Work Text:
The night sky was growing darker with each passing second. Garlena was painfully aware of that fact as she hurried along the empty streets of the Emerald City, clutching her daughter’s hand tightly. She and her five-year-old daughter, Calmina, had been visiting with some relatives out in Munchkinland, and Garlena had carelessly lost track of the time. Her relatives had insisted they stay the night, but Garlena had stubbornly refused, and now she was paying the price. A chill breeze swept the night air as she hastened her footsteps and attempted to ignore the pounding in her chest.
After a few minutes of hurrying along, the streetlights came on, casting an even eerier glow upon the green pavement. Garlena knew she had to get home quickly. It was not safe to be out after dark these days. Hardly anything at all was safe anymore since the Wicked Witch of the West had appeared.
Now, Garlena had never actually seen the horrid woman, but she'd certainly heard the stories. She knew that the Witch flew around Oz on a broomstick, terrorizing innocent Ozians and spreading terrible lies about their beloved Wizard. The Witch had a soul as black as ash and, what was worse, skin as green as sin. Garlena had heard many explanations for this, from the fact that the green skin was due to the woman’s twisted nature, to the rumor that it was because she was envious of the lives the Ozians led. Whatever the case, the woman was not natural, which meant that she was dangerous, and Garlena knew that she most certainly did not want to run into the Witch.
The two turned yet another corner onto another empty street. The Emerald City had been practically deserted after sunset for the past five months. After the Witch had begun wreaking her havoc on Oz, the Wizard had advised the Emerald City citizens to be in their homes after dark. Garlena had stuck to that curfew up until tonight, and by this point she was beginning to regret turning down her relatives' invitation. The fact that she and her daughter were the only ones outside at this hour did nothing to calm her already frazzled nerves. She gripped Calmina’s hand more tightly as she tried to keep the shivers from running down her spine.
Calmina looked up at her mother with wide eyes but said nothing as she was pulled along by the hand. She knew something was wrong, but she couldn't be sure exactly what it was that had her mother so worried. She hugged a small porcelain doll close to her chest with her free hand, which brought her some amount of comfort. The doll was her prized possession, and she carried it everywhere. It had been a gift from her father, the last gift he'd given her before he'd passed away almost a year ago. People often worried that such a small child would most certainly break such a fragile object, but Calmina always took the utmost care with it. She practically guarded the small doll with her life.
Suddenly, Garlena spotted something out of the corner of her eye, and her breath caught in her throat as she froze in place. Calmina stumbled as her mother stopped short, making sure to keep her doll clutched securely in her free hand. Garlena drew her gaze up to the sky, hoping that it was only paranoia causing her eyes to play tricks on her, but her fears were confirmed when she was met with the sight of a cloaked figure traveling through the night sky on a broomstick. Terrified that she and Calmina would be spotted, she changed direction and quickly pulled her daughter into a nearby alleyway. The small child whimpered softly as she was ushered into the dark space, and she threw her arms around her mother's legs for fear of losing sight of her.
The two stood stock-still for several seconds, and Garlena began to entertain the thought that they were in the clear. Then, without warning, there came a sudden sound of rustling cloaks as the Witch swept down and dismounted her broom in the very same alleyway the two Ozians had chosen as their hiding place.
Garlena felt her breath catch again, and she found herself involuntarily backing up against the stone wall of the alley. She pulled Calmina in close, hoping against hope that the Witch wouldn't see them in the darkness. Calmina didn't quite seem to understand what was going on, but thankfully she seemed frightened enough by the situation to keep silent.
However, luck was obviously not with them tonight for, after leaning her broom up against the wall, the Witch whipped around and faced them. She froze, obviously having just become aware of their presence. Before Garlena could make a move, the Witch stepped to the side, blocking their exit from the alleyway. Fear constricted Garlena's chest as she realized that the Witch had them trapped. She could not see the woman's face, for it was veiled by the hood of her black cloak, but Garlena could practically feel the Witch's eyes boring into her own. For a few moments time hung suspended in the air, and the only sound was that of Calmina's frightened whimpers.
The Witch took a step forward, and Garlena felt a sharp sense of foreboding. How had an otherwise ordinary day landed her here, facing her untimely end at the back of a dark alley? Garlena didn't know exactly what the Witch did to her victims, but she had certainly never heard of anyone who’d run across the dreadful woman and lived to tell the tale. And yet, even as she stood shivering before the cloaked figure in front of her, Garlena was not as concerned for her own safety as she was for that of her young daughter.
Suddenly hysterical, Garlena pleaded, "Please, I don't care what you do to me, but let my daughter go." Her voice was shaking terribly, and she could not bear to look at the woman before her. Nervously, she took a step to the side and stood protectively in front of Calmina.
Surprisingly enough, the Witch seemed taken aback by Garlena's sudden outburst, and she froze mid-step. Slowly, the Witch reached up and pulled back her hood, revealing her face. "Look, I'm not going to hurt you," she said softly, holding her hands out with the air of someone trying to coax a frightened puppy.
Garlena hardly even registered the fact that the Witch had spoken, for she was still reeling from the shock of seeing the woman's face. Her green skin shone eerily, even in the darkness of the alley, but surprisingly her expression showed no malice. Even more surprising was the fact that this woman was not the hideous old hag everyone assumed she was, but rather a young girl. In fact, she didn't appear a day over twenty. Garlena wondered how such a young girl could strike fear into the heart of an entire country when she hardly looked old enough to be out of school.
Calmina seemed to have a different reaction to the Witch's unmasking altogether. She registered nothing but the green skin and cried out in alarm as she realized that it was the Wicked Witch of the West standing before them. A moment of silence followed this, which was broken by the sound of porcelain shattering against emerald pavement. Suddenly oblivious to the situation around her, Calmina cried out once more, this time from the horror of what she'd just done. Her beautiful porcelain doll lay ruined in the middle of the street and so, like any young child, she began to cry. Garlena's shock was once more replaced by fear as she looked to the Witch to see how she would react.
Unexpectedly, the Witch's expression morphed into one of fear rather than rage. "Please, please be quiet. I can't be found here," she whispered urgently.
Garlena was surprised once more as she listened to the woman's voice. The Witch did not speak in the cruel, cackling voice that one would expect, but rather one that was softer and exceedingly more human. Garlena could hear genuine fear laced through each syllable. Slowly and carefully, she stooped down and took Calmina into her arms, never removing her gaze from the Witch as she did so. Calmina continued to sob, but she was considerably quieter in the safety of her mother's arms. The Witch visibly relaxed and watched Calmina cry for a few moments before casting her eyes down to the porcelain fragments that now littered the ground.
"The doll?" she asked, sounding genuinely curious as to why the broken doll had caused Calmina such distress.
Garlena was both surprised by the question and unsure of how to respond to it. Her eyes darted to the alleyway's opening, and for a moment she considered making a run for it, but she decided against it almost immediately. The Witch was still blocking her path, and even if she and Calmina did manage to push past the woman, they'd be caught almost immediately if the Witch decided to give chase. Garlena shivered a bit. Sure, the young woman didn't seem very threatening right now, but who was to say it wasn't just a trick? Garlena couldn't forget who she was dealing with here, or what this woman had done to Oz. She decided that it was best to keep the Witch talking for now.
Taking a shaky breath, she responded, "It was a gift from her father. He gave it to her before he…passed away." She tried not to glare at the Witch for asking such a question, even if she couldn't have known the answer was so personal. She still wasn't certain whether or not the woman was toying with her.
The Witch nodded, glancing back at Calmina, who hiccupped quietly as the tears continued to run down her cheeks. For a moment the Witch seemed lost in her own thoughts, and Garlena once again considered making a break for it. Before she could decide, the Witch made to reach for her broomstick. Garlena watched her movements with wide eyes.
The Witch seemed about to mount the broom, when she appeared to remember something and reached into the black pouch that was hanging around her waist. She pulled out a large leather-bound book and Garlena tensed once more, eyeing the green woman warily. She was not sure what the book was, but she was pretty sure that this was the reason the Witch had landed in the alleyway in the first place.
The Witch skimmed the pages until she seemed to find what she was looking for, and she read it over three or four times. When this was finished, she moved to close the book, but then seemed to realize something else and returned her eyes to the pages once more. All of this happened in the span of about ten seconds, and then the Witch was on her feet once more.
For a moment it appeared as though the woman would just leave, but instead she turned back to face them. Before Garlena could even register what was happening, the Witch began to chant in a language that Garlena didn't understand. Though she couldn't make out the words, she knew enough to assume that the Witch was casting a spell. Garlena squeezed her eyes shut and hugged Calmina tightly, anticipating some sort of attack, but was surprised to find that none came.
After a while Calmina began to struggle in her mother's arms, and Garlena's eyes flew open. She and Calmina now stood alone in the alleyway once more, the Witch seemingly having vanished into thin air. Garlena looked around apprehensively, as if expecting the Witch to jump out from behind the corner, but it actually seemed that the woman had left, inflicting no harm on them in the process. Garlena could hardly believe it as she finally allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief.
Calmina continued to squirm and finally succeeded in freeing herself from her mother's arms. Looking down, Garlena finally discovered the cause of her daughter's strange behavior. There on the ground in front of them, completely intact and looking good as knew, was Calmina's porcelain doll.
Garlena could do nothing but gape as her daughter picked up the doll and hugged it close to her. Calmina, being a child, did not question or care about how this miracle had come to pass, but Garlena was a different story. She was fairly certain she knew who was responsible for this, and the thought unnerved her. None of what had just transpired made the slightest bit of sense.
Taking her still ecstatic daughter's hand, Garlena stepped out of the alleyway on shaky legs. They were finally able to continue on their way home, and Garlena found that her steps were slower and more relaxed now, rather than more frantic. Something about the air of the night had changed over the course of the last five minutes, and for some reason her earlier fear had evaporated. Calmina skipped happily at her side, obviously feeling the same change in atmosphere that Garlena had.
After a few moments, Garlena absentmindedly drew her gaze to the sky once more, and she could have sworn she'd seen a speck of black against the dark night sky. However, no fear came with this thought at all. Quite the contrary. As she returned her gaze to the road ahead, Garlena could feel the ghost of a smile pulling at the corner of her lips.