But nobody came

The room was absolutely quiet for what felt like an eternity, the thick kind of silence that only happened when exactly no one knew what to make of a situation.

And then Lena moved. It was amazing, pushing her muscles, feeling them react and strain under her own control- the fear from the situation and the exhilaration from having said feeling making her head swim.

She’d like to say that she was running, but it was a little crazier than that- more akin to a wild panther leaping across a jungle than a civilized duckling sprinting. (Not that she’d call herself civilized by any stretch of the word anyway.) But she couldn’t exactly help it if her motor controls were a little busted after literal years of being non-corporeal. Sue her.

All the ducks in the room had jumped at her sudden and erratic movements, but none more so than the green one who outright let out a startled yelp.

To be fair to him, she was charging straight at him.

His voice increased in pitch and he leapt to the side, allowing her to scramble past him, using her arms as well as her legs to help propel her towards her destination.

What was her destination? Wow what a great question! Shame she had no goddamn clue- at this point she’d gotten as far as ‘the fuck away’ and pretty much gave up on trying for any other solution. She wasn’t about to stand around and let terminator grandma and Co chain her up and try to get answers out of her, or worse, simply put her back in the amulet.

It’d only been a few minutes since she’d been stuck inside her prison but she didn’t think she could stand even half a second more of it, not after she’d felt- not after she breathed- not after- god! Whatever, she couldn’t even name it, the sensation of being alive, alive, actually alive- she wasn’t going to fucking give it up! Not for Magica and not for these assholes either!

The only downside to her genius plan was that this house was huge, and she didn’t exactly have the home turf advantage. Making a snap decision she turned, clambering up the stairs on all fours with all the grace of a drunk dude walking across a tightrope in a hurricane.

It wasn’t exactly stealthy, the stairs creaking loudly- weirdly old and shitty for a mansion to have, what kind of rich person couldn’t afford to have their squeaky-ass stairs fixed anyway??

She could hear loud ominous footsteps behind her, which wasn’t exactly surprising, but managed to hurry her already fast paced heart rate up to alarming levels. She hadn’t felt the physical consequences of panicking in a long time, but guess what, it still sucked!

(As a side note, it would at least be a little funny if she died from a heart attack minutes after escaping the amulet)

Coming to the top of the stairs she bolted down a random hallway, flippers almost tripping against the fuzzy red carpet laid across the floor, her shoulder harshly slamming into a nearby wall as she tried to desperately course correct.  She winced, but kept moving frantically even as she silently acknowledged that she’d be feeling that mark tomorrow- if she even ever made it out of this place.

One of the doors in the hallway burst open, with someone moving out of it at a fast pace- Lena realized that she wasn’t simply going to go through the stranger anymore a bit too late, her desperate attempts at skidding to a stop ineffectual.

She expected to slam into the duck and send both of them into a messy heap, but at the last moment the stranger moved swiftly to the side, a hand shooting out to grab her and-

Lena let out an embarrassingly high pitched shriek as she was flipped, vision tumbling for a moment before she hit the floor harshly.

“OOohff!” She squeaked, all the air bursting from her chest in one big huff, leaving her breathless and aching. Her head swam and she felt vaguely dizzy, clenching her eyes closed and waiting for the stranger to hit her. Or maybe they’d kick her, seeing as she was on the ground.

But nothing happened. Well, not nothing- she could feel the person above her lean over her- and wasn’t that wild? That she could feel air being displaced now?? She’d completely forgotten all about that.

The point was no one was hurting her, which seemed suspicious.

She peeked her eyes open, only to flinch at the sight of two light blue eyes staring down at her with an intensity that was almost scary.  There was a duck standing over her, surprisingly short and surprisingly young-looking, maybe around Lena’s age- and not, as she’d assumed, an adult fully trained in Taekwondo or whatever. How in the world had she practically thrown her? She was also wearing a cute pink bow and smiling in a somewhat charming way, if it weren’t also so serial-killer-y.

“Hi I’m!-“ The duckling paused mid-sentence, probably in reaction to Lena, who had seen a hand shooting out at her and heard a raised voice and automatically turned her head away from the blow. Only, the girls fist wasn’t in a fist, it was flat, stretched out as if to shake Lena’s hand- all Lena had managed to do was bump her head rather unfortunately against the hardwood floor.

The girl blinked, looking a bit confused, before a smile jumped back to her features and she continued her sentence as if Lena had never moved.

“Hi I’m Webby! What’s your name?” She chirped cheerfully, hand still outreached as if they were two strangers meeting normally, despite the fact she was looming ominously over Lena.

Lena was a little too shocked by this procession of events to do much else than acquiesce, her own hand timidly coming up to awkwardly grip Webby’s and give it a polite shake.

“U-um, I’m-mm Len-ah?” She stuttered, her voice coming out strange and slurred, even stuttering in some places. She sounded like she’d swallowed sandpaper for breakfast every morning, and as another random funny example, hadn’t spoken in, say, five entire years.

Webby didn’t seem to care, or even notice really, giving her an award winning smile, like the knowledge of Lena’s name was some great prize. It was…flattering?

“Oh wow that’s a cool name! It’s nice to meet you Lena!” She enthused, and Lena shot her back a shaky smile- god, she used to be so good at controlling her emotions, and projecting an air of indifference, but right not she felt like she was seconds away from throwing up, so maybe that was too much to hope for.

“Yeahh, g-geeh thhanks p-pink.” She swallowed thickly- was her mouth always this full of saliva? Gross, wow she loved having a body but she very much forgot how many…liquids there were involved.

“C-can you llett me go?” She asked sheepishly, trying to wiggle her hand out of Webby’s iron grip. The girls smile slipped and she looked genuinely remorseful.

“Sorry! You’re a stranger in the manor, and like, that’s not allowed at all! Granny always tells me when she or anyone else invites guests, and yknow, we kind of have a problem with people trying to get in here and steal stuff or blow rooms up or put ancient curses on vases that look normal enough and can easily be knocked down –accidentally!- by a very well-meaning duckling, and so-“ Said very well-meaning duckling took in a giant breath of air, having apparently gone through most of it during her impressive speech. Lena watched without interrupting, somewhat entranced by the bizarreness of it all.

“-You can’t just go. Again sorry! I’m sure your perfectly nice and just got lost or something and this whole thing will be cleared up! You’re not a Beagle-Boy right?” Lena blinked, at a bit of a loss of what to say. No, she wasn’t a beagle or a boy?? What did that have to do with anything??

She mutely shook her head. Webby nodded with a satisfied expression.

“Thought as much! They always smell like wet dog and pizza, and you don’t smell like anything- well, you probably do, but I’m not going to sniff you because sniffing other people without their permission in rude!” That last part sounded suspiciously like something she was repeating from someone else and not her own observation.

But before Lena could reply- and honestly, she had no idea what with- they were interrupted by a shadow fall over them. A very crazy body-builder grandma-y shaped shadow.

Webby twisted her head in an odd painful looking pose, making a happy noise in her throat.

“Granny! I got her!” She cheered with enthusiasm that was so infectious Lena was almost happy for her, and she was the one who’d been ‘gotten’.

‘Granny’ stared down at her from above, face stern and totally intimidating. Lena tensed; her heart rate- which she hadn’t even realized went down in the first place, started to increase its pace again. Maybe Webby was a little crazy, but she was clearly a nice person, and moreover- a child- kids could be cruel but in her experience adults were almost always worse. This was definitely the part where she got body slammed into submission.

“So I see. Good job Webbigail, you’ve restrained the…intruder excellently- though if I may suggest alerting an adult first before introducing yourself to a potentially dangerous stranger?” The older duck scolded lightly, her eyebrows raised sarcastically. Webby laughed a little sheepishly, but didn’t seem scared in the slightest, which was weird.

“Oh, well, yeah, maybe- but, uh- she’s not a stranger at all! Her name’s Lena! And also she’s not very dangerous either, she weighs less than most of our groceries do!” She declared honestly, and Lena blinked in shock- was Webby trying to defend her? God, first she threw her, then she was all nice, but then she wouldn’t let her go, but then she was trying to get her out of trouble? She felt like she’d snuck onto a rollercoaster again. (which, by the way, why did people pay to ride those things?? She’d thought it’d be fun but it was awful!) She supposed she should just be lucky there was less barfing involved this time.

Webby turned her head back to Lena, looking thoughtful.

“Hey, you should probably be eating more; you’re too tall to weigh so little!” And now she was…what, trying to fatten her up and eat her?? Why did she care whether or not she was a healthy weight!?

‘Granny’ let out a gusty sigh, looking fondly exasperated.

“Yes well I’m sure…Lena will take that into account. I need to take her downstairs now Webbigail, we’re going to have a bit of a chat.” Lena froze, breath caught in her chest, spiky and cold like frost. Shit, shit, what was she doing, she should have struggled more- should have tried to bite the girl holding her down, never mind how nice she seemed!

Webby paused, glancing worriedly down at Lena for a moment, before allowing her grandmother to grab hold of her instead.

“Can…can I come? Yknow, to uh, keep her company? ” She asked hesitantly, drooping a bit when the older duck shook her head.

“No I don’t think that would be a good idea. We’ll be sending the triplets upstairs as well; you can play together in your rooms, but do not go downstairs.” She stated firmly, her voice as steely as the law. Webby sighed but nodded, giving Lena a small sad wave before she turned around and ran for her room.

Lena couldn’t even return the gesture if she wanted to, her arms trapped at her side and her legs kicking in the air- jock grandma’s muscles weren’t just for show, and it felt like she was being crushed by a boulder from all sides.

She panted, breath coming in more and more strenuously as she tried desperately to scratch and kick her way out. No one ever held you down for nice things- that was just a fucking fact! She hadn’t been touched in years, and when she had it had rarely been kindly, and this- this was all toomuch at once, the pressure of arms around her might as well been electric for the way it jolted at her body. All she could think was that she was going to be hurt- and beyond that nothing else mattered. She had to escape, she had to- but she couldn’t- and every moment she was stuck looped that all-consuming hysteria around into itself, multiplying over and over until the sides of her vision started to-

All Lena had time to think before she passed out was ‘shit not now!’

But really, there was never a good time to faint.