Crossing the Water

Chapter 21

[The scene opened with a shot of Fairy Cottage, clearly at night as Ben, Mal, Evie, Uma, Harry, Carlos, Jay, Celia, and Dude crept up. The group hid behind trees and quietly scurried around, trying to avoid being caught.

There's a time and place for holding hands Ben, Akiho thought with a small smile as he watched the onscreen Mal and Ben continue to reach for each other's hands. Almost as if they didn't want to risk being separated again.

"...why is the dog coming with?" Freddie asked.

"Probably for the same reason your little sister is," Ally pointed out.

Ben opened the front gate, Mal pausing as it creaked as if to prepare for Audrey to attack. Leading the group, Ben burst through the door to Fairy Cottage only to find it empty.

"Well seeing as Audrey knows you guys are going to aim for Fairy Cottage and considering you all spent what had to be hours planning your attack, it's likely she left as soon as she could," Macaria pointed out.

"Also, why is Ben leading the group?" Emir sighed.

"Emir..."

"Yes! You've finally seen reason! Join those of us who know Ben should have guards with him!" Akiho grinned.

Emma and Elle sighed, shaking their heads at their boyfriends.

The group milled around the kitchen, Jay running up the stairs to check and make sure there wasn't anyone there. Ben began to rifle through draws as the others looked around.]

"Really?" Mal asked, looking at Ben with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, Uma found out about Fairy Cottage through reading her diary. What if Audrey left a clue as to where she'd be?" Ben poised the question.

"And here I'd thought you'd be in favor of privacy," Uma chuckled.

"It's less a question of privacy and more a question of information," Ben said softly.

"She's not upstairs," Jay told Mal as he ran back down.

"With how much noise you made when you ran up there Jay, she could have been there and then just poofed out," Harry shook his head.

"Yes and you would have been the picture of stealth," Jay chuckled.

Ben paused and looked toward Mal who started walking toward him. As she made her way toward Ben, a banging could be heard on the closet door behind Ben.

"What's that?" Olaf gasped.

"I keep forgetting the snowman's here," Uma sighed. "First the dog, now the snowman...keep the ability to talk to the beings who are supposed to have it."

Mal held her hand out as if to keep the others back as Ben looked through the window in the closet door before quickly lifting up the board

"Benji, I'm starting to side with your shadows on this," Chip said, rubbing his temples. "Guards. Use them. If you don't have them, get some."

"But...it's Chad."

"What if it hadn't been?"

and opening the door to find Chad huddled in a small ball, his arms wrapped around his legs.

Cinderella's heart broke as she saw her son curled up like that, almost as if he was trying to ward off the claustrophobia.

"You can't kill her," Lucy hissed into Kitty's ear as her twin glared at Audrey.