Musical Love

Chapter Six

     Three witches walk to the cell Nevaeh and Aaron and Moo-Moo are locked up in. Two of the witches each have a pair of handcuffs while the one known as Griselda unlocks the cell door with the key. The witches step inside, and Aaron pulls Nevaeh closer to him, knowing what they intend to do.

     "Come on, you two," she says as she roughly grabs Nevaeh's arm, but Aaron tries to hold her back.

"Where are you taking us?!" Aaron demands.

"I said, come on!" Griselda retorts as she uses her free hand to grab Aaron's shirt collar and, with impressive strength, throws him to the other two witches.

Griselda holds Nevaeh's arms as the girl struggles to free herself to get to her dad. One of the witches tosses a pair of handcuffs to Griselda, and Griselda manages to cuff Nevaeh's wrists behind her, making Moo-Moo bark angrily at her. The other two witches do the same to Aaron. Defeated, Nevaeh and Aaron are dragged out of the cell and upstairs to the throne room, with Griselda dragging Nevaeh and the other two witches dragging Aaron, and Moo-Moo follows them to make sure they don't hurt his mistress. The light in there isn't that bright, but being locked in the dungeon for a couple hours, Aaron and Nevaeh have to squint in the light for a few seconds before their eyes are fully adjusted to it. King Harold's and Queen Lillian's thrones have been replaced by a couch-styled throne (with the ruler's seat in the middle), and there is a marble coffee table in front of it. And standing by the table is Rumpelstiltskin himself! Nevaeh and Aaron are stopped a few feet away from the table, and Rumpelstiltskin points at Nevaeh.

     "Bring her forward," he commands Griselda, who does as she's told.

     Aaron struggles in the witches' grasp as Nevaeh is brought before Rumpelstiltskin. Nevaeh is shoved to her knees in front of the dwarf, and he grabs her chin, moving her face around to examine it.

"Why do you want this girl, Piper? She's not ugly, but I wouldn't say she's the fairest of them all either," he says.

     Nevaeh feels her self-esteem lower at his words, and Moo-Moo growls at him, but Aaron feels his blood boil when he hears that. Did Rumpelstiltskin seriously just say his daughter is not beautiful?! Oh, if looks could kill, Rumpelstiltskin would surely be choking on his own blood right now. The flute is played again, a few quick notes coming out of it.

     "Oh, she can sing?" Rumpelstiltskin asks, then looks at Nevaeh. "Sing for us, slave."

     Nevaeh only glares at him.

     "I am not a slave, and I certainly do not take orders from you!" she bravely refuses.

     Aaron smirks proudly. She definitely has her mother's fierce personality. Rumpelstiltskin scowls at her, and backhands her across the face! The force is enough to cause her to fall on her side. She is unable to catch herself, due to her hands being cuffed behind her back. She groans from the pain of being struck across the face and hitting the tile floor.

     "You will do what I say, slave!" Rumpelstiltskin snaps at her.

     It's like a fuse went off in Aaron's brain when he sees that midget hit his child! He tries to run to her, but the witches hold him back.

     "DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!!" he yells.

     Even Moo-Moo starts barking at him, but Rumpelstiltskin simply kicks him away. The flute is played again, but to the surprise of both Aaron and Nevaeh, this tune sounds. . . angry. Why did the Pied Piper play an angry tune when Rumpelstiltskin hit Nevaeh?

     "She needs to learn her place, Piper. She probably wasn't disciplined well enough as a child," Rumpelstiltskin says, sending Aaron a cruel smirk.