Her skin tone was now paler than that of a White, with cracks and missing pieces. Her eyes were bottomless pits and her once precious lavender irises were turning darker and darker shades of grey. The purple and red wine-colored streaks of hair have returned to their original jet-black and were in a state of drought, making a few locks fall off. Her clothes were torn and stained with what seemed to be her own coagulated blood. She was like a porcelain doll, broken in every aspect of the word. Once upon a time she was beautiful and delicate, now she was dead and rotten.
It was like seeing a broken porcelain doll, in the form of Raven Queen.
Apple stumbled, mouth and eyes wide open in pure horror and growing dread as the thing stepped towards her with an enlarging, blood-stained grin that provoked little crumbs of its once angelic face to fall. Her breath was caught in her throat and no word could come out of her vocal chords.
Apple didn't know what was happening. Her thoughts were a mass of unintelligible words as she tried all the harder to escape from the ghastly, abandoned and destroyed place she at least recognized to be her and Raven's dorm room.
This is a dream, a bad dream, a nightmare, a horrible nightmare, no- Help! Please help! RAVEN!
And then she screamed, as the Raven-like creature screeched demonically, lounging at her.
When Apple's eyes twitched, Darling thought she'd wake up. If only.
Apple's tries to make air reach her lungs were desperate, yet unconscious. A poisoned apple from the Evil Queen no less had sent the current Snow White's daughter into a death slumber, and Raven, in the middle of her ire and despair had gone to deal with her mother.
In a matter of seconds everything would turn upside down and no one, not even her, knew it.
Darling's eyes widened as she realized the only thing she could do to save Apple was mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Her knightly kicked in as well as her guilt- Holly was right there, watching in panic as her friend and mentor was choking and her girlfriend stood there, unsure of what to do.
Swearing silently and closing her eyes tightly she squished the blonde's cheeks to open a gap, and then pressing her now dry lips against the plump red ones beneath her, blowing all the air she could.
The blinding light that came immediately after made her end the awkward contact and retreat to shield her offended eyes, unable to meet Holly's own. Darling was sure there wouldn't be anything in them but pain.
Apple slowly awakened, and her brain made an effort to process what had happened and the fact she was no longer under the claws of whatever demon dared to adopt her dearest Raven's body. The blonde first saw Darling sporting a terrified expression, as if the world would fall on top of her in any moment, then Daring, who was gaping at her and finally Holly, whose eyes yelled an statement of concealed heartbreak. The crowd behind them –she noticed later- was gaping just as Daring was, but she still didn't know why.
"Daring?" she asked, still unsure of what to say in regards of her friends' reactions, "Did you wake me up?"
"Uh a-actually-" the boy was cut off by his sister, who elbowed him in the ribs signaling him to keep silent.
"Of course, Daring, no need to be modest now. Good work there!" the feminine Knight stammered out, a less than convincing smile trying to form on her face.
Snow White's daughter was dubious. But the absence of someone crucial to their situation claimed her attention urgently.
"Where is Raven?"
I can't believe I'm actually doing this.
That's all Raven could think beyond her obvious annoyance towards the woman that once again ruined her possibility of living a normal life (just when things were starting to look up for both her and Apple as a couple and the number of people running from her had dropped significantly!).
First she snoops in the tale of Sleeping Beauty and gets the Thorn clan in its entirety to hate her (exhibit A Faybelle, who was crazy enough to serve her mom as a kind of personal assistant and even turn her back against her classmates, just for the jolly of being "the greatest Evil Fairy in the history of fairy tales"). Then she goes all gun ho on lands that don't even belong to their story or even belong to their freaking dimension, putting curses all over those damn places and then she goes and poisons Wonderland. Of all places, Wonderland. The land of strange mythical creatures and random things that can decapitate people. The land of a Queen whose catchphrase is 'Off with your head', no less. The land of Jabberwockies and speaking clams. Homeland to Lizzie, Kitty, Maddie, Alistair and Bunny. Wonderland.
Now, as if it weren't enough, she breaks free and causes a whole new disaster, sort of transforms Snow White into a talking snake and the rest of the faculty into animals, as well, and poisons her girlfriend.
And the woman is still ranting about conquering Neverland and who knows what else!
But she had to stay, mumble a 'yeah yeah' from time to time and get the antidote or cure to Apple's poisoning as soon as she could, or at least get her mother away from Ever After.
The fact that her mother 'stole' her turn at poisoning Snow White meant no good. Generations in fairy tales didn't work like that. In Snow White's story, the Princess falls into a deep slumber for an undisclosed amount of time after eating a poisoned apple. The spell used in the infamous fruit is usually one of dreamless sleep, but it only works correctly if the Evil Queen places it upon her contemporary Snow White, not the next one in advance.
For what she knew, her precious Apple could be having a wonderful dream filled with castles, white stallions and stuff, or be having a hellish nightmare filled with the most horrible things brought from the deepest and darkest places of her subconscious. Knowing her mother and the fact she kicked Apple out of a giant hole on their dorm room wall, out of a castle hundreds of feet up in the air, the second one was most probably happening and she didn't like it at all.
The younger witch had no option but to roll her eyes as her mom spun her around in her ridiculous attire for an 'evil selfie'.
Ugh. Hang on tight, everyone.
Holly was weeping internally.
Until now she was completely sure of how things would be. First she and Darling would graduate, then she would be kidnapped and taken to some old tower to wait for Darling to rescue her and voilà, they lived happily ever after. Holly would live out her destiny (that was actually her sister's but they were better off with their little arrangement, so whatever after) and Darling would accomplish her dream of being a Knight in shining armor instead of a helpless damsel, but that was before Daring turned out not to be Apple's Prince and Darling did. Darling was Apple's True Love and the mere thought made her head ache and a lump form in her throat.
What about Raven? She thought with growing sorrow.
The redheaded Princess stared hopelessly at the scene and briefly eyed the retreating form of Darling, who sported a look of despair much like her own. This can't be it.
"Apple… Raven had gone with the Evil Queen to… do Ancestors know what." Said Ashlynn in a tone that suggested the girl was trying not to raise panic within the recently awoken blonde Princess.
However, Apple's eyes widened the size of saucers and her jaw dropped in a scandalized fashion.
"We have to get Raven back!" Apple shouted firmly, eyeing the hand mirror that lied discarded on the floor near a stressed Darling.
"But how?" Lizzie Hearts interjected, quite anxious.
With adrenaline pumping in her veins she stoop up and grabbed the hand mirror her mother had been showing her the day prior. "This is what we need. Come on!"
Everybody present doubted for a full minute, and the daughter of Snow White didn't have time to waste. Not with her birdy in the hands of that woman.
"Hey! We are the children of fairy tales, we can do this! Raven needs us! We can't leave her alone in this, can we?!" she hoped her words reached somewhere, and the claims of support were all she needed.
Apple hurried up to Braebyrn and waited for the rest to mount their dragons as well. Her factions had been schooled into stoicism in a matter of moments and her blue eyes held a decisive shine in them. Time to finish this!
Meanwhile Darling had put on a determined expression. She would deal with her problems later and that included a good heart-to-heart with her girl, but right now the future of Ever After, lots of other worlds and more importantly, her BFFA Raven were on the line and she needed to be strong!
The Charming girl shot a piercing glare at Holly, not faltering when the O'Hair's eyes met hers. The couple shared a single nod acknowledging that they would indeed talk later, but that didn't ease the sting in her chest when Holly mounted Prince of Scales alone.
"Hey, Darling, give me a ride?" Cerise came up to the Princess-turned-Knight and pointed to HeroWing.
"Sure." She answered and so they trotted up to the baby blue reptilian waiting for them.
For daring to try to tear me away from Raven- Apple's eyelids narrowed to two tiny slits.
For my and Holly's future together- Darling's jaw tensed and her fists clenched around HeroWing's reins.
The Evil Queen is on!
They both swore mentally as the fire within them raged and the group took off in direction of Ever After castle.