And They Lived

by TrueAngelOfMusic

They lived, or rather they were surviving. It isn't everyone's happy ending but it's a start. The characters come to terms with living dual lives and dealing with the aftermath of events. A series of drabbles and one shots based around Once Upon A Time.

3. Chapter 3

Long, knarled fingers reached out and touched…

And felt.

The pain seared through him, hot and white and straight through the heart. What little of one he had left. Pure and agonising pain.

He kept it there as a reminder. Over time the pain would mingle and fade into the other dark sensations in his chest. Guilty memories and black dreams would haunt his waking day and sleepless nights.

It was his fault. She had only been trying to help.

To save him…

But fear had overtaken him and the power had seduced him again. He wore it like a suit of armour and worshipped it like a god and yet it had taken everything from him. A wife, his son…

A lover.

Someone unselfish who had only wanted to love him for him.

Still he returned to power like an addict to a needle. He needed it. It was his curse.

The more it took from him the more he used it as a way of self-punishment. He deserved to be this wretched because of the power. And so it went in a long vicious circle. The more he used the more it took and so on, endlessly.

And so he kept it as a reminder. To punish himself.

He reached out and touched it. The cold of the bone china seeped through his skin and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. His fingers curled around the cup and he raised it to his lips. Softly he kissed it, warm flesh meeting the smooth pottery and catching on the rough edge where the chip was.

The pain seared through him, hot and white and straight through the heart. What little of one he had left. Pure and agonising pain.

A tear as cold as bone china rolled from one eye.

"I'm so…sorry" he whispered to an empty cup.