Into the Depths

Chapter 20

Audrey wasn't going to lie—she felt incredibly stressed. More so than she felt back when she was dating Ben, when she thought she was going to be Queen of Auradon. Everywhere she turned, Natalie and her grandmother were there with more things she needed to be doing or critiquing her appearance. Had she done her lessons? Worked out so that she'd keep her figure? Why had she changed her dress?

The dress. While Audrey had loved wearing a copy of her mother's dress at Ben's coronation, she hated wearing what her grandmother had picked out for her. Somehow her grandmother had found a leather jumpsuit version of her mother's dress from when her mother was sixteen.

"Finally some good has come of those VKs coming to Auradon," Leah had muttered upon finding the jumpsuit online and ordering it. More importantly, she had ordered enough of the jumpsuit to fill Audrey's closet.

Audrey thought she had found a flaw in her grandmother's logic—after all, Audrey's closet was already filled with her clothes. Clothes she enjoyed wearing and that flattered her better than the jumpsuit did. But of course Leah thought of that too and Audrey was forced to watch as Natalie cleared out the walk in closet and replaced every item of clothing with the jumpsuits.

Do you just derive some pleasure out of this, Natalie? Or are you some mindless drone, existing only to make people miserable at Grammy's command? Audrey thought as she stood in the middle of her bedroom; her perfectly manicured hands balled into fists as she saw her clothes carelessly thrown into trash bags to be replaced with the leather monstrosity.

"After all," Leah said in that sickly sweet tone of voice that Audrey had come to loathe as she walked into Audrey's bedroom, "you couldn't have expected to walk away without some punishment, could you Audrey?"

"Punishment, Grammy?" Audrey asked, tilting her head and hoping she had misheard her grandmother. Audrey wasn't surprised her grandmother knew the word 'punishment', she just was surprised her grandmother could apply it to Audrey and not only Phillip Jr. "I...I don't understand. I'm grounded after all as you've reminded me, mother has punished me."

"Oh I'm not talking about your mother's draconian measures to make the VKs comfortable," Leah said, waving her hand in front of her face as if batting off a bothersome fly. "But you let Ben slip through your fingers. We've been planning to have you be queen since you were three and you just let Mal waltz in and steal him. Surely you didn't think that was going to go without reprimand?"

"Grammy, you were at the first viewing too. What was I supposed to do against a love potion cookie?" Audrey snapped. She honestly was getting sick and tired of her grandmother, a feeling that was foreign to her. Audrey normally longed for her two week stay at her grandmother's castle.

When are mother and father returning from Queen Snows's kingdom? Audrey thought. They should be back by now. Phil's already returned to Auradon Prep, classes have started...has no one noticed I'm not there?

She was sure that her phone, which was still in her grandmother's clutches, was probably filled to the brim with missed calls and texts. But if that was the case why hadn't anyone stopped by? Or called the castle instead of trying her cell? They did have landlines in the event the cell towers went out and the king was visiting just so he could be reached if needed.

"Ah but Audrey, you saw that it washed away on their first date...and Ben decided to stay with Mal, instead of return back to your side. I guess you weren't bad enough for him. After all you never spelled him like Mal did—and the only reason she did so was to destroy all of Auradon. Looks like she's getting her wish," Leah sighed, pulling Audrey out of her thoughts and back to the living nightmare before her. "You would have been the perfect queen of Auradon. But there's still time to correct this little mishap."