Cruel Beauty

Cluedo

'Grab her!' The guards immediately surround you trying to place you in handcuffs. 'Get your hands off of me!' you squirm against them. 'Baroness! Victoria?!' You cry out as they roughly drag you. 'Get your hands off of her!' Victoria shoves the men aside like the nothings they are, you feel the protective gentle hand on your waist. The Baroness holds you to her in a possessive manner. 'Ladies and gentlemen....There has indeed been a murder!' she announces to everyone. 'At exactly six pm my assistant here was paid by one of you to murder my butler.' The crowd gasps. 'When you attend my dinner next week we will find out the identity of the true killer in the very first Hellman Hall Murder Mystery!' she smirks at her guests. They take a few moments, you feel confused, your heart beating rapidly. You are ice cold only her warm possessive hand on your waist gives you any heat. 'You mean it was all a ruse?' One of the guards asks dimly. 'Of course, it was you imbecile, yn and John have been rehearsing for, oh how long would you say now dear?' she looks at you, and you are still in shock. 'Huh?' Victoria digs her nails into your waist a little. 'Oh, um, m-months, I'd say.' The crowd slowly begins to clap but it gets louder and people cheer. 'The Baroness, she has done it again!'

Victoria poses as they snap pictures of her with you still wrapped in her arm, you see Cruella slink off out of vision and it makes you worry gravely. The Baroness urges you to go inside as she makes up answers to the numerous questions on the spot. You go to your room and pace back and forth nervously you run your fingers through your braids, what should you do? You need to run, you immediately start throwing clothes into a bag. 'Going somewhere?' You turn and see Cruella in the doorway and you raise your chin. 'Hello....Cruella.' You greet. The younger woman enters your room. 'You killed him, didn't you? John. I'm not buying that tripe you and the bitch are promoting.' You sneer. 'Don't talk about her like that.' You warn. 'Why? She's my mother I can talk about her however I want.' Your jaw clenches. 'Well she's my...' Cruella smirks. 'I know all about the two of you. How you killed my father, how you tried to kill me. Touching, really.' She sits on your bed making herself at home. 'Oh is that what he told you? I must truly be the wicked stepmother, only noble John is a liar. Noble. Dead. John.'

Cruella feels a surge of anger at how callously you admit to murder. You, who killed her father, who left her to die, twice, you killed one of the only other people who had shown her kindness. She leaps off of the bed and tackles you to the floor, she punches you hard, it's true these days you have spent more time at Victoria's side floating around in frocks. But Cruella is not the only one who grew up in the streets, and you are no lady. You punch her back. 'You have cursed my life since the moment I came into existence!' she tries to strangle you. 'Ditto!' you head butt her and you both roll over, you are now on top, and you reach out for the fire poker. A strong voltage runs through your body and everything goes black. Cruella pants and pushes you off of her, looking up she sees the Baroness standing with the taser. 'That's quite enough from the both of you, I think we need to talk.' she switches the taser off. 'I have nothing to say to you, you're a monster.' Victoria shrugs. 'Perhaps, and I will not ask for your forgiveness because I know you will not give it. I would like to try and gain your understanding if you will give me a chance.' Cruella stares up at her still panting.

The Baroness places a blanket over you and Cruella waits then follows her. 'I'd offer you tea but given recent events I've rather off of the stuff, so I can only offer something stronger.' Victoria pours two brandys and offers one to Cruella who merely looks at it in disdain. Victoria rolls her eyes and sets it down on the table in front of her taking a sip of her own. 'If I were going to poison you I wouldn't waste my good brandy to do it.' she sits down. 'I imagine you have quite a lot of questions. Where would you like me to begin?' Cruella snorts, now what a question that was. 'The beginning, where you left me alone to die.' Victoria nods in a business-like fashion. 'Okay, well this is going to be difficult and uncomfortable, but I believe it's time you knew the truth but it begins before you were born.' Cruella listens. 'I was young and naive, I fell for the charms of a German businessman, it was just after the war, so he had trouble making the right friends over here. He seduced me, he made me feel, and he had a charm that could seduce the birds from the trees if he wished it. We married, and then I learned who he truly was, a monster, on our wedding night I did not feel ready to...'

Victoria looks uncomfortable. 'Go on.' Cruella's face remains impassive but her tone is encouraging and she takes a sip of the brandy. 'When I failed to fulfill this duty he imprisoned me in the cellar for days. He was always,' she absent-mindedly rubs her wrists. 'So rough with me. In many ways, I am sure you can imagine without the gory details. Wilhelm took to bedding women and then bringing them home under the guise of maids for me. He thought he was rubbing my nose in his affairs, I couldn't have been more pleased, it meant he was not in my bed.' Cruella listens. 'That's how I met yn, she was one of his women, but she wasn't like the others, many of the girls enjoyed tormenting me, but she did not. She was kind to me, looked after me when Wilhelm beat me and when he raped me.' Cruella's mask cracks and she looks visibly uncomfortable. 'He impregnated me and continued to torture me particularly when he discovered he would not have a male heir. I never viewed my pregnancy the way most women would, I was consumed by my bitterness. But I also felt something when I learned the child I was with was female, Id rub my stomach and think, how damned you were. Wilhelm would have destroyed you, of course, he was to murder me first but I knew I couldn't allow him to consume you. In the depths of my despair, I ordered you to be removed after your birth, better dead than with him. I didn't feel anything, I can't explain it, my emotions were out of control.'

Cruella tightens her jaw slightly but chooses to remain calm. 'Did you ever, feel regret?' She demands. 'Yes, actually at my Winter ball when Catherine arrived demanding money, a small part of me hoped you had survived but a larger part of me was too ashamed to find out. Catherine, as sweet as John thought she was, was only interested in the estate. She hoped to claim her fortune through you. She threatened me and tried to kill me, a long story short I called my dogs and she died.' Cruella looks away. 'Catherine always hated me, she always tried to make me hide who I really was. I always felt I was never enough.' Victoria nods. 'Then I met you, Estella, and I admit a part of me felt whole again, yn, even got jealous she thought you and I were involved.' Cruella cringes. The Baroness frowns. 'You could do worse!' Cruella raises an eyebrow. 'You are my birth mother.' Victoria momentarily forgets then nods. 'Oh, right. I thought you were insulting my looks. Anyway, then "Cruella" arrived, I assumed a rival, I never understood she and you were the same till later. You are like me, I can see it in you, but you are more. I realised that when you pulled me from the fire...after I tried to kill you.' she adds awkwardly. Cruella focuses but it finally comes back to her. 'Yes, and you left me to die, again.' Victoria blinks. 'No. I tried to get back to you but I couldn't.' Cruella laughs. 'How convenient, for you.' You enter the room rubbing your back where the Baroness tased you. 'She's telling the truth. I wouldn't let her. But I didn't know you had rescued her.'

You walk over to Victoria and touch her hand. 'Why didn't you tell me?' Victoria looks down. 'Because I couldn't bear you weighing the guilt of any more deeds done on my behalf on your conscience, you've been through enough.' You lean into her. 'Oh, my darling.' You kiss her romantically. Cruella clears her throat causing you to break apart and look at her. 'When you are both quite done, this still doesn't explain why that psycho pushed John.' You make a face at Cruella. 'I killed John because he had been drugging my girl.' Victoria looks at you. 'What?' You touch her cheek. 'You aren't dying. You were being drugged, Baroness. He wanted you to be in a softer mindset when meeting Cruella, he hoped you two could connect.' Cruella stares at you both like you are totally insane. 'The things you do for love.' you whisper.