Chapter Text
“Chlo…” Red uttered in disbelief.
The pumpkins had stopped growing, but she could still hear their violent creaking loud and clear, pounding in her head like the next one would burst its way out of her skull and leave her headless, melting on the ground.
“No, ugh, why would you—?!” The question tapered off into a sob as she clambered towards the pumpkin in front of her on hands and knees, stumbling under the burning in her leg. “CHLOE!” She yelled, curling her hands into fists and pounding them against the fruit with all her strength. “Are you alive?!”
Please be alive…
A scream erupted from within the hollowed shell and Red fell backwards, landing on her elbows.
Good enough.
“O- okay, stay that way! I’ll… I’ll break you out!” She called back, her head turning from side to side, frantically searching for a rock or branch or anything that could be used to split the frustratingly thick skin apart.
Nothing.
Her thoughts quickly went back to the chateau, and she quickly turned to face it. Now that she was sprawled out a short distance from it instead of a mile away, Red could see that it was much bigger than it looked before. At least ten times the size a decent house would be— no, at least FIFTY! Huge and imposing, impossibly large, so that even though she wasn’t quite near the door she could tell the home had no concept of being a comfortable size, allowing people to enter it freely without feeling inferior.
Back in Wonderland, the Queen would have had it burnt down in an instant for being so unreasonably large.
Maybe one of the giants living inside it could help? She wondered, before quickly shooting down the idea on her own. Of course they couldn’t. Because it wasn’t a real house at all. The entire thing was just an invention of the wretched catacombs.
“Ugh!”
She banged her fist against the floor and turned to drag herself to her feet, only to find that half her fingers wouldn’t uncurl. It took Red a moment to realize that that was because the acid she’d rubbed between them, back when she thought it was just plain pumpkin juice, had soldered the digits together, keeping three fingers on her left hand fused to each other no matter how hard she tried to pull them apart.
“Ew, ew, ew,” she muttered to herself, swallowing hard to keep herself from dry-heaving again.
Later . She’d deal with the STUPID fingers later! Right now, Red’s top priority was getting Chloe out of that disgusting orange thing before it turned her into slime, otherwise there was no chance of Red EVER getting out of this cave! That’s why she was so anxious to save the other girl. That and NOTHING ELSE.
I did not catch a crush. I did not catch a crush. I did NOT catch a CRUSH—
A silvery glint caught her eye, snapping her out of her thoughts at once.
“What was…?” She trailed off, twisting her neck quickly to try to catch it again.
Shing!
There! Something big and sharp was sticking out of the ground a few feet away from her, like an oversized, shiny blade of grass, winking at her from the rest of the tall weeds surrounding it.
“I— I found something! I’ll be right back, Chloe! Just don’t…! Don’t melt or anything! Try… blowing the juice away, I dunno!” Red stammered.
She glanced down at her foot but quickly forced herself to look away before she could take it in. No. Looking at it would just make things worse. It was like Chloe said. Burns were just dramatic. Red still had all the bones in her leg, right? The other stuff was overrated anyway, whatever lump of meat she had down there could still hold her weight, and that’s all she needed it to do.
“Get up,” she commanded herself, putting on the same tone her mother liked to use to get her way. “Get up this instant. No crying!” She added, biting her lip against the tears that built in the corner of her eyes without her permission. “Crying is… just a… waste of… time!”
The injured leg dragged behind her like a dead weight as she limped towards the shimmering blade, its only use coming from the few moments she’d lean her weight against it, feeling the irritated skin squish and scream at the burden. But it was enough.
Red threw herself onto the blade in relief, realizing up close that it was, in fact, a giant flat needle.
“You better be sharp.” She huffed at it, breathing heavily as she looped her good hand through the eye and, with a grunt of effort, yanked it upward, falling onto her back with the tool laid across her stomach. She could’ve almost cheered with joy at the ease of it all.
Get up! The same commanding tone ordered in her head. She didn’t have time to celebrate the small triumph— she hadn’t even really accomplished anything at all! But Red’s eyes squeezed shut in relief all the same, her breaths falling back into a normal pace.
Fine, she acquiesced. But just for a second! Unless you want Chloe to die.
And that thought alone would’ve been enough to snap her out of her laziness. But, of course, the cursed catacombs had bigger plans than that.
Snff. Snff.
Something was breathing into Red’s ear. Or rather, something was smelling her. Its warm breath was wetting the side of her face, pushing her tangled hair away from her forehead.
“I— Excuse you?!” Red grimaced, her eyes shooting open to meet a single, giant, beady black pupil, staring straight at her. “EYAHHH!”
The creature backed away at her shriek, giving Red the opening to flip herself over, scrambling up to her knees. The useless fingers on her right hand dug into the dirt, grime pressing underneath her fingernails as she, panting, clawed her way back to the pumpkin. She didn't dare glance back, it wasn’t important! All she needed was the needle, which was pressed close and tight to her chest—
Until it wasn’t.
The creature latched onto the end of the needle and yanked, throwing Red face first into the ground as it pulled the tool towards itself, sending Red into a stomach-churning, lung-crushing roll. Her hand was still curled tightly around the needle’s eye, and her grip only tightened as the creature wrestled her for it, lifting her up into the air.
“Let GO!” She screeched, kicking her legs blindly at it. “CAN’T YOU SEE I NEED IT?!”
“Needsy need it!” The creature squeaked back, high-pitched and bumbling.
“...What?!” Red cried out in confusion and finally looked down to meet the creature face-to-face.
Only, it wasn’t some strange, foreign invention of the catacombs. It was a mouse. A rather large mouse, of course, roughly the size of a horse— or maybe even bigger than that. With brown fur and a full figure and an ill-fitting yellow shirt squeezed onto its top half. Its giant front teeth flashed with a dangerous sharpness as its empty black eyes stared at her, slightly annoyed.
“Don't you-a get it?” Another voice chirped out from behind her, and Red’s head snapped back to meet the glazed-over features of another brown mouse, this one wearing red, sitting on its hind legs as it spoke to her. “We needs it! For our Cinderelly!”
“Yeah, well I needs it for my…!” Red spluttered, angry that she even had to explain herself to these awful things. “For…! For her daughter! Yeah, how do you think Cindersmelly would react if she knew you let her daughter die, huh?! Let it go and I’ll give it to you right after! She won’t have to know I used it on Chloe first!”
“No no no no no!” The one wearing yellow bellowed. “We needs it now!”
“Needs it now!” The red one echoed angrily.
“Well, too BAD!” Red spat, her patience spent.
And with that, she swung forward and kicked the larger mouse straight in the nose, sending it squealing back, clutching its face with its paws as it dropped her to the ground.
“Ow!”
The red one watched its companion skitter back, looking almost shocked at the violence. “Yous-a not a nice one, huh?!” It hissed in understanding, crouching down on all fours.
“No I am NOT!” She shot back, and felt the wind knock straight out of her as the mouse tackled her down to the ground, its sharp nails digging into her chest as they tumbled together, head over heels. “AUGH!”
“GIVE IT!” It demanded, finally stopping their momentum by slamming her into the ground.
“BITE ME!” The mouse’s maw opened wide, revealing row after row of sharp, browning teeth, and Red instantly regretted her wording. “Wait— wait, nonoNO— ARGH!”
The mouse surged forward just as Red thrust her arm upward and— shk! — the needle pierced straight through the roof of its mouth, breaking out of the other side as the mouse let out a horrible, shuddering screech. Warm blood and saliva poured down Red’s wrist and she screamed, tearing the weapon towards her as the creature pulled back, splitting its muzzle in half.
Red gasped, sitting bolt upright as the mouse convulsed, throwing its head back in pained howls.
I didn’t mean to—!
The larger one, hearing its companion's cries, immediately recovered from the previous punch, letting its paws fall slack to the ground as it turned on Red with a mad look.
“YOU!”
“No no, get AWAY!” Red cried out, swinging the weapon in front of her wildly as she backpedaled with her elbow and forearm.
The bigger mouse didn’t seem to care, all sense lost at the sight of its injured counterpart as it advanced on Red with bared claws, grabbing her round the neck.
Fshk! The needle stabbed into the creature’s soft belly as soon as it pounced, burying itself deeply in its gut.
Red felt her throat close up as the creature squeezed, ignorant of the blade sticking out of it as its nails pulled at her skin. She hacked out a wheezing cough and made eye contact with the mouse, and found no sign of the little intelligence it seemed to have before. Only anger and hurt as it snarled and snorted madly, rabid strings of saliva flying out of its mouth.
She’d seen intent to kill before many times in her mother's court— in the eyes of traitors and criminals, seconds before their heads were separated from the rest of them— and she knew completely that this thing would kill her.
Unless Red would kill it first.
She gritted her teeth, tightened her grip, and, with fading vision, wrenched her wrist straight up the animal’s torso.
“GET. AWAY. FROM ME!” She rasped out,
KGHHHK! Meat pulled away from the blade like butter, the weapon cleaving straight through it with the sound of ripping flesh as the creature screamed. Its rough fur scratched against Red’s wrist, burning it raw as she tugged and tugged until she hit its throat, cutting off its screeching with a wet gurgling sound.
The mouse froze for a moment, staring at Red in shock as if it couldn’t believe what she’d done. Its warm innards slid out of its body like living worms; slimy, slithering coils slid against Red’s skin, coating her in the creature’s rapidly coagulating blood. And then it let go, wobbling for an extra second before it slumped forward, landing hard against Red, suffocating her under its weight.
“Argh! Help— Get off!” Red panted, tucking her legs into her chest and heaving against the pressure of the body, pushing it off of herself in a panic.
She could feel her burnt leg screaming in protest at the action, but it felt like a minor, background noise against the wild pounding of her heart. She stumbled up, using the needle to support her weight. The pumpkin was so close, just a few feet away, but the distance seemed so far anyway— too far— she’d never make it—!
“AHK!” Something heavy rammed into her from behind, knocking her off her feet again.
Her face pressed into the dirt, bitter tears turning it into wet sludge against her eyes as the heavy weight settled on her back. A fist wrapped around her hair, yanking it upwards to pull her face out of the muck.
“Please…!” Red blubbered, feeling her scalp burn at the rough handling.
“Nn… needs…” A broken, slurring voice spoke to her.
Something wet dripped down on her back, and it took Red a moment to realize that it was the smaller mouse, still trying to talk despite its face being split in half.
“Why?!” Red cried, almost indignant. “Why won’t you just let me HAVE IT! It’s just a stupid needle! You’re hurt! Just let it go!”
“So are you…” It replied, and Red lost her voice.
It’s not the same , she wanted to protest, but the creature kept garbling out its words.
“Doing it. For Ccccinderelly. We love Cinderelly. C- Cinderelly sssaaaved us… we will… make her-a happy. Even if we don’t-a see it. We… we love her… Cinderelly.”
There it was again, that annoying, awful word that silenced her back in the halls with Chloe. Love, love, love. It was all for STUPID, WORTHLESS LOVE! Maybe there was more to it after all! Had the Queen of Hearts ever seen anyone do something like this for love?! Maybe it really did hold some kind of magic that made mice with broken faces and princesses with nothing better to do throw themselves into danger like that!
Actually, if it really was such a tremendous power, she was glad her mother hadn’t found it after all.
“Why-a do you want it?” The mouse rasped out, punctuating the question with a wet, snorting sound as the flaps of its face slapped together.
“I already told you,” Red sobbed, staring at the blurry orange mass straight ahead of her. “I have to get Chloe out of that pumpkin. My reasons aren’t half as noble as yours, okay?! I want to live, and this girl is my only way! I can’t let her die, because then I’ll die too! Is that such a bad reason?! Is wanting to live so wrong of me?!”
“No… but. That’s its?” It’s voice was full of earnestness.
“Wh… What do you mean? Why isn’t just living enough?!”
Stupid question. If even Red, who ‘just lived’ without loving couldn’t answer that question, how was this stupid mouse, dying for love, going to answer it?
“Living. It’s not bad. But-a loving is more better. You know this?” It tugged her head up a bit so it could speak closer to her ear. “You know this? Yes?” It pressed, as if the answer was absolutely critical.
“YES, YES, OKAY! I GET IT!”
“Then I should-a gets the needle.” The answer came, simply and reasonably. “I needs it. For Cinderelly.”
“But—” Her retort caught in her throat. But what?! How was she supposed to reason with this thing now? She didn’t have a frame of reference for the ‘love’ everyone kept talking about, how was she supposed to argue against something she didn’t understand?! “But— but you’re not even real.”
Apparently, by trying to bring reality and logic into the magic of the catacombs. Talk about desperate.
The mouse took in a sharp, crackling wet breath.
“Not… real?”
“Exactly, you were MADE UP by these STUPID CATACOMBS just to make everything harder for us. That's the only reason you exist! There probably isn't even a Cinder-whateverhernameis to give this needle to at all! It's all FAKE! But Chloe's real, and she's right there, and she needs my help, so let GO ALREADY!” Red growled, feeling her anger slowly return to her. She was tired of feeling exhausted and desperate, she wanted this all to be over already!
“Go? No. Nonono. Can’t. I need the-a needle.”
“But I just TOLD YOU you aren’t even REAL! You’re gonna let someone real and alive DIE just because… because… FOR NO REASON?!”
“No reasons?” The mouse bristled, clicking its teeth with a moist, sucking sound. “No. Not no reasons. It’s because we love Cinderelly.”
“Are you—?”
“We’re not-a real. Maybe…” It continued, its broken muzzle making a garbled, sniffling sound as its head turned away from Red, no doubt to face its murdered companion laying inches away from them. “But our love… it is real. You see the-a proof, right there…” It jerked her head towards the bloody mess, nearly yanking her hair clean off of her scalp. “You see? Our love is real. It’s better.”
That’s. It!
Red was THROUGH with hearing about love. ‘Love’ this and ‘love’ that. What kind of incomprehensible, ridiculous power was it— that could exist even in things that didn’t exist at all?! Everyone around her was talking about it like it made perfect sense, when it didn’t make any at ALL! She was TIRED OF IT!
“You— you—!” She gritted her teeth, her face burning with anger as her grip tightened around the needle’s eye. “You stupid love-obsessed freaks keep talking about it like I’m supposed to get it— but how the SPADES AM I EVER SUPPOSED TO LEARN ABOUT THIS ‘LOVE’ IF YOU WON’T LET ME LIVE!”
And with that, she twisted her arm upwards, pushing past the weight on her back, and, with a shout of exertion— fwshk!— sliced the blade cleanly through the clump of hair the mouse was holding onto, cutting it free.
The mouse screeched and stumbled back as the clump of hair thumped down on the ground heavily. With the mouse’s hand still attached to it, disconnected at the wrist.
“You…!” It hacked out shakily, clutching its bleeding stump close to its chest as Red flipped over to face it, fury in her eyes. “You… you did have-a… another reason.”
“I…”
“You said… ‘to live’. But now you-a said… to love. You needs it to learn to love?” It entreated, searching her face for the answer before she even voiced it. “You needs it to love?!”
“W- well—!” Red stammered, watching the poor creature drip, drip away. How could it still be so invested in the love thing? Even when the top half of its muzzle was peeling away, blocking its airways with blood as it exposed far too many teeth. “Well… Y- you and Wise Girl keep talking about it, so maybe it’s worth something after all! But I won’t know if I won’t be alive to see it, right? And… and I need her to stay alive too so she could teach it to me, because no one else will! Is that good enough for you?!”
The mouse closed its eyes and let out a throaty, raspy sigh of relief. “Yes…”
Red blinked in shock. That was all? Was it really that easy?!
The creature turned its back on her, limping its way over to the body of the larger mouse, nudging the cold corpse with its mangled nose.
“So… so you mean I can go? You won’t fight me for this thing anymore?” She pushed herself to an upright position, using the needle for support as she gestured to it pointedly.
“No…” It muttered sadly, taking in great, hacking sniffs that made it cough up blood. “But I can’t-a go away nowwww. Can’t go back without the needle… no no… I love C-c-cinderelly too too much… and I love Gus Gussss too…”
It looked up at her meaningfully, salty tears tracking down its face, seeping into its open wound. But it wasn’t crying from the pain of any of it, she could tell. It was crying because it’d let down those it loved. Was that what love was, then? So strong it made you forget your face, even as it peeled off your skull, just because someone you love was hurt instead?
“My love is good. But your love is good too… I can’t go back now…” He mumbled, sniffling at his dead friend. “Can’t go back…”
A sinking understanding filled Red’s gut as the wet eyes turned on her again. He’s asking me to kill him.
“But… why not?” She asked hollowly, feeling herself get sick at the idea. “It’s… it’s not real anyway—” The mouse blinked at her, and Red snapped her jaw shut. “Right… the uh… the love is real. My bad.”
Something satisfied and knowing flashed in his look before he shut his glossy black eyes for good. “Will you go fast? My face… it’s-a broken anyways.” He coughed wetly and laid down next to the other mouse, completely complacent, nuzzling his head against the unmoving body.
Red swallowed hard, glancing sideways at the pumpkin. She could’ve just run towards it and ignored the suffering creature, his wounds would get him soon anyway, wouldn’t they? What was the point in fulfilling his request? It would just be a waste of time— time that she didn’t have!
But she found that her body wouldn’t pull off without doing it. She clutched the needle for support, using it as a cane to limp up to the mouse.
Was she supposed to say something before she did it?
“Thanks.” She settled on, before lifting the blade with trembling hands, and letting it fall straight through his skull.
It was over so fast that Red only realized after the fact that she hadn’t given him a second to say his own last words.
Whatever. She rubbed her eyes, feeling them sting with unshed tears as she slid the weapon out of the body. It wasn’t like it was real anyway.
The short limp to the pumpkin seemed miles long, and Red nearly fell senseless two inches away from it, feeling her entire sweat-soaked body convulse with exhaustion as the adrenaline from the fight faded away completely. She could feel the meager breeze of the catacombs against her now-exposed neck, but it did little to cool her off. She wanted to fall flat on her face and never get up again.
“Come, ON!” She gritted her teeth and pushed on. By then, the needle had become less of a cane and more of a springboard used to haul herself forward. “Augh!” She threw herself onto the pumpkin’s rough shell, beating her fists against it. “CHLOE!”
No response.
“CHLOE! I’M BACK! MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!” She declared, huffing and puffing as she raised the needle over her head weakly. “If I open this thing and you’re bones, I’m going to be so mad!” She warned, and, with an efficient fury, tore straight through the fruit in a single slice.
“KYAAAAH!” A loud, agonized howl erupted from within, and Red felt all the sweat on her skin turn freezing cold.
No.
The sections of the pumpkin fell apart in neat, perfect wedges, rocking back and forth on the ground and melting away with a steady hissing sound. But Red hardly noticed them disappearing.
The needle slipped out of her hand, thumping to the ground as she backed away. Because Chloe… Her face! Her perfect, smiling, sunny face…!
A gasp tore out of Red before she could help it, the pain in her leg fading into nothingness as she watched Chloe crash down to the ground, pressing a flayed hunk of meat to her cheek. It took Red a moment to realize that the mangled, indiscernible thing was actually her arm .
“R— red?!” Chloe spluttered out, reaching for her blindly, trying to clutch her own face without any fingers to grab it.
Red closed the distance between them without thinking, her hand barely grazing Chloe’s before the other girl collapsed into her legs, shaking.
“I— I told you—!” Red stammered accusingly, feeling her own throat close up as she lowered herself to the ground, letting Chloe bury herself in the crook of her neck. “I told you not to melt! Why—?!” Her voice cracked
“I— I tried—!” Chloe cried, and Red’s heart sank, her hands hovering over the other girl’s back, unsure if she could touch her. It wouldn’t matter anyway. She couldn’t fix this. Not the way Chloe had fixed her.
She let her hands fall uselessly around the other girl’s shoulders.
I should’ve been faster.
🜋🜋🜋🜋🜋🜋
The decision to throw Red forward when her leg got caught had hardly been a decision at all. It was more like an instinct, the obvious course of action, Chloe hadn’t even thought about it twice. She just did it, shooting her arms forward with all the strength she had in them to save her.
And she didn’t regret it. Even when the panic settled in a second later, right before the pumpkin closed around her and her eyes met Red’s horrified gaze from the other side and she realized Thiago was lying somewhere, miles away, under a pile of shattered wooden furniture so she had no way of cutting herself free.
Crick, K-THOOM!
That was fine. It was all fine. The acid had burned through the vine around her ankle, smoking as it withered away, and that was super fine too, because now it meant Chloe was free! She jumped up to her feet at once, only wincing slightly at the feeling of her cut rubbing against her haphazardly-made bandage. (Fine!)
Red was screaming unintelligibly on the other side, and Chloe caught her breath, surveying her new orange, hollowed-out cage.
The top of the pumpkin held a messy glob of pulp and seeds, hanging from its ceiling like a sweeping, rancid chandelier; acid ran down the walls in thick rivulets and pooled on the floor in hissing puddles, but, really, it was fine! Chloe wasn’t burning yet, and as long as she stayed focused she wouldn’t ever. She opened her mouth to yell back, to let Red know just how fine everything was. But then the other girl knocked her fists against the pumpkin shell.
A thick string of pulp shook off the ceiling mass, and Chloe threw her arm up on instinct
SLAP!
The sopping fibers smacked against her sleeve and whipped its way towards her stomach, landing a scathing, acidic strike straight to her wound.
“GYAH!”
She keeled over without thinking, gripping around her middle with one hand and catching herself on the floor with the palm of the other.
Big mistake.
Stars exploded in her vision as her hand sizzled and hissed, bubbling and bursting like oil on a pan, the blood in her veins boiling just underneath the surface. Her breath left her too quickly to scream again as she shot up to her feet, staring at her hand in horror as the yellow-red skin wrinkled and writhed, pulling away from her bones like a rubbery sheet.
“Oh my— hrk.”
She swallowed hard, squeezed her eyes shut, and counted down from ten.
Nine.
Everything would be fine.
Eight.
It was just skin, hands could work without skin!
Seven.
She swore there was a villain out there who had a skeleton army at some point… clearly, skin was just overrated!
Six.
Besides, it was only her left hand. Her right hand was her dominant one, so she would still be able to swing a sword just fine once she and Red made it out.
Five.
Staying focused was the key. Red would figure something out on the other side.
Four.
Right now, Chloe’s job was to stay alive, and she couldn’t do that if she was panicking
Three.
Red’s clothes had protected her from some of the worst damage of the acid, Chloe just had to work with what she had on hand.
Two .
She still had her leg armor and half of her jacket, and her shirt and pants too if she’d really need them…
One.
Chloe breathed in, and out, and hardened her features determinedly.
“Right. Everything’s going to be fine!” She told herself encouragingly, her voice echoing around the pumpkin back at her. “Ugh… how did Mom ever stand this thing…?”
So Chloe stayed alive as best as she could, spreading her resources out as strategically as possible. First, standing on the armor she had left, with the jacket coming in right after. Then, keeping herself high up on her tiptoes before spreading her weight to the back of her foot once the fronts of her shoes started melting away. Then peeling away the strip of her shirt she’d used for a bandage to find out that the acid slap had actually been weirdly lucky! The burn had completely cauterized her cut, leaving behind a big red welt instead of a bleeding wound. It was a sign that everything would be okay!
Then… that had started disappearing too, and soon the rest of her shirt was disintegrating too, and Chloe, left in nothing but a pair of pants and her undergarments, started to wonder whether Red was even trying to help at all on the other side.
That’s mean. Of course she is! It’s probably just really hard to find something sharp out here in the middle of nowhere.
She glanced down at her blistering hand, and then up at the low-hanging strands of pulp, and swallowed hard. Once Red freed her, she’d need someone to help her walk around, right? Chloe couldn’t just let her legs start peeling off… they couldn’t both have walking problems…
She felt her stomach roil with sickness, but her head felt incredibly clear as she lifted her arm up and grasped the wet, toxic filaments with her injured hand, gritting her teeth and testing her weight against it even as the juice began rolling down her arm, tracking pink scars against her skin wherever they touched.
It held.
“H- HA! YES!” Chloe laughed in relief, biting back tears as she tucked her legs in and let herself hang, watching the rest of her beloved shirt flake away with a sizzle into the acid.
Red… Please hurry. She pleaded, her muscles already beginning to twitch in protest. The skin of her arm boiled and peeled back, throbbing and howling at the torment, every excruciating second feeling like hours. Slick sweat mixed into the acid and ran its way down her exposed back.
Just five more seconds, Chloe kept urging herself, even when she felt her flesh sloughing off, running down her arm and smacking wetly against her neck. Just five more! She wasn’t sure if she could let go if she tried now, her hand hardly felt like a hand anymore, only a lump of split meat at the end of her arm, numb and leaking. Five… more!
“CHLOE! I’M BACK! MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!” Red’s muffled voice shouted from the other side of the wall, and Chloe could’ve sobbed for joy.
It was over. It was finally over, and she was fine. Perfectly, totally, and completely—
KCHT!
WPFSH!
“EEEAHH!” A terrible scream tore its way out of Chloe’s throat as her face exploded in white-hot agony, her eyes squeezing shut all at once.
A thick glob of pulp had been dislodged by Red’s impact, and the entire noxious thing had splattered against Chloe’s cheek, strands slapping across her forehead and clapping under her chin, wrapping around her nose and sliding onto her lip, marring any part of her it could latch onto.
HELP! HELP ME! she wanted to scream, but her throat wouldn’t form words, only howls and sobs as she collapsed onto the ground.
Without thinking, she reached up to snatch the wicked thing off her face— but there was nothing to snatch, it’d disappeared like the rest of her cage, and instead her hand thumped uselessly against her aching cheek. She tried to feel for the damage, but her fingers had lost all sensation.
How was this fine? How could she spin any of this to be fine?!
A gasp sounded from ahead of her, and Chloe felt her mind latch onto it immediately. That's right. Red was right there. She'd gotten Chloe free, even though Chloe had doubted her for that short, desperate moment. She'd done it, even though it was probably near-impossible to find anything sharp in the middle of nowhere.
Red had succeeded. Everything was fine.
“R— Red?!” Chloe wheezed, reaching towards her with her good hand. She wanted to touch something that wouldn't burn, that was real and good, that she could feel.
Even without opening her eyes Chloe could feel when the other girl had approached her, throwing herself at her feet in an instant. She was so proud, so thankful, she was just waiting for her mouth to catch up so she could shower the girl with praise— but in the meantime, all she could do was hug her and shake.
“I— I told you…” Red stammered, her voice turning small and soft as she crouched down to Chloe's level, letting her nestle against her. “I told you not to melt. Why—?”
“I— I tried—!” was all Chloe could muster out.
She wanted to cry, and when Red's hand settled on her back she almost did. Her lessons of keeping a clear head, calming down, making a plan, and moving forward never prepared her for something like this. It was— it was worse than all of the worst case scenarios she’d ever had to act out in her life!
But then, something about the fingers on her bare back felt off. Leathery. And the neck she was leaning into felt slick and oily, smelling of iron. And the reminder of Red's own injuries returned to her full force, snapping her thoughts back into the right place.
Come on, Chloe! Staying calm isn't just for you— it's for her too! The catacombs are a two-person mission, what’s the point of all your training if you can’t keep it together when an untrained person can!
She gritted her teeth, swallowed hard, and forced herself to pull away from the almost-hug. “I'm sorry, you’re still hurt, let me—”
“Are you madder than a hatter?!” Red cut her off, shaking her by the shoulders, and Chloe finally cracked open her eyes to look at her.
She choked out a gasp, feeling the skin around her eyes and mouth tighten and protest at the way her face twitched in horror.
The only spot on Red’s body that wasn’t completely drenched in dark, nearly black blood was the white patch on her neck where Chloe had been leaning. It was everywhere else. In her hair and all of her clothes, in the crevices of arms and in great coagulating chunks on her forehead, thick droplets of it hanging off her lashes. It was like someone had dumped bucketloads of the gore onto her, trying to drown her in it. If it weren’t for the fact that she’d been leaning against her a moment ago and knew that there was smooth skin underneath it all, Chloe might’ve thought that the whole girl had gotten turned inside out.
Red was staring at Chloe with a wild, angry expression, and for a moment— just a moment— Chloe’s heart seized with an inexplicable fear, but it was gone just as quickly as it came. She reached up with her right hand and brought it up to the other girl’s face.
“W-what are you—?” Red spluttered out in confusion, cringing away from the touch only for the words to die on her tongue as Chloe swiped her thumb over her cheek and held it up for her to see. “Oh. Oh— heugh.” Red gagged, glancing down at the blood on Chloe’s hand and face. “That’s from me? I’m still covered in—” she looked down at her own hands and her throat contorted in disgust, “oh, euh— ew, ew, ew, ew! Why?! Of all the gross, nasty—!”
“You— you seriously didn’t notice?!” Chloe demanded.
“Well, it’s not like it’s mine!” Red shot back defensively, smearing her hands against the grass around them, doing her best to clean them off. “I was a little more focused on saving your life, actually!”
Chloe huffed. “Right. Thank—”
“And besides, you aren’t exactly paying attention to how you look either!”
Chloe’s jaw snapped shut and she pursed her lips tightly. “That’s because—”
“Oh don’t worry, I KNOW! ‘sowwy! youwe still huwt!’” She chirped mockingly. “Maybe worry about yourself FIRST!”
“I’m… fine! It's all fine—” Chloe protested, looking down at her body. As far as being trapped in a toxic pumpkin went, she really was fine! She still had both her legs and managed to keep her pants on— though that was mostly to make sure that if she’d fall down from the pulp she wouldn’t land skin-first on the acid, and she still had both her—
Red scoffed. “It is the FURTHEST THING FROM FINE!” She shot back. “And you call yourself the smart one?! Your brother must have an actual tart for a brain if that's true—! Nope, actually, I think that pumpkin melted some of your brain, that’s the only explanation—!”
“But— but, how am I supposed to look at myself when you look like that! And— and look at your hand!” Chloe exclaimed suddenly, taking Red’s fingers with her right hand and holding it up between them. She knew she'd felt something off. Three of the fingers on that hand had completely fused together. “I didn't see this last time! And— and is your hair shorter?!” She narrowed her eyes at the other girl’s head.
“MY hand?!” Red choked out, almost laughing as she snatched the appendage back. “You don’t even know, do you?! LOOK AT THIS!” She leaned over Chloe and seized her left hand, planting it directly in the air between them, forcing her to finally face the damage she’d been ignoring the whole time.
Chloe’s vision went white, her head spinning. She nearly fainted then and there.
It's fine it's fine it’sfineit’sfineitsfine!
Her fingers were completely gone. The mutilated, stacked layers of exposed flesh— peeled apart and then cooked back together — didn’t resemble anything that could be called a ‘hand’. It was a patchwork of angry red burns and bursting yellow boils, with too much meat in some parts and too little in others so that she was almost sure she was seeing her bones in some places, but she couldn’t be sure because so many of the wet, sticky wounds had turned white where the muscle was burned away.
And her fingers… her fingers were just one hunk of fused-together matter. At first the thought they'd burnt off completely — and some clearly had— but when she looked closer she could see a well sized hole in the center of the indiscernible lump, and realized that that was where she had hung onto the pulp, in an attempt to save her life… but in the process… her fingers had— they were gone. That’s why she couldn’t feel anything, couldn’t touch, couldn’t hold, couldn’t… couldn’t…!
It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s fine.
“I… I thought… it’d be better than hurting my legs too,” she explained, her voice coming out frail and airy. “You need someone to help… right?”
Right? Please say right. It’s fine… as long as it was to help someone. It’s fine.
“Well…” Red made a frustrated sound from the back of her throat. “I— I GUESS!” She threw her arms up in the air, not looking happy at the admittance in the slightest. “Was this seriously the only way, though?!”
“It’s— It’s all I could think of, okay?!” Chloe exclaimed, quickly biting her lip and scolding herself internally.
Don’t get upset! This is all fine!
Red studied her face for a moment, her jaw set sharply and her lips pursed together. Chloe squeezed her eyes shut and began counting down from ten.
Nine. Eight…
“Okay, fine, I’m s… I— I get it.” Red stammered with a sense of finality, cutting off Chloe’s countdown with a huff and pulling herself up to her feet on shaky legs with the help of something she’d picked up off the floor. “If we’re both gonna ignore our injuries, then we should stop wasting time and get a move on. Your first talisman is probably in that place.”
She pointed to the chateau behind her, and Chloe’s eyes widened. She hadn’t realized how huge it was— it’d looked so normal from a distance! She felt her gut squirm with a sense of belonging as she gazed at its white stone walls and climbing ivy, and knew at once that that’s where she’d find the talismans.
Well, if Red was ready to move on, Chloe wouldn’t dare be the reason they delayed any longer.
“You’re right,” she said, scrambling up to her feet to help Red up, making sure not to use her deformed arm on the other girl.
She knew it was gross, even if Red wouldn’t say so, and the wound still felt moist and tender against the cool outdoor air— or rather underground air. The logistics of the catacombs still confused her, but it was fine. All of it was fine.
Red grunted in annoyance as she leaned her weight against Chloe’s supportive arm, grumbling irritably under her breath. “Ugh. What happened to your shirt?”
“Sorry, I had to use it so my legs wouldn’t get hurt,” she coughed in embarrassment. “I… uh… I know my back probably looks pretty bad from the acid too, so—”
“That’s seriously the least of my problems right now.” Red snorted, turning away from her with rolling eyes. “Here, take this. Payment for the one I lost.” She thrust the tool from earlier at her without making eye contact. “Call it… Thiago 2. I dunno.”
Chloe gasped. It was a sword! Or, actually, no, it was a needle. But a really big and sharp one that looked like a sword, its eye acting as the hilt and everything. It was perfect.
“Where— where did you find this!” Chloe laughed in awe, taking the weapon and swinging it demonstratively in front of them.
Red wrinkled her nose and leaned away from it, her face turning slightly green at the question.
“Just… over there.” She waved her arm in a general direction. “Look, it’s a long story, let’s just… let’s just go ahead.”
And they might've. But Chloe made the mistake of turning to where Red had gestured, and all at once her careful but precarious hold on her nerves fell completely apart.
It's fine. It's fine it's fine it'sfine—
There, only a few feet away, so big, bloody, and obvious that it was a wonder Chloe hadn’t noticed them until then— but of course she didn’t notice them. She never saw them so still in her entire life.
It’s fineit’sfineit’sfine—
Was that what Red was covered in? Or rather— was that WHO Red was covered in?!
It’sfineit’sfine— it's SO. NOT. FINE!
“Wh… wha… WHAT’D YOU DO?!” Chloe shrieked, stumbling away from Red, practically throwing both her and the weapon aside, to run towards the unmoving figures on the ground.
Because even from a distance, even huge and maimed and disfigured, she knew them. She knew exactly who they were by the tufts of their brown fur and the slope of their ears and their carefully crafted cotton clothes, patched together by her mother at the end of every thankless day of her imprisonment, handmade out of her desire to care for the creatures that no one else cared about— because she knew what it was like. It was what Cinderella had wished someone else would do for her all her life.
She collapsed to her knees in front of them, running her hands over every part of their figures.
“Jaq? Gus?! You guys— you— it's me! It's Chloe! Tell me where it hurts— I'll— I'll—!” She babbled, her sentences turning muddled and unintelligible the longer she looked at them.
It wasn't fine. None of this was fine. The mice, the only creatures that ever showed her any love and kindness, the only hope she had when there was nothing else to hope for, were…
“I can help— I'll help you—!” She cried desperately, trying to put her arms around both of them, to collect the guts that had spilled out and, somehow, hold them so tightly and lovingly that it'd be enough to put them back together.
But they were too big now, and she was so small, so weak— and she couldn't even properly feel them. Even when she threw her whole body against Jaq’s and sobbed and sobbed into his damp, sticky fur she wasn't feeling him. Her useless, destroyed arm thumped against him like a dead weight, raw and unfeeling, all the nerves having burned away and it wasn't fine!
They were gone— they were totally gone! She could tell in the speed of the blood pouring out of them, in the rigidness of their forms, in the temperature of their bodies— remaining stubbornly cold even when she pressed further and further into them, trying to heat them up with her own.
“Please, no, please come back, please come back! I miss you— I miss home— I haven’t seen you in so long!”
She wanted to hug them, really hug them, just to say goodbye, but all her arm served to remind her was that she couldn't . That she'd never truly hug another person ever again. A hug with both arms, wrapped tightly around another person, absorbing as much of the goodness of their person as you could through contact— that's what made a hug so good! And now… and now…!
The tears wouldn't stop falling, her entire body wracking and spasming with all of the tears she'd been holding back from the start.
This was so so SO not fine! None of this was fine! It'd been not fine from the second she and Red had stepped into the catacombs!
“Please, I— I wanna go back home!” She wailed, unable to contain herself anymore.
She’d been trying so so hard to force herself to think that everything was fine, to keep her training in mind so she and Red could both survive— but it was IMPOSSIBLE! Was she just not brave enough? Not calm enough? Not— not anything enough?! She’d been so confident when she’d hatched her plan to go in instead of Chad— but it just was dumb, overzealous, pride! Red was right, she was stupid. Chloe was stupid to think she’d be able to do this mission any better than her brother could’ve.
She should’ve listened to her mom and dad— and now she’d never be able to listen to them again, because she and Red were going to DIE, just like Gus and Jaq, and Chloe couldn’t do a single thing about it. They hadn’t even gotten a single talisman yet, and Chloe was down a sword, an arm, most of her clothes, and half her face! And Red was just BARELY doing better!
“I wanna go home!” She bawled, salty tears stinging against the burns on her face, the tender wounds squelching with every contortion of her expression. “I lied! It’s not fine! NOTHING’S fine! Just take me home now!”
She kept sniffling and hiccuping against the bodies of her friends, her fingers gripping so tightly against the fur she could feel it cutting off her blood flow. But everytime she thought it was over, another wave of hopelessness would hit her and she’d be nothing but a blubbering, sobbing mess.
“You know…” An awkward voice cut into her muddled thoughts, reaching Chloe’s ear between the sounds of her own gasps and whimpers. “They’re not… real. If you have actual mouse friends they wouldn’t be all the way down here… or huge. They’re still up there.”
Chloe didn’t respond, but she felt the early stages of clarity returning to her.
“I didn’t kill them.” Red reiterated. “I mean, I definitely killed these guys. But… I didn’t kill the real ones. They’re okay, probably. Unless a cat got to them up in the real world.”
“That’s… That’s such an awful thing to say,” Chloe stammered, feeling herself sputter out a laugh in spite of herself.
“Yeah…” Red agreed. The sound of grass crunching unevenly under her needle-aided limping came to a stop beside Chloe. “It’s true though.”
“Yeah…” Chloe agreed, her bottom lip wobbling. “I’m not… I’m not really crying for them… I’m crying for… I dunno. The fact that everything hurts and sucks. And for us. And, I guess, kinda for them too. I miss them. I miss my parents. I miss my brother. I miss Auradon , and I miss food. And— and even if these aren’t really them, they’re still… kinda them. I love them, I can’t help it, I’m gonna cry if it looks like they’re dead.”
Red stiffened, inhaling sharply at Chloe’s words.
“They’re not real, but the love is real…” She muttered, and Chloe nodded, a sad smile creeping onto her face at the sentiment.
“Yeah… that’s a really pretty way of putting it.” She turned over to face Red, the brown fur scraping against her injured cheek at the action, but she ignored it, catching her gaze. “I’m sorry, I really tried to stay calm for us— I didn’t mean to make us stop again—”
“It’s fine.” Red cut her off, wincing at the choice of words. “Uh, I mean, it’s chill. You fixed my arm and I murdered these fake versions of your friends and ruined your face, so… I think I owe you, like, a lot. You have at least a couple more of crying before I call us even, so if you want you can keep going.”
Chloe snorted out a laugh at the unexpected humor, and, for the first time, she noticed Red’s lips curling up at the corners to match her. And even though the other girl was covered from head to toe in the blood of her friends, and her shoulder was still a little swollen, and her new short hair was a tangled mess, Chloe couldn’t help the ensuing thought that came to her:
She should do that more. Her smile is really nice.
“If… it makes you feel better. Probably not, but…” Red continued, shrugging. “I had a little chat with them, and I thought the one in the red was pretty cool.”
“You’re only saying that because you guys have the same favorite color,” Chloe teased. “Or, no, wait! It’s cuz his name’s Jaq! Get it, like, Jack? The card?”
“I don’t only like things when they fit my brand, I’m not THAT shallow!” Red protested, rolling her eyes in amusement. “I like him because he gave me a shiny needle-sword as a present.” She held it up in one hand and shook it demonstratively, pushing the eye-end in Chloe’s direction.
“HA! Ohh, that makes it waaaay better,” Chloe replied, grabbing the offered tool and pulling herself up.
Red let it go, wobbling on her legs as Chloe twirled it around in the air between them contemplatively.
“...Take it back.” She instructed, pausing the weapon mid-twirl to hand it back to the other girl.
“What?”
“‘Jaq’ gave it to you, right? Plus, you’ve been using it to walk and… clearly, you know what you’re doing with it.” She huffed out, purposefully keeping her eyes straight ahead instead of turning it to the mice.
Red snorted out a laugh.
“So take it.” She reaffirmed, jerking it in Red’s direction, and Red took it, staring at it with a grateful smile.
“Thanks.”
“...Thiago 2, though?” Chloe smirked, unable to help herself.
Red’s eyes widened in surprise and she coughed in embarrassment. “Look, I dunno! You’re the one who names swords like a weirdo that has no friends, you come up with something better!”
Chloe hummed in faux contemplation. “I was thinking… Two-iago.”
Red gave her a flat look. “No.”
Chloe gasped. “Or Thiag-two!”
“Those are both terrible names.”
Chloe grinned crookedly, even as her lips and cheeks kept trying to tug themselves back into a puckered position, and offered her arm out to Red. “I think I’ll save those extra crying hours for later.” She remarked, nodding towards the giant chateau ahead of them.
Red glanced down at the offered arm, her gaze quickly darting over to Chloe’s chest before snapping away again. “Uh, yeah, for sure, but, ugh, let’s— let’s get some clothes on you first! Walking around like that can’t be safe.”
Chloe frowned, her body shrinking self-consciously at the comment. Even though she was absolutely positive Red was only saying it out of concern, it was still an uncomfortable reminder of how unsightly her fresh wounds made her look.
“Where are we supposed to…?” Chloe trailed off, following Red’s gaze to the unmoving bodies beside them. “Red.”
“Well, it’s not like they’re using them anymore,” she said pointedly, leaning over ‘Jaq’ with a grunt of effort to yank off ‘Gus’s’ shirt. “See? I already conveniently cut this one up for you. You’re welcome.”
Chloe grimaced, swallowing back sour bile at the cloth in her hand. “This is so…”
“Not fine?”
“I was going to say messed up.” Chloe squeezed her eyes shut, pulling on the torn shirt without thinking about it too much. “But yeah, that too. Super not fine.”
It’s not fine.
Chloe held out her arm again, and Red accepted it this time, giving her hand a grateful squeeze.
But we will be, she thought, as they stumbled their way towards the giant home.
It’s not fine. But we will be.