The Villains Strike Back (Disney)

Chapter 1

The old castle had not been used for many years.

Hundreds of years.

There it stood, deserted.

Years had passed, and eventually bricks had cracked, walls had tumbled and the grass and trees around it slowly passed away.

It was dark, cold, and empty.

But one night, a strange thing happened.

It was too dark for anybody to notice.

But there was a person walking towards the gates of the castle.

They were dressed in a black robe with a hood so no one could see who they were. They were hunchbacked and had a lantern in their hand that shone a bright green light.

They looked up at the castle.

"Perfect," they whispered in a raspy voice.

Using their free hand, they clung onto a railing and gave it a small push.

But instead of the gate opening, it gave a massive creak and fell to the ground, coming loose of all its hinges.

The person gasped, took a step back and shielded themselves with their long cloak.

Once all the dust had disappeared the person began to walk up to the castle.

The trees all reached out their dead branches and tried to touch this mysterious person, but the person simply pushed them aside and carried on down the path.

Once this mysterious figure had got to the front double doors of the castle they picked up the old rusted handle, gave it a turn and pushed.

The doors opened, revealing a long but narrow corridor.

Then every now and again, the corridor would show a door, which led into another room.

But most of the rooms had been destroyed.

The only rooms that were presentable were the throne room, at the very end of the corridor, the dining hall, a few doors down from the throne room and a headquarters, on the second floor that must have belonged to the King and Queen before the castle was abandoned.

The castle was not that big. It only had three floors, an attic and a basement, which had once been the dungeon.

The mysterious trespasser managed to figure out that the attic had been the bedroom to the servants and maids; the third floor was the home of all the rooms that were pointless and not needed (in their opinion) like the study, and the library; the second floor was the bedrooms for the royal family; and the ground floor was the throne room, dining hall, kitchen and all the other rooms the maids needed. The basement was one long corridor, with six cells on either side.

In the very last cell on the right hand side there was a skeleton, their arms hanging out of the bars, which made the mysterious person shudder and go back upstairs.

They entered the kitchen, and after rooting through all the draws and cupboards they found a large bowl.

"Perfect," they muttered again.

They set their lantern down and shook off their hood, revealing their face.

It was an old woman, with long white hair and wrinkly skin, and a long nose. She also had big beady eyes.

She rolled up her sleeves to reveal long, thin, bony arms.

Then she got to work, looking for bits of ingredients and old things she could find in the castle, like herbs, water, a rat's tail, and other things.

Once she has got everything she needed: she began her magic.

She weaved her hands in and out of each other until all the ingredients in her bowl had slowly formed into liquids and mingled with each other, forming a dark purple potion.

The old woman took the bowl in both her hands, took a deep breath and took a mouthful.

Once she had finished she shuddered, dropped the bowl and clutched her throat, which felt like it was on fire. She fell to the floor and gasped with her raspy throat.

Suddenly her appearance began to change. Her skin became paler and less wrinkly, she was growing taller, her back became less hunched...

Until finally the old woman had gone, and was replaced with a young woman, with short black hair and pale white skin. She was dressed in a long blue slim dress with a white upturned collar and a black cape.

She looked at her hands, touched her face, look down at her clothes.

"Perfect," she smiled again, this time her voice clinching silky and smooth.

Her magic had worked, and she was satisfied with the outcome.