Chapter Text
Her lungs burned.
Every breath felt too sharp, too short, filled to the brim with little more than the constant hellish pain she’d come to know throughout her miserable life. Not even the flow of adrenaline could fully stave off the ache consuming her from the inside out, yet the woman continued onward regardless.
She didn’t have a choice, knowing that if she stopped for even a moment chances were she’d never get an opportunity like this ever again. So tossing her blond hair aside, she ran and ran hard, deep into the darkness swallowing up the forest.
Voices could be heard echoing somewhere in the distance, their shouts spurring her high heeled feet to move that much faster over the brush and stones. There was no point in looking back, knowing the shadows would only disorientate her further and the surroundings may very well shift itself if she didn’t keep a steady eye on it.
That wouldn’t her, nor would it be the first time her path became obstructed or the trails bent around themselves into twisted shapes and circles. If anything she expected them to, having already stumbled blindly through the worst of the terrain only to be forced right back into the same spot over and over again. Like she’d fallen into some deranged game of cat and mouse she had no choice but to play.
No… that’s exactly what this was, and she wasn’t delusional enough to believe otherwise.
To him, this had become yet another game. Another hunt that would leave her exhausted, desperate, beaten into submission and begging surrender just to know relief.
‘But not this time!’ She gritted, shoving a fist against her silk-clad abdomen, hoping to stave off the pain just a little while longer. Nothing else mattered. Not this anguish and certainly not those tailing behind her.
Just the one true hope to finally—FINALLY—break free!
To escape…
Even if it killed her.
In that same instant, when her lungs screamed and her mind raced to find a marker, the air crackled along her skin, the sensation so cognizant she might as well taste the familiarity on her tongue. It wasn’t a foreign feeling. Not by a long shot. The growing pressure she’d endure for countless decades built up into a thick, soupy mixture that practically electrified the surrounding area; forcing every hair on the back of her neck to stand on end.
It was coming.
She knew this without a doubt, spotting a blue, flickering light from the corner of her eye as it surged through the trees.
Instinct alone forced the woman to fold her legs, just barely dodging a snake-like object that shot past. She swallowed a gasp, shielding her face from the wood chips exploding above.
There was no suppressing the shiver slithering down her spine, fully aware at how close she’d come to not only being caught but possibly impaled. It wouldn’t be a surprise if that were to happen, her stomach clenching violently in fear that this very well may be the last straw for him.
The final betrayal she could never hope to come back from.
She continued to stare up at the embedded item, those oh so familiar blue chains jutting out from the bark. No doubt the shackle rested deep within the wooden base, having been thrown so violently it may as well be hanging on the opposite side.
True as that may be, she didn’t have long to consider it. The shouts from before grew louder, forcing her to skitter on wobbling legs, racing to the left, the right, zigzagging when another whistle flew past her head. The air was already thickening with his magic again as another blue flash materialized behind her. At this point she didn’t even bother remembering where she was going, what direction promised freedom and what would only prolong her suffering. The only thing she knew for certain was the sudden flare of another chain, sailing through the trees to ensnare.
Leaping over one did little to stop the next, her muscles straining to pivot in a semi circle, to dodge and weave like a dancer flowing across a bomb riddled stage. The motions sent her twirling in place, her eyes unable to focus for longer than a second before she found herself grabbing her skirts and ducking under yet another shackle, leaping again, barely able to balance on the tips of her toes before falling on bended knee as the metal clipped past her upturned face.
It slammed full tilt into the boulder beside her, shards of varying size and sharpness ripping through the air. A resounding thwack sent the blond reeling, and by all rights it should’ve felt worse. The force in which the stone collided with flesh tore a jagged gash along her right cheek, yet the woman hardly felt a thing other than a faint twinge, her once clenched eyes popping open when the heaviness one felt from a damaged glamour sprang to mind.
Lifting a hand, she barely had time to touch her cheek before the sensation of skin on skin waned. The feeling of cracks caught just under her nails, though that, too, slowly began to bleed away, dulled into near nothingness.
The illusion — that had once stood so strong before — shriveled into tiny, unraveling wisps drifting like ash to the ground. No longer was there a lithe blond swaddled in delicate skirts and perfumed charm. The deception stood peeled away, leaving behind the sorry masked form emanating such a hate-filled hiss it was a small wonder it didn’t summon the guards to her outright.
Anger at seeing the four fingered gloved hand pulsed through her veins, filling her up nearly to the point she considered spinning around and confronting that bastard and his goons for damaging one of her most expensive disguises.
Half of her plans were already ruined by that one stray rock, adding just one more thing to her growing list of reasons for why she loathed him so. Though as much as she wished to let violence guide her hands and take a pound of flesh from them all, she couldn’t allow the hatred to fester. Not now. Not with so much on the line.
She didn’t have the luxury to shout against an unstoppable storm, nor did she plan on facing the undeniable wrath that came from deceiving said storm either. That, in and of itself, was a death wish.
Too much planning had already gone into this, too many betrayals already sat far behind her.
There was either success or death at the end of this story and she would gladly welcome either so long as it meant escaping this realm.
‘To escape that fuckers clutches forever!’
Never again would she return to that dark, unfeeling place. Never again would she face countless humiliations for the sadistic pleasures of a faceless beast!
Picking herself off the ground, the newly revealed jester shoved around a fallen tree, pushing all else from her mind but the eternal cry for escape. It didn’t matter what stood in her way, how many injuries she sustained or how many bridges she needed to burn in order to achieve it. At this point nothing else mattered but the destination and the solid weight sagging within her red and yellow pocket.
The shouts grew becoming more pronounced, clearer in pitch and volume, closer than she would’ve liked and closing in the longer she burned through what little energy reserves remained. There was no doubt the guards progress came from that monsters involvement, this adventure coming to a close now that his amusement had finally started to wane.
It was obvious that for him the game had already been won.
For her, though… she would not go down without a fight.
‘Just a little further!’ The jester kept repeating, tossing herself sideways when yet another shackle wizzed past. The warning shots were coming less and less, the woman well aware they were bound to hit true the next time he threw them.
“I see her!” Came the first cry.
“This way!” Followed another.
The guards were everywhere now, swiftly flanking on all sides. It was only a matter of time before they cut her off completely, she more than aware that a goblins endurance far outpaced a simple changling’s.
She needed a direction, a hint as to where to go before it all fell apart.
Spinning about in several circles, it was a mere fluke that she spotted it. Through the thinning branches to the left, beyond the skeletal silhouettes reaching to the twin moon sky, she saw it. A glimpse of something tall, something solid and red jutting out of an earthen mound, framed on all sides by a rock formation as had once been described!
Like a bolt she tore towards it, withdrawing the pocketed item as her arms shoved through the low hanging branches. Her legs trembled uncontrollably, reaching the small clearing in seven strides before skidding to a stop just at the forests edge. Both parts fear and relief took root in her chest, her eyes landing upon the one thing she’d been dreaming of for so many years. The one thing that promised absolute salvation for one such as she.
A door.
A shaky bark of laughter burst forth, tears starting to prick behind her eyes the longer she stood there. Were she more of a poet she’d have spent her remaining days writing sonnets about the damn thing, but she knew the futility in lollygagging. She couldn’t afford to stand there admiring the door any more than she wanted to wait around for those mooks to catch up.
In a final burst of energy, the jester charged up the stone staircase. All that remained to do was to open it and her final shackle in this world would fall away forever!
The key hovered just outside the keyhole, its metal humming to unravel the mechanisms inside.
Swipping the few remaining tears away, the woman wasted no more time and slotted it in place. The sound was like music to her ears, fitting in place so perfectly it reminded her of a well worn glove slipping onto the loving hand that helped shape it.
This would work.
It had to work!
Her body thrummed in anticipation, her laughter ringing out once more, ignoring the slowly building sounds swallowing up the forest into a massive, chaotic bubble. And then…
A horrible.
Terrible.
Silence.
Followed by a deafening screeeEEEECHHH!!!
Jolting in place, the jester nearly yanked the key from its slot. Her eyes searched rapidly over the great expanse, watching the fae fire from the guards extinguish one after another into the inky blackness.
Their whimpers carried on the winds, her stomach dropping when the entire ground trembled beneath her feet.
It didn’t take a genius to know what that meant. To feel the static in the air thicken once more, penetrating into everything so completely there was little room to breath; to exist beyond the magic growing in volume.
The jester felt her knees unwillingly knock together, the emotions that had once consumed every part of herself shattered to the stones below when her name was not only spoken… it was howled over the distorted screams from the now panicking guards.
Something was coming, large and destructive.
‘No, not somethin.’ She thought, flattening herself against the door. ‘SomeONE.’
Terror shot throughout her body, locking any possible movement into a total standstill. She couldn’t look away, transfixed by the dark shape taking form, rising higher and higher over the trees and stones and whatever else stood in his way. His massive size continued to expand, contort, ripping through the foliage as those eyes finally locked solely on her; alight behind fangs glistening around her name.
She shook her head, the bells on her hat jingling pathetically.
“N-no…” she cried, palming the key and knob frantically as he charged. ‘No no NO, not again! Not again, please!’
Spinning around, her wrist flicked while the other worked quickly turning the knob, shoving herself through the door the moment its hinges groaned.
Not a moment too soon she tore the key away and slammed the barrier shut right into that gruesome, snarling maw—its fangs clacking around orders she refused follow. In haste she relocked the exit, her fingers trembling almost too much to complete the task, but complete it she did just in the nick of time.
For the wood shuddered beneath the monsters impact, flinging both her and the key head over heels down the hills opposite side.
For a moment she didn’t know what to make of it all, eyes bleery and unfocused, remaining flat on her back with little more than the weeds cradling her head. It felt like her thoughts still rattled from one end of her skull to the other, but slowly, agonizing slow, they fitted themselves back into place.
Her other senses soon followed, gradually coming back into focus, allowing the gentle silence of the new landscape to wash over her. The air no longer tingled with his magic (or any magic for that matter!), holding only the gentle caress from the wind and nothing more. Nothing twisted or dangerous.
No smiles offering deals in the shadows, or hands sculpting an unwilling body into a bastardization of itself.
Just her, the door, and nature falling back into its quiet serenade.
That is… until she shot a fist in the air, hollering at the top of her still burning lungs, “HECK YEAH, BABY!”
Springing back to her feet, the fist—that’d been clenched and ready to punch the sky—turned into a one finger salute towards the now locked door.
“That’s what’cha losers get thinkin ya had me all helpless and beaten down.”
She threw back her head, practically howling, “can’t believe ya really fell for that act! Well, jokes on you clowns! I made it out, and you!” She smirked, thrusting her crotch forward, “ya can SUCK IT, chumps!”
That jester continued to giggle at her own lewd gesture, shaking her head somewhat as the silence stretched further into the night. It didn’t surprise her one bit that he didn’t answer. How could he hear that normally blasphemous remark all the way from the other side? What could he do even if he did now that her feet stood solidly elsewhere, in a realm far removed from the goblin kingdom and far from his influence?
‘Nothin, that’s what!’
The jester smirked all the more, shaking her head as she went back to addressing the task at hand. Escaping only solved half of her problem, the rest relied solely on making sure she stayed gone.
A hand idly slid over the cracks in the mask, her anger from before trickling back drop by heated drop. Though it would’ve made things much more simple to blend in with human society, it wouldn’t do much now that it’d been damaged. The magic had already leaked out, and she sorely doubted anyone worth their salt could fix it on this side of the 9 realms.
That left the jester with few options, but options none the less. Ones that might be tricky if she were to be completely honest, yet what wasn’t in situations like this?
With that in mind, she set about to locate the key. Though it’d done its initial job spectacularly, she’d be damned stupid to not take something of its magnitude with her, knowing that despite its abilities being limited on this side of the realms, it at least held the power to get her the rest of the way through this hair brained scheme.
That much she was banking on if her research were to be correct.
It was only on her second pass near where she landed that she spotted it sticking up from the grass, her eyes landing on the skull shape delicately crafted at its bow end. Originally she hadn’t wasted much time examining it before cramming the thing into her pocket, but now, as it dangled from between her fingers, glinting somewhat in the single moons light, she could appreciate the craftsmanship that went into its creation, admiring the fine details and the sharp fangs that filled its mouth.
Her own pointy toothed smile stretched, believing it to be a truly worthy relic to own (especially given its proclivity to get the holder out of any jam).
Shoving the skeleton key back into her pocket, she gave one last fleeting glance towards the door. Her lids capped, mischief tickling across her voice as she spun about in the most overly dramatic mock bow known to man.
“Well, yer grace, I’d say it’s been a real slice stuck with yer good-fer-nothin keester, but let’s be real. Ya just ain’t got the chops for keepin a classy dame like me around. Never have, and…” she sneered almost venomously, “never will again.”
Pivoting on her toes, she gave a final halfhearted wave, sauntering in the opposite direction. A merry tune spilled from mouth as she tallied up an entire bucket list in her head on what she would do with the remainder of her life, where she would go, who she’d see (if they were even still alive), none the wiser to knob twisting back and forth on the door.
“Iisss thaaaat sssoooooo?”
For a split second she thought her mind might be playing tricks on her. But… no, that voice was unmistakable. Undeniably HIS, and undeniably HERE!
The jester wiped around so fast she nearly tumbled head first into the dirt, her fists shooting up, ready to swing at the first ugly mug that came into view. Though try as she might to locate the source, and despite having felt those words tickle just beside her ear, nothing stood before her other than the open clearing and…
And the door!
She didn’t understand, searching in all directions again, wondering if the sanity she once claimed to possess had finally snapped at the worst moment in the history of ever!
Surely not. Surely what she’d heard had only been an echo. A memory perhaps? There was no way life would be cruel enough to set her free only for her to trip at the god damn finish line, right?
Another minute passed, her eyes swiveled along the empty woods and the shadows that encompassed it. Her throat worked hard to shove what little courage she still clung to forward, though the words remained sticky on her tongue, “just uh… my imagination. Yeah. That’s it.”
Her arms lowered, slowly to the heart still thrumming in her chest. “He’s not here. He can’t be here that’s… it’s impossible.”
Laughter filled the space between them, spilling all around to the point the jester fought the sudden instinctual urge to run.
“What the [&$#%], ya freak!?”
A tutting sound soon followed, as did that voice she’d grown to dispose so completely, “ suuuch laaanguage, myyy deeeaaarrrr .”
A snarl tore from her throat. She was having none of it. Not that condescending tone and most especially not those disgusting pet names.
With hands shaking near her face, she practically snapped, “show yerself, ya slimey piece of-!”
K N O C K
K N O C K
K N O C K
Her milky complexion turned even more ashen. Unwillingly she looked towards the mounds stone steps, following them up and up and up to the door until landing on the only thing moving.
The keyhole.
The keyhole that was warping!
Shifting.
“No…” she whimpered, foot backing away. Her trembling increased tenfold when the wood pressed outward, the hollow pit in her stomach sloshing so violently the acid burned at the back of her throat.
“That’s not…” her head shook, anxious tears threatening to pour, “ya can’t without… a-a key…”
“Ooooh my salaciously, slippery siiiren. Did you honestly think this would stop me?”
What once stood as a simple keyhole shifted into a narrow slit, the metal squishing, then expanding to reveal an all too familiar green eye peering down. It wheeled about hither and dither, eradicating what little confidence the jester still clung to, her defiant stance melting away to reveal the quivering, horrified form utterly frozen in place.
The acidic glow sailed along the foreign terrain only once before falling upon her, a delighted purr tightening every nerve in her small and defenseless body.
“Aaah! There you aaaaaare…” the eye flashed, her breath caught further when the swirls and divits (that once made up the doors wooden surface) twitched to life, transforming the natural look into one filled almost entirely with eyes.
His eyes.
Every one of them staring directly at her!
They all shifted into various size and colors, pulsing with a hypnotic light that made the jester nearly collapse on the spot.
“No…” she mumbled, panic filling her head, “no no NO! Ya can’t do this! Not without a key! And-!” She swallowed hard, trying—and failing—to straighten her stooping shoulders, “and ya can’t get me here! Heh… HAH! Ya moron, I-I’m… I’m in the human realm, see. That’s-that’s outta yer jurisdiction!”
The eyes blinked one after the other, almost lazily as she laughed herself into hysterics, forcing more gusto into words she didn’t actually feel, “t-that’s right! I ain’t got no strings attached to you’s no more! I’m a free girl cus of this baby!”
Brandishing the skeleton key only made the multicolored lights flare that much more, the jester sniggering, bringing it closer to her face, “so why don’tcha take my advice, bub. Put an egg in yer shoe and BEAT IT already? I’m off limits now.”
“Is that what you think?”
His jovial tone practically knocked the wind from her sails. What once stood as a cocky smile slipped away, curving into an outright grimace when his chuckle morphed into a full blown howl.
“Why, you truly are a lark, my dear! But need I remind you of one itty bitty, teensy weensy, ever so crucial lil detail?”
She didn’t get a chance to respond before a thunderous boom descended, “we had a DEAL!”
Shielding her ears did little to drown out the explosive roar, her bones vibrating, sinking lower into herself as that hellish sound continued to drive relentlessly into her.
“Did you seriously think you could walk away from ME!?! After everything I’ve done for you?!”
Tiny spots swam at the corner of her vision when the eyes… god there were so many, all focused solely on her—bearing down, practically bursting into a thousand flames.
She wanted to scream, flinching away when the door heaved against its hinges. The voice grew in volume, warped and hissing with echoes lacing over it. Her legs gave out completely as an invisible force slammed against the surface, attempting to tear through the wood right then and there like tissue paper.
The imprint of enormous teeth stretched it even further, pushing and pushing to break through.
Scrambling back, the jester fought to put as much distance between her and the hill. Between her and that MONSTER attempting to force his bulk against the frame.
“S-s-stop!” She cried, practically gasping for breath.
He didn’t though, the snarl lifting in pitch, shoving his weight fully against the door that, with great effort, started to cave outward.
“No matter where you go…” another bang sounded, the wood and eyes bulging repeatedly, “no matter how far you run…” her heart nearly stopped seeing the metal buckle under the strain, choking back a sob lost to the creatures own howl, “I WILL find you! And when I do…”
Her body seized when the door splintered, the magic trying to keep it intact wavering under the constant barrage.
“Ooooh, what fun we’ll have, my dear.”
Hatred pounded through her veins, she clenching her fists tighter the longer he mocked. She knew what he meant by “fun”, spiteful tears searing hot trails down her cheeks.
“No. I’m done bein yer fool. Ya hear me? Done!”
She didn’t bother to hear his reply. She didn’t want to hear anything more from him ever again!
Spinning on her heels, and praying to any god that would listen the door held long enough for her to set plan B into motion, the jester made quick work pushing her body into an unsteady trot.
That’s all she needed. Just time to make things work. Just a chance to secure a clean escape.
Her steps wavered when his voice followed her regardless, whispering almost in a sickly sweet tone he so often loved to use, “I’ll see you soon, my dear… sweeeeeettt… Eponiiiiine….”
She shivered as the eyes blinked out one by one, slowly returning the forest to its soft, quiet blues. The only light to cast down upon her came from the waning moon above and the lone, green eye still staring fixedly through the keyhole.
She didn’t dare look at it longer than necessary, feeling its weight baring down on her the further she hobbled away.
At last it shut, the door returning to its original, solid shape (though very much worse for wear).
With a snort Eponine continued down a dirt path that gradually opened into rocks and gravel, grumbling defiantly, “not if I can help it.”