Walt Disney College

Chapter 94

Cinderella had been absorbed by the large portal that consumed their school and was now floating peacefully in an abyss, nobody around her.

She needed to find someone. Fast.

After a bit of thinking, she managed to figure out what could have enabled the villains to get to their school. According to Shang, Philip had been going through a few family problems a week before he broke up with Aurora. A little birdie had also told her that when Ariel had disappeared from school one night, she had been feeling competitive and jealous when it came to that girl Oona. She'd gotten over that though, and nothing happened to her. Vanellope had been feeling sick and glitchy, Tinkerbell had also been acting as if a spell was upon her, and that Lily witch... who even knew where to begin.

There were a few correlations between the situations that had helped Cinderella come to the conclusion she was currently at.

When people are weakened by strong negative emotions, such a sickness, sadness, or jealousy, it makes them easy vessels for the villains to take over. That must've been the case. It would explain why nothing happened to Ariel once she had decided to stop being jealous of Oona.

"I need to tell someone this," Cinderella murmured. "Spread the word, let people know."

A blast sounded behind her, causing Cinderella to scream and scramble behind a large cloud, not that she thought that would help much. She peeked over the cloud to see what had happened, only to see one of the teen witches floating about.

Lucinda.

"Lucinda!" Cinderella yelled, grabbing the young witch's attention immediately. "Lucinda, over here!"

Lucinda whipped her head around to face Cinderella, waving when she saw the princess. Cinderella awkwardly floated over, still getting use to the weird gravity rules in the limbo they were stuck in.

"You won't believe what I just found out. I mean, I don't know if I'm right, and I guess there are a lot of different ways this could be taken, and there's probably a few—"

Lucinda held her hand up, smiling at Cinderella. "What is it, Cindy? I'm all ears."

"I think negative emotions make it easier for the villains to control us. I think that's why so many people have been weird lately. Tensions have been high with different events almost all year. The competition with the film festival, then the actual sports competition, and then when the villains attacked? It's no wonder we're all spooked."

Lucinda tapped her chin, giving this idea some thought. "You know... that could be right. It explains why nothing weird went on when we were all in high spirits after winning the competition. Things did go weird when DreamWorks beat us at the Film Festival though." Lucinda brightened. "Cinderella, you're a genius!"

The two high-fived, and Lucinda's mind was racing on what to do next.

"We need to get this information out," she murmured.

"I know," Cinderella said, nodding. "Wait, let me test my theory."

Cinderella focused on the anger she felt when Philip had left Aurora in such a wreck, and the unwarranted frustration she felt towards Aurora as well. Why was she so broken up over Philip when she had amazing friends to look out for her? Then again, Cinderella didn't know how being broken up with felt, and once that frustration left, there was only guilt.

Succumb... to me...

"NO!"

Lucinda shook Cinderella's shoulders, poking at her arms and cheeks. "Are you alright? What happened, you screamed!"