The Wizard continued to be in a daze as a small contingency of Winkie guards and the witch herself made their way past the finely manicured gardens and back into the castle interior. Despite the birds chirping and singing, the Wizard's mind was racing and filled with a million thoughts.
Glinda will do the right thing. He still thinking of the conversation he just had with Knuck. Glinda will sort all of this out. She had to. She sent me here. She can't abandon me like this…she won't abandon me like this…she won't…
In order to take his mind off of the troubling developments with the Emerald City, the Wizard decided to continue working on his blueprints. Even though they were simply ideas he had on a piece of paper, tinkering with his would-be inventions was cathartic and gave him a certain kind of peace. As he continued to work on the opulent dining room table, his thoughts would intermittently turn to Theodora. Ever since Agatha's death, her behavior had become increasingly erratic and bizarre. At times, she would walk into the dining room, cross her arms across her chest and stare at him as he would gently trace his pencil on his blueprint. She would then turn around and leave without saying a word. This would happen repeatedly throughout the day. The Wizard acted like he didn't see her while he was studying his own designs, but her bright red coat and top hat was unmistakable and would catch the corner of his eye. And while he never made eye contact with her, he sensed that she was staring at him from across the expansive dining room before turning around and walking away. While he tried not to notice, it was still unsettling.
After a while, the Wizard looked up from his blueprint and caught Bella's attention as she was cleaning various gold-plated cups and various ruby diamonds. She appeared tired and occupied, but she slowly made her way towards the dining table.
"Can you bring me Finley?", the Wizard asked.
His voice distracted her from her duties as she raised her head towards him and looked confused. "Finley…who…who is that?"
"He's…he's the talking monkey. You know…who likes bananas!" But Bella just stared at him incredulously, not knowing who the Wizard was referring to. He then looked down and gestured with his hands before looking towards the maid again with a slightly annoyed expression on his face. "He's…he's the talking monkey! You know…uhhh…in a bellhop uniform!" The Wizard grew frustrated at himself that he could not explain in more detail to Bella to make her understand who he wanted to speak to. His frustration also stemmed from the fact that he still had a lot on his mind about the conversation with Knuck.
But she finally relented and gestured that she would assist with the Wizard's request. "Okay, let me get a runner…" She then briskly walked out of the dining room.
It took a while, but when the monkey finally came to the Wizard, he promptly put him to work.
"I need your monkey paws right here…" He then showed where Finley should hold his paw so that the Wizard could draw on the blueprint. He then flashed a cheeky smile at Finley and revealed the real reason for why the monkey was there. "I also wanted to see you again."
Finley continued to help the Wizard. However, they were soon interrupted by an upset and sobbing witch, who ran into the dining room with a bunch of the Wizard's clothes. She then hurled it onto the floor, turned around and ran out of the room.
The pair looked up as the witch did this. The Wizard then poked his monkey companion on the shoulder as Theodora ran out of the dining room.
"Finley…", the Wizard asked hesitantly as he sighed, his pencil tapping the table. "Why is my underwear on the floor?"
"Uhhh…Wizard…", the monkey looked at him. "The better question is what did you do now?" But the Wizard shot a glare at his companion and whispered at him. "I didn't do anything…for once."
The sobbing grew closer again as the witch entered the dining room with a greater handful of the Wizard's clothes. She tried flinging it in the Wizard's general direction, but she was so distraught that some of the clothes landed on top of her head. She then turned and started to run out of the dining room once again with the remainder of his clothes falling from her head and onto the carpet.
"Finley…", the Wizard asked once again. "Why is more of my underwear on the floor?" But the monkey simply put his paw over his face and shook his head.
"Oh, Jesus fucking Christ…", the Wizard mumbled to himself as he abruptly put down his pencil. He sighed once more as he started to stand and slowly walk towards the hallway. Fuck me fuck me fuck me fuck me…what is going on now? He had enough problems to deal with.
"Theodora…", the Wizard called out, but he did not hear a response. Instead, he simply heard the distant and continued sound of her sobbing. He glanced at the monkey. "Come on Finley…let's go find out what happened now…" He continued down the hallway with his monkey companion in tow as he grabbed his clothes that were scattered all over the hallway along the way. As he carried his clothes with both hands, his voice grew more urgent and showed greater concern. "Theodora…"
As they continued past some of the vacant bedrooms, they finally reached the witch's bedroom, which was a complete mess. His clothes were strown all over the floor as she was grabbing more that were in nearby cabinets, some of which weren't even his own.
"Theodora…what's going on? What are you doing?" The Wizard entered her room.
She continued flinging clothes at him with small pouts, but she was so distraught that they didn't go far and landed near her feet.
"You think you can just use me as a plaything!", the witch uttered between sobs. "You think you can play with my emotions like this!" She was borderline incoherent and inconsolable as she spoke. "You think you can side with her!?"
"Theodora, what the hell are you talking about?" He tried to grab her, but she ran back to her cabinets and out of his reach. "Stop it! What are you doing?" He would have grabbed her hat if she was still wearing it, but she had since changed her wardrobe from earlier in the day. And despite how inconsistent the witch was when it came to her emotions, her choice in attire always remained consistent.
"I was a fool to trust you again", the witch declared between her tearless crying fits. "I couldn't believe I didn't see it right under my nose…" As she spoke, she continued running back and forth from throwing clothes onto her floor and then back to her drawers.
The Wizard's voice became louder. "Theodora…stop! Look at me!" As she ran towards the center of her bedroom with a pile of clothes to throw on the floor, he grabbed her by the shoulders and began to shake her. "Look at me! Look at me!" He started to scream at her as he shook her with increased intensity. "Look at me! What's going on?" In all of this commotion, little Finley was silently peeking his worried head into the bedroom.
The witch dropped his clothes as her gaze met the Wizard's. She initially appeared stupefied, as if in a daze. "What's…going on…" But then she snapped out of it as she looked at him with a renewed expression of anger.
"You…", she scowled at him. "You know exactly what is going on, Wizard! It was apparent from the very beginning!" She glared at him as her eyes narrowed. "You want Bella, don't you?"
He cringed at her accusation, which seemed completely out of touch with reality. He really had no interest in her maids whatsoever. And while Bella was probably the oldest and most beautiful of the maids he had seen in the castle, he did not have any interest in her.
Okay, maybe Theodora was right when the Wizard fell for Glinda, but this time, things were completely different. The witch was absolutely wrong.
He slowly shook his head as the witch stared at him, her eyes wide and her jaw tightly shut. "No…", he finally blurted out.
But she pursed her lips and pointed at him angrily. "Oh yeah…we will see about that…", the witch barked as she waved for the nearest Winkie Guard that was across from her bedroom to enter. "Bring in Bella…NOW", she screamed at him.
"But Mistress…she's…"
The guard was angrily interrupted as the witch placed her hands on her hips and continued to shout at him. "I DON'T CARE WHAT SHE'S DOING! BRING HER IN AT ONCE!"
Has this woman lost her mind, the Wizard thought to himself as the witch angrily and anxiously tapped the plush red bedroom carpet with her black heeled shoe. How on earth did she get this idea? The Wizard's chest was pounding from Theodora's latest rageful accusation. Her increasingly erratic behavior was starting to make him quite nervous. He didn't know what was going to happen next.
Two guards escorted the maid into the witch's bedroom. "Ahhhh, you are finally here", she sneered at her maid contemptuously.
"Theodora, please, I already told you that this isn't true…" The Wizard tried to calm the witch down in a pleading and soothing voice as he whispered into her ear, but she flashed him a quick and intense glare before turning her angry gaze back to her maid.
"Yes Mistress, what can I…"
"SHUT UP", the witch screamed at her as she pointed at Bella accusatorily. "I want to know ONE thing and DON'T you DARE lie to me or your punishment will be worse than death itself", she screeched. Her tone was shrill and it reminded the Wizard how Theodora sounded when she confronted him and Glinda in front of the Quadlings. The witch clenched her white teeth together before speaking again. "Did you or did you not do something with the Wizard behind my back!?"
The question made Bella confused. "Huh? What do you…"
"NEVER MIND WHAT I MEANT!" The witch looked so angry and mad that her cheeks were as red as her gown. She then mumbled to herself as she briefly looked down at the bedroom carpet. "Fool I was to not think of the question I wanted to ask…"
The witch then glared at her maid again. "This is what I meant and you BETTER answer honestly or you will KNOW what pain and suffering is like! Did you or did you not dance, kiss or take the Wizard out and explore the castle grounds without my permission!" The witch grated her teeth again. "YES OR NO! ANSWER NOW!"
The Wizard placed his hand onto his face as he started to shake his head in embarrassment. What on earth, or rather, what in Oz is happening? He felt ashamed at this latest outburst, great pity for the maid who was being screamed at and also fear as to what Theodora would do next.
Her eyes wide, the maid responded as truthfully as she could. "No." She began to earnestly shake her head.
The witch looked at her maid with much fury, but finally waved her off and then slammed the heavy, thick gold-plated double doors to her bedroom shut. She then shot a rageful glance back at the Wizard as her booming voice was heard on the other side of the thick framed doors. A small group of Winkie maids joined Bella and Finley to hear what the commotion was about.
"Now listen to me Wizard! I don't care what Bella has to say!" She then started to frantically and anxiously wave her hands in front of her face. "You give me so much…thoughts I never have and this is a problem!" She continued to glare at him angrily as she raised her finger at him.
"You are NOT to talk to any of my Winkie subjects without my expressed permission! Got it!?" She curled her lips in a look of disgust as she continued to glare at him. "You are not to talk to Finley without my permission! He is mine now Wizard! He is mine! You gave him to me! He is mine and you will not talk to him without my expressed permission! Do I make myself clear?!"
The witch continued to raise her voice as she made further demands of him, her tone sharp and cutting. Her eyes were narrow.
"You will not leave my castle without my express permission, either! Remember Wizard that you were nothing when I found you! Do you remember Wizard?! Do you?! You were nothing when I found you and because of me, you are now the Wizard of Oz! If it wasn't for me, you would never have gotten to where you are today. You owe me everything, Wizard! You owe me everything and the only person you will talk to is me! You will NOT talk to Bella, you will NOT talk to Finley, you will NOT talk to any of my guards and you will NOT talk to anyone else unless I give you my express permission! You think those fools at the Emerald City care about you, Wizard? You think you are going to say some sweet things and they will then forgive you? They won't! Because they don't care about you! And you are PATHETIC if you think otherwise. The only person in all of Oz who cares about you is me! You will do everything I tell you to do and you will not question anything I say from here on forward! Do you understand?"
As she spoke, the witch's wide eyes began to swell with tears as she quickly closed them and used the sleeve of her flowing red gown to wipe them away before continuing.
"…I care about you so much, Wizard. I care about you more than anyone else at the Emerald City and look at what they did to you! Look at what Glinda did to you! They did the same thing to you as they did to me! They tossed me out! They abandoned me! My life was hell and everything was so lonely and sad and miserable because of them…but then you came along, Wizard. You must never go back to them! You are never going to go back to them! Forget Glinda. She never cared about you. She is your sworn enemy now! The Emerald City is your sworn enemy! You don't need them and you can rule those fools from here. Let them come or better yet, we will retake that city for ourselves and woe to those who try and stop us! I am your only ally, Wizard! I am the only one who can help you get to where you need to be…"
The Wizard was silent and did not say anything as the witch ended her rant. Her voice then became soft once more.
"I want to be alone now…" Her voice then became sharp once more. "So, leave me alone!" And with that, the witch turned away from him and opened the door to her bedroom as a small group of her Winkie maids scurried frantically away as they attended to their work duties once more, desperate to avoid her wrath.
The Wizard threw his hands in the air as the witch closed the bedroom door as piles of clothes were scattered all over the bedroom carpet. His mind was numb as he slowly started to pick up the garments.