Whassup, my peeps? Wow, two new chapters in one day...is that something or what?
FairyTales And Pixie Dust: He really is, isn't he? Man, I want a Ratti plushie, do they still make them do you think? Thanks for all your great reviews.
In this chapter, Danielle and Wallace meet. How will things turn out? Gotta read to find out! I still don't own a darn thing.
Slowly and carefully, Danielle made her way through the winding maze of sewer pipes. Most mice would have a hard time getting anywhere in the sewer, but she had been raised here, so she knew her way so well she could have walked it blindfolded.
After a few minutes, Danielle arrived at her father's old lair. She sighed as she looked around. Things had been very quiet and lonely ever since her father died and his employees had been rounded up and arrested, now in jail awaiting their sentences for treason and attempted genocide. Even their beloved cat Felicia had moved on, having been found mauled near death by a human family and taken in.
Danielle went into her room, which was fashioned out of a small wine keg. She sat down at her vanity, picked up her hairbrush and started brushing her long raven hair. She admired herself in the mirror. She had gotten her small mouse frame and her dark blue eyes from her mother, and her dusty gray fur and black hair from her father. In short, she was very beautiful.
After she finished brushing, Danielle smoothed out her skirt with her hands. She was wearing simple clothes; a white blouse, a black corset, a long gray skirt and black flats. These clothes breathed well and made it easier to maneuver through the pipes than would the stuffy dresses that Mousetorian ladies usually wore. She smiled as her eye caught the one bit of color in her wardrobe; a gold necklace that consisted of a chain with a heart-shaped pendant, her name engraved into the pendant. Her father had given it to her for her thirteenth birthday. It was her most treasured belonging.
Danielle got up from her vanity and walked over to her bed. She lay down on her back on the bed, reached for a book on her side table, opened it up to where she had left off and started to read. As she read, a memory came to her...
She was five years old. Her father was reading her a bedtime story. "...and so the prince tried the glass slipper onto Cinderella's foot. The slipper fit perfectly, so he knew that she was the one he had danced with the night of the ball. Soon after they were married, and they lived happily ever after. The end." He closed the book and set it down.
"Daddy, when I grow up, will a handsome prince come find me and bring me to his castle?" little Danielle asked.
Ratigan chuckled. "Unfortunately, Danielle, life doesn't always work that way."
"It's because I'm not a princess, isn't it?" the little girl asked, obviously disappointed.
"Well, you're MY little princess, and that's all that matters. And one day, when you're old enough, you'll meet a nice man who will treat you like royalty." Ratigan kissed his daughter on the cheek. "Good night, Princess Danielle."
"Good night, Daddy."
Danielle smiled as she remembered how naïve she was back then. Of course some handsome prince on a white stallion wouldn't come riding into town looking for a bride, and even if he did, the sewer would be the last place he'd look.
Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door. Danielle sat up, set the book down, got onto her feet and walked to the door and opened it, revealing a handsome young mouse on the other side. "May I help you, sir?"
The mouse smiled. "You certainly may, Miss Ratigan."
Danielle felt her heart stop for a moment. "You know who I am?"
"Of course I do. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that only the daughter of the late Professor Ratigan would continue to live in his old lair." The mouse bowed. "Michael J. Wallace the Third, at your service, m'lady." He took Danielle's hand and kissed it, making her blush slightly.
"I've heard about you," Danielle realized. "You're the son of the nobleman who gambled his fortune away at the corgi racetracks, and then died along with his wife shortly after in a carriage accident. I'm so sorry about all that."
Wallace snorted. "Oh, it's not THAT bad. I'm used to not having the money, I don't really miss it." He sniffed, feigning sadness. "The only regret I have is that I never really got to know my parents. You have no idea how much I miss them." He buried his face into his hands and pretended to cry. He peered through his fingers to see the pained look on Danielle's face, then uncovered his face. "Oh, dear me, I'm such an inconsiderate fool...I had forgotten that you just lost your father recently. My condolences, Miss Ratigan."
"Please, call me Danielle. And thank you. I'm still getting used to the fact that he's gone, but I'll be all right."
Wallace nodded. "Kind, understanding, and the most beautiful girl I've ever met. You are quite a rarity, Danielle. Which makes it all the more appropriate to do this." He took her hand and got down on one knee. "Danielle Ratigan, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
For a moment, Danielle stared at him silently. Then, she burst out laughing. "What is so funny?" Wallace demanded, letting go of her hand and getting back up onto his feet.
Danielle calmed herself down. "I'm sorry, you weren't joking?"
"Oh, I've never been more serious in my life. I'll never find another woman like you."
"But we've just met!" Danielle reminded him. "We don't know anything about each other!"
"Darling, that's what the honeymoon is for. Now say yes, and begin our perfect life together!"
Danielle frowned. Either this man was desperate to find a wife, or he was just plain insane. "No."
"WHAT did you just say?" Wallace asked, his voice becoming very quiet, almost dangerously so. Danielle was a bit frightened, but she stood her ground.
"I said no, Mr. Wallace. I do not know you, and you are being pushy. If we were to get to know one another and then you asked for my hand, then I'd consider it, but for now my answer is no." She folded her arms in front of her chest.
Wallace's face became red. "No? NO? I did NOT crawl through this slimy sewer to be turned down by the whorish offspring of some second-rate crime lord! You WILL marry me!" He tried to grab at her, but she ducked out of the way and punched him in the eye, followed by a knee to the genitals. Wallace doubled over in pain, one hand covering his left eye and the other holding his crotch. Danielle ran to her private keg. "And if you ever come within fifty yards of me again, I'll give you TWICE the beating I just gave you!" She slammed the door behind her and locked it, leaving Wallace to get up and stagger home.
Jenkins met Wallace back at the flat and smiled to himself to see him with the beginnings of a black eye. "I take it the proposal didn't go quite as planned?"
"A minor setback, Jenkins. But mark my words, the Ratigan girl will be mine."
Meanwhile, in the sewer, Danielle was in a panic. "He'll be back. There's no way he's going to give up that easily. And who's to say he won't bring more men? I have to leave, hide until he stops looking for me." With that, she went out a back way that her father had used for quick evacuations, and once she made it to the surface, she ran. She ran and ran down the streets of London, as fast as her legs could carry her, until finally, she collapsed from exhaustion.
Danielle sobbed to herself as she lay on the sidewalk. Here she was, alone, tired and scared, in an area of town she didn't know well, with a maniac trying to find her and force her to marry him. It was all too much for an eighteen-year-old girl to bear. But the worst of it was, for one brief moment, she had actually believed that Wallace was her prince charming, coming to rescue her from her life of solitude and loneliness. "Oh God, how could I be so stupid?" she cursed herself. And so she continued crying until finally she slipped into unconsciousness, not even reading the address of the house that she was in front of:
221 1/2 B Baker Street.
Duh duh DUUUUUH...I do so love dramatic music, don't you?
OK, as much as I hate Felicia (me not a cat person), I just had to let her survive, because A. she was really only acting on Ratigan's orders so she wasn't evil per se, and B. out of all the "deaths" from the movie, hers was probably the most survivable (is that even a word?)...she probably lost a lot of fur and a few chunks of skin, but still possible to escape from.
Just kind of an FYI if you were curious, I partially based Wallace on Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (very handsome, wants to marry the main heroine, extremely pushy in trying to make said heroine marry him), only more willfully malicious and less of a total dumbass...yeah, is it obvious that I don't like Gaston?
Next chapter, we get to meet the Baker Street crew, including our very own Basil...yay, I luvz Basil, just not as much as I luvz Ratigan!
Thanx for tuning in! Hope to see you for the next chap!
All my best, DiscordantPrincess.