Chapter 66: Hidden Deception
Carlos rolls over and looks at the clock on the nightstand. It's quarter to six in the morning; the sun has not risen over the trees to begin a new day in Storybrooke, Maine, the strange little town that he and his friends now inhabited. Despite the early hour and the mist surrounding the grass outside next to Regina's apple tree, this was the perfect time for him to sneak out. He knows everyone will still be asleep and that will give him more than enough time to go back down to Mr. Gold's shop and talk to his mother again. The entire night his mind was wondering what she had told him the day before; about her being in the Underworld and that Emma put him there. He can't wrap his head around why Emma would kill his mother? What had Cruella done for a HERO to end up killing her? He was so desperate to get answers that he hardly slept a wink, he was waiting and planning for the perfect time to leave. His insatiable desire for answers seemed to overpower further reasoning as to whether to trust this version of his mother because despite whether she was on the Isle or in the Underworld, she was still a villain. He knew he needed more information.
He quietly tosses off his blankets and puts his feet on the floor. He does his best to avoid making any sounds across the hardwood floors of one of Regina's guestrooms. She had put an extra bed in the room to allow Jay and him to share a room as they do at Auradon; which would have been nice if Jay hadn't spent most of the night chowing down on snacks and playing video games, Regina's son's video games. Usually, Carlos was the technology buff and video game enthusiast, but he had so much on his mind that he didn't even acknowledge when Jay asked him to play a racing game with him after midnight. He hoped that the late night would ensure that the son of Jafar would stay asleep, long enough for him to sneak out. He tries to avoid the wrappers on the floor and shift towards the door and his sneakers.
It also didn't help that Dude was sleeping in a laundry basket by his bed. Despite her early misgivings of having the dog in the house, Regina relented in allowing the pup to sleep in the house, provided in a laundry basket filled with old towels and not on her nice linen comforters. Dude didn't seem to mind the moderate accommodations and Carlos thinks he knows why because of the smell emanating from the cloths. His loyal companion had managed to smuggle some bacon from the kitchen and hide it in the towels to have a late-night snack. The clever dog somehow managed to bend the house rules to his benefit. Fortunately, it seemed that Dude was still fast asleep and only sniffed once as his master tiptoed past.
Just as he reaches his shoes, he hears a rustling and his heart stops when Jay suddenly sits up in bed.
"Where are you going, dude?" Jay mutters, staring at his best friend. "What time is it?"
Carlos swallows as his mind races to make up a lie. He shushes the son of Jafar sharply to ensure that he doesn't wake up the talking dog, he didn't want to deal with two people right now.
"It's early," he whispers. "I'm… I'm going downstairs to see if there's anything good in the fridge."
"Why not wait a few more hours?" his friend asks groggily.
"Because I didn't fill up on snacks like you did last night, I'm starving."
"Okay, okay, will you bring me up something?"
"M-maybe, but I might just go to the living room to see if I look through Regina's movie channels and find something to watch."
"I should come with you," Jay says, ready to push off his blankets to join his friend. "I really want to watch those superhero movies… like the ones on those posters in Henry's room. Iron Man and X-Men"
"N-No!" Carlos hisses, his mind racing. "How long did you stay up last night?"
"No clue,"
"Exactly, if we're going to find a way to go home, we need to be well rested. You know how mad Mal gets if one of us is slacking."
"I guess that's true, but what about you? Won't you be tired?"
"I actually got some sleep last night," Carlos lied. "You haven't just given it another hour or two and I'll tell you if the movies are worth the watch."
Jay is still struggling to keep his eyes open; it's clear to his best friend that he seriously does need more sleep. The son of Jafar yawns again, his mind and body still half-asleep, he decides that Carlos' reason makes sense and he was still exhausted to question this situation further.
"Okay, but don't steal all the good snacks," Jay says before rolling over to go back to sleep.
"Sure," Carlos says, feeling great relief in being able to put his shoes on in peace and not lie to his best friend any longer. He quickly sneaks down the hall, trying to avoid any creaky floorboards and quickly descends the stairs. He grabs his coat by the door and leaves by shutting the door as quietly as he can. He inhales the clean morning air and begins to walk down the path when his stomach growls. He rolls his eyes, realizing that all the talk of food with Jay has made him hungry. Cursing under his breath, Carlos sees the apple tree standing in the mist. Despite the queen's history with apples, she'd claimed that she had long since given up her villainous ways, plus his desire for some fast sustenance and getting to his destination overpowered his doubts. He quickly moves across the dewy grass and looks for the ripest apple he can find. He picks a nice juicy red one and takes a quick bite to ensure that it wasn't poisoned. He then begins to walk along the path towards Mr. Gold's shop.
…
Once he's reached the creepy old pawnshop near the clock tower in the middle of town, the son of Cruella De Vil picks the lock, getting better at it with each attempt, and enters into the seemingly pitch-black shop. The early morning light is barely entering the gray windows, which created sharp and insane looking shadows. He curses to himself for not bringing a flashlight but decides to use the light on his phone to navigate around all the crazy memorabilia. He ducks behind the same glass case as before and finds the mirror covered by the sheet.
He pricks his finger and the mirror transforms again before the same red-tinted image from before appears. He checks all around to ensure that he is alone before he begins calling for his alternate mother.
"Mom?" he says quietly at first.
No response
"Mom?" A little louder now.
Still no response.
"Ms. De Vil?" he asks. He decides to try something else as well. He begins knocking on the glass to try and get her attention. He does it continuously, hoping that the noise carries into the Underworld and she will eventually investigate.
Time seems to pass, and no one appears on the other side. Carlos notices that the shop is getting lighter as morning approaches. He becomes more desperate and knocks on the glass much harder, almost to the point of breaking it. He needs to see his mother and talk to her before Mr. Gold opens for business.
"All right, all right!" an annoyed voice snaps as the boy's insistent rapping finally attracts the attention.
Much like before, the woman with the long thin face dressed in heavy makeup to attempt to look beautiful and black and white hair appears in the mirror. She doesn't look at all pleased to have been disturbed from whatever she was doing, but her look softens slightly in order to continue her façade of being a loving woman.
"Carlos darling, we really do need to coordinate our visits better. A woman still needs her beauty sleep." Even if those in the Underworld didn't always need it.
"I'm really sorry Mom… I mean Ms. De Vil, but I wanted to talk to you again in private and finish our conversation from yesterday."
After Carlos had asked his mother what he could do to bring her back to the land of the living, Mr. Gold had entered once again, ruining their chances to discuss a plan. He was forced to leave not long after because he could hear Dude calling for him and didn't want the dog to discover his secret.
Carlos' stomach was still a bit uneasy about all this. This woman didn't seem much better than his own mother and she clearly had an anger problem, something that frightened him since childhood. His mother on the Isle had an extremely short temper and would scream or react violently whenever he did something to displease her, which seemed like every minute of every day. After all, it seemed he was merely born to guard her furs and be the woman's personal servant. He had grown to hate any kind of conflict and even when he was sword-fighting on the Isle or at Auradon, it still gave him flashbacks. He shudders to himself
"Yesterday?" she pauses. "Oh yes, of course… now could you please remind me how you and your little friends came to Storybrooke?"
"It was because of Uma, the daughter of Ursula, Harry, Captain Hook's son, and Gil, Gaston's son…"
Ursula, haven't heard from her in a long time…wonder how she's doing? Cruella thought to herself, hardly paying attention. And Gaston so unfortunate for him. After she'd lost James as her boy toy to the River of Lost Souls, Gaston would have been a marvellous substitution if he had not been pushed into the river before Prince Charming's twin brother.
"They were messing around with portals and ended up creating one that sucked all of us in. Meanwhile, Crystal told us that she was also experimenting with portals and the two just connected, depositing us here in the town. She described it almost like a telephone connection, our portal was the call and hers received it."
Cruella's blood red lips form into a smile. "Ah, now I understand." She didn't really care who Crystal was, but if that nuisance got in her way of coming back to the land of the living and exacting revenge on everyone, particularly the Saviour.
"What Mo- I mean Ms. De Vil? What do you understand?"
"Don't you see darling, it's absolutely perfect. We just need to do the same thing."
"You mean you want me to create a portal and you create the other and then the two of them will connect and you can come through?"
"Precisely darling precisely. This is exactly what I said… We are on the same wavelength. You truly are my son!" she says becoming extremely excited at the prospect of being free from this hellish world.
The happiness sparks a little hope inside Carlos, it's almost nice to see her smile. He returns the smile, even though she barely seems to notice.
"But what should I do now?" he asks.
"You need to find those lovely children and ask them how they made the portals. And then, you will show me the recipe through the mirror. We will then coordinate time of when we can both enact the portals, allowing us to return. But darling, we must do this quietly in order to avoid being found out."
"Why?" Carlos asks.
"Because…" the woman says, realizing that she's going to come up with a lie to deceive the boy, even though she's already got him on her side. "Doing something like this is extremely dangerous and risky, so I'm sure your little friends will not want you to it…"
Carlos swallows. Was this dangerous? Should he even do it now that she's brought it up? Would it be worth the risk? What if it all backfires and he ends up hurting people?
"Plus, I'm sure the Saviour doesn't want the truth of her secret kill getting out."
"O-Okay," the boy says.
Suddenly, he hears footsteps coming up to the front door of the shop.
"Oh no, someone's here, I have to go!"
"All right darling, but let's try to pick a better hour to meet. Good luck my little puppy."
Carlos covers the mirror back up and tries to slink into the shadows. He stays very low to the dusty hardwood floor, hoping that Rumpelstiltskin will not see him.
However, a new and different voice enters the shop. Carlos immediately recognizes it. His heart stops when he realizes that he'd forgotten to re-lock the shop, likely causing suspicion.
"If he wants me to use a key, avoid the magic, and respect the closed sign, the least he could do would be to remember to actually lock the damned thing," Crystal mutters to herself as she brushes off the unlocked. "I swear the old man is losing it. I wonder if they have nursing homes for trolls like him?"
Carlos lets a small snort of amusement escape his lips, but he quickly covers his mouth to mask the sound. Apparently, Crystal doesn't hear it, but goes to the counter of her father's shop and removes the stack of books from it.
"Now I just need to convince Regina to lend me the ingredients to make the portals again," she says to herself before heading to the door. She shuts it and ensures that she locks it this time, heading to an unknown destination.
Carlos' heart leaps a few beats when he realizes he won't have to face Uma, Harry, and Gil, all he'll need to do is get the ingredients for the portal from one of those books and he's on the way to seeing his mother again.
He gets up from the floor and pauses for a moment, staring at the mirror, his stomach turns once, the uncertainty of his mission and the risk of danger filling his mind. Could he trust this woman? Or was he better off motherless?
A/N: Hello everyone, I am so sorry for the long hiatus and wait, but as you know life gets in the way and the busyness of this past weekend with a family gathering has left me with little time to write. Speaking of family, here's another chapter where Carlos talks to his "alternate" mother.