HI GUYS! I wanted to post some of these stories over here and not just on Tumblr. Look up the CS Hiatus Challenge on tumblr. It's fun. Unfortunately, I real life pulls me away, so I can't participate every day, but the ones that I do, I will put up here a day or two after. They're short, and fun. Please enjoy!
Day 4- Word Prompt- Hope
He felt it as a child. All naive and innocent. Even after his father abandoned them, he still had Liam. After the storm that sunk Silver's ship, but somehow spared them, he clung to it still. It wasn't until he lost his brother, that he started to lose it.
When the crocodile crushed her heart in front of him, he lost it completely. 200 years of life with one purpose, that of revenge, burned through the soul. He knew he wouldn't stop until he completed his task. The mission would claim his life, he knew that as well, but he didn't care, he had nothing else to live for.
Getting pulled out from a pile of bodies, the light emanating from her burned through to the pit his soul. He felt it stirring then, as their eyes met for the first time. Foolishly, he allowed it to fester in his mind, until she left him chained in the giant's lair.
His traitorous heart made him feel it again when she offered him to be part of something. He hadn't had that in so long, a place to call home. People that cared about him. It was an anomaly his head wouldn't let him process, so he ran. Doing what he did best. Looking out for himself. His heart fought, and eventually won, he turned his ship around.
It took hold, making a permanent stamp on his heart when she kissed him for the first time in the heated jungles of Neverland. Not even her hastened reply that it wouldn't happen again could tamper it. Even after the boy demon played his trump card, it still wouldn't diminish.
The prospect of a true goodbye darkened it a bit. But it wouldn't leave his heart completely. Even as the Evil Queen said that there was no way, his heart whispered to him that this was not the end. They would meet again. Not a day will go by that I will not think of you. Good. That one word, confirmation she felt as he did. It was enough to make it grow roots. There was no way it would truly leave him now.
When the bird landed on his bow, with the note and memory potion, he knew failure was not an option. It was then he held to it with every fiber of his being. It was all he had.
Even after the Wicked Witch cursed him, it only faltered slightly, but ultimately, it just gave him the courage to carry on. The same when they were inadvertently trapped in the past.
It consumed him the night she confessed she couldn't lose him too. The confession was confirmation that, even though she couldn't admit it to herself yet, she loved him as much as he loved her.
He held to it fiercely when the Darkness swept her up and disappeared with her in it. Her name on the dagger, and her whispered words of love echoing in his head, were a devastating blow, but he refused to fall into despair. When they found her, he knew they would figure out this new puzzle. It was, after all, what they did. They were the heroes, and heroes never gave up.
It was missing from his soul, when the darkness consumed him as well. He could still feel the love for her, but this was missing. Whether or not this was a result of the original Dark One's direct interference, he didn't know, but when he saw her, struggling to breathe, eyes begging him to do something, it flared to life in him again. It gave him the strength to do what needed to be done. Sacrificing himself so she and her -their- family would live.
There wasn't any to be had in the Underworld. Hades had designed the place to destroy any chance of it growing. There was only despair. When he got her message, at first he thought it was a sick joke, but quickly realized it was real. His whole being flared to life as it renewed itself in his soul. This woman was a force to be reckoned with. Following him to the depths of hell because she refused to let him go.
Hades deception was a devastating blow, but still it stayed in his heart. They got the closure they needed. He knew she felt like she had failed. But she hadn't, she had saved him, in more ways than he could ever tell her. She was his light, his True North.
When the light lit up the cavern, and he walked through the archway into the unknown, he held it in his heart, like a child would hold a stuffed animal for comfort. It took him by surprise that of all the people who could have been waiting for him, he was honored with the presence of the king of the Gods himself. As Zeus escorted him down the hallway, to what he assumed was the the fields of Elysium, he wondered if he would see his brother.
When the lights flashed, and the ground tremored, he was never more surprised than in that moment. There she was before him. Calling her name hesitantly, he was shocked to stillness when she turned and ran to him. It wasn't a dream or a trick. It was real. Zeus had returned him to her. She was where he belonged.
It filled his soul then. Engrained into his very essence. And he would never again let it waiver.
It was either a foolish damnation, or a saving grace.
Oft times, it was both.
Hope.