Then just as soon as it appeared, the wish vanished into Magnifico's person.
A hush had also fallen upon the other gathered villains. Even Hades' hair went out again. Magnifico's steady breathing was the only sound.
"Did he do it?" Inquired Cruella.
"He - he must have!" Said Prince John.
A long pause followed. No one but Magnifico could see the dazed face of Maleficent.
Then Hades was the first to speak. "Uh, Mal? Babe?"
Maleficent blinked, then turned to Hades. "Yes, dear?"
"Wha - !" The god almost fell over at the sudden civility in the fairy's tone. "I - I mean - yes?"
"Hmm." Maleficent approached Hades. "Have the Siamese twins got your tongue? Come now, I don't know what I was ever so enraged about before." She gave a brief look over her shoulder at Magnifico still sitting in the booth. Then turning back to Hades: "Well, now he's boring me - what do you say we head over to the bar and have some sandwiches?"
Hades relit his hair. "Don't mind if we do," he replied.
Maleficent slapped her arm around the god's flaming shoulders and began toward the bar. "I don't know why we waited so long to do so, either," she said.
"Great minds think alike," Hades retorted. Before being completely dragged off, he turned to Magnifico and in a low voice said, "I don't know what you did to her, but thank the titans you did!"
Magnifico watched the fiery couple go, and for the first time since the demonic sky entity caused a terrible light over his kingdom, he felt a great weight lift from his breast. "I may indeed be in Hell," the king thought. "But perhaps I can make it slightly tolerable."
Soon a line was forming by Magnifico's booth.
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"I wish for a new fur coat!" Cruella demanded. "And I want it made from the purest bred Dalmatian puppies you can conjure!"
"I see," said Magnifico. "Now hold the wish in your heart."
Cruella closed her eyes. As she took a long drag from her cigarette, Magnifico took the wish from her.
The fashionista exhaled the putrid smoke and opened her eyes. "I - I feel fabulous, dah-ling!" She exclaimed, running her hands over her body suit. "Sykes!" Cruella strutted back over to her companion in the smoking corner. "Sykes, dah-ling, come feel how this suit hugs my curves against my - "
Meanwhile, Prince John the lion took a seat across from Magnifico.
"How can I help you, Prince John?" The king asked.
"That's King John to you, ah-ha!" The animal snarled. "And from one king to the next, I tell you that my wish is for tax season to be every day in my kingdom!"
Magnifico took the wish, and John suddenly shuddered under the weight of his oversized crown.
"What is this monstrosity doing atop my head?" The animal cried in disgust. "I do not care for gold or jewels!"
Next in line was the Queen of Hearts, who of course wanted the heads of nearly everyone in the café (along with the Ace's). When Magnifico acquired her wish, the Queen declared she was rather in the mood for painting some roses instead!
The pirate Captain Hook wished for the death of a particular man-child, Mother Gothel wanted to stay young forever, and ex-sorcerer Jafar demanded to have his powers back.
By the time Magnifico was done with them, Gothel was laughing with her feet up at the bar, Jafar was painting roses with the Queen of Hearts, and Hook was playing with the two Siamese cats - they just loved to hang from his hook! With the weights of their most evil desires off their hearts, the villains just wanted to enjoy each other's companies.
After the line died down, Magnifico ventured to leave the booth. Finding his way to the bar, he took a seat at a far end and ordered some Fairy Nectar. He was served by Kronk.
"You must be the magic king," the latter said.
"I was," Magnifico sighed. "For many years I served the citizens of my kingdom. I really tried to give them everything they needed."
"Sounds like a pretty happy kingdom," Kronk said, sliding the king his drink.
"I thought that they were." Magnifico took a sip, pondering. "I really thought they were."
"Hmm." Kronk shrugged. "You know, the young emperor I served would throw an old man to his death just for bumping into him. Did you ever consider taking such penalizing action?"
"I almost did!" Magnifico downed more of his drink. "The girl who started the revolt against me - I could have thrown her from the top of the palace!"
"But . . . . You didn't?" Kronk questioned.
Magnifico exhaled sharply and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't remember it exactly," he said. "I hardly had control over myself. I - I didn't know what I was doing, I just knew what I felt. Everything, every sensation was heightened while under the Curse - "
He had to stop. Then taking a few more desperate swallows of the Fairy Nectar, he continued:
"I hated what she did, that she stole from me. And I - I'm not a thief, I never force anyone to give me their wish, and she knew that - she was a tour guide, for Heaven's sake! And I opened up to her like I'd never done to anyone else, not except my queen . . . . I commiserated with this girl . . . . But she was young, impulsive . . . . I suppose I acted out too . . . . The Curse, it wanted me to kill her, kill my queen, destroy everyone and everything in Rosas and then destroy me in the process! It was all I could do to fight against it when it preyed upon my deepest pain. It made me a monster, it made my kingdom, my queen, revile me! If anything should be tossed off a cliff, it's that damn Cursed book - !"
"Magnifico," Kronk interrupted. "Breathe."
The word coursed through the king's being. "Breathe," his queen had said. "Focus," he'd told himself instead. Now sitting at the bar with an almost empty drink in his hand, Magnifico felt his heartrate increasing. He downed what was left in his cup and put his head in his hands, trying to breathe.
"Hey," Kronk said. "Are you okay?"
It was the first time the king had been asked that. "I need a moment," he replied.
"Of course." Kronk gave his patron some space.
Magnifico squeezed his hair as the anxiety rippled through him anew. Tears burned his eyes. "Breathe, mi rey." His queen's words played through his mind.
"I'm here. I won't leave you."
They were the words whispered to him during their nights of love. And he'd always known them to be true. She never said what she didn't prove. He'd promised her the same.
Had he betrayed that when he opened the Curse?
"My love," Magnifico whispered. "Why did you turn your back on me when I needed you most?"
In his quiet pleadings, the king noticed a dark figure out of the corner of his eye. Expecting to be hounded by Maleficent again, he looked up - and practically jumped from his seat.
"Amaya?"
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YOU ARE READING
Mickey's Halfway House
FanfictionIt's December 2023, and the annual Café Night for Villains is underway. The Mistress of Evil herself hates these events, but with a newcomer in the café, the night is about to get very interesting . . . .