CHAPTER 8

When Cinderella had arrived, Aladdin looked at Jim and asked, "Why are we all here? Shouldn't one of us be on guard?"

"It doesn't matter. We can't stop them anyway," Eric answered sadly.

"Sure we can," Phil spoke up, trying to be positive. "We just have to keep trying is all."

"It's no use," Eric insisted.

Phil put his hands on his hips. "What kind of attitude is that?"

"Guys, listen!" Eric exclaimed. "Do you remember the day we met? You asked me if I was in full control of myself. I said I was. I lied."

"What?" Ariel asked, worried.

"What are you talking about? Pocahontas asked him.

Eric sighed, and taking a deep breath, admitted, "I'm your enemy. I'm the one who's been doing all this."

"You?" Aladdin asked, hurt. "Why?"

"I couldn't help it!" Eric insisted.

"Well help this!" Jim yelled, and punched Eric in the face.

"Jim!" Shang shouted. "Back off!" Jim snarled, but obeyed.

Phil turned to Eric, who was wiping the blood off his lip, and asked, "If you were against us the whole time, why are you telling us this now?"

Everyone looked at him, waiting for his response. "Because I want to help you!" Eric cried. "She just won't let me!"

"Who's she?" Jim asked, fire still in his eyes.

Eric hesitated, thinking. "The one who's controlling me," he answered finally.

"What's her name?" Shang pressed.

Eric opens his mouth to answer, but the pain returns. "I… can't… tell you," he stammers. "She won't let me."

Shang put his hand on Eric's shoulder. "You have to choose a side, Eric," he said gently. "If you really want to help us, then you must tell us what you know."

Parker tried his hardest to remember. The pain was excruciating, but he just had to keep going. "She's… the… witch!" he finally stammered through clenched teeth.

Shang and Ariel look at each other, worried. "She's still alive?" Ariel asked.

The others turned to Ariel to find out about the witch, but Eric was stopped by the voice in his head. "You're a failure, Eric."

"No," Eric whispered.

"You've failed yourself," the voice continued.

"Shut up," said quietly.

"You've failed your friends."

"Stop it!" Eric clenched his eyes shut, but couldn't drown out the voice in his head growing steadily louder.

"And worst of all, you've failed me!"

Eric screamed as he felt a pain greater than anything he had ever felt, slowly ripping through his mind like a thousand knives. He fell to the ground almost instantly, holding his head in agony.

"Eric!" Cinderella exclaimed, running over to him.

"Ahh! Help me, please! AHHH!"

"How?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

Eric yelled. "My head! Get her out of my head!" he begged, crying and screaming in agony. "Please!"

Cinderella panicked. "I can't! I don't know how!"

"I can," Ariel told her. Shang had brought her over, and placed her beside Eric. Placing her hands on his temples, she closes her eyes. Her hands start to glow, and Eric screamed louder. He struggled, but Pocahontas and Kida held him down. He endured more agony than he had even thought possible to live through, before falling back, unconscious. He wasn't breathing.

Ariel let go, and nodded at Cinderella, who immediately used her magic to revive him. Gasping, he opened his eyes. "How do you feel?" Ariel asked him gently.

"Sore," he groaned. "Alone. Free." He grinned. "I feel free! The only voice in my head is mine! I'm free!" He threw his arms around Ariel. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"You may be free, but we're not," Shang reminded him. "We still have to reverse the damage that was done."

"The damage you've done," Jim snarled. He was the only one there who wasn't worried about Eric.

"We have to stop those contractors once and for all," Phil said, trying to change the subject back to what it needed to be.

"You can't," Eric told him. "She won't let you."

"She can't send you to stop us anymore," Phil reminded him.

"But she's the one in charge of…" Eric slapped his forehead. "the contract!

"What?" Cinderella asked, confused.

"I have the contract!" Eric announced.

"But you said it was stolen," Aladdin said.

"It was," Eric answered. "By me. I hid it at my house."

"Go get it," Shang told him.

"What?" Jim exclaimed. "You're actually trusting him? After what he did?"

"Well, if you're that worried about him, why don't you go with him? Make sure he does it correctly," Shang said.

"I'm not worried about him!" Jim snapped. "I just don't trust a traitor!"

"Go with him," Shang ordered. "Find the contract together, then bring it here."

Jim made a face, but knew better than to cross the centaur. "Yes, sir," he answered through clenched teeth. Eric scrambled to his feet, and they both headed off.

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As they were walking, Jim asked, "So are you going to kill me on the way?"

Eric shook his head. "I don't have that kind of power anymore. When Ariel took the witch's voice out of my head, she also took my gift. I'm just a normal guy. And even if I could, I still wouldn't kill you."

Jim snorted. "I find that hard to believe."

Eric looked at him in disbelief. "You haven't died yet, have you?"

" 'Yet' being the key word here," Jim snapped. "You pinned me down with a tree and left me to die!"

"I came back, didn't I? She was controlling me!" Eric insisted.

"Yeah, sure she was," Jim retorted.

"I got hurt too!" Eric yelled.

"For what purpose?" Jim yelled back. "To gain our trust? You had it! You didn't have to throw it all away!"

"It was the only way to get free!"

Jim's jaw dropped. "From us?"

"From her!" Eric nearly screamed in frustration. "You have no idea how it feels to be controlled for eleven years of your life! To not be able to make your own decisions! To not even be able to think for yourself! Do you think I enjoyed being her puppet? I hated my gift!"

Jim shook his head. "You are way older than eleven."

Eric sighed. "When I was five years old, the witch transferred part of her husband's identity into me. From then on, I had a voice ringing in my head, and I couldn't ignore it, it was too loud and too powerful. It's not me who's your enemy, it's her!"

"Why didn't you just tell us?" Jim asked.

"She blocked my memory of her, I didn't know!"

"If you had known, would you have told us?" Jim challenged.

Eric sighed in defeat. "Probably not."

"Why?"

"I guess I'd be afraid she'd kill me," Eric admitted.

Jim shook his head. "She wouldn't have."

Eric looked at Jim sharply. "How do you know?" he asked.

"Look, if she went to all that trouble to save him into you, and to make sure you never knew about it, you actually think she would kill you? No, she's got something else in mind."

"But what?" Eric asked.

"How should I know?" Jim snapped. "You know her better than I do. I don't even know who she is yet." He shook his head in disgust. "Come on, we need to hurry."

Eric nodded, and they rushed to get the papers.