Wicked Ugly Bad (A Kinda Fairytale)

For
the six weeks, Scarlett Riding had been locked inside the Wicked, Ugly and Bad
Mental Health Treatment Center and Maximum Security Prison. She knew what
crazy looked like. Letty had spent the past month and a half staring at ink
blots, making macaroni necklaces, and doing calming jigsaw puzzles of baby
ducks, so she recognized all the signs and she accepted the truth.

She
was legitimately, one hundred percent certified out-of-her-mind, now.

It
was almost a relief.

Scarlett
knew she was nuts, because she no longer cared that she
might be
nuts. Whatever
dark thoughts swirled inside of her head, she preferred them to the doctors
trying to “fix” her into some brainwashed zombie. From the minute they’d
dragged her into the WUB Club, Lettty’s only focus had been getting out and
getting even. No one was going to make her sane without one hell of a fight. She
was willfully choosing Bad over Good.

Actually,
no. It wasn’t really a choice, at all.

Scarlett
was fighting for her life. They wanted to erase everything that made her
Scarlett and remake her into one of
them
. Only worse, because she’d
never
be one of the Good folk and no one knew it better than her oppressors. They
wanted to make her into an obedient worshipper of the status quo. Someone who
bowed as the pretty people passed by and then dutifully built them their damn
castles.

She’d
sooner die.

Letty
stared down at the little paper cup full of pills that the nurse handed her and
tipped them into her mouth. Smiling vacantly, she took a second cup full of
water pretended to swallow. “Thank you, Glinda.”

The
fairy nodded, already passing out meds to the next patient in line.

Ahhh…
The ever-changing, undertrained staff of the WUB Club. Once a mere annoyance and
now a vital part of Scarlett’s plans. Thanks to the prison’s substandard
conditions, it was almost too easy to trick the lazy Good folk staffing this
place.

She
slowly made her way over to the TV and sat down on one of the plastic, orange
chairs. The recreation room was always busy this time of day. Insane villains
liked talk shows. Not surprisingly, Scarlett herself found the programs more
hypnotic with each passing day. She listened as some nice, ordinary bears
accused a snotty little blonde girl of breaking into their house and sleeping
in their beds. Of course, the simpering host was on Goldilocks’ side.

Good
folk stuck together.

The
stupid pills were already dissolving under Scarlett’s tongue and they tasted
terrible. Still, she kept her expression neutral, until she finally felt safe
enough to pretend to drink the last of the water. Actually, she used the
opaque sides of the cup as cover and just spit the pills into the waxy little
container.

She’d
been pulling that trick for a week now and it worked like a charm. Under other
circumstances she’d be appalled by how easy it was, as a matter of fact. The
gloomy apathy of the hospital worked in her favor, but you’d think they’d be a
little more vigilant in this dump. Who wanted crazy lunatics off their meds?

Well,
besides the crazy lunatics.

Still,
every hour without the drugs in her system, Letty could feel herself returning
to normal. Soon, she’d be getting out of there and making her stepsister pay.

She
had
to. Time was running out.

Once
Cinderella got the ring on Charming’s finger there would be nothing to stop her
from killing Scarlett and Dru. If they didn’t escape soon, that blonde bitch
would come for them and this time she wouldn’t be content with just
straightjackets and
armed
guards
. This time there would be blood.

It
was escape or die.

Letty
crumpled up the cup and got to her feet. “Time for group.” She announced to
no one in particular, although an elf named Merle gave her a vague nod.

She
casually tossed the paper cup full of pills into the trash as she strolled out
the door and waved at an orderly. It was better to be friendly and agreeable.
She’d figured that out in the second week. You couldn’t successfully plot
anything if they
suspected
you were plotting. So she
tried
to
act browbeaten and complacent.

Most
of the time.

The
WUB Club was housed in an industrial box of a building, completely different
from the beautiful palaces and charming villages in the rest of the Four Kingdoms.
Lots of long, dingy corridors flanked by doors with frosted windows and plastic
name plates. Everything was painted the same ugly green as her elementary
school auditorium and smelled like mold mixed with heavy-duty cleanser. Since
very little cleaning went on, Letty assumed the scent had just worked its way
into the walls and linoleum.

Nothing
but the best from dear Cindy.

Scarlett’s
stepsister had sent her to a place of hopelessness and despair. Given the low
standard of care and lack of food, it wasn’t surprising that so few Baddies
ever left the WUB Club alive. Suicides were the biggest killer, claiming a
least once person a week. No doubt Cinderella was hoping that Letty would eventually
be among the ones who just gave up.

Unfortunately
for her, Letty didn’t give up easy.

She
stopped at the last door in the hallway and took a deep breath. Group therapy
was one of the worst parts of being adjudicated criminally insane.

Firming
her jaw, she marched inside the windowless room and took her seat in the share circle.
God, she hated Tuesdays. The only positive part of the whole humiliating
spectacle was that she got to spend time with her sister.

Drusilla
had been tossed in the WUB Club with her and imprisonment was even harder on
Dru that it was on Scarlett. She sat listlessly in her chair, staring at the
wall. Her red hair was unwashed and lank, her unpretty face blank. Neither sister
had ever been beautiful, but now Dru looked like a hollow, gaunt shell of the
person she’d been.

Shit.

Scarlett
needed to find a way to get Dru off the meds. Unfortunately, Drusilla and
Letty were kept apart as much as possible, so it was impossible for them to
really talk. It was yet another way for Cindy to try and break them.

It
wouldn’t work, though.

Letty
had always taken care of Dru and she always would. But, the best way to ensure
that her sister lived a long and happy life was to stop Cindy from getting what
she wanted.

Scarlett
tried to catch Dru’s eye but her sister was lost inside her own mind. Maybe it
was for the best, right now. Scarlett still didn’t have an actual plan to get
them out of there, so she didn’t want to get Dru’s hopes up.

She
sighed and looked around the rest of the Tuesday share circle. A bridge ogre,
a troll, a wicked witch, a deposed prince, and that insufferable wolf. So, everyone
else had shown up, which meant that nobody had disappeared into the bowels of
the institution since last week.

For
some reason, Scarlett was glad about that. So often, prisoners would just vanish,
never to be heard from again. It bothered Scarlett how no one else seemed to
care about that or asked where they went. The people locked up in the WUB Club
were all Bad, but they were still
people
.

It
made Scarlett wonder if anyone would notice when her turn came to disappear. As
soon as the royal wedding was over, Cindy would have Scarlet dragged off in the
night, never to be heard from again. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind.

Dr.
Ramona Fae, their “facilitator,” stood by the whiteboard, drawing a complicated
mass of circled words and connected lines. Something about apples and wands being
triggers for magic addictions… God! Why did physiatrists all love diagrams? That
incomprehensible web of steps was supposed curb violent impulses, but it just
made Scarlett want to punch someone.

Plus,
she’d forgotten her feelings journal back in her room, so Dr. Ramona was going
to be pissed when they got started. Actually, Scarlett hadn’t “forgotten” it
so much as she’d deliberately tossed it out the barred window. She might be
crazy, but she sure wasn’t crazy enough to give a shit about a “feelings
journal.” Although a big part of her did
want to write “kill, kill,
kill” on every page, just to see if Ramona’s condescending expression finally
faded as Scarlett shared
that
with the group.

God,
she
really
needed to get out this place.

Still,
the guy beside her was eating the pages of his journal, so Scarlett wasn’t too
worried about falling behind the rest of the group. She watched as Benji the
bridge ogre ripped a spiral-bound sheet free, crumpled it up, and popped it
into his mouth. No one stopped him. The monster was eight feet tall, covered
in blue fur, and built like a –well-- a bridge ogre. Sweet as he was, it was
best to just let him snack.

“Lookin’
a little stressed there, Red.” A deep voice drawled. “Anything you wanna
share with the rest of the class?”

Against
her will, Scarlett’s eyes traveled over to the bane of her already miserable
existence. If there was one person in this place who
should
be locked
up and away from society, it was Marrok Wolf.

He
smirked at her, slouching in his seat with typical lupine grace, looking completely
gorgeous and completely immoral. Even in his human form, Marrok retained a
wildness that commanded attention. His unevenly cut hair fell forward over the
exotic angles of his face, his golden eyes constantly watching her through the
tawny strands.

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