Chapter 41: Reprises and Sunrises

She was brought to by a pressure on her chest…

Mindy sputtered and spasmed for a brief terrifying moment…she then coughed up a combination of saltwater and bile as she wheezed helplessly on the beach. The concerned countenances of Dakota and Scarlett let out sighs of immense relief from above her.

"Are you alright?! How many fingers am I holding up?!" the latter demanded as she held out three digits.

"Six…"

"Close enough."

"What…what happened?" Mindy tried to sit up, but found that she was unable to due to an invisible weight on her exposed stomach.

"You got too close to the gunpowder explosion, and fell unconscious. I tried to warn you, but you dove underwater before you could hear me. Speaking of which, it's a miracle that you didn't become deaf afterwards." Dakota admitted, "I tried to rescue you, but you were sinking so fast I couldn't catch up."

"You're lucky that I found you when I did." Scarlett chimed in, "You were about to crash into a buttload of splintered driftwood."

"Thanks girl…well, that's two near-death experiences concerning the ocean I can cross off the bucket list." she then went into a panic, "Wait, where's Jiminy?!"

"Right here!" the cricket poked his head out from the confides of her wettened satchel, and wrung out his top hat on the beach. "Don't you worry about me, I'm a survivor!"

"You sure are!" Dakota encouraged.

"Where's Ariel?"

As if on cue, the little mermaid bobbed to the surface with the form of a person entangled in her arms. She grunted as she struggled to suspend both herself and the man above the waves. Dakota and Scarlett hurried to her side, and assisted her with lifting Prince Eric up and out of the water, and laying him beside Mindy on the beach. Not wanting to intrude on the scene, she willed herself to sit up and with some difficulty managed to join her two friends on edge of the shoreline. Ariel gently blew on the prince's face, willing him to open his eyes. When he didn't, she bit her lip. Scuttle flew down from the darkened sky and waddled towards the two.

"Is he… dead?"

"It's hard to say." The seagull picked up Eric's foot, and held it up to his temple… after a few seconds, he deflated, "Oh, I can't make out a heartbeat."

"I don't believe that bird has ever been to medical school." Dakota said through his teeth.

Scarlett and Mindy shushed him before returning their attention to the scene.

"No look, he's breathing." Ariel tucked a strand of his jet-black hair behind his ear, "He's so beautiful…what would I give to live where you are? What would I pay to stay here beside you?"

Just then, a wave crashed onto some rocks and Flounder and Sebastian appeared. The crustacean glanced up wearily only to see his ward singing for an unconscious human with a soft, gentle smile.

"What would I do to see you, smiling at me?" Sebastian's jaw dropped, but Scuttle clamped his mouth shut with a feathered finger as he grinned up at the couple, "Where would we walk? Where would we run? If we could stay all day in the sun?"

Mindy shielded her eyes as the clouds parted, and the sun shone down like a single spotlight on the pair. Eric's eyes cracked open just enough to see the little mermaid caressing his face.

"Just you and me, then I could be, part of your world…"

Before anyone could make proper introductions, the bark of a dog cut through the silence.

Ariel, Mindy, Dakota, and Scarlett simultaneously dove into the water. A fan of green, purple, blue, and red tails flapped in the air before disappearing beneath the waves. They scrambled to hide behind a slanted rock as Grimsby and Max the dog caught up to the prince. As Eric started to explain how a girl rescued and sang to him, Max splashed into the water and nearly found their hiding spot. When Eric, Grimsby, and Max started to walk away Sebastian spoke up.

"We're just gonna forget this whole thing ever happened. The Sea King will never know! You won't tell him, I won't tell him, and especially you three won't tell him! I will stay in one piece." The crab brought his claws together as if he was praying to the sky.

"You know they say that snitches get bitches." Scarlett pointed out.

Sebastian blanched, "What?!"

"That's not how the saying goes dummy." Mindy chuckled, "It's snitches get stiches."

"Oh right!"

"Wow!"

Realizing her mistake, the trio of friends laughed so hard that tears were streaming down their cheeks. Even though it wasn't that funny to outside spectators, to the circle of close childhood friends it was the most hysterical thing in the whole world and their laughter was contagious. Mindy hushed her friends whilst still giggling as Ariel began her dramatic solo:

"I don't know when…I don't know how, but I know something's starting right now….." She climbed to the top of the rock with a lovestruck smile as she watched a retreating Eric, "Watch and you'll see…someday I'll be…part of your….world!"

A ginormous wave splashed upwards, catching everyone off-guard.

Scuttle swiftly flew out of the way before it could hit him. The three mer-humans weren't so lucky, and were drenched from head-to-tail. They laughed again as Ariel belted out her final note and her fiery-red locks of hair blasted behind her. Mindy's cheeks glowed as she brushed her wet, tangled muddy-brown hair out of her face. The salty scent of the ocean was pleasant despite the fact that until a couple weeks ago she'd never even set foot on a beach since she was six.

Mindy felt a tidal wave of nostalgia wash over her as swarms of childhood memories rapidly pieced themselves together in her mind: boogie boarding, playing mermaids, building couches out of sand, collecting seashells, and spotting dolphins and whales.

It was then that she decided she liked the beach.


"Okay troops! I've just finished putting a magical barrier around this shipwreck that'll prevent anyone from reaching us!"

"But Mindy! What'll happen to someone if they try to come in?!"

"Glad you asked! If someone was stupid enough to enter, they'd turn into pickles! I uh, was hungry what can I say?"

"Oh, so they'd essentially turn into Pickle Rick?"

"I guess."

"Can you go one day without throwing a pop culture reference into your sentences?"

"Excuse me Bloom and Gloom, but they add way more pizazz than your constant string of swear words!"

"I whole-heartedly agree!"

"Put a cork in it cricket!"

"The point is, we're safe here for now. The question is, how the hell are we gonna get out of this tight spot? Literally any suggestions are encouraged!"

"Mindy, can't you just-you know, poof us out of here and get us back on track?"

"I…huh, I actually never thought of that…I tend to do that a lot…well I guess I could try."

There was a beat of silence from the abandoned shipwreck…then, a loud magical-sounding pop erupted from it. The Atlantean warriors floating a few paces away, chose to not take their chances with inspecting the interior and reluctantly swam back to their princess. Once they'd explained the situation, Kida ordered everybody back onto the narwhal-shaped vessel, and they returned to the surface.

The group inside of the shipwreck remained silent for a good three to five minutes…

"I underestimated your superb ability to mimic other people's voices." Wendy piped up, "I'm not sure if I should be relieved or frightened by this fact…since it managed to save all of our lives, I'll settle for the former."

The Lost Boys let out hoots of laughter as they rolled around on the sand.

"I wish we could've seen their faces! That would've been priceless!"

"That was our best prank yet!"

"A prank Mindy herself would be proud of!"

"Wait till she hears about this!"

"Oh I heard everything." Peter continued in his spot-on impression of the girl, "I've never been prouder of you Peter! You're so clever and smart and handsome and courageous and lovely and-"

"-Wow, I really said all of that? I must've hit my head on a rock or something to have sung your praises without prompting." Peter jumped and spun around to face an amused Melinda Maye Singh. She was smirking whilst crossing her arms with Dakota and Scarlett on either side of her.

Without missing a beat, Peter crossed his arms right back and returned the smirk. "Or, you've finally realized just how great I really am and gave credit where it's due."

"Oh the cleverness of you." Mindy teased, "But all jokes aside, that was absolutely incredible. My only question is, how the heck did you know what Rick and Morty was?"

"I don't." He admitted, "I heard Davendork and Bloom and Gloom arguing about it back on the ship."

"I see that my nickname has grown a reputation." Scarlett commented.

"So has mine." Dakota shot back with a teasing grin.

"Where have you lot been?" Wendy demanded, "You said we would regroup last night, but it is currently five in the bloody morning!"

Mindy winced at the Darling girl's harsh voice, "Sorry, we would've gotten here sooner but something came up…that something being a ship exploding, rescuing a human prince, and singing iconic reprises."

"I'm not even going to ask… Did you at least find the time capsule yet?"

"No." She replied as she dug inside of her satchel and withdrew the second clue, "But the next clue is somewhere on land in a place covered in shells. Unfortunately, we have to wait until daylight to find it. We came back here so that we could move camp to Ariel's Grotto. She said that the shark that we trapped isn't alone and its family will come looking for him soon. Besides, it'll be warmer in there anyway."

"Alright." Wendy nodded to the princess, "Lead the way."

With a start, Mindy realized that this was the first time they both agreed on something.


Laughter emanated from above her head, "What the deuce happened to you?"

Mindy groggily sat up to face the amused countenance of The Projectionist, "None of your Goddamn business."

"Ooh, language." He chided, "You've been influenced too much by your curly-haired friend. Scarlett, was it?"

"How do you know about her?"

"How is it that you can be so clever yet so empty-headed at the same time?" The Projectionist dodged her question with another question, "Need I remind you that my shifters have eyes on you at all times? Think of them as invisible cameras that blend in with your surroundings."

Mindy recalled him telling her about them the first time they met.

The shifters were used to enforce the cycles and prevent characters from breaking their "loops". Judging from the ominous statements from Mindy's friends before they'd arrived on the island where The Great Mouse Detective characters dwelled, The Projectionist still had control over the characters in a subliminal way that prevented them from telling Mindy anything concerning the extent of his powers.

She found herself wishing that she'd pressed Yen Sid more about who The Projectionist was before she'd left Fantasia Gardens.

"You're growing stronger." He knelt down and trailed his slim fingers across Mindy's tail, causing a shiver to go down her spine. "I'm impressed and dismayed at this…I'm certain you aren't too thick in the skull to understand why."

She recoiled, "Don't touch me."

"You're right, we're wasting time." The Projectionist acquiesced, "The good news is that you're a mermaid now and are therefore limited in mobility."

"How is that good news?!"

"It's good news for me dear thing, not everything is about you stop being so self-centered." He started to stroke his crooked goatee, "The question is, what are we to do with this recent development?"

Mindy tried to maintain a stoic, hardened expression in an attempt to hide how terrified she actually was… The Projectionist saw right through her guise and chuckled a bit as an idea started to take shape in his twisted mind.

"Oh, I know."

She didn't like the way he said that.


What ensued was unsurprisingly an unoriginal idea.

They did the same thing they did last time. The logic behind this was that it would be that the tail would make the dance of nightmares more excruciating. To add insult to injury, The Projectionist had deepened the water to a whopping ten feet.

Despite the fact that his idea was unoriginal in every way, it was extremely effective.

He had pulled out all the stops in their underwater theatre. Crabs, sea urchins, octopi, and other abominations from the bottomless blue served as her dancing partners, along with the previous ones. On top of that, the water appeared to be infested with feces, sewage, dead animals, and the taste was nauseating to say the least. Mindy must've thrown up three or four times in the span of the seven or eight hours they spent together which only caused the water to become even more rancid.

Still, she persevered with her best attempt at a poker face, and resisted the urge to kick the marionettes with her tail. What was the point if they were only going to barrel into her exposed chest anyway?

The organ music was shrill and drowned out her voice as she repeated the mantra: "I know I am breathing in, I know I am breathing out-" her sentence was cut short as the strings around her wrists yanked her upwards and she gave a sharp inhale in response, "-I know I am present in this moment, this is a precious..." she trailed off as the starfish she was currently dancing with gave her a spin before switching places with a dummy that vaguely resembled Pinocchio.

This moment was a lot of things: Unpleasant beyond belief, the absolute worst thing that's ever happened to her, a merry-go-round to hell.

But it wasn't at all precious.

What did I ever do to deserve this?

"Would you like the short list or the long?"

God, I wish he'd stop doing that.

Mindy wasn't able to resist as The Projectionist began to waltz with her.

A part of her wanted to scream, but instead her right eye twitched and she clamped her mouth shut. That didn't stop a gross, animalistic, gurgling sound from emanating in the back of her throat though.

"Oh, surely dancing with me isn't the worst thing you've ever done."

"I'm pretty sure it is."

"I'm honored by this."

Of course he'd be.

"Kidding of course." The Projectionist drew her in closer, his breath was shockingly warm on her ear, "Mindy, you should know that I don't want you to suffer. My quarrel isn't with you, it's what you represent."

From his tone, she wasn't sure if he was being genuine with her. Somehow, she suspected that he was, but she refused to believe it. Why would he be telling the truth? He's the villain. Villains always lie, right? But then, why did he sound so sincere? Gritting her teeth, Mindy attempted to break from his touch to no avail. She shouldn't be having these thoughts to begin with, he was the enemy.

Her enemy.

She couldn't stop herself before the words had tumbled out, "And what do I represent?"

"These fabrications." When he noticed her brow raise, The Projectionist elaborated, "These fantasies you've created…these silly cartoons that leave no real impact on people whatsoever."

"Those silly cartoons are my people." Mindy sneered, "And they do leave an impact on people all over the world in fact."

"That is my point." He drilled his gloved nails into her arms, "That is their only purpose…to entertain."

"So that's why you think it's right to put them in these "loops" forever and ever? To entertain?" She demanded, "What if they want to write their own story and switch things up? You aren't even giving them a chance to prove that they're three-dimensional."

Mindy thought about Captain Hook and how he'd rescued her after she'd almost drowned in the Never Sea. She still wasn't sure why he'd done so, just like he wasn't sure why she'd apologized for accidently blowing up his ship even when he'd blown up Peter's hideout first.

James Bartholomew Hook had shown that he had the potential to be more than the villainous pirate captain who twirled his handlebar mustache while laughing maniacally. He wasn't a saint by any means, but the fact didn't change that there was a spark inside of him that if fanned could lead him into becoming the person he wanted to be as opposed to being who the audience wanted him to be.

"When you created them, did you intend to have them be three-dimensional?"

"I don't know, I was a kid."

"Then how can you be so sure that they can show complex emotions such as empathy, human decency, or even love?"

"It's called blind faith asshole."

"Again with the name calling dear?" The Projectionist tsked, "Rebuttals are an art. If you use such vulgar language, then you automatically make yourself look illiterate and juvenile as a result. I'd have thought that as a writer yourself, you would've learned that by now."

"You're changing the subject!" Mindy burst.

"Forgive me…but I'm not one of your cartoon characters." He pointed out, "The whole villainous façade I've been putting on was all in an attempt to make you see things from my point of view. The truth is, I want us to come to an understanding. At the end of the day, they are characters Mindy. They don't have a purpose in this world other than to entertain."

"You're wrong." She shook her head, "I created this world, and I didn't bring these people to life to see them degraded in this way."

"I think I've gotten one step closer at figuring out who you are Mindy Singh." The Projectionist declared, "You're so selfish…it's astonishing really. You adamantly stress wanting to do everything you can to save these characters from the fate I've set for them, when the truth is that all you want is to be adored. You want to play the part of the picture-perfect heroine, and earn the respect and praise of others because you're eager to please everyone…you're also so close-minded. You may have shaped the Disney worlds, but you did not create this universe itself."

Before Mindy could question further, he released her and vanished in a swirl of sewage water.


She awoke some time later, breathless and hot.

The saltwater certainly didn't do anything to ease her already stinging, puffy, bloodshot eyes.

Even though she had returned to Ariel's Grotto, Mindy could still taste the putrid sewage, feces, and vomit that made up the underwater puppet theatre. Everything from the neck down ached with vengeance, and she was dismayed to find that she had the urge to puke again. Luckily, The Projectionist hadn't dislocated her wrists or gashed her stomach this time.

It still hurt nonetheless.

Carefully maneuvering her way around her snoozing friends, Mindy darted out of the grotto.

She made for the surface, and after scavenging around for a few minutes, she found a sunning rock underneath a soft orangey-pink sky. Mindy made herself as comfortable as she could be, summoned a plastic bowl, and emptied the contents of her stomach into it. She struggled to catch her breath as she wiped her mouth. With a wave of her hand, the bowl of vomit vanished into thin air.

Mindy then flopped onto her back.

Since she was alone, she allowed the tears to flow at full-force.

They weren't tears of pain, but tears of utter exhaustion.

Mindy was tired of not understanding her uncontrollable untapped powers, tired of how sore her stomach was from lugging this mermaid tail around, tired of Jiminy reminding her of how noble she was when she knew it wasn't true, tired of not being able to beat said Projectionist, tired of his mind games, his voice, his outfit, his stupid grin, and the fact that she was losing sleep and sanity because of him.

Mindy was tired of The Projectionist in general.

She rolled over onto her side, and nearly jumped out of her skin when she came face-to-face with none other than Scarlett Bloom, "What are you doing up so late?"

Mindy sniffled, "Would it be cliché if I asked you: "I should ask you the same thing?"

"A little." Scarlett admitted as she settled in beside her, "But I don't think that'd bother me as much as it'd bothered you."

"You know me so well."

Mindy squeaked when her friend cupped her cheek to inspect her face.

"Jesus, you look like shit." Scarlett's eyes grew in an adorably comedic way once she realized how rude that sounded, "I didn't mean that literally."

"It's okay. I know what you meant."

They froze for a beat.

Clearing her throat, Scarlett released her and looked off to the side. "Did…did you have a bad dream or something?"

"You could say that."

It wasn't a complete lie, but it still twisted Mindy's gut to deceive her like this.

She didn't think that anyone was ready for the truth yet, and she didn't want the sympathy or attention that came with revealing the truth either. She'd promised Basil that she'd tell her friends what was happening to her…eventually. Sure, the guilt was eating her alive, but it was better than being babied by everyone else when there really wasn't anything they could do to prevent The Projectionist's unwanted visits.

Besides, Mindy somehow felt obligated to deal with this on her own.

She wanted to prove to herself that she could handle whatever The Projectionist had to throw at her. The more time she spent with him, the more experience she gained on how to fight him head-on or at least how to endure his shockingly unpredictable magic.

"Here."

Mindy was yanked from her whirring thoughts as Scarlett wrapped her arm around her shoulder. She drew her in close with one of her rare affectionate smiles that displayed a sliver of vulnerability. Mindy hummed in gratitude as she positioned her head in the crook of Scarlett's underarm.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No…I'm sorry, but I can't…not now at least."

"That's okay." Scarlett insisted in a comforting whisper, "We can just lie out here looking up at the sky if you want."

"Thanks."

"Of course…I'm here for you, and I'm not going anywhere."

"I know."

They slipped into a comfortable silence after that.

Scarlett massaged Mindy's shoulder as they watched the glistening technicolored sun rise over the horizon.

As astonishing as the view was, Scarlett couldn't help thinking that the girl snuggled next to her was even more astonishing. She desperately pushed this ridiculous thought to the side. She'd never developed a crush for anyone (unless fictional strictly female characters that made her feel things counted) before, and was still debating whether she was in love with Mindy or in love with the idea of being in love with her.

If it turned out that she did in fact have a crush on her, Scarlett knew that she'd never act on it.

She could take down guards more than half her size, break an iron baseball bat with her shin, and literally crawl her way out of an intensely suffocating darkness, but the ways of romance were foreign to her. It was best if they remained friends. Plus, it was easier for Scarlett to pretend that they had a shot of becoming something more than suggesting it and falling victim to the crushing blow of rejection.

There was also the matter of-

A faint splash alerted the girls of Dakota's presence, "What're we looking at?"

"The sunrise." Mindy answered as she patted the space next to her, "Join us?"

His lips quirked into a dazzling brace-faced smile as he hauled himself onto the rock. Dakota not-so-discreetly snaked his arm around Mindy's opposite shoulder, officially sandwiching the girl in-between her two childhood friends. Scarlett didn't object to this, and attempted to purge the uneasiness brewing inside of her.

She wasn't jealous of Dakota.

If something blossomed between him and Mindy, she would fill her role as the supportive friend with ease. It would take some getting used to, but she would learn to live with being the third wheel…somehow.


Sorry this chapter was so late, I've kind of been losing motivation as of recently and am struggling to write as a result. Not to mention that I've been swamped with schoolwork and post-production from my latest musical. Anyway, I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as I can. As always, thanks for reading and please drop a review, I'm always looking to improve as a writer and constructive criticism is appreciated.

~StarRosie