"Lloyd, she's here," Mika warns me. I peek through the stable door and see the Evil Queen striding in with an enormous amount of foot soldiers. I silently curse.
"We have to warn the queen and king," I say urgently. I check to make sure I have my knife in it's sheath tied to my belt. I also check to make sure I have my arrow pendant dangling around my neck which was given to me by my older sister Red.
Unlike Red, I wasn't lucky enough for Granny to take me away from my mum. I say I wasn't lucky enough because I didn't have the best of childhoods. I spent most of my early life being constantly having to transform into my wolf state to try and take control of what I was doing. Unfortunately, my mum pushed me to hard and I soon hated it. I too also had to steal in order to survive. "Survival of the fittest" as the other men in the pack would tell me. In addition to that, I never knew Red existed until I turned ten.
When I was ten I had wandered into the forbidden part of the den where I found a small chest. I opened it and saw inside a single photo of a small baby girl. I asked my mum who it was and she told me that it was my older sister Red. It was at that moment I knew I had to go and find my sister. When I turned eleven and had my own bow, and I took off and spent weeks trying to track down my sister.
When I did find her, she was confused as to who I was. I explained to her that I was her younger brother and she automatically took me in. I lived with her and Granny for two years until I knew I had to move on when we got word of wolf hunters in the area. Red and Granny both were easily able to hide it, but me on the other hand didn't really hide it well. I departed Red and Granny's cottage promising to return once I knew it was safe enough. Before I had left Red gave me the arrow pendant and told me that as long as I wore it, I would always be able to stay in control.
I ended up traveling to Snow White's castle and was able to get a job as a stable boy, which I couldn't be more happier with. During my first few weeks I met another stable girl named Mika and we've been friends since. I've also been working at the castle stables for two years now.
"Lloyd, c'mon," Mika gestures. We both quickly depart the stables and sneak through the servant's door into the castle, trying to avoid the soldiers.
Once inside the castle, we quickly run through the servants corridors to the passage that leads up the tower to the king and queen's room. We can feel the torches heat as we run and our leather boots clicking against the cracked stone floor. We don't make it far before we hear voices. I quickly crouch down and walk forward to peer over the corner.
I see the door leading to the king and queen's room, but at the same time down the hall I can hear the soldiers and Evil Queen approaching. I gesture over to Mika and we both quickly make a run for it.
To some miracle, Mika and I both make it to the room, but to only see Snow White trying to stand up fully, but having to lean against the bed post.
"Queen Snow," I quickly say running over and helping her stand.
"Lloyd! Mika! What are you doing here?" Snow White asks.
"We came to warn you, but I reckon King Charming already has gone and sent your daughter to the portal," I presume. I see a sadness in Snow White's eyes and can tell that indeed Charming has gone.
"You have to leave now Lloyd. You can't be here. Regina will kill you," Snow White begs me.
"I'm not leaving you here," I say. I'm younger, but I'm also persistent in what I do. We then hear sword clashing from a while down. Mika and I both look towards the corridor.
"Go, find my husband," Snow White orders us. Giving her a nod of the head, Mika and I both quickly take off down the corridor towards the fighting.
I'm the first to see Charming attempting to get to the wardrobe, but being attack my tons of soldiers. I quickly unsheath my knife and start attacking the soldiers from the back. Mika follows behind me with her bow staff in hand. We both start fighting our way through the soldiers.
"Behind you!" Mika yells out. I quickly side step and jab my hand back and the knife pierces the soldier next to his heart. I pull out my knife and kick the soldier to the ground. I look in the eyes of the man as he dies. Inside I die a little because I killed a man who was just following orders, but then again this is the fate of the Enchanted Forest at hand.
Charming soon makes it to the wardrobe and places his daughter inside. Mika and I both defend off the soldiers and soon it's clear.
"Mika, Lloyd, thank you," Charming thanks us. But just as he says that he gets struck in the back by a soldier. I quickly throw my knife and it strikes the soldier between the eyes and he falls flat. I quickly go and grab my knife as Mika checks Charming's pulse.
"He's still alive, but barely," Mika reports. I kneel next to Charming and rip off a piece of my tunic and use it to try and clog the bleeding. We sit there for a while, when suddenly we hear a noise behind us. We turn around and see Snow White.
"No, no! No! No! No! Please... Please come back to me," Snow White begs trying to kiss Charming to revive him, but to no avail. Mika and I both take a step back.
"Oh , don't worry dear. In a few moments, you won't remember you knew him, let alone loved him," I hear a woman say behind me. I quickly turn around and see the Evil Queen. The Evil Queen looks at me and says, "I remember you. Sweet boy you were, delivering me poisonous flowers from an old man in the forest."
"Poisonous?" I ask.
"A story for another time," the Evil Queen replies.
"Why did you do this?" Snow White interjects.
"Because this is my happy ending," the Evil Queen states. Two guards then enter. "The child?"
"Gone. It was in the wardrobe, and then it was gone. It's nowhere to be found," one of the guards report. I finally take the moment I've been waiting for, a moment where the Evil Queen is too busy to bother about me. I raise my knife and throw it at her, but she quickly flicks her wrist and it comes flying back, but towards Mika.
"Mika!" I yell and quickly jump in front of the knife. I feel it pierce into my chest, but luckily missing my heart, but just by centimetres. I fall to my knees and look up at the Evil Queen. "Y-you will n-never win," I say, spitting at the Evil Queen's feet. She flicks her wrist again and I fly backwards hitting into the wall. I groan in pain and Mika runs over to me. She sits down and cradles me in her lap. She brushes my now shaggy and blood filled brown hair with her hand.
"Lloyd," Mika says, tears streaming down her face. I raise a hand slowly and gently wipe away the tears.
"Mika, I should've told you this sooner," I began, but stopping myself as I feel the knife dig a bit deeper. "Mika, I-I love you." Mika leans down and kisses me on the lips and we stay like that ignoring the scene going on behind us.
"Lloyd, I love you too," Mika replies. Soon the ceiling starts to break apart and a twister starts forming in the room.
"Where are we going?" Snow White asks.
"Somewhere horrible. Absolutely horrible. A place where the only happy ending will be mine," the Evil Queen replies. The glass finally breaks and a cloud builds it's way into the room. The last thing I see is Mika's beautiful blue eyes staring into mine and her embrace. My world then goes dark.
