The Darling and Brave Princess

Chapter 19: Witchy Business Part 3

The girls teleported once again, this time they returned to the store. "Come on," beckoned Witchita to Darling.

They headed towards a tight iron door. Witchita grabbed a key that hung from a string on her neck and placed it into the lock. There was a click and the door creaked open. Lining the walls were many shelves. Each with bottles, canisters and bowls of all different sizes. Inside the containers were strange ingredients, some dried, others wet, long and short. "This place gives me the chills," Darling comments.

She adds, "No offense and all."

"None taken," Witchita replies as she lights the torches, "Now, please stand back. I'm going to begin making this magic treat."

Carefully, Witchita poured in the correct ingredients into an old, black cauldron. From newt's tongues, to toad toes, milk grass and sunflower nectar, each ingredient affected the color and smell of the potion. "The final ingredient, hair of the wisher," the young sorceress says.

Darling plucked a strand of her pale blonde hair and cast it into the iron pot. Witchi9ta stirtred some more and chanted a few words, then the door creaked open. Another witch entered, the Witch Carver. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" she asked with a sly, cold voice.

Slowly, Hexena walked towards her daughters and carressed a lock of her red hair. Witchita winced and Darling just watched in silence. "It's just a-"

Witchita was cut off by her mother's cackle, "Oh! I know! Now, let's see. What's missing?"

Hexena's black heels clicked against the stone floor as she circled around the room, searching for something. Her daughter and the princess stood there, cold sweat running down their spines. Witchita knew something bad was about to happen and Darling would be caught in the middle of the soon to be chaos. She failed as a friend, she had failed as a person. All her life Witchita tried to be nice. She tried to be un-witch-like. Each and everytime, as if it were a cycle, she failed miserably. Once she gave a boy her apple because he didn't bring any lunch. Somehow Hexena predicted it and filled her apple full of worms that day. Witchita remembered watching him take a bite of the red fruit and scream. In his mouth were worms, where the apple's white meat should have been was covered by brown worms. That was just the beginning of her series of failures and now it would happen once again. An endless cycle that the young witch could not break.

Hexena started adding ingredients into the cauldron, until it turned a deep gray. She smirked and grabbed her wand. She started spinning around the wand and in a bright flash there was a cake in the cauldron instead of gray goop. The cake seemed delicious, it was a lemon sponge cake with white frosting and a bright red strawberry on top. Under it was a pure white plate with some chocolate syrup swirling around the edges and powdered sugar. The teenage girls stood in shock, Hexena's eyes were no longer green, but pure black with some gray added in. Even the white parts became darkness. The wicked witch turned and started staring into Darling's sparkling blue eyes and Witchita saw they changed to match her mother's. She gasped, she knew what this meant. Darling was now cursed to do her mother's task. Only when it is completed, shall she be free. "Bring this cake to your mother," commanded Hexena.

Darling nodded, "As you wish, mistress."

Slowly, the now cursed princess walked away, her eyes returning to it's normal color. Darling Charming was heading home with a present whether Merida liked it or not. "Why'd you do that?" cried Witchita.

Hexena smirked evilly, "It's a present for an old friend, Merida Dunbroch. It has been so long since I last saw her."

A/N: I hit 1k reads *squeals* Thank you so much everyone! I love the support I got! Special thanks to @NeonVibes123 for letting me know!