Disclaimer: It is once again October, time for Halloween. Now it is time for a truly different story, and DEFINITELY different. I have been interested in stories with alternate universes or alternate scenarios, and ever since the recent Marvel series, "What If...?" started, it inspired me to start doing fanfictions of different universes or different scenarios of non-Marvel franchises everyone knows and loves.
With October being the month of scary things, I thought I'd start with this: a short one-shot story taking place in James & The Giant Peach, one movie that had a significant impact on my childhood. Parts of it had left me traumatized for so long when I was a kid that I never watched it again for such a long time, and the two things that traumatized me the most are the two horrible hags: Spiker and Sponge.
I hated them all of my life not only for how they terrified me as a kid and gave me nightmares (especially in the ending and in the nightmare sequence), but how horrible and unreasonable excuses for human beings they were to poor James, making him do chores, mocking his pain, using a trauma to mock him, giving close-ups of their ugly faces, hurting him if he doesn't agree with them and nearly killing them. I can't tell you how long I wanted to do a fanfiction where the two are killed. While prison's satisfying, it'd be more satisfying for me to see those two gargoyles be killed off. When I saw "What If...?" having different scenarios of worlds, I saw it as a perfect opportunity to get one of my long satisfactions finally in, and Halloween time seems the justified way to do it.
I will be using this as the start of a small "What If...?" series set for certain Disney films, with the Watcher from Marvel (which Disney owns), will be witnessing and not interfering with. In this story, this would be a hypothetical scenario where James snaps from his aunt's abuse, and with the help from a certain old man, he decides to finish them off before they finish him off. This messes greatly with the story and the film, but hey, at least it gives me an excuse to kill these two off. You'll probably dislike me for messing with the story, but at least let me have this one time.
The story is rated M for character deaths and one use of bad language. The characters used do not belong to me. They belong to Disney, Roald Dahl (whom I hope won't be rolling in his grave too much), Henry Sellick, Tim Burton and Marvel. If you don't want to read this story, then I insist you turn away now. Also, the Watcher's lines will be identified by being italicized.
Time.
Space.
Reality.
It's more than a linear path. It's a prism of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the ones you know.
I am the Watcher. I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me and ponder the question…"What If?"
I observe more stories than just the ones of your favorite heroes. Every so often, I happen to come across situations of individuals who are not strong, fast, descended from gods, have powers or any physical extra-ordinariness thrust upon them, accidental or otherwise. One individual happened to be a young boy who lived in England.
In this world, somewhere at a home located on a beach by a lighthouse and near the Atlantic Ocean, there lived a young boy with his parents. The boy was named James Henry Trotter, and it was his birthday as his mother brought out a vanilla-frosted cake with a few lit candles with six being blue and in the center was a decoration of a boy riding a grasshopper. He blew out the candles after thinking of a wish. Then the father laid out a orange and white plaid blanket for the family to lay on as they gazed up to look at the clouds and what shapes they take.
You may be familiar with this story. The young boy, James Henry Trotter, and his parents had a happy, optimistic life with big dreams.
They spotted a cloud shaped like the tallest building in America, the Empire State Building.
James cried with glee, "I see it!"
"That's where we're going," said Mr. Trotter, pulling out a small travel book with the words New York inscribed on it in blue, and it had a picture of the exact building the cloud was shaped in on the front. "On a great ship that will take us across the ocean, and we'll go right on top of that building."
"All of us?" James asked, with eyes widened in wonder.
"All of us," replied Mrs. Trotter in confirmation.
"Are there any kids there like me?" James asked.
"Hundreds of them," said Mr. Trotter. "And you know how we taught you how good family members treat each other, right?"
"Oh yes," James said with a nod.
He then opened the travel book, showing pictures of the good things New York had to offer. "It's a wonderful place, James; a city where dreams come true, or so everyone says."
He gave the book to his son as he looked into it, with his grin increasing in wonder and excitement.
Yes, the family had plans to sail away to New York City, but alas, their plans in the making were corrupted and destroyed.
A bit later, with the sky cloudier and darker, James was seen curdling up on the beach sadly and miserably all by himself, with his parents no longer them and winds blowing all around.
An angry rhinoceros, escaped from the local zoo, appeared out of nowhere, and gobbled up his poor parents. THEIR troubles, if they had any, were over in thirty-five seconds flat. For James, on the other hand, his troubles were just beginning...
Time passed after that horrible and unfortunate event, and James woke up in a dark room with a fright, soaked in drench and fear from yet another nightmare of his parents' deaths and the rhino, which was a recurring thing with him ever since that fateful day. He heard stomping as he gasped and hid his travel book that he kept as his current legal guardians barged in without having the decency to knock, as they have no decency at all.
For he was currently under the so-called care of his new guardians, horrible excuses for human beings, Aunt Spiker and Sponge.
The fat, cruel and hideous one, known as Aunt Sponge barged in first, yelling "Get up, you lazy little bug!" No 'wake up, dearie' or 'time to rise and shine, sleepy head', just 'get up, you lazy little bug!'
Her sister, who was thin but just as cruel and hideous as she was, Aunt Spiker followed suit, snapped while pointing at her watch, "You've already wasted four minutes of daylight!" She then taunted the frightened boy, "Look at him, lollygagging about in dreamland when there's much work to be done!" Her smile turned into a frown at the mention of work.
"You have weeds to pull, wood to chop," said Aunt Sponge.
Then the two got up in his face, shouting at him together, "Work, work, work, work, work!"
So after getting dressed, James came out pushing a wheelbarrow filled with tools. He had a load of chores those two hags were forcing him to do, such as raking from a withered old peach tree, painting the two deck chairs, picking up trash and debris, dusting the house, scrubbing the floors, and chopping the wood.
His aunts were anything but caring guardians. The more appropriate term would be slave drivers who had no sympathy for him whatsoever. Whenever he protested or disagreed with them, they would just beat him instead of agreeing to disagree. Thy had no common sense or etiquette for others.
All while Spiker and Sponge sat and lazed around in the sun, singing praises in vanity about themselves, blissfully blind to the fact that they are repulsive and ugly.
He was treated as a regular Cinderella by these two.
After finishing chopping the wood, he looked at the travel book he kept from his dad, looking at it and still remembering his dream of traveling to New York City.
To make matters worse, they wouldn't even let him feel any form of joy, including his dreams.
The two came over and demanded why he has stopped chopping the wood as he quickly hid the book behind his back. After telling him he was finished, Spiker came behind him and grabbed the book from him.
"A travel book?" asked Spiker angrily. "How dare you two even dream of leaving?"
"This is the only home you'll ever have," added Sponge. "Where did you even get this? Where?"
"Father gave it to me," said James.
"Stupid, foolish man!" grumbled Spiker, poking James in the chest and making him tumble towards some rocks.
"Foolish man, our little brother, always dreaming! That's what got him killed!" barked Sponge.
"And you mother!"
"Had his head in the clouds instead of looking where he was going!"
"He never even saw that Rhino coming."
Sponge then leered at the boy, grinning evilly, saying "That Rhino!" To make them even more horrible, they always used the Rhino to taunt James to keep him in line. They never showed him sympathy for his loss, not once!
James then frowned as he spoke, "At least mother and father were kind and nurturing to me, and never called me names, and never made me do all this work without lending a helping hand every now and then!"
The two aunts were in shock that he had courage to say that fact. Usually, either would smack him for saying that but the thin one told him with a glare, "Now you listen here, the reason for all of that is because they were spineless and have never realized how cruel the real world is! They weren't strong or cautious enough like we are! They were also too nice not to tell you that you are unlovable."
The fat one warned, "Consider yourself lucky for not receiving a smack this time!" As she continued, she ripped the travel book to shreds. "Now get those stupid dreams out of your heads..."
"And get back to work!" snapped the sisters, returning to their deck chairs.
The boy watched the ripped travel book got blown away by the breeze and his heart dropped at the sight of that.
Those of you who already know the story know that James has managed to escape and gone a long journey across the world to his desired destination and confronted his aunts when they arrived to bring him back to their prison; and thanks to some friends, they were out of his lives for good. In this universe, James will get help from someone and be rid of his aunts a lot sooner. Though I must warn you that it is not for the faint of heart. If you wish to see how it plays out then, by all means, stay.
That evening, after a hard day of chores, and neglect from his aunts, especially leaving him only fish heads to eat, he retreated to his cold, dingy room in the attic. He longed to have a better sleeping quarters but seeing as how Spiker and Sponge were his only guardians, he had no other choice. He sadly ate some of the crisps he quickly managed to swipe from Sponge while she and Spiker weren't looking. Then he looked up and noticed a spider web with a small spider with black and white stripes.
"Hello there!" said James as the spider crawled down his palm. "Where did you come from? You know you shouldn't build your web up here in the window. Sponge and Spiker might see you up here, and they hate spiders. I'll be your friend though." He then placed it on a chair, before he continued speaking, "My name is James, and I'm a very lonely orphan boy who's pretty much a prisoner here."
He then removed a loose floorboard where he kept a rubber band ball, a basket, a ball and tin box containing old crayons, a green toy car, and his birthday candle figure of the boy riding the grasshopper. He wasn't aloud to have nice things because of those hags treating him like a slave and having no consideration for human happiness, so he had to keep them hidden under the floorboard. He then started to dump out the crayons and draw on the paper of the bag he folded out.
"Here's something I've never shown anyone before," he said as he placed the candle for the spider to look at. He then colored a picture of himself with wings while carrying the spider, flying away from Spiker, Sponge and their prison and all the way to New York City, with several kids happy to see him. "I have this dream of going to New York City far away from my horrible aunts and this horrible house, and there, I would meet several people happy to see a new friendly face like me. They would welcome me with open arms and not try to hurt me for not following their demands."
He then let the spider crawl onto his hand before he placed it back up on the web. He then folded the bag up into the shape of a lantern before hanging it up, while lighting his beloved candle and attaching it to the lantern, releasing it and letting it flow into the wind. The boy sighed to his seemingly only friend, "If only there was some way to make it happen." He then placed all his other stuff back in hiding and placed the floorboard back in its spot. "Well, good night, little spider." He then went to sleep.
The next morning, he was awaken with a shrill scream. "Ahhh! Spider! Vermin!" The scream was coming from Spiker, swatting at the spider with her swatter. "Oh, Beast!"
James gasped before he cried, "No wait! I'll get it!" He quickly climbed up the chair and grabbed the spider, while Spiker, filled with fear from the arachnid, was not caring if she was hitting her nephew with the swatter. She screamed madly at him, "Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!"
Sponge burst in with a can of bug spray, shouting frantically, "Where is it? Where is it?"
Then James was smacked in the face as he bumped into Sponge, with both toppling down the stairs. When they reached the bottom, James opened his hands and saw the spider was no longer there. He then saw the spider on his fat aunt's face as she screamed, "Kill it! Get it! Kill it or I'll kill you!".
The spider leaped off of Sponge's face just in time as the rushing Spiker swatted Sponge in the face with her tool. James then grabbed the spider and ran out of the house to hide it.
"You hit me in the face!" sobbed Aunt Sponge hysterically.
"Oh, do shut up!" snapped Spiker with a groan.
Once outside the house, James ran down the rocky stairs, making sure not to fall down, while carrying the spider in his hands. Once he reached an old stonewall, he laid down his hands.
"Go on, get out here! Get as far away from this place as you possibly can!" James told the spider as it disappeared through a hole in the wall. "I wish I could."
"What's stopping you then?" a deep voice said, startling James as he looked up and saw an old man sitting on the stonewall in black clothing with many clocks and medals dangling and finger-less gloves. He appeared to be a soldier of some sorts. "Oh, don't be frightened, James. I mean you no harm."
"How do you know my name?"
The old man grinned and said with a chuckle, "I know more than just your name. What would you say if I were to tell you that I have the answer for all your troubles?"
He then took out a wrinkled paper bag, and to James's surprise, it happened to be the same makeshift lantern James had from last night.
"Hey, that's my-" James cried.
"Of course it is!" the old man replied seriously. "But like many things, it's not what's on the outside that matters, but what's on the inside. Here, take a look." So the boy took a peak inside and saw a bunch of green crystal-like creatures squirming around in the bag, squeaking like mice. "There's more magic in them things than in all the rest of the world put together. They are crocodile tongues."
"Tongues?"
"One thousand long, slimy crocodile tongues, boiled in the skull of a dead witch for twenty days and twenty nights; add the fingers of a young monkey, the gizzard of a pig, the beak of a parrot, and three spoonfuls of sugar. Stew for a week, and then let the moon..." He closed his left eye and when he opened it, it was completely white as the moon, with James gasping, as he finished, "do the rest." He blinked his eye, as it returned to normal. "If you have 'em, marvelous things will happen...and they will indeed, marvelous things that you even never dreamt of."
"What do you mean?" James asked.
"Well, you'll never be miserable again. And you are miserable with those two horrible hags keeping you, aren't you, James?"
"How do you know?"
"I've been around, witnessing the indignities and abuse they've put you through, and I find it absolutely deplorable. No child should have to suffer through that."
The boy confessed, "I would love to get as far away from them as possible, but I'm worried that the rhino who ate my parents will get me too."
The old man then scoffed, "I have been around this hill and the town for a while, there hasn't been any rhino around, unless you count Sponge. The rhino that escaped from the zoo a while back was indeed caught."
This left James shocked and outraged.
"And they told me it was never caught?! They lied to me! And they treat me like a slave, not treating me with any respect and not respecting others' opinions as my parents taught me!"
"You weren't meant to be treated this way, James. And that place you are dreaming of is not as far away as you think," the mysterious soldier then slammed his fist into the stonewall, sending a stone flying out. James looked and saw New York City with the Empire State Building in the middle on the edge of the sea.
"New York City!" James exclaimed upon seeing his long-desired destination from afar.
The old soldier then appeared on the other side of the hole, saying, "And it'll be much closer once you take the first step."
"But how? This doesn't make any sense."
"Not up here, it doesn't", the old soldier said, before pointing to his head, "The answers are in HERE, and the magic..." He then put his finger to where James's heart was as he finished, "And the magic is in here." He then mysteriously reappeared on James's side. "So, James, what'll it be?"
"I'll do it."
He was about to take the big but then the old man stopped him to give him a word of precaution. "Now listen to me, James. Don't let them get away, because if they do, they'll work their magic on whoever or whatever they meet first. Understand?"
James nodded but realized something.
"What if Spiker and Sponge find them and get rid of them? They never let me have anything nice!"
"Yes, I took that into consideration, and I have to confess something. Your parents taught you how good family members and decent human beings treat each other, didn't they? To look out for each other, to agree to disagree without violence, and to provide a good meal every now and again?"
"Yes, most definitely!"
The old man then sighed, "Well, I hate to break this to you but I've witnessed them in other places before, and they have no common sense to act as decent human beings! They hurt, yell at and traumatize other people, children mostly, when they get the chance to. It's obvious that this will be your only chance of escaping them, so I had brought something else with me to make sure they don't get the chance to take away the tongues."
He then dug in his coat pocket and pulled out a vial with some dark-colored contents inside of it, and the label sticker on the front had the face of a skeleton who some would call the Pumpkin King on it. This gave James the chills.
The soldier then explained, "This is something I smuggled from one of the wars. It is a deadly mixture of black cherries, venom of a snake, the tooth of a vampire bat, and the skin of a poison dart tree frog all mixed together in a vial concoction."
James gasped in horror, "Poison!"
"I wouldn't give this to just anyone and would never use it unless for an emergency, and from where you're standing, this looks like an extreme emergency. One sip from this, and your aunts' hearts will stop for good."
"Hold on! I hate my aunts very much, but I couldn't do this."
"Not after all they've done to you?" The old man asked. "After all the abuse, suffering and torment they put you through? I'm uncomfortable with the idea myself, but there is no way they're ever gonna love or respect you, James. For all we know, they might end up killing you first. I highly recommend you at least take the poison just to be on the safe side."
James felt reluctant, but he then heard echoes of all the insults, taunts and yelling the aunts thrown at him inside his head. He even thought of what the soldier said of the possibility of them killing him before his life would even get better. James then frowned. He can't let that happen! So he took both the bag and the poison. Then one crocodile tongue managed to hop out of the bag's opening, and right into James's ear, making him yelp as he tried to get it out.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, these little buggers are very excitable, so be exceedingly careful with them," the old man advised with a chuckle.
Then with a gust of the mist and the wind, the soldier mysteriously vanished.
"What's going on out here?" shouted the irritating voice of Aunt Spiker.
With that, James ran off, holding the vial and bag close to him, making sure they weren't very visible. He ran back to the house, almost tripping over a step, but luckily for him, he kept balance. James said in relief, "Ooh. That would have been a nasty fall."
He continued his way, though he was unaware that a few more of the crocodile tongues flew out of the bag and into the cracks beneath the old peach tree. James then started to climb up another old tree that was near the attic, clutching the bag and vial close to him. He often secretly used the tree to sneak out just to get some fresh air. It was fortunate that those two never found out and cut the old tree down. Anyway, once he climbed in through the window, he jumped down to the floor and quickly hid his things under a tarp and under his bed.
Then as he got himself dressed, he ran downstairs to avoid any suspicion when those returning aunts stood in front of him.
"There he is," Spiker said.
"Where have you been? We sent you to a kill a spider, didn't we?" asked Sponge suspiciously.
"I took care of it. See, no spider," James defended, as he showed his hands without any spider on him.
The two aunts looked suspicious, but dismissed it. "Well there may be hope for you yet, nephew. It's also good to see you dressed. Now, hop to it, it's time to fix us our morning tea."
"Why, is it broken?" James asked jokingly.
Of course, to almost little-to-no surprise, they frowned at this as well.
"Oh, now, you're making jokes, are you? That's rather cheeky, almost close to being bold and radical. That's almost as if you're stepping out of line again," Spiker reprimanded him.
"So now I can't make a joke like either of you can? I thought relatives were supposed to be accepting!"
Sponge warned him, "You better be careful with your back-talk, because it seems as though it's going the right way for a smacking!"
She then raised her arm to smack him but then James did something he never did before: he quickly grabbed his obese aunt's arm with new reflexes, to the three's surprise. This must have been a result of the green thing going inside of James. It must have magically given him new reflexes to stop a swatting arm. The confused Spiker tried to use her arm but James grabbed that one as well. Suddenly, the surprised James felt a little boost of courage inside of him.
He then glared at his aunts, asking, "What would mother and father say if they knew you were doing this?"
Spiker replied heartlessly, "Newsflash, boy: they're not here, they're dead!"
"That still doesn't give you the right to treat me this way! Now if either of you beat me again after I let go of your arms, I will call the police, telling them all of what you've done to me!"
"You wouldn't dare!"
"Want to bet?"
The aunts glared at their nephew, but he glared back, leaving them stunned that he's not showing fear. They both glance at each other in concern. Would he actually call the police and report all their abuse on them? Then the hags calmed down a bit, with Spiker nervously chuckling, "Really, now, there's no need to get the police involved in this. Tell you what, how about we make a deal with you? You don't report our actions and we stop beating you. Now remove your hands from ours if you would be so kind."
"How do I know you aren't lying to me?"
"Why, boy, would we lie?" asked Sponge with a seemingly sweet smile on her face. James already knew the irony of his question as he knew they already lied once about the rhino. He was still distrustful but he gently let their arms go.
"That's a good boy," the obese aunt said while pinching James's cheek too hard. "Now, I trust you will not speak out of tone to your elders again." James only nodded while frowning. As the two then left to await for their tea to be made, James happened to see the aunts with their fingers crossed behind their backs, and he caught them both giggling callously with Sponge asking "Oh, do you think he bought it, Spiky?"
Spiker replied, "Oh, I'm most certain the maggot did. He's too stupid to catch on to our lies, especially our lie about the rhino never being caught."
"Suppose he DOES call the police?"
"Oh, please! As if those brainless police would believe rantings from a distraught little boy that his "caring" guardians have starved, beaten and abused him! We'll just convince them that he's a chronic liar. It's our word against his. And if he ever tries to step out of line again, we won't BEAT him, we'll just end him and make it look like an accident."
James overheard all of that and turned away with flashbacks of the times the aunts have insulted, taunted, injured, and lied to him, and even the times they used the 'rhino will get you' line at him. He even heard the old soldier's things about them replay in his head. He began to fume with anger. It was clear and the old man was right! The aunts will never change and are horrible excuses for human beings, and having a good life is too big a price to pay to let them continue making his life a living Hades.
So he rushed off to the attic to get the vial.
Soon he returned downstairs, pouring the tea in two cups and then adding the poison into the beverages, stirring them and mixing them in with fury. He was determined to off his aunts and have them out of his hair more than ever! He stirred them so hard to make sure no ounce of poison was showing in the liquid.
Once mixed, James was dressed in a blackish suit with white shirt, multi-colored tie, tan pants, black knee socks and shoes, and he was wheeling in the tray with the teapot and the poisoned cups.
"Oh, look at him. All spiffied up," said Aunt Spiker in a faux sweet manner. "Fitting since he's pretty much realized his true place here: as our little servant."
"Yes, Auntie Spiker," James said in a surprisingly friendly tone towards the two. "It was foolish of me to speak out of tone towards my elders and it won't happen again." Yes, it won't happen again as they will soon be out of his lives. "And to show no hard feelings, I've prepared you both the tea like you've told me to. I've even added a special flavor you'll get a certain kick out of."
The two were confused. First he acted a little more bold than usual earlier, and now he's acting happy and friendly, especially after all the times they've abused, insulted and nearly starved him. What has gotten into him lately? However, they shrugged it off as they took their teacups.
"A toast to our health," Aunt Spiker said. This would be a pretty ironic thing for her to say of course. "Cheers, sister." They clanged their teacups together before they slowly brought the beverages to their respective lips, with James waiting in anxiety and anticipation. This is it, one of his nightmares was about to end once and for all! Of course, James's eyes widened in realization: poisoning them would make him no better than they are. What was he doing?!
So, James shouted in panic, "No, don't!" Then he managed to smack the teacup out of Aunt Sponge's hand, sending the cup shattering against the wall.
"You impudent little shrimp! What did you do that for?!" Aunt Sponge barked at him in annoyance and puzzlement.
"I just remembered that the flavor is something you don't like after all, so I advise that you give it back to me and not drink it-!"
Then a slurp sound was heard along with an exhale. It was too late as Spiker had already drank the tea from her cup, to James's worry. Once swallowed, the thin aunt began to twitch, gasp and choke. She dropped her cup, which broke upon hitting the floor, as she held her throat, continuing the gasping and wheezing like mad. It lasted for a few seconds before she felt her heart stopped. Upon that, she let out one last wheeze before dropping to the floor. Both the boy and the other aunt gasped at this.
The fat aunt took her sister's hand and felt no pulse. She was definitely dead. She then turned towards nephew sternly and demanded, "Boy, what did you put in our tea?!"
James was truly frozen with fear, not sure what to do at this point. His other aunt was onto him now! He tried to think of a way out of this, but then a certain vial he had on his person dropped out of one of his pockets and came rolling towards Sponge's feet. She picked up the vial and looked at it.
Needless to say, she was in shock and further anger as she snarled, "You! You were trying to poison us!"
James then retorted, "You drove me to it, with you calling me names, beating me for having different opinions, locking me in that cold room, forcing me to do work and always starving me!"
The fat aunt, lacking common sense, then stuttered before shrieking as she charged at the boy, ready to attack him and avenge her sister. However, James grabbed the teapot and splashed the tea that wasn't poisoned right in her eyes, burning them as she screamed in utter pain. This bought him time to rush upstairs to the attic but she recovered enough to chase after him.
Once James was in the attic, he locked it from the inside. The furious fat aunt tried to get it open to no avail. "Open this door, you treacherous little earwig!" she yelled. "I won't hurt you, I just want to show you something." That something was a knife. Yep, she was lying and willing to use a knife on her nephew, apparently not caring if she kills the boy who does her chores! Then she used her monstrous strength to break the door down, barging in the room and seeing James climb towards the window as his only exit. "A-ha!" She charged directly at him but he dodged just in time and kicked her, as she tripped over the ledge and was sent falling out of the window, screaming. James heard the sound of a thud below accompanied by bones cracking, and he cringed, not wanting to see what happened to her. He just knew that he had to get out of here while the getting was good, so not wanting to waste another minute in this rat-hole, he quickly gathered up all his belongings and placed them in his suitcase.
Then he ran out of the house, running as far away from that hell-hole and as fast as he possibly could. When he got to the bottom of the hill, he was tired as he stopped for a bit to catch his breath. He now wondered where he could go. Thank goodness there is no rhino on the loose currently, so that expands his options. He looked around for a place with a nice family that could take him in for a while. He saw a small town ahead in the distance. Maybe there were some decent people living there who could help, and no one will have to know about his dark little secret.
Suddenly, he heard the sounds of a car driving with a rusty old engine sputtering, to his alarm as he recognized it. He turned and saw his aunts' antique car driving down the hill, and who was at the wheel but Aunt Sponge, cackling maniacally. Apparently, she had survived the fall but had broken her legs in the fall, paralyzing herself in the process, so she had to limp all the way to her car and climb into the driver's side without use of her legs. She was either planning to take James back, run him over to avenge her sister or take him to the police station so HE could be arrested! Either way, she was going to make sure her nephew wouldn't have a happy ending!
She charged like mad at her scared nephew who fortunately saw an old brick lying on the ground. He could use it as something else to buy him some time. So he picked it up and chucked it right at the car, shattering the windshield and obstructing the fat aunt's view. Then he ran off, but that didn't stop him. She continued chasing after him, though still having a hard time seeing where she was going with the windshield cracked. Then to her further alarm, from out of nowhere, a big blob of orange goop splattered across the windshield as well, obstructing her view as well. She ended up going off-road and off to the distance, going through fences and bushes along the way. She activated the windshield wipers to wipe the goop off. Once it was clear, she saw she was about to crash into a heavy tree stump up ahead as she screamed and she had no time to slow down. When the car collided into the stump, the impact sent the crippled obese aunt flying through the glass and tumbling down the hill all the way to the edge.
She screamed as she slipped off the edge and fell off the cliff but caught a hanging branch. She looked below and saw how high the drop was into the sea below, to her horror. What makes this worse for her was she was recently crippled so she couldn't use her leg strength to pull herself up, and it didn't help that the branch wasn't strong enough to support her morbidly obese weight for so long.
She panicked, "Help me! Someone! Anyone! Help me!" James ran to where she was, looking down at her literally. "Boy! Don't just stand there, please! Help me up! Please, I just crippled myself and don't have the strength to pull myself up! Please save me and I promise I'll treat you better from now on, and we can bury Spiker's body in the backyard, pretending it never happened. Just please, save me, James! Sa-ha-have meeee-hee-hee-hee!" She cried frantically at the last part.
He then asked her, "What if I were in that spot? Would you try to save me?"
The aunt's eyes widened upon hearing that. No one has ever asked her or Spiker that before. If James were hanging from a cliff, would either of them saved him from certain death? She could tell he was wanting an honest answer, and he did not know the honest answer to get her out of this. Then suddenly, the branch gave weigh, snapping from the cliff, as Sponge fell from the cliff, screaming "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" before disappearing into the fog surrounding the sea below and a splash was heard. Due to her being crippled, her morbid weight and never learning to swim in her life, she never swam back up. She just sank to the bottom of the sea below.
Back at the top of the cliff, James just stood there, silently and stunned. His horrible aunts, the only other guardians and living relatives he had, were gone. He should feel excited about it, but instead, he felt a mixture of gloom, guilt and sickness. After all, he was responsible for their deaths, and this was all because their torment had driven it to them. He tried to stop the aunts from drinking the poison he slipped in, but he failed to stop Spiker from doing so, and he didn't kill Sponge but he just stood there questioning if she'd do the same thing for him if he was in her position.
"What have I done?" asked the guilt-ridden James to no one in particular.
Then a familiar finger-less gloved hand appeared over James's shoulder. He looked and saw the old man right next to him, saying, "Well, it's done now. You're free."
The boy then removed his hand, asking the man, "Was it worth it though? They may have been horrible but there should have been a less deadly way of ridding me of them."
"It was for the best, James," said a soft French female voice. James turned and saw a creature emerging from the fog. It was a human-sized spider with a white face, four golden eyes, a white and black-striped abdomen with a roll of thread, tall black boots at the end of her six legs, black gloves of her hands, a green bandana around her neck and a dark blue beret. "They were the worst examples of human beings and would never get better."
James then screamed in fright as he hid next to the old man.
"A giant spider! Please, don't eat me!"
"I don't think she will eat you, James," said the old soldier. "Especially not after how you saved her from them."
James was surprised as he turned to the spider, "You-you were the spider in my window?" She nodded in confirmation. "But how are you so huge? And how are you talking? And where did you get those clothes?"
The spider explained with a smile, "It was a result of ze magic crocodile tongues growing deep into the ground and I even ended up swallowing one, ending up ze way you see moi now."
"Aye, but that's not all the magic has had its effect on," said the old soldier in agreement. "I think you should come back to the house and have a look for yourself."
So Miss Spider and the old man brought James back to the house and to the boy's surprise, something truly marvelous and magic did happen as a result of the crocodile tongues getting into the ground while he was gone. His eyes were widened as wide as they can be as he looked at this new astonishing sight: a humongous peach about the size of a house had grown from the old peach tree, and it was all because of the magic of the crocodile tongues.
James now had his life changed once again. Some aspects were to be frowned upon, while other aspects were to be looked at with admiration. What became of him with the giant peach after this? Well, that's a whole different story.
The End.
Voice Cast:
Nathan Mack: James Henry Trotter
Joanna Lumley: Aunt Spiker
Miriam Margolyes: Aunt Sponge
Alan Tudyk: The Old Man
Susan Sarandon: Miss Spider
Steven Culp: Mr. Trotter
Susan Turner-Cray: Mrs. Trotter
Jeffrey Wright: Utau The Watcher
"In Memory of Pete Postelthwaithe"
There, I got my excuse to off the women who I've simultaneously feared and hated since childhood. If you're asking in regards to further Disney AU What If stories, I do not intend to have murder be the main topic.
And to the persistent guest who refuses to reveal his or herself and keeps leaving comments of their ideas, I WON'T, repeat, WON'T do any of your stories no matter how many times you ask me! I won't do "The Boy and the Wolf-Girl", "The Mouse Prince", "The First Digi-Easter Rabbit", "The Enchanted World of The Cat in the Hat: The Pony Princess' New Clothes" or any other idea you keep cooking up that I don't have time or interest in! I have my own ideas to keep myself busy and they are very hard to complete. Now, I am giving YOU an option: either help give suggestions to MY stories (not yours), leave me alone or at least identify yourself so I can reply to you better on a different website like DA.