Daphne POV
I must have only served three tables before I see Virginia coming out of the kitchen with the dog, I hurriedly walk over to her to see is she is ok,
"Virginia what's going on?" she asks, she suddenly hands me my handbag, I look at her confused from this, are we leaving? Because if we are we are so going to be in trouble with work later,
"I've already checked us out, we need to get out of here, I think we're in danger" she says, I frown at her for this which she sees,
"Please just do as I say, don't ask any questions, we need to go home now" she says, I can see how freaked out she is, so I nod and take my apron off and leave it at the desk and follow her and the dog out.
"Can you at least tell me what happened?" I ask, walking beside her, she seriously looks freaked,
"T-the dog wrote the word 'danger' in a load of spilt flour on the floor in the back room. And he barks when I tell him to, he's not just well trained he knows! And I think he knows something bad is happening, so I just needed to get out of there, not like he gave me much choice since he dragged me out of the back room" he says, I frown further at this, looking to the dog, who surprisingly looks to me then back to where we're walking.
"Ok hun, I believe you, but we can't let the dog into the apartment, there's only so much I can hold off the manager" I say, she nods at this,
"He's not coming inside" she says, I nod at this, thankful for this information, I'm still not too sure what it is about that dog but for some reason I don't like him.
"Ok this is us, you've gotta go" says Virginia as we get closer to the apartment block, I look to the dog and seeing it not even budge, great why can I see it coming inside switch us,
"Ok you can just stay one night and then your on your own understand" asks Virginia, who I see is…talking to the dog, but it surprised me when it barks at her as if replying to her,
"This is crazy, how can I be talking to a dog?" she asks, and again the dog barks a few times, ok this is starting to get a little freaky.
"Yes I am, don't try to re-assure me" she says, I look from the dog to Virginia and back; ok this is a little weird.
We walk into the lobby, quiet for the night especially on a weekend. We go towards the elevator but give up after five minutes,
"Must not have finished yet," I say, looking to Virginia, she nods in agreement and we go use the stairs, the dog following after us.
However my night is about to get stranger, when we get to our level we see a lot of pink dust on the floor,
"That's Mrs Greys from next door…her husband and her grandson Eric" says Virginia, looking at them confused, I kneel down by Mrs Greys, pressing two fingers against her neck, checking for a pulse, releasing a breath when I hear one,
"They're alive" I say after checking the other two, seeing Virginia walking over to our apartment front door, but my eyes widen when I see that the door is destroyed,
"Virginia be careful" I say, looking down at the dust, it looks quite familiar, I pinch a but in-between my fingers and rub it between them, seeing it falling, it has a slight sparkle to it, I lightly sniff it, I swear I know that smell!
"This looks like my powder…but that's a dream" I say, remembering the dust I used in my dream to make people fall asleep as soon as the person inhales even a little bit of it, it puts them straight to sleep…and it looks like its worked on these three, and their dog.
I stand up straight and go into the apartment, seeing Tony sat in his armchair with the dust on him as well, and the apartment itself is trashed, I see Virginia walking over towards her room, I quietly go to mine, but freeze seeing a woman in there, I watch her for a little after the initial shock, staying out of sight, seeing her looking at my crystals and some pictures I had up on the wall of me and Virginia and Tony,
"Mum?" she says, I frown at this, who does she think is her mum? She takes a picture from the wall, I think it's the one that Virginia took of me against one of the trees I marked. Her fingers touch the crystals I have on my dressers, but I look away towards Virginia, seeing the dog staying by the doorway, smart dog.
However I look in time to see the woman starting to walk towards the door where I am, now only seeing that in one of her arms is loaded with what looks like Tony's shoes, I look beside me into the bathroom, and quickly go inside, closing the door quietly and looking through the crack, unfortunately not seeing until last minute that Virginia is still in the living room,
" Hello there girly, these shoes – they've been very badly cared for, they – they're scoffed, cuffed and neglected" says the woman, gradually dropping the shoes on the floor, but then two men come out of Virginia's room holding her red shoes,
"You have nice shoes, and so tiny" says the biggest one, I frown at them for this, I swear this seems too familiar,
"We have hundreds of pairs at home" says the woman,
"So we know what we're talking about," says the smaller male.
"Who are you and what have you done to my dad?" asks Virginia, whom I see is looking at them scared, but I can watch them so if they try anything I'll be her back-up.
"Oh he's just sleeping, hit him with a bit of troll dust that all" says the older one, my eyes widen at this, troll dust? This is insane how do they know about all this stuff, they are in-acting my dream practically.
"I am Burly the troll, feared throughout the nine kingdoms" he says, I swear I feel like I am going to faint,
"I'm Blabberwort the toll, dreaded throughout the nine kingdoms" she says,
"And I am Bluebell the troll, terrified throughout the nine kingdom" says the younger one, I look away from this, trying to steady my breath, feeling tears start to build up.
But brining me out of this I hear a smash and look to see that the tv is smashed by Burly's axe,
"So where is he?" he asks, pointing it at Virginia,
"I-I don't know who your talking about" says Virginia,
"Prince Wendell" says Blabberwort, I from at this,
"Who?" asks Virginia, equally as confused as me,
"The dog!" shouts Blabberwort, pushing her into the other armchair, her shrieking at this,
"We are going to give to the count of three for you to tell us where he is, or else we are going to be turning you into a pair of shoes" says Blabberwort,
"One! I'll cut the shoes" says Burly, who has a pair of scissors out threatening at her, I frown at this, I carefully come out of the bathroom, with their backs to me they don't see me, but I go into my bedroom and go for my baseball bat I have under my bed, walking out of my bedroom seeing Bluebell with what looks like a thick needle pointing dangerously close to Virginia's eyes,
"Alright! All three of you step away from her" I say, with my bat aimed behind my head, ready to hit them if need me, they turn around to look at me but rather then be angry at me as I would have through they would with me with a weapon in hand, they seem to be…staring at me.
"Bl-Blabberort? Can you see her too?" asks Burly, I look at him confused, watching all three of them, seeing Virginia looking at them confused too,
"Yes…but – but its impossible" she says, her looking at every inch of me, as if checking or something,
"But it can! Remember the witch's words? What dad told us - she said that we would find her," says Bluebell, who looks to them then back at me,
"Alright look, you're trespassing, I want you out of this apartment right now, you've already made a mess in here, we don't want any trouble" I say, tightening my grip on the bat,
"We finally found you" says Blabberwort, I frown at her for this, seeing that they have put their instruments away,
"I've never seen any of you before in my life" I say,
"Y-yes you have, but we were a lot younger then" says Burly, looking at me with such innocence instead of how he looked earlier,
"I don't think so, I think I would remember you three" I say, truthfully I wouldn't be able to remember them even if I had met them before considering I don't remember a good deal of my life but I'm sure that I would have seen these three at the very least in my dreams,
"She said we would find you and we have" says Bluebell, looking at me happily, I frown at them for this,
"Who told you?" I ask, not letting my bat down,
"The witch, she said after she threw you through that portal that when you would finally come home would be when we found you, and we have" says Burly happily with a big smile, but I aim my bat higher threateningly,
"You're not taking me anywhere, I don't know who you are or what your doing here, but you need to leave right now" I say,
"Don't you recognise us at all? I mean I know we grew up but come on mum, you gotta remember us a little! What about dad? He'll be so happy to know you alive!" says Burly, I frown at this, and did they just call me mum? There's no way I am old enough to be their mother.
"Get out now!" I shout,
"No way are we leaving you here, we found you, and now we'll take you and the dog back to the nine kingdoms" says Blabberwort,
"Yeah girly where is the dog?" asks Bluebell, looking back to Virginia,
"Ok – ok, I'll tell you where he is! He's here he's outside" says Virginia, I look to the corner of my eye that the dog hides in Tony's room by the front door, but without warning Burly comes over to me, and just as I'm about to whack him he throws the pink dust at me, that's all I remember before seeing a lot of sparkly dust and falling to the floor…
"Daphne? Daphne come on you've gotta wake up!"
I open my eyes groggily, seeing Virginia knelt in front of me, the dog beside her,
"What happened, suddenly hearing a lot of banging, I look in the direction its coming from and see the elevator doors, why are they banging? Its giving me a headache,
"They threw that dust at you, but I tricked them into going into the elevator, come on we need to get out of here, dad will be alright, but I think it's the dog they're after" she says, helping me up, but I still feel really light headed,
"Ok" I say, but as soon as I've lost her support I feel like I'm about to fall before Virginia helps me by putting my arm around her shoulders with support,
"Ok! Come on lets get out of here, you must have a resistance or something to that dust, I tried waking dad but it didn't work, weird how it doesn't work so much with you" she says, I nod in agreement, although I really do wish I could sleep, and walking down all these damn stairs is an awful lot of working when feeling like this.
"How did you trick them into the elevator?" I ask, when we finally get to the lobby, starting to feel some strength in my legs but I don't dare relinquish Virginias help, knowing for sure that I will fall without her support,
"Told them that he was hiding in the "room" – elevator and when I got them in I told them I was activating the secret door when I was closing the door" she says, I smile at this and nod in understanding, she's always been a smart one, not always but is smart in tricky situations.
Thanks for reading, so there's the re-union, not exactly what the kids were expecting but there it is, look forward to your reviews and feedback
