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!