Cherry and Atticus Meet Cinderella

chapter 19

Lady Tremaine was no doubt furious with Cherry, Atticus, Cinderella, Gus, and Jaq as they dashed away with Fairy Godmother's wand to right this very terrifying wrong. Cinderella, Atticus, and Cherry threw down their aprons once the closed doors slammed over Lucifer's face. Luckily for Lady Tremaine, a few of the king's guards came down the hall as she left the room to track down the do-gooders. 

"Those servants are thieves!" Lady Tremaine pointed at the fleeing group. "Get them!"

Cinderella, Cherry, and Atticus ran as quick as they could. Jaq and Gus felt very unfortunate once they saw Lucifer on their tail, dangerously close now. The group tried to dodge the incoming guards, fearing the worst of what could happen to them if they didn't hurry in time. 

Jaq suddenly had an idea, realizing they had the wand in their paws. "Bibbiti Bobbito BOO!" he yelled.

The wand charged up and zapped toward Lucifer, turning him into a box suddenly. However, it was actually a Jack-in-the-Box and his head popped out. Lucifer bared his fangs, still chasing them, hopping in his box. Cherry, Atticus, and Cinderella made it to the stairs and quickly dashed down them.

"Stop, thief!" a guard yelled out.

The trio made it down to another flight of stairs, but gasped as they were blocked by a guard that was at the end of the stairs.

"Seize them at once!" Lady Tremaine commanded.

The group was cornered by the guards. There seemed to be no way out. That was until the mice outran Lucifer and made it to the banister of the stairs the group was standing on. Lucifer had bounced over himself, making the guards trip over each other and letting the group get away from them quickly and carefully. 

"You incompetent fools!" Lady Tremaine bashed her fists against her spot, in frustration.

The guards and Lucifer hit the floor, allowing Cherry, Cinderella, and Atticus to slide down the banister and get further away. Gus and Jaq slid too, hitting Lucifer on the head and landing before him on the floor.

"Bibbiti Bobbiti Boo!" Jaq cried, zapping the wand on the fiendish cat again.

With a zap of magic, the cat was transformed into a size, even smaller than a mouse. 

While Gus and Jaq were dealing with Lucifer, Cherry, Atticus, and Cinderella were still dodging as many guards as they could. They slammed the doors shut to a new room they entered and tried to catch their breaths before running for their lives again. 

"That'll slow them down!" Cherry pointed to one of the suits of armor holding a sword.

Cinderella nodded in agreement, grabbed it and used it to keep out the guards from capturing them. 

The trio stepped back, wondering what to do for their next move as the guards tried to bash the door down to capture the three of them. 

"Cinderelly, Cherry, Atty!" Jaq called, running with Gus and the wand. He, however, bumped into Gus, nearly making the fat mouse and wand fall to a high plummet. "Gus-Gus!" he tied his tail to the spot they were in and reached to save his best friend. 

Gus aimed carefully as he dangled. He then got a good look at his human friends and threw the wand to let one of them catch it. "CATCH!"

Cinderella was the one to catch it before it would fall a lot of miles down and possibly snap into pieces or never be seen again. Cinderella, Cherry, and Atticus all looked down then from the spot and saw the Prince run in with blue birds who pulled him in. 

"Lift the spell, let him remember!" Cinderella waved the wand to zap the prince with. "Bibbidi-Bobbidi--"

The guards slammed the doors open and grabbed Cinderella and the orphans before the spell could be finished.

"NO!" the trio cried. 

Lady Tremaine grabbed the wand from them and hid it in her sleeve. 

"What's going on here?" the prince asked as he ran up the stairs.

"My apologies," Lady Tremaine cooked up a lie in the kitchen of her sick, twisted mind. "It's a problem with my maid and these two street urchins."

"Hey, we're not urchins!" Atticus sneered.

"It's under control." Lady Tremaine continued.

"Are you okay?" the prince asked the capture threesome, actually seeming to care for them.

"These servants are thieves." one of the guards told him.

"We're not thieves!" Cinderella defended. "You're under a spell!"

"That's why you don't remember her!" Cherry added.

"Please, just listen!" Atticus added, looking like a kicked puppy.

Cinderella reached for his hand, but a guard restrained her.

The touch from Cinderella look at his own hand. He looked rather surprised and felt a sentimental feeling, but didn't say anything. He came up the stairs as the guards were taking Cherry, Cinderella and Atticus right away from him.

"Poor children," Lady Tremaine tutted. "Obviously out of their minds."

"I hope they'll be alright." the prince stepped forward. "Especially her," he glanced mainly at Cinderella. "She seemed, you know, nice when I met her. Well, maybe a little confused, but there's still something about her..."

"Oh, don't trouble yourself, your Highness. I'll see to it, personally, that those three get all the help they need."

"NICE TRY!" Drizella yelled out to the trio with a wicked cackle. "But, we won!"

"You won?" the prince raised an eyebrow at her. "What do you mean?"

"Uh, well.... Nothing..." Drizella shrugged, innocently. She laughed nervously, then dashed away to another room.

The prince looked very dumbstruck with what was happening around him and eyed her strangely. This was a really weird day for him. "You'll see that they're taken care of?"

"Personally, your Highness," Lady Tremaine assured him as he left, then turned to the guard standing next to her. "Put them on the next ship leaving the kingdom. I want her banished forever, and I want the orphans back in the work house orphanage where they belong."

The guard nodded and walked away to reveal Drizella crouching right behind him, whimpering in fear of her mother.

"And you," Lady Tremaine towered over her. "Keep your mouth shut or you're next."