Whaaat? Two chapters in one day to show how much I appreciate you all? Crazy! Happy New Year! I hope you liked this chapter and the last one, review both if you like! :D This is a very intense chapter, where everything comes to a head, and hopefully, you guys enjoy it!
I don't own Glee. If I did, Brittana never would've broken up, and Sam would get a girl who actually liked him back, or maybe Sam would get Blaine, I sort of rooted for them too after the Klaine break up. Also, actually, I'll just stop there before I go into a rant. :P Read and review please!
The Dream
Sam stood up in his dream, allowing the ferocious wind to blow his hair every which way. He blinked and squinted against it, taking a step forwards through the waist-length grass that surrounded him.
The sky was angry looking, but he wasn't afraid.
He turned to the side as a bright light caught his gaze.
"Yo Sam."
Sam turned to find a tall and muscular boy with a mohawk and quiet eyes.
"You're the boy from Finn's story aren't you?" Sam asked. "What are you doing here?"
Puck shrugged.
"I'm not." He said. "This is a dream."
Sam didn't respond.
"Follow me." Puck said, walking through the forest.
"Why are you here?" Sam asked. "Are you magic?"
"Nope." Puck said. "But it is magic that brought me here."
"Are you in trouble?" He asked.
"No."
"Are you alive?"
"Yes." He paused. "Listen man, I had to leave my friends behind. I didn't get a goodbye; I didn't get a last moment. That performance in the bar, that's the last time I saw my sister, or Finn, or Tina. That was three years ago. I'm in hiding now."
"I'm sorry." Sam said.
"I'm just here to make sure that you don't make the same mistake I did. You need to see something...you need to see a few things actually. This may be your story, but that doesn't mean it's yours alone." He said cryptically.
He pointed forwards where a large, shimmering door appeared, floating in the air. "I didn't see my friends the way I should have before I left. I didn't get to help them like I should have, and because of that, my sister's heart has been taken over by darkness. It'll take a hero to fix her now...or six."
"Me...Rachel...Blaine...Santana...Finn..." Sam frowned. "We've only got five."
"For now."
"I'm sorry." Sam sighed. "But why are you telling me this?"
"You helped Finn." Puck said.
"Rachel was the one who hugged him."
"I don't think you recognize the effect you have on the people around you. Your presence, your happiness, it's contagious. Finn started to heal long before Berry hugged him and he owes that to you."
"So?" Sam asked.
"Finn isn't the only one hurting. Everybody you've met, they all have obstacles that they need to overcome. It's your job to help them."
"Why me?" Sam asked.
"Because you can." Puck said.
He stepped forwards and opened the door and Sam found himself pulled through it, like a huge vacuum had wrenched him off of his feet. Before he knew it, he had landed roughly on the ground of a dark room and rolled to a stop at the foot of a large chair, wrapped in golden chains.
Santana blinked up at her father in her nightmare.
"Good going Santana." He snapped before her, clapping his hands. The golden chains of the chair around her tightened and she gasped, writhing at the uncomfortable tension. "You fail at everything!" He snapped.
"I didn't fail!" Santana cried out.
"Is the girl still with you?" The farmer laughed. "No! Because she's dead! I told you a farm girl like you could never make it on your own."
"I'm not on my own!" Santana cried.
"Oh?" The farmer asked. "They were fine before you came along, then you join them and they lose one of their best friends."
"I-I tried!" She cried. "I tried to help!"
"And what good did that do you? Now you have no friends, and no family. You've failed me, you've failed them, you've failed the girl's mother, and you've failed your own."
Santana broke down crying, lowering her head and sobbing.
"I just...I just wanted to see the world..."
"Well are you satisfied?" The farmer laughed. "Your selfish whims got an innocent little girl killed."
Sam gasped as he watched the scene unfold.
"This is terrible!" He rushed forwards, but the faster he ran, the further Santana and her father seemed to get from him.
"Santana wants adventure." Puck said behind him. "But it's more than that. She doesn't just want to see the world; she wants to belong in it. She keeps putting herself out there, and making promises that she doesn't know how to keep. She's trying her hardest to fit in with your band of misfits, but she feels like an outsider, which ties us in to our next stop."
He snapped his fingers and another door appeared. Sam hesitantly stepped through it and found himself standing in the middle of a large cobblestone hallway lined with statues. A little boy rushed past and Sam paused, turning to watch him.
Blaine blinked back tears as he took in his dream space. He heard the footsteps on the cobblestone and turned as his younger self raced down the hall, a look of panic on his face. Blaine instinctively reached out for himself, but the younger version of him phased right through and carried on down the hallway.
Blaine watched him go until four other children raced past with slingshots and wooden hammers. Blaine remembered the memory all too well.
"Oh no..." He swore. He took off down the hallway after his younger self. "Run! Run!" He yelled, but it did nothing to affect the memory. It was one of his most horrible memories; he'd spent years repressing it. This wasn't fair! His life had gone to shit, he'd had to experience this moment once, he shouldn't have to watch it happen again!
No matter how much he yelled, it didn't stop his child-self from being overtaken. It didn't stop the taunting, and the teasing, and the beating, and when the four children tired and walked away, it didn't stop his father from approaching, polishing his sword.
Blaine watched as his father stepped over his childish body, barely batting an eye.
"Daddy?" His young self snivelled, looking up to reveal several gashes, the makings of two black eyes, and an annihilated lip. He father turned and stared down at him uncaringly. "They beat me up..."
His father laughed and turned away, walking back off down the hallway.
"That'll teach you to mess with those better than you." His father called back. "You were a mistake when you were born..."
He froze and then turned back around, locking eyes with the seventeen year old Blaine.
"I guess some things never change."
"You can see me?" Blaine asked. His young self was frozen on the ground.
"Unfortunately." His father sneered.
"Why would you do that to me?" Blaine asked. "I'm your child!"
"Only by blood." He snapped. "I tried to kill you twice, just because you continue to cheat death does not make you special, it makes you a pest, and pests must be destroyed." He paused and turned his nose up at his son. "Nobody loves a pest."
"That's not true..." Blaine stammered. "I'm not a pest! I have friends and...and-"
"Oh is that what you call them?" His father laughed coldly, just like he had when he'd seen his child beaten and bruised. "You can shoot a bow, boy, and that is all you're good for. They keep you around because your sister seems to want you, but she's leaving you behind..."
"What?"
"That's right...you've seen the way she looks at the other boy...he's replacing you. Soon enough, she won't need you anymore, and then...then none of them will. Not the boy...not Rachel...none of them."
"I...you're wrong!" Blaine shrank back.
"Nobody loves a pest, boy. Nobody."
"That's not true!" Sam yelled, but neither Blaine nor his father looked up. "I need to tell him that that isn't true!" He turned to Puck, pleading and Puck frowned.
"If I knew how to help you dude, I would."
"You're in my dream! Just put me in his!"
"It doesn't work that way. I'm in your dream because you have something to learn from me. You brought me here, just like how only he can bring you into his dream, and he doesn't have a solid enough grip on himself to do that." Puck frowned. "I'm sorry..."
"What do I do?" Sam asked.
He watched as Blaine's father walked away, kicking Blaine's child self out of his path before vanishing around a corner. The grown up Blaine sat down in the corner and drew his knees into his chest.
"He's afraid." Puck said. "He's afraid that everything his father said was true. He wants to be loved, more than anything. His parents never loved him, his Nurse was killed, everybody in this castle wanted him dead. Where Rachel always had Blaine to look after, to give her a sense of purpose, Blaine grew up thinking that his only purpose was to be...well...beaten down, both physically and emotionally. He's afraid of losing love, almost as much as he's afraid of getting it...Now that Quinn's dead...helping him will be mega hard."
"This is awful." Sam frowned. "Why are you showing me all of this?"
"These three are important. You'll meet several people on your journey, but these three...you've got to keep them strong. You can't let them break, because if you do...there are lives on the line. Finn's been given the job of watching you...but he's not strong enough to watch the others."
"But what about my problems?" Sam asked.
"Help them...and you'll help yourself in the end." Puck said wisely. "Come on, we've still got one more dream to visit before the night is over..." He waved a hand and a door appeared on the wall of the hallway.
"I don't know if I want to see it!" Sam moaned.
"No...you probably don't." Puck admitted. "It's worse than the rest...I'm like the ghost of Christmas your-lives-fucking-suck-all-year-round."
"Oh Rachel..." Sam groaned as he stepped out of Blaine's dream and back into the meadow.
Sam looked around and spotted several figures standing in the grass, and Rachel kneeling before them, weeping uncontrollably.
Rachel looked up at the people standing before her and couldn't help but cry. It was killing her to look at them; their ashy skin and colourless lips, their milky eyes and brittle hair.
"Why are you crying?" Santana raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips, almost laughing. She tossed her hair to the side and Rachel spotted the jagged white scar along her neck.
"Because you...I tried so hard..." Rachel whispered. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't apologize." Sam scoffed, looking down at her. "It's not going to help anything now!" He raised his hands behind his head and grinned, lifting up his shirt enough that she could see the massive scar along his side.
"Yeah." Blaine laughed. "I mean, we're dead Rachel. Saying you're sorry won't bring us back."
"I fought so hard..." Rachel whispered.
"You should've fought harder." Quinn shrugged.
"I tried!" Rachel pleaded.
"No, if you'd been trying, we'd all still be alive. You killed us dwarf." Santana said impatiently. "At least have the decency to own up to it."
"I...I didn't kill you!"
"I don't know..." Finn said doubtfully. "If you'd been paying more attention..."
"If you'd fought a little harder..." Sam added.
"I mean really..." Quinn rolled her eyes. "Can you keep anybody out of harm's way? You led your own brother into this war! Your brother!"
"Yeah, I was happy in our forest." Blaine frowned. "Maybe our parents were right about you..."
"To think...you thought I could love you." Sam laughed.
"But...but..." Rachel stammered.
"But...but..." Santana mocked her. "Listen, I've got better things to do. See you later. Oh wait, no I won't. I'm dead!"
Simultaneously, all five of them turned and walked away.
Sam was at a loss for words as Rachel slowly faded away and only he and Puck remained.
"She wants to be strong." Sam guessed.
"Right." Puck nodded. "She's so afraid of not being strong enough, of not being able to protect you. She wasn't strong enough to save her brother from the guards when they took them to the cells. She wasn't strong enough to save her nurse. She wasn't strong enough to save Quinn. Rachel is strong, really strong, but soon enough...she's going to break."
Sam sat down on the ground, holding his head in his hands. This was so much to take in so quickly.
"Why are you telling me this?" He asked.
"You're the only one who can make a difference." Puck said. "If Santana never feels accepted, Blaine will never feel loved, and if he never feels loved, Rachel will never be strong enough to leave him."
"Leave him?" Sam looked up.
"Woops, said too much." Puck turned and began to walk away.
"Wait! Why is it you? Why not Marley or Finn or somebody?" Sam asked.
Puck sighed and turned around.
"Because you've got something to learn from me. Don't wait too long like I did. Pay attention to those around you...they need you! Treasure the moments that you've got, because they're numbered, and you don't know how close that number is to zero, until it's already up." Puck sighed. "You can do this. It's your story; your fate is in your hands. Believe that.
Sam cried out as he sat up, blinking in the firelight that was still burning before him. Finn yelled in surprise and toppled backwards.
"What?" He asked, standing up and whipping out the new dagger he'd been given from the Blacksmith's wife.
"Umm...nothing..." Sam mumbled, looking to the side. Rachel was passed out to his right, one arm covering her face. Blaine was curled up in a ball beyond her, and Santana was on his other side, asleep but tensed.
"Did you have another crazy premonition thing?" Finn asked.
"No...no, nothing like that." Sam shook his head.
"Do you..." Finn paused, as if searching for the right words. "Want to talk about it?" He decided, speaking very surely, as if he was unsure if that was how he was supposed to respond to Sam's distress.
Sam smiled at him.
"No, but thank you." He said.
Finn shrugged and turned to stoke the fire and Sam couldn't help but feel a spark of hope as he looked at Finn. Sam had taught him how to feel! And if he could do that, maybe he could show Santana that she belonged, and maybe he could show Blaine that he was loved, and maybe...maybe he could show Rachel that she was the strongest person he'd ever met, because it was true, and she deserved to know that.
He added three more goals to his steadily growing list, right under saving Brittney, avenging Quinn, and conquering the Kingdom.
Well, nobody could say he didn't dream big.
He paused and looked at the siblings again.
"You don't have to be big..." He smiled. "To chase giant dreams..."
"What was that?" Finn looked up.
"Nothing..." Sam smiled and nodded to himself.
The crystals on his sword lit up, and for the first time...they didn't fade away again. A dull light, far within the crystal, but definitely there, shone.
Far away in Violetedge, a similar shimmer began to emerge in those crystals. There was hope in the Kingdom, and it could only grow.
"There it is." Finn pointed.
They were standing atop a large grassy hill that led into a natural sea-side basin.
"That ocean leads into another Kingdom, but the King cut off any trade or travel to it so there aren't any boats there..." Finn frowned.
The town was nestled inside of the basin, and was about the same size as Ostvale. Fayhaven had once been a lively fishing port, but poor government had destroyed their main source of income, and it was falling into a rustic sort of lifestyle. There was a forest that led out of the basin to the northeast and vanished into the horizon.
Unfortunately, the five of them could see very little of this, as the entire area was practically blanketed by a thick layer of fog.
"Why is everything so white?" Santana asked.
Finn opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by a scream from down the hill.
"Get back here!"
They all looked down as a cow galloped out of the gates of the city, frantically pursued by a pretty girl with straight black hair and a knee length white dress carrying a bucket.
"Give me your milk!" She screeched.
The cow mooed, as if taunting her, and then doubled back, cutting past her and causing her to slip and fall to the ground. She scowled and got to her feet again as the five fugitives began to descend from the hill towards her.
She took off after the cow again, and again it pulled the same trick, cutting past her and making her tumble to the grass. She got up, wiping grass out of her hair with a look of frustrated determination.
The cow ran towards Sam and the others and the girl, still not noticing them, raced after it. It veered to the side and the girl spotted them for the first time, screaming and tripping over her own feet, falling flat on her face directly in front of them.
"Oh my..." Rachel leaned down to help her up. "You do take plenty of spills don't you?"
The girl smiled graciously at her and accepted her assistance, rising to her feet.
"This cow is just...it is not cooperating!" She laughed. The girl had a very kind, bright voice. Almost like birdsong.
Santana stepped forwards, hands held up to signify that everybody should stand back. She rolled up the sleeves of her brown leather jacket and tossed her hair back.
"Don't even worry about it Asian-Persuasion. I got this." She snapped one hand. "Trouty, with me. We're gonna wrangle a cow."
Sam grinned and nodded enthusiastically with childlike energy, bounding out into the field. He and Santana spread out as the raven haired girl watched them curiously. Rachel, Blaine and Finn all looked on, obviously amused.
The cow glared at Santana as she crept around in front of it. She waved to it and made kissing noises, gesturing for it to come closer. It did not, instead, it backed away. Santana lunged towards it and it turned to run backwards, running straight into Sam, who grabbed it in a sort of headlock.
Sam lost his footing as the cow began to buck, and when he regained it, he pushed up off the ground and landed on the cow's back.
"Milky!" The girl cried out.
Santana ran towards the pair, as Sam began to bull-ride the feisty cow. She grabbed it around the neck and dropped her feet out from under her, weighing down its front body enough that it stopped bucking.
Eventually it decided that it had lost and allowed the others to approach it.
"You did it!" The girl cheered.
She knelt in the grass and set the bucket down beneath the cow.
"Was there ever any doubt?" Santana asked.
"Yeah." Finn nodded.
"A little." Rachel raised her hands to indicate a smidge.
"Thank you so much." The girl smiled at them.
"No problem!" Sam smiled and waved goodbye to her, stepping past her towards the mist-clouded gates of Fayhaven.
Blaine and Rachel nodded to her as they passed, and Santana fondly patted the cow before passing by after her friends.
"Hey..." Finn paused.
She looked up.
"I feel like I know you..." He said.
"I thought you looked familiar!" She frowned. "But I can't remember where I know you from..."
"Hmm..." Finn shrugged. "Do you know if Kitty still lives here?"
The girl paused and thought about it.
"I...think so..." She said slowly. "As far as I know. I haven't seen her in a year at least, but I don't think she moved..."
"Thanks!" Finn smiled cheesily at her and then ran off after the others.
Rachel stepped slowly through the town gates. She would've looked around at the buildings, but the mist was so thick, that she could only see dark shadows that indicated a presence in the mist.
"I can't see anything! Is it always this misty?" She asked.
"It seeps out of the forest nearby." Finn explained. "The townspeople have learned to deal with it."
"How will we know where we're going?" Santana asked.
"I practically lived in that farmhouse when I lived here. I remember the way. Follow me." Finn said. He was nervous. Returning to his hometown, seeing Kitty again...he didn't even want to think about his parents.
They walked in silence, the five of them following behind Finn.
As they passed the center of town, Sam thought he saw a large church steeple through the mist.
He paused.
Religion had been a large part of his life back in Ostvale. He and his mother would get dressed up every Sunday morning to head down to the church and listen to the preacher's sermon with Quinn and her mother. When they would bow their heads to pray, Sam would always wish for his biological parents.
He wasn't naive enough to think that they were still alive, but what he really wished for, more than anything, was closure; a story, really, with a beginning, a middle, and inevitably an end. At least then he'd know...he could stop wondering.
Now...it almost seemed shallow to pray for himself. He imagined Brittney sitting, gaunt and tired in a cell in the castle. He pictured Mercedes trudging along through the mud in chains, and her feet giving out underneath of her...There was so much more to pray for in the world...
If there was a God, and Sam believed that there was...it wouldn't hurt to try.
He made a vow that he would pay a visit to the Church. He'd lost track of what day of the week it was, but he supposed any day was as good as any. He was fairly certain that a heavenly miracle wasn't bound by the day of the week.
He looked around at his friends and debated asking them to join him.
He was fairly certain that Finn wasn't really into group prayer, and he wasn't sure Blaine was very into it either after the life he'd been handed. By those standards, Rachel probably wasn't very religious either, which left him with Santana.
He flashed back to his dream that night with Puck. What was it that he'd said Sam had to learn?
He looked up as Blaine and Santana shared a joke and burst out laughing. Rachel, walking next to them, shook her head at them, grinning. Finn seemed lost in his own little world further ahead.
"Pay attention to those around you...they need you! Treasure the moments that you've got, because they're numbered, and you don't know how close that number is to zero, until it's already up."
Sam nodded, pursing his lips, deep in thought.
Rachel glanced back at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Are you alright?" She asked.
Blaine and Santana turned to look at him curiously and he realized how intensely in thought he'd been.
"Yep!" He smiled to reassure them. "Just...thinking..."
"About what?" Blaine asked skeptically.
"Nothing." He shrugged. "Everything."
"I gotcha." Santana nodded wisely. "I've had a lot of everything on my mind lately too." She said, sighing and looking around at the others and frowning internally. They were nice, they were kind to her, but...if it came down to it...they'd leave her behind. She was sure of it.
"I think we all have." Rachel sighed.
That was the end of that conversation, and before they knew it, Finn had stopped them in front of a charming farmhouse at the top of large hill above the rest of the village.
"This is it..." He frowned.
As charming as the farmhouse was, it looked run down. There were broken windows and cobwebs everywhere, and the wood was rotting and splintered. They all turned as the barn door slammed shut.
"Should we knock?" Rachel asked.
"I'm a farm girl myself; it gives me an honorary right to walk in." Santana nodded seriously and stepped forwards. She hauled on the door and stepped inside, the others all huddling together at the entrance as she moved further inside.
"Hello?" She called out. "Hello?"
She frowned, shrugged and turned to face the others.
"There's nobody here." She shrugged, glancing over her shoulder again.
She screamed as a figure dropped from the rafters behind her and pressed a blade to her throat.
For Acceptance
"Whoa!" Sam raised his hands in surrender immediately, and the others took a cue from him as Santana's attacker stared out at them untrustingly from behind her long blonde bangs.
A locket hung haphazardly from around her neck, and Rachel noticed it glinting in the light with a curious glance.
Santana whimpered and grabbed the girl's arm, trying to pry her dagger away.
"Who are you?" The girl snapped. "What are you doing here? Are you members of the Imperial Army?"
"No!" Sam stepped forwards. The girl tensed her arms and Sam froze. "Hold on...we don't want any trouble! We're looking for a man who used to live here...a warrior? Do you know anything about that?"
"What do you want with him?" She asked, taking a distrustful step backwards, dragging Santana with her.
Finn took a nervous step forwards past the siblings, who exchanged a look and sidled closer together, watching the scene unfold worriedly.
"Kitty?" He asked.
Her eyes darted from Sam to him, and then back again, as if expecting the taller boy to rush her. She paused and looked back at Finn, loosening her grip on Santana, just slightly. Santana nervously locked eyes with Finn, begging him to get her out of her unfortunate situation.
"...Finn?"
There was a long silence. An entire conversation seemed to be taking place between Kitty and Finn, without a word spoken.
Finn nodded.
Kitty let Santana go. She staggered across the room and knelt on the ground beside Sam.
"What happened to you?" She asked accusatorily. "What happened that night? One minute I was in the bar, dancing, and the next minute my brother was gone, you'd sprinted off out of the city pursued by soldiers, and my parents had been murdered!"
"I..." Finn paused, eyes glazing over as he remembered that night.
Sam saved him.
"The soldiers tried to take your brother, to force him to join the army." He explained. "But Finn helped him escape."
"Right." Rachel nodded. "But he got caught helping him, so he was attacked too..."
"I'm sorry." Finn frowned.
There was another long silence. Another silent conversation. This time it was Kitty who nodded.
"How did you survive?" Finn asked.
"When they killed my parents they decided to keep me alive, so that I could tell them if Puck ever returned here. I told them I would." She said. The others looked at her, confused and she shook her head. "I wouldn't! But I told them I would, so they'd let me live. Not that he's ever actually come back anyways..." She said bitterly, absentmindedly grabbing the locket.
"We need him." Blaine said. "According to Finn he's the strongest warrior in the Kingdom. We're trying to take down the King...we were hoping you could help us find him."
"And I'm just supposed to take your word at face value?" She asked skeptically.
"Take mine!" Finn nodded earnestly.
"I'm sorry, I can't help you. I'm not going to tell you where Puck is hiding."
"So you do know then." Rachel nodded.
Kitty froze; hand on the locket around her neck.
"Damn it."
"Please! We don't stand a chance without him." Sam begged.
"You barely stand a chance with him!" She laughed. "The Imperial Army is ridiculously strong."
"We know." Rachel said.
"We've all got something to fight for; we've all been wronged by the King and his court." Blaine said. "You of all people should understand that!"
"You seem like good, noble people, but I can't help you. I'm sorry." She turned to walk off further into the barn but Sam stopped her.
"The King is keeping you from your brother. If you help us, you could be reunited!"
Kitty looked torn.
There was a third, long, painful silence, where Sam, Rachel, Blaine, Santana and Finn all waited with baited breath.
"It's too risky." She said finally, shaking her head. "I can't give away information that vital."
"What can we do then?" Blaine asked, stepping forwards in frustration. "What can we do to prove to you that we're good people?"
"Be a hero." Kitty shrugged. "Do something selfless! Something good. Then, maybe, I'll consider helping you."
"Fine." Sam said.
"We'll be back." Finn locked eyes with his old friend and turned, leading the others back out of the barn.
Blaine sighed and rested his head on his hands, which were folded atop the table of a booth in the far corner of the town's only bar.
"I don't know how to be a hero." He shrugged, sitting up again and peering around at the rest of the building. The entire bar was empty, except for a grizzled old man sitting at the bar itself who kept staring at them.
He made Blaine uneasy. There was something about the old man that put him off, a sixth sense that he should steer clear of him.
"Me neither." Rachel shrugged.
"Well...we have to come up with something." Santana said plainly, sitting on the other side of the table beside Sam and Finn.
"Yeah but-" Blaine trailed off as the waitress approached.
"Hello!" She said cheerily.
Sam turned and recognized her.
"Hey!" He realized. "You're the girl with the cow from this morning!"
"Yep!" She laughed. "My name is Tina Cohen-Chang, and I'll be your waitress today! And, like, every other day, since I'm the only waitress who works here." She smiled cheerily.
"I'll have milk!" Santana laughed.
"We have plenty of that!" Tina cheered. "Thanks to you!"
"I'm not that hungry." Blaine said. "I'll have a glass of milk though."
"Yeah, me too please." Rachel agreed.
"I'll have milk too." Sam said and Finn agreed.
"Sure thing, I'll be right back with that!" She smiled and began to walk away.
"Hey!" Blaine called out.
She turned back to him.
"Yes?"
"Who is that man?" He asked.
Tina turned and noticed the man sitting at the bar.
"Oh...he's just an old adventurer. He sits there every day, drinking." She pursed her lips in blatant disapproval. "Sorry if he makes you uncomfortable. I'd ask him to leave but...we can't really afford to turn away customers." She laughed, looking around.
"Oh that's okay...he's just...there's just something about him...forget it." Blaine shook his head and looked from the man, to Sam, frowning.
"Why is it so empty in here?" Rachel asked.
"It's the fog." Tina frowned. "Because of the lack of visibility, the citizens of Fayhaven don't go outside too much. They used to...back when we had entertainment...but I haven't seen our entertainers in years." She sighed.
"That's how I know you! Aha!" Finn cheered, snapping his fingers. "You were the waitress when Puck and Kitty used to perform here."
"Yep!" Tina said. "You were friends with them, weren't you?"
He nodded.
"Small world!" She smiled. "What happened to them? Do you know? Did you find Kitty, that's who you were looking for right?"
"We found her alright..." Santana grumbled sulkily, rubbing her neck.
Tina frowned and looked around the table, but apparently she decided that it wasn't any of her business, so she excused herself to get their drinks and took off into the back of the bar.
Blaine went back to watching the man, who looked back at them again. Not noticing that he was being watched, the man stared intently at the back of Sam's head. Blaine couldn't help but remember that old phrase; if looks could kill...Sam would be dead.
"Maybe we can hold a party!" Santana suggested. "They don't have any entertainment anymore, we could do it!"
"No..." Rachel shook her head, resting her elbows on the table. "That's not heroic enough."
"We could...hold a benefit concert?" Sam suggested.
"Nobody would go." Finn said. "They don't know who you are. Also we're fugitives, so it would be pretty dumb for us to advertise that."
"How are we going to become heroes? That is too vague a request, she should've just given us a direct assignment." Rachel said. "We could follow direct instructions!"
"Umm..."
They all turned as Tina returned, smiling sheepishly and carrying a tray with five glasses of milk on it. She set the tray down and then folded her hands, rocking gently on her heels.
"I think I have an idea that might help you..." She smiled nervously.
"Really? What?" Blaine asked.
"There's a forest not far from the village, it's called Whitemist Forest." She said. "There's a house somewhere inside owned by an old woman. She has eyes all over the woods, and people who enter...they've never come back out. If you can kill the woman, the mist would disperse, and trade would be able to start up between Fayhaven and Starryville again! You'd be heroes if you could do it!"
Tina paused, hands clasped, and looked at the five of them. Blaine and Rachel both looked ready to battle, but Sam and Santana looked hesitant. Finn was lost in his own world.
"Why should we kill this woman...?" Sam asked nervously.
"Yeah..." Santana agreed.
Tina frowned and looked away, losing herself in her own memories.
"She lures children into the forest...She kills them...eats them!"
"Oh no..." Rachel gasped.
"When I was younger, I lived at an orphanage in town. When kids were bad, they would be sent out into the woods...I'd never see them again..." She frowned and cleared her throat. "I've got a bone to pick with the old witch. You seem like nice enough people... and you'd be heroes! Isn't that what you're looking for?"
"Well...yes. Yes, it is." Sam said.
"Then meet me at the entrance to the forest tomorrow morning."
The others exchanged a look and, one by one, they nodded. They needed the title of 'hero' to get Kitty on their team. Without her, they didn't have a hope of finding Puck, and without him, the war was already lost.
"We'll do it." Finn said.
Though all he could think about as he stood and led the others out of the bar was whether or not Puck had made it through the woods all those years ago.
Tina smiled to herself as she watched the five strangers exit the bar, the bell above the door ringing to signal their exit. She turned away, biting her lip.
She would finally find out what had happened to her friends all those years ago; Hansel and Gretle... She'd given up on believing that they were still alive...she just wanted some closure.
She sighed.
Of course, convincing her parents to let her go into the woods with five strangers would be another story entirely...
The bell above the door rang and she turned, raising an eyebrow. It was rare to get one visit a day, let alone two!
"Hello." She smiled warmly at the woman who entered.
"Hi." She said distractedly, looking around the bar. Tina followed her gaze and noticed the five empty milk glasses on the table. "Have you seen a tall boy with sandy hair?" She asked.
"Umm..." Tina paused. "Why?"
"His name is Sam Evans, and...its better if you don't get involved." The woman said.
Tina paused hesitantly.
"No, I haven't seen him. Sorry!" She hastily turned away.
"You're lying." Another voice chimed in as somebody else entered the bar.
"No I'm not!" Tina squeaked without turning around.
"Where is he?" The same person yelled.
"I have to go!" Tina took off towards the bar; she leapt over it and ducked into the back room. She could hear her pursuers gaining on her and the clatter of bottles as they jumped over the bar after her. She dove out the backdoor and took off into the mist, leaving her pursuers behind.
Tina didn't stop running until she'd reached the church, sprinting through the front doors in a panic.
"What are you doing?" A sharp older voice stopped her.
She froze.
"Umm...nothing mother." She said, looking up at her parents, who were standing together at the altar as if waiting for somebody to enter.
They did this every day, but the people of their church had given up on a God long ago. It saddened Tina, that their town had become so hopeless. She didn't scorn those who didn't believe, but...she did scorn those who scorned her for believing.
"Aren't you supposed to be working?" Her father asked.
"It's almost night." Tina said. "Besides...it's not like we ever have any customers."
"You can't just abandon your post! If you leave the bar to vandals, how are we ever to trust you with the church?" Her mother glared at her.
"Mother..." Tina sighed. "I don't want to run the church!"
"Don't be ridiculous." Her mother said. "You need the Lord in your life, and I will see to it that you have him!"
"But mother, I don't need to run a church to have that! Faith is on the inside!" She looked from her mother, who scoffed, to her father, who looked away.
"Do tell us daughter, what do you wish?"
"I wish..." Tina paused, thinking about it...really thinking. "I wish to help. To help those who need it most!" Tina smiled brightly.
"Good, than you'll run this church as soon as we're gone, and you can help the sinners who have yet to believe." Her mother sniffed dismissively and stalked off into the back of the church where Tina and her family lived.
Her father looked at her sadly.
"Father, people don't need religion shoved down their throats! It isn't right! If people believe...that's great! And if they don't, then maybe they don't need to! Maybe they're happy as they are!"
Her father said nothing as he turned away from her.
"I'm going into the woods tomorrow." Tina said, dropping the bomb.
"What?" He turned around, surprised.
She didn't say anything.
"You'll do nothing of the kind!"
"But father-!"
"No." He snapped. "It's too dangerous. You're to stay in the church until your mother or I tell you otherwise!"
Tina deflated.
"Yes father..."
"Good." He frowned and turned away, walking off.
Tina sighed and moved to the altar, sitting down on the side that faced away from the seats, resting her head on her knees. She stayed that way for a long time until footsteps in the aisle set her on edge; she drew her knees into her chest and froze.
Finn looked out the window of the room he'd booked at the local inn. He looked around at the town where he'd grown up, all foggy and familiar, but he didn't feel the same draw towards it he'd felt at the start of his journey.
He heard a cough from behind him and turned, looking curiously at Blaine and Rachel, who leaned against opposite sides of his doorframe, both trying and failing miserably to look nonchalant.
"What's up?" He asked.
"Oh nothing..." Rachel said, inspecting her nails casually.
"Just thought you might want to go out on the town." Blaine smiled hopefully.
Finn paused, looking at them both critically.
"Why...?" He asked slowly.
"Just thought you might like to see the sights!" Rachel said.
Finn looked at the fog covered city outside and then turned back to Rachel, blinking. She gave him a cheesy grin.
"You know I grew up here...right?" He asked.
"Oh right!" Blaine snapped his fingers. "I'd forgotten! Did you remember that Finn lived here Rachel?" He asked, turning to face his sister.
"It totally slipped my mind!" She said. "But since you brought it up, why don't we go see your house!"
"Your yard."
"Your room."
"Your parents."
"Ahah!" Finn called, pointing at them both accusingly. "You're trying to make me reconnect with my parents!"
The siblings sighed in resignation and Blaine pushed off of the wall, approaching him and sitting down on the bed.
"I don't understand why you haven't even mentioned them yet! Don't you want to know what's happened to them? You haven't seen them in three years!"
"Yeah! Are they crazy homicidal maniacs, because trust me, we'll understand." Rachel said, standing at the foot of the bed, both siblings turned to face Finn, who leaned against the window.
"My parents are just weird." He said. "They're too...not like me."
"But you're weird." Blaine said.
"So are they normal?" Rachel asked.
"And thus, weird to you?"
"Yes." Finn nodded. "You figured it out." He groaned and Rachel nodded as if he'd just been very insightful.
"Well you should still go visit them." She said. "They're probably terrified that you've been killed."
"For all I know, they've been killed." Finn whined.
"Come on." Blaine stood up and grabbed Finn's wrist, forcing him from the room. "We had to see our Dad again, now it's your turn! We'll even bring weapons in case it turns out the same."
Ten minutes later, Finn was standing at the bottom of the stairs leading onto his own front porch. He sighed and turned around to glare at Blaine and Rachel, who were both beaming, quite proud of themselves for putting him in such an awkward situation.
He shook his head, narrowing his eyes at them, but knocked anyways.
Nobody answered.
"Knock knock!" He yelled, knocking on it harder.
"Maybe they're out?" Rachel suggested.
"If you don't come open this door right now, I will break it down and shove it up your-"
The door opened!
"Keep it down! People are sleeping!" A plump woman with curlers in her hair shushed Finn but then paused.
"It's like, two in the afternoon..." Blaine noted.
"We like to be well rested." She said absently. "Do I know you from somewhere?" She asked Finn.
"Yep, I'm your son. 'Kay bye!" He turned away and walked back down the stairs.
Blaine and Rachel each grabbed him under an arm and dragged him back up the stairs and through the door.
"Wipe your feet!" The woman called after them.
"I've never been to a church before." Santana smiled, looking up at the white painted steeple as it vanished into the mist. "I've always believed, but...it's always just been me in my room, praying on the moon."
"I wanted to bring you here...to talk to you about something." Sam said, grabbing her hand and leading her inside.
Santana looked at him curiously, confused as he led her up towards the front of the church. He sat her down in the front pew and sat with her, looking at the floor.
"Santana..." He started.
Sam wasn't good at addressing feelings. He cared about his friends, he really did, but he wasn't sure where to begin...so he jumped right in.
"We need you." He said.
Santana blinked.
"Wait, what?"
"We need you." Sam said.
Santana frowned.
"What are you talking about? Why did you bring me here Guppy Face?"
"Don't get defensive...Santana, I brought you here because...because I believe in you, and you need to know that you belong here, on this planet, in this kingdom, in our group."
Santana froze. How had he picked up on her fears? Were they that obvious?
"No, Sam, you don't." Santana laughed. "That's okay, I'm not offended." She lied, standing up and walking back down the aisle.
"Stop!" Sam lunged after her and grabbed her hand. "We do need you! Your father may not have, but sometimes...sometimes you have to do things for you! And that's okay!" He said.
Tina, hiding behind the altar, let that thought sink in.
"I brought you to this church because when I'm here, it reminds me that I'm not alone, that we're never alone! You aren't either. We love you, you're a part of our group, and we're not going to let you go without a fight. I can promise you that." Sam said.
Tina sighed. She felt alone often...even when sitting in the church. She wanted to love and believe like the strange boy behind her did but...her parents had jaded their own religion for her. She believed, that wasn't the question, but she felt shallow, like she was believing because she'd been told, and not because she wanted to.
"I...I'm just a tag-along, you didn't even want me to come." Santana said, looking away.
"We didn't want you getting hurt. Now that you're here though, we need you. Before you came, yeah, we were pretty complete, but then you showed up and showed us what we were missing! You, Finn, Blaine, Rachel, you're all my friends and I need you all." He said. "I don't want you to feel like you don't belong, when you do! I want you to be able to feel like I feel when I'm here. I want you to feel loved...even when you've been wronged by life."
Tina closed her eyes. That was what she wanted too...more than anything. She didn't want this life of suffocating religion, she wanted to find God on her own, wasn't that what religion was all about? It wasn't a set of rules that you followed because you were told, it was a spiritual connection that made you strong when you were weak, or brave when you were afraid. That was the religion that Tina wanted...
She opened her eyes.
And she was going to get it.
"Thank you..." Santana whispered, wrapping Sam in a tight hug.
He was right; she'd been afraid, afraid of not belonging in this world. But maybe he was right about the rest too...maybe she did belong...maybe they did need her...maybe she just needed somebody to let her know it.
As she pulled away, the crystals on Sam's sword glowed a little brighter.
"Herbert! Finn's home!" Finn's mother called out. "And he looks repulsive!"
"Thanks a lot mother!" Finn cried out, sitting at the table and throwing his hands up.
"Well really honey, you look a sight! You're covered in scratches and scrapes and there's dirt all over you. You could almost pass for foreign!" She said with disdain.
"He's not that dark." Blaine scoffed, leaning forwards over the table.
"Elbows off the table!" The woman pushed him back as a wiry bespectacled man entered behind his wife. "Who do you think you are?" She asked as Blaine slowly withdrew his hands, sitting up straight and sharing a look with his sister, who was seated at the head of the table.
"What's she doing in my chair?" The man asked.
The woman walked over and shooed Rachel out of the chair, shoving her to the side rudely. Rachel stared at her in awe and then looked at Finn in confusion. He shrugged.
"Really, were you children raised by wolves?"
Rachel and Blaine shared a look.
"Umm..." Blaine paused.
"More...bears, really." Rachel said.
"And deer." Blaine smiled, wondering if Flower still had his old hat on.
"Well, you're free to leave whenever." Finn's mother said, attempting to comb down her son's flyaway hair. "Thank you for returning Finn to us."
Finn blinked.
"Wait, what?" He turned around and stood up. "I'm not leaving them."
"What do you mean what?" His father asked. "You're making a spectacle of yourself. Sit down and let your mother fix you."
"I'm not broken." Finn said, backing up.
Blaine and Rachel stood up and moved to stand behind him encouragingly.
"Well you're certainly not normal!" His mother tisked. "Look at you...is that a dagger!" She gasped and approached him.
Finn took a step back and shielded his weapon from her.
"Don't make me force that from your hand boy." His father growled.
Rachel drew her sword and Blaine whipped out his bow, more as a show of power than a threat, but it did the trick. Finn's parents stepped back disapprovingly.
"You've aligned yourself with savages!" His mother shrieked. "What has become of you? You were once such a perfect son, the perfect boy next door!"
The siblings both tensed. They thought they'd lost that nickname.
"Well I'm not that boy anymore." He said, he pivoted on his heel and stormed out of the house, Blaine and Rachel sheathing their weapons and following behind him.
"I'm sorry we brought you here." Rachel said as they stepped down the porch steps.
"Yeah...you didn't want to and we pressed the issue." Blaine said.
"No, it's fine. I was curious. At least now I know I'm right. I don't belong here anymore." He said.
"Finn!" His father bellowed from the porch. "Get back here this instant!"
"If you don't come back here right now, you're not coming back here ever!"
Finn stopped, unknowingly creating a parallel situation to Santana's. Only, now it was different. Santana's father had been hurting her, but Finn's were just the opposite. They tried so hard to make him perfect and clean and bright, that he hated them for it. Now, if they couldn't have the carbon-copy, they didn't want any of him.
"What's my favorite color?" Finn asked, turning around.
His parents blinked in confusion.
"Excuse me?" His father asked.
"I don't see how that's relevant."
"Come on Finn, let's just go..." Blaine mumbled, approaching him.
"No! What's my favorite color?"
"Blue, now come inside." His mother snapped, turning away.
"Wrong." Finn said. "It's red, always had been. Do you know why?"
"It was blue when you were younger..." His mother scoffed.
"No, he liked red because he likes the sunset." His father said.
"Wrong. I liked my friends' barn, because I got to escape this place." Finn said. "What were their names?"
"Finn, this is ridiculous, what point are you trying to prove?" His mother scolded.
Rachel stepped forwards, almost laughing.
"He's showing us all something...he's showing us that you spent so long focussing on what you wanted him to be, what you wanted him to know and to like and to experience, that you have no idea who your son even is!" Rachel looked at Finn. "Right?"
"Exactly."
"You saw your son for the first time in three years," Blaine started. "And you told him to wipe his feet! What is wrong with you?"
"Absolutely nothing!" Finn's father scoffed. "The same clearly can't be said about you two!"
"No, I think they're pretty perfect." Finn said. "You guys are the ones who are flawed. Goodbye forever."
He turned away and the siblings followed.
"Why are you acting so emotional?" His father snapped. "Like some kind of freak!"
Finn stopped and turned back around slowly.
"Emotional? No, I'm just not being numb. I'm not suffocating myself trying to shove my emotions down my throat! You guys are the freaks! Fuck you both." He turned back around and walked off down the street.
Into The Woods
"You're to scrub these floors until they sparkle, you never know when we might receive a guest!" Tina's mother told her.
"Yes mother." Tina said, tying her hair back and kneeling down, dousing her rag in the bucket of water beside her.
"I'll be back to check on you." She turned and stalked away.
Tina waited all of five seconds before she threw the rag into the bucket and sprinted out of the church, untying the cloth from her hair and tossing it into the wind behind her, a rush of adrenaline pulsing through her veins. It was time to do something with her life!
"Come on!" Santana yelled up the stairs and Rachel hurried out the door of their hotel room, slipping her sword into the scabbard. She met Finn at the top of the stairs, who was anxiously holding onto his dagger.
"Ready?" She asked him.
"Nope." He grinned. Since dissing his parents the night before, he'd been in amazingly good spirits. They all seemed to be relatively happy, actually. It was kind of awesome.
"It's just one witch, we can take her. Don't worry." Rachel said encouragingly.
Finn nodded and followed her down the stairs where they met up with Blaine and Santana. They rushed outside of the inn to find Sam waving to an approaching Tina through the mist.
"Are you all ready? It's time to become heroes!" She told them as she approached.
"I think that was pretty much our end goal anyways." Blaine joked.
Tina smiled and beckoned for them to follow her.
As they walked, her curiosity got the better of her.
"What are you doing here anyways? Nobody visits Fayhaven, it's too sad." She laughed.
"We're on the run from the King and his bloodthirsty minions because I wouldn't let him feed my best friend to his pet dragon, so we found Blaine and Rachel living in the woods as savages and then we caused a village to get burnt to the ground and my boss died under a bathtub, then it rained so we stayed at a farmhouse and made friends with Santana and a pack of wolves then we had Finn join us because he's magical and lives on a bridge and then we went into the desert where we had a dance off for our lives and now we're here." Sam said.
Tina laughed.
"No really?"
"We uh...we're touring the whole Kingdom to look for a place to settle down." Rachel lied, wrapping an arm around Finn's middle.
"Oh that's cute!" Tina squealed. "Why are you all here?"
"Family and friends." Santana said.
"And why do you need to be heroes."
"It's on my bucket list." Blaine said.
"Aren't you a little young to be checking off a bucket list?" Tina asked.
"He has...a jungle virus." Finn said, nodding.
Blaine glared at him and mouthed the word 'what', but when Tina turned to look at him pityingly he coughed loudly to prove his newfound illness.
"That's so sad! I'll pray for you." She smiled.
"Thanks." He smiled.
They walked on in silence for a while longer before reaching the edge of the forest. The mist was so thick that they could barely see one another.
"We should hold hands." Tina said. "So we don't get separated."
She reached out and took hold of Sam and Rachel.
Being so close to the forest, she was nervous, and admittedly, the hand holding was more to comfort her than to keep them all safe. Sam took Santana's hand and Rachel grabbed Finn. Santana beckoned for Blaine to take her hand and he obliged.
Slowly the six of them entered the forest. The mist was so thick that Finn could only see Rachel, and everybody past her was lost in the cloud. The chain of hands holding them together was the only proof they had that they were all still there.
Tina wandered blindly forwards, leading them like a flock of birds, but she was scared, and relying on pure guesswork. The forest around them seemed to slither and tick with some sinister presence, and they all crowded closer to one another.
Slowly the crackling, slithering noises began to grow in volume.
"What is that?" Rachel looked around, but she could barely see Tina anymore, the mist was so dense.
"I don't know!" Sam cried.
"Something just touched me." Blaine said suddenly. "Guys, something's touching my-gah!"
They were all yanked to the side and Santana cried out as her hold on Blaine's hand broke.
"Blaine!" She yelled, flailing for his hand.
She felt a slimy tendril wrap around her wrist and she screamed.
Sam suddenly realized that he was reaching up with Santana's hand still in his.
"Santana!" He yelled, trying to pull her back out of the sky.
She screamed and tightened her grip, but more tendrils grabbed her legs and she was yanked roughly away from him.
Sam rushed after them both, pulling the group with him, but Tina stopped short, pulling the other way.
"If we finish the fight it'll all go away! We've got to hurry!" She insisted.
Tina ran forwards again and, however reluctantly, the others followed. The woods were alive with the sound of creatures creeping through the mist and it was absolutely terrifying.
Rachel screamed as a root reached out of the ground and wrapped around her leg. Finn used his free hand to shoot a ball of fire at it and it shrivelled away.
"The trees are alive!" Rachel yelled.
"Shit!" Finn yelled as two more roots grabbed him and pulled him to the ground.
"Finn!" Rachel yelled for him, but only his muffled screams responded as he was pulled away into the forest.
"There!" Tina yelled as they spotted a cheerful little cottage in the middle of the woods. It practically glimmered in the forest, a beacon in the mist. As they approached they found that the entire building was made of candy, a real life gingerbread house!
They continued to sprint forwards, rushing towards it.
"Almost there!" Rachel yelled as Sam took the lead, pulling them along in a line. They reached the door and broke apart, both girls watching nervously as Sam tried the knob. The door swung open. "We made-Ah!" She screamed as a large tree reached out a branch and wrapped it around her, pulling her into the mist.
"Rachel!" Sam felt his heart skip a beat and he ran after her but Tina grabbed his hand and pulled him back.
"We've got to fight the witch! The trees will return to normal, I'm sure of it!" She said, and she was. Maybe this was God; maybe this sixth sense was what it was all about, but right now, she was on an adrenaline high.
It was up to her to help people. It was time to do what she'd been born to do!
"This is her house?" Sam asked as they stepped inside into a large room. The furniture inside of the house appeared to be real; it was only the walls and ceiling made of sweets.
Something about the candied panels made Tina uneasy...as if they were more than they appeared.
"She lures children here out of the woods. She controls the forest too, I bet. She scares children until they come running to this creepy little house."
"She didn't scare Rachel and the others..." Sam commented.
"Well..." Tina paused. In her head, she guessed that the Witch had the trees squeeze the life out of the children they caught, and then went out to fetch the bodies. She didn't bother sharing this theory with Sam. "I don't know..." She shrugged instead.
She stepped forwards, eyes peeled for any sign of the crony old woman who would know the truth about what happened to her friends long ago. In the fairytale Hansel and Gretle had returned home to their father and killed the Witch...but Hansel and Gretle had never had a father...and they'd certainly never returned to the orphanage.
The room was empty, except for several bookcases and an inviting looking couch with blankets lain across the back and children's books littering the ground before it. The bookcases themselves were filled with heavy, bound, scholarly looking material. The children's books were clearly just another trap.
In the right corner of the room, there was a closed doorway leading to another part of the house, and a long hallway leading further back.
"She's probably dangerous. I mean, she is a Witch..." Tina said reasonably.
"Where is she?" Sam asked, creeping forwards until he stood in the center of the room, atop a lavish looking rug. He looked down as his foot rested atop a strange protrusion in the floor. "Tina..." He said slowly, kneeling down and pulling the rug back.
The rug slid away to reveal a large brass handle to a trap door in the floor.
Tina eyed the trapdoor and then looked off down the hallway.
"Maybe we should split up. She's hiding, and if we move together she'll have more chance to move through the house. We can corner her if we separate." She suggested.
"Alright." Sam said, wrenching open the floorboards. "Yell if you find her."
"Okay." Tina nodded and turned away to venture down the hallway.
Sam grimaced and place his hands on the cold wooden ladder that descended into a cellar of sorts, and began to climb down it. His mind was racing, here he was, breaking and entering into the home of a potentially sweet old lady because some girl he'd just met told him that she ate babies.
What had he gotten himself into...
Now his friends were all in danger, and he was attempting to kill some old broad, hoping that it would make the magical forest stop squeezing the life out of them.
This entire situation made little to no sense.
He sighed to himself as he reached the bottom and turned around to investigate.
He froze.
"Holy shit..."
Tina sighed as she entered the second bedroom. There were only two rooms in the hallway, both bedrooms, both comfortable looking children's rooms. This woman was sick, that was clear in Tina's mind. She had a bone to pick, and, as passive as Tina tended to be, she wasn't about to forgive cannibalistic murder.
She turned and moved back down the hallway towards the main room of the house.
There was no sign of the Witch yet, and Tina was uncertain what to make of the situation. Grimly, she wondered if she'd gone out to check on Sam's friends, but she surmised that they were still alive. They had to be! She couldn't have just led four people to their deaths. Besides, they were adventurers, and they gave Tina a good feeling. They were strong, and they would fight to the bitter end.
She stepped out of the hallway and turned to face the door off of the main room. Hesitantly she put a hand on the candy-swirled doorknob and turned it, swinging the door inwards.
She slowly inched her way inside and found herself in a large kitchen, with an enormous coal stove on one wall, and knives and utensils of every sort littering a large table in another corner. Other than that, the kitchen was fairly empty. There were no cupboards...there were no food products at all as far as Tina could see.
She screamed as the door slammed shut behind her.
Sam gawked at the cellar.
No, not cellar; dungeon.
The only light in the entire room came from the trapdoor above Sam's head, but it was enough to illuminate at least six cramped metal cages hanging from the ceiling. There were small trays of sweets in each cage, but each one looked barely large enough to fit a child...
A child...?
Tina screamed from the floor above him and he leapt at the ladder.
"Tina!"
He frantically scrambled up the rungs, but just as he was about to scramble through the trap door at the top, it slammed down on his fingers. He yelled in pain and withdrew them, crying out as he found himself flailing in mid-air.
He reached out for the rungs of the ladder and managed to jerk to a stop, a sharp pain shooting up his arm at the suddenness. He planted his feet and shouldered the trapdoor, but it barely even budged.
"Tina!" He yelled again.
"Hello child..." A grizzly old woman with a hunch back and a full set of carnivorous looking teeth grinned at her, narrowing her beady eyes at the Preacher's daughter.
Tina backed away slowly, arms behind her to feel for the table that she had seen on her first look through.
"Wh..." Tina paused and swallowed deeply, praying for some confidence. "What happened to my friends?" She asked.
"You're going to have to be more specific deary." The woman cackled, taking a menacing step forwards and sniffing the air. "I've become well acquainted with several of the children from the village."
Tina tried not to think about that too much.
"Hansel and Gretle." Tina started.
The old woman paused and smiled slowly.
"Oh yes...I remember them..." She paused and looked at Tina with milky, frightening eyes. "One of the best meals I've ever had."
Tina's hand found the table, which was good, because otherwise, she might've collapsed to the ground.
"So it's true..." Tina whispered. "You eat children."
"No, no, you misunderstand!" The woman said, taking another step forwards. "I don't limit myself to children...you're, what...?" She sniffed the air. "Sixteen? Seventeen maybe? Certainly not a child...and yet...I'm sure I'll enjoy the feast you've so kindly delivered to me." She smiled menacingly.
"I'm not going to let you eat them!" She paused. "Well I'm not going to let you eat me either, but I brought them out here, let them go!"
"Why would I do that? They've all fallen into my traps so nicely..." She waved a hand through the air and a cloud of mist emerged. Tina looked into the mist and saw Blaine struggling against a cluster of ivy that was slowly squeezing the air out of him. The image changed and she saw Santana flailing against a branch that was grabbing her ankle and holding her upside down in the air, then Finn, fighting against several roots that were pulling him into the ground, getting tighter and tighter. After Finn, Tina saw Rachel being squeezed against a massive oak tree, like it was giving her some kind of satanic hug, and finally, Sam, beating against the trap door for all he was worth. "No...I think I could eat for several months off of such a bounty."
She smiled again, that same twisted, evil grin.
Tina scowled, reached behind her, grabbed a kitchen knife, and whipped it through the air.
The Witch screamed and her eyes widened in surprise. She managed to clamber out of the way and the knife stuck itself in the gingerbread wall just behind her. Tina turned and grabbed a baking pan, holding it protectively in front of her as the Witch turned to face her again.
"Spicy. Aren't you child?" She spat. "I hate spicy!" She shrieked and raised a hand. She clenched it and Tina paused. She heard a whistling noise behind her, and ducked, just as another knife whizzed over her head from behind, landing and skidding along the ground in front of her.
Tina gasped and lunged forwards as the Witch picked up another knife with her mind and threw it down into the ground.
Tina managed to narrowly avoid it, and rolled onto her back, raising the pan above her as three more knifes whipped down towards her with such force that they stabbed through the large metal pan in her hands, stopping inches from her face where the handles got stuck.
Shoulder rolling back to her feet, Tina threw the pan as hard as she could at the witch, hitting her in the side and knocking her into the side of her own stove. Tina hurried onwards, grabbing the knife that had landed in the wall and wrenching it free. Through the small hole it created, she could see the trap door bulging outwards as Sam attempted to break it.
"Sam!" She yelled, but instinct caused her to duck as a large fireball singed the gingerbread above her head. She turned to find that the Witch had opened her stove and was waving her hands frantically as fire leapt out of it and at Tina.
"You won't escape this alive! I like my teenagers well done!" The Witch cackled. "Though I doubt any meal can top that of Hansel and Gretle. They were sweet. I like sweet." She smiled.
Tina saw red.
She lunged forwards, ducked under a flying knife, jumped into the air and singed her dress on a beam of fire, pivoted around another knife and swung her arm, watching as the knife flew forwards and nailed the Witch in the forehead.
She heard a satisfying crack from behind as the trapdoor burst open. Seconds later, Sam had arrived in the kitchen, drenched in sweat and looking around at the weaponry littering the floor.
His eyes found the Witch whose eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets. The woman grabbed the knife and wrenched it free before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Sam stepped further into the room, carefully approaching Tina.
"Did you do it?" He asked.
"I...I think so..." She said, looking around.
"Foolish children!" The Witch's voice sounded.
The stove suddenly exploded in a torrent of flames that grew until it was the size of a small, cylindrical dragon that roared at them. The knives all flew into the air and began to accumulate on the other side of the room. The table and pans floated into the air just in front of them.
"Oh shit..." Sam mumbled.
"I am a Witch! A magical entity far greater than you could ever hope to be! I am more than a pesky body! You may have destroyed my worldly self, but as long as my house lives, I will not die! Kill them my pets!" She screeched.
The fiery dragon roared and flew at Sam, who screamed and dove out of the way.
"Roll!" Tina yelled, and he did so without second guessing.
Six knives buried themselves in the floorboards one after another, each narrowly missing him as he rolled out of the way. He jumped back to his feet and ducked immediately as the dragon lunged towards his face.
Tina, lunged forwards and grabbed one of the knives from the floor, but gasped as a pan smashed into the back of her head. She staggered upright, holding the knife as tightly as she could as several pans floated towards her. Her eyes widened as the table floated to the forefront. She gulped nervously and cringed as it flew towards her.
She cried out as it connected with her, smashing her into and through the gingerbread wall and sending her flying through the air, and smashing into a bookshelf. She dropped the knife on the floor, and felt a gash open up on her forehead. She crumpled to the ground and gasped as several of the books from the shelf tumbled down on top of her.
"How do we defeat a house?" Sam yelled, unsheathing his sword and attempting to cut through the dragon with it. It did nothing but make the blade hot. He swore and pivoted to the side, just in time to knock a pan backwards into two knives.
"I don't know!" Tina shrieked in panic, feeling around frantically for her knife. Another knife stabbed down towards her hand and she pulled away just before it reached her, gasping as it stabbed into an open book instead.
She seized the handle and was about to pull it out when the picture at the top of the page caught her eye.
"Rain..." She murmured.
She grabbed the knife and tossed it over her shoulder, looking at the cover of the book.
"A book of spells?" She paused. "That's black magic..."
She paused. The book falling open to that page, the knife drawing her attention to it... That was more than coincidence; that was fate. She opened to the page again, and looked up at the Gingerbread roof.
"It's a cookie!" She realized. "The house is a cookie! Rain will destroy it!" She looked down at the book and looked at the instructions. It was in a different language! "What do I do? Oh God, what do I do?" She held the book as tightly as she could and swallowed nervously, looking up to find the giant fire dragon had backed Sam into a corner and the knives were approaching both of them on all sides.
"Please God!" She prayed, closing her eyes and focusing as hard as she could on the spell in her hands, praying to God that it would work. She channeled as much energy and faith as she could into the paper. She could hear the knives getting closer, and Sam's cries of fear getting louder in the other room. "Rain!" She yelled.
There was an enormous thunderclap and they all looked up as a torrential downpour started, instantly leaking through the roof. In seconds the entire structure had crumbled and melted away to a soggy open floor.
The utensils clattered to the ground, puffs of dark smoke emerging from them and fading away in the wind. The fire dragon hissed and jerked back and forth, shrinking as the rain attacked it.
Sam watched in awe as the final flame flickered out.
"You did it!" He yelled, racing towards Tina and wrapping her up in a huge hug, spinning her around. They both turned as the fog began to lift in the forest around them. They could see the huge tree that had captured Rachel now that the wall had dissolved into a soggy paste.
Rachel gasped as the tree let her go and snapped back into the shape of a regular tree, mist oozing out of it and floating away into the atmosphere. She hit the ground hard and looked up as Sam and Tina ran towards her.
"How did you do this?" She gawked, leaping onto Sam and holding him tightly, smiling like mad. She had scratches all over her arms and neck where her skin had been showing, and her ribs would bruise, but she was alive, and that was all that mattered.
"I didn't!" He looked at Tina. "She did!"
Rachel excitedly hugged her and then grabbed their hands.
"Let's find the others!"
Finn winced as the rain began to fall on his face, splattering his hair. There was blood coming from where the roots had cut into his arms and legs, and his palms were scratched to pieces, but just as suddenly as the rain had started, the roots backed off, withering off into the ground like embarrassed snakes.
He stood up and looked around in confusion.
"How...?"
Blaine tried to bite into one of the vines restraining him, but gasped as it wrapped around his head instead, choking him. He tried to gnaw into it, but it wasn't working, and the other vines were holding him too tightly, he couldn't breathe!
He looked up at the sky as a torrential downpour started.
The vines paused and then slithered away, setting him free. He blinked in confusion and stood up, rubbing his wrists. He would have ring-like bruises all over his body, but he was alive. Because of the rain?
He looked further into the forest.
No, it was his friends! They'd done it!
He ran forwards and cried out suddenly as Santana was dropped from a tree, almost on top of him.
"What happened?" She asked, standing up and staggering about as the blood rushed back to the rest of her body.
"They did it!" Blaine grinned. "We're alive!"
Tina smiled as she looked up at the sky. She'd done it. She'd found God on her own. She'd helped people! The mist had dispersed, the people could be happy again! Trade could start up between Starryville and Fayhaven once more, and more importantly, there would be no more lives cut short by that Witch.
She paused.
Now if only the same were true of the King.
What she wouldn't give to stop him too...
Hmm, it seems that Tina has a grudge against the King as well! Finn has confronted his family, and Sam seems to have taught Santana that she does belong. The team also seems to have vanquished the mist from Fayhaven! But what will happen when Tina's parents find out what she's done? And what about the people that are hunting Sam and his friends?
In the next chapter, Santana stands up for herself against the father that plagues her dreams, Tina teaches Sam a valuable lesson, and Santana teaches her how to cut loose. Sam learns another piece of the mystery of his parents that sends him spiralling into a deep depression, and when their lives are all threatened once more, Tina makes a brave choice. Santana and Rachel come to a boiling point in their arguments about love, and Blaine learns that he and Kitty have something in common after all. In the end, Blaine has to make a decision that will determine the fate of somebody very close to him, and he may not choose to make them live...