Chapter 19: A Dangerous Game
"SCARLETT NO!"
Mindy bolted upright, but instead of awaking in the guestroom of Sorcerer Yen Sid's Tower she found herself in a boundless sea of black encircling her on all sides. She inhaled sharply when she caught a flicker of movement in her peripheral vision.
She narrowed her eyes as she peered into the darkness, "Scarlett?"
"Not quite." The hairs on the back of Mindy's neck raised as a chillingly familiar voice reverberated throughout the abyss… "To tell you the truth, I was beginning to think that you would never show up."
She attempted to make herself look tinier by drawing her knees closer to her chest.
"Come now." The voice was chastising but in a soft mocking sort of way, "I have thousands upon thousands of shifters to grovel at my feet… so there's really no need for that."
Shifter?
"A shifter to put it simply, is an unseen being." Her blood ran cold as The Projectionist answered her silent question, "It can twist and morph its shapeless body to blend in with its surroundings in order to closely observe the characters in which this world inhabits. They make sure that everything in my utopia goes according to plan, and that no character is behind schedule… however, your little grasshopper has been absent from his own world for quite some time now... usually, that would mean containment in The Room… but I am in a generous mood due to your unexpected return."
Mindy knew for a fact that wasn't true.
Her brain was speedily retrieving the memories of Wendy's story about Fantasia Gardens and how Chernabog protected the inhabitants, but she purged them from her train of thought before The Projectionist could reach them. How did you do that what-what else can you do? Are you going to torture me?
"Dear thing… if you think that I'm here to hurt you, then you are mistaken." The Projectionist purred. "I only wish to talk. Let's start over not as enemies but as…acquaintances."
"Why can't you just leave me and my thoughts alone?" The inquiry was uttered so quietly that she hadn't expected him to have heard her.
Which meant of COURSE he had.
The Projectionist popped into existence…his gaunt, pale face inches away from her own. Mindy fumbled to look away as her heartbeat accelerated to an impalpable speed. She held her breath as she awaited his next words.
"Isn't it considered rude to throw out a distinguished guest when they've only just arrived?"
"That depends… isn't it considered rude to invade an innocent girl's subconscious without her permission?" Mindy dared to throw back as she stumbled to her feet.
"Innocent is subjective."
"What do you want with me?"
"I want nothing from you." He insisted. "I only request to converse in peace… now let's take a look at those pretty eyes of yours."
Before she could protest, The Projectionist roughly gripped her chin and forced her to gaze into his hollow crimson orbs. They sparkled with an unbridled playful energy but also a lecherousness that left a creeping sensation of dread in her stomach.
"Hello dear thing."
She hurriedly turned away to observe their surroundings. "Where are we?"
"My, you're incredibly inquisitive this evening. It's odd…I don't remember you asking so many questions when you were younger." Before she could ask what he meant, The Projectionist twirled his pen-shaped cane as he made his way to a certain corner of the darkened room, "Welcome to your Dreamscape...!"
He yanked a metal cord that dangled from the ceiling… Mindy grimaced at the sight that met her eyes.
The so-called "Dreamscape" was nothing but a plain black-and-white sitting room with boring leather armchairs, a perfectly ordinary coffee table, and a dusty ebony piano in the corner. Dilapidated bookshelves had been pressed against the back wall filled with leaflets on science, mathematics, and economics, and a plethora of nonfiction subjects. The epitome of drabness came from the springy beige sofa in the center of the room. The only splash of color came from the golden lightbulb that illuminated the otherwise lifeless space.
She truly had no words to describe how underwhelmed she was at that moment.
The Projectionist leaned in to whisper in her ear. "This is your cue to gasp with wonder and awe."
At what? The potted plants?
"Those were my personal touch."
Shit!
Her cheeks reddened when The Projectionist chortled in response. She opened her mouth to apologize for internally cussing, when he brushed past her and leaned down to pick one up only for it to wilt automatically. The Projectionist clicked his tongue and slapped his palms to remove the excess dust, before leaning forward on his cane.
"As you can see, I'm not particularly skilled when it comes to creating… things." He admitted with a nearly downcast expression before smirking impishly, "You on the other hand… are becoming quite the little nuisance."
"Whaaat are you talking about?"
"In case you haven't noticed." The Projectionist pointed to the lightbulb overhead, "Your powers are returning sooner than I anticipated…why is that I wonder?"
Play dumb!
"P-powers?"
Not that dumb!
"Don't be incompetent!" He snapped, causing her to flinch in response, "The last thing that I need is for my nemesis to be incompetent…you're an anomaly, remember?"
Mindy wordlessly glanced down at the Amulet of Illusions clasped around her neck…
"Now the Dreamscape is the corner of your mind where you lo and behold, dream." She forced herself to pay attention to him as he resumed his rant, "It only appears this way because this is what your imagination wishes to see."
"Or what your imagination wishes to see." He quirked a brow at her sudden bold statement, "This is another way that you've corrupted my mind…isn't it?"
"Whatever gave it away?" The Projectionist's voice oozed with sarcasm.
Mindy could do nothing but stare at him in astonished silence. "What did I ever do to you? What could I have possibly done to cause the enslavement of billions of Disney characters?"
"If you come with me willingly, I will provide all of the answers to your seemingly endless myriad of questions." The Projectionist placed a hand over his heart, "You have my word."
She fought the urge to snort at how authentic his promise sounded. "The last time I made a deal on those terms, I got locked up… and from the looks of it, you intend to do the exact same thing."
"Yes but unlike that pirate captain, I won't deny my intentions." He swore… he then rocked back-and-forth on his heels as he asked in an eerily amicable tone, "But don't you want to understand why? Go on, ask…I know you want to…I can see it in your eyes."
Mindy crossed her arms, "Yeah, but you can't bribe me with knowledge. I'm not another one of your puppets that you can control whenever you want… I'm far more complicated than that."
"Believe me, I can tell." The Projectionist proceeded to circle her, and inspected her features meticulously, "You're definitely not one of those silly cartoons that's for certain." He paused as a thought sprung into his mind, "It just occurred to me that since I began my hostile takeover, I never caught your name… what is it?"
The question itself was innocent enough, but she couldn't bring herself to answer... it felt, wrong somehow. When he noticed her hesitation, he placed a firm hand on her shoulder. Mindy's breath hitched in her throat as he traced tiny circles with his claw-like fingers.
"Shh… shh…don't fret." His tone sounded reassuring in a strange sort of way… and it frightened her, "I can't take names… even I'm not that powerful."
"Melinda!" She squeaked as she yanked herself out of his grasp. Realizing what she'd done, she cleared her throat. "I mean… um, hehe my name is Melinda… but for the sake of simplicity, I go by Mindy."
"It suits you." The Projectionist stated with a nod, "I've never been fond of nicknames, but I must say that I much prefer yours in comparison to your full name."
Mindy took a couple of steps back, "Ha…glad to see that I have your approval."
"You needn't be so afraid of me princess." His lopsided mouth curled into a convincingly genuine smile, "In the Dreamscape, it is impossible for me to kill you."
When she once again refused to respond, The Projectionist let out a sigh as he slumped into one of the chairs. "Well… I can't say that I didn't try. But no matter…we have all evening to discuss our plight, so please have a seat." He gestured to the opposite chair across from him, "I would hate for you to be uncomfortable in my company."
Mindy wanted to blurt out that she was already uncomfortable in his company, but she held herself back. She could tell from how tense his smile was that she was already treading into dangerous territory. She had only witnessed a fragment of what his magic could do, and she was not interested in seeing what other tricks he had up his sleeve.
So she approached the chair in trepidation.
The Projectionist drummed his fingers on the arm of his seat, "Now… what is it that you wish to do?"
Did he seriously just ask me that?
"Yes I did, and I'm waiting patiently for an answer."
Shit! I keep forgetting he can do that!
The Projectionist couldn't take it anymore, and held his sides as boisterous laughter peeled from his mouth. Mindy buried her burning face in her hands as she attempted to cover-up her humiliating mistake, "Oh uh, sorry! Uh, um… d-discuss our plight?"
"Oh yes of course, all in due time." He wheezed with a dismissive wave of his hand, "But first, why don't we play a little game in order to break the ice between us?"
"G-game?"
"What's a bit of competition between fri-oops I mean… acquaintances."
"We're not even that… I just met you."
"Yes, but I would like to get to know you a bit more."
"So you can uncover all my secrets?"
"Precisely."
She was taken aback by how honest this declaration was…as nonchalantly as she could, she started to rise from her seat while doing awkward finger-guns, "Well that's too bad haha… because frankly, I don't want you to get to know me. S-so I'll just-"
A familiar goopy tentacle grabbed her arm before she could make a break for it, "-if you won't give me answers dear thing, how can you expect me to provide answers in response?"
I can't argue with that.
Mindy had no choice but to settle back into her chair as the blot of ink vanished into the shadows, "What do you have in mind?"
"Have you ever played chess?"
"I'm familiar with how the pieces move for the most part, but I've never actually played before."
"Oh, something tells me this game was made for you."
The Projectionist snapped his fingers, and a cloud of inky-black smoke engulfed the coffee table. When it cleared, it had grown taller, and a game of chess had been set up. The pieces were covered in cobwebs and some were even cracked in some places. They looked like they hadn't been used in centuries, but Mindy refused to let an ounce of disgust show on her countenance in fear that The Projectionist would be offended.
"Which color would you prefer?"
"Surprise me."
The Projectionist hummed, "I'm prone to black myself."
"I can see that."
"Ladies first." He cooed as he gestured to the game.
Mindy sucked in a breath… then, she moved her pawn to F4.
Her opponent scoffed in apparent disapproval, "You choose to move a pawn?"
"What else would I have moved?"
The Projectionist's roguish grin widened as he reached out and moved his knight to C6, "I strongly believe in moving the knights first."
Mindy didn't hesitate to slide her queen to F2.
He looked up for an explanation to which she shrugged in reply, "Hehe… I needed to shake things up a little bit?"
The Projectionist's eyes lingered on hers for a moment… he then shook his head and proceeded to study the board with cold calculating eyes. After a beat of quiet contemplation, he moved his same knight to B4.
Why did he do that? It seems kind of boring to move the same piece a second time…not to mention counterproductive.
"It's called strategy." The Projectionist corrected her, "Something which you lack."
At this point, she wanted to beat her head into a wall.
"I have plenty of strategy... uh." She smirked as she attempted to kill off the knight with one of her pawns, "Haha! Take that!"
"Your problem is that you're reckless." His upturned lips twitched as he stopped her from following through with the murder, "A pawn doesn't kill like that…it can only kill diagonally."
She bit her lip and moved her pawn back to its original position. Panicked (as well as a bit flustered), she plopped her queen to F3. The Projectionist rolled his eyes mockingly and moved his other knight to H6. It took a fraction of a second for Mindy to slide her queen to H5 to block his path.
His brows shot up…then he gave a snicker as he moved his knight back to G8, "I would deem you a clever girl, but it's painstakingly clear that you were thinking on the fly. In other words… you weren't thinking at all."
Mindy played with a loose strand of her muddy-brown hair, "Well…some say that my instincts are my greatest asset."
"But they are also your greatest weakness." The Projectionist's seemingly permanent smile never faltered as he rose from his seat, "And because of that, I can see that this has been a waste of my precious time."
Her brows knitted together, "Might I ask why?"
"To put it simply, you displease me." He answered, "I had high expectations for you you foolish, foolish girl. I was hoping that you would be a more experienced version of the person you were six years ago…but it appears that I've done my job too well. You aren't everything that you're cracked up to be…in fact, you're not even a shadow of the girl you were before."
"With all due respect, you don't know a thing about me…we literally just met a week ago."
"I beg to differ…I know quite a bit about you from that game alone."
"But it's not even over yet."
"It might as well be." He countered, "You jump into dangerous situations without planning beforehand… improvising is an admirable skill to have, but it's also-now, how should I put this? Deplorable."
"But I don't-"
"-Oh the only admirable aspect of your personality is how inquisitive you are about the world around you." The Projectionist cut her off as with a mirthless, condescending chuckle, "The rest is clear… you're a typical Disney princess who's in over her head and is blissfully unaware of the dangerous obstacles all around her. You do think things through, but you still jump head-first into trouble because you don't consider the all of the consequences. You just believe that everything will work out because you're naïve, and think that Disney logic will always save the day in the end. You're not using all of the available resources around you in order to solve problems, and that is precisely why I do not feel threatened by you. Sooner or later, you will wake up to how unprepared you are for these circumstances, you will leave with your tail between your legs, and that will be the end of it."
"You haven't even scratched the surface of who I am." Mindy growled.
"As true as that may be, I regret to inform you that I am not interested in learning more that I already have." The Projectionist's eyes twinkled apologetically, "I'm sorry dear thing, but you are and will never be a threat in my eyes… good night."
With that, he twirled his cane as he started to exit the sitting room while whistling a vaguely familiar tune. Right as he was about the cross the threshold into the void, Mindy stood from her seat and lifted her chin defiantly.
God, I hope I don't regret this.
"If it's any consolation your Projectionist…ness, the feeling is mutual."
This caused him to freeze in his tracks, "I'm sorry?"
"You heard me." She inspected her fingernails as she visibly struggled to maintain a stoic expression on her face, "Sure, the first time we met was the most traumatizing moment of my entire life but… now I see that it was all just an act."
"Care to elaborate?"
"Look, the whole thing with the tentacles and the booming voice was fine, but it wasn't that original." Sweat beaded down Mindy's temple as she pointlessly tried to get herself to stop talking, "I mean, plenty of Disney villains wear lots of black, have ominous names, and have maniacal laughs…so what makes you in particular stand out above the rest?" When he couldn't provide an answer, she continued, "Exactly…just like how you said that I was a typical Disney princess, you're a typical Disney villain… and because of that, I'm not intimidated by you either."
The Projectionist said nothing.
There was a pause…and then his chest rumbled with laughter.
Mindy watched in dumbfounded silence as he continued to guffaw uproariously.
She then let out an ear-piercing shriek as soon as he whirled around to meet her eyes. Mindy scrambled away from The Projectionist with frightened tear-filled eyes. She gasped as her back hit a table next to the sofa, and gripped to it for dear life.
Something was… off about him to say the least.
The Projectionist was still the same villain in the same checker-patterned suit with the same laughably pale complexion, the same oddly-shaped goatee, and the same mesmerizing crimson eyes. But…his appearance had become so off-putting and bizarre that it stunned her speechless…
His suit was wrinkled, torn, and the black squares appeared to have been crudely scribbled in with a colored pencil. There were now cracks in his porcelain face that oozed with lumpy splotches of ink, and his red eyes flickered spastically in the murky darkness.
The rest of his features had plunged head-first into the abyss known as the uncanny valley.
She couldn't help but wonder how it was possible for someone to have such a crooked mouth, yet still manage to have two flawlessly symmetrical eyebrows. She pondered how it was possible for someone to have such a disproportional chin, but an acceptably proportional nose. His goatee had transformed into a jagged zigzagged brushstroke, and his thick mass of ebony hair floated above his head in disheveled frizzy locks.
All-in-all The Projectionist was almost like a real-life marionette puppet, and it terrified her to no end.
You just couldn't keep your goddamn mouth shut could you?!
"How is this for a typical Disney Villain?" His voice appeared to have dropped an octave, and became distorted and muddled as a result.
Mindy tried to form a response, but each time she opened her mouth to speak, all that would come out were strangled gasps of hysteria. It felt like she was having another attack, but she somehow remained standing and her chest wasn't searing with overwhelming pain this time.
"Now, don't be frightened dear thing."He leered as he stalked towards her. "I can't kill you remember?"
She was too stunned to move as he reached out and cradled her face; wiping her tears away with his needle-like thumbs. "But that doesn't mean that I can't make you suffer."
Mindy stared up at him with a mix of incredulity and unwavering terror, "What are you?"
"I am the Projectionist…and I will do whatever it takes to bring stability and order back to this upside-down world no matter the cost."
The world spun like a record as those crimson dots penetrated both her soul and her essence simultaneously. She wanted to run, she wanted to scream, and she wanted to die all at once. At that moment, anything else was more preferable than staring into those piercing eyes.
But she couldn't…
Those captivating eyes seemed to hold her in place with nothing but their beauty. They were filled to the brim with unrelenting warmth, goodness, and light. But whenever she tried to yank herself away from them, an unbelievably gelid sensation flooded throughout her body, and her heart would feel empty and lifeless.
Besides, Mindy couldn't run even if she wanted to… The Projectionist was still holding her face in his outstretched hands, and she could tell by their firmness they had no intention of letting her go.
Right as her legs gave out from the building pressure in her skull, a swirling tornado of light appeared above their heads. Mindy was then scooped up, and skyrocketed through the portal.
As the vortex vanished, The Projectionist's lopsided mouth formed into a twisted lopsided grin.
"That's right…that's right dear thing… with your tail between your legs."
