Prologe

The night was as dark as you could barely see anything except for what the moon enlightened with his mesmerizing shine. A cold breeze rushed across the land and set the lush grass and the heavy branches of trees and bushes into motion. The rustling of it was everything to be heard besides the distant sound of the ocean's water, that streamed against the coast.

An owl sang through the nocturnal silence and he winced back. He looked into the direction from where he suspected it to have come from like a frightened deer and waited for a long moment. Even though he already understood that it had been nothing more but an owl that had surprised him, he only dared to release a breath and move again, when he had checked on everything around him and had noticed that nobody was there.

He hurried up the hill, that parted the ocean from the place he wanted to reach unnoticed and as fast as possible. He couldn't be caught or everything would be over. No matter which path he would chose he couldn't let anything go wrong tonight. There was too much at stake for himself.

He had been insane for teaming up with her in the first place. He should have never entered her castle, should have never met her. But everything had went wrong. Things had turned out the way they were now and he couldn't change the past anymore. And God knew, he had wished he could a lot of times before. And still he didn't know which path to take yet. He didn't know if he should risk his life more than he would through this or if he should take the easy route.

He had received information and now he didn't know what to do with it. Actually he didn't care at all but there was still this small little voice that questioned his task. He didn't know if he would ever be able to shut it down once he would make his choice. It might hound him for the rest of his life. Could he really need more ghosts to hound him?

No matter which path he would chose he would hurt people and he would destroy wishes and hopes. He would spread fear and worries. A lot of tears would be shed. Maybe they would even lose hope and maybe they would despair. But that was something he had to accept for purchase. It was something he would have to load on his conscience and live with it.

He passed rocks reaching through the knee high grass and stopped in front of a road. To sneak into the castle would be tough not just because of his qualms caused by his conscience and his fear of living with this decision, but because it was guarded well ever since Regina had shown up on their marriage and had declared endless suffering to the entire Enchanted Forest.

She really was an awful person. Sometimes he even questioned if she had a soul at all. He questioned if she even was human or just a monster. But then he understood that there was nothing in the world that could be worse than a human with a goal. A human who would do everything to reach that goal. Who would ignore other people's wishes and feelings. Who wanted to reach happiness as badly as he didn't care for others' anymore.

Sometimes he wondered what had happened to her. What on earth had happened between Snow White and her that she was as ruthless? Had Regina always been like this? Had she always been an evil witch? Had she always been this thirsty for blood? Had she always been so full of hate and darkness? But if not, what had changed her so badly? Maybe her evil mother? Oh yes, Cora really was a huge peace of work.

He tightened his cloak and ran along the castle's wall always staying in it's shadow. There was a way inside besides the main gate. He had noticed it when he had watched the castle. When he had come here he had noticed the small gate at the back that lead to the ocean. It was the entrance for the fishermen, so they could leave for fishing early in the morning without waking anybody. He had watched them use it for the past days, sitting in taverns or strolling across their market right in their middle and now all he needed to do was to find it without catching anybody's attention.

He looked up at the wall beside him. Not even a single light was burning. Most of the people in there had to be asleep. But that didn't mean, that there weren't any guards. He sighed and looked out to the sea. The moonlight played across the water's surface, so it seemed to be sparkling like a crystal. He bit his bottom lip and looked at the wall again.

He froze for a second.

Then he rushed further until he reached the cliff. There was hardly any space between the wall and the cliff, but he managed to stand between it anyway. The moonlight shone at this spot and created a huge shadow in the shape of his body. There was something wrong with the shape of the bricks at this spot. That the moonlight shone at it like this, felt just as if the moon agreed with his decision and wanted to help him. It was encouraging and strange.

He searched the wall until a brick moved underneath his fingertips as easy as if he had pushed it with the weight of his entire body. The bricks started to glow a little. It was a yellow light, that enlightened his hands but didn't blind him. It didn't even win against the moonlight. Then the brick wall with the different stones seemed to melt into one huge stone that turned into wood without losing its structure and opened into the castle.

He stood in front of the opened door and stared at it in surprise. If he wasn't mistaken then he had just touched magic. This spot of the wall must have been cursed or something like that. It didn't matter. Now he had found the secret door that he had noticed the other day. It was exactly the same.

He sneaked inside the castle and hide behind a column that carried the wall passage above. He waited for a moment and when nobody was to be seen he rushed up to the castle. He entered it through the kitchen door through which usually only the maidens and butlers went and avoided people and children running around in there. Nobody seemed to notice him at all. They were too caught up in cleaning the kitchen or were already sleeping, when he sneaked through the room every time he felt save to do it.

The way through the halls was easy, too. Once he had taken off his cloak to carry it along like a blanket, nobody questioned him or his presence. Nobody wondered who he was or what he was doing there. It was completely different from what he knew of castles. Compared to Regina's place it was amazing. He felt free and secure, while at Regina's castle he always felt watched and tested. There he couldn't trust anybody, because nobody trusted anybody, but here seemed to be love in the air. It wasn't always the love between man and woman or parents and children, but the love of true friends and companionship that wasn't bound to deals and agreements. It was impressing and he felt more than ever that he was missing something.

He took the shortest route and stopped in a hall with three doors. Even though there was now carpet or any pictures at the walls like in the rest of the castle, the stony room felt warm and seemed to be enlightened in warm colors.

He took a deep breath and rushed to the doors. One room was an empty bedroom, the second he couldn't open, because he heard voices coming from inside. He stopped in front of the last one and hesitated before he opened it.

He put on his cloak again and walked up to the baby grip as if he was pulled towards it by something he couldn't understand. He felt bewitched as he walked up to it and looked down at the small creature inside it.

He pulled away the blanket and looked into green eyes and a smiling face.

Guilt laced his throat until he could barely breathe anymore. This wasn't the time to think of her mother or her father. This was the time to focus on his plan and how he wanted things to turn out. He could only pray that he wouldn't be the only one to keep his word. He could only hope that this wouldn't be for nothing.

But he knew that he had to do this or this little girl here would die very soon. There was no way that Regina would leave her alone and allow Snow White and Charming to be a happy family. She would hunt them down, she would never stop and she would never leave them alone. If she would get a hold of this girl or even get a chance to, she would definitely kill her, because Regina was evil no matter what had turned her into this.

And yet there still had been moments in which he had seen better sides of her. When she had been with her father, she had been different. She had been softer and kinder. She had even cried, but only around him. And at the same time she had requested the murder of her mother. She had ordered to reap out her heart to use this stupid curse she had found to get her revenge. And that had been the moment he had been forced to understand that no matter what would happen, she would always chose her vengeance.

He took the baby into his arms and lost himself in her eyes for a moment. Then he walked up to the balcony, opened the door and swung his legs across the parapet. The air was cold and he hesitated. But that wasn't what made him freeze on the spot.

There was a sound from outside. Somebody was coming.

He looked back to the door as it was pushed open and stared at her parents. This didn't work the way he had wanted it to at all.

Charming stood in the door and pulled his sword, "stop!"

He swallowed hard, collected every bit of bravery he had in his body, glanced at her parents who stormed towards them, looked at the baby in his arms and jumped.

Her parent's screams hunted him even across the noise of the wind in his ears and the ocean all around the castle and even before they were safe and sound, he knew that the screams of the baby's parents would hunt them for a very long time.