Hardship Ch.8: A Decembersville Fanfic

Hydrangea, or hortensia, is a genus of 70-75 species of flowering plants native to southern and eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, the Himalayas, and Indonesia) and the Americas. With it's blue, lacecap structure and its peculiar defences against nature, it is the only plant known to grow both in the human world and in Decembersville. As a result, it will become a representational flower among freaks throughout their approaching revolution.

The news of Sophia's heroic deed spread like wildfire through the streets. The news that the man with the red goatee had been captured inside the underground tunnel due to Sophia's heroic deed spread even faster. She had been lost in the tunnels for the entirety of the morning, and a number of respectable freaks, well over a hundred, had gathered outside of the common house where she would emerge from after someone had overhead that Sophia had been discovered in an underground grotto of the Chopping Place that led directly to the said building. Some carried clusters of blue hydrangea, and others even carried bundles of candy wrapped in silk baskets. Towards the front of the crowd stood Zero, Tin, and Chimabell. Melloni was running late, as he had run out to buy Sophia her favorite nonhuman candy: pink sugared ice crystals. The main part of the city was near deserted as the grand clock chimed three times and the mahogany hands continued tick backwards. In Decembersville, time moved dependent on the events of the day.

Sometimes backwards, sometimes forwards, sometimes not at all.

It began to rain as the doors of the common house opened. Campara and Bella Von Pyre watched from a rooftop overhead in sullen silence, Campara's eyes settling on her dear friend Tin. In all irrelevance, all the aristocrat could think of was how she wished someone else could take charge and supervise. Down below, Sophia burst through the wall of dolls and yanked herself viciously away from their grips. Those who had begun to cheer became silent and fearful. She was covered head to toe with mud and black snow, her hair hung plastered over her face like she had just crawled out of her own grave. Her eyes were glowing with such viscous fire and hatred, that the freaks stepped away as she approached the crowd.

She saw nothing all the while seeing everything.

Sophia sliced through the silent crowd, not even seeing her friends as she made a beeline towards Chimabell. He was talking to an important member of the community, oblivious until his companion stopped talking and began to frown. When Chimabell turned and discovered her there before him in this state, he almost had a heart attack. Her voice dripped with poison.
"Get her out of there. Get them all out of there."
Chimabell's face paled even more than could ever be thought possible, and he stood up as straight as possible, tightening his coat around himself and struggling with his voice. From the rooftop, his siblings displayed interest in the situation.
"I-I'm afraid that I....I cannot do that. She is a criminal by law."
"I will NOT leave here knowing that children are being treated as criminals sentenced to die! These people deserve better than this! It's INHUMANE!"
"...well, we are inhuman after all."
"You have memories, don't you? You know that what you're doing to these people is wrong. I have seen the most beautiful, and the most hideous parts of this city now, and these people deserve to know that it doesn't have to be so hideous! She is down there on the brink of death as we speak and is too afraid to do anything else but die!"
"Who, Sophia?" Tin persisted in his state of confusion.
"YOUR DAUGHTER!" Sophia spat out in fury, and everyone within a hundred-mile radius gasped. Tin's eyes widened and he gazed up at the rooftop in disbelief. Campara had already flown off into the distance.
His hands were tied. Chimabell looked towards the rooftop at his brother. Bella shook his head as he took in the horrid reaction of everyone in the city. Incredulously, they were all rooting for the democratic human. It was over.
"They shall be released, then."
Melloni swooped in behind Zero with a bag of candy, oblivious to the events occurring.
"Ooooh, tough crowd. What'd I miss, a funeral?"
"Not a funeral, a birth." Zero replied and smiled a little bit on the inside.
With the birth of a new democracy, the Von Pyre reign was coming to a death. The revolution had just begun.


Sophia had been accepting gracious gifts and hugs for hours in the central square. Never in her life had she thought that she would be surrounded by so many flowers. It was unnatural how it could look like springtime in the never-ending frost. She was bathed and dressed in a beautiful rose-tulle skirt.
She had become a hero in their eyes.
Then again, when she was younger she'd wanted to be an art teacher, not a revolutionist for an enchanted city. From behind a tree, Melloni swooped in and gave her a sneak-attack bear hug. Some children had decorated his curly hair with flowers and some bundles fell onto her lap.
"I'm so proud of you." He said with a grin before sauntering back into the crowd where he had originally been. Sophia rolled her eyes and sighed, brushing off one of the velvet petals with her thumb.

They all wanted to know so much about her.

In the distance underneath an awning, Tin had his arm around Marie as the two of them spoke for the first time in almost a decade. Marie twirled the stiff stems of a cluster of hydrangeas in between her palms that Tin had given her. She was chatting comfortably, and he listened with the deepest contentedness and understanding thought possible. One day, they would grow to become very close.

Sophia's eyes caught Zero's in the crowd and they smiled at each other in the way that only the closest friends could. He squinted his face comically and nodded his head in the direction of the expanded ice garden. She met him halfway and gracefully looped her around around his, escaping the warmth of the crowd for a few minutes of solitude. Melloni watched them sneak away from across the square and shook his head. He was talking to Sarah, the owner of Pink Bunny Studios.
"Lovebirds, eh? Ya can't live without 'em." he jerked his thumb in their direction.
"Indeed." Sarah replied in her usual monotonic manner, tightening her manicured nails around her fan and watching the two disappear into the distant white trees from in between her rivets of pink lace.
Chimabell stood solemnly in the distance, watching Zero and Sophia as well in distaste. She had stolen everything from him with her heart, and they were eating it up. He didn't know what they would do now that the commoners wanted to take care of themselves. Pack up and move?
No. He had a better idea. A sinister smile tinted his face. It was genius.
He had always wanted to conduct a yoga class.

........

"You did good. No...you did amazing, sweetie."
"I did do good, didn't I?" Sophia agreed, and laughed wholeheartedly. She had never felt this accomplished with her life. She wasn't craving cigarettes or sadness anymore. She knew for once that she really had done more than just a solitary "good".  It was funny how in the human world the thought of volunteering had made her groan, and now here she was in Decembersville playing Gandhi. The freaks had opened her heart with passion and had poured in, filling the empty spaces. The two of them sat down on an ice bench underneath a crystallized tree; the crowd was far away and oblivious to her disappearance. She bit her lip and stared off into the distance, kicking her boots deep into the snow.
"So, uh...I should probably get going tonight. I mean, college starts in a few months and I should get a new job...and should get married...human stuff."
"Oh, right." Zero became sad and gazed down at her hand, picturing a ring on it. Snowflakes fell onto his pale cheeks and melted. He was sickened by the thought of her leaving. He couldn't stand the thought of not seeing her for years on end, for her to look older and older with each visit...soon to come with grey hair and then eventually to disappear forever without a goodbye. The thought brought him close to tears...

...but he knew what he had to do. He had to let her go.

"But..." his ears perked up, "...if you would be alright with it, I'd rather stay here with you."
Zero couldn't believe his ears. "...you really want to stay with me here...forever?"
"Every day for the rest of my life. There has been nothing more dominant in my heart than this city, than the people or Melloni or Tin...or you. I'd be insane to give that all up. I can go back and disappear again, or I can make a difference here. I don't want to go back and get married and live an empty life, knowing that everything that I love is right here in front of me. I want to be with you...what do you want?"
They gazed at each other, the both of them had tears in their eyes. For some reason, she expected him to tell her to go pack. It was her worst fear. Zero grazed her cheek with his metallic hand and brushed a snowflake off of her cheek.
"I don't want to lose any more time."
Sophia squealed ecstatically and kissed him right on the lips. Zero was extremely surprised but didn't stop her. He took her hand in his and blushed, kissing her warmly in return. He'd known from the beginning that he loved her and that she had loved him back.
"YYYYEEEEEEAAAH!" Melloni whooped at them from across the parkway, pumping his fists in the air. The surrounding audience, even Sarah, began to applaud in approval. Sophia giggled and her nose brushed his. She snuck a brief kiss in once more before turning and shouting out to the crowd.
"I'M GOING TO STAY!" her delivered news resulted in a frighteningly even louder applause that shook every house on the street and eventually all of Decembersville.

Love in every form was in the air that night. The love of lost family, the love of lost friends, the love of yoga, and most importantly the love of a new beginning.