Chapter 2.38 Endgame Tactic

Rosie couldn't help but find it curious how her little sister wanted to talk to her now.

Out of all the times to talk, Alyssa wanted to talk to her now, in the middle of the night, when it's cold and out by a river. Rosie didn't understand, and she was a little suspicious, but Alyssa sounded upset so she came here.
"Lyss?" She called, trying to get her sister's attention.

"Alyssa." Rosie called once again, this time getting her attention. She could easily see that her sister was upset. She frowned, going over and sitting down next to her sister on the river bed. "Sweetie, what's wrong?" She frowned.
"Me and Tyler broke up." She sniffled, holding her legs up to her chest.

Rosie's eyes widened. "What?! Are you serious?" She asked, looking over at her sister. "Lyss, I'm so sorry. What did he say? What about the kids?" She asked, frowning.

"I'm serious." She spoke in a low, rather muffled voice. "We got into this huge argument, I don't even know what about. We weren't being loud so the kids didn't wake up, and then he just said that he didn't love me anymore, and that he didn't love the person who I am now."

Rosie frowned, standing up to hug Alyssa tightly. "I'm so sorry Alyssa. You know that if you ever need me, I'm here. I'm always here if you need to talk or if you need a girl's night out." She half smiled, sadly.
"Thanks." Alyssa mumbled in response, hugging her sister tightly back. But there was one thing her sister didn't quite know.

Rosie didn't know that Alyssa wasn't Alyssa at all. She also didn't know, that 'Alyssa' had a plan for Rosie. 'Alyssa' had been distracted from the main thing she wanted, she was too wrapped up in the family life. She wanted the witch to die, and it was either now or never.

The real Alyssa felt a lot differently. The real her felt hopeless, alone and rather frightened. She wanted to wake up back at home, wingless and the only memory of all this just being a dream. No matter how many times she squeezed her eyes shut and reopened them, it never did turn out to be a dream.

She sighed, facing the wall. If she knew the difference between day and night, she would have kept a tally of how long she's been here. With no actual way of knowing (apart from the fairy's occasional visits to torment her or tell her what horrible things she's doing to her family) she had no clue about how long she's been here. She heard a little tapping sound, but decided to just ignore it. What hope did she really have of getting rescued? Next to none.

She couldn't help but reminisce about the last thing she said to anyone in her family. She remembered that she had asked Tyler to take the kids out to the fair so she could recover from a hangover. She couldn't help but smile at that memory, but it just reminded her of how much she wanted to see her family again.
"Lyss?" Her eyes widened when she heard that little nickname. Could it be who she thought it was?

When she realized it was who she thought, she went straight to the cell door with both her hands resting against the chain link. "I knew you'd find me somehow." She beamed at him. "I knew it! I kept telling that fairy you'd see through her disguise." She smiled widely, overjoyed to see him.
"She honestly thought I wouldn't be able to tell the difference?" He shook his head slightly and figured it best not to ask about the wings. "There's just one problem; how do you get out of here?" He murmured, looking at the fence.
"There's a key in that torch, hidden underneath the flames." She explained, grinning still.

As soon as he managed to get the cell doors open, she hugged him tightly. She nuzzled lightly into him and was afraid that if she let go, he wouldn't be there. She was petrified that all of this and her being rescued was all just her imagination, and she didn't want it to be. She wanted to go home and hug all of her kids and find out on everything she's missed. So she was relieved when she looked up and knew he was still there. She kissed him softly, so very happy.

She was happy to see him again, more than happy. Alyssa pulled away slightly, still smiling as she couldn't wait to see all of her family again, and she couldn't help but wonder if anything had changed. When she left, there was one teenager, two children and two toddlers in the house. Part of her hoped none of them had their birthdays, but she knew there was nothing she could do if they did. She also couldn't wait to see her sister and sister in law again and meet them out for coffee for girl talk and gossip. 

But then she remembered something about her sister.

"Tell me, Pet, have you ever studied any of the wars in history in school?" The fairy asked, glancing in Alyssa's direction.

"Maybe, I can't remember. I went to school forever ago and history confused me." She shrugged, remembering all those dates and their order wasn't all too easy, and more than often she would muddle them up. She stood up and narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

"In one of the world wars, I can't quite remember which, the losing side used most of their remaining reserves to try and wipe out or split up the allies of the ones who were winning. The losing side used all their resources in one final, bloody battle. It was one of the worst battles in the war."

"Yes, but the people who started that lost the war." Alyssa pointed out, not sure where the fairy was going with this train of thought.

"Perhaps, sometimes history repeats itself, other times it doesn't." The fairy mused, "However, that isn't the point. Even though the losing side was losing, they still made one last attempt to win. I like to see it as their endgame tactic, like in chess, there are always many endgame tactics there too." She murmured.

"So, what is the point you're trying to make?" Alyssa asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My point is, I've been distracted. I've been focusing on your family more than the prize. I know your boyfriend and eldest know who I really am, so I'm going for my endgame tactic, my last attempt. I'll have what I want and more." She grinned maliciously at Alyssa. "I think it'll be rather nice, both sisters gone at once. But I won't start with you, Princess. You're cuter and you have a cuter voice. She sounds like you if you decided to start smoking." The fairy grinned, then tilted her head. "What do you think about a witch's death for a witch, hmm?" She grinned maliciously

Alyssa looked up at Tyler, remembering there were more important things that reunions. "We need to find Rosie. The fairy's after her."
"Do you know where she is?" He asked, frowning. "It might take a while to get to her, the castle here is huge."
Alyssa thought for a moment, unsure of a way to contact her sister. She then held out her hand expectantly once she knew what to do, "Can I have your phone? I'll call her."

"I just really don't know where everything went wrong." 'Alyssa' murmured, sniffling. She sighed while looking over at the river. She had to keep telling herself it'll only be a little longer before the bitch drowns. 

Rosie moved away from 'Alyssa' slightly when she felt her phone buzz. "I probably should get this, it might be one of the kids or something." She murmured, and stood up and took a few steps away from 'Alyssa'.

Rosie scowled when she saw the caller ID, prepared to give him a piece of her mind. "And what the hell do you want? Haven't you hurt my sister enough?" She growled, holding on to her phone very tightly.

"Huh? What are you on about? He's done nothing wrong." Alyssa answered, frowning. She was confused, but not as confused as Rosie.

Rosie glanced back at where 'Alyssa' was sitting, then asked into the phone. "Alyssa? But you're... How are you...? What?" She asked, really confused. How could her sister be on the phone when she was sat right there.

"Look, this is going to sound crazy, but if there's a me with you, or if you see me pretty soon, it isn't me. There's this crazy psycho fairy who's after you and she's made herself into me to try and trick you. She's pissed off at you because of what happened to that gothicy fairy."

"Elli." Rosie mumbled, frowning. "The gothicy fairy's name was Elli." She clarified while looking over at where the fake Alyssa was, but who isn't there anymore. 

"Whatever. Her and I weren't on a first name basis." Alyssa sighed. "Don't trust anything what the fake me says. She's trying to kill you. I really have to go, but don't trust her." And with that, Alyssa hung up.

Rosie sighed, looking at the phone and she couldn't help but grumble. "Not this again." and didn't even have time to put her phone away before she felt something ramming into her.

Melancholia preferred fighting as herself rather than as the sister. She held the witch under the water, her hands around her neck. "You're going to pay for what you did. A life for a life, that's fair, that's alright." She growled, keeping her down as best as she could with Rosie's struggling.
Rosie brought her knee up, colliding with the fairy's stomach. She saw the fairy falter for a second due to the pain, and she took her advantage and managed to switch positions.

"Really? You thought it would be that easy?" Rosie grinned. "Just look at you then look at me. If you thought I would be an easy fight, you really chose wrong. If anything, you chose wrong with messing with my family. The Matthews' family is a goddamn tough family to mess with, especially for just one itsy bitsy fairy." Rosie smirked.

The fairy glared at her, knowing that there wasn't just her after their family. She knew that the sister and the sister's boyfriend were going to come along much worse.

Rosie stood, pulling the fairy up too. "I think it's about time you stop messing with my family. You'll never, ever win." She grinned.

"Maybe not me, but it's not just me." Melancholia warned, grinning. Rosie rolled her eyes, and pushed the fairy back into the water. Once the fairy was underneath the water, Rosie bent down and spread her palm against the water's edge. She watched as it froze over, trapping the fairy underneath.

She waited until she saw the fairy's struggling come to a halt, and she stood up properly and dusted off her hands. "I should make a career out of this." She mused. She knew it wasn't going to be a long fight at all, but the question of where her sister was still remained, and what the fairy meant by it not just being her. Rosie wasn't entirely sure of what else to do, so she went to Alyssa's house to check on how her kids were.

Escaping the castle reminded Alyssa of one thing: she hated running and she certainly wasn't as athletic as her dad was. Running and sports was fine when she was a teenager, or when she was younger, but she was an adult now. She didn't want to run. She was thankful when they came to a stop, but she got worried as it was a rather abrupt halt. 

"Is something wrong?" She managed to say, partially hiding how out of breath she was. She had five kids and hadn't ran since before Belle was born. She had an excuse to be tired.

"This was the way coming in, fourth door on the left but it's a different room." Tyler murmured, looking around the unfamiliar room. 

"It probably is the same room, but maybe coming in from the other way caused you not to recognize it." She finally managed to catch her breath back.

"Maybe, but that still doesn't explain-" He cut himself off when he turned back to look at her and saw what was behind her. "You might want to look behind yourself." He murmured.

Alyssa glanced behind herself, and started to panic. There were fairies behind her, and not just a fairy either. Fairies. Plural. She looked back at Tyler, and she bit her lower lip. "Yeah, there's some behind you too." She frowned.

The two of them were surrounded by some sort of fairy army, and it really freaked Alyssa out how all of them were so similar looking (apart from their different hairstyles.)

There was the slow sound of clapping which got both her and Tyler's attention to the source of the noise, another fairy. "Bravo and brava for getting so far into the castle." Alyssa knew she knew that voice from somewhere...

"But still, what have we got here? It looks like the rats are trapped in the cage." Elli grinned, very pleased. "It's amazing what you can accomplish when you're in charge. But before we attack, I think we should have a little bit of fun with our guests."

Chapter 2.37 Miss Miserable

Chapter 2.39 Too Many Fairies

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AN: I couldn't just let them out easy peasy, could I? Nah. Where would be the excitement in that?

I figured the fight between Melancholia and Rosie wouldn't last all too long. Rosie's pretty damn strong and kinda scary so she wouldn't take long in taking care of a fairy like Melancholia.

See, I originally was going to make the fight between Melancholia and Rosie last longer, but I couldn't see how it would. Rosie would easily squash Melancholia, like a little bug (and not one of those asshole bugs that doesn't go squish, I mean one that you stand on and it dies)

I prefer this ending to the one I originally had planned. My original plan was for everything to be fixed this chapter, but then I came up with the fairy army thing so yeah.

Thank you for reading!

Chapter 2.37 Miss Miserable

"Are you excited for prom?"

Prom was probably one of the last things on Belle's mind. With the whole incident to do with her mom, she hasn't really been thinking about school social events, like prom.

Her cousin Elvie however was all for it.

"Has Axel asked you yet? What are you going to wear? We have to pick out dresses together. We should invite your sister too, it is a whole school prom." Elvie spurted out all the questions before Belle even had the chance to process them.

"He has but I don't think we should go he's busy worrying over applying for this music scholarship and I think that's more important than going to some silly school social event. I don't know what I'm going to wear, I doubt I'm even going." She sighed, while making sure her locker was definitely shut. "You can invite Melody if you want, but I won't be there."

Elvie groaned. "You're being boring. Scholarship or not, you have to go. You don't want to be that lame couple that's too busy for prom, and we have to pick out dresses together." She frowned. "It's the law. You have to pick out dresses with your sisters."

"You're not my sister though, you're my cousin." Belle raised an eyebrow, laughing a little. "Melody's my sister though, in case you forgot what a sister was." She clarified, teasing her cousin.

"Exactly! Imagine how disappointed she would be if she had to pick a dress out by herself." Elvie pouted.

"So, if I wasn't there, you wouldn't be there?" Belle asked, confused.

"No, I would be. It would just be much more fun if you were there too. I don't speak to Melody much so imagine how awkward it would be just me and her. Please can you try them on with us?"

Belle frowned. "There wouldn't be much point. Even if I did want to go trying on dresses, I wouldn't go spending tons on a dress that I'll only wear once." 

"Please come with?" Elvie pouted. "It won't be the same without you."

"I'm sure you'll-" Belle was interrupted by her cousin

"Pleeeaaaaasssseee?" Elvie dragged out the word, then quickly added "I'm going to do that until you agree to come." And she then repeated the 'please' but dragging it out even longer, which Belle didn't think was possible.

Belle let out a heavy sigh. "Fine. but I have the right to remain miserable if I want to." She half smiled.

Elvie grinned, "Trust me, Miss Miserable, you'll find it fun. Make sure your sister comes along too. I don't want her to feel left out."

"I'll make sure to invite Melody, don't worry. Where are we even going to go to get them? There are tons of stores and they all have basically the same dresses."

Elvie grinned still, reminding Belle of the Cheshire Cat "Trust me, I know the perfect place. Just make sure both of you and your credit cards show up, and don't make your sister as miserable as you, okay?"

"Prom?" Melody asked, frowning. "I thought it was only for you older kids." She mused, looking up at the ceiling instead of looking at her sister.

"Yep, prom. Elvira wanted to ask if you wanted to try dresses on with us." Belle smiled, honestly not wanting to go. She hated trying on dresses and shopping. 

Melody scoffed, thinking it would be funny to see how uncomfortable Belle would be there. "Sure, I'll go. Only to see you suffer though." She grinned, turning to face her older sister now.

Belle glared. "I'll tell Elvie that you want to come. I think she was on about going to a store after closing time so it's all ours. Apparently Aunt Rosie knows someone." She shrugged.

Apparently, Aunt Rosie did know someone, as the store was fully empty when they went in, as if the whole place was hired out for them with all of the dresses specifically for prom in the dressing room area.

"You can't not be excited Belle." Elvie grinned, and to Belle's surprise, even Melody had turned against her and was getting excited for prom and playing dress up. "I'm going first by the way. Oldest first." She decided.

"I'm second." Melody called.

Elvie went in first after picking out the dress she liked, so it was just Melody and Belle left to talk. Belle noticed that her sister looked a little down, so she asked. "Is everything alright Mel?"

Melody sighed slightly, before nodding, "Yeah, I guess, It's just all the stuff with mom, and what the fake her said," She murmured.

"The fake her was a bitch. You know that, right? No matter what she said, she was just trying to upset you." Belle tried to make her little sister feel at least a little bit better.

"I guess." Melody put on a smile, but that didn't really change the way she felt about herself,

"What do you think?" Elvie grinned, coming out of the changing room. She spun around, showing off all of the dress,

"I like it." Melody grinned back. "Have you got anyone to take you?" She asked, mostly out of interest.

Elvie shook her head, but still in a confident manor. "Nope. I'm going to dance with as many guys as I can." and she grinned while helping Melody up. "Your turn, and stay in your dress. We have pictures to take." She grinned.

"Are you going to be a little less miserable now? Your sister's having fun and I'm having fun." Elvie smiled. 

"I'm not being miserable, I'm being skeptical." Belle shrugged. "I still doubt there's going to be a dress that I will literally fall in love with." She looked over at her cousin.

"I know it seems silly, but you only go to prom once, remember?" She smiled, "You can get married and divorced as many times as you wish, only once will you go to prom."

Belle smiled in return, "I guess you're right."

Melody stepped out in her dress, a little uncertain. "What do you think? Is it alright?" She frowned.

"It looks perfect, Mel. Trust me. The colour really suits you." Elvie smiled at her, then her attention turned to Belle. "Before you go in, Miss Miserable, I want to ask you a couple of questions. It can be payment for being boring."

"Oh God." Belle muttered underneath her breath, knowing how her cousin could be. "Not about prom and whether or not I want to go, and please not about what I'm going to do when I leave high school." She had enough of the last question. She didn't know, and she was rather sure she would never know.

"Are you and Axel going to 'do it' after prom?" She asked outright, "You've been dating for ages." She looked over at her.

Belle looked at her cousin with wide eyes. "I-I don't think Melody particularly wants to hear about whether or not I'll have sex."

"I'd kinda like to know." Melody added, half smiling. "I kinda think you will, after all, you did kiss him the first day you met him." She raised an eyebrow.
Belle frowned. "How do you know that? You were still a baby then. Surely you can't have that good of a memory."
Melody shrugged, "You told me once I think. So, are you?" She asked

Belle sighed slightly. "I don't know. I've been kinda thinking about it, but not all too much. I know that with colleges and work, the odds are against us, so... I don't know. He is really special to me, and I honestly think I'm leaning more towards yes rather than no,"

Both Melody and Elvie gasped at the same time, and Belle went into the changing room before her cousin and sister could question her more. Belle really didn't feel like discussing sex, specifically her having sex for the first time, in detail.

Belle found herself actually liking trying on the dress. She liked the way it looked on her, and she couldn't help but feel pretty in it. There were even matching shoes with each dress which was useful as it cut down another need for shopping

And she had to admit, taking all the silly photos was rather fun. Maybe she was being a little bit of a fun killer before (not like she would ever admit that to her cousin of course.) It wasn't like she was about to go nuts over prom like how her cousin was, but she did want it to be memorable and she was rather excited for prom.

Ashton liked hanging out with Faye. She was nice and even though he had to read a lot whenever he came over to see her, he liked it. He knew it made her happy as well whenever he came over, probably because she got lonely living on her own, something he never really understood.
"I know you don't like your mom, but why don't you live with your dad?" He asked, rather carefully though. He didn't want to upset her, just in case.

She tilted her head slightly, and she handed him her notebook which read "Didn't I tell you before? I don't have one."
He furrowed his eyebrows, reading and then rereading the note. He looked at her, confused. "What do you mean by you don't have one? Do you mean that you can't remember him?" He asked. "I can't really remember mine either." He shrugged.
Faye shook her head again and wrote "No, I mean that I don't have one. I'm technically a clone."

"A clone?" He asked. confused. "I thought those didn't exist..." He trailed off.

Faye sighed, and wrote. "They don't. There was a time when they were experimenting with it, and my mother wanted a biological relative younger than her so that if she ever died, her magic wouldn't just fade away. So, she went to this scientist guy, and I was made from the same DNA as her. We have different eye and wing colours because of a slight genetic mutation as cloning was and still is no where near perfect. I was the only truly successful one made, most of the other experiments died or were mutated so horrifically they had to be killed."

Her little story just confused him more, and it brought up more questions. "How do you know you were a clone? And what do you mean about her magic?" He asked.

"My mom was never really good at bedtime stories." She wrote down in her notebook, and turned a page when he asked about magic. "Fairy magic isn't like witch magic. A witch's magic disappears when the witch dies. Their magic is theirs. However, fairies are different. The next fairy in line has a choice. To either accept the magic or pass it on. If the pass it on then all their spells that can be reversed are reversed. If it is accepted, their magic goes on to the next person in their family, often split between the children than want it." She explained, and shook her hand slightly. She really wanted her voice back, all this writing hurt her hand.

"Are all of them reversible?" He asked, then frowned slightly. "Sorry." He felt bad making her write so much.

"It's alright." She smiled slightly at him as she continued to write. "It depends on the spell and if it was direct or not. Say for example, there was this mortal who was turned into a witch a long time ago. When the fairy that did that to her died, her's didn't get reversed as the fairy made the potion, and she didn't give the witch her powers herself so that witch would still have her powers and so that spell wasn't direct. The spell my mother cast on me to get rid of my voice was direct. She cast the spell on me, and therefore when she's gone, so will the spell and I'll have my voice back." She explained, and she smiled slightly at him.

"Your mom made you lose your voice?" He asked. He knew she was kind of a bitch, but he didn't think she was that bad.

"More like she took it." Faye wrote down, clarifying. "Writing and speaking of mothers, now you know I'm not mad or anything, I still know where my mother is keeping your mom." She looked up at him, and she saw that a little metaphorical light came on in the back of his mind.
"That's right, you do know where she is."

It was a little later when Belle and Melody came back home from shopping, and they went from laughing and giggling to being serious when they came inside. Both of the girls could tell that there was something serious going on.
Belle narrowed her eyes at the blonde fairy, noticing she looked a lot like the evil one. "Who's that?" She glared.
Ashton spoke up as he was standing next to Faye. "This is Faye. She knows where mom is."

Chapter 2.36 Identity Uncovered

Chapter 2.38 Endgame Tactics

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AN: That's a rather mean cliffhanger, I know. I aim to have next chapter up before 2015 however, so y'know. Won't be that long of a wait.
I've never been to prom before, my first prom is next summer (Summer 2016) and we have two over here. A Y11 one and a Y13 one.
I hope all that fairy and magic stuff made sense, if not what Faye was trying to say was that fairy magic is passed on when a fairy dies to that fairy's children. The dead fairy's kids can chose whether they want to keep it or pass it on. If there's one, and they chose to pass it on, then all spells get reversed, as if that fairy never had their magic. If they keep it, that fairy gets as much power as the dead fairy plus their own. Say if there's two kids, and one says "no, I don't want it" but the other says "I'll have it, I want it" all the power goes to that single fairy who wanted it. (But Faye's an only child so the choice is completely hers.). However, if the spell isn't direct, it can't fully be reversed. 

On another note, it's snowy outside and it's rather deep so fingers crossed it stays/deepens until next week so no school. First snow in about two years and it's in the holidays *sigh* well, at least I don't really need to go anywhere.

Also, final note, I've recently hit 10000 pageviews, and me being the generous person I am, have given away these gifts. They can also work as belated Xmas gifts too, so yay! I am just too kind, aren't I? ;)

I lied, very final note, I shamefully love that selfie picture (♪But first, lemme take a selfie ♪)