It was cold, the late fall wind passing easily through her coat, but still she stayed.
Winter was fast approaching and soon snow would come to covered everything in a thick layer of white. That they were on the coast had no effect of the white substances presence. They were in Maine, the place where winter came to in mid - October and didn't leave till April, if you were lucky. Taking a deep breath she shivered, and could easily see her breath illuminated by the lights from the party behind her as she sat alone on a picnic table out front. Everyone was so happy that they were back and so of course they had to celebrate. Everyone was just so happy, they joked, they laughed, and some had even started to dance...
She couldn't stand it.
Emma looked up at the pin pricks of light above her, searching for the star she'd demanded Neal point out to her the first night they'd come back. He'd been confused, but she'd been in such a horrible mood since the "final battle", as they were calling it, that he'd simply pointed it out and every night since she'd spent hours staring at it when she was supposed to be sleeping. More than anything she wanted to reach up, rip that twinkling light from the sky, and crush it beneath her boot...or store it in a lock box were no one but her would ever see it again.
Second star to the right and straight on till morning.
It was his grave, not that mock hole in the ground they'd made two days ago, that was where they'd left his body; where they'd forced her to leave him behind. Sometimes it didn't feel like he was really gone, like he was never coming back. She kept having this feeling, like he would just...show up. Maybe around the next corner, with a smirk and a wink and a "miss me Swan?"
Emma laughed at the image in her mind, but it was a choked sound and it quickly turned into a sob as she buried her face in her hands trying to push away the tears. It was ridiculous, they'd never even been something! Just looks, kind words, comfort, and a kiss that meant everything; that had burned her lips for hours after. Then again...maybe he'd become everything without her noticing, and that's why this hurt so damn bad.
As you wish.
The stupid bastard had said those words, the words, and it brought back childhood memories of pirates and princess and epic loves that conquered all. But she'd been in love with Neal, she did love Neal, and he'd hurt her but she was healing now; at least that's the song she sang when anyone asked why she cried in the night.
She's never felt so trapped.
"So I guess it's not Dad, huh?" Emma jumped, a surprised gasp leaving her, as she turned to face her son; who stood solemnly behind the table she sat on.
"Henry," She whispered her voice sounding cracked and broken. No, she couldn't let him see, couldn't let anyone see. None of them understood, they'd barely tolerated him...well her dad like him well enough after the poisoning, but still. None of him knew him like she did, mourned his loss like she did. They wouldn't understand, they would judge, and she didn't need that now. So clearing her throat and straightening up she went on, "Hey, it's cold out here, you should be inside kid."
"Mom," he said sounding both exasperated, comforting and sad all in one. "You know you don't have to do that."
"Do what?"
"Pretend you don't miss him, I know that look. Gramps wore it when you both were in the Enchanted Forest and he thought I couldn't see him. He was your... True Love ... wasn't he ..."
She blinked at her son, Henry, ever clever and always observant. He saw the world and people for what they were, and sometimes what they could be. "I-I don't...I..."
Henry sighed before coming over and bouncing himself up onto the table beside her, "He saved my life you know, he saved all of us, and I know he did it all because of you, for you. He told me so, told me what he was going to do when Pan captured him and wasn't looking. He told me you missed me and that you'd been looking for me, fighting for me. I was lost before he did that."
Emma stared at him shocked, she didn't know that. Killian had pulled her son back from the brink, and then he'd jumped in front of a metaphorical bullet for him, all because he knew how much Henry meant to her. Her breath escaped her heavily, and she tried desperately to get it back. But when Henry threw his arms around her she lost the battle entirely , buried her head in his hair, and cried as he quietly told her how sorry he was.
Her True Love was gone, and he was never coming back.
They'd laid him in-state almost a week ago, turning one of the most ornate drawing rooms the Fairy Queen's Palace had to offer in to a mausoleum. Wearing the dress blues of a Naval Captain he looked every bit the grand seaman he'd been in life, and the Island's denizens from all over came to see the villain turned hero. For even in his darkest of rages Killian Jones had been wise enough not to make an enemy of the fairies that lived here, and now he's saved them all. From The Shadow, from Pan and from the destruction they'd tried to create with the child called Henry; he was owed this honor at least.
"Where do you think he is?" Violet asked her sister as they dusted and clean the room, it was their turn to make sure the room that held "the hero" was never neglected.
Her sister huffed tiredly as she pushed a table back against the wall, she's been doing all the work so far as her sister had stared at the attractive human. "Probably no where good, you don't interfere in magic that powerful and expect to be reward for it."
"Do you think he can be save?" Violet asked sadly, he'd saved them, he shouldn't be torture for it.
"The only thing that will save that man is True Loves kiss, and that's the former Captain Hook you're looking at. I doubt very highly he has anyone like that." her sister said with pity in her voice. "Come on let's get this done, this place is depressing."
It burned.
Everything burned.
He'd screamed and yelled and banged on the walls calling for anyone, anything, to help him, to save him.
Nothing came.
Dodging flames, reliving old sins, and losses had become his existence.
He was forced to watch through the fire as his father left, his brother perished, Milah died in his arms, every life he'd ever taken, every mistake he'd ever made on an endless cycle that never stopped until he couldn't remember having ever been happy.
The flames licked his skin, consuming his body as despair consumed his soul.
He screamed in anguish.
The void didn't care.