Chapter Thirty:
A/N. I can't believe you guys thought that Chapter 29 was the last chapter! I still have way more to write for this story so stay tuned my pretties this story isn't over yet... About maybe four or three chapters to go and then we're done!
Voices rose up from down below the tower and Glinda could hear them loud and clear.
Her ears only tuned in to the distinctive voice of Elphaba that was heard throughout the castle. Staying locked up in the solar was driving Glinda quite literally mad. She paced across the stones that made up the floor until she was dizzy. Her head felt light and her body weak. She trembled whenever she heard those voices and her mind always came to the worst conclusion.
"Oh Oz, Elphie…" she muttered in complete nervousness to herself as she wrung her hands together until they turned red from irritation, "Just come back upstairs and tell me everything's alright… just tell me and show me that you're okay…"
Tears brimmed her eyes as the hours passed and she could still hear the sound of numerous voices from downstairs, obviously saying that nothing had happened yet. Glinda was growing more and more unsettled and uneasy. What if Elphaba didn't have it in her and she couldn't kill the girl? What if the stupid girl did end up killing Elphaba, just like the Wizard said she would have?
Pausing as if to open the door, Glinda stopped herself just short of raising the handle and unlocking the latch. She didn't want to ruin whatever Elphaba's plan was for she knew if she did then Elphaba really would never speak with her again.
Then again that nervous feeling welled up inside of her and Glinda's slender fingers grazed the door handle slightly and with a glance towards the monkey to make sure he wasn't looking she began to raise the handle and-
Suddenly there was a commotion downstairs and that caused Glinda to loosen her grip on the bronze handle, letting it drop against the wood making a slight knock.
Footsteps and shouts, and was there a roar Glinda heard too perhaps, all came clamoring from the lower part of the castle. Horrified and conjuring up in her mind what could possibly be happening Glinda made a move to burst open the door and run down the stairs when the monkey put out his hand and stopped her.
"No, I have to help her!" Glinda tried to move past him but he grabbed a hold of her arm tightly and dragged her to the broom closet, locking the door once she was inside.
"You can't do this to me!" cried Glinda as she banged on the door. But after a few mere seconds she gave up as hopelessness suddenly consumed her.
Tears fell one by one from her face as she waited, waited for whatever was to come from what happened downstairs.
Suddenly the door burst open and the little girl Dorothy stumbled in, looking like she had been pushed inside. Elphaba followed not too far behind her with a murderous gleam in her eyes and a harsh look on her emerald face.
"What-what are you going to do with me?" sobbed the child as she scooted away from the witch, sounding terribly frightened.
Elphaba smirked cruelly at Dorothy as she locked the door behind her.
"It'll be better this way, my pretty if no one hears you scream…"
Glinda's breath caught in her chest, it couldn't be. Elphaba really was going to kill the girl.
"Please don't hurt me!" cried the girl as she stumbled over yet another thing. This time, and Glinda strained her eyes by looking through the cracks of the wood in the door; she stepped on a beehive that had been lying on the floor.
Elphaba nearly screamed.
"Why does everything you touch or look at die?" she shrieked at the girl, causing the child to cry even harder, "First your house landed on Nessa and now you've come here to kill me!"
"No, no, no that's not true!" protested the girl with many shakes of her head and pigtails, "I'm not a murderer!"
"Of course you aren't," sneered Elphaba as she got very close to the girl's face, her body was hunched over in an arch towards her, "If you were, you would know this simple thing…"
"What would I know?" asked Dorothy trembling after a moment of silence.
A sadistic smile came over Elphaba's face and Glinda found herself as terrified as the farm girl was.
"That you must kill before you are killed, my sweet," whispered Elphaba in a sickly sinister voice.
This was the side of Elphaba that Glinda had never seen, and nor did she ever want to see it again. The gentle, loving, passionate woman that Glinda had once knew was gone, completely transformed into this-this hideous wicked witch of a woman that was so bent on revenge and living up to her namesake as a monster.
"Oh, Elphie," whispered Glinda so gently as she tore her eyes away from the scene so that she no longer could see Dorothy or Elphaba but she could sure hear them.
Glinda felt utterly sick as she realized that in a few moments Dorothy would be dead, and be dead by no one's hand but her Elphie's.
Having half the mind to break down the door, but knowing that she physically couldn't, Glinda sank to her knees inside the small closet and waited for this whole hellish ordeal to be over with.
The lump that was clogging up her throat stayed where it was as Glinda tried to fight back the tears that were filling in her eyes. She kept thinking about those days back at Shiz where everything seemed not too far out of reach, where nothing was impossible. But now, Glinda knew that that was not true. This, this was irreversible; something that no one could ever change. Glinda could never change the fact that Elphaba was now known as a wicked witch, or the fact that Glinda herself was known as Glinda the Good when she really wasn't that good.
The voices of Elphaba and Dorothy swirled around her but Glinda was not longer paying attention. She was waiting for Elphaba to swing open the door and tell her that it was done, the girl was dead, and that they would have to run away together.
But those words never came. Instead Glinda heard the sound of crackling, of fire burning. Her nose was suddenly filled with the stench of something burning, maybe even flesh.
Her palms pressed against the door as she peered out through the slivers of the cracks in between the wood in order to see what was going on.
"Oh will this nightmare ever end?" screeched Dorothy as she lifted something off the floor and blocked Glinda's view of seeing anything else in the room with her gingham dress.
"I will save you!" she cried and Glinda wondered what in the world she meant by that. Glinda watched as Dorothy threw something in front of her and the noise in the room was suddenly a sick sizzling sound.
Glinda was more than thankful when the little girl scurried back out of her view so that she could see.
But her thanks lasted no more than a second when she saw what was happening before her very eyes.
There was Elphaba, drenched in water, with her skin burning and melting off of her body as she slowly turned into a gruesome puddle of green.
Too horrified and scared to even speak or cry Glinda was forced to watch in utter silence while Dorothy dropped the bucket and started crying.
The blonde's eyes were locked on the green puddle and Glinda felt her body shake as she realized that this was no trick of her eyes. This was real. Her stomach dropped instantly and the blonde felt an overwhelming urge to vomit right there but she swallowed back the bile that was creeping up her throat.
Never-ending tears leaked from her eyes and ran down her face in lines as her lips quivered in unthinkable grief. Feeling as if she would faint, Glinda leaned against the door with her chest rising and falling fast against the cool wood. She choked back screams of horror and pain as she waited for the murdering girl to leave.
The door was suddenly broken down by a rather large Lion and Dorothy, who was still sobbing uncontrollably, ran to him and was engulfed in his furry embrace.
"What in Oz…" grumbled the Lion as he looked upon the scene, confusion flooding his face.
"She was burning, the fire from her broom caught onto her skirt and I was- I was just trying to help her and then she melted right in front of me!" blubbered Dorothy with tears streaming down her face, "She was going to kill me but now she's the one who's dead and you know I didn't want that to happen!" she cried to the Lion who held her.
"I know, I know you didn't," said the Lion quickly as his tail flickered back and forth nervously, "Now let's just get out of here before her spirit comes back to kill us."
They left as quickly as they came and Glinda waited to be completely sure that they were gone before she started horribly and heart-wrenchingly sobbing inside the closet.
The tears fell fast and more furiously than they ever had before and Glinda felt an agonizing pain travel through every part of her body until her whole being felt like it was being torched under a blazing fire. It was partly because the blonde was hysterically hyperventilating and partly because her lungs felt like they were failing her.
The world seemed to Glinda now as cruel and as harsh as it had been towards Elphaba. The celebratory shouts of the so-called witch hunters echoed from below.
"Good news, she's dead!" they cried.
With each praise of her lover's death Glinda felt even more wrecked and haunted with grief.
"I should have said something, I should have gone downstairs when I had the chance," Glinda cried into her hands.
She dropped to her knees on the hard stone floor and began to sob until she felt as if she couldn't breathe. This seemed to go on forever, and Glinda thought for sure that she would die in here. Not really caring anymore whether she lived or not, Glinda hoped that she would die in here.
At least I would be with Elphaba's spirit… she thought as her sobs quieted.
A few seconds later Glinda heard a shuffling of feet and the sound of a door opening.
"Oh, no dearie. This is no such thing for you to see! Go find Chistery if you want to be useful, Liir!"
Glinda recognized the voice as Nanny's and she placed her palms against the door again, waiting for the right moment to reveal herself to the old woman.
The blonde heard Liir's muffled answer and then his uneven footsteps as he walked away from the solar.
The door shut and Nanny was busy to herself and occasionally to Elphaba if Glinda heard correctly.
"Oh you old hag, you! Couldn't just let us have a quiet dinner with the sweet girl, could you? You had to go and try and kill her," suddenly Nanny paused and when she spoke again her voice was filled with grief and sadness, "And now look at you… dead just like your mother, father and sister. The whole lot of you is now dead except for poor Shell and what good has come from it? You terrible girl, leaving poor old Nanny with no one to look after! Well, I guess I'll just have to stay here… look after the kid that you never claimed as your son, do some dusting and keep the place the way you like it… in case you do ever decide to visit or drop by. Or just haunt all of Oz till the end of their days…" muttered the old woman.
It was after that that Glinda decided to speak up.
"Nanny?"
Her voice was childlike, almost as if she was calling to Nanny as if she had been her caretaker when she was younger instead of Ama Clutch.
Nanny lethargically came over to the closet where Glinda's voice had came from and unlocked and opened the door.
"Oh my Lurline!" she exclaimed, hand over her heart, "Did Fabala do this to you?"
Glinda got up from her position on the ground and decided to protect what she and Elphaba had.
"No, I was already in here and then I heard her and Dorothy coming so I decide to hide and I guess the door locked behind me," lied the blonde, "And then… I heard screaming and sizzling and then…" After trailing off, too horror-stricken to say more, her eyes traveled beyond Nanny to where the green puddle lay across the stones. The puddle that had once been Elphaba and she had been a friend, a confidant, a crush, and a lover to Glinda. That was all gone now. Elphaba and the memories and emotions that went with her were now dead and gone. Glinda could never get those back and she could never make new ones. She was stuck reliving the mistakes of her past and wishing that she could have done the things she had planned to do.
The fact that Elphaba was really dead hadn't hit Glinda until she could see for herself what was left of her. A puddle of green liquid was all that remained.
Gone were the sweet, tender grayish lips she had come to adore, gone were the dark eyes that entranced her and the hair as black as night, and lastly missing was the touch and voice of Elphaba.
"E-E-Elphie?" The name trembled on Glinda's lips as if she said it now she would never be able to say it again. Those ocean blue eyes filled with fresh tears as they set their sight on the puddle.
Nanny's face turned sympathetic and comforting all at the same time. She reached out and put a hand on Glinda's forearm, trying to get her out of the room.
"Come along, dearie. This is no place for you. You don't want to see it, too messy much too messy."
Nanny tried to move Glinda but the younger woman stayed where she was, trembling with angst and grief as tears spilled like rain on her face.
"No, no I'm not leaving!" shrieked Glinda when Nanny pulled on her arm roughly this time. She tore her arm out of the old woman's grip, much like she had so with Chuffrey, and backed away from her. Collapsing to the ground in survivor's guilt Glinda once again began to cry.
"I won't leave her, I can't. She can't be dead… she can't be… I'm the one who should be dead not her!" sobbed Glinda as she hiccupped and gasped.
Not resisting this time, Glinda let Nanny stand her up and lead her out of the solar with tears blurring in her eyes.
"You can't stay here forever, dearie. She wouldn't have wanted that, especially for you. She was very attached to you dear," soothed Nanny as Glinda leaned against a wall in the hallway and closed her eyes, only to escape from this horrible nightmare that had been her reality for just a minute.
"It's not fair… I deserved her life and she deserved mine…" Glinda suddenly crumbled as she opened her eyes and her breath hitched in her chest once more. Memories of Elphaba came rushing back to her head, ones of when they had met to their first unexpected kiss and then to when they had sex at the Corn Exchange to the most recent of their pleasure fulfilling moments.
Biting back a scream of anguish, Glinda turned her head back towards the door of the solar. An overwhelming urge to run in there and scream until her face turned blue came to her mind but she did not act upon it. She was too shocked, frightened, horrified and scared to do anything right now. Her mind was still in the process of fully understanding what had just taken place a few minutes ago.
"Don't you think of that now," fretted Nanny as she placed a warm hand on top of Glinda's kindly, "Neither of your lives are nor were destined to be perfect… nobody's are."
"But at least she could have been alive…" whispered Glinda mournfully as the sadness inside of her rose and entered her heart to gouge it of all happiness.
"Who says she isn't? A little girl claimed she melted that doesn't mean Elphaba's gone!" Nanny's voice and actions had turned a bit senile and Glinda feared this latest fate of the Thropp family was too much for the old woman. Instead of fighting her which Glinda half wanted to do because she didn't want false hope that Elphaba was alive, she went along with it.
"I guess it doesn't," Glinda said lightly as she wiped away her tears.
Nanny smiled and tightened her grasp on Glinda's hand for just a few seconds, "Oh don't guess dear. Nanny is always right."
She looked out a nearby window into the night sky and made soft noise with her voice, a muttering of some sort.
"You should be heading back to the city. I expect they'll be needing you there."
"I'm not going," stated Glinda stiffly. She wanted nothing more than to wallow in her self-grief and cry until her heart stopped beating.
"Oh, of course you're going dear. You have to. The citizens of Oz need you now…" said Nanny softly as she let go of Glinda's hand.
"Well I don't want them to need me! I don't want anyone to need me except-except for... her!" Glinda found herself unable to say Elphaba's name. She found herself a wreck even mention her name since her death was so fresh and still in her mind.
"She's gone dear, at least for the time being that is," Nanny reminded her, "So we have to make do with what we have left."
Glinda smiled watery at the old woman, "I'm afraid I don't have anyone or anything left."
The old woman's face caved in deep disappointment, "Oh that's not true dear. No matter what, you always have yourself."
Glinda laughed at her words tightly. She didn't even know if she had herself to rely on anymore. Glinda was slipping away, Galinda was long gone, and the child she had once been had been buried so far deep the blonde woman wouldn't know how to become her again.
"I'm afraid that I'm not all here anymore," confessed Glinda as she straightened herself off of the wall and stood up in her heels, "I think I'm going quite mad…"
Nanny smiled, "The best people do…"
Glinda met her eyes and almost smiled.
The elder woman's bones creaked as she looked at Glinda. Her eyes seared into the blonde's as if she knew, as if she had known all along about the relationship between Elphaba and Glinda. There was something in her eyes that told Glinda she knew the truth.
Nanny cleared her throat before she spoke.
"Do well for her, will you? If not for yourself or Oz then for her?"
Glinda felt a lump forming and she tried to swallow it but it was to no avail.
"She's gone… I don't have to be held to what she wanted me to do," said Glinda as she avoided Nanny's eyes.
"Oh, Glinda come now! You know better than that!" laughed Nanny with a smile; "Elphaba's too strong for this world to cast her away from it. She's not gone, and I suspect she never will be. She'll always be around us, whether in the air or hiding under a trapdoor thinking that she is too clever for us."
Glinda had heard enough of the woman's ridiculous talk. It was like a stab to her heart whenever Nanny said something about Elphaba's possible survival.
"I have to go," Glinda began to descend down the staircase with her hands wringing around each other, "Goodbye Nanny."
She made it to the front door when a soft, eerie whisper stopped her dead in her tracks.
"Glinda…."
Her heart lurched and Glinda felt as if she would faint again. It couldn't be…
Glinda whirled around in her dress while her eyes madly scanned the castle. That voice had belonged to Elphaba and no one else. But no one was in the castle. Her body relaxed and remained tensed at the same time.
"It's just that old Nanny messing with you," convinced Glinda to herself, "Delusional old fool saying that Elphaba is still alive. She wasn't there. You were. Elphie's gone."
Glinda stretched herself to her full height and dried away her tears as she prepared to leave. She opened the door inviting the fresh cool air inside while she was looking to leave.
This time Glinda heard the whisper once more, but she ignored it and walked out of Kiamo Ko and away from the murder that had been committed within its walls.
Sorry this chapter was super long. I got on a writing rampage with this story! So, to make things clear this story is not over and when it is I promise I will write the words 'the end' at it. :)
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