Friday Barnes Oneshots!!

A Fairy Tale AU

Set in a far off land, one of dreams and stories. 

Rajiv and Epstein aren't included because past me rushed this and didn't have time to fit them in </3

Chapter 1: The Cat With a Wide Grin

Friday had prayed and begged for her cat to not run into the looming midnight forest.

And yet, he obviously had.

"Wednesday, please!" she screeched, her voice laced with desperation, sprinting to catch the cat, her brown and red patchwork cloak flowing behind her as she ran.

Wednesday must've thought they were playing a game as he purred and ran faster. The feline ran up the stone steps and into the hunter-green bushes near the large wooden gate. The dark-oak gate had become rickety and the noise that came when it creaked in the wind was like a ghost groaning into the night. Friday gasped when she could see thorn-filled vines intertwined into the bush and she ran faster, terrified Wednesday would get hurt. The surrounding trees taunted her as they leered over her and cast dancing shadows around her. She skidded to a halt and caught her breath, her eyes darting to find any sign of blonde fur. Friday looked around; she was at the bottom of the steps. The shadows around her were now quite literally dancing, taunting her for her failure to keep her pet safe.

"Stop that," she exclaimed, and the shadows flitted away.

The stone steps were quite large, but her cat was more important than her pair of Mary-Janes. Hesitantly walking up the stairs, the wind rustled her white petticoat, and she could feel the brown outer layer of the skirt tug at thorns from the vines that impishly slithered towards her, wanting the delight of maiming her. Obviously, she wouldn't allow that, and her hand crept up her thigh to the bone-dagger with a silver handle strapped around her leg underneath her skirt. Lashing out, she cut the sentient vines in her path and left them to hiss in pain. Her thighs burned and her throat hurt from the long journey up. In Friday's peripheral vision, she could see dark figures watching her behind blue-leafed trees and her legs felt scratched at but none of it mattered as her main focus was her cat.

The forest started to appear more gradually, and she started to jog up the steps. Shades of blue, green, and purple-leafed trees surrounded her, some so tiny she could sit upon them, and others that made her crane her neck to try and see the top before it disappeared into the wispy clouds. Now, running up the stone steps, Friday could see the gate more clearly. It looked dangerous with blood stains surrounding the floor and being splattered onto the wood. The vines slithered around it like snakes and the thorns glinted in the moonlight. As she rushed to the final step, she called out Wednesday's name, hoping he would run to her, and they could both turn back to safety. Friday's hands gripped her basket tightly and stopped suddenly when she saw a sign. It was written in a sticky, deep red substance.

TURN BACK NOW.

DANGEROUS CREATURES AND DEATH LIE AHEAD.

PLEASE 

TURN BACK FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY.

She looked down. Her knuckles had turned white.

And yet, she opened the gate, and so she would leave her rationality and mind behind.

***

Her first step in felt like a gust of wind pushed behind her, forcing her to go in. She panted but kept running, she had to find him. She ran along a winding path calling out her cat's name to no avail. Friday went past a luminescent pond filled with growing red flowers with black tar dripping from the petals. She then ran through a crystal cave where shadows and spirits sat in the walls and had their lunch, a deer carcass lay mid-air but on the wall a shadow table was underneath it. Ignoring the sick feeling in her stomach she passed a few elder willow trees but stopped when she got a good look at them. It was as though they had faces carved into them. She peered closer-