AN~ Don't freak out over this chapter, I know it'll be confusing, and I know it's annoying that the explanation has to carry over into next chapter, I WANTED to get everything with this section into one chapter, but then some of my mini-scenes got too long 'cause I added FOURTEEN people here when it probably should have been less. But I know it'll be confusing, I'll explain in the next chapter, I promise.
Certain parts of this chapter are the property of one ANannyMouse, and I own them not.
The Winner of Last Question of the Day: PenguinLoverGurl because holy crow. Though most of you had some really neat ideas. Hers was just insane and made me laugh, and I really needed that.
New Question of the Day: Invent a new mode of transportation using only things in the room you are in while reading this and duct tape.
silverwombat: All right, now I get what you meant, and thanks.
PenguinLoverGurl: And THAT assumes that demigods have money. Most of them are teenagers, and teenagers are usually quite broke. And that's quite a thing to do with your money. Can't exactly be done in this universe, but... Also Red came along. I think that's it, but I'm not sure. How many did I say came? I'll figure it out. (This was written before the chapter)
Velika Silvertongue: I... am not going to reply to the first part of that review. OOOH I LOVE CADBURY CREAM EGGS! I think you might have surpassed your limit a bit.
(): That's a lot of shoes... When would you find time to wear them all?
Christine Dae: Thank you for being understanding. It's nice that you'll be OK with my updates becoming erratic. That's a really nice thing to do, though I think you should maybe buy them food instead, 'cause you never know, they might just use the money to buy drugs or something.
MushroomsOnHills: Thanks a ton! ^.^ Your QotD: Pillsbury makes cookies? I thought they just did mixes and the stuff in the cans...
Sabrina found herself surrounded by Scarlet Hand members in a huge room, and they were picking off the other members of her group one by one. "Where did they come from?" She screeched.
"They had to know we were coming." Peaseblossom called. "There's no way they'd all be here otherwise!"
She was right. Moth, the Queen of Hearts, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Mab, the Beast, and several other extremely prominent Scarlet Hand members were in the room. There was no way they'd all have been there unless they'd been forewarned.
Sabrina, with no weapons, found herself frozen in terror, unable to move. "How did they know?" She screamed.
"Simple, Grimm." Puck said, appearing in front of her, a smile on his face. "I told them."
"You?" Sabrina asked. "But..."
Puck laughed, and the sound was cruel. "Did you think I was really back on your side? Why would I do that when I had people to wait on my every need, and a girl who cared about me? A girl who knew how to show affection, one five times better than you on any day. I'm a prince, and I deserve better than an attic bedroom in a backwater town full of refugees."
There was a scream in the background, and Sabrina winced. It sounded like Peaseblossom. Puck didn't react at all.
"So this whole thing was a trap?" Sabrina asked. "You waited until you knew we all trusted you, and then you lured us here?"
"Not just that." Puck grinned. "How well do you think that barrier you put around the house will last once you're dead? All the Grimms will be gone, and the Scarlet Hand can free Mirror and get out of here to rule the world. Without your family, Charming's army will collapse- you've got all their resources, and you're what's keeping the battle in one spot. Maybe, if you're lucky, we won't make you watch them die." Moth appeared next to him, then, and the two wrapped their arms around each other.
There was another scream, and Sabrina's heart stopped beating, because she'd know that voice anywhere: that was Daphne's scream. Daphne, her sister, the girl she'd built her life around, had been hurt. She ran for the source, turning her back on Puck, blocking the news out of her heart so that she wouldn't break down crying, rushing to protect her sister.
When she made it to Daphne, though, it was too late. The ten year old was lying alone on the ground, her feather-hair splayed around her, a wound in her side gushing red that seeped into her clothes and spread onto the tile floor, forming a puddle that Sabrina almost slipped in as she knelt next to her sister. "Daphne?" She whispered.
Daphne didn't say anything, reaching her hand out to Sabrina's face. Sabrina held it to her cheek, not caring about the bloodstains, and watched as her sister's eyes lost their spark. The sound died away, and Sabrina didn't know how long she stayed there, but when she stood up, she was surrounded by the dead: her sister, her cousin, all the friends she'd brought, about twenty Scarlet Hand members, including Puck. There was so much blood that the floor was almost solid crimson. She didn't know why she'd been spared
Sabrina stood, numb, among the dead, in her own personal nightmare.
Marcus was drowning. The room was full of water, and he was going down, down, down, and he couldn't breathe. He knew nothing else, not what had happened to anyone, not where he was, just that he couldn't swim, and that he couldn't hold his breath much longer.
Red stood alone in the spacious, well-lit, empty space. "G-guys?" She called. "Where is everyone?"
"Right here." Daphne's voice called. "Can't you see us?"
"No." Red said, spinning around. "Where are you?"
"Right in front of you." Puck's voice said.
"B-but there's nobody here!" Red cried, her voice rising an octave. "I'm the only one in the room!"
"Are you sure about that?" A voice she'd almost forgotten, one she hadn't heard in almost four hundred year, said.
"G-grandmother?" Red asked. "You're dead."
"Of course I'm not, dear." The old woman said. "You just have to find me."
"No!" Red called. "I saw you die! I saw the wolf eat you!"
"Nonsense, dear." Her grandmother said, and her face began shifting. "You've seen me here. And your parents, and your brother, and your dog, even your kitty. All you have to do is find us." Once she'd finished saying this, her face had changed, and in front of Red stood Granny Relda. "I'm waiting for you, Little Red. Come find me."
"No!" Red called, burying her face in her hands. "It's not true! I have a new family!
"Red?" Daphne said. "What are you talking about? Who are you talking to?"
Red uncovered her eyes to find herself in an empty room, surrounded by her friends. "My... nobody."
"You sure?" Bella said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You seemed pretty worked up."
"Yeah." Red nodded, seeing a shadow behind Bella, and turning to stare at it. "I'm fine."
"I don't think she's fine." Sabrina said. "Look at her! All worked up over something the rest of us didn't see. I bet she's gone crazy again."
"I think you're right." Peaseblossom said. "She has to be crazy."
The others began muttering something, too, and backing away from Red. She overheard snippets, things like, 'knew the kazoo couldn't really' and 'dangerous'.
"I'm not!" Red protested. "Daphne?" She turned to her best friend imploringly. "You don't think I'm crazy, do you?"
But as she was staring at Daphne, her face changed, morphing to a hook-nosed monstrosity, and Red backed away with a gasp.
Daphne's face shifted back to normal, and Red watched as her friend shook her head and backed away, too. "I'm sorry, Red. I guess I was wrong."
"But-" Red whispered.
"Crazy crazy." A voice taunted from nearby, and Red's head shot up. It was a monster, a horrible monster, with scales and teeth in all the wrong spots, and too many eyes, and it was laughing at her, taunting her. It was joined by another, and another, and then Jonas, and then Marcus, and then more monsters, and finally everyone that had come on the trip and more monsters than she could count were standing around her in a circle, calling her crazy and laughing at her, and spinning.
All Red could do was sink down on herself in the middle and sob quietly, "I'm not! I'm not!" But she was beginning to doubt. After all, what sane person had stuff like this happen to them?
Renee tripped on the way into the room and fell into a split, ripping her pants wide open at the seam. Puck snickered, then laughed, and he was soon joined by everyone else, including Mustardseed.
She looked at her boyfriend, hurt, and he said around snorts, "You just look so stupid!"
Renee wished she could sink into the floor, and she felt her face grow more and more red.
"Peaseblossom, where have you been?" Mab's voice called.
"What do you mean, where have I been?" Peaseblossom snapped. "I left! What are you doing here?"
"Taking care of your daughter, of course." Mab said, raising her eyebrows. "What else would I be doing here?"
"But... I don't have a daughter." Peaseblossom whispered. "I'm still pregnant."
"Of course I'd let you think that." Mab said. "You'd make a horrible mother, after all. So I put you under for the time it would take to have the baby, so you thought you hadn't aged. And I raised your daughter on my own. She doesn't know that, though. She thinks you didn't want her."
"What?" Peaseblossom's eye opened wide. "No!" This is impossible!"
"Would you like to meet your daughter?" Mab offered. "She's wanted to meet you for quite some time. After all, she's met the rest of her family."
Peaseblossom opened her mouth to respond, but it was too late, a pretty girl around nine years old was stepping out from behind the older fairy woman. She was the spitting image of Peaseblossom herself at that age, with blonde hair that curled just enough to be interesting, but not enough to be frizzy, an upturned nose, brown eyes uncommon in fairies, and a smattering of freckles on her well-defined cheekbones. There was no way Mab could have faked this: that girl looked more like Peaseblossom than she looked like her parents.
"H-hello." She stuttered. "Hello, my baby."
"You're the woman that gave birth to me?" The girl said coldly.
Peaseblossom's eyes widened at her tone. "Yes." She said.
"Well, I want nothing to do with you." The girl said. "Go away."
"What?" Peaseblossom asked, her voice almost silent.
"Well, it appears she thinks you're not a good mother." Mab smiled as the girl wrapped her arms around her. "And you know, you have been conspicuously absent for the past age. How about we let her choose who she wants to be her mother? You or me."
"No choice at all." The girl said. "I will stay with you, Mab."
"But..." Peaseblossom said, as the girl walked off again, "But I didn't even know you'd been born."
"Face it, Peaseblossom." Mab said. "You'd have made a horrible mother. I just saved you the trouble of finding it out for yourself. Besides, you're full of all sorts of... ideas. I didn't want you affecting your child like that. I did us all a favor." She smiled and walked away, leaving Peaseblossom alone and heartbroken.
The room looked perfectly normal for Daphne. She didn't see what was so wrong about it, or why Peaseblossom said it must be something horrible. Just a big, plain room with white walls and a black and white tile floor.
"Daphne, I want you to go home." Sabrina said.
"What?" Daphne asked. "Why?"
"Because this will be too dangerous for you." Sabrina said. "You're too young. It's not safe."
"You're barely older than I am!" Daphne pointed out.
"I don't care, it's not safe for you." Sabrina said. "I don't trust you to do anything, you know that. You're a baby."
"I am not!" Daphne stomped her foot, then stomped. What had possessed her to do that? It was so immature!
"Actually, Daphne..." Peaseblossom said, "You are kind of young... Maybe you should go home. Just in case."
"Nobody thinks you're old enough to do anything, you know." Puck added. "We've just been humoring you. You're the baby girl. You need to be protected."
"Go home, Daphne." Red said softly. "Be safe. Let your parents take you back to New York City with your brother, and pretend this was all a dream."
Will felt the floor slide out from underneath him, and he felt himself falling. He shut his eyes, afraid to see the ground beneath him, hearing the air whistle around his ears, louder and louder as he sped up, his feet tingling in expectation, as he tumbled head over heels over head, and his eyes opened, and he saw his family and their friends falling too, in front of him then gone as he tumbled, all screaming, and he finally saw the ground, growing closer but still far away, and he knew that from this height he'd die, maybe from a heart attack before he hit the ground- he'd dreamed this enough, and he'd read up on it, and he was going to die.
"Hello, Annie."
Annie looked up in horror: it was the man. She'd been neighbors with the lady he was engaged to, and he scared the crap out of her. He hadn't done anything to warrant it, really, but he'd been horrifying just the same. She couldn't put her finger on the source of the bad feeling she got from him, but she just knew he was going to do something horrible. The two had taken her out for dinner, and when she got back home she was so freaked out she locked all the doors and windows and locked herself in the bathroom. He was one thing she'd never missed when she moved to Ferryport Landing.
And now he was in front of her, a creepy smile on his face. "Let's get started, shall we?" He said slowly, pulling something out from behind his back.
Annie screamed.
Art heard the floors begin to grate as soon as the doors shut, and his eyes widened in horror, because he knew that sound from movies: that was the sound of the walls closing in.
More than anything, Art was afraid of closed spaces. He'd been trapped in a cave once, in his early childhood, following Jonas and Puck on an adventure, and because he was so big even then, he hadn't been able to spin to morph into something small enough to escape, and ever since, he'd been terrified of being trapped somewhere. Claustrophobia, they called it. The fear of small spaces.
That flashed through his mind as the walls moved in, and he raced back to the door, to get back out. No sword was important enough to crush himself for. But the door was locked, and the walls were moving closer and closer, and he was going to be crushed.
Jonas watched from the background as Sabrina and Puck talked, hiding from the battle. Puck a traitor? But... Puck wasn't a traitor! That was his job! How could Puck do that? He'd trusted him! Everyone had trusted him! And... Moth? Puck and...
No!
First, that was disgusting, and second, he'd trusted Puck!
As Sabrina ran off, Jonas ran towards Puck, pulling out his dagger and screaming, "I trusted you!"
But before he could get there, he felt a sharp pain in his back, and spun, seeing Art in front of him, a bloody dagger in his hand. A dagger that had just been in Jonas' back.
"Looks like you trusted the wrong people." Art said flatly, walking off.
When the door closed on Wendell, he was met with snakes. Snakes all over the floor, up the walls sometimes, crawling over his feet and up his legs.
He'd always been afraid of snakes, ever since he was little. They'd been the first thing he'd learned to use his harmonica on, and that had mostly cured his fear, but they still gave him the creeps. He pulled out his harmonica to clear a pathway, and blew.
Nothing happened.
Bella laughed. "See? This is why I broke up with you. You're no good at anything! Who could like a loser like you?"
The snakes around him, helpless to do anything, Wendell wanted to cry, because she was telling the truth.
Bella, upon stepping into the room, was met with an enormous spider, bigger than Tobey had been by at least a foot, and hairy. She shrieked, backing up into Marcus, as the spider walked forward on those eight hideous legs, its pincers clicking.
Wendell stepped in front of it, pulling out his harmonica, but before he had a chance to play it, the spider grabbed him with its front legs and pulled it to his mouth, sinking its fang-things into his side. Bella watched as Wendell's skin deflated, growing dry and papery, and three fat red splotches fell to the floor, spattering out as they did. The spider dropped Wendell's body and advanced toward them.
Bella and the others backed up into a sticky rope, and she shrieked again as the spider advanced, because she knew there was no getting out of this web.
"Mustardseed, I can't believe you!"
"What?" Mustardseed looked up, shocked, to see his mother in front of him. "Why are you here? What are you talking about?"
"I'm sorry, son, but you're not fit to be king. You followed Puck here on a fool's errand. I expect things like that from him, but not from you. You're the responsible one. Why would you come to enemy territory when you know children aren't to be going on missions? I'm very disappointed in you, son. I expect more from you."
"I was trying to protect him!" Mustardseed protested. "And you still haven't told me what you're doing here!"
"I followed you." Titania said. "Since I obviously can't trust any of my children to report these things to a responsible adult."
"I am responsible!" Mustardseed protested again. "I made the decision that I thought was best considering the situation, mother!"
"Well, it was the wrong one." Titania said. "And I wonder... If I can't trust you on decisions like this, were any of the other decisions you made wise ones? Like giving Moth a trial. That didn't turn out too well. We should simply have killed her, like we would have in the old days."
"Mother, we can't live like that anymore!" Mustardseed said. "We need to change with the times. What if we'd killed an innocent?"
"Yes, you've mentioned." Titania said. "But I don't think I trust your judgement. I believe you'll have to step down from making decisions for a while, son. Until I know we can trust you. I'm very disappointed in you."