TLC the Musical

Wonderland

 Before anyone could interject or stop her, Snow White ran to the door and gripped the handle. "I'm going to open it!"

"No!" ordered Cinderella.

At her reaction, everyone else in the room turned to her and gave her various looks. Eric waggled his eyebrows, Red's brows scrunched, and several dwarves eyed her suggestively.

Snow took no heed, and yanked the door open while maintaining eye contact with Cinderella. The prince was indeed on the other side of the door and leaped inside as soon as he fit through the entrance. Cinderella darted into the next room, followed by Rapunzel and Red.

The prince brushed himself off and kicked the door closed behind him. The whole wall wobbled in response, and Eric snorted, sucked in his lips, and faced away from the audience. Everyone else still in that part of the house waited for the wall to settle before continuing.

"So," Eric mumbled, still trying to hold back his laughter. "Fancy running into you again, Prince. Especially in a dwarf hut."

Henry straightened his collar and pursed his lips. "I wasn't planning to see you again for a while. But then the Evil Queen sent her henchmen after myself and my guards. Our only chance at escape was to split up."

"Fun. What does she want with you?"

The prince rolled his eyes. "Probably her marriage alliance nonsense. I haven't bent to her will yet, and I don't intend to."

"Great," Eric groaned as her rolled his eyes. "The queen wants my dead for stealing, Snow dead for being prettier than her, and the wolfman to be in her army. If she finds us, she'll have hit the mother-load."

The spotlight pointed at the living room area dimmed, and the characters in that area stood still. The light in the kitchen stayed bright, and Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Red were free to move around.

"How do you know the prince?" asked Red. Her hood gently waved behind her.

Cinderella collapsed into one of the kitchen chairs and buried her face in her hands. "We danced at the ball. The last normal day of my life! Stars, I just want my life to go back to normal!"

Her dress was a heap of blue fabric, dirt, and twigs. "I was just a servant a few days ago. Now, I'm practically a fugitive running from the prince."

"Why exactly are you running from him?" Rapunzel sat in the chair to Cinderella's left. "I met him earlier today. He seemed nice, and I think he really cares about you."

"That's not the issue," she argued. "My stepmother wants to keep me as her servant for life once I return to the kingdom. If I go back, even with the prince, she'll make sure I never get my freedom."

Red pinched her chin. "But if you go back with the prince, he can protect you from that, right? Just tell him what your stepmother is trying to do."

"That's not it either," Cinderella cried. She dragged her gloved hands through her already messy hair. The poor girl was a wreck. She needed some sleep, and a sandwich at the very least. She looked so sad to Sunto. He just wanted her to be happy.

Somehow, Red seemed to understand what Cinderella was saying. Or rather, what she wasn't saying. She grabbed a chair from the table and dropped it backwards at Cinderella's right. She sat down and crossed her arms over the chair's back.

"So ... you don't want to end up a slave to your stepmother, or go back to the prince's castle with him?"

Cinderella nodded. She was near tears when she picked her head up. "I don't want to be confined. I just want to have a life away from everything else."