The Right Side of Wrong

W-I-C-K-E-D

I blinked, attempting to register my surroundings. It was just too dark. I could make out the low fog settled around my feet as I stumbled forward. It almost glowed, a light blue-ish, green-ish color.

There were murmurs up ahead. People.

In my hazy determination to find them, I ran directly into something. The top half of my body fell forward, catching myself on the edges of the cauldron.

The steam that emanated from it blurred my vision as I pushed myself away from it. The water inside bubbled and boiled, the same sickly color as the fog around me. As I rubbed my eyes, I approached once more, getting a better look inside.

Bobbing across the top, were dozens of ripe, red apples.

"W-" I could hear someone whisper in the distance. "I-C-"

I turned on my heel, but the sound came from everywhere, surrounding me.

"K-"

I tried to run away from the cauldron, but the minute I was around one, I ran into another.

"E-D."

I kept running, doing my best to dodge cauldrons and skip over the fallen apples that littered the floor. In a blink, I found myself running through the halls of Auradon Prep.

They were empty. Along the way, a few apples were discarded on the ground, all with single bites in them.

Across the lockers that lined the school, in large purple letters, were the words: LONG LIVE EVIL.

That was my work. It had to be. And my paint.

"Mother always knows best," the quiet voice came back.

I dashed out of the hallway and down the stairs towards the front of the school.

It was too empty. Too quiet. And too messy.

"Show her. Pass every test."

The entrance to the school was a mess. Apples and papers everywhere. The Beast statue was defaced with spray paint.

"Hear her voice in your head."

And flying high over the school was a new flag. An old design which I had long since discarded. A silhouette of my mother, the words 'Long Live Evil' in green on a purple background.

"Evil is the only real way to win," the voice beckoned me.

~ ~ ~

My hands were holding me up, pressed against the Beast statue at the front of Auradon Prep.

I noticed multiple familiar faces within the crowd of paparazzi. Hadn't they learned their lesson? Hadn't any of them?

I had been known to shriek, break down, and run off while on camera. A result of sensory overload most often, but it could also be triggered by... uncomfortable questions.

All of my friends had become experts in the art of avoiding paparazzi specifically for this reason. They knew I was still healing and god was it hard to heal when you were also the girlfriend of the king.

So, sometimes, when I needed to be by myself, I wandered alone and that's almost always where they found me. Photographers and interviewers all desperately looking for a brief word right when I needed space.

They weren't the best on timing.

"Only three days to the Royal Cotillion!" a young woman exclaimed, shoving a mic at my face. I wasn't exactly sure what she wanted me to say in response to that, so I nodded, smiling tightly.