Once Upon A Nightmare

- THREE -

- Hadies -

Getting called to the principal's office, something I never thought I would say, but hey what are you going to do? Walking into the small, brick-walled conference room, I saw that I wasn't the only one called here. Great, looks like it's an evil meeting. In the center of the room stood the principal.

"Well, isn't this a Maleficent gathering? Eh? Get it? Maleficent?" Silence. "What are you guys, a bunch of Michelangelo sculptures?"

The woman to my right rolled her eyes. "Oh no, we get it. You just aren't funny."

"I'm sorry, aren't you the one who kidnapped a girl for her hair, only to lose her to some guy, who, in the end, cut it off, which reverted you back to the ugly old hag you are? Oh, right, you were!"

She smiled. "At least I didn't use some stupid lackeys who didn't even get the job done."

I could feel my hair go up in flames. Send a soul to the underworld, she was right. Touché, hag, touché.

A male voice spoke this time. "Cool it, pasty."

I turned and met the gold-eyed man. "You got your butt kicked by a girl, twice. So, Shan Yu, zip it."

He pushed off the wall and stepped closer to me. "Never― and I mean never, bring that up again."

Aw, did Hades hit a nerve?

A loud smack caught our attention. "Silence!" In a puff of black smoke, she stood right in front of us. "I suggest you get along or suffer a fate undreamable. If we are to rid ourselves of our mortal enemies, we must live and work together. If that cannot happen, well, we all know what I am capable of. Shall we?"

We took our seats and began the meeting. "It appears that someone has told one of the heroes of their true nature." She looked around and stopped at the Fates. "Which one of you was it?"

Two of the three sisters shared a look. The third kept quiet.

"Not I."

"Nor I."

Maleficent turned her attention to the last one. "Present Fate, was it you?" The old woman lowered her head further with each step Maleficent took towards her. "I will ask you again, was it you?"

"No." Her voice was a mere squeak.

Maleficent snatched her chair back. "Do not lie to me!" she roared.

Woah! And I thought I had anger issues.

"I swear, I did not tell her who she is or what we plan. I merely told her to look for a book that she would need for my literature class."

"Which book," she sneered.

"The Tales of Ageless Land." Tears fell from her eyes. Yeesh, if Maleficent can make a Fate cry for telling a student to get a book then what else could she do?

Maleficent stood to her towering height. "Very well then. This meeting is dismissed." At that final order, all of the lesser evil souls― a.k.a. Everyone who wasn't Maleficent― dashed through the door.

Once outside of her grasps, we agreed to group by the school's gardening shed. The school's garden was a small glass building a few feet from the school. The plants here flourished wildly. The tomatoes were fat and juicy, the cucumbers were long and healthy and they even grew their own compost. Everything here looked so beautiful that it put my little garden to shame. We all awed at the beautiful sight, taking it all in before following the rock pathway to the shed.
The reason this was all real was behind that door. The only way to access it was a key. With just the right key, it would open up to the secret chamber; with the wrong key, it would open up to just a normal tool shed. We knew the key was around here under some stupid rock. A genius place to hide it. Everyone looked down at their feet and, oh, and would you look at that, there were rocks everywhere! This wouldn't be so hard. We might just find it in a matter of seconds.

I slapped my hands together twice. "Minions!" They unfroze from their statue positions as garden gnomes and gathered in front of me. "Find the stupid key and bring it to me."

Apparently, some genius thought it would be a smart idea to hide a key under every rock. I tried every key before finally finding the right one. The door automatically opened and a soft glow emitted from the objects inside. It was a sight to behold. The feathered pen wrote fiercely on the magical pages of the book. Every little thing was in full detail. We skimmed through the pages and observed what was going on.

One page, in particular, caught my eye. An image of Hercules and Meg took up the page. Hercules was at some restaurant that had a karaoke machine was singing some stupid love song as little Meg worked away. It was actually a beautiful set, but like Meg, she didn't care. How could she? She still had her trust issues. Meg, my sweet little nut, how cute she looked in her uniform trying to pretend she didn't notice her hero. If only―

"Stop daydreaming and turn the page." Ugh, this guy. He's lucky Maleficent made me save his soul or I would have let him flush away in the pool of souls.

Turning the page, I looked at him. "Happy, you old creep?"

"Quite." He studied the page. It was on that one girl he dreamed so much about. Didn't she happen to be in my morning mythology class? What was her name? Emma Ronald? Elise Richards? Es-Ess-Esse Ralada! Esse Ralada was her name in this world.

Just to be the jerk I am, I turned the page after a few seconds. "Who's next? Ah, a small town girl with big dreams and a prince who wants to live a mainstream life."

My words coaxed the voodoo man's interests. He scurried on over and absorbed all the information he needed. His lips curled.

"What do you say? Clip his finger, and sell him to our little friends?"

Who in the underworld was he talking to? Suddenly, his shadow danced on its own. That's new. Somehow I'm not surprised.

His shadow reached back and let one rip. The voodoo man rubbed his face, glaring at the shadow.

"You're right, shouldn't play the same tricks twice and expect a different outcome. They'll just drag us both back down there again."

"What will we do?" someone asked.

"About?"

"Well, some of us want more than to put them through school. Some of us want them dead but we can't do that with Maleficent breathing down our necks. Did you see what happened to that one Fate?"

"The walls of the school tell her everything she knows and needs to know." We all turned to Gothel. She stared at her hand, studying them.

I tried to wrap my head around this. "Wha-whad-whadda- Whaddaya sayin'."

Her eyes slid to me. "What I am saying is that she was the one who created this world. She is the almighty, magical being. Why wouldn't she want to know who might be the one to conspire against her. How else do you think she knew about the Fate's conversation with Tremaine's little princess?"

"And how do you know all this?" I questioned.

"I'm friends with her VP, I have connections." She took the book and placed it back. "If she knows we want to kill our heroes, then she will do something about it. But something tells me that there is a reason she wants them alive. Wants someone alive."

It finally hit us. Sleeping Beauty. 

🔽🔼🔽

► Hadies and gentlemen, I have presented you Hadies chapter. ◄

► So, how was it? Good, bad, dead? ◄