Once Upon a Second Chance

(30) - Allies and Enemies

SEVEN YEARS AGO

Freddie Facilier was trotting down one of the several alleyways occupying the Isle of the Lost, playing with the voodoo doll her father had recently gifted her.

She came to an abrupt stop when she realized that she hit a dead end—bad idea. You never want to be in a cornered area on the Isle for too long.

She turned around to go back, but found it was already too late as she found Ginny Gothel, who was two years older than her, smirking as she inched towards the girl.

"Hey, Ginny," Freddie said in her sly voice—well, as sly-sounding as an eight-year-old's voice could be, but was unable to hide the fear she couldn't stop from escaping her voice at the sight of the older girl. "Fancy running into you in these parts."

"Wish I could say the same." Ginny glared down Freddie with her hazel eyes that held a certain wickedness that sent shivers down the young girl's spine just by looking into them. "You're trespassing in my territory."

"This alley is right next to my dad's shop. I don't remember you ever claiming it," Freddie shrugged.

"Well, after I punish you, you'll never forget it," the pale older girl with black hair said as she took out a worn-out dagger from her sleeve.

Freddie shrunk in on herself as Ginny approached her. She wasn't used to much confrontation for a child on the Isle mostly due to the fact that she was one of the few ones with caring parents, and know she realizes that is probably more to her disadvantage considering the situation she was in now.

Ginny said 'punish'. Surely that means she didn't have any intention of killing Freddie... right?

The daughter of Mother Gothel flashed a wicked grin and lunged at Freddie before the older girl was suddenly tackled to the ground.

Freddie jumped as she saw the older girl fighting with smaller blonde figure. She furrowed her brows in confusion. The more logical explanation for her unexpected salvation was that the person had a bone to pick with Ginny and happened to show up at the perfect time. At least it was a hell of a lot more likely than the other possibility—that someone was coming to her rescue. Because nobody saved anybody on the Isle. That was a hero's move, and you would be caught dead before you were seen as a hero on the Isle of the Lost. You would get eaten alive.

Her attention was drawn back to the fight at she heard feminine grunts. The smaller figure appeared to be winning the fight, pinning Ginny and punching her repeatedly until her nose bled and she was squirming on the ground, clutching it in pain.

"Come on!" her rescuer said, motioning for them to make their exit out of the alleyway.

The two children kept running until they made it to a reasonable distance between them and the likely infuriated injured girl they left behind in the alley.

When they finally stopped, Freddie was finally able to get a good look at her rescuer—a blonde girl who looked to be her age with light brown eyes. It was the first time she had gotten a good look at her and vaguely recognizing her. "Hey, I know you. You're that... Hook girl, right?"

The blonde pursed her lips and nodded. "Yep. Calista Jane," the young girl with the Scottish accent introduced herself. The eight-year-old always disliked her name. To her, it was too... charming, for a lack of a better term, for a place like where they lived in. She had her siblings to thank for that. After she was born, her father hadn't taken the care to call her something. He was too busy drowning his sorrows that he had to have another child. It was the main thing her mother and father fought about, along with his drinking, causing her to walk out, leaving her three kids with the notorious child-loathing pirate.