Scattered Lily Petals

Chapter Two

AU: Hello again :) Thank you for all of the kind reviews on the last chapter! They definitely help encourage me to write new chapters :D I'm so glad you guys enjoyed the last chapter so I can't wait to give you this one :) Trigger Warning: Self-Harm, Rape, Sexual Abuse, Suicidal Elements, Mental Illness, Mentions of past Child Abuse, and Depression.

~ victorious_1314

Lily's Point of View

We drive through the quaint town for five more minutes until we reach our destination, an old brick apartment building. We park out front and the entire car is silent until Emma turns back to look at me. Her green eyes match mine... well, my left one. The tall man leaves the car first and the dark haired woman follows suit. Emma eventually breaks eye-contact and steps out as well. The man opens my door for me and I flinch away from his hand as he offers to help me step out. He pulls back hesitantly and I avoid looking at his expression.

We walk up two flights of stairs and Emma opens the apartment. The apartment has an old rustic look to it that intentionally looks run down and messy. I step in and drop my bag on a nearby white chair. My sister turns towards me with a nervous look on her face and exchanges glances with the two other people.

"L-Lily, would you like to sit down? We can explain everything," Emma stutters. I nod nonchalantly and lazily flop down on a forest green couch closest to my bag. Emma sits directly across from me and the man and woman place themselves next to me. The feeling of awkwardness creeps up my spine and I internally groan when all eyes land on me.

"I guess I should start with giving you this..." Emma hands me a large book with the words, 'Once Upon a Time' written elegantly on it.

I sit with my legs crossed and my eyes darting back and forth between the adults. I wait for one of them to burst out laughing and tell me that they are just screwing with me. Instead they all look at me with grave expressions. The dark haired woman whom I now know is Snow White, my mother, smiles at me tiredly. Prince Charming, my father grins as well but his eyes still hold sadness.

Emma looks down at the ground solemnly and says, "I was twelve when we were put into the wardrobe, my memories were just erased so we could live a life together. The dark curse came on the day of your birth, Lily."

I glare at her as fiercely as I can manage and my thoughts become scrambled in my brain. My supposed, "mother" reaches for my hand in what I guess is a comforting manner but I jerk away from her touch.

"We don't expect you to believe us immediately. We can give you proof." Charming... or David, says reassuringly. I nod sarcastically as my logical side takes over my reason. David sighs and gets up to presumably get something from the other room that will somehow change my mind. I look down at my feet and catch a glimpse of wetness on the sleeve over my forearm. One of my scabs must have split and bled through the gauze. Terror makes my breathing become shallow and a lump form in my throat.

I put my thumb in between my middle and ring finger and make a fist. I shake it urgently at the women and they look at me strangely. I roll my eyes and point with my good arm towards a dark hallway to my right. Snow's face lights up with understanding, "You have to use the restroom?"

I shake my head in confirmation and Emma says, "It's right down that hall, the second door on the left."

I attempt a smile but it comes out more like a grimace and launch my exhausted body down the narrow hallway. I all but rip off the door to the bathroom in my hurry as I feel the dampness on my sleeve spreading. I flick on the light and my breath catches once I see my disheveled state reflected back at me. My hair is greasy and limp and my eyes have dark circles around them that almost make me look like a panda from my smeared makeup.

I pull up my sleeve and in my haste I tear up the rest of the gauze along with it. A few more scabs come off and more blood begins to rise from my mutilated flesh. I mentally curse and grab tissues. I wrap my wounds as tightly as I can without tearing the thin paper. I run the water so the people in the living room know I haven't jumped out the window or something. The bleeding ceases after a minute and I bind the bandages around my arm tightly again. I flush the bloody tissues down the toilet and turn on the faucet. I roughly scrub the leftover makeup from my eyes and stare at my reflection.

My jaw line matches that of the woman who claims to be Snow White and my nose is a crossbreed between David's and hers as well. My skin is paler without the makeup, the hollows of my eyes appear darker, and the scar over my eye stands out more and is an angry pink. I run my hand through my tangled brown hair and try to take deep breaths as my mind tries to process all of the new information that has been given to me by the people in the living room. I adjust my clothes and walk out of the blue bathroom.

On the green couch Mary Margret, David, and Emma look towards me with matching concerned expressions. I ignore their stares and continue to walk by them swiftly. My step falters when I see the large sword resting in Charming's lap. He smiles sheepishly at me and I sit back down while giving him a wary glance.

"This is my sword from the Enchanted Forest. I know this isn't the best proof, but it's all I can offer you now... I know this all seems unbelievable to you, but I just need you to know that your mother and I love you and we're sorry for everything we've put you through," David pauses and looks down at his feet, "We sent you through the wardrobe with Emma so you two wouldn't be separated, we had no idea that you would be left alone."

Emma makes a small choking noise and says, "I am so sorry, Lily. If I had my memories from home I would have never left your side. I know it must seem impossible to even consider forgiving me, but please, understand that I will never give up trying to make it up to you. I love you."

I furrow my brows at her sincerity and find myself believing what I'm being told. What they are telling me is preposterous but I secretly want to believe that I'm not from this world, I'm a princess, my parents are Snow White and Prince Charming, my sister still loves me, and we're all going to be a family now.

I tangle my fingers together and try to use my rational mind to put an end to this madness but I find myself disregarding everything it says. I know I can never be a princess because of what has happened to me, what I've done, but having a family to protect me from the bad luck that plagues me doesn't seem like such a bad idea. Perhaps I could find someone to translate my sign language to them and ask my newly found family about the year that is missing from my memory when I was seven. Until now I thought that something awful happened to me and my mind is blocking it from me so I will not loose whatever shred of sanity I have left. Now I can only hope that it has something to do with the "Dark Curse".

I look up at my supposed family. Emma stares at my blind eye and asks the question that I always dread, "What happened?"

I feel grateful that I can't answer her but my heart tightens when she pulls a pen and a note pad out of the pocket of her red jacket. Emma hands them to me and her eyes meet mine fiercely. I glance at my acclaimed biological mother and father with the most helpless expression I can manage. They shake their heads at my obvious plead and David says determined, "We can handle it. We're here for you."

I look at the note pad and red pen in Emma's outstretched hand and take it sways nervously. My breath catches in my throat as I feel all of their eyes on me and I uncap the pen with shaking hands. Memories flood through my mind of my sadistic foster father when I was twelve on that fateful night. I tried my best to please the man, I hid the bruises well, I lied through my teeth, and kept quiet on the nights he would visit my bedroom. Yet when the dish slipped from my hand and shattered on the floor he stumbled into the kitchen, swaying from his nightly drinking routine. He slurred something I couldn't understand and shouted, calling me a, 'dumb bitch' and a 'good for nothing whore.'

I remember him moving surprisingly quickly for an intoxicated man and grabbing a shard of glass. I didn't even have time to register what he was doing before I was on the floor and covering my eye with both of my hands tightly. The hot blood spilled in between my fingers and I couldn't muster enough energy to scream. Any noise I tried to make ended up making a gurgling sound in my throat. A puddle of blood formed on the floor below where I was hunched over.

The sound of the door getting kicked down did not go unheard in my hysterical state. I finally was able to scream, it came out bloodcurdling and agonized. At the time I had no idea that scream would be the last noise I ever made in front of anybody. Somebody picked up my body and I heard him call out for somebody to call an ambulance. I saw through my intact eye that he was a police officer. I lost consciousness then.

Waking up in the hospital was terrifying. Nurse's kept looking at me with sickeningly pitiful gazes. Doctor's made comments on how my wound was healing well. The worst part of it all was when the social worker would come into my hospital bedroom and try to get me to speak. She thought at first that I was just being stubborn but she soon discovered, along with a psychologist, that I was too traumatized to speak and that I may never do so again.

My foster father, Richard, admitted to all of his crimes and was sentenced to fifty years in prison.

I now look down at the pad of paper and write in my chicken scratch hand writing:

I was in a car accident.

I hear Snow gasp and I hand the notebook to Emma. She sighs sadly and hands it to David who holds his wife's hand tightly. Emma is the one who finally speaks, "I'm so sorry that happened to you, Lily. We should have been there for you.

I nod and make a big show out of yawning. David stands up and grabs my bag beside me, "I'll show you to your room, ok? Emma volunteered to sleep on the couch and give you her bed upstairs."

I smile uneasily and follow him up the small, black, winding staircase to a small white room. The walls are angled in the shape of the roof and a small wooden bed sits across from a dresser with a mirror. Charming sets down my bags and places his hand on my shoulder. I unintentionally flinch at the unexpected contact but he doesn't pull away.

He instead looks at me with saddened eyes and says in a low voice that I can almost not decipher, "When you're ready to talk about what really happened, I'll always be around to talk."

My eyes widen and he smiles sheepishly, "Emma and Snow may not have noticed but you have the same face your mother when you aren't telling the truth." David gives my shoulder one last squeeze and leaves me in the room, by myself. I push off my shoes and plop myself down on the squishy bed. I underestimated this man's ability to read his own children. I smile unintentionally at the thought of me actually being someone's daughter.

I fall alseep in a cheery mood which is spoiled when I am greeted by nightmares of evil queens and broken dishes.