Rapunzel was in her tower completely alone with Eugene's lifeless, cold body lying underneath her. The first light of day was beginning to shine itself through her window and the birds were beginning to sing, but she didn't notice any of it. She couldn't notice any of it. It felt as if the world outside of her tower was nothing. Nothing but darkness, clouds, and rain. She couldn't feel. Her lanterns were gone, her mother lied, Eugene is dead, everything is lost, Rapunzel is lost...

Her tear-filled green eyes frantically darted around her enclosed tower. Rapunzel was trapped. She had no one, no one to go to, no one to hold her, no one to cry to for help...

"Eugene," she choked out in a whisper, looking back down at him, "Eugene, please. Please wake up. Wake up for me, Eugene, come back," tears were streaming down her face. "Help me. Please."

Hopelessly, she grabbed his hand and pressed it to her head against her newly brown, short chops of hair. Laying all around her was her old 70 ft. of hair, all of it brown, as if it were dead too. Everything is gone, everything is dead...

Desperately, Rapunzel sang anyways.

"Flower gleam and glow,

let your power shine."

Nothing.

"Make the clock reverse,

bring back what once was mine."

Still nothing. She let out a sob.

"Heal what has been h-hurt,

change the f-fate's design..." she trailed off. It was hopeless. Rapunzel wept by Eugene's side,"Eugene, c-come back. Don't leave me. Please don't leave me here alone."

"Oh, Dear. Why are you even trying?"

Rapunzel looked up to see where the voice had come from.

"He's dead. There's no turning it back," her Mother strode- almost glided across the room with a vile smirk planted on her face. "Come with me. I'll make everything better. Mother knows best."

Rapunzel squinted at the figure to make sure her eyes were not deceiving her. Just a moment ago she watched Gothel die. How could she standing here again? Was Rapunzel hallucinating? Her head was spinning- the room- everything was spinning around her except for her mothers figure standing above her.

"But..you just...I saw-"

"Come with me, my flower. Get away from that horrid thief," and to Rapunzel's terror, Gothel reached down and grabbed Rapunzel's wrist, dragging her away from Eugene. "Mother knows best."

"NO! He needs me- I need him! I WON'T GO WITH YOU!"

Furiously, Rapunzel pulled away from Gothel with all of the strength she could muster out of her small body, but nothing in the world could seem to tear her from Gothel's grasp at that moment. Rapunzel reached for Eugene as far as her arm would let her, but he didn't reach back. Everything around her was spinning, everything around her was broken and lost. Everything around her was dead. Rapunzel closed her eyes and she saw them- she saw her Lanterns- and she screamed. She screamed for help, for security and happiness. She screamed for her dreams and Eugene. She screamed until her lungs were completely out of air, and then Rapunzel felt nothing.

It was dawn when she woke up in the castle. Sitting bolt upright in a cold sweat, panic swept through her vains like wildfire. Rapunzel's eyes darted around the room in paranoia, making sure that she wasn't in her tower again.

It was just a dream, she told herself. Only a nightmare. It wasn't real.

Taking a moment to collect herself, Rapunzel sat in bed by herself and zoned out into space. She had never had a dream as vivid and realistic as the one she just had. Everything felt so...real. The walls of the tower surrounding her, Gothel being in the room, Eugene lying dead on the floor...

Tears stung Rapunzel's eyes and threatened to fall down her cheeks again as the thought of Eugene dying crept back into her mind. It was as though she had just relived those terrible moments in her tower when he was dead; except this time there were no magical healing tears that could save him. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't heal him, she couldn't bring him back. Then Gothel came and tried to tear her away from him when he needed her most. Rapunzel felt helpless and weak.

Finally, she gathered herself up enough to step out of bed. The cold, wooden floor beneath her feet sent shivers up her spine and drove her to her dresser to put on a robe. As Rapunzel slipped her small arms through the warm sleeves and lifted the robe up over her shoulders, she turned and stared at herself in a nearby mirror.

Everything she saw, she hated. From her puffy, huge green eyes all the way to her terrible posture. But what she hated most of all were the choppy, short locks of hair that rested on her head.

Rapunzel had tried everything. Singing to it, using a special product her real mother suggested, even attempting to pull it out of her skull, but her hair would simply not grow. And she hated it. She missed having her long, blonde hair to make her feel warm when she was cold, to give her something to hold onto when she felt insecure and scared.

The girl she saw looking at her in the mirror may have looked like Rapunzel, but it didn't feel like Rapunzel. She saw it in her own eyes. The girl Rapunzel saw looking back at her looked scared, lost, and lonely. The girl Rapunzel saw was not a Princess of Corona.

She couldn't take it anymore. The walls of her own room were starting to feel like her tower. Nothing felt safe anymore.

After giving herself one more horrified glance, Rapunzel turned around and rushed out of her room. Once she was out in the hallway, Rapunzel shut her door quickly and pressed her back against it. Her breathing was fast and hard as if she'd just run a marathon, and her vision was blurred by the tears that welled up in her eyes.

"Rapunzel?"

Rapunzel looked to her left and almost instantly, relief swept over her. At the end of the hallway she found a perfectly healthy and alive Eugene Fitzherbert.

Overcome with a need for comfort, Rapunzel lost herself and did the first thing her instincts told her to do. She ran in a full sprint down the entire hallway and, when she finally reached the ex-thief, wrapped her arms around his neck and cried into his shoulder.

"...Rapunzel?" his voice came again, except this time with an edge of concern. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"I keep seeing her. In my dreams. She keeps trying to take me away from you, and you weren't reaching, you couldn't, you were- and I couldn't do anything-"

That's when she felt Eugene's arms wrap around her.

"Shh, It's okay, I've got you," he comforted her, "It was only a dream. I'm not going anywhere."

Rapunzel's sobs died down a little. She held him tighter to her, worrying that he would be first to let go.

"She took me away from you," her voice was barely a whisper now. "I couldn't get away."

Eugene caressed Rapunzel's brunette hair soothingly and whispers, "No one's taking you away from me. Got that? I won't let it happen."

Rapunzel nodded and loosened her grip on his neck. She pulled away from the hug and Eugene positioned his hands on her shoulder, looking her in the eye.

For a moment, they just stood there and looked into each others eyes. Rapunzel felt lightheaded and dizzy from crying and a few times thought she might fall over, but Eugene's grip on her shoulders kept her standing.

Without warning, another tear fell from Rapunzel's eye and rolled down her cheek. Eugene brought his hand to her face and gently wiped it away with his thumb, cupping her face in his hands after he did.

"No one's taking you away from me."

And then she saw them. In his eyes, she saw her lanterns. In his eyes, she saw her dreams, and she felt safe. Rapunzel finally felt safe. It was only a dream, she told herself again, None of it was real. Eugene is here in front of me and I'm safe. I'm safe with him.

And so their lips met.