Chapter Text
“Go mess up the courtyard I said, it’ll be fun I said.” Red grumbled to herself for what felt like the hundredth time that hour.
All she’d wanted was to rip up some portraits, smash some statues, fuck with the Captain of the royal guard, and get back to her room before her mother had the chance to notice she was gone. But noooooooooo, she just HAD to fall through a goddamn RABBIT HOLE on her way back to her room. The only permanent rabbit hole had been locked up long before she was born, and there hadn't been any random appearances in years. Except of course, for last night. Because of courseRed would be the one to discover that.
She’d landed in the middle of a forest during the night, and after attempting to ask for directions (the plants here were incredibly unhelpful), realized that she wasn’t going to achieve anything tonight. She’d tried and failed to catch some sleep under a tree. So now here she was a few hours later, walking around in the early hours of the morning.
Where was she going? Fuck if she knew, but every time she sat still all she could feel was the ever growing sense of nausea and hunger gnawing at her stomach. Even if the trade off was having to deal with the throbbing pain that shot through her ankle every time she took a step.
Her aimless wandering was paused when she heard the distinct sounds of crunching leaves and snapping twigs behind her. Red felt a stab of panic cut through the pain and exhaustion clouding her brain, and managed to quickly duck behind a tree that she prayed was enough to obscure her from view.
When she was sure they hadn’t gotten any closer, she cautiously peaked around to gaze at her new company. There was two of them, and they were both thankfully staring at the lake that she’d thought she’d managed to get farther away from. One was a white man with short brown hair and simple clothing. The other was a slightly shorter brown woman with teal box braids going down to her waist. She was also, dressed as a pirate for some reason. They were wandering around the lake slowly, chattering amongst themselves.
Red was caught off guard when the nausea, which had up until this point mostly been a nuisance, hit her at full force, causing her to stumble forward. Luckily she managed to grab onto the tree and stumble behind it again, but not before she caught sight of the strangers whipping around to face her
She froze, heart thundering in her chest. ‘Maybe I got lucky and they didn’t see me.’ She reasoned.
Her hopes were quickly dashed when the woman called out. “Is someone there?”
‘Fuck.’
Red said nothing. Part of her reasoned that she’d been looking for a way out anyway, so she should probably go speak to them. The other, much louder part of brain told her she that if she moved a single muscle she was going to be murdered right here and now. So yeah, she was staying put. She highly doubted she could make a break for it anyway, considering her current state.
The strangers hadn’t given up though and continued calling to her. She squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to make her head stop swimming. Slowly the sounds of the voices and surrounding forests seemed to dull and fade away as her grip on the bark loosened. She pleaded with her body to stay upright, at least until the people were gone, but when did anything ever go right for her?
…
“Are you sure you heard a person and not like, a weird bird or something?” Ben asked. This had meant to be a simple outing, with Uma and Harry’s daughter Nerissa turning 4, they’d began looking for a place to host her birthday party, and somehow landed on the enchanted lake as an option (it seemed like a weird choice to him but hey, he wasn’t a parent). Harry ended up having something come up, and he’d happened to have a rare break in his scheduale, so she’d invited him to tag along. Although if he was being honest it was mostly an excuse to chat outside of work than anything else.
Uma nodded firmly. “I’m sure, and last I checked Auradon was sorely lacking in giant red birds.”
Before he could respond, something fell out from behind a tree a few feet away, making them both jump. Upon closer inspection that clump of red turned out to be a person.
‘Not just a person.’ he realized. ‘A teenager.’ What was a teenager doing in the middle of the woods on a school day?
They both picked up the pace after that, quickly kneeling down beside her. She was in pretty rough shape. Her bright red hair was tied back in a poorly done ponytail. Her clothes were stitched together haphazardly, clearly made by hand, and completely covered in dirt. Something about her looked vaguely familiar, but he just couldn’t place it. She certainly looked like a VK, but it wasn’t one he’d ever met Glancing at Uma, he knew she was thinking the same thing. He shook his head, there were more important things to worry about right now.
“How bad is she?” He asked
“Hard to tell.” Uma replied “she has a pulse, but her breathing is shallow and- oh shit.” Ben followed her gaze and quickly found the source of her distress. The girl had a large cut on her forehead that had begun oozing blood. Ben fumbled around with his pockets for a few seconds before producing a handkerchief. Which he handed to Uma, who wasted no time in gently pressing it to the girls head.
“Do you think it’s safe to move her?” He asked.
Uma nodded grimly “I think we have to, the fact that she’s still out means that she needs a hospital. Besides, that handkerchief won't be effective for much longer.”
Ben scooped her up as gently as possible, keeping the wound covered as best he could.
“After I call the ambulance, we should try to talk to Jane and see if any students didn’t show up for class today.”
“Gotcha” He replied while she said as she typed away on her phone. Ben looked down to the teenager in his arms and finally noticed the emblem sewn onto the front of her jacket, a heart with a large crack going down the middle. Suddenly everything clicked into place. The red hair, the heart motif, Jesus she even looked just like her. Honestly he felt a little stupid for not thinking of it sooner.
“Can you do me a favor?” He asked, once she was done calling the ambulance. “Message the castle, tell them to find any file they can on wonderland.”