walls.
She got up and stretched, then wandered toward Bruno's room. They weren't allowed to talk about her uncle, though for some reason they could sing about him. And it was discouraged to enter a room in the Madrigal household that you knew to be empty. But…she needed something to distract her from her aching heart.
She looked around, ensuring no one would be sneaking up on her. Not that they could. She could hear silent footsteps. She just wanted to double check. Then she shoved the glowing orange door open, and found herself facing a bridge. Taking a deep breath, she ran across it, and it started falling apart. She made it just in time but her feet nearly slipped, she had to struggle to get herself up on the ledge.
"Getting back across that isn't going to be easy," she muttered.
Then she went through a wide open space kind of like a double door entry without any doors. It was bordered by stone in cinder block shapes.
Within, she found a room full of sand. Here, there, and everywhere.
Then she spotted something glowing green on a table. Hopping toward it, she peered at the prophecy slab there. It showed a man with graying hair accepting a baby from a woman with curly hair, and a little boy snoozing nearby. The images moved, the boy awoke and the woman disappeared with him and rematerialized somewhere else.
Dolores didn't get who these people were. Most of Bruno's prophecies had to do with people in Encanto. This could've happened awhile back, maybe when Dolores was little. But the boy had a hunchback. She would know if there was a hunchback in town, right?
She wanted answers. She knew Bruno was somewhere around, she heard him every day. In the walls, most likely. She didn't report it to Abuela because that would get him banished for good, and Dolores believed strongly that family sticks together. That even applied to Camilo when he was annoying, which was often.
Dolores scooped up the prophecy, left the sand room, grabbed a vine and swung across over the babbling brook below to arrive on the other side. She listened for outseide the room to ensure no one was out there. She heard Luisa passing and waited till she was gone to exit.
She went to her room and stored the tablet in a drawer. This was a mystery she wanted solved. But also, her heart felt that the people on the table needed her. Probably not the old man and the classy lady. But the baby (unlikely a baby anymore), and the hunchback, definitely.
Through all the afternoon activities and dinner, all she could think about is what the hunchback and girl handed to the old man could be doing right now. It distracted her from the cousin-dating-the-guy-she-was-crushing-on issue, but it also was taking over her mind, Abuela had to call her name three times to get her attention. And she was the one with enhanced hearing.
Camilo tried to prank her by having her push open a door where a plastic pumpkin would fall on her head, having noticed how distracted she was. But she heard it leave the spot the door was holding it up and hopped out of the way. But she didn't snap at him as she usually would, and he was curious why. HIs sister's business was hers, though, but she was less fun when she spaced out, and also it was unlike her. Part of him wanted to get to the bottom of this, part of him didn't care. If he could disguise his voice too, perhaps he could get the word out of her by pretending to be a different Madrigal, one she'd be more trusting to talk to. But that might not work either. Dolores had told him once that everyone's step sounded different, and he couldn't disguise that, only what he looked like.
