Chloe awoke in stages, her blood and body sluggish. She came to herself to discover iron restraints around her wrists, about her neck, and around her ankles. The cold metal pressed into her feverish skin and she assessed her surroundings. Aside from the uncomfortable wooden chair she sat upon, the room possessed no other furniture. She shifted her head to the side and saw on a wall a large array of torture devices, including lethal looking knives and blades.
The room was no larger than a closet and reeked of blood, urine, and sweat. Her nose wrinkled at the smell. Her head pounded and she was uncertain whether it was an aftereffect of her mistreatment or the room's stench. It could have been both. She wished she'd thought to take a hairpin with her to pick the locks, but good girls didn't pick locks and anyway, she didn't know how to free herself. Timmy might have, but he wasn't here. She didn't know where Tootie had secreted him.
The door opened and a figure stood framed in the dim light. Throat tight, she judged the figure to be about five foot eight with a ponytail and combat boots (their spikes shone with iridescent blood). The figure stepped through and shut the door behind them. Chloe hazarded a guess on who it was, but hoped she was wrong. Timmy had said Vicky tortured people; at the time, she had thought he'd been speaking metaphorically.
"Hello, twerpette," Vicky said, dispelling any futile faith. She locked the door behind her, but where could Chloe go?
"Huh, seems like I forgot to clean the chair after the last faerie I tortured," Vicky commented. "Oh well."
Too many questions vied for space in Chloe's mind. She squirmed and the clasps held tight. Some poor innocent creature had suffered in here and she wasn't about to let that injustice pass. She cleared her throat and Vicky snorted, slamming a knife blade first down between Chloe's legs. Chloe shuddered, blue eyes wide with apprehension.
"Crocker wants you in one piece, go figure," she mused. "I can't kill you, but I can inflict a great deal of pain. After all, we have faeries to heal you."
"Whatever you want to know, I'm not telling you," Chloe retorted. Vicky extracted her knife and slid the edge along Chloe's neck. Chloe found herself watching the blade's trajectory as it cut a thin line along her skin and blood pooled. It occurred to Chloe there was a wide range between "not killing someone" and "inflicting a lot of pain". Also, she wasn't sure her pain threshold and this wasn't something she'd been keen to have tested.
"Oh, you will," the older girl sneered. "And even if you don't, I intend to torture you to within an inch of your life, so I win either way. Either you tell me what I want to know and I stop or you don't tell me and you scream. I love it when they scream."
"There must be something else you want," she begged. "I can help you without your resorting to torture."
"Oh, I'm not resorting to it," Vicky rejoined. "I'm relishing every second of it."
She twirled the blade and removed it from Chloe's neck. Instead, she placed it underneath Chloe's thumbnail. Dread coiled in Chloe's stomach and she jerked away, but the restraints held firm. The knife bit into the flesh beneath her nailbed.
"I've never tried this before," she mused. "I wonder how it'll go."
"How what will go?" she asked, almost afraid to find out. In response, Vicky placed the knife onto a small table on Chloe's side and extracted from her torture kit a set of pliers. Chloe's heart beat doubled and her head swam. She struggled and Vicky watched, dispassionate.
"I've always wanted to pull fingernails. I hear it's excruciating."
"You don't need to do this," Chloe whispered.
"I do. You're not going to tell me where the twerp is, are you?" she asked and, before Chloe had a chance to respond, she tugged on her thumbnail with the pliers. Chloe yelped, attempting to back up, but she had nowhere to go. She panted and Vicky tugged again. Chloe loosed a quiet scream. Blood welled beneath the nailbed and dripped down her thumb.
"Please. You don't need to do this."
Vicky stared at her and appraised her for a minute. Chloe's thumbnail throbbed and it felt like her existence had shrunk down to that singular agony. She whimpered and Vicky slammed her fist down on Chloe's injured nail. She screamed and Vicky cackled.
"The walls are soundproof. Scream all you want, twerpette. No one will hear you. And even if someone did, who would care?" she sneered.
"I don't know where Timmy is," she gasped. She wasn't sure she could hold up under torture. Plus, it was the truth. She had no idea where Tootie had sequestered him. He could be anywhere in town or even outside of it. Chloe bit back a sob. Vicky jeered and brought the pliers' edge down upon her nail. Chloe jerked again, yelling herself hoarse, and tears slipped down her cheeks.
"It doesn't matter," she said. "Crocker gave you to me for an afternoon. He wanted to know where Timmy is, but if you don't know…I still have the afternoon."
She brought the pliers to bear beneath Chloe's thumbnail again and yanked, this time tearing the nail out of its bed. Chloe howled, biting her lip and tasting tears. Her vision swam and her breath hitched with sobs. She could taste blood, too, its metallic flavor filling her mouth. Blood poured from her wound and joined the sparkling blood on the chair.
"I don't know where he is! I don't know! Just stop!" she pleaded. She could feel the rough wood beneath her fingers and it grew slick. Vicky had ceased cackling and was standing there, watching Chloe's suffering. Timmy was right. Vicky was a monster. And Tootie had fed her to her. A very small part of Chloe, the part she seldom acknowledged because it was wrong to give into it, sparked back to life. She found herself loathing Vicky and the hatred turned into a hot ball in her chest. She didn't blame Tootie, not entirely, but Vicky, on the other hand, had no motives that could be considered pure or selfless. Chloe was sobbing so hard she was choking on her tears.
"As fascinating as it would be to pull all your nails out and leave you a sobbing mess, I have something else in mind," Vicky said and turned away to regard her torture rack again. Chloe was close to hyperventilating, her breaths coming in gasps. She found herself begging in her mind, as she knew speaking aloud would produce nothing. Cosmo and Wanda weren't going to come to rescue her. She needed to save them. And there were no other faeries she knew who could help, not if they were magically compelled to serve humans.
Humans. Vicky wasn't human.
Vicky was fiddling with something beneath the table now and produced a small box with wires attached. Chloe was about to hyperventilate, especially as Vicky plugged the device in and then strapped the pliers to Chloe's fingers, one plier on each hand.
"Don't you have a heart?" she pleaded. "A sense of decency? A shred of compassion?"
"Nope, used it up a long time ago," she replied and then turned on the machine. White hot agony swarmed up Chloe's body and she blacked out for a few seconds, the pain was so intense. It hadn't helped that Vicky had clamped the electric prods next to her injured thumb.
Chloe screamed until her voice grew hoarse and she trembled, sobbing and panting. She was terrified, unable to think with the pain suffusing her body. It felt like every cell was on fire and burned a swath through her frame. Just when Chloe got her breath back, Vicky turned the machine back on.
Her head felt like someone had driven a sledgehammer into it. The electricity assaulted her body like thousands of boiled needles entering her skin. She felt warmth but didn't look down, uncertain whether it was blood or if she'd wet herself in terror. Vicky snorted again.
"They always do that."
Chloe lifted her head and spat in Vicky's face. It was petty defiance and she knew she'd pay for it. "I didn't even…I didn't even…do anything to you."
"It's more like your existence bugs me," she said. "You make the twerp happy. That's a problem. I'm remedying it. As for his other friends—as soon as I find them, they'll get the same treatment. I'm an equal opportunity offender."
Vicky twisted the knob on the device and amplified the electricity. Chloe blacked out for longer this time and when she came to, she couldn't stop quivering. She smelled burnt hair and Vicky loosened the restraints. Chloe collapsed to the floor; the planking was tough against her skin and she might've accumulated splinters. She was panting, sobs mixing with blood mixing with other fluids best left unidentified.
"Guess you really didn't know anything. Oh, well. I'll let Crocker question you later. Someone else will clean up this mess. I'm getting lunch. Torturing people always gives me an appetite."
Lunch? Oh god, that was right, she'd skipped lunch to grab Cosmo and Wanda. That hadn't worked and she hadn't eaten, but she didn't want anything now. Instead, she curled into a ball, or attempted to, but her body wouldn't cooperate. Instead, she shuddered, her limbs twitching uncontrollably. What if no one came? What if Vicky just left her here like this?
She started to call for help before remembering that the walls were soundproof. If no one came, she'd have to drag herself out. Vicky had already vacated and left the door unlocked. Of course, she'd have to have her fine motor skills to crawl through. Right now, she had no motor skills whatsoever.
She prayed someone would find her and heal her. She also prayed Timmy would come for her and, contradictorily, that he wouldn't. She didn't want him to endure this. Hell, she didn't want to endure this.
"Cosmo…Wanda…" she whimpered and burst into tears anew. What was happening to them? Even in her dire state, she worried about their fate.
Crocker didn't know who Kevin thought he was fooling. As soon as he could, he'd implemented cameras all over Dimmsdale, just to keep track of ne'er do wells and idiots like Turner. Unfortunately, the cameras had limitations. He couldn't put them up in private residences, for example, and while he was supreme leader of the world, the police insisted that he couldn't have cameras near traffic recorders. He still had to answer to the police and the local militia, which was ridiculous, but at least they all knew faeries were real now. No one was calling him a delusional crackpot.
Unfortunately, the downside to having cameras was he couldn't watch them all at once. He had delegated responsibility for surveying the town to various faeries, but he couldn't trust their loyalties. Therefore, he perched in front of the cameras and watched, scanning each one in turn.
He was also awaiting Vicky's results. While he didn't hate Chloe, not the way he loathed Turner, he looked forward to seeing if Vicky had produced anything viable. And the faeries would heal Chloe. He wished he could say that appeased him, but Vicky's methods were unsettling. Plus, he didn't want to see Chloe injured. She wasn't that bad a kid, even if she'd thrown her lot in with Turner.
He was thinking contradictory thoughts, especially compared to earlier. There was a difference between sending her to the principal's office and giving her to Vicky. Principal Waxelplax would lecture her. He didn't have to be present to know Chloe was screaming from Vicky's ministrations.
He clicked over to the torture room anyway and spied Chloe panting on the floor on her stomach. His heart tugged and he clicked away, attempting to locate Kevin instead. It shouldn't have been too difficult. He snapped his fingers to command another faerie to him.
"You—find Kevin. My nephew," he said and then gave the faerie a look that said he thought the faerie deeply stupid. The black haired, purple eyed muscular faerie flexed and shot him back a nasty look.
"Pick up a latte while you're out," Crocker ordered and the faerie vanished. Something about him struck him as familiar, but he couldn't place where. Eh, probably wasn't important.
Scanning the screens once more, he saw nothing interesting and he refused to look at Chloe. It no longer felt like March 15th because he had power and the world at his feet. His customary resentment had abated.
He snapped his fingers again and a different faerie answered his beck and call. She had curly pink and brown hair and her nostrils flared at Crocker. She wore a loose-fitting t-shirt and black jeans.
"You. See to the girl," he said. He pointed toward the screen and the faerie's eyes followed his. She trembled for a second and then, under her breath but still audible, the faerie growled, "Monster."
He wasn't a monster. He had an efficient world-view and loyal subjects. So what if he'd enslaved a whole group of supernatural creatures. They answered to human children anyway. What was the difference if they now responded to everyone? Nothing. And they didn't have feelings and suffer the way humans did. They were inferior in every way.
He had work to do, since Vicky hadn't appeared yet. Perhaps she was taking time to wash off the blood. There'd been so much…his stomach wrenched. Was this remorse? Did he regret dragging her off to that butcher? Did he really expect Chloe to rat out her best friend?
He shook his head at himself. It was better to worry about other things. Managing an empire took a lot of resources and manpower, after all. And faerie power.
-
Kevin knew that his uncle had posted cameras everywhere in town, but he also knew where he hadn't. However, he had no idea where to locate Chloe or Timmy. Cosmo and Wanda were little help, because the butterfly net sapped their strength and they'd been weakened already thanks to Crocker. Sympathetic, he paid for a backpack to stow them so they didn't need to ride around in the modern equivalent of cold iron.
"Better?" he asked.
"Better," Wanda said, swallowing a dry heave. Her belch, which she excused herself for, was wet and Kevin winced.
"I know where Timmy isn't," Cosmo announced. "Man, did Crocker wish the world would spin? Because boy is my head spinning."
"That's the dizziness talking, hon," Wanda said. To Kevin, she said, "We can rule out the bookstore and the library. Or anything that involves books."
A Jumbo-tron nearby stirred to life, startling the trio. In addition to his cameras, Crocker had placed TVs in strategic locations throughout the town. His grim façade filled the screen and Cosmo and Wanda hissed, reaching for each other and intertwining their fingers. He moved closer to her so that their heads were together.
"I know you're scared," she whispered. "I am too."
"The hunt for Chloe Carmichael is over," he announced. "Timmy Turner remains on the loose, as well as his other friends. The rewards will be increased for whomever finds all of them. Also, anyone who turns in my nephew Kevin will be amply rewarded."
Kevin frowned. "Do you think Chloe's okay?"
Vicky appeared then, dragging Chloe into the room by her hair. Though the girl looked physically fine, her eyes were glassy and she didn't fight her captor. Vicky laughed, tossing Chloe at Crocker's feet. Crocker winced and, again, the faeries hissed.
"I don't know what she did to her, but she did something," Wanda growled.
Chloe regained her footing and stood. When she saw Vicky, the color drained from her face and she retreated, bumping into Crocker. Discovering her proximity to him, she scooted away and hugged herself. She looked like she'd seen a ghost and her lower lip quivered. She was so pale she could've been a spirit herself.
"As you can see, Chloe is perfectly fine," Crocker said. "I'll take good care of her, just like I will of Turner."
"No, he won't!" Chloe burst out. Vicky backhanded her and then grabbed her by the throat. Cosmo and Wanda pushed at the backpack's sides like they would run to her side. He could feel the tension in their bodies.
Chloe struggled, kicking Vicky in the chest and winning free. She landed on her feet and grabbed a wand from a nearby faerie with pink and brown hair. It almost looked like the faerie had handed it to her, but Kevin had to be mistaken. Chloe snarled, raising the wand in front of her.
"Put that down," Vicky said, sounding almost bored.
"This broadcast is over," Crocker announced and shut the screen off.
"No!" Cosmo and Wanda cried in unison. "Bring it back!"
If Chloe was in the palace, then he ought to help her. Unfortunately, that meant abandoning his quest to locate Timmy. He was also reticent to return Cosmo and Wanda to his uncle when he might harm them again or worse. Torn, he glanced at the faeries.
"What should I do? Should I go after Timmy or help Chloe?" he asked, anxious.
"We don't know where Timmy is," Wanda pointed out. She was trembling and clinging to her husband. Cosmo wrapped his arms around her and rested his head against hers again.
"And whatever Chloe's doing, you won't get to her in time," Cosmo added.
They were right. He gnawed his lower lip. Chloe might be beyond his help at that point, but Timmy had to be free, right? Crocker had admitted as much. Shifting the backpack, he set off down the street.
"Where would Timmy be?"
"Uh, not at Vicky's house?" Cosmo suggested.
"Since Vicky isn't there, he could be," Wanda replied. "But that means he'd be with Tootie…"
Kevin know of Tootie, but hadn't met her. It was the same way he knew of Trixie and the popular kids. They didn't run in the same circles—Tootie didn't run in circles at all. She was as much a social pariah as he was.
"But why would he do that?" Cosmo asked.
Wanda had no answer and nor, for that matter, did Kevin. He needed a direction, though, lest he wander aimlessly and get caught. He glanced at the faeries in the hopes they might provide some help. He wasn't giving up on them.
"Where should I go?" he asked, desperate. "C'mon, you know more than me."
"We don't have our wands," she protested. "But…"
"But?" Kevin was hanging on her every word.
"I think I might be able to figure out where he could've gone…"
-
In the heat of the moment, Timmy had forgotten that he had shards of glass in his hand. In hindsight, this might've been a mistake, because he was bleeding again and the shards ground against each other. Gritting his teeth, he listened to Tootie detail Crocker's basic operations. He was trying not to cry out in pain, but damn, some of those shards had been big.
"Timmy? Timmy, you're bleeding!" Tootie cried, dismayed. She seized his hand, which was a mistake because it only pressed the shards in tighter. He yelped, yanking back his hand and leaving blood on her palm.
"I can heal you," she reassured him. "You have to trust me."
Reluctant to trust her more, he nonetheless proffered his hand. Faerie dust rained down upon his hand and it warmed, the shards slid out. Tootie collected them and then disposed of them while Timmy flexed his whole again hand. He had a newfound appreciation for her talents. She did that without a wand, too. Or was her wand concealed somewhere? Oh, well, didn't matter.
The TV went on in the living room and both children turned to face it. Throughout Crocker's presentation, Timmy watched Chloe. She bore no obvious torture marks, but something was off about her, regardless. Tootie watched Chloe with narrowed eyes and hissed, attempting to shut off the transmission. However, whatever means Crocker had of seizing control prevented the TV from turning off.
When it finally went dark, Tootie folded her arms across her chest.
"Right. That was a thing that happened," she snapped. "We need to find Cosmo and Wanda. And probably Kevin too, because if he's harboring them, his uncle will find out soon enough."
"How do you suggest we do that?" he asked.
Tootie shut her eyes and brought out a wand which glowed inside her fist. "This might take a little doing. I'm not used to locating people."
"Where did you get that?"
"Cosmo," Tootie snorted. "That idiot leaves his wands lying everywhere. He forgets where he puts one and just grabs another. That old toy box I have is full of them, fake and real."
Well, that was disconcerting. She seized his hand again and interlaced their fingers. The wand glowed and they disappeared in a cloud of fairy dust. Unlike Cosmo and Wanda's transportation, which was instantaneous, this took a few seconds. They seemed to hover in her house before reappearing on the street.
Kevin was casting his gaze about and staring, wide-eyed, at the cameras on the streets. Tootie sighed, snapping her fingers at him. He jumped, startled, looking like a cornered animal. Cosmo and Wanda stuck out of his backpack.
"Got it right on the first shot," Tootie said. "Good for me."
She said this in a tone that indicated no one else would find this remarkable. Cosmo and Wanda, in the middle of crying Timmy's name, paused. Their eyes flicked to Tootie and both frowned. They didn't look like they were about to thank her for bringing Timmy to them.
"Hey, that's one of my lost wands," Cosmo said.
"You leave your wands lying about?" Wanda snapped.
"Don't be too hard on him, Wanda," Tootie soothed. "If he hadn't, I would never have discovered I'm part faerie."
"Which part?" Cosmo asked, easily distracted by the subject change. Wanda was not led astray. She fixated upon Tootie, who, to her credit, bore it well. Timmy hadn't realized that Tootie could be strong when she wanted to be, or was this a recent development? Had she changed since the last time they'd interacted? Had this come about because Vicky had been around Tootie more and she'd needed a way to defend herself? Or because she'd found a means to do so.
"Never mind that," Wanda said. She still looked suspicious. "You have his eyes."
"Whose eyes?" Cosmo asked. Timmy wanted to know too. Kevin gawked at all of them.
"We can discuss this later," Wanda snapped, remembering Kevin's presence. "We need to get off the streets before Crocker's cameras catch us."
"Or we could stay here and wait for his militia for angry and dangerous faeries to apprehend us," Cosmo suggested.
"I don't think so, Cosmo," Timmy said. He turned to Tootie. "Back to your house?"
"We'll need to come up with a plan, but, yeah, back to my house," she said. She frowned. "I'm not sure I can take all of you. Just you was hard enough, Timmy. But you, Kevin, Cosmo, and Wanda might be too much."
"Especially for a rogue, untrained half-faerie," Wanda agreed. "Do you have any extra wands lying about?'
"You don't have enough magic left to poof us anywhere, do you?" Timmy asked urgently. He'd seen how Crocker had drained them before. Part of him wanted to hug his faeries to him and keep them from doing anything, even as miniscule as teleportation.
"We might," Wanda said, casting a quick glance at Cosmo.
"We don't actually know," Cosmo chirped. "Either we get to where we're going or we don't! Russian Roulette!"
Timmy's stomach clenched. Tootie's frown deepened and she fiddled with her stolen wand. The atmosphere was tense and his mouth dried out.
"Doesn't Russian Roulette usually end with someone dead?" Timmy said weakly.
"Yep," Cosmo confirmed.
"Then this is a terrible idea," he said. "I can't risk you guys, but if Tootie isn't strong enough…"
"Oh, just give me the damn wand," Wanda snapped, startling them with her abrupt command and her mild language. Tootie handed it over.
"This is a bad idea," he said. "Aren't you usually the one who says that?"
"Sport, the longer we stay here, the greater chance we have of Crocker finding us. Except for Tootie, all of us are on his list," she reminded him. "And you're public enemy number one, especially now that he's captured Chloe."
"I'm always public enemy number one when it comes to Crocker," he muttered.
Wanda squeezed the wand and they disappeared. In Timmy's head, he thought he heard a gunshot going off. Then again, maybe that was just Cosmo's reference to Russian Roulette. He clenched his eyes shut and waited. This was taking far longer than usual, even longer than Tootie's poof.
Wanda had once said it took a lot of power to bring someone to Fairy World. This wasn't the same, just moving around on Earth, but if Cosmo and Wanda were drained nearly to death, then this might be almost the same.