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Red walked the trail in the woods not far from their castle, kicking a rock idly from where it had ended up on the paved trail before her. Her hands were in the pockets of her leather jacket, and her hoodie was pulled up largely so that her far-too-easily recognizable hair was not on display rather than for any real reason to do with cold.
She had gone out that night just to escape the stifling air of the pink and red cupcake puke castle she was being forced to live in and the even more stifling individual inside of it.
Granted, the entire thing was a large castle, but somehow, her mother still managed to make it so that the only solitude that Red was able to get was when it was time to sleep.
Well, that was, when Red was not being dragged to a mother-daughter sleepover full of her mother trying to relive her glory days of being a young Bridget.
Red really thought that her mother needed to spend more time with Ella. And that was not just because that would mean that Red could spend more time with Chloe.
Chloe.
Red missed her horribly. They had been able to see each other a few times that summer, but it felt like far too little.
She still texted Chloe every day and they tried to talk on the phone whenever they could, but with how Red's mother stuck to her like glue and forbade phones at their mother-daughter bullcrap bonding hangouts or outings, they could not really connect like they did back at school.
Of course, even if they had been able to call and text all the time, it still would not be nearly as good as being with Chloe in-person. When they were in-person, Red could just go and body slam Chloe or hug her or bonk her head against Chloe's or follow her around or just look into those warm eyes and tell her whatever she wanted to say.
But now she could not do that.
The best she had was FaceTime, and that was even rarer than a call or a text.
And it still was not the same as being able to just physically feel Chloe there. To breathe in that rainwater scent or to feel those ridiculously insane curls getting into every open hole in Red's head.
It was a form of torment for Red. It had been like this since the very first day that they parted ways, and it only got worse with every moment that passed.
Red was definitely counting the days for when school would start back.
Especially since she had begun to feel something inside herself that she had never experienced quite to this degree.
Since her mother had been continuously cornering her and bothering her all of the time, it was like a flame was cooking at a low simmer at the base of her guts.
It was anger and rage like nothing she had ever experienced, and with every stupid mother-daughter hangout time and every single time she was dragged away from the phone where the only version she had of Chloe lived, she felt it growing stronger and larger.
She had nearly bitten the blood out of her cheek the other day in her effort to avoid saying anything to her mother when Bridget had barged in wanting to make cupcakes when Red had actually gotten to FaceTime Chloe for the first time in a week and a half. Chloe had looked at her with those soft dark chocolate eyes, and when her mother continued to pester Red, Chloe had gently offered to call her back later.
Red had very, very begrudgingly agreed to it.
The worst part was that Chloe did not really get it. Not truly.
Chloe knew what Red was going through in some capacity. She knew Red did not want to spend all that time with her mother and she knew that Red was uncomfortable and that Red wanted to talk to her more. Chloe had been reassuring and had tried to help Red see the bright side.
But what Chloe did not know was that Red literally felt like she was about to snap if something did not let up or change.
The only person that she had ever been able to take spending this much time with was Chloe.
However, Chloe was special.
Chloe was not like everyone else in Red's world. She understood Red on a level that no one else really did, and even though they could be such opposites, it was like they knew nearly everything about how the other thought, and they were so often on the same wavelength that it was both hilarious and awe-inspiring.
Chloe was everything to Red, and she was the only one in the world that knew Red like this. Red had never exposed her secrets and her pain and her emotions with anyone like this before. Chloe was the only one that had exclusive rights to Red's heart, and all that was within the guarded walls that surrounded it.
Because she had had that taste of Chloe in her life, it was so hard to live here in her absence.
As she allowed herself to get lost in these thoughts, she did not realize how far she had gotten off the beaten path. She had turned down a small trail that diverged from the main path, and she found herself heading through an obscure yet paved trail that was lined by brambles.
She had only just thought about turning back when she suddenly came to abrupt awakening that she was indeed not alone.
"Stop right now and give me everything you have on you," a dark, low voice sounded off behind Red.
Red stopped, turning quickly in the direction of the sound of the voice.
To her surprise, there was a man standing there. He was about her height, and his eyes gleamed in the low light as he watched her with something wicked in his gaze.
Red felt the slightest hint of fear. However, more than anything, she felt the low-burning anger flickering inside her at the mere suggestion that this man thought he was going to try to take anything of hers regardless of the fact that she came out here with empty pockets.
"You don't know who you're messing with," Red told him, a note of annoyance in her voice.
"I know exactly what you are. You're a dumb little girl with no one here to protect you," he pointed at her, and Red noticed the knife that he had holstered on his belt.
Red narrowed her eyes, her nostrils flaring a bit as she tilted her head and eyed him.
He obviously did not recognize her.
She was used to carrying some amount of respect with her as the daughter of the Queen. In this timeline, she assumed that there would likely be a sense of respect as well.
As he stepped nearer, his eyes narrowed and an expression of danger shining in his gaze, she felt the impulse overcoming her.
"Now give me everything in your pockets and—"
Red reached up and threw back her hood in a small yet quick gesture as she let all of her crimson waves show themselves brightly and with the strength of a royal bloodline that Red never ordinarily even wanted to claim.
The man froze, and Red felt a twinge of something deeply self-satisfied in her chest as she watched him.
His eyes were wide, and Red almost wanted to smirk. However, her anger was too strong right now to fully allow herself to do that.
"Princess," he breathed, his eyebrows raised as he stared at her in shock.
Red set her jaw, irritation filling her as she glared at him.
However, instead of receiving instant respect and terror as she probably would have in the past timeline, the man instead looked even more interested as his grin turned a more sinister shade of wicked.
"Princess Red..."
"Yeah, that's my name. Now get out of my face unless you want to deal with the crown," Red half-threatened as she stood there resolutely before him.
She was not entirely sure what her mother was capable of in this timeline, but she had a feeling that Bridget still could get pretty angry. However, she was not sure if it was beheading-level angry.
Regardless of whatever punishments that her mother was prone to doing now, the man did not seem to be too worried about it, and he came even closer to her as he smirked.
"Oh, I want to deal with the crown, alright. That crown's expensive and there's a lot of money behind it," he informed her, stepping closer.
Red did not step back despite her instinct to do so.
She had never been challenged like this. Never had she faced a situation that was truly and deeply dangerous like this one in her own homeland.
"Don't do it."
He only gave her a smirk in warning.
He then lunged for her.
Red just barely managed to stumble back enough to avoid the grab as she felt her side twinge in pain with the suddenness of the sharp movement.
He turned toward her, and Red had to remember all of her efforts with attempting to avoid the guards as she maneuvered around him and avoided his grasp.
Red noted that he was extremely quick, and she could feel a bit of panic rising within her at the fact that she was even in this situation right now.
"C'mere, Princess," he growled.
As soon as the name hit her ears, Red felt a rise of something hot and coiled within her as that flicker from earlier started to ignite into a full flame.
He tried to get his hands on her again, and Red felt the adrenaline rising.
When he was close enough, she felt the impulsivity overcoming her in a hot dash of anger, and she quickly threw a punch at his face.
It managed to land squarely against his nose, and he stopped abruptly as he moved with the hit. Red stopped, staring at him as he felt his face, his fingers touching it gingerly.
Red smirked just barely as she noted the presence of blood on his face. Blood that she brought in retaliation for him trying to hurt her.
He then slowly looked at her. He grinned evilly.
"You hit like a girl," he finally said.
Red felt her stomach hit the ground as she stared at him.
It was then that her flame turned into a raging fire, fear taking the backburner as her intense anger took hold.
How dare this man try to attack her? How dare he try something like this when Red felt like she was coming apart at the seams?
Was Wonderland determined to drive Red to snapping?
As he came at her again, Red snarled as she threw another punch. This time, however, he blocked her, and he landed a hit to her face. Red fell backward with the hit, but she managed to catch herself before ending up on the ground.
"Alright, Princess, you got in your lucky hit, I got in mine. Come on before you get that perfect little face messed up worse—"
Red twisted her arm out of his grasp, and she came at him anew with a fresh fury.
His eyes widened, and Red threw several punches at his face before bringing up her leg in an attempt to hit him with it as well. Despite her efforts, he successfully managed to stop all of her hits.
One thing that Red noticed that he was a dedicated blocker. He was extremely good at stopping her blows. However, her anger was so strong at this point that she figured that she would keep throwing them at him. She knew that at some point, he would make a mistake.
He obviously wanted her intact for some reason, and she shuddered to think of what the reason could be.
As she continued to throw hits and he continued to stop her, Red finally got her opportunity.
Unfortunately for him, he fumbled his block as Red threw her knee up. When Red saw her opening, she threw her leg up again as she resolutely landed her foot right between his legs in a hard kick.
He let out a yelp as he instantly stopped what he was doing. Red wasted no time in punching him in the face as soon as he doubled over.
As soon as he crumpled to the ground with the pain, Red descended upon him as she landed a few hits to his face.
It was partially panic from the entire situation of being attacked and partially self-righteous fury that filled her as she hit him, and just as she was about to get up, she found that she physically could not pry herself off of him just yet.
Not while he was still conscious.
Not while he had that audacious look in his eye like he was just waiting to do something to her.
Not when Red felt so angry and frustrated right now that she wanted to just beat the living daylights out of something just to get this blistering fire out of herself.
So, she threw punch after punch, her fists crashing into him as she allowed herself to get lost in the fury and to let out all of the infuriation and pent-up irritation that she had felt since being here for the summer.
She was stuck here in this bizarre, happy, overly perfect, nearly inauthentic version of her home.
Thwap.
She was stuck here with her mother cramming herself into every crevice of Red's very existence.
Thwap.
She was stuck here with some version of Maddox who did not even seem to know about the watch.
Thwap.
She was stuck here without Chloe.
Red's hands faltered instantly at the mere thought of Chloe, and she realized that she had successfully knocked the man unconscious.
She was breathing raggedly through her mouth, and she looked at him carefully. His face was bloodied, but she had not been at it long enough to damage him in a permanent sort of way.
Red put her hands on his chest as she pushed upward and got to her feet.
She then stood over him as she took in deep, trembling breaths that seemed to shake the entirety of her form. She looked down at him, nodding just a little.
She could taste the blood where her lip was busted, and she was trembling with the sheer violence and adrenaline of it all. She smirked just barely, and she lifted her leg and stepped over him so that she was moved to stand nearby as she recovered from the insanity of the entire thing.
It was truly thrilling. It was everything that Red had never felt.
She just thought that the old days of wrecking the castle and sneaking around were exciting.
This was a brand new kind of feeling, though. It was even better than anything she had ever experienced.
Because for the first time in her life, it was a real release in the most primal and deepest of senses.
With every hit that she had successfully managed to land there against his face, she had felt the anger, the frustration, the pain, and all of her negative emotions dissipating. It was almost terrifying just how good it felt.
But as the high came down and she actually took in the sight of the limp body on the ground, unconscious and bleeding there on the trail, Red felt something completely opposite.
Her blood ran cold as it all came down on her, and all of the good feelings slipped away from her grasp.
She had just hurt this person. Granted, it was a horrible person and he had been aiming on kidnapping and mugging her or worse, but it was still a person that she had hurt.
She could hear the words ringing in her mind as the unwanted thoughts came blasting through her head. She sucked in a breath, trying not to think about it.
However, when she made the mistake of looking at her own hands, taking in the blood that was a mix of her own and the thief's, it was more than she could do to stop the memory flooding in.
.....................................................................................................................
"OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!!"
It felt that before the words had fully found themselves settled in the air that she, her mother, and the soldiers were at the guillotine. The soldiers were lined up, her mother's throne was there, and her mother was thrilled in that twisted way that she had anytime that it was drawing near to the time for a beheading.
For Red's part, she kept her face turned away as she tried to look at literally anything else in the nearby vicinity.
But a cruel hand grabbed at her face and forcefully turned it to the beginnings of what would surely be a gruesome scene where that poor soldier was about to lose his head for some trivial crime to do with a white rose in the midst of reds.
Red, her cheeks squished firmly between her mother's gloved fingers, turned her eyes to look up at her mother pleadingly. She hoped against hope that she would not be forced to watch and that maybe, somewhere deep within her mother's nonexistent heart, that she could be spared the sight.
But her mother's dark gaze was cold and hardened, and she looked at Red with that critical, calculating look that she kept whenever she was attempting to figure out how best to either tear Red down or mold her to the shape that she wanted her to take.
She lightly jerked Red's face, pushing her to turn her eyes to the scene as the executioner prepared the guillotine. There was no basket to catch what fell and there was no bag to go over the head of the executed. Her mother preferred it that way so she could enjoy all of the many horrific details that came with the removal of a head.
"Watch it. This is what you must do when you grow old enough to rule by my side."
"Mama, please... I... It's," Red searched for the words, trying to find the right ones as her hands gripped her skirt with a hold tight enough to make her knuckles white. She knew that with just a wrong phrasing that she could get in trouble, but she did not want to watch this, and some part of her wanted to argue and try to escape it.
She had never seen an execution, but she had seen the after-effects. The crimson blood spread over the stones and the wheelbarrow that they always used to haul away the bodies.
Her mother's hand tightened on her face, and Red did not move as she closed her mouth and looked up in her mother's direction just briefly before returning her attention to the scene at hand.
"You will learn from this, Red. Don't be a disappointment to me. Don't be some sniveling, crying, flinching little girl," her mother hissed the warning before releasing her sharply.
Red did not bring her hands up to wipe at her cheeks where the woman's fingers had dug in a little. Her mother never did anything hard enough to hurt her with any sort of physical mark left behind.
It was usually just her words that cut straight to the very bone.
Red stood there stoically, her back straight as she tried to at least somewhat mimic her mother's posture. She did not want to be a disappointment, after all. She wanted to make her mother proud and to make her love her for once in her life.
Maybe if she stood very still and watched the whole thing, just maybe she would be pleased with Red. Maybe Red would get a stroke of her hair or a pat to the cheek. One of the things that her mother had so rarely handed out to her over her entire seven years of life.
So Red did not move. She just stared at the scene, and the only indication there was of just how horrid it made her feel was her bony little fingers holding onto her clothes like a lifeline.
The equipment was now prepared.
The executioner approached the lever.
Red swallowed hard, and she could feel her stomach flipping in her gut.
The soldier looked at her then.
He glanced desperately between Red and her mother, and Red could see in his eyes just how badly that he did not want to die.
His lips trembled, and his breath shook as he stared at Red, sweat gleaming on his brow and his mustache glistening as he gaped at her helplessly.
"Help, please," he whispered, staring directly into Red's eyes as if she could somehow help or control his fate.
That look of terror would haunt Red for the rest of her days.
But then her mother raised her hand.
And the executioner pulled the lever.
Red did not flinch as the deed was done.
"Good," her mother whispered ever so softly, her hand a whisper over Red's hair as she smoothed it down and gave Red the first bit of real affection that she had received in weeks.
Red swallowed hard.
Good. It was good.
If it was so good, though, then why did she feel like she was going to throw up?
.....................................................................................................................
Red was trembling when she came out of the memory and actually became aware of her surroundings again. She stumbled backward, looking at the man on the ground and trying not to see the lifeless body of that soldier.
Just as she had established to herself before, this was a thief. This was no soldier. This was no good man. It was someone horrible, evil, and bad.
But she had hurt him nevertheless.
She had done exactly the thing that her mother would have. While her mother would not have dealt with him so directly or in the same way, it was the same in terms of the violence and the anger behind it. Red had let herself get out of control and hurt someone badly enough to render them unconscious and bleeding.
Red had done this.
She was no better than her mother. Her real mother, not the sugary, candy-coated Bridget from this warped timeline where the only normal thing was Chloe.
This mess was the Queen of Hearts.
And Red was the Princess.
Red managed to turn around and away as she started back in the direction of the castle. She was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane wind, terror and guilt filling her as she thought of that only normal thing that she had in her world.
Chloe.
What would Chloe think if she found this out?
And worst of all, what would she think if she found out that some part of Red wanted to do it again?