"Oh, aren't you two adorable!" Missus Stitch gushed, upon spying Elizabeth and Artemis lying on the couch.
Art blushed hotly, her face only turning redder as Elizabeak snorted in her sleep, rubbing her fleshy face into the feathers of a wing. She’d be lying if she said it didn’t feel comfortable, the same probably went for Elizabeak- beth, Elizabeth.
“Ah, sorry for breakin’ and entering, Missus Stitch…” Artemis apologized, the wing unoccupied by the sleeping human twitched, starting to feel prickly. She flapped it once or twice, pumping the blood back into the appendage.
“No trouble, dear,” Stitch replied, smiling “things are going to be a bit unusual around here, for a while…”
“More than a bit, I’d say.” Artemis chuckled.
Stitch nodded, throwing in a small laugh of her own.
“I was going to take Danny to the park, would you and Elizabeak like to come with us?” she asked.
“I think she just wants to rest.” Artemis replied politely.
Stitch nodded, heading to Danny’s room.
“We’ll be back in a few hours.” she called back.
Artemis nodded as she yawned, consciously curling against Elizabeak.
“Soft…” Elizabeak murmured.
Artemis couldn’t help but agree as she dozed off, covering the young girl with her other wing.
Elizabeth stood in the river, her feet and knees soaked to the bone. A breeze kicked up, chilling her further; she rubbed her shoulders and arms, attempting to warm herself up. It didn't seem to be all that effective, though it did help just the tiniest bit.
"Bonjour!" a voice called.
Confused, Elizabeth turned, and spied another girl- no...herself...staring at her.
"Bonjour, Elizabeth- je suis Elizabeth!"
"I'm sorry..." she apologized "I don't understand French..."
'As much as I wanted to...'
True, whenever she voiced her opinion on learning other languages, Madame Lutece had advised against learning French, stating that it really had no practical use for her future.
"Ne vous inquiétez pas , les autres seront avec nous bientôt!" she stated, a large grin splitting her across her face.
"Uh...okay?" she replied, confused.
"So, this is her?" another voice called.
"Oui, oui!" the other Elizabeth shouted ecstatically.
“Hm,” her older-self replied, crossing over her arms, covering the front of her once-white, dingy and dirty corset “how can we be sure?”
“La ‘magie’ est à l'intérieur de son.”
“Oh really?” the older replied, approaching her.
A knot formed in her stomach as her older-self knelt, gently cupping her face with a hand.
‘How are they not cold?’ Elizabeth wondered in awe- the Elizabeth in the corset was staring at her, inspecting her face intently.
Teenage-up Elizabeth tilted her head softly with the hand that was cupping her chin, seemingly lost in thought.
“Ah-hem.”
Corset Elizabeth moved aside, standing next to her as another Elizabeth, this one appearing much older than the three that were already gathered.
She approached them, dressed amazingly in a two-piece dress, a clean, white button up shirt, and a rather short black dress on the bottom, a single white stripe running down either side. Around the collar, she wore a short, red tie pinned together with a medallion, a white dove on a black background emblazoned on it.
Teenage and Other stepped in front of her, blocking her view of Adult-her.
“Vous n'êtes pas lui obtenir, pas cette fois.” Other Elizabeth stated firmly, holding the hand of Teen-Elizabeth.
‘What’s going on?’ Elizabeth wondered, thoroughly confused by what was happening ‘That’s me, right? Somehow? Shouldn’t I be safe with...myself…?’
A small voice in the back of her head replied ‘No.’.
“I must, you know this.”
“No, you have a choice.” Teen-Elizabeth stated coldly, her grip tightening around Other’s hand.
“I don’t...I have to...you know it.”
“I’ll burn in hell before we let you touch another.”
Adult-her seemed to be taken aback, and nodded; turning to step back onto the bank of the clear river.
“So be it.”
Adult-her soon disappeared, leaving the three of them standing in the iciness of the river.
"Wh-Who was that?" Elizabeth asked, terrified.
The other two glanced at each other, before Teen-her sighed.
"Why don't we go somewhere a bit more comfortable? I imagine this won't be very easy to explain." she said, walking to the bank of the river, opposite of where Adult-Elizabeth had headed.
She shivered, unconsciously following her two other selves towards a small log cabin sitting just over the crest of the bank.
The three of them entered, Teen-her holding the door for her two younger selves.
‘This is so weird...I wish Songbird were here with me…’ Elizabeth thought to herself, picking at her nails.
“You’re safe, you know,” Teen Elizabeth stated, taking a seat on a low stool “I don’t know how much that means to you, but you are.”
“It...I...don’t know…”
Other Elizabeth placed her hands on hers, rubbing gently. Elizabeth gave her a small smile, trying to show that she was fine.
“Who are you?” Elizabeth finally asked of the other two.
They glanced at each other, which seemed to becoming a common occurrence, the longer she spent with them.
“We’re you, in short.” Teen Elizabeth stated.
She laughed, then quickly came to the realization that neither of them were laughing with her. She kept laughing, devolving into sobs as she collapsed on the floor, coming to rest her knees against the grain of the floorboards.
Two arms wrapped around her, and she felt herself being lifted.
“I know, it’s difficult, isn’t it?”
She felt herself nod.
“It hadn’t occurred to me that you wouldn’t be ready,” Teen-her said softly, motherly, even “we assumed you knew.”
She clenched her fists as she continued to weep, her nails digging into her older self’s back. She didn’t notice the look of pain on her face, as she was too busy with her face buried in the crook of her neck.
The floor suddenly began to split open, and a dark blue winged-unicorn shot through, breaking through the roof. The entire world around her suddenly collapsed and dissolved, her other two selves now gone. Blinded, she tripped, falling into the dark pit the dark-blue blur had made. She screamed as she fell, flailing her arms as fresh tears leapt from her face, shooting upward.
With a muffled thump, she fell onto what felt like a soft pillow.
"It's okay, I've got you, shhh." a voice comforted, a gently brushing along the top of her head "you're okay, shhh."
Salty tears reached her lips, and she dozed off once more, the softness wrapping around her as slumber took her once more.