Until The Clock Stikes (NACS Remake)

Chapter 10

Lucy finds me passed out in the hallway and wakes me up.

"The hell you doing out here?" She whispers, grabbing my elbow to pull me up. I sniffle and avoid the question, yawning.

"What time is it?" I ask, sniffling again.

"Does it matter? Why are you crying?" She retorts, pulling toward my bedroom.

With a sigh, I lean in front of my door. "Everything's so messed up, Lucy." my voice cracks as the burn returns.

"What happened?" She asks, placing a hand on my shoulder. 

"I think Thomas loves me." I say miserably. She stares at me blankly in the moonlight.

"Wait, isn't that a good thing? Or is there something you're not telling me?"

I shake my head, chuckling darkly. "You should be celebrating. Now both Thomas and Will hate me. You get first pick." I open my door, shrugging off her hand.

"That's not fair, Mia." She hisses. "If you screwed it up with the prince and your personal barista, that's not my fault. Don't be so selfish."

"You know what, Lucy? I find it hilarious that you feel that you can blow up at me when Will kisses me, but the minute it seems like I have problems of my own you're calling me selfish again. Well, news flash stepmother, making choices for myself isn't selfish. It's what I deserve."

"Well then if it's what you deserve then why are you talking to me? Why are you not with him right now?" Her voice wavers at my blow but I am too emotionally drained to care.

"Because, Lucy. I'm not supposed to be this girl who falls in love with the prince or a boy who works at a tailor shop and makes my skin tingle with his touch. I'm supposed to sit back, and let you have it because my father died and it would selfish of me to want happiness and a life away from that.'"

She snaps the locket from my father off my neck with force, pinning me against the door with her elbow.

"You're either one or the other, Mia." She retorts, releasing me from the door. "Well then you have a choice to make. Go be happy with someone you love, or be my mothers slave for the rest of your life."

"Why do you care?" I ask loudly as she walks away.

"I don't. Either way, sister. I will get a happy ending."

She opens her own door and disappears from view. I grunt in frustration and collapse on my bed, which painfully smells like sunshine and old books, I let sleep take me over again.

I start awake as guards grab me from bed, grogginess heavily weighs on me like a fog. Will stops the guards at the door and I stare up at him, confused. "What's going on?" I ask, my voice is far way.

"How could you, Mia?" He asks, grabbing me by the neck.

"What are you talking about? Let go of me!" I shriek, wriggling from his grip.

"We're arresting you." He says in a low menacing voice. "For the murder of my mother, Illyssa Beckett."

"What? How could you possibly think that, Will?" Panic sets in my stomach, dropping fast like a stone.

"We have proof." He says, eyes misting. He grabs in his pocket, pulling out my locket. "We found this around her neck." He falters, letting some tears fall. I desperately, place my hands on his shoulders.

"Will, please. You know me. I wou-" I'm cut off by the deafening crack of Will's hand across my face.

"You will refer to me as your highness!" His eyes are cold as he nods for the guards to take me away.

I shrieking the entire time they carry me out to the carriage ride waiting for me. Brown eyes flash in the crowd of servants who are standing by to watch me get taken away.

"Thomas!" I wail as loud as possible. He's pushing through the crowd to get to me. "Thomas! Listen to me!" I scream as he gets closer the guards push him harder backward. 

He struggles forward, calling my name desperately, finally I clasp his hand around the guards.

He pulls me to him, guards surrounding us, tearing at him to back away. "You're everything I needed before I knew I was missing something." I whisper. 

He pulls my face up to his and the guards pull him away from me, white hot tear blur my vision as I'm put into the carriage.

"Mia!" he screams again as the carriage pulls away and I begin my journey to the court house and gallows.

"Call on me when you are sad, ma chere." She says.  

Her voice rings in my head again and in a moment of desperation I gasp out between sob, "I'm calling on you now. Like you told me to do when I was a kid. Please, come now. I need you." I hold my breath as we trot along. With a gust of disappointment, I rock with another sob running.

"putain de merde!" She gasps, and I jump in utter surprise because the woman sitting in front of me wasn't there a second ago.

"Oh my god." I breathe, blinking at her. She a very curvy woman, with full lips and curly chocolate hair.

"I told you to call on me when you're sad! Not to spring you!" She has a slight french accent and stares accusingly at me with sharp eyes.

"I didn't do anything!" I sob. "Who are you?"

She shakes her head at me, smiling. "My name's Harriet, I'm your fairy godmother."

I burst out in another sob. "Then where were you before today?"

"Waiting!" She says in a burst, knocking against the carriage walls. "We can only come when you call." 

"Well, can I make a wish now?" I ask with a sniff, Harriet chuckles softly.

"Tell me what you want child." 

"I want to see Thomas." I tell her.

Her expression is somber. "It won't work the way you want, my child." with a wave of her hand we are sitting at his kitchen table. He walks in with a burst, slamming the door behind him and sliding to the floor. Sobs rack through his body and he's whispering to himself. I scoot out of the seat and kneel in front of him, placing a hand on his cheek. He ignore me and keeps muttering, but now I hear him.

"I should've told her, I should've kissed her." He whispers over and over, rocking back and forth.

"Thomas, please." I whisper at him, but he continues to ignore me. "Tell me what?"

"He can't hear you, ma chere." She says grabbing my shoulder, "It wouldn't be safe."

"Screw safe!" I growl. "I need to talk to him, Harriet." 

"Do time child." She whispers kindly. "For now though, you need sanctuary."

She takes her hand and creates a rift in the air, like a door. 

"Where are we going?" I sniffle.

"Home."