Prompted by anonymous on Tumblr: 26 because last night's episode was too damn harsh on Drizella. ("It was you the whole time.")
Drizella didn't understand what was going on. Why wasn't she able to do it? She had been working so hard to cast the curse, to do what she needed to finally let go. Yet, it seemed there was a part of her clinging to the light. She had pushed every positive thing out of her head. Memories of Cecelia, her mother, her sisters. Everything was gone.
Why couldn't she bring herself to do it? What was holding her back?
"You look lost in thought."
Drizella spun around to find Alice standing there, her arms folded over her chest. "What are you doing here?"
"I know what you plan on doing, Regina told me." She stepped closer to her. "Question is, when?"
"Don't worry about it," Drizella's eyes narrowed. "It won't matter, you and your papa will be separated."
"If you wanted to do it, you would've done it a long time ago. The answer is, why?"
"Could you just leave me alone?"
"You didn't have to be this way!" Alice exploded. "You could've helped me! You could've become a better person, we could've been happy!"
"Life isn't that simple, Alice!" Drizella shouted back. "I wasn't the one who sent you away that night, Mother was!"
"You could've come after me! Instead of going on this ridiculous goose chase!"
"It's not ridiculous!"
"It's going to give me everything I ever wanted!"
Alice's face fell. "And that couldn't have been me?"
"Mother would never allow us to be happy," Drizella whispered. "She'd constantly get in the way. This is the only way."
"So, let's run away! Let's get out of here." She grabbed Drizella's hands into her own. "We can start our own happily ever after."
Tears gathered in Drizella's eyes and she could feel her body lightening, almost as if she was being out of the darkness that had harbored her for so long. "Alice…"
"Just say yes."
She leaned in, kissing Drizella. The two young women kissed in the middle of the woods, feeling the same connection they had that night in Drizella's hideaway. Little by little, her heart was getting lighter. Drizella pulled away, gasping.
"It was you the whole time," she muttered.
Alice raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"The thing stopping me from casting the curse…it was you." She saw a hopeful smile go across Alice's face, but shook her head. "We can't do this. I told you, Mother wouldn't allow it. She'd constantly be trying to ruin us. Even if we ran away, she will always find me, make my life a living hell. If she can't be happy, then neither can I."
"So what, we're doomed for darkness?"
Drizella smiled a little. "No. Let me cast the curse and maybe I can create a world where we can be together."
