She was going to go mad here. There was no other option for her.

There was no sense of time, day or night, days or weeks or months.

Her body never yearned for food and none ever appeared.

Sleep never called to her, though she did try.

There were few safe spots from the flames that taunted her second after second. An invisible wind blew, a flame burst to life in front of her eyes, when she turned away to find safety it usually happened all over again. But now and then she found a small patch of area that was not burning and she was able to curl up in the little space and rest. There was still fire there it rained down from the ceiling that never actually burned, but it was never consistent enough to pose a danger to her. In the end, after an uncertain amount of time, she'd discovered that the only way to keep truly comfortable was to just lay down on the floor in a ball and wait. Wait for something she couldn't wait for, with nothing to do, and nothing to look at.

She thought she should have been used to it, after all those years she'd spent in Regina's tower, being held prisoner, but maybe that was what made it worse. Suddenly, compared to this prison, her little round room in Regina's tower looked comfortable, and in the absence of the desire for food and water, she yearned to return to that space once more, to the cozy cot and tones of blue and black. At least she wasn't overheated all the time. At least she'd had a sense of morning, afternoon, and night. At least she'd been able to sleep. At least she'd been able to eat, to walk around, to put a little mark on the wall to signal the time was passing. She had none of that here.

Had she been here an hour? A day? A year? Was her body still in the Underworld? Did the others ever triumph over Hades? Was her child still his property? Was he angry because she'd placed herself under a curse and he couldn't take the child from her?

She had to assume the answer to most of those questions was not good. If she was still here, if she was still stuck in the room, then that was all she needed to know. Rumple still hadn't succeeded in getting their child from Hades, she was still in the Underworld, her father had no idea she was under a curse, and until she opened her eyes safely back in Storybrooke, there was no hope she would see something that wasn't red.

Timeless time ticked by as she stared catatonically at the fire on the ceiling and did the only thing she could to pass the time. She rubbed her stomach and talked. She talked to the only other being there was, the one who was inside of her, shielded from the terror that surrounded her.

She told the baby all about herself. Every last thing that came to mind. She told the baby about her parents, her family and their heritage, the Kingdom she'd once thought she would rule. She told the baby about Gaston and Samuel, about Storybrooke and the family the child would have there. But when she got to the baby's father…she found that she didn't have words. At first, she'd held firm in her hope, she was here for a reason and the reasons were her own as was her choice to leave Rumpelstiltskin in possession of her body. But the more time she spent in the Red Room, the more she felt her thoughts twist and turn into darkness as she came to resent the man that she believed more and more had put her here.

This was his fault, she silently concluded during one such time of peace. She was here because she had to be, because she'd had no choice. If she hadn't done this Hades might have had their child right now! In not working with her, he'd forced her to take desperate measures, and do this.

Oh, of course, she rebelled against that idea. There were rare moments of clarity, moments when she had to admit it wasn't all his fault, that he'd made this deal before she came along and truly thought that she'd be in the clear, moments she knew that this had been her plan and he'd tried to talk her out of it.

But a moment later she always came back to another reason why it was his fault.

Back and forth it went in her mind, his fault, her fault, his fault, her fault. With every offense, she found a defense, and with every defense, there was a new offense.

Their relationship was a mess, this room of burning fire a reflection of it, if the relationship even still existed outside of this child. They might have been okay, they might have been if he was still human, if he wasn't the Dark One and there was nothing special about this child. They might have been able to put it aside and forgive him and they might have been able to be happy together again and even be a family, but as long as he was this way, as long as he believed he could truly love her and his curse equally, as long as he believed that he could have the Dark One and her...she wasn't sure this wasn't bound to keep happening. They had a child now, whether they were ready for one or not, and after spending so much time with little Neal and Robin's daughter, she had come to believe that the time for adventures was behind them. If they were going to be together then they had to be together! They had to have similar visions of a future, they had to work together and agree on morals, they had to stop seeing the pink house has just a place they went to sleep when they weren't busy and truly make it into a home. A proper home, with a nursery, a refrigerator that was stocked with food that hadn't gone bad, laundry that wasn't done in haste, and parents who were just down the hall ready to give up the world for their child because that was their next and biggest adventure.

All she needed to do was put a hand on her belly and look at the fiery ceiling and know she was ready to do something like that.

But was Rumple?

Her biggest fear at the moment was that he wasn't. And so long as he wasn't then they couldn't-

"AH!" she shrieked as fire flared on the floor to her right as she realized she'd been idle in one spot for too long. She rolled as fast as she could and struggled to get to her feet. Her sleeve was on fire and she quickly used the heel of her hand to stamp it out. It was painful; there was no way around it. But the ends of her dress were nothing but rags made of blackened burned fabric, proving just how much she'd learned that flailing her body in the air didn't put the fire out. If she could step on it she should, if she had to use her hands then she had to use her hands. As a result, the soles of her feet and the palms of her hands were angry red color, but at least her dress was still on, though her brown coat and hat, her tights and shoes, had burned…however long ago they'd burned. She didn't even have a time she could acknowledge their demise.

Rising to her feet, feeling that same odd wind blow once more, pushing her forward, she rubbed her hand once more over the skin below her belly button as she stumbled.

It was worth it.

It was worth it.

She just had to keep telling herself that.

It was worth it.

It was worth it.

It was-

"Here again…"

Her eyes widened at the voice, a voice that she recognized this time around and she quickly pushed herself up off the lit floor, suddenly remembering that the fire had only been on the floor when Dorothy was in the room.

There was someone else here. Someone she knew.

"Aurora?!" she screamed looking around. "Aurora!"

She let herself smile for the first time since she'd been trapped in this unending torture room as Aurora turned her head and her eyes widened. It was odd. She was surprised when she'd arrived here, and clearly, Dorothy had been as well, but Aurora didn't seem shocked by the room or the fire…she seemed surprised to see her there.

"Belle!" she exclaimed looking her over. "You're here?!"

"So are you!" she observed. "Who put you under a curse?"

"Under a curse? I'm…oh!" she seemed suddenly appropriately frustrated as she looked around at the room and the fire. She was about to shout at her, to explain that she should be careful because the fire could burn her when the Princess just stood there with her eyes closed for a moment. It was the most baffling thing since she'd arrived here, but she was also the first face that she'd seen since and she was desperate for a connection to another being that she greedily drank in her actions, simple as they were. Stupid as they were. To her shock on the other side of the room, Aurora opened her eyes and took a confident step forward. She meant to warn her once more as she approached the flames-

But the flames didn't hurt her. Instead, the flames swept away from her as she moved toward her. They didn't touch her, they didn't even come near her and while the flames didn't cease, their intensity died significantly. "Aurora!" she gasped as the woman came closer to her. It was the first time that she hadn't had to scream to hear herself and though she'd never really known the woman well she found herself launching herself into her arms.

She cried as she hugged the woman and felt her legs slip out from under her as she collapsed safely onto the floor. "It's okay!" Aurora breathed in her ear. "It's okay; you're going to be okay!"

"I'm not!" she cried. "We're not! If you're here, we're under a sleeping curse!"

"I know," she stated pulling away and looking desperately at her. "I mean…I'm not under a curse, you may be, but I'm not."

"But you're here! You're here you must-"

"No! No, it's just something that happens after you've been here," she assured her. She knew that Aurora had meant for those words to bring her comfort, or reassure her, but they did the exact opposite. All she'd told her was that she'd come back here even if she managed to wake up and leave this place, she'd told her there was no escape, she'd-

"No!" Aurora quickly blurt out getting closer to her as she read her mind. "No, it happens but not always. I just spent so much time asleep I can walk dreams now and…look!" She watched as Aurora fiddled with something beneath what looked like a nightgown, not unlike what she would have worn to bed in Storybrooke, and pulled something on a chain out from under it. "Henry gave it to me long ago, when the Ice Queen was still around," she explained as she looked over the charm on the end. "It keeps the fire from hurting me when I come here."

She reached out and placed a finger over the charm touching it with shaking fingers and wishing with all her might that she might be able to have it, to use it. She wanted free from here so badly…

She was nothing but tears when Aurora reached out and cupped her cheeks, forcing her to look at her. "Belle…how did you get here? I'm so sorry, if I'd known you were here I would have come for you!"

"I don't know how long I've been here!" she cried, shouted despite the fact that Aurora was so close she didn't need to shout. "I was in the Underworld with Rumple, and I had to save my baby from Hades. When they get back to Storybrooke, when my baby is safe, I'll wake up, but until then…"

"Your baby?!" Aurora gasped looking her over with different eyes. Her eyes landed on the hand she had clutched over her belly, and she watched as Aurora put two and two together. "Your baby!" she exclaimed smiling and putting her hand over her. "Your baby! You're...you're going to have a baby! Belle, that's great news!"

She shook her head, tears still streaming down her face as she recalled the time when she thought it was great. "He's already in danger! Rumple is in the Underworld trying to save him and I have to wait here, but it's so…it's so…"

Aurora nodded and quickly pulled her back into her arms. "I know!" she whispered in her ear. "I know." She wasn't sure how long she sat there, clinging to Aurora, another human being she'd never cared much for at the moment until just now because she was an anchor in the chaos she'd been experiencing. "But…" Aurora pulled away from her and "but Emma and the others got back days ago!" Aurora revealed. "Rumpelstiltskin too."

The words hit her far harder than a boulder that had fallen onto her, and she had to play them back in her mind several times just to be sure she'd heard what she'd heard.

"They're back?!" she exclaimed.

Aurora nodded. "Yes, a lot has happened, but…yes, I'm certain that I heard someone say Rumpelstiltskin had gone back with them, but with everything that's happened…they're not in town now, they're gone, New York, I think I heard someone say."

"What?!" she demanded. "What's happened?! If he's home why am I still here? Why aren't I awake yet! He was supposed to take me to my father! He can give me True Love's Kiss; he can wake me up!"

Aurora shook her head. "I don't know," she confessed looking her over with sympathetic eyes. "I don't know why you aren't awake yet...but I'm going to find out! I'll wake up. I'll go back to Storybrooke, and I'll figure out what's wrong and why it's taking so long!"

"Aurora wait! Don't-"

In a flash, Aurora had stood up as if to leave and she'd reached for her hand to stop her, too afraid to be left alone again…but something strange happened. Her hand went right through Auroras. She looked at her shaking hand and saw that she could see right through it! In fact, it was becoming more and more transparent by the second! "Aurora!" she cried at the woman who was staring at her with wide disbelieving eyes. "What's happening to me? Am I waking up?!" she cried hysterically.

"No," she whispered sitting back down with her. "No, when you wake up from the curse you disappear! That's…that's what I do when I wake up! I just vanish!"

The words didn't make sense and she was choking on smoke and tears and terror as she watched her legs and torso grow dim. For the first time since she was here her eyes felt heavy, like she could lay down and sleep! "What's happening?! Am I waking up or not?!" she bawled.

"I'm going to find out, Belle! I promise I'm going to…"

The room around her suddenly went dark.


Ah, the Red Room. I must hand it to A&E on this front, even though they forgot about it, the idea of the Red Room is actually a really good one for a place the soul goes during a sleeping curse. The Red Room makes oblivion look like a gift and, in my opinion, it's the Red Room that makes the Sleeping Curse a true and proper curse. I can't think of anything worse than being stuck in one room, afraid for your life, for an unknown amount of time. The things it must do to the mind! I keep a calendar for the show and I add to it with each episode I watch, so I can tell you that Belle was in the Red Room for six days. Six days of doing nothing and meeting no one but Dorothy for a brief moment, which is why, by the time Aurora gets there, she's a bit addled and...well...she's not exactly the composed, strong woman we've always seen. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, everyone has their limits and I think a little vulnerability to a character is a good thing, I just hope you'll agree and don't hate me for making Belle seem like a weakling.

Thank you so much, Grace5231973, CurlyJ, Teresa Martin, Rumbellefan, and Fox24 for reviewing! I was so happy to hear from all of you. As far as this chapter goes...ugh...Aurora. I really don't like her character. It's hard for me to really pinpoint why I don't like her, I just never really felt attached to her. But she is going to come up a few times in this fiction because as I said, the Red Room is going to have a lot of attention. I hope that I write her alright. Maybe one of you out there is an Aurora fan and can let me know? Peace and Happy Reading!