Chapter Twenty:
"Where have you been?" was the first question out of Chuffrey's mouth when Glinda came into his room the next day after a whole night of traveling by carriage to get there.
She didn't expect much more than what was happening right in front of her. Chuffrey was sipping his coffee while he was looking at the newspaper all the while noticing Glinda's arrival. He hadn't even had the courtesy to make his bed; which was all crumpled and disheveled from the previous night's activities with one of the maids.
"I left a note, and sent a letter," said Glinda wearily as she walked in a bit closer towards her husband.
"Yes, but they were both very unusual. First it was off to Munchkinland then it was a charity thing, and now where are you off to?" he slid a glance at her and then went back to his paper.
"To the Vinkus. I need to go there for personal reasons," her eyes went downcast at the floor.
Chuffrey scoffed, "But you have no family there, no connections, why must you go there?"
He was mocking her again. He always mocked her. It seemed like her position, and her fake bubbly personality was all a joke to him. She always got on him about his hunting and his taste in servants though.
When she took a moment to answer, he chimed in with, "Does this have something to do with Elphaba?"
Her name sounded horrible when spoken by his voice and Glinda felt some sort of rage well up inside of her as she curled her hands into tiny fists.
"No," she half lied, "This is on matters of a friend of mine from Shiz. He died a few days ago in military service and The Wizard thought it best if I go and console his family."
Chuffrey folded over his paper to stare at her with his cold eyes. It was then that Glinda really noticed how much older Chuffrey was than her. While Glinda was in her mid-twenties and still looking quite young, Chuffrey was looking grayer and tired. Part of her felt bad for him while the other part was still glad that she was young enough to run circles around him.
"Very well, my dear," he said stiffly still looking at her, "When will you be back?"
"Why do you care?" retorted Glinda placing her hands on her hips sassily. She hadn't meant for her words to come out that way, but they had.
Chuffrey pursed his lips.
"Because we need to talk about something when you get back," he said vaguely. Glinda rolled her eyes, tired of all this vagueness.
"No, we will talk about it now."
He looked at her with a most curious expression on his face that would puzzle her till no end until she got back to Mockbeggar Hall.
"I'm afraid my dear, that this is neither the time nor place to talk about such things that we need to discuss."
He left the room without so much as another word to her, and Glinda retreated into her own room to pack for her journey.
When she was all settled and packed she called for a carriage and this time she did not leave a note for Chuffrey.
It took a good three days time to get to the Vinkus by carriage and Glinda was not looking forward to spending that amount of time cooped up in that small carriage that would make anyone claustrophobic.
In the dreariness of the trip, she sometimes fell asleep with the side of her face pressed gently against the glass. She dreamt too, mostly horrible awful dreams that plagued her during the day as well.
It was the night of her second day of traveling where Glinda fell into a deep sleep in which a horrible nightmare occurred.
She was in a ballroom, a beautiful emerald ballroom where everything was the color green. The chairs, the ceiling, the piano, and all the dresses were green except for Glinda's.
The blonde wore a pure white gown that was similar to her blue one except for the color. She seemed to glow compared to the rest of her guests, who seemed dull in color by comparison.
Couples began to pair off as a waltz began to play. Glinda was left alone by on the grand staircase and she descended down slowly. As she got closer and closer to the floor, she noticed that more and more people stared at her. When she got to the bottom of the stairs the whole room had gone still and was staring at her intently. It was as if the world had stopped moving, everyone was still except for Glinda. She felt the heat of their stares and suddenly felt self-aware.
"Why must you all stare at me?" she asked, her voice ringing out in the silence of the ballroom.
They turned like robots to look at one another and then back at her.
"Because this is what you deserve, my sweet isn't it?" That voice, it made Glinda's heart stop. It was so familiar, so rich in sarcasm but with an underlying tone of tenderness.
Glinda craned her neck over the crowds to find the owner to that voice, desperately hoping to see her once more.
In a flash Elphaba emerged from the crowd in a fitted homemade dress of black, her green skin duller from the years of hiding, and a Witch's hat adorned her head covering her beautiful hair that still glowed.
"Elphie," she whispered tenderly as she tried to make her way towards the green woman but an invisible shield stopped her. Glinda was stuck on the staircase.
"Elphie, why can't I move?" she cried out as she took multiple steps forward only to be knocked backwards as soon as she did so.
"Because you don't deserve to be with people like me, Your Goodness," sneered Elphaba as she let out a Witch-like cackle.
"But, Elphie-" started Glinda, hurt. But her sentence was cut off by a little girl's voice.
"Where is she? Where is the Wicked Witch Of The West?"
Suddenly a little girl appeared next to Elphaba in a blue gingham dress with a yapping dog at her heels and glistening red slippers on her feet. Her bright brown eyes stared up at Glinda's as she repeated her question.
"Lady Glinda where is The Wicked Witch Of The West?"
Glinda had no answer.
"I don't, I don't know child."
She glanced at Elphaba who cackled again.
"Of course you do, Glinda. Think about it my sweet. You really think they weren't going to try and make something out of me, did you? Well, too bad. My full title now is Elphaba Thropp, The Wicked Witch Of The West."
Glinda shook her head, "No, Elphie no you're not! You are Elphaba Thropp, and nothing else."
"To you, yes. But to everyone else," Elphaba gestured to the crowds who had now begun to move and shout horrible things at Elphaba.
"Kill the Witch!"
"Her soul is so unclean that water will melt her!"
"Melt her, Dorothy!"
They all screamed things of that kind.
"No, please everyone settle down! This woman is not who you think she is!" Glinda's pleas to calm the crowd were ignored.
The little girl suddenly had a bucket in her hands. The swishing clear water was visible to Glinda as she stood there, unable to move and frozen with fear and horror.
"No," she whispered as realization hit her as what was to happen, "No, please don't!"
She watched as the girl threw the bucket of water on Elphaba, heard the sizzling of her skin as the water came in contact with it, and watched it horror as her friend began to melt before her eyes.
"You deserve this, my sweet. You deserve to live while I die because you can forever wallow in your grief," said Elphaba before she melted into a puddle of green.
"ELPHABA NO!" screamed Glinda in horror as she jerked herself forwards and out of her dream. She breathed heavily for a few moments before she caught her breath.
"It was just a dream," she whispered hoarsely to herself as her hands clutched at her clothes in fear, "It was just a dream Glinda, get a hold of yourself."
The carriage lurched forward and then stopped while Glinda was still trying to get a hold on herself.
When the footmen arrived to help her out of the carriage, she was still a bit frazzled.
"What is it? Why have we stopped?" she asked suddenly and worriedly.
"We have arrived early, Lady Chuffrey," said one of the footman as he extended out a hand to her, "We are here at Kiamo Ko."
Glinda swallowed and took his hand. She disembarked the carriage and looked up into the night sky to see a great looming castle in front of her.
"Here goes nothing," she said to herself as she began the walk to the front gates of the castle.
Just a bit of foreshadowing for Glinda in this chapter, mainly because I am watching The Wizard of Oz right now since it is on TV. I am excited to see how Sarima and Glinda will interact. What do you guys think will happen? Will there be a fight?
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