Chapter Eight: Realm
Zone – 1937 (After Temporal Displacement)
“Where are you taking me?”
“Please…don’t talk.”
“But I just want to know…”
“Please!”
Diana obeyed the man’s wishes – the same man who was the
Evil Queen’s guard, hired to kill Snow White far in the forest…in a secluded
glade…where she would be picking wildflowers…just as Diana remembered it. Only
it was not happening the way she
remembered it. Apparently, in whatever version she stumbled upon through Bunsen
and Beaker’s machine, nothing was happening the same way as before. Nothing can ever happen the same way as before
when we interfere, she concluded in her thoughts. Whatever her presence
there in that particular Disney World had caused, it was clearly alternating
events.
(Editorial Note: "Nothing can ever happen the same way as before when we interfere" was the made-up tagline for World of Disney prior to its usage on the Facebook page for the series.)
The Evil Queen’s guard was escorting her directly to the
castle she dwelled in, her wrists shackled as if she were a prisoner. Whatever
crimes she committed were unclear to her, seeing that she was not supposed to
have even existed in that realm. However, possibilities still ran through her
mind as if she did. But, after some time, she eventually began to wonder what
became of Joanie. Her screams obviously were loud enough for her to hear from a
great distance; so why had she not come to her aid?
When Diana and the Queen’s guard arrived at the castle,
she was taken directly through the front entrance, coming across the foyer that
was decorated in the Queen’s royal colors (purple, black, and gold), and
downstairs to a dark, dreary, and damp area that could only be the dungeon.
Before going down, the guard had taken one of the torches situated on opposite
sides of the wooden door leading to the dungeon and lit it through a nearby
cauldron. He used it to guide their way down the spiral staircase and straight
into the heart of the dungeon, where three holding cells stood on the left and
right sides of the room. As Diana gazed around this never-before-seen room, she
caught a horrifying sight: Snow White
lying on the floor of one particular cell. She wasn’t certain whether she
was alive or dead, but she certainly hoped on the former.
The guard placed her in a holding cell across the one
Snow White was placed in. He kept the shackles on her wrists and added a couple
more that were chained to the wall on her ankles. She certainly was not going
anywhere with that much security over her. But it was not like she had anywhere
to go if she had chosen to escape. As far as she was concerned, she was already
trapped long before she was placed inside that cell.
After locking her in, the guard went to the other torches
hanging in the room, using the lit one he carried to light every single one of
them up to illuminate in the pitch-black area. Once he had gotten to the last
one, he told Diana, “I shall return shortly with Her Majesty. I would advise not to contemplate any type of escape
while I’m gone.”
(Character Note: The Evil Queen's Guard is the Huntsman from the original Snow White tale. In some publicity materials, his real name is Humbert. His title was changed from huntsman to guard due to the alteration of his role in this story, assigned to capture the "fairer one" rather than kill her.)
“Don’t worry. I doubt I’m going anywhere.” Diana assured,
jingling her chains to make her point.
The guard then departed from the dungeon momentarily,
leaving Diana with an unconscious Snow White as her only company. She glanced
over to the young Disney princess and wondered what the Evil Queen might have
done to her. There was a strong possibility that the poisoned apple could have
been given to her much sooner than in the Dwarfs’ cottage in the woods. If so,
then that would make the Queen the fairest in the land…wouldn’t it?
After a short time, the guard returned to the dungeon
with the Queen herself in tow. Her presence nearly took Diana aback, being that
she was just as menacing up close as she was from a movie screen. She carried
quite a chilling aura, giving any who bore witness to her a true definition of
the word “nightmare.” Regardless, she was a very beautiful woman in her own way
– a living contradiction of her own self.
Diana was so fascinated with meeting her in person that
she almost did not realize that she was addressing her there and then. “So you are the fairest of them all?!” Queen
Grimhilde did not seem very impressed. “Impossible! You are not much older than
I!”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Diana snickered.
“SILENCE, WENCH!!!” The Queen bellowed, causing Diana’s
chains to jingle again from her quivering body. Grimhilde turned her attention
to her guard and asked, “Are you certain this was the only one you found in the forest?”
The guard nodded and confirmed, “Yes, Your Majesty. There
was no one else there but her.”
“Um, Your Highness? If I may have your permission to
speak?” Diana requested, prompting Queen Grimhilde to glance back at her in a
very cold manner. “I was not actually in the forest by myself per say. I was
actually there with my daughter…who appears to have left me behind for reasons
unbeknownst to me.”
The Queen’s eyes suddenly flared with immense rage, as
she turned to the guard and yelled, “You imbecile!!” She then followed her
insult with a fierce slap to the guard’s face, sending him tumbling back
slightly.
Diana watched the unnecessary cruelty and shouted in the
guard’s defense, “Hey! Leave him out of this! It’s not his…”
“You are in no
position to speak!” Grimhilde snapped. “I shall deal with you in due time.” She
then refocused on her guard and added, “Both
of you!” With that said, she stormed out of the dungeon.
(Pop Culture Note: In the original Snow White tale, it was the cruelty of the Evil Queen and the purity of Snow White herself that influenced the Huntsman's decision not to murder the princess. For the sequence in which the Huntsman fails to do away with Snow White and tells her to flee, he was first conceived as a ruthless killer who looked forward to his job so much that his face would light up when the Queen gave him new instructions.)
Shaking her head at the Evil Queen, Diana let out an
exhausted sigh. “Geez! Fifteen minutes into the story, and she hasn’t even
become the ugly witch yet! Doesn’t even need that potion, if you ask me!”
The guard, rubbing the left side of his face, looked up
at her curiously. “You…You have a daughter?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything, but you didn’t give me
a chance to speak.” Diana told him. “I don’t know where she is right now, but
I’m starting to see what she meant about all of this. It’s very different from how I’d first seen it all when I was a little
girl.”
The guard looked very confused. “Seen what? What do you
mean? Who are you? Where have you come from?”
So many questions the guard was throwing out to her –
Diana could not find a proper way to explain it all to him. All she could
really tell him was, “You wouldn’t believe if I told ya.”
“I would believe that the Queen would do anything to be
fairest in the land…even have me kill
her own stepdaughter.”
Diana’s eyes widened on the word “kill,” having been
reminded of what villainous act Queen Grimhilde had this guard attempt in the
original telling of the story. She glanced at Snow White’s unconscious form and
wondered aloud, “You…killed her?”
“No!” The guard quickly exclaimed. “I could never kill
the little princess!”
“Then why is she laying there like she’s dead?”
The guard gazed upon Snow White’s inert form and
explained, “As soon as the Magic Mirror revealed there was someone fairer than
both Her Majesty and Snow White, the Queen had her brought back to the castle
and cursed her with a harmless sleeping spell. It was only to keep her hidden
here in the dungeon until it was discovered who was the fairest of all.”
Listening to the guard’s explanation, Diana immediately
discovered that her earlier assumption of the “poisoned apple” scenario had
been confirmed. “Oh, no! She did give
her the apple already!”
The guard looked to her in confusion. “How did you know
it was an apple the Queen had given her?”
“Because it was in the story – only a lot later than now!
The spell that she put her on wasn’t ‘harmless’! It’s called the ‘sleeping death’! Snow White is dead!”
(Authorial Note: The decision to "kill" Snow White early on in the altered storyline of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was to convey a sense of legitimate danger in the Disney realms and its inhabitants with the real world characters interfering. The danger gets more real during the progression of the story with more intensified acts of nature.)
Shock registered on the guard’s face as he realized what
had truly become of the princess that was in the same room as them. He could no
longer bear the sight of her body lying in the nearby cell any more and left as
soon as possible. Diana, however, wanted him to stay long enough to tell him
that she wasn’t completely dead and
only in a long slumber that she could only be awakened from by the kiss of her
true love – that being Prince Charming. But he was already gone before Diana
could have even said a word. And she was left all to herself to stare at the
lifeless form of Snow White, feeling completely helpless in saving her.
As Diana stood there in the holding cell, shackled at her
wrists and ankles, she wondered what became of her daughter. If she was still
somehow there in that Disney World, she hoped that the Evil Queen would never
find her. Even though it was a little humorous to imagine either her or Joanie
being the new “fairest one” in the land, their presence in the realm had caused
quite an unexpected turn of events. She could not help but to continue thinking
how right Joanie was in interfering with the Disney Worlds. The trouble she was
in at that point in time was clearly punishment for her meddling.
(Authorial Note: The occasional switch in referring the Disney realms as "Disney Worlds" was intentional by Livingston, who wanted to create the allusion of the real world characters visiting a theme park when they crossed over to a literal "Disney World.")
“Magic Mirror on the wall, hear now this most important
inquiry of all!” Queen Grimhilde consulted. “I wish to know of the woman I have
locked away in the dungeon! Is she the fairest one you speak of?”
The face of the Magic Mirror was expressionless as he
revealed the information that the Queen wanted. “The prisoner you contain…is not the fairest one…the one you seek
shalt still remain.”
Although the Queen was beyond furious, she still remained
her physical composure long enough to make a request to the Magic Mirror. “Show
her to me! Show the one that I must seek to become fairest one of all!”
“Though she no longer dwells in this land, there is another one similar in nature she resides. Fair
warning I give to your hand, for what I shall show you now your approval
confides.”
“I must see! I must find out who she is!!”
(UP NEXT: A tale as old as time - revisited!)
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