Once We are Descendants

Chapter 46: Shocks and Spots

Carlos continues staring into the mirror as if he's just seen a literal ghost. He looks down at the cut on his hand and then back at the mirror. The copper colouring remains around the looking glass and glows slightly as if it had reacted to his blood. The image of this version of his mother is crystal clear, an obvious shift from the hazy mess that had been there when he first entered the shop. He suddenly realizes that the mirror shows a family member connected through their bloodline.

"Why are you still in my reflection?!" the vain puppy-hater barks. "I must ensure that my makeup is applied correctly."

"It's the mirror I'm looking through," Carlos explains. "It uses blood to connect a person with their family members."

The woman rolls her eyes, scoffing at the very suggestion. "Please darling, I have no living relatives, I was sure of that because they're all down here with me."

"Down here?" Carlos asks. He has noticed the continuous red tint around the image of his mother, but until now he'd thought it was an effect from the mirror itself. "What does that mean? Where are you?"

"Are you serious?" the wicked woman snorts, lighting herself a cigarette, knowing she wasn't getting out of this conversation any time soon. "I thought every brat of Storybrooke knew what happened to me."

"I don't. Mom, what happened to you? Why can't I find you?"

"STOP CALLING ME YOUR MOTHER!" she barks so loudly that the mirror actually rattles with the volume of her voice. The sheer loudness of her banshee-like scream causes Carlos to step back and touch his ears to ensure that he would not go deaf from her tantrum. "I am sure that I have NEVER become a mother. To lose such a gorgeous figure would be much too costly to my self-esteem... and to throw my life's work and money away for merely providing a brat with food and shelter is hardly worth my time."

The comment hurts the son of Cruella De Vil. Clearly, this version of his mother is just as bad as his own, maybe even worse in some ways.

His wretched mother on the Isle hardly gave him anything, in fact, the only reason she'd had him in the first place was so she'd have someone to guard her furs collection. In fact, he had a lumpy mattress in a tiny room next to her furs closet as a bedroom and had to bypass all the bear traps meant to be a security system in order to actually feel safe. She didn't give him any attention, he was treated like one of her henchmen or even a slave; doing all her chores and her constant cruelty and berating of her own son. She'd made him afraid of dogs and deprived him of anything ideal; in fact, Evie had become his first friend because she gave him a pillow for the first time. He had not been sorry when he'd left the Isle and became the person he wanted to be, and he had the most loyal friend of all, Dude, a dog, which made his mother furious and gave him the satisfaction of finally being free of her influence. He had the love of Jane as his girlfriend and all this came from real love and affection; none of which came from his poor excuse for a mother.

The way this Cruella is treating him, makes him wonder that any version of Cruella De Vil should never have children. He starts regretting ever wondering where his mother was in this town because clearly, she was no picnic to interact with either.

"You're right, I'm sorry I disturbed you, good luck wherever you are," he mutters and then turns to leave. He reaches down onto the floor to retrieve the cloth that once covered the mirror, ready to put this incident of encountering his "alternate" mother behind him.

...

Meanwhile, in the Underworld, Cruella is fuming over what this bratty child has insinuated... her as a... mother. The thought made her want to vomit. She could hardly imagine it at all, she hated children, she thought they were wastes of space and the fact that her mother locked her away as a child, made her hate it even more. Children were meant to be locked up and kept away from everyone, that's what she'd learned. She also knew that it was because of a child that she was here. She'd abducted Henry Mills, the Saviour's son, she'd threatened to throw the worthless child off a cliff, taunting Emma Swan to find another way and that heroes don't kill, but instead she ended up being pushed off the cliff to her death. She'd encountered the idiot blonde again and tried to throw her into the River of Lost Souls as revenge, but was thwarted yet again, plus she'd lost her precious boy toy, James in the ensuing battle. Since losing her opportunity to go back to the land of the living, the woman had been stewing in hatred and despair for quite some time, "dying" a miserable existence in the world now ruled by King Arthur. She would never move on to a better life... she saw herself as the darkness that makes goodness possible and therefore the true hero of the story. In fact, she was eviller than the Dark One himself and a manifestation of true darkness.