Once Upon a Girl

XXVI - the previous title was too long, maximum length is eighty characters

Kim, Jensen and Niall shed silent tears as the ambulance they hijacked teeters on the edge of a cliff.

Suddenly there is an Irish scream as it topples over the edge. The three fall through the doors as they swing open, causing the family to free fall into a ravine. All is lost...

Then, out of nowhere, a large net swoops through the sky and catches them, saving their lives! It is carried by Miss Terry, Mrs Margherita, Mettaton, and... someone else???!?!?! They are riding magical pegasus unicorns.

"Strawberries!" says Kim in joy as Sunita's teachers save the day. "How did you all know where to find us? What are you doing here?"

Miss Terry flips her hair. "Well, we saw everyone else set out to search for your daughter, and we knew we had to help too! We saw Sunita's friends a few hours ago. They tracked down Mrs Nightcast with state of the art technology. Little did they know, I'm so good at astrology - better than they are in their little club - that I noticed a new star form in the sky. A guiding star like that only forms when great magic occurs on earth, and it floats above that location, because, like, magic and stuff. It will lead us straight to Sunita so we can save her once and for all."

"Huh," says Jensen. "That sounds very convenient... and I think I've heard that story somewhere before..."

"Hey," Niall says in shock. "Isn't Mrs Nightcast, like, totally Sunita's English teacher?"

"Yes, she's an evil witch," Mrs Margherita tells him. "Who knew?"

"DON'T WORRY, BABIES," mettatons Mettaton. "WE'LL GET OUR GORGEOUS BACK."

The teachers resume flying on their mutant horses, carrying the family in the net. As they approach Mrs Nightcast's house, nobody realises that no one asked who the mysterious fourth flyer was.

"I'm Mr Ingram," says the man no one knows. "In case anyone cares."

"Oh, great," replies Niall.

"I'm Sunita's Theatre teacher. I went missing and no one knew where I was. It was a real scandal, but fear not. I'm back now."

"Cool," says Jensen, checking his phone.

The teacher continues. "My abusive father abandoned me in the Siberian wilderness with nothing but a hatchet and a length of rope. I would have died if a pack of wolves hadn't taken me in as one of their own."

"THAT'S NICE."

"Then one morning I awoke in my sealskin shawl to find that my adoptive canine family had been slaughtered, their blood painting the snowy landscape scarlet. All I had left was a torn note that had been pinned to my wolf brother's body, reading 'I dare you to love again.'"

Kim styles her hair. "Okay."

"But I still wasn't safe; the message was actually written in ant pheromone. I was suddenly engulfed by thousands of rabid African ants, each trying to burrow its way inside me to reach the mother queen my real father had put in my cheerios."

"Oh, look, we're here!" says Miss Terry.

The flying horses land on Mrs Nightcast's driveway, lowering the net to the ground. Kim, Jensen, Niall, Miss Terry, Mrs Margherita and Mettaton approach the house cautiously.

The house looks surprisingly normal from the outside. It is situated on a quiet road in the countryside but there are a few other houses nearby. It has two storeys, a nice garden, and many other completely normal features.

"This is too... normal..." says Jensen. "It feels like something is wrong here. Eh, let's go inside anyway. Hey, the door is unlocked!"

He slowly pushes the door open with a creak and the others follow him inside the dark house. Who knows what horrors will await...

"Hang on," says Mrs Margherita. "Where's that guy? What's his name? Mr...

...

...England?"

They all look towards his pegasus. Blood drips from its mouth. It coughs up a bone.

They all turn back around, walk into the house and close the door behind them. Now, it is time to find the girl, before the witch finds them.

Soon, Sunita's friends will arrive and begin their search. But with so many people on the hunt for the missing girl, what tricks will Mrs Nightcast have in store?