Embellished With Lies

Chapter Twenty-Two

Everyone stopped their motions, standing unmentionably still. We had no idea who was there, what they wanted, or if they had even seen or heard us in the first place.

My hand flew over Tessa's mouth, just to be safe. You could never be too sure when my sister would say anything, and at what volume, to say the least.

We heard the voice again. This time, it said "Hello? Please, show yourselves."

I had no idea what to do in this situation. Did I show myself? Or did I continue to stay off to the side? I eventually decided on staying right where I was; I didn't want to screw this up even more than we already had.

Then I realized that the owner of the voice wasn't as close to us as I had originally thought. In fact, it wasn't one person, but two people with their backs facing our direction. A man and a woman, if my eyes were any good at telling the difference. The woman was tall and had light grey hair pulled up into a bun, and the man was tall as well and had short dark hair.

But it wasn't until they turned around until I realized who they were.

"Oh my God," I whispered, my eyes widening as I looked to Drizella, who was right next to me. "Oh my God..."

"What?" she hissed in my ear harshly. It was so quiet that I wasn't even sure if she had said anything to me at all; the only way I knew was because of the confused and annoyed expression on her face.

"Look," I murmured, keeping my hand over my sister's mouth and jutting my chin to the people in the distance. "Do they look familiar to you?"

She squinted her eyes, looking at me like I had just spoken in tongues. "What? Who?" Drizella heckled. "Who?"

I rolled my eyes. "Beyoncé and Rhianna. No, who do you think I'm talking about?!"

She looked even more confused than she was beforehand. "Who? Bianca and Briana, is that who you said?"

Again, I couldn't resist the urge to roll my eyes. "No, just... never mind." I nodded my head towards the people and clarified in a hushed tone, "Do they look familiar? You know, like anyone you know?"

"No," she replied, and as I watched her expression, I saw it change drastically from just plain confused to incredibly shocked. "Is that..."

I nodded in agreement. "I think so, yeah."

"But what are they doing here?" Drizella mumbled, looking back and forth between me and the people. "You don't think they could've heard us, do you?"

I shook my head. "Nah, I mean, come on. They're old, for Pete's sake! They're probably half deaf or something."

"Shh..." She brought a finger to her lips before glancing over my shoulder. "They're not deaf, Matthew. Goodness, how would they have heard us if they were deaf?"

"I don't know," I replied in a hushed voice. "I was just trying to-"

"Shh!" Her eyes widened. I could've sworn that she was going to smack me if wasn't for the current situation.

"Geez, sorry." I held my hands up in surrender.

"Psst!" Both Drizella and I turned our heads to look at Molly, whose body was pressed up to a tree.

I held out my free hand, silently asking her what she wanted.

She held up her index finger to her lips and jutted her chin towards the people who were slowly inching their way in our direction.

Rolling my eyes, I looked down at my sister, who was looking back up at me with her wide, light eyes.

"You okay?" I asked, bending down to whisper in her ear.

She didn't do anything in reply.

I glanced back up, and this time when I looked in the direction of the people, they were gone.

They had completely disappeared.

Anastasia looked over at us with a partially relieved and partially terrified expression. "Oh my," she squeaked.

I swiveled my head around, making sure that the coast was clear before I released my hand from my sister's mouth and finally allowed myself to breathe.

Lady Tremaine had her arms folded; her face looked stressed and wrinkled, and for the first time since I had woken up that morning three weeks ago, I saw fear in her eyes. She didn't say anything, however I knew that her brain was working in overtime trying to figure this thing out.

"I cannot believe this," Molly declared, pressing her fingers hard to her temples. "I refuse to believe this."

"Did they see us?" I asked, feeling Tessa hide behind my legs and press her face into the side of my thigh. I reached back and put my hand on her head. "Like, do they know that we're here?"

"I do not know." Anastasia shrugged, straightening out her clothes. "I have no idea."

Drizella looked angry, to be honest. "I do not understand why they of all people are out wandering in the forest."

I had to agree with that. I had definitely not pictured King Charming's parents as the hiking-type. "They must have known that we were going to be here, but how?"

My question was answered by none other than Mister and Madam Charming themselves.

"Why, I'm not very fond of these stereotypes," Mister Charming commented as everyone whipped their heads around to see the couple standing behind us. "Cannot two folks take a stroll in the woods if they choose to do so?"

I felt Tessa's fingernails dig deeper and deeper into my thigh and felt her pull the fabric of my pants closer to her face.

"Mister and Madam Charming," Lady Tremaine greeted them with the nod of her head. "May I be of any help to you?"

"Cannot we say hello to five beautiful young ladies," Madam Charming glanced over at me, "and one stunning young man?"

My shoulders tensed; I was called a lot of things back home, but I can guarantee you that stunning was not one of them.

"I am afraid that you cannot," Lady Tremaine told them. "Now, if you will, tell me why you have shown up here?"

"I'm assuming you all are here for certain circumstances," Mister Charming declared, his eyes sweeping over each one of us. "And I have a feeling that those circumstances have something to do with my daughter-in-law."

No one replied, and because I was so stupid, I did. "Nah..." My voice got higher. I was a terrible liar and my entire family knew it. I could never keep a straight face and ever since I hit puberty, I couldn't keep my voice on one pitch.

Madam Charming met my eyes, studying my expression very carefully. "You're lying..." She murmured quietly. "I don't believe you."

"Well, crap." I muttered under my breath, and thankfully no one heard me.

"Well, it does not matter." Madam Charming continued. "We want to help you." 

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Hey guys! Sorry for the cliffhanger! This was written on 10-10-16 and I only wrote this because livster17 was getting kind of annoyed with me I could tell 😂😂

What did you think? Were you expecting it or no?

I don't know how many chapters are gonna be left... Maybe like five or seven or something. Probably at chapter thirty I'll stop.

Anywho thanks for reading and please vote and comment! ❤️

Love you!

11-17-16 update : I know I haven't posted and I'm sorry! I had challenge day at my school and I have been so swamped with schoolwork and I just apologize! I feel really bad!