My Chapters are getting longer! I hope you like this one, it features another song. Do I look like I work for Walt Disney? Uh Uh. Tangled belongs to them, not me.
It was bucketing down rain. Eugene was soaked to the skin, and exhausted. He and Rapunzel had been riding for hours. He had squeezed his eyes shut and was muttering:
"It's a dream, a nightmare, any second now you'll wake up safe, it's okay, and it isn't real…"
Rapunzel turned and gave him a hard pinch on the cheek.
"Ouch! What was that for?" she turned to look at him, and a little bit of his hatred for her melted away. She looked exhausted; eyes ringed with black, neck stooped under the weight of her sodden hair, reduced to an unsure girl, not the sassy, over confident woman who'd kidnapped him.
"To show you that this isn't a dream."
"Where are we going?"
"You'll love it."
"WHERE are we GOING?!"
"Quit whining. You'll see soon enough." Silence for another half an hour.
"Eugene?"
"What?!"
"I wish you would sing for me."
"No."
"Just one little song? Pretty please?"
"What is your deal?! You kidnap me, take me from my home, and now I'm your servant?!"
"It would set a nice atmosphere, ease the tension. Besides, I didn't kidnap you. You willingly got on the horse."
"I hate you, you know that?" but before Eugene could use a vast array of colourful adjectives to illustrate his hatred of the girl in front of him, Apricot Jam stopped suddenly.
"We're he-e-e-re!" Rapunzel sang, bundling up her hair and tying it round her waist in a practiced motion. 'Here' was a small camp, with tents around a small fire, protected from the rain by a small stone structure. Everything was petite.
"What is this place?"
"The home of a cousin of mine." Rapunzel grabbed Eugene by the hand, and led him towards it. People gathered out the front, a woman with thick black hair coiled around her head at the head of the bunch.
"Cousin, I am glad to see you! Do you come bearing good news?" she glanced at Eugene in a way that made him feel extremely uncomfortable. Rapunzel gave a hearty laugh.
"No, no, cugina, not like that! He is… well I suppose you might call him my apprentice. May we stay, perhaps a night, and share your food?" the woman bit her lip.
"I would welcome you, flower, you know I would, but food is scarce, hunting is scarce and warmth is scarce."
"I will help with the hunting, and cooking too. Plus, my friend Eugene here is an excellent singer."
Eugene opened his mouth to speak, but abruptly stopped when he saw the woman beaming at him.
"A singer? You know we value nothing more than a sweet voice! Very well then, I'm sure you can find space."
And this was how Eugene found himself huddled in a bunch of curious children, his first acquaintances out of the tower apart from Rapunzel. They were dirty, thin and scrappy, but there were no bruise marks, no scars, and no red rashes from slaps. The littlest girl, Luna, crawled her way into his lap, gazing up at him with shy brown eyes. She wasn't used to visitors, apart from second aunty long hair.
"Mister?" Eugene went stiff as Luna reached up to touch a bruise on his cheek. "What's this?"
"I… I crashed into a tree." Eugene said vacantly, but his mind was on something else.
"You USELESS, WORTHLESS IDIOT! HOW DARE YOU!" Gothel grabbed him by the hair and slammed his cheek into the wall. "WORTHLESS, LYING PILE OF MUCK!" Eugene trembled, covering his face with his hands so she wouldn't see the tears, the weakness…
"Mister?"
"Huh?"
"Can you sing a song?" Eugene was about to say no, no and no, but he melted at Luna's begging face.
"What do you want it to be about?" there was a hubbub of voices, rising up suddenly.
"The ocean!"
"The forest!"
"ME!"
"Bessie the goat!"
"Flowers and butterflies!"
"Cranberry pie!"
Eugene looked at Luna.
"You, Mister Eu…uj…uge…i…"
"Eugene. You really want a song about me?"
"Yeah!" he could hear a little tune in his head, a melody weaving itself.
There's a boy
I used to know
His hair was mud
His eyes were coals
He had next to nothing
But he gave it
Everything he had
And he played
In a cold stone room
And he dreamed
Of a distant land
And he sang
Of fields and mountains
Until reality had vanished
From his head
Until the truth
The cold stone truth
Had vanished
From his heart
There's a boy
That I once knew
His scars and cuts
Are fading truths
His voice, it cuts through
Misty night
Darkness
Only firelight remains
There was silence. And then applause. Some of the older women had tears on their cheeks, the children looking up at him in awe. Eugene had moved them with a single song; let something slip from behind the wall he had built. Gothel flew across his mind's eye. Surely these people couldn't be so much better than her. The warm feeling he felt, surely it was a trick, a cruel game with his emotions? How could the children be so innocent, unscathed by life? Surely it was impossible, surely it was a lie, soon to crumble into dust. His captor was looking across the firelight at him, her sage-leaf eyes burning with a whole jumble of feelings. Hope, anger, sadness, pity… trust. An absurd thought crossed his mind. He trusted her. These people, these impossibly kind and understanding people, they weren't like her. She was different, more like him. And she really did want to help him, didn't she? He was almost sure, almost. Yet somehow he couldn't let go of the tower.
Rapunzel had listened to the song. She had heard pain, dreams, life, and his eyes had come alive. No longer were they dead, dull, muddy puddles, they were warm and bright and blazing. Tender when he looked at the children. Luna had never so much talked to her, hiding behind the safe legs of an adult whenever Rapunzel approached. Yet she had climbed into Eugene's lap as if it was the most natural thing in the world. She thought of all the places she had yet to show him. She could see him on a horse racing beside her, laughing, stealing, and her partner in crime. It made her smile. And when she caught his gaze across the flames, she felt a whole manner of things, all jumbled up.
There's hope for you yet, Eugene. You just need to learn to live life.
The first lantern was perfect, rising almost as soon as the rain stopped. A second followed, a third, then thousands more, all rising, floating. Both Rapunzel and Eugene felt a tug, a feel of something neither of them had really experienced.
Home
There we are, done. Review to tell me what you thought of it, I would love that. Don't forget to follow or favourite it if you think it is worthy, a heap of you have done that, so thank you!