“Wonderful.” Avenant waved a languid hand towards the wall clock. “The wolf just beat his own record for beginning the weekly barrage of sexual harassment.” He looked over at Ramona and arched an imperious blond brow. “I’d like to once again petition for a class system to be implemented in this institution. I should be in with a more elite group of villains, rather than with this rabble.”
“I’ll pass your complaints on to Dr. White.” Ramona agreed quickly.
She always quickly agreed with everything Avenant said. The former Prince of the Northlands had a commanding presence and a habit of talking at everyone like they were his servants. Even the hospital staff jumped to attention around him.
Tall and lean, with shoulder length white hair and the face of a Nordic god, Avenant looked exactly like a prince of the Northlands should look: Even with his fall from grace and condescending attitude, women in the WUB Club, Good and Bad, drooled over him.
Well, the ones who didn’t spend an hour a week in a share circle with the bastard, anyway.
“Did you just call us ‘rabble,’ again?” Esmeralda the witch snapped. “Because we discussed hurtful words last week and I remember adding that one to the whiteboard.”
Avenant lifted a shoulder in an indifferent shrug. “I’m sure sheep would rather be called elephants… But they’re still sheep.”
Esmeralda’s crimson eyes narrowed. Like most witches, her skin was a lovely shade of green and she liked to show as much of it as possible, which took some real doing in shapeless sweatpants. She was young and at the height of her powers, so it must bug the hell out of her that she couldn’t just blast Avenant through the wall for his insolence. Like everyone else in the WUB Club with magical powers, though, she wore a spell inhibiting manacle on her left ankle.
Ramona clapped her hands, trying to regain the group’s attention. “Alright, let’s get started, people.” She was a tall, thin fairy, who wore a lab coat every day because she thought it made her look smarter. “We’ll start with Marrok’s thoughts about Scarlet.” She gave him an encouraging nod, her gray eyes eating up his handsome face. It was unprofessional the way she ogled him. Marrok really should file a complaint about it. “It’s good that you’re having so much insight into others.” Ramona gushed at him, her gaze straying down his body. “It shows that you’re really listening in group.”
Marrok modestly shrugged. Either he didn’t notice Ramona’s inappropriate attempts at eye-sex or he was just immune to them by now. God knew they happened every week. “Talking about things with friends helps us process the past and make better choices in the future.”
Scarlet made a disgusted sound. Marrok had made a career out of bouncing from crime scenes to mental institutions, so it wasn’t surprising that he’d memorized all the buzz words.
Every time he was released, all the officials agreed that finally he’d learned his lesson and was sure to play nice. Every time they were wrong.
The guy navigated the WUB Club like a shark in a goldfish aquarium. His performance reviews were spotless. He told all the doctors just what they wanted to hear. He probably filled his feelings journal with poems about repentance and kittens.
How could the others not notice he was a fiend?
He smirked at Scarlett. “Well, I was saying that my inner-self feels like Letty should prune some of the negative weeds in her mental garden and self-actualize the healing process. She needs to know that we’re here to support her personal growth and to watch the flowers of her positivity bloom.”
Only he could make that stupid psychobabble sound like an invitation to an orgy.
“That’s beautiful, Marrok.” Ramona sat down in the circle and looked over at Scarlett. “Anything to add?” She sounded far less interested in whatever Letty’s contributions might be, but she picked up her clipboard and jotted down something glowing about Marrok. “Your sister would be so pleased if you’re ready to show some signs of progress, Scarlett.”
“Stepsister.”
“What?”
“Cinderella is my stepsister.” The words were too harsh, but Scarlett couldn’t stop them. Nothing pissed her off faster than a mention of the sainted Cindy. She could see the disapproval on Ramona’s face and it set her temper off like a rocket.
“You think it would be wonderful to be her sister, I know. Everyone does. That’s because you have no idea what’s she really like.”
“But, everyone in the Four Kingdoms knows! She had a terrible life of subjugation, but kept her good heart and charitable…”
“She’s the crazy one.” Scarlett interrupted, leaning forward in her plastic chair. “You know, Cindy sang constantly just to annoy me. The noise would get into my head until I thought I’d snap if she didn’t shut-up. Only she never did. She couldn’t have been that mistreated, if she had time to memorize so many brain-crushingly annoying little ditties about love and rainbows. She likes subjugation, so I actually tried not to give it to her. It makes her sickly happy.”
Marrok’s eyes gleamed with deviance and lies. The perverted jackass loved it when she shouted. It turned him on.
Beside her, Drusilla stirred at the mention of Cinderella. Poor Dru was so drugged she was actually buying into the bullshit brainwashing of this place, which just pissed Scarlett off more. “Letty, if you don’t work the process, you’ll never…”
Scarlett cut her sister off. “And that’s not even mentioning all her woodland pals lurking around, doing her unnatural bidding. Gross, creepy, human-sized rats making breakfast in the morning. Rodents made the coffee, people! Do you get how unsanitary that is?”
“That does sound appalling.” Avenant concurred. He managed to look like he was holding court, even in his “EVIL” t-shirt. “In my castle, I didn’t even allow trolls near the kitchens for fear of disease.”
“Hey!” Rumpelstiltskin objected hotly.
Avenant rolled his eyes. “Oh, your people are grimy basement dwellers and you know it.”
“I’m telling you Cindy got off on the housework.” Scarlett continued. “No one made her do it. She has some kind of twisted cleaning fetish. She uses those rats as BDSM toys. It freaked me out every time I saw how scrubbed the floor was. I thought she was going to mop straight through the marble with her bizarre perversions.”
Ramona cleared her throat disapprovingly. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to spread lies about the future princess.”
“Oh, I do.” Marrok assured her lasciviously. “Don’t spare any dirty details, Red.”
“It’s all true. I’m telling you.” Scarlett shook her head in disgust. “Every day was a nightmare with that caterwauling bitch. Dru and I were the victims, not Cinderella. For one night –just one-- we were supposed to be free of Cindy’s disturbing predilections and sewer dwelling cronies… and what happens, instead?”
“I think it’s someone else’s turn to share.” Ramona prompted a little desperately.
Scarlett was too wound-up to care about all the “still crazy” demerits she was earning. “Blondie crashed the party and stole poor Charming! That’s what! But, God! How terrible I’ve been to poor Cinderella.” Scarlett threw up her hands in mock despair. “She’s living in a fucking castle and I’m stuck in prison, but poor her.” She snorted. “That spiteful tramp and her tiara can both kiss my ass.”
Esmeralda started nodding, her wild mass of black curls tumbling around her face. “I know how you feel. Bratty kids were trying to tear my house apart and eat it. I had to stop them or I would have been homeless. But, still they locked me up.”
“Yes!” Scarlett nodded triumphantly. “That’s my whole point! We’re not the bad guys… they are.” She pointed out one of the barred windows to the flawless world beyond. “All of the perfect, milquetoast, shiny Good folk out there, who think rules don’t apply to them. That they can just eat Esmeralda’s house. That they can break deals with innocent trolls, because now they’re royalty and need to keep their precious heir.” Her hand swept towards Rumpelstiltskin,
who grunted in agreement. “Not to mention poor Benji. Hell, he’s only here because some developer wanted to force him to sell his bridge.”
“Now it’s a condo.” Benji whispered sadly.
“I am the rightful Prince of the Northlands, but they refused me my throne because I was born Bad.” Avenant put in. “They said it was against the law for me to rule. I had no choice but to take what was mine by force and then they called me the villain.”
“Exactly! What about you, Marrok?” Scarlett pointed at him. “Did you even get a choice about playing that ridiculous Wolfball thing? Or did they force you into it and then send you here when they didn’t follow their sadistic rules?”
He said nothing, which was all the answer she needed.
“See? We’re the ones punished, while they get to live out their happily ever afters.” Scarlett looked around the share circle. “What about our happily ever afters?”
“You don’t deserve a happily ever after when you’re evil.” Dru said quietly.
Scarlett’s mouth thinned. It was just a matter of time before Dru got sucked under by this place. Scarlett blamed Cindy for the change in her sister’s spirit. “Everyone deserves a happily ever after.” She said firmly.
Marrok regarded with a strange expression.
Scarlett pretended not notice. “Besides, we’re not evil, Dru.”
“We are, though. I see that, now.”
“Very good reasoning, Drusilla.” Ramona said in her smarmiest tone. “You’re exactly right. All of you were born wicked, ugly, and/or Bad. It’s in your psychological makeup to do terrible things. You’re here to try and suppress it as best you can, but you’ll never be Good like the rest of us. You need to accept that.”
Avenant gave a contemptuous snort.
“Oh, I’ve accepted my nature.” Marrok arched a brow at Scarlett. “You should too, Red. Believe me, life gets so much better when you just give into the inevitable.”
She glowered over at him. “First off, die in a fire. And secondly, there shouldn’t be a ‘them.’ Why are they allowed to declare us wrong and lock us away? Half the people here haven’t committed any crimes!”
Ramona sighed and lit a cigarette with her star-shaped lighter. The woman smoked three packs a day. “There are laws against being evil…”
“I’m not evil! I haven’t even done anything illegal. I just don’t like Cinderella. That doesn’t make me crazy or demented. It just means I know her better than you.” Scarlett was warming to her topic. “Bad isn’t evil, it’s just Bad. My grandmother always says that.”
“She does.” Dru murmured. “Where is grandma, Letty?”
Scarlett didn’t think it was a good idea to answer that. “My point is, there should be justice for people who aren’t born charming or beautiful.”
“Justice?” Esmeralda repeated blankly. “For Bad folk?”
“Yes! There should be a real place for us! We shouldn’t just… judge people on what they look like and say that’s all they are. Whether or not they have horns, shouldn’t make a difference in what kind of job they can get.” She shook her head. “That’s just stupid. Don’t you think we can do better? That we should all be equal?”
Everyone stared at her like she really was insane.
“Fucking hell…” Marrok sounded awed. “I knew there had to be something going on, but I didn’t put it together until now.” He started laughing. “You’re Good.”
Scarlett blinked. Maybe he was on drugs, after all.
“Noooo.” Ramona put in swiftly. “She’s an ugly stepsister, remember? They can’t be Good.”
“It’s true.” Drusilla nodded. “Even as children we tormented dear Cindy.”
“No, we didn’t!” Scarlett snapped. “She’s got some kind of kinky sex thing where she likes housework, so she’s pretending to be a martyr while sleeping with her pets. The simpering sweetness is all an act.”
Esmeralda made a note of that in her journal. “This is an awesome share time.”
“Ugly stepsister, my ass.” Marrok’s gaze roamed over Scarlett’s body like she was some exotic species of bug plopped under his microscope. “You’re one of them. In fact, you’re better than them, because no one ever told you you were better. Shit, this is just my fucking luck.”
“If Scarlett is Good, then she can’t be here.” Rumpelstiltskin complained. He removed his pointy hat and so he could scratch his pointy head. His beard was white and curled down to his stomach. He scratched that, too. The little guy was always so twitchy. “This is supposed to be a safe place for Bad folk to talk without judgment.”
“We can’t kick Scarlett out of group.” Benji the bridge ogre objected, swallowing the last mouthful of his feelings journal. His XXXXXXL “EVIL” shirt was stretched taunt against his massive midsection. “That would make us no better than them. They discriminate because we’re Bad and we’d be excluding Letty because she’s Good. It’s a vicious cycle of hate and the share circle is about inclusion.”
Dru glanced over at him earnestly. “That is so deep, Benji.”
He blushed and ripped off the arm of his chair to munch on. In addition to being Bad, the guy had developed an eating disorder. It was the stress of this place.
“Scarlett’s not Good.” Ramona loudly assured everyone.
“I’m not Good.” Scarlett agreed. “I can’t stand any of you. Especially him.” She pointed at Marrok, his crazy announcement bringing up all her insecurities. “A Good folk wouldn’t be thinking of horrible tortures to visit upon his body, right now.”
“Red, you can start visiting places on my body anytime you like.” Marrok drawled. “Christ! I couldn’t understand what the hell was going on with you, but now I get it. The meds were masking some of it, but today…” he closed his eyes and breathed in deep, “I can smell the Good on you.”
“That’s not true.” But she still gave herself a surreptitious sniff.
“Oh, it’s true alright. And it explains so much. Wolves always know when nice little girls enter our woods, but your kind never suspects all the hungry things circling in the shadows.”
“For the last time…”
He cut her off. “Did you really not know you were different from the rest of us? Do you think that witches and trolls worry about gaining equality? Do you think he does?” He pointed at Avenant.
“Gaining equality with any of you would be a staggering demotion.” Avenant scoffed.
Marrok ignored him, his attention on Scarlett. “Do you think your sister there doesn’t believe that Cinderella is better than her, just because she’s prettier?”
“It’s true. She is.” Dru nodded.
“No, she’s not!” Scarlett was getting really angry, now. “Everyone just listen, alright? What I’m saying is completely logical. It’s about all of us having a say in the Four Kingdoms. Bad folk outnumber the Good. Why are they controlling us? Why can they just toss us in here, without even a real trial? Who represents us?”
Rumpelstiltskin frowned thoughtfully.
Esmeralda looked over at Ramona like she might have the answer.
The doctor stubbed out her cigarette and lit another. Her chain smoking always seemed to get worse when Scarlett shared her thoughts. “That’s just the way things have always been done in the Four Kingdoms.” She sputtered. “Do you not understand that?” Obviously at a loss for what else to say, Ramona launched into a quick civics recap. “Each kingdom of our land --North, South, East and West-- has a prince. The kingdoms meet in the middle, here in Centerlands. It’s a free area, where we have the market and… the hospital.”
“Prison.” Scarlett corrected.
“And then there’s the Enchanted Forest, which I’m sure you all know is overrun with lawless criminal. No one claims ownership of such a place, except the villains who’ve escaped their rightful justice.”
“Are you really attempting to give me a geography lesson?” Avenant glared at Ramona, sounded offended. “I’m the rightful ruler of the Northlands, peasant
.”
“‘Peasant’ was on the whiteboard, too.” Esmeralda muttered.
Ramona held up her hands for silence. “The point is our majestic princes make rules that are best for everyone.”
“But, it’s always the same princes.” Benji said around his plastic seat cushion. “Until it’s their sons. And they’re always Good. Except when Avenant took over and everyone was too afraid to stop him.”
Avenant smiled at that memory.
“Well, of course the princes are Good! No one wants some ugly, wicked villain in charge of a kingdom? That would be crazy!”
Scarlett arched a brow at the choice of words. “Haven’t you heard? I am crazy. According to you and Cindy, anyway.”
“You aren’t crazy. I don’t know what the hell you are, except in big fucking trouble.” Marrok leaned forward, looking annoyed at her, now. “How long do you think it’ll be before more Baddies sniff you out?”
Scarlett glanced at him in surprise. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means not everyone in here has my kink for Good girls. Word gets around this place that you’re a white hat and you’re sure not gonna win inmate of the month.”
Her eyes narrowed at the warning.
“Oh grandma won’t like that.” Dru predicted.
“Anything we say in group is confidential.” Benji complained. “That’s part of the trust contract.”
Avenant snorted. “And yet the good doctor writes down everything we say.” He pointed at Ramona’s clipboard.
Ramona frowned at him. “I told you, these notes are just for your private records. You’ll be very grateful to have them when you come up before the Medical Review and Parole Board, and they see how much you’ve progressed in your therapy.”
“Very comforting. Except, I’m here for life plus a century.”
Wicked Ugly Bad (A Kinda Fairytale) Page 2