Chapter Text
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a girl once lived. A girl named Esmerelda.
She surpassed all other students and came out on top every time. Ever since she was a little girl. Her grades are above exceptional, her work gets used as an example. She captained the debate team, head cheerleader. She’s the girl teachers praised and parents compared their children to. She got her essays hung up in classrooms
She shone brightly. The way her perfect silky black hair stayed in a bun. The way her boring blue uniform never wrinkled. And definitely not the way her crystal blue irises captured everyone's attention. She never liked being the center of attention, she never liked that other kids were envious. Esmerelda embraced it.
Her pride and joy, her purpose in life, her ego fed off it. It fed off being perfect. Of being the one girls envied and boys stared at.
She had many friends, many people who would sell their soul to even talk to her. She had people who could be so nice to her then push someone into a locker for fun. She had followers. She had loyal subjects and she, the queen above it all, controlled all of them with a flick of her wrist.
Esmerelda walked down the hall, her books clutched to her chest. The shiny floor shined as if honored to be the floors she walked on. The beige walls became a more tolerable color as if they were worried to ruin her eyesight with their ugliness.
Esmerelda strutted, head held high, her black mary janes clicking against the polished floor. She walked as kids moved out of the way, like a powerful queen ready to execute anyone who dared disturb her royal presence. She walked down the center, not moving for someone who stood to close. She bumped their shoulders, not so subtly telling them to move out of her way. She turned the corner, ignoring the poor girl who nearly ran into her.
Then Craig ran up to her.
The kid who ate paint as a kid, who had charcoal stains on his buttoned shirt and marker on his hands. The kid who passed classes but only ever cared about a few things.
The opposite of Esmermela.
“Hiya Esme!” He ran up, his fluffy black shoulder length hair bouncing as he ran up to her.
“Hello Craig.” Esmerelda responded, her voice flat with emotions. She continued to walk forward, her eyes locked onto the door, her gaze unwavering and determined.
His ghost pale skin stood out of place against the ugly beige walls and the other kids in the hallway who avoided Esmerelda. Craig’s eyes, grey as the moon yet as blue as the sea, shone like bright stars in the clear night sky with every step he took. Nothing could ever make the shimmer falter.
“What class are you going to?” Craig spoke, breaking the silence around the two.
“Study hall.” Esmerelda shot back, her answers short and snipped.
“Oh, right.. I knew that..” He muttered, laughing nervously. He didn’t know why he bothered asking, he knew it by now. It never changed; Honors math, Honors english, Honors, Honors, Honors. Nothing ever changed, ever for the new year. More advanced classes, more electives. It repeated every year.
She stopped abruptly in front of the door number 1583. Mrs. Vador. The one teacher people prayed and wished they wouldn’t end up in her class. And she had a favorite; Esmerelda. Disciplined, strict, quiet, and very good at her work.
“Bye Craig. Have fun with normal math.” She said, voice still flat but had a hint of mocking smugness. ‘Normal math’. Anything not to her level seemed ‘normal’ or even ‘below her’.
“Bye Esme.” Craig muttered as he walked away to ‘normal’ math.
She entered the class, her steps causing everyone in the class to go silent and pretend to work. She walked over to her seat and sat down just as Mrs. Vador walked through the door. The tall, hard plastic chair sat in the corner of the room. The desk, just as tall as the chair, felt cold to the touch and clearly hasn’t been used all day. Esmerelda set her school supplies on the desk, making sure it looked neat and perfect, just like her. Her notes on her workbook, a book in the corner of the desk, a highlighter and a mechanical pencil on the side next to her workbook.
“Goodmorning. You know the rules and the expectations. Be quiet and work on something.” Mrs. Vador grumbled, taking a seat in her plush chair behind the desk. She sipped something out of her black mug. The room smelled like coffee, dark roast, and it clearly came from Mrs. Vapors large mug. What else would it be? Some idiots think it’s a potion or a poison are so stupid. There’s no such thing as magic, only science.
Everyone knows that.
Esmerelda blinked, breaking her out of her thoughts. She looked down at the white index cards with her perfect handwriting. She grabbed her workbook, opening it to the next blank page. She wrote and rewrote her English notes until she had mastered them in her perfect handwriting and could remember them word for word in her perfect mind.
She studied the entire time, her hands flipping through index cards and writing notes non stop. Her eyes moved across the words, scanning the same sentence again and again until she could never forget the words.
After lunch and in her last class, she, unfortunately, had to partner with Craig, who had already drawn on his lap notes. Little stars here, flowers there, even some character drawings.
The class started, and Craig immediately jumped ahead to throw ingredients he quickly glanced at the name of in the pot. He held a flower over the pot, fingers loosening as he prepared to drop it into the pot.
“It’s supposed to be corpse root, not corpse flower. Did you even listen or were you being to dumb?” Esmerelda scolded, rolling her eyes as she snatched the flower out of Craig’s hands before he could ruin the entire mix and make her get an F.
“Sorry..” He replied, his energy seemingly dragging as he sat back down in his chair and didn’t touch another thing.
Esmerelda grabbed a lemon and squeezed the juice into the mix while sneering in annoyance. She grumbled under her breath about how “normal people should be in the same school as her” and that “others are so dumb”.
Her hand hovered above the pot, about to drop a Blaze rod into the pot when a blaring screech came from the announcement speakers. The room went silent as the announcement came from overhead; “Dear students, everyone needs to stop what they're doing and hide in their classrooms immediately. This is not a drill.”
Everyone stood frozen, the room quiet enough to hear a pin drop from the hallway. Then some quickly shut off their gases and the overhead lights quickly, getting under their desks.
Esmerelda stood tall in the room of crouched and cowering people. “Calm down! It was probably only a dumb prank!” She shouted, continuing to mix the chemicals. Craig attempted to reach over and sneakily turn off the gas, but Esmerelda only slapped his hand away and glared at him, causing Craig to retract his hand.
“Esmerelda.. It seems real! We need to hide!” Craig argued, whisper-yelling from under a chair. The worry lines of his brow visible.
“Are you dumb?! You're so stupid if you think this is real!” She dropped a tube, it rolled over the hard floor in front of the window. She bent over, picking it off the ground and turning to face everyone else with her back to the window behind her, “your all so stupid to believe that anything would happen ever-”
Glass broke.
Shards flew.
Esmerelda screamed.
Claws dug into her shoulders as a harpy’s clawed toed feet dug into her shoulders and lifted her up multiple feet of the ground. Her feet rose off the ground as she thrashed and tried to get free..
“ESMERELDA!” Craig shouted, going to grab onto her legs as the harpy dragged her away. Craig's feet slowly came off the ground, at least a foot above it, dangling from Esmerelda's legs as the Harpy flew over the town.
Their classmates were frozen in the classroom, before a student ran to get the principal.
They flew over their town, seeing the fountain and the identical house.
They flew over the wall, and suddenly, they were falling.
Craig landed with a drop, but on shocking soft leaves. Esmerelda landed on a sandy place, covered with little grains of sand and crystal like petals.
“Holy Akulan… where are we?...” Craig breathed out, standing up and looking around.
The trees were taller than the chapel in the town, being covered in moss and colorful mushrooms. The grass was healthier than anything they have ever seen. The bushes and berries and fruits were so plump and looked so juicy. The critters were seemingly glowing with a heavenly light. And the path.. Oh, the path. A sandy walkway with stepping stones and crystal like pebbles. There were some flowers, petals were a pastel variation of every color imaginable. It was majestic. It was beautiful, it was-
“An outrage!” Esmerelda shouted, quickly standing up and brushing off her blue blazer and plaid skirt. “This is just stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid! I am not supposed to be here!” She exclaimed, kicking the sand of the path. Her voice echoed throughout the woods, bouncing off the trees and the ground.
Craig winced, “Esmerelda.. maybe we should quiet-”
“Quiet?” Esmerelda spat as she whipped around to face him, face painted with rage, “quiet?! You expect me, Esmerelda Vox, to be quiet after a stampede of void-deer dragged me into the beyond?! Have you lost your ever loving MIND?!!” Her shouting shook the trees and boomed throughout the forest.
Craig was about to speak once again when he froze, staring behind esmerelda. It was big and covered in shadow. The trees seemed to hide it, and the sun shone everywhere but where that mysterious creature was.
Craig lunged at Esmerelda just as she was about to yell again and pushed her into the bush. Just as Esmerelda was about to scream at him when she looked past Craig’s face and saw a giant wasp, easily the size of a child, landed right where they once were. “Shhh…” Craig shushed her, covering her mouth.
The wasp, a yellow and black striped child-sized giant, looked around the vast trees and bushes with its two multifaceted eyes. The wings were see-through, but when the wings hit the sun they got a rainbow shimmer to them. They buzzed and flapped, causing a breeze to rustle the leaves. The rainbow shimmer from the wasp’s wings brushed across their faces.
They froze, trying to stay as still as possible so the wasp wouldn’t detect them. The shine swept over their eyes, making Esmerelda blink from the sudden brightness. Craig closed his eyes and held his breath, making as little sound as humanly possible. Esmerelda sat there, staring at the face of the wasp. Its eyes looked everywhere at once, circling.
It turned and moved silently, sniffing and looking for them. It looked in every bush, slowly creeping closer..
And closer..
And closer..
The air dropped. The wasp froze.
They were spotted.
And had no idea where to run