Chapter Text
During the weeks after the Kalagans' imprisonment, Ridley couldn't sleep. She'd lie wide awake at night, staring at the ceiling paralysed – too scared to close her eyes and go back to sleep, jumping at every little sound she heard. Breathless with fear that it wasn't over.
But weeks turned into months, and months turned into years, and the Kalagans remained in jail.
Ridley had secretly feared that over the years she and her friends would grow apart, that the Magic Misfits would disband, but to her relief what happened was the exact opposite. As they jumped from primary school to high school, they stuck by each other, becoming closer than ever. And as their bodies and minds grew and matured, so too did their magical talents.
Teenagehood had brought with it a mess of hormones and drama that turned everything on its head, but the six of them powered on through together. While their escapades never reached the stomach-churning heights of when the Emerald Ring had threatened them, they still found plenty of fun and mischief to get into. The Magic Misfits made themselves a name as the masters of the impossible.
At age 16, life was going pretty well.
And then the Kalagan twins broke out of jail.
Ridley remembers running white hot with rage but also freezing in place from pure terror when she heard the news. She'd screeched for her mum and, after Mrs. Larsen had listened to the story over the radio, they drove up the hill to the magic shop. Ridley had never seen her mother so determined before, and it had eased the tight knot in her stomach just a little. Her mother would fight for her. For her and her friends.
When they reached the Vernons' mansion, the police were already outside, deep in conversation with Mr. Vernon. Ridley's mother quickly joined them, after seeing her daughter ushered safely inside. The Other Mr. Vernon helped her upstairs, where Leila and Carter were huddled together on the living room sofa under a pile of blankets. Ridley rolled right over to them and held her arms out, wrapping the cousins in a crushing hug. Carter was literally shaking, his eyes and cheeks a blotchy red and still wet from crying. He didn't pull away when Leila did. Ridley held him tight and pressed soft kisses into his hair as Leila draped one of her blankets over her friend’s shoulders.
Theo arrived next, barreling in and crushing each of them in a tight hug, before cocooning Carter in his arms and whispering soft reassurances to him. When the Golden twins got there, they wrapped their arms around the others as tight as they could, squishing them all together. Afterwards, the Misfits settled onto the couch, Ridley abandoning her chair so she could be right beside her friends. She and Theo had Carter cradled between them, their hands entangled with his, his head leaning heavily on Theo's shoulder. Leila and Izzy cuddled up beside Ridley, and Ozzy leaned in against Theo. They sat like that for hours.
The six of them spent the following nights together in the Vernons’ magic mansion, police patrolling the grounds outside. Their parents had their emergency lines open the entire time, and the Vernons kept diligent watch over their group of charges. They set themselves a curfew, never staying out after dark and never going out alone. Fear hung over them all like smog, choking the joy out of them and making them paranoid.
It was in these weeks of paranoia that Ridley first considered creating legitimate weapons. Not traps, triggers or secret compartments. Not surprises embedded into her wheelchair. Actual weapons. She devoured books on mechanics and weaponry, sketched pages upon pages and fussed over blueprints. She showed the others her ideas and asked for their thoughts, letting them reel her back in when an idea became too dangerous.
Of course, as bad luck is wont to have it, before she could reach the moment she actually started building something came the moment she would’ve needed it most.
~oOo~
Carter woke up to the sound of the living room window creaking on its hinges and a distinct need to pee. Disentangling himself from the others (they'd been sleeping in the same room together since that first night), he crawled out from under the covers, shivering at the sudden loss of warmth. He crept along the hallway and shut himself inside the bathroom. After he'd washed his hands and towelled them dry, he creaked the door open again. A yawn escaped his mouth.
It broke off into a strangled cough when he came face-to-face with a knife to his throat.
A rough hand gripped him by the hair and he yelped, feeling the knife push harder against his skin as he was yanked forward. The bathroom door was kicked shut with a loud bang, and Carter flailed. His fingers clawed at the arm with the knife, trying to pull it away, but a sharp heel stomped on his foot and he flinched from pain. The hand strangling his hair then shoved him to the floor, and his back ached as he collided with the wall. The assaulter crouched down beside him, swift hands shoving a string of fabric into Carter's mouth and tying it around the back of his head so that he was gagged. Carter's eyes blew wide and his stomach heaved, and he desperately wanted to throw up, scream, run and cry all at once.
He'd seen the man's face; it was Uncle Sly. Kilroy Kalagan.
Kalagan kicked Carter in the side, causing him to gasp and choke on the gag. "Get up, boy." the man growled, his voice dripping venom, as he grabbed Carter's arm and yanked him upright. Carter ended up with his back to Kalagan and the knife to his throat again, being shoved down the hallway.
Tears were streaming down Carter's face, his heart lurching alongside his stomach, as the world around him spun in and out of focus. Kalagan kicked open the door to the living room and forced Carter inside.
Leila and Ozzy were sitting up blearily, woken up by the disturbance, but the moment they saw Carter and the man behind him their eyes shot wide and their faces paled. They shook the others awake, scrambling for the bats and clubs the Misfits had been keeping near their bed just in case.
"Stop right there, all of you," Kalagan barked, "or else I slit his throat." He applied a little more pressure to the knife against Carter's skin. The others froze. Kalagan's gaze hardened on Leila. "Go wake Vernon," he spat, "and no police."
Leila fled for her fathers' room, fearing for her cousin's life.