Chapter Ten: The Students from the Black Lagoon
The sun had set and the forest surrounding the lagoon was bathed in fog. Chloe looked at the moon through creeping tree branches, hardly able to process that just this morning she'd been home on the Isle.
Well, this morning in the future.
Time travel hurt her brain.
Red led them to the water's edge, the mud sucking their feet deeper into the ground. Creatures moved in the grimy water and lightning bugs clustered under thorny bushes.
Laughter pierced the silence, and both girls dropped, hiding in the cattails.
"I thought you were a beautiful flamingo, Uli," Morgie said sincerely.
"Knock it off!" Uliana's voice rang across the swamp.
"It's them," Red whispered. Mud was staining her pants, and Chloe was swatting bugs, but she could only focus on the witches and warlocks pouring out of the trees.
"That desperate girl, coming for me and trying to mess with my world, she'll regret messing with the wrong sea witch," Uliana snarled. "I got a right to my vengeance, I'm savage to the bone. After all, anyone who crosses me wishes they were never born!"
A small conch shell on a chain that she wore around her neck began to glow as her and her crew neared the water. Uliana put it to her lips and blew, the deep sound making the water shake. Then, from the depths, a shiny skeleton of a massive fish rose. Ancient skin and scales held by magic covered the bones and the jaw of the fish, its teeth as tall as the kids, opened to the forest like some sick sea cave.
The bullies disappeared inside while Red and Chloe were abruptly reminded that these kids, though in high school, were fierce and feared for a reason. They were the future world-shaking villains who would kill, steal, and destroy. Who knows what would happen to the girls if the villains found out they were being spied on?
"Come on." Red grabbed Chloe's arm and pulled her closer to the monstrous fish. They'd come here for a reason after all.
There was only one way into the cave…fish…thing. And they'd surely be spotted if they used the front door. Red, ignoring Chloe's whimpers, jumped onto a rock in the lagoon then launched herself at the fish. Digging her nails into scales, she began to climb. Chloe followed at a slower pace (still able to do it in her mother's glass heels though).
Red climbed until they'd reached the fish's backbone, the peak of the cave. Then she began to claw at the skin until she'd ripped a hole big enough to see the bullies clustered around a stone and coral cauldron that was glowing with blue fire.
Chloe shot Red a glare when she reached her, fingers slimy, shoes muddy.
"Any suggestions?" Uliana asked her crew down below. Salt water was misting through their hideout and her tentacles were out, splashing in puddles or tying shoelaces together.
"What if you made her walk the plank?" The pirate was polishing his hook until he saw his mad smile in its reflection.
"Darling, that's too easy."
"We could turn her into a bird!" Morgie giggled. "Then feed her to a cat!"
"No, it should be worse, worse, worse than all of that!" Uliana shrieked. She stalked through the gang. "Revenge should be vicious and whatever we do to that poor unfortunate soul should be ten times more cruel!"
Her tentacles pulled her onto the boulder covered in barnacles where the cauldron rested. Magic trembled in the air as Morgie and Hook joined her, their arms waving over the fire. Red leaned closer…
"Calling all spirits of the Black Lagoon, show me a recipe fit for her doom," Uliana sang. She had a siren's voice, enchanting and luring. "Toxically sweet with a side of pure spite, I need the perfect revenge that will bite!"
Chloe pulled Red back as she nearly tipped forward through their spying hole.
The cauldron's fire flashed red then purple before glowing a cheery pink. A smoky image of a book emerged, an ancient tome with a skull on the cover.
"What's this, a book?" Hook chuckled. "That's it?"
"We asked for a painful punishment," Morgie told the cauldron very slowly, enunciating every word.
But Uliana leaned closer as the smoky book opened, showing a vision of Bridget with her blonde waves and pink dress. "Wait, hold up, this might be evil on a plate."
Then, a smoky Uliana emerged from the cauldron, a cupcake in hand. When Bridget bit into the treat, the image shifted and changed until Bridget had green skin and a warty chin.
The real Uliana was grinning evilly as the image blew away. "Oh, I'm gonna serve her what she deserves. She'll think she's won, she'll think we're friends but then she'll taste justice, dressed up like the sweetest dessert…perfect."
"They won't know what's coming when we hit 'em with that revenge!" a warlock called from the crowds.
"They're gonna start running when we hit 'em with that revenge!" a witch cackled.
"We won't stop until we conjure up a painful-" Hook continued
"Perfect-" Morgie chimed in
"Punishment!"
"I don't get mad, I get even," Uliana cried out, lording her power over her crew. "We're gonna have our perfect revenge!"
In a tidal wave of bodies, the bullies ran out of the fish corpse, scattering back into the woods. Chloe watched them carefully, making sure they were all gone before she breathed again.
"So we just need to stop Uliana from baking a cupcake," she summed up. "Easy, right?"
A familiar low horn blasted across the water. Red suddenly jumped, remembering where she had heard that before.
"We need to go!"
But the fish was already starting to sink back into the waves.
The bullies had all vanished into the woods and there was no one around to hear the girls' shouts of fear.
Water rose up to meet them, icy black waves that sent chills to their bones. It was rising as the fish sank, to their knees then waists. Red let go of the fish and climbed onto a nearby boulder. Once she was steady, she leapt onto dry land. She laughed with relief and turned back, expecting to see Chloe right behind her.
But she wasn't.
The pesky goody-good was nowhere to be seen.
Red suddenly couldn't breathe.
"Chloe? Chloe!"
One heartbeat, then another.
A hand suddenly burst out of the water.
Chloe's face rose to the surface, sputtering in the waves. "I can't swim!"
Red moved fast, a decade of running around and on a castle coming in handy. She scrambled back onto the rock and crouched low to keep her center of gravity. Her hand stretched out, as far as it could, but Chloe was still too far.
"Paddle! Come on, try!"
But Chloe's head was bobbing, going under then resurfacing countless times, and her arms were flailing uselessly. "I can't!"
Red debated throwing a rock at her when she saw something that nearly made her heart stop.
A fin and a flash of teeth. Right behind Chloe.
A mighty splash accompanied Red as she dove back into the water. She silently thanked her father for taking her to the Beach of Spades when she was younger. It was too dark to see but Red's hand found Chloe's. She pulled, surfacing to get a breath.
"Kick your stupid legs!" Red screamed then dove back under. She kicked like she never had before, her other hand searching for the boulder. Chloe suddenly screamed, having seen the eel behind her. She was kicking with new effort.
Red's fingers scraped rock, and she scrabbled to find a handhold. All her strength was used to pull Chloe until she hit the boulder and the two slipped their way up, jumping in a frenzy to dry land. The eel snapped at the air above the water and, finding no prey, slinked away.
For a moment, Red and Chloe just laid on the blanket of dead leaves and crunchy grass. They were alive. They had almost died.
Red sat up, spitting out mud. Her eyes rolled skyward. "How those stupid glass heels stayed on, I have no idea."
Chloe was slower as she sat up. She chose not to tell Red that they were too small, and she'd probably need a crowbar to take them off at this point. "You saved me."
"You're no good to me as fish food." Red stood up, ignoring the conversation Chloe wanted to start. "Let's go, we have a book to find."
The Stardust room did not disappoint. Crystals sparkled in ever-moving constellations on the deep blue ceiling. The canopy beds had glittering gold curtains and plush navy blankets that could drown out sound if one was hiding under them. Silver furniture was scattered about: desks, dressers, and a bench in the frosted window.
Chloe had found her sword on her pillow and immediately strapped it back on her belt. Maybe if she wore a long coat Merlin wouldn't notice it…
Red immediately flopped onto her bed, then laid there like a corpse for hours, staring up at her canopy. Chloe was antsy, having investigated the whole room and attached bathroom (clawfoot tub and provided hair care products!).
She couldn't take the silence anymore. "Where could that book be? Is there someone we can ask, maybe a different book we can read? Then we'd have to find another book…
"Maybe we could ask Ella!" Chloe sank onto the window's bench. "But we did just get her grounded. I can't…her family was so awful to her."
"Didn't you know that already, though?" Red groaned. She was trying to make Plan K in case things fell apart and Chloe was not helping. "That's kind of one of the most basic things about her story."
"Yeah but," Chloe sighed. She hugged her knees tight, her glass heels clinking together. "we never really talked about it. The past was the past and we couldn't change it. So we focused on the future."
Red just rolled her eyes. She'd seen the way Ella 'focused' on the future and she knew it was for suckers.
"She's still so kind though," Chloe told her knees. "And sweet and hopeful. No matter what happened to her, she never changed. Not like…"
Chloe didn't finish her sentence. The silence hung in the air.
"You can say it," Red snapped. "My mom, I know. She changed her whole personality. Like…she has to make people afraid of her to hide the fact that she actually used to be nice."
"Whatever we do, we have to make sure she stays that way," Chloe sighed. "My brother's life depends on it."
What would Bridget say if they told her that, one day, she would sentence her best friend's son to death, she wondered.
Red rolled her eyes though and pulled a pillow over her face. Chloe needed to stop trying to convert everyone to 'good.'
"Think about it!" Red moved the pillow slightly and glared at the curly haired girl moving closer. "What if your mom had grown up to be like Bridget?"
"Completely clueless?"
"Or kind, generous, and open-hearted. She wouldn't have become a tyrant."
"Ooh, yeah, and I could wear what I want, sleep when I want, wear what I want, be what I want." Red sat up, pushing a pile of throw pillows to the ground. "I'd be free of my mom and her rules and her judge-y face."
Chloe wasn't so sure about the last part. Her mom was the kindest person alive, and her 'disappointed' face could wither a dandelion. "She might be loving and kind."
Red leaned closer to Chloe, an open smile on her face. "And she'd be stuck on the Isle. With your mom."
Ice seemed to flood Chloe's veins, and she froze. Of course, that's what Red thought. That's what all of Auradon thought about people who were good and kind. That they belonged on a trashed island, out of sight and out of mind.
Red's smile turned sharp, knowing her blow landed. The wicked gleam in her eye suddenly made Chloe furious. Four hours ago, she'd saved her life and now…. She thought they were bonding!
Chloe grabbed the golden pocket watch off her bed and shoved it in Red's face.
"This sends you back in time for a reason, yeah?" she yelled. "Maybe you didn't just want to stop your mom's coup. What you really want is a mom who loves you just as you are and that's why the watch sent us back so far in time. Because you do care, Red!"
She threw it at her partner-in-time travel (Red fumbled to catch it) then stalked off to the bathroom, the only other place of refuge. The cool tile calmed her fiery skin, and she sucked in a clean breath of air. If her mother was like that, loving just who she was…if only she had been the one to click the watch. Then she could have everything she wanted.
Red stole some pajamas from the laundry chute in the hall and curled up in her bed, lights out. She was still angry from the fight, from the school day, from the coup, from everything. If Red was honest with herself, she'd been angry for most of her life. But Chloe could rile her up like no one else. Her mother was just plan scary and Maddox was so earnest, but Chloe had all this potential. She was smart and handy with a sword. But she still wanted to play princess and keep her eyes blissfully shut to what the world was really like and what she could be.
Red flopped over, trying to stop her brain from rattling. She didn't care about Chloe. Sure, she'd saved her from a fish but that was only so she didn't have to do this mission alone. It was purely selfish. And it wasn't Red's job to figure out Chloe's issues or make her face the facts. Red had enough going on and she needed to scheme and plot and plan.
And yet…
When Chloe had finally emerged from the bathroom after their fight, Red had been asleep (or she at least seemed like she was). Chloe rose with the sun the next morning and got to work, showering for nearly an hour and reveling in endless clean water, styling her curly hair with mousse and pins so it was much more contained. Her reflection in the fogged glass was perfectly lovely and, despite her reservations about interacting with Red today, she felt hopeful. Her mother's shoes, nice hair, and Ella saying she looked like a princess yesterday…they were the perfect morale boost. Who needed Red to accept that she wanted care and affection just like any child? Certainly not her!
Red meanwhile, had thrown on her scarlet clothes from yesterday, ran a comb through her hair, and deemed it 'wicked enough.' She was pacing when Chloe finally came out of the bathroom, ready to drag her out the door.
"Bridget. We're going to ask Bridget about the book," she blurted out.
"Do you know where she-?"
"In her dorm," Red finished. "She told me yesterday she doesn't have morning classes on Fridays."
"But how will we-?"
"Let's just go!" Red exclaimed, giving in to her impulses, dragging Chloe out the door.
