A letter from Freddie Facilier to Dr. and Celia Facilier
Dear Dad and Celia,
I'm fine. I'm alive. I'm all right. I'm fine.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disappear. I didn't know I was going to disappear. I would have left a note or told you or something. I would have brought Celia with me.
I'm in Auradon.
I didn't break the barrier with my shadow or anything. I don't even know how they managed to do it.
Basically, I was taking my shift in the arcade gift shop, and then Mal and a bunch of other people showed up.
You know the genie Jafar is always going on about? Apparently he has a daughter, who has djinn magic, even though her father turned into a regular human. I guess these things are hereditary? Like me and Celia with our shadows. (I can do so many things with my shadow here! Way more than on the Isle! Wait till I show you, Celia!)
Anyway, so this genie girl also goes to Auradon Prep, and apparently Mal wished to go back to the Isle, and she couldn't help but grant it, and they came to the Isle, along with everyone within earshot. And then when Mal wished to go back to Auradon, the spell brought me along too.
Also CJ. They didn't see her, though. But CJ's also in Auradon, and she's fine, and I'm enclosing a letter from her along with mine. Could you give it to her brother or sister so they don't think the goblins pushed her off the wharf or anything?
Anyway, so I had to think fast. I told them that I also wanted a chance to be "good" or whatever it was Mal and the others were doing, and she got a second chance, and what about the rest of us?
I don't know if Evie or Carlos spoke up for me, or if Auradon people are just really gullible, but it worked. They said I could also have a second chance.
Like they ever gave me a first one.
Anyway, so, yeah, I'm in Auradon now. At the school and everything. It's a dorm school, so I live there too.
I think Dragon Hall is better, Dad. The classes here are useless.
It's weird here. Everything is so...sparkly.
The people here are nice enough, I guess. Which also feels weird. Well, some of them say that I'm a VK and I'm probably out to get them and nobody should trust me because look what my friend CJ did-by the way, CJ tried to kidnap Ben just like Uma and Harry Hook did that time. It didn't work out, though. Nothing happened except CJ escaped. She's probably in Neverland by now. I guess she told her siblings in her letter.
But, like, people are saying that because I hid CJ in my room and covered for her I'm evil. Like, hello! If they had one friend, and their one friend asked them to do something for him or her, wouldn't they? Even if it could get them in trouble or sent back to the Isle ?
And besides, CJ had reasons. She was going to hold Ben hostage in exchange for her siblings getting off the Isle. I mean, that wasn't the way I would have done it, but still.
I play the long game. My plan is to be on my best behavior and listen to all the rules-I know you're laughing, Celia-so that when I finally ask them to bring my sister over they can't say no.
I will get you off the Isle, Cel. One way or another.
Anyway, so most of my time I spend by myself. Sometimes I talk with Evie or Carlos. There's a couple of Auradon girls who are nice to me too, like they actually want to be my friends. Once in a while CJ will show up to say hi or give me that letter for her siblings-the Auradon police are so incompetent it's ridiculous, it's like they want her not to get caught. If I was trying to get her caught I could have gotten her by now. Although I suppose they don't have the benefit of speaking to the shadows.
There's a boy here named Tyrone. He's on the tourney team-tourney is some kind of sport here.
But that's not the point. The point is, Dad, he told me that he is one of the sons of Tiana and Naveen.
He said his parents wanted to meet me. I said not yet.
Should I meet them, Dad? What should I say? Should I just say I don't want to meet them? Do you think they'll come talk to me anyway? Do they hold me responsible for what you did?
Naveen kinda had it coming anyway, didn't he?
Will they want me to come to New Orleans?
I even went to New Orleans once. It was just like how you described it. The sounds, the lights, the bayou...
Me and those two Auradon girls went looking for Grandmother Mama Odie, because I did some shadow spells that went wrong and we thought she could fix it.
We didn't find her. I mean, we found where she lived, but she wasn't home. But there was a girl there named Opal-only a few years older than me, maybe twentysomething-who said she was Mama Odie's daughter.
I don't think she was lying.
She looked a little like you, Dad.
Did you know that me and Celia had an aunt that Mama Odie also had a daughter?
She looked surprised when I said who I was. I mean, she's a Facilier, I'm a Facilier...
Neither of us said anything, though, because the other two Auradon girls were standing right there.
It felt so weird. Like, I was right there, and she was right there, and Ally and Jordan were just standing there looking at us wondering at the strange tension in the room, and we couldn't say anything-
I panicked, I guess. I didn't think of sending her my shadow.
So now I'm back here at the school waiting for Opal or her mother to come talk to me.
But also, so we were in a restaurant, and I was singing, and someone complimented me on my voice and asked if my family was from New Orleans, and then this guy said that he promised any member of the Shadow Man's family would pay for what you did to him and we had to escape out the back window.
I don't know what he would have done to us. To me.
I thought people in Auradon were supposed to be friendly and nice and stuff.
What did you do to him, Dad?
I don't sing in public anymore.
Anyway, it was fine.
I'm fine.
I'm sorry I couldn't contact you sooner-I was afraid that if I mentioned wanting to send a letter to the Isle they would go "Oh, so she's still friendly with the Isle!" and send me back. And then I wouldn't be able to get either of you off.
See, because I want to get both of you off! Everyone here thinks that all villains are horrible to their kids. But that's not true-there's you, Dad, there's Dizzy's aunt, there's Carlos's uncle, there's CJ's mother when she was alive-not all villains are the same!
Also, I've been doing some research since I got here. Before the Isle was created, they had something called a "statue of limitations" which means that if someone commits a crime, and they're not caught after a certain amount of time, then even if they are caught after that they can't be charged with it.
I think. There's probably a few details I'm missing. But that's the gist of it.
Also, all crimes weren't punished equally. If someone, I don't know, stole something or even kidnapped someone (remember when Lawrence kidnapped you, Celia, for revenge, because he blamed you, Dad, for getting him sent to the Isle? We sure showed him!) then they would get a lighter sentence then someone who actually killed someone.
And! Listen to this, Celia!
Well, actually, this is a letter, so you can't listen to it. But whatever. Read it very carefully.
Children born in prison didn't stay there forever! They were given to family members outside jail to raise until the mother got out!
Because the mothers weren't usually in jail for life unless they killed someone or were part of the Mafia or did major drug trafficking or whatever! They could get out of prison after a while and start a new life! They weren't just stuck there forever!
My point is, I could totally build a case for getting both of you off the Isle. Or even just Celia, at least.
I'll get you off the Isle, Celia, if I have to turn Mal into a frog to do it.
I love you.
Freddie
P. S. Just kidding. I won't actually turn Mal into a frog. I'll just haunt her with my shadow and nag her and Evie and everyone so much that they'll agree.