Legacy Day Untold Chapter Four (Final)

Unless you were a villain.

The crowd parted like the Red Sea for The Bad Fairy, Dame Gothel, and The Frumious Bandersnatch. The three walked in sync, scaring the pants off of any students caught in their path. No one dared to speak until the girls until they made it out of the school and onto the veranda. Then it was safe to resume business as usual. The biggest day of the year. Fun. Exciting. Joy.

No one uttered a sound as they slipped through the crowd. Everyone in their Heirloom Outfits looked so joyous, so festive. Of course, there were very many who had less than marketable fates, but they kept a stiff upper lip for the most part. “No frowns, only smiles!” Damn Grimm. Damn him.

The clock tick-tock-tick-tocked as the minutes went by. Soon the first student would sign their life away. Then the second, the third, the fourth, everyone would follow. Same as last year and all the years before; same as next year and all the years to come.

The noise failed to mask the clock tower. It beat into the skulls and hearts of all the students destined for monotony, sorrow, grief, torture, rape, death, while the students in the light counted down the milliseconds until their turn to sign the contract that would give them a life of splendor, joy, and prosperity.

Carabosse looked to the crowd. Meri Godmother, shining example of a perfect student, literally gleamed in her cape of starlight. She was chatting up her future goddaughter, Ashlynn Ella, who was clad in a gorgeous dress of teal and rose.

Wrathire noticed Rosalia Fée in a loose, flowy dress of palm fronds and lilies going on a rant to her loyal companion and partner in crime, Hildegarde Olhouser, who wore little more than what she normally did. The girl wasn’t one for extravagance.

Hala Amir’s cape of galaxies and moons rivaled that of a student nearby, a true child born of the moon, in a sokutai that dragged on the floor and glowed with its wearer. He gazed at her in longing.

Diantha saw Massak wearing even more layers than she normally did, the cape freezing the ground is dragged upon. Klara Spiegel was skating on the ice produced, wearing pants and a long jacket as opposed to a bunad.

The three girls locked eyes, sighed, and parted to get with their groups. Carabosse stuck to the sidelines, avoiding the girl she was cursed to curse. Diantha’s future daughter was absent, probably running around taking photos of the Ever After High Royalty in their Legacy Day regalia. Wrathire, having nowhere really to go since there were so few Wonderlandians and they were all off on their own, stuck close to Meri, next to a frighteningly pale boy who wore fur and sunglasses, oddly enough.

It was business as usual, as predicted. Grimm made the same speech he did every year, telling all the students how proud he was of them and how proud of themselves they should be. Buying into the codswallop and tripe he was preaching about how they’d be following in their parents footsteps as if it was the highest honor, the crowd cheered. Sickening.

Cedar Wood took the stage, joyously exclaiming her decision to sign and doing such in vigor. Ashlynn Ella dragged her feet, something off about the way she looked so resigned about it. An obviously concerned Meri Godmother followed her charge, paused at the stage, regained her composure, and signed. She probably saw something puzzling in the mirror reflecting her future. It wasn’t disconcerting, but certainly curious.

Of course the crowd exploded when Apple White, their beloved and most precious princess, arrived at the podium. She oozed grace and happily took the pledge. Grimm sat with the teachers, smug as a snake as he watched his perfectly groomed and brainwashed model student do as she was told, thinking it was her decision. Pfft.

Another year, another generation of fairy tale characters sucked into a book that wasn’t even read anymore. Stuck in a never-ending loop to please the masses of a world they don’t even know exists but dutifully serves. No questions as to who they’re living for, who reads these stories, whether or not they actually live. An entire realm like Schrödinger’s—

What the hell?!

Raven Queen was at the stage, but she didn’t sign. The mirrors shattered. All hell broke loose and it was every man, woman, inbetween, and creature for themselves! People were screaming losing their heads, crying, and shrieking. Others were cheering, throwing their hands and fists and hats in their air. It was a mix of joy and sorrow, fear and anger, and you wouldn’t be able to differentiate the reactions to a terrorist attack from this.

Somewhere, a girl in shining blue, began coughing up blood. Nearby, a monster emerged and flapped her wings. Wrathire. Few outside Wonderland had ever gazed upon the true form of a Bandersnatch (and even the number of Wonderlandian witnesses was sparse) and between the screaming and fleeing, it honestly just added to the chaos. No one paused to gaze at a winged hellbeast plucking a light from the ground and cradling it in her wings. They only fled at the mirrors shattering and a rule being broken.

Elsewhere, a boy in white shrieked in pain. The light was too bright. Lights reflecting off of all these shatters of mirror made the veranda as bright as day. His sunglasses were nowhere to be found, probably under someone’s boot. A girl in green and white raged at him for over-reacting, only to be snagged by the ear by another girl in green. The boy’s hands cupped around his eyes, staring at the beast flying to the dorms. It was sheer chaos and havoc.

And then it stopped.

Something calmed the sea of students, a gentle lavender glow that wrapped them in stillness and warmth. The monster had already escaped. So had the Evil Queen.

Wrathire lay Meri on her bed, mostly humanoid now, save for her wings. They ached, being curled up inside her body for so long, but though her outfit was in tatters, she felt truly free. Rosalia kicked in her door, rushing to Meri’s side. She was unconscious but mostly unharmed. A trickle of blood fell onto her gown, but it was nothing that wouldn’t wash out.

The flurry of hands and girls crowding in the room left Carabosse dizzy. She saw Wrathire take Meri to the latter’s dorm room. It was only the second time she saw her friend’s true form. It was beyond words. Not particularly close with Meri, she stayed out on the balcony, pawing around her jacket for a pack of cigarettes. Jesus Christ.

Diantha, though desperate to see Meriwether taken care of, knew that overcrowding the girl would be suffocating. Instead of rushing in with a cold pack and some smelling salts, she stayed outside the dorm. Massak inquired about Meri’s condition a little while later, having shielded herself and Klara in ice out of reflex. Of course, the fairy turned out fine. Diantha led Massak away from the commotion. The girl was just too emotional to handle such things.

As the night drew to a close, movies being debated on, Carabosse watched the smoke from her cigarette swirl into the night sky. Things… were different. The air felt different, the sky was a different color, just slightly. Even the tobacco lost its sweet taste and became bitter. A sign, maybe? Who knows. All Carabosse knew was that, all things considered, she didn’t really need her hennin.