Evelynn - The School For Good and Evil

8 - Merlin

Evelynn swallowed, not sure whether to take a step forward or a step back.

"What is it?" Tedros's eyes searched hers.

"At least one of you has realised." Yuba grunted.

Agatha looked bewildered. "Realised what?"

"They're fairytale characters." Evelynn mumbled, barely audibly.

"Correct!" Cinderella declared, as her cheeks reddened with the acknowledgement.

"What!?" Tedros spluttered, looking as though he were about to laugh, "They're fairytale characters?"

Pinocchio eyed him up and down, crossing his spindly arms. "And who are you, exactly?"

Tedros smiled, his signature, winning smile with just a hint of amusement. "I'm the Prince of Camelot. Tedros."

Yuba gestured to Tedros. "I told you that, Pinocchio. Is it not obvious?"

Pinocchio cocked a white eyebrow. "You didn't tell me that he'd be so full of himself."

Evelynn smirked a little, glancing sideways at Tedros whose smile had sunk into a frown. He didn't like people making assumptions about him, but she had to admit he often made it hard not to, even she did when they first met.

"We don't have time for petty arguments," Yuba began, drawing back a curtain on the back wall of the cave, and revealing an assortment of fairytales tacked to the wall.

Snow White's caught Evelynn's eye first, as the final page of the tale had changed. The picture now showed the Princess lying dead amongst the dwarves.

They'd seen it happen, they'd experienced someone changing the endings of age-old fairytales.

"Rapunzel and her prince were flung from the tower to their deaths by Mother Gothel," Yuba explained, grimly, "Tom Thumb was eaten alive by a giant, Rumplestiltskin killed the miller's daughter. And today, Snow White and the seven dwarves were brutally murdered, in a place they once called home."

Evelynn swallowed, she felt sick. The horror of the people she'd read about as a child being killed had a painful sting, and her heart seemed to plunge in her chest.

The League of Thirteen uttered gasps and echoes of Snow's name. Tedros cast his eyes to the floor.

Yuba sighed. "All of these victims refused to leave their homes and join the League, suffering a ghastly fate because of that choice."

"I saw who killed her." Agatha murmured, drawing every pair of eyes to her. "It was the Wicked Queen, disguised as an old crone. She could have killed the rest of us-" She gestured to Tedros, Uma and Evelynn. "But she didn't. As if she'd already completed what she set out to do."

After a long silence, Tedros spoke up. "This doesn't make any sense. Why are these revived villains going after harmful old heroes? Why aren't they attacking the new threats?"

No one replied - because no one knew the reason.

"Are we not heroes?!" Hansel suddenly exclaimed, "We need to fight!"

"There's too many of them," Gretel retorted, "And we're not as strong as we once were."

"You're forgetting," Agatha started, confidently, "You have us now."

An awkward pause followed, as the League's eyes flitted between the three teenagers that had rolled into the cave bickering with each other. They didn't exactly seem very powerful. 

Yuba shrugged. "She's right. They're the only ones who can convince the new Queen to destroy the 'love' that revived these villains in the first place."