Wicked Comet part 18
Rich and Glinda watched from behind the curtain as the door to the room burst and the witch hunters came charging in! Elphaba seemed to be holding her own but Rich and Glinda knew that she would soon tire and falter.
"We've got to do something!" Glinda whispered to Rich, not expecting him to have a brainwave!
Rich snapped his fingers and said,
"OF COURSE!"
He then darted, with some painful difficulty up to a hidden door, opened it and charged up a hidden spiral staircase with Glinda struggling to keep up in her impractical bubble gown.
"What are you doing?" Glinda asked.
"There's a hidden room up there with a view over where Elphaba is right now. If I can get up there, I might be able to get into a sniping positon and assist Elphaba with sniper support using my knockout bullets!" Rich said excitedly.
Rich and Glinda then burst into the hidden room and yes, there was a small window overlooking the fight between Elphaba and the Witch Hunters. Rich set down his equipment on the floor and began loading the bullets into the rifle that he had picked up earlier.
Glinda kept an eye on things as best as she could.
Once Rich had loaded the Rifle, he took off the safety and cocked the bolt action mechanism. He then looked through the sights at potential targets.
"Why aren't you firing?" Glinda asked in stressed tone.
"Dammit, Dammit! I can't get a clear shot!" was Rich's reply as some of the flying monkeys had joined in the defence of Elphaba and their efforts were blocking Rich's line of fire!
Rich and Glinda's hearts thumped as high speed in their chests as they watched and waited.
Then without warning, Rich said,
"I've got a target!"
He then squeezed the trigger and… nothing happened.
The rifle had chosen this moment to jam!
Rich then pulled back the rifle and his expression was terrified as he tried to work the bolt free.
Glinda rushed to help but even with their combined strength, the stubborn bolt still wouldn't break free!
What they didn't know was that Dorothy had been freed and had found the bucket of water that Elphaba had left earlier and was creeping up on her!
Finally, Rich and Glinda managed to get the stubborn bolt free and Rich re-cocked the rifle as he aimed it!
"Dorothy's going for Elphaba!" Rich shouted in alarm over the noise of the fight. He knew that water wouldn't affect Elphaba but it might disorientate her long enough for the witch hunters to kill her.
"Don't harm her!" Glinda warned.
"I won't, the bullets won't harm her anyway. All I will do is try to knock the bucket out of her hands" Rich replied whilst he concentrated on lining up the shot.
Once lined up, he pulled the trigger, as he did so, several things happened, the first was that in Elphaba's desperate fight for her life, she had knocked over a burning lamp which set the bottom of her skirts on fire. The second was that Rich's bullet missed as Dorothy had thrown the bucket of water at Elphaba just as he fired and the third was that the water hit Elphaba with such force, she stumbled back before she screamed in agony! She slowly shrank lower and lower towards the floor as she melted until there was nothing left except a pile of her own clothes and her black hat. Elphaba had melted, Elphaba was dead!
The witch hunters cheered in victory so loudly, no-one could hear Rich's screams of horror as he watched his Cousin, his last remaining family die before his eyes.
Glinda had to use all of her strength and a little bit of magic to keep Rich quiet and to stop him charging into the main room and taking revenge for Elphaba's death. It would be lying if Glinda herself didn't want to do the same.
Glinda held Rich close as they both cried until Dorothy, her companions and the witch hunters left the room and Kiamo Ko itself.
Once they were gone, Rich broke away from Glinda as he sprinted back down the hidden staircase and fell to his knees at the spot where Elphaba Melted. He held Elphaba's hat close to his chest as he cried. Glinda came down a few moments later and stood aside, shedding tears of her own.
That was until Chistery handed her the green bottle that Elphaba had kept on her person.
"Miss, Miss Glinda?" Chistery spoke as he handed over the green bottle. (Rich was still mourning the loss of his cousin)
Glinda took the bottle from Chistery and looked at it for a long moment, something at the back of her mind was knowing at her thoughts until she realised where she had seen a bottle like this before!
"Rich?" Glinda said slowly and carefully as not to antagonise Rich any further.
"What?" Rich asked; his face streaked with tears.
"When I was working with the Wizard, just after Elphaba and Fiyero escaped. The Wizard offered me a drink from a bottle just like this." Glinda explained.
A flash of realisation danced across Rich's eyes before he stood up to his full height. He gave one final salute to Elphaba's melting spot, left the hat there and strode over to Glinda.
"Looks like the Wizard has some explaining to do" Rich said grimly.
Glinda knew that Rich was right.