Blinded (A Sequel to "Sight")

Friend Or Friend?

Rose barged through the castle doors, only to find the king and queen restrained to their thrones, and Princess Rapunzel, along with Eugene and a few royal guards, stuck in a pile of goop on the ground. Rae sat in Rapunzel’s open throne, her legs hanging over the arm. She threw an orb up and down in her hand. She had changed her outfit; she now wore a regular black shirt, with a red, leather jacket over top, and black buckle boots went over her dark blue jeans.

“Well, look who decided to show up,” Rae said, narrowing her eyes. “I thought you were lost in another dimension.”

“Lucky for me, I had the Royal Engineer with me. He built the portal in a snap.”

“Ah, yes. Where is your little boyfriend, anyway?” Rae moved herself so that she was facing forward. 

Rose didn’t answer. If Rae knew that Varian was getting everyone to safety, who knows what she’d do to stop him. Instead, she tried getting through to her. “Rae, why are you doing this?”

“Haven’t I already answered that?” Rae spat. “I’m sick of being the third wheel, of being pushed behind. And after your little trick with trying to sympathize, I knew just how much you really didn’t care about me.”

“Rae, I didn’t know he would do that. Trust me, I really was-”

“Trust you?” Rae laughed. She put her leg on the throne, and lifted up her pant leg to show a long scar running down her leg, dried blood surrounding it. “That hurt, Rose. Both physically and emotionally.” Rae set her leg back down, and walked up to where Rapunzel was stuck to the ground. “For payback, I think I should hurt you back.”

Rose’s gaze wavered between Rapunzel and Rae. “What’re you doing?”

Instead of answering, Rae instead put her fingers up to her mouth and whistled. Rose waited for something to happen, her heart pounding. There was a moment of silence before a large creature rammed through a doorway, breaking the doors apart.

The creature was taller than the other beasts-- maybe about eighteen feet tall. Its body was big, bulky, and brown, and it had skinny, hairless legs. A long, worm-like tail swished behind it, and saliva dripped from its jaws.

Something looked a little too familiar about this beast. It looked as if it was once a brown mouse…

“Daina?” Rose gasped. Rae laughed.

“That’s right. Your sweet, animal companion fighting against your beloved royal family. Which one will you choose?”

“Rae, please don’t do this,” Rose pleaded. “How will this make things any better?”

Rae seemed to think about it for a moment, staring at the ground, before looking back up with a hateful glare. “Nothing can get better from this point.”

She whistled again, and beast Daina ran full speed at Rapunzel. Rose grabbed her bow and-- with shaking arms-- knocked an arrow in place. She took a deep breath, then let the arrow fly. It zoomed right by Daina’s nose, leaving a small nick. The beast turned to Rose. 

The royal family continued to struggle beneath their restraints, trying to get free. Rose tried to analyze her thoughts in the few seconds she had. If she cut the king and queen free, then they could escape. But then Rapunzel, Eugene, and the few royal guards would still be stuck. Ugh, if only she had the neutralizing particle-thingamabob Varian would use to dissolve the goop.

Beast Daina charged at Rose, and she ran out of the way. A sudden idea popped into her head. Narrowing her eyes, she ran straight for the wall.

At the last moment, she jumped off the wall, and started running the other way. Beast Daina ran into the wall, but just shook it off and continued after Rose. Rose narrowed her eyes and ran to the opposite wall. The same thing happened, but beast Daina still was up and going. 

“Rose!” The brunette looked up to see Rapunzel motioning to her, a frying pan in her hand. A smile formed on Rose’s face. Thank goodness for frying pans!

Rose took the frying pan and turned around, facing the giant beast. As it continued to charge at her, she ran towards it. As it neared, she jumped as far up as she could, then let go of the frying pan and watched as it hurtled towards beast Daina’s face. The beast fell to the floor, its eyes closed. The pan fell to the floor with a clatter.

Suddenly, in a flash of light, the beast disappeared, replaced by a small mouse. Daina continued to sleep, the only injury being the nick on her nose. Rose wiped off the small trickle of blood with her sleeve, then walked up to the queen and king. Using the sharp part of an arrow, she cut their restraints. Then she turned to the others stuck in the goop.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have the thing that can free you from that goop. Hopefully Varian will be here soon,” she told them. Then she looked around. Rae was nowhere to be seen. She must’ve escaped the room while the fight had distracted them. “Right now, I’ve got a villain to find.”