Chapter Three – Trapped
XXX
The girl ran as fast as her thin legs could carry her, holding up her long skirt so it wouldn't get trapped. The forest was so dark that she couldn't see three feet in front of her, and she crashed into trees and tripped over logs too many times to count. In the distance she could hear a wolf howl, a crow squawk, and the people chasing her shout and swear.
She was sure that she had never been more scared in her entire life, and she wondered if it was all worth it. Of course, it was worth it, she knew, but at the moment she was doubting everything in her life.
The girl could hear a stream running a few feet ahead of her, but it was ignored until she tripped and fell right into it. She cried out in pain as the sharp little rocks jutted out and scraped her palms and knees. Water soaked the front of her dress and made her wild, golden blonde hair limp. If it wasn't a life or death situation, she would have curled up and cried, eyes closed and praying for it all to go away.
But it was her life on the line, so she brushed aside all her sorrows and crawled out of the stream. The leaves stuck to her hair and moist skin, and she was sure that she looked like some crazy swamp monster.
The thud of a couple dozen footsteps grew louder, and the girl's heart raced even quicker. If this was the end, she wouldn't go down without a fight.
Her eyes flickered around her. The trees were tall and bare, no sigh of bushes she could crawl into, and the soft dirt would easily show her footprints if she tried to trick the people and run in a different direction. Feeling like she was just dragging out the inevitable, she stumbled to her feet and kept running forward.
Her heavy dress was dragging her down, and her wet hair stuck to her face and bare arms. The dirt and leaves that embedded themselves in her hair and dress made her long to scratch her skin off, but she knew it would only hurt herself. Giving up was beginning to sound more and more friendly to her.
She stumbled over her own feet and she reached up to balance herself against a tree before running again, but she forgot to lift her skirts, and the stray branches snagged at it, making her fall down a small hill and hit a large log. A sob escaped her throat as she felt bruises form on her arms and legs, and she lay there, finally stopping to run and chase.
She closed her eyes and listened to the thuds of her soon-to-be-captors, bracing herself for the end. However, it wasn't meant to be.
"Strange place to take a nap, Dearie."
The girl's eyes flew open, and she stared up at the most feared being in all the realms. The scaly face of Rumpelstiltskin leered down at her, his hands clasped together in front of him. She had never met him before, but the stories were accurate about his unique appearance – from his sharp fingernails to his bleeding red eyes.
"Are you one of the people chasing me?" the girl asked weakly, propping herself up on her bloodied elbows.
"If I were," Rumpelstiltskin sat on the log she had crashed into and leaned down, a hand on the side of his mouth as though he were telling a secret, "you'd be dead."
His voice was high and nasally, and he spoke with fast-witted humor.
"Then what do you want?" the girl asked, finally sitting up fully and glaring up weakly at the dark creature in front of her.
"It's not about what I want," the Dark One smiled widely, his eyes gleaming with trickery. "It's about what you want, Dearie."
The girl felt a flash of hope break through her despair. Of course she knew that Rumpelstiltskin was evil and couldn't be trusted, but he never broke a promise, and he always had an answer to everyone's problems. If anyone could get her out of her sticky situation, it'd be him.
"And what would you want in return?" she demanded.
"I want you to owe me a favor," Rumpelstiltskin said, getting to his feet and strolling away from her.
"What is the favor?" the girl asked suspiciously.
"Well, if I tell you now it wouldn't be much of a surprise!" the Dark One gave a giggle, putting the tips of his fingers together in front of him. "Well? Do we have a deal?"
The girl frowned. She would have preferred to know what he wanted, at least then she would know what she was giving up. But she could hear the people chasing her coming closer, and she knew she had no choice.
"What would you do for me?" she asked.
"I'll make sure that whatever fate the person who's chasing you has in store for you won't be permanent," Rumpelstiltskin said.
"Why not just flash me out of here now?" she demanded.
"Because then nothing will go as planned," his vague answer did nothing to sooth the girl, and she bit her lip in deep thought. "I'd make up my mind now, Dearie, they're not far off."
The girl gulped, hearing the shouting become louder and more prominent. "Fine! Fine. It's a deal. How are you going to help me?"
"With this," the Dark One waved his hand, and caught between his long thin fingers was small vial filled with a sparkling gold liquid. "Drink it, and you'll be able to escape your fate."
He tossed the vial to her, and she fumbled with the delicate glass before holding it in one palm. She looked down at it, at the thing that looked so simple yet would save her life, and felt tears build in her eyes.
"Thank you-" she had looked up to where she felt he was standing, but he had disappeared as soon as he had came. She looked back down at the vial, hoping it would still work, and opened it. It was an inch from her lips when it was ripped from her grasp.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" the figure before her wrinkled her nose at the potion in their hand. "Poison? A cloaking spell?"
The girl glared up at the tall figure above her. "Give it back."
The person laughed cruelly. "Why? So you can escape after I just caught you? I don't think so, Blondie."
The person grasped the girl's chin and raised her up so that gray eyes met brown.
"Now," Regina sneered. "Where can I find Snow White, Rapunzel?"
XXX
Days passed since Snow and Emma's disappearance, and things were just as chaotic as they left them, if not more. The queen finally got her grip on magic back, which scared everyone into a frenzy, and if it wasn't for David everyone would be out of town without any memory of why they left in the first place. Lola didn't want to leave, of course, she would never want to become that lonely orphan ever again.
The only good news that came after Snow and Emma left was that the Enchanted Forest was still there, and that the people survived there. David had told Lola while she was skipping school – again – but she wasn't foolish enough to not consider the possibility that her father wasn't alive. It had been years, anything could have happened.
Lola mindlessly ran her fingers over the trees she walked through, their rough bark leaving little marks under her palms. She liked to come here now-a-days, mostly because it was a place no one could bother her. The only reason people came up to her now was to scold her for not going to school – as though she were any mere child! - or to ask for help with one of their many, many problems.
She was a queen, she knew this, she shouldn't be hiding in forest because she didn't want to help people. But sometimes the orphan Lola inside of her fought to the front of her mind, demanding to be left alone and to act like a child once in a blue. She hated it when this Lola showed up, but she couldn't deny the longing, so sometimes – not frequently – she listened.
The forest in Storybrooke was nothing like the forest around her castle, but if she closed her eyes and stayed perfectly still, she could almost imagine. Somewhere far off in the distance, a blue jay would flap her wings, a crow would squawk, a chipmunk would scamper, and when the wind blew and she took a deep breath, she could smell the soft maple and the fresh, crisp air.
How she missed her woods.
Lola sighed and sat down on a fallen log. If she were back home she would be able to roam her palace halls, gossip with her maids, visit her villages, see her father...
She didn't pretend that she was ever close with her parents, but they were family, they shared traits and experiences, and they were people she knew she could trust. In Storybrooke, she never had that.
She sniffed. She was growing self-pitying and sentimental; not something someone wishes in their queen. She got to her feet and brushed the dirt and splinters off the seat of her jeans before walking back the way she came. If anyone saw her in there alone and sad they would instantly worry, they would comfort her and treat her like a child, and then they would demand to know why she wasn't in school.
There she was pitying herself again.
She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She kept walking, pretending she didn't feel it. When she was a good ten feet away from the place she felt it, she heard the unmistakable sound of a foot crushing a dried up leaf in its path; again, she pretended not to notice.
The person stalking her had no skill in being stealthy, and she heard him following her for a good twenty paces before she took a giant leap behind and tree and stayed as silent as possible, not even breathing.
She heard the person following her pause in confusion, wondering where she had gone, before they ambled forward almost clumsily. They were heading in the right direction, and Lola pressed herself more in the tree's bark as the person was two feet away from her. She didn't take in their features – she only saw deep brown hair and a strong build before she pounced on their back and wrapped her arms around their neck, pulling back to make it hard for them to breathe.
The man flailed for one startling moment, before he elbowed Lola in her stomach, making her double over from shock and pain. He whipped around to gaze at his attacker – for a moment too long, because she already got over her own attack and she punched him hard in the gut. She didn't stop there, though, she kept punching and scratching at any piece of flesh she could reach – namely his face. He grabbed at her wrist, and her legs instantly kicked out and nabbed at his shins.
He cried out in pain, his hold on her loosening, and she yanked away from him, grabbed a fallen branch, and started to hit him over the head with it.
"Ow! Ow! Stop – Goldilocks! It's me – it's Charles!"
The name didn't register at first, so she got a good five more hits before she froze mid-swing. A distant memory came to her mind of a handsome boy kissing her knuckles and smiling at her as they walked through a beautiful garden. That had been three decades ago, but the moment still made butterflies attack her stomach.
She squinted at the stranger before her, hardly daring to believe it. The man was still standing in a crouched position, his large hands held defensively over his head. He had a head full of longish dark brown hair, matching eyes with a dark frame of eyelashes, tan, scarred skin, and hard features. If it was Charles, he had aged since the last time she'd seen him – but not in features. He looked older, somehow, more mature; as though he had went through many hardships in life when he couldn't have been four years older than her.
When he realized that she wasn't going to hit him, he stood to his full height, which towered over her. She felt her defenses grow up again when he looked down at her, but then she seen the similarities. The flushed cheeks, the boyish smile, the mischievous glint in his eyes.
The branch fell from her numb fingers.
"Charles."
XXX
"I'll never tell you where she is," Rapunzel snapped. "Never! So you might as well kill me now."
"Oh, how sweet," Regina smiled, straightening up and leering down at the fallen village girl. Her expression looked so much like Rumpelstiltskin's that Rapunzel wondered if they knew each other. Of course, they have had to, since they were both powerful magic users, and they've had to have crossed paths at one point in their lives. "You're willing to risk your life for an ex-princess."
"Gladly," Rapunzel said, jutting out her chin bravely.
Regina's smirk fell, and she glared hatefully at the older girl. Her magic was still raw, but powerful, and if it took a woman's life to get her revenge then she would gladly pay the price afterward. The queen remembered her very first kill – a magic user that was supposed to replace her under Rumpelstiltskin's teachings – and she remembered her second and third and tenth. This girl would just be another distant memory.
"Then I will gladly rip your heart out and let you watch me crush it," Regina snarled viciously.
The village girl's eyes flashed with fear, and the queen didn't have a moment to feel any satisfaction before the girl lunged at her, knocking them both to the ground. Rapunzel grabbed the vial and drank deeply. It was big enough for three gulps, and when it was empty she tilted her head back and smiled. Whatever Rumpelstiltskin had given her, it felt good flowing through her, and she suddenly felt golden like it's color.
The feeling only lasted for a moment. Regina grabbed the woman's thin throat, and clenched her fists as much as she could – using both her own physical strength and heavy magic. The blonde haired woman stared at her with wide, frightened eyes.
"What was that that you drank?" Regina snarled, throwing the girl back with inhuman strength.
Rapunzel crashed into the fallen log, breathing heavy to catch her breath. She looked up at the younger girl, the Evil Queen, and felt a great strength build up in her that had nothing to do with the magical potion.
"Rumpelstiltskin gave it to me," Rapunzel smirked. "It keeps you from killing me," the girl leaned forward, a mean smirk on her beautiful face. "It looks like I'm not the only one who doesn't want you to kill the rightful ruler of the kingdom, Your Majesty."
The young queen gave a harsh growl and clenched her fists, hardly daring to believe it. Her mentor, her teacher, the one who was to help her get her revenge on Snow White, her most hated enemy, was going against her. Of course, she knew that her old scaly friend must have had his ulterior motives, but she had thought that essentially their missions were one and the same – to kill the worthless, lying princess who caused the death of the man she loved. Yet he had helped the useless peasant in front of her, just so that Snow White could keep living.
"How do I know you're not lying?" Regina challenged, her dark eyes narrowing down at the long haired girl crouched before her.
"You don't," Rapunzel replied, hoping that the evil queen would believe her lie. "Just try to kill me. Let's see how that will backfire."
Regina was tempted – she was so tempted to wipe that smug grin off the older woman's face – but she couldn't risk it. Rumpelstiltskin was powerful enough to prevent someone from dying – and powerful enough to cause pain to the person trying to kill. She wouldn't kill the woman, but that didn't mean she was going to let her go.
"Very well," the Evil Queen threw her shoulders back and curled her lip in disgust at the girl. "You win this, village girl." Rapunzel couldn't stop the relieved smile that spilled across her lips; however, this was taken just as soon as it came. "He might have stopped me from killing you, but he didn't stop me from giving you a much, much worse fate." Ragina gestured for her dozens of guards to come forward. "Guards! Take her."
XXX
Charles smiled charmingly at her and bowed, taking her hand and pressing his warm lips to her knuckles, much like he did the first time they met at her ball. Unlike the first time, she felt her cheeks become hot, and her free hand nervously brushed a loose strand of golden hair behind her ear. His grin widened, and she wrenched her hand from his, feeling embarrassed with her own reaction.
"I don't understand," she stuttered, taking a step away from him out of caution and to clear her suddenly jumbled thoughts.
The prince – was he still a prince? - straightened up. Lola noticed that he was wearing something a prince most definitely wouldn't wear; a large gray t-shirt, faded blue jeans, and white sneakers. If she hadn't have seen him in the other realm, she would have guessed that he was born in the un-magical one. He looked so normal that she felt a sense of loss – she didn't know Prince Charles, but she missed his formal clothing and carefully brushed hair. Or maybe she just missed her home so much that she resented everything else. But whether she liked the new him or didn't, she couldn't deny that he looked good.
"I've missed you, Goldilocks," Charles admitted, looking down at her under his dark lashes. His long brown hair fell over his eyes in a heart-breakingly attractive way. "Your whole kingdom missed you. Everyone was so confused – there was just a black mist and when it cleared you and most the land was just... gone."
"Is my kingdom okay?" Lola demanded, her mind whirling at the thought of what happened to them. "The Forest – is it still the same? Who's taking care of my kingdom?"
"I was," Charles told her, taking a step forward and taking her hands in his. Lola's small pale ones disappeared into his, but she took comfort in the warmth. "But only until you got back, I promise."
"Thank you," Lola said, smiling up at him, but then a worry filled her mind and she tugged her hands free. "But the Forest. Everyone here thought it was gone until a couple of days ago. Is it any different? Is it dangerous over on the other side?"
Charles frowned and nodded. "Since you left the ogres have been taking over the Forest. The survivors have found a safe haven, but no one can travel far away from it without being torn to bits by some sort of monster. The safe haven... Goldilocks, I don't know what happened, but when I got back from gathering food, everyone was dead. Everyone... their hearts were torn from their chest by some sort of beast. What's left of your kingdom is in a frenzy, everyone is terrified."
Lola gulped. She knew who killed the survivors – Regina's mother, Cora. David had given her an update on what was happening with Snow and Emma, and he said that Cora was trying to get to Storybrooke. Lola didn't know why Regina's mother would kill the survivors, but she knew it was her doing.
"But if everyone is scared then what are you doing here?" Lola asked. "How did you get here? And why were her following me?"
Charles suddenly looked guilty, his face darkening. Lola suddenly realized how odd everything was – how off. If the survivors were in danger, then shouldn't their leader be with them at the moment? And even if the leader was looking for some kind of help, why would he be looking for it by following around a girl through a forest. Her arms crossed defensively around her chest, and a glare took form on her face.
"I know it sounds unbelievable, Your Highness," Charles said carefully, "but hear me out. I came into this realm by accident. We – the survivors and me – were burning the bodies of our dead, and some were my friends, so I needed time by myself." A dark look flashed across his face, making Lola wonder if someone he lost was more than just a friend. The thought was strangely unpleasant to her. "I told the others that I was going to get more wood since some of our houses were destroyed, but instead I went looking for the person who murdered them all...
"I found a fairy out there. She was being attacked by an ogre and I helped her. I was going to make her head to the safe haven, but she started asking questions, too many questions. At first I thought she was a spy or maybe even the person who killed my friends, but she said that she just wanted to help-"
"And you believed her?" Lola scoffed, wondering if the prince was either gullible or stupid.
"No," Charles rolled his eyes in annoyance. "But I listened to what she had to say. She knew what I was doing in the Forest all by myself, and she wanted to help. She had a flask of pixie dust and she said that she could make it so that it led me to help."
"To help?" Lola echoed. "Help for who? The survivors? You? Her?"
"To help me," Charles answered. "I don't know why it led me here."
"Led you?" Lola wondered. "What do you mean?"
"She asked if I wanted it, and I told her yes," the prince said. "So she emptied the bottle at my feet. It was so strange – it looked solid but it moved like liquid. It transformed into a portal, and I fell in. I ended up in this strange village with large houses and strange carriages. The portal had disappeared but the mist left a trail through the air pointing in this direction. It took me days to finally make it here, but through that entire time no one else saw the mist."
Lola knew how pixie dust worked, she had seen it done a million times before, but that wasn't what worried her. Pixie dust was a powerful thing, both dangerous and helpful, and even though Charles said that it was a fairy didn't mean that it was one.
"What did this fairy look like?" Lola asked carefully.
Charles blinked. "Well, nothing like I would have assumed a fairy looked like, if that's what you're asking. They're like regular people – not any more prettier than a normal person – except their as big as big hand and sparkly."
Lola sighed in relief. So it was a fairy. All fairies had to be good or they would be stripped of their wings, so it was a good thing for that, at least. Still, the reason the fairy did such a nice thing was questionable.
"Why did she help you?" Lola demanded.
"The same reason I helped her," Charles said. "I was a person in need."
Lola bit her bottom lip, thinking. What would someone gain from sending Charles to Storybrooke? What would he gain. As far as Lola knew, the only reason someone went to Storybrooke was for revenge, but why would Charles want revenge? Maybe on Regina – everyone wanted revenge on her – but then he would have been led to the Evil Queen's house, not in the woods where Lola had been hiding.
"Why were you following me, then?" the young queen challenged. "Why not just say hello?"
The prince blinked and actually blushed. The wind was blowing hard, so it could have been from the crisp cold, but Lola knew it was from ashamed embarrassment. It wasn't a good feeling to be caught spying on someone, she knew.
"Well, you look... different, from the last time I saw you," the prince admitted.
Lola blinked, and then glanced down at herself. When she had seen him she had been wearing a beautiful dress and she had been prim and polished like a newly made Barbie doll, but at the moment she was wearing a regular shirt with a worn out blue sweater, little blue shorts, and her old pair of sneakers. She looked nothing like the queen she was supposed so be. She was sure the wind did a number on her loose curly hair, too. She self-consciously ran her hand through the messy curls.
"I didn't recognize you," Charles continued guiltily. "And besides, I didn't really expect for you to be here, either. I had thought that the mist was sending me to the killer – I had to make sure you weren't dangerous."
"Dangerous?" Lola squawked back, insulted.
"Well, you did attack me with a branch," Charles pointed out.
"That was self defense! You shouldn't have been stalking me."
"Stalking," Charles scoffed. "You weren't doing anything interesting, anyway. What are you doing in the woods?"
"I'm homesick," the wind blew again, making the hairs on the young queen's arms stand up. She rubbed them unconsciously, looking around the empty forest. It was quiet, like it always was, but now that she knew that a whole village of people who thought they were safe had been slaughtered only a couple of days ago, the silence was spooky.
She looked back at the prince, who was gazing around the forest too. He was ruggedly handsome – when she had first met him, he was as uninteresting as the rest of the dignitaries she had met, but then he had spoken to her and everything had changed. She could have imagined herself marrying him, like her mother wished. Though she wouldn't have liked it at the time, she would have grown used to it, she knew. They would have learned to love each other, and they would have been good partners ruling the kingdom. But that didn't happen because she ran away, and the thought of what could have been would always be out of her reach, forever just a memory.
He felt her eyes on him and turned back to look at her. She had changed since he last saw her – a lot. She was taller, her features more defined now that she shed her baby fat. Her curly blonde hair was a mess and tumbled past her shoulders and hung down to the middle of her back. Her large gray eyes sat high on her pale face, her skin glowing like the moon. What she wore showed more skin than he was used to – the ladies back home wore floor-length skirts – but the view was great. He shook his head, clearing that thought. If he remembered Goldilocks correctly, she wasn't a normal girl, and he wasn't sure if her reaction to his thoughts would be a good one or a bad one.
"How long do you plan to stay here?" Goldilocks asked, her eyes still holding the suspicious look in her eyes that hadn't been there before. Charles felt a strange sense of loss fill him as he remembered the innocent princess she used to be, twirling around to the soft swan-like music as though it were second nature.
Charles shrugged the feeling and her question away. "Until I find the help the fairy meant for me to find."
"And what if you never find it," Goldilocks demanded.
Charles raised on eyebrow. "Where is your faith, my Queen?" he wondered. "Trust me, I will find the help I need. Now, where is 'here', anyhow? Don't tell me you live in the woods."
"Is that so strange?" Goldilocks shot back, a smirk playing at the corners of her bow-shaped lips. "I used to live in a palace in the middle of a forest. But no, I don't. Storybrooke is this way."
Charles felt anticipation build up inside of him. "Then lead the way, Your Majesty."
XXX
The world was black around Rapunzel. The first thing that came to her was her sense of touch, and it came to her slowly. First she felt a dull ache in her head, like someone had banged her head into a tree, and then she felt soft cloth under her fingertips, and then hair in her face.
She remembered meeting her ex-princess. The younger girl – too young to be chased by the Evil Queen – had been so beautiful that if she were her mother she would have wept with joy. The girl had been so terrified that she couldn't sit there and not help her.
So she did what any woman would do – she hid the girl and lied when the Evil Queen asked where she was. The queen had believed her at first, moving on to the next lined up villager. There were so many people that it gave little Snow White just enough time to escape. But the Queen was insane with revenge, and she was going to kill everyone unless someone betrayed Snow – and Rapunzel's neighbor didn't want to die.
He confessed everything to the queen; how Rapunzel had lied and had taken Snow in, how she gave her supplies for her long travel and had given her advice on where to go. He even pointed Rapunzel out in the crowd without even having to be asked.
Rapunzel had said her prayers the moment the queen looked at her, but something amazing happened. As one, all her other neighbors moved in front of her and shielded the village girl with their bodies, hiding her from sight. A short man in the back had looked at her with dark eyes and mouthed one word: go.
Rapunzel had taken off, not grabbing any of her things. She had ran for three days – three long tiring days, but the queen always found her. The memories came to her – she remembered the Dark One, the potion, the queen, and then being taken by the queen's guards. She had fought back, and the queen had flicked her wrist, and the next thing Rapunzel knew she was flying headfirst into a tree.
Light beamed down on her eyes, and she blinked up at the world around her. She wasn't in a cell, that much was obvious. The room she was in was circular with a single window, a wooden dresser, a large bed she was laying on, a wardrobe, and the walls were mostly covered in bookshelves with thousands and thousands of books. The patches on the walls that weren't books were covered in plain white, uninteresting wallpaper.
Rapunzel sat up in her bed, her bottom sinking a little in the soft cushion. If what she remembered was true, then she was even more bewildered. Why would the Evil Queen but her in such a lovely – if not strange – place?
"Confused?"
The cold tone sent a shiver up the village girl's spine, and she turned at the sound. The voice came from the single window, and the person standing at the window was smirking maliciously at the blonde girl.
"Your Majesty," Rapunzel replied back coolly.
The Evil Queen wore a different outfit. A ink black headdress with a matching silk dress that hugged every curve of her body, there was a slit at the bottom of her skirts that showed off one of her pale legs. The queen wore her usual batch of makeup – dark eyeshadow, blood red lipstick, and a thin cover of glitter.
"I hope you like your new home," Regina drawled, walking further into the room and holding her hands up around the room. She wore high black heels that would have broke Rapunzel's ankles if she tried to walk in them. "I put a lot of thought into it."
Rapunzel swallowed her frustration. She never liked games, but lately that seemed to be all that everyone else liked – first Rumpelstiltskin with his baffling riddles, and now Regina with her twisted schemes. She wished that little Snow White never found her way on her doorstep, and she wished that the Evil Queen would just let go of whatever it was that was bothering her.
"Just let me go," Rapunzel said. "We never have to cross paths again. All you have to do is let me go."
The Evil Queen's smile dropped, and her lips curled in disgust. "And let you get away with lying to me? I don't think so, village girl. For whatever reason, Rumpelstiltskin wants to keep you alive, and that makes you important. If he ever tries to defy me again it would be the end of you."
"I've never met him before that moment," Rapunzel insisted. "He makes deals with people, so I made a deal with him. I'm no more important than all the rest."
"He found you, Rapunzel," Regina said. "Not the other way around. That means he wants something from you."
"And why do you care?"
"I care because he messed with my affairs," Ragina snapped. "And now he's going to pay. Whatever he wants from you, he won't get."
Rapunzel shook her head in disgust. How can such a young woman, with her whole life ahead of her to live, be so bent on revenge? Rapunzel had spent her entire life wishing for an adventure, something outside of her village, but she had never had the money to do it. If she were a queen, she would have had the time of her life.
"So what are you going to do?" The village girl sneered. "Keep me here forever? I'll escape."
Regina smiled again, her dark eyes glinting with glee. "Oh, really? Come here, Rapunzel, I want to show you something."
The Evil Queen gestured for the older blonde to get off the bed. Rapunzel carefully tested her feet on the surprisingly warm floor, and, discovering that her legs were strong enough to keep her up, she got to her feet. The world tilted around her for one moment, but straightened itself out. Shaking her head, she walked over to the Queen, who wrapped her arm around her shoulder and led her to the window.
The window was plain and uninteresting. It was shaped as a half-an-oval with a love seat in front of it. It had no curtains or glass to close it, yet no uncomfortable draft slipped in. Actually, no wind at all – not even a sun beam, which was supposed to be blinding her at the moment. Alarmed, Rapunzel reached her arm out, but still she felt no breeze. It was as though she were sticking her arm in another room.
"Oh, yes," Regina said, watching her. "While you're here you will not be able to touch or smell the world outside. Not an animal or the wind or even the sun. It's part of your curse. But don't worry, you can see the world grow around you."
Rapunzel forced herself not to show her despair. She wouldn't give the queen any satisfaction – none at all.
"So that's what you wanted? To gloat?" The blonde snapped, turning to the Queen and away from the window.
"No," Regina smiled, a wicked, evil smile that Rapunzel was starting to loathe. "Look again."
Rapunzel did as told, but this time she looked. She could see the tops of trees and even the tops of mountains. There were no villages in sight – only forest and hill – but that wasn't all. She had to be seventy feet up – higher than Evil Queen's castle – too high to jump, too high to scream for help. No one would hear her, no one would see her, and if she tried to climb down she could slip and die. She leaned out of the window, hardly daring to belief it – her castle was made of smooth blocks of stones.
She jerked back into the window and ran deeper into the room and towards the door she had seen. She ignored the Queen who was chuckling behind her and wrenched it open. She saw a steep staircase and tumbled down it.
The walk wasn't long, and soon she found her way into a shallow room. It was filled with stoves and a refrigerator. It was an ugly room with a little square table and a lone chair stuffed in the corner. She shook her head in exasperation and ran further down the stairs, only to find herself in a bathroom. There were no more staircases. No windows. No ropes.
She was stuck.
"No," Rapunzel collapsed to the floor, her head in her hands. "No, no!"
She felt a comforting hand on her shoulder and she looked up. The Queen was leaning over her with a soft smile, her eyes warm. Rapunzel expected nice words, but what she got instead was, "You should have thought twice before defying me, village girl."
XXX
Lola and Charles were walking to Granny's diner. Lola didn't know why, but she didn't want to show him her house, in fear that he might want to stay there. Maybe it was because she never lived with a boy before, and she didn't want to be alarmed by his guy habits; or maybe, despite what he said, she still didn't trust him.
Snow and Emma were stuck in the Enchanted Forest and had been trying to find a way back in days, and he somehow managed to stumble across a fairy who could easily help him travel realms? It was far fetched and seemed unlikely.
Still, he was there, and she wouldn't figure out his secrets by becoming his enemy.
"So this is where everyone disappeared?" Charles looked around the small town, which was cute but not amazing. "I can't imagine the Evil Queen wanted to live here?"
"Live," Lola scoffed in disgust. "More like trapped. Imagine staying here without memory for twenty eight years – stuck as a sixteen-year-old. Everyone treated me like a little kid."
Charles glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, and Lola realized who she was talking to. Though when they met he was a teenager, too, now he had to be either nineteen or twenty. He was an adult, like everyone else, and she was standing next to him like a whiny little sister. She felt her cheeks get hot, but pushed the embarrassed feeling aside.
She was a Queen, not a flustered teen. She had no time to worry about her looks or boys. Especially questionable boys with brown eyes.
I love brown eyes, she thought unconsciously.
She remembered Willis Bear, and how he had fooled her so easily by throwing around compliments like they were facts. He had had brown eyes, and they had looked so sweet to her. Henry had brown eyes, too. And now Charles had brown eyes.
Her mind flashed back to a boy she had met when she ran away, the boy who didn't have brown eyes. Somehow, she had fell for him the most.
"Goldilocks? Goldilocks!" She felt her shoulder being shook lightly, and she blinked back to real life. "You dazed out for a second," Charles told her. "You okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine," she replied quickly. "This is Granny's. She can fix you up a room. Do you have money?"
"Enough to stay for a while," Charles said.
"Good," Lola said. "And before you get confused – people around here call me Lola. Lola Lorie."
"Really?" Charles wrinkled his nose in confusion, a habit Lola found herself smiling about. "Why?"
"We all lost our memories when we came here," Lola said. "Regina changed our names without us even knowing."
"So you don't go by Goldilocks?"
"I do. But... just so you won't get confused if someone called me something different."
Charles raised his eyebrows and smiled down at Lola, who felt small in his shadow. Looking up at him, and how the sun made the outline of his hair gold, she couldn't help but see that he looked every bit like the prince she had seen leave her garden all those years ago. She found herself holding her breath when his lips parted, ready to say something. Only-
"Hi, Lola," Red passed by her with a smile, her long dark hair swishing behind her as she walked into her granny's shop. "Hi, stranger."
"Hi, Red," Lola said back, blinking out of her daze and stepping away from the prince. When the waitress disappeared, the young blonde looked at the prince and said, "That's Granny's granddaughter. Red Riding Hood. Heard of her?"
"Can't say that I have," Charles replied. "Odd name. Regina changed that too?"
"Yes, into Ruby."
Charles rolled his eyes in frustration.
Lola, who had been having a bit of fun, felt a twinge of sympathy, and grabbed one of his hands comfortingly. "Don't worry, Charles, I'll explain everything and everyone to you over coffee."
He nodded gratefully, and they went inside the diner. They were met with many 'hellos' to Lola, who waved back and nodded to the people. She wasn't friends with them, but she helped them, and they appreciated it. It wasn't surprising to Charles, who knew that she was a queen, so therefore she was popular.
Lola led him to the waitress where Ruby and Granny were taking orders. The moment they sat, Granny came bustling over.
"We'll have two coffees," Lola said to her. "And a room – for him."
"Really?" Granny raised her thick eyebrows, her face skeptical as she looked Charles up and down. Lola knew that this would be the reaction the prince got – all newcomers were looked at with unease, even Emma. "Who're you?"
"My name is Charles," the prince smiled his best smile. The dashing look he gave sent the butterflies flurrying again in the young blonde's stomach, and she had to look down at her hands to calm them. She could not – would not have a crush on a boy.
"He's new in town," Lola forced out through gritted teeth. She didn't want to say it, knowing that it would arouse suspicion and questions, and it wasn't like she wanted Charles to feel unwelcome by all the looks he would get, but she had to protect her towns from dangers – and right at the moment he could be a danger. "He just came from the Enchanted Forest."
Charles looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, his expression hooded. She wasn't sure if he was confused, betrayed, or amused by the information she was giving. The unknown didn't reassure her. She looked back at Granny, who was still inspecting Charles.
"Alright, come on," Granny said, gesturing over to the back of the diner.
Charles followed her, getting looks from the people nearby who had heard. The coffees were brought by Ruby.
"Thank you," Lola said, sniffing her cup before taking a large gulp.
"Where did you find him?" Ruby demanded. "Did he just walk into town?"
"No," Lola frowned. "He was following me."
Quickly and quietly, Lola told her the story of how they had met when she was fourteen at her ball, and then what happened only moments before in the woods. She explained that there was no reason for him to be dangerous, but that didn't mean that they all should trust him right away.
"You don't trust him?" Ruby asked. "Not even a little?"
"I don't know him," Lola admitted. "I can only trust him as much as you can right now."
"Meaning he's another mystery," Ruby sighed. "And another problem."
"Exactly," Lola nodded. "Keep the whole fairy dust in the tunnel thing a secret, okay? Don't tell him where Regina lives, either. If he wants revenge then she's the one he's want it from, and we don't need to scrape his remains from her floor."
"Gotcha," Ruby smirked. "You know he's sort of cute," she began, her eyes glinting. "And he likes you."
"Yeah," Lola sighed, as though uninterested even though her stomach was doing back flips. "Too bad I'm not interested." She took a sip of her coffee.
"Mhmm."
XXX
Rapunzel read through her third book, her mind numb. She had been stuck in the tower for five days, and she still didn't have a plan on escaping. She couldn't imagine living in her tower forever – stuck reading and reading, gaining more and more knowledge but not being able to do anything with it.
She thought back to Rumpelstiltskin, and how he had given her a potion so that she could 'escape her fate', but what was the potion doing? Nothing!
It was probably water, she thought. That's stupid scaly, bug-eyed creature. He had tricked her. He was probably bored and wanted to doom her in this tower forever.
"Lying toad," She threw the book across the room and buried her face in her arms, curling into a ball on the loveseat beside the window.
She sat by it every day, hoping that a breeze would come in and ruffle her hair, but none came. She heard the birds chirp, and when one landed on her window she would try to stroke the soft feathers, but they would always fly away before her fingers could come in contact with them. Stupid, beautiful birds.
"Ah, ah, ah, Dearie," a familiar voice giggled from inside her room. "No feeling sorry for yourself!"
Rapunzel whipped her head around so quickly the back of her head hit the side of her window. There, sitting on her soft bed, was Rumpelstiltskin, carrying in one hand the book she had just thrown.
"You!" Rapunzel got to her feet and glared down at the wretched creature. "You tricked me!"
The Dark One tilted his head as though he were thinking, before shaking his head. "No I didn't."
The blonde girl's pretty face twisted into a look of deep hatred. "Yes, you did! You said the potion would help me-"
"'Escape your fate,' yes, I remember. I'm the one who told you," The Dark One laughed again, getting to his feet and strolling over to her as though he didn't have a care in the world. He probably didn't, since he was immortal. "But I said 'help', Dearie. The potion gives you what you need, it doesn't do the work for you."
"What do you mean?" Rapunzel said dubiously.
"Mhmhm," Rumpelstiltskin laughed with his mouth closed, as though her confusion was delightful. "You don't notice anything different about yourself?"
Rapunzel frowned, looking down at her familiar feet. When she looked back up, Rumpelstiltskin gestured towards her full length mirror, and and walked towards it. At first she stared into her familiar face. Everything was the same about it – the large cheekbones, the pointed chin, the dark eyebrows. The only thing that changed was her skin, which used to be healthily tan, and was now pale white from lack of sun.
But then she shifted, and her hair shifted with her. Her hair used to be light blonde and wavy, all the way up to her knees in length, but now it was the color of gold, brushed the floor, and pin-straight and thick. She hadn't washed it, but it gleamed with healthiness.
She frowned at herself. "My hair... it's different."
"Yes," Rumpelstiltskin said, making her jump. She had forgotten he was there. "The potion made your hair magical."
Her wonderment vanished into anger, and she stomped her foot in frustration. "How is that going to help me?"
"Your hair is magical. It won't split, it won't tangle, it won't break, and it will keep growing and growing longer and longer every day," Rumpelstiltskin said, making twirly hand-gestures. "So long, in fact, that you'll be able to tie it to your bed, and be able to climb yourself all the way down the tower. Once you hit the grow – snip! You cut your hair off, and you are free from you fate."
"That sounds like a lot of waiting," Rapunzel frowned. "Can't you just let me go?"
"I have my reasons," Rumpelstiltskin said in way of answer, his eyes gleaming with more knowledge than should be allowed for just one man.
"What are your reasons?" Rapunzel demanded. "What is it you want from me?"
The Dark One smiled. "Patience is a virtue, Dearie!"
"But-"
In a puff of black smoke, Rumpelstiltskin was gone, leaving a very confused village girl behind him. She turned back to the girl in the mirror, marveling at her new hair. Even as she watched, she could see it growing ever so slowly – so slowly that it could have been just a trick of the light. She touched it with one unnaturally pale hand, waiting for the day that she could save herself.
XXX
Charles nodded and smiled at everything the old lady said, saying all the polite words that he could. He knew that the people wouldn't trust him yet, he knew that Goldilocks didn't trust him, but he would get them to. He needed for them to trust him, or it would mean the end – not for him, but for her.
If Cora killed his Princess Jasmine, he wouldn't know what to do. As he laid down on his new bed, he closed his eyes and thought of her. He loved everything about her – from her long, thick hair that was so black it almost looked blue, to her large, almond-shaped brown eyes, to her sharply angled face, and to her odd taste in clothing.
He remembered how he had been beyond annoyed by her condescending attitude and her way of assuming everything, but after a while he began to enjoy the other things about her. Her genuine wonderment of everything around the world, her laugh, her easy nature once she knew him.
He loved her.
But now Cora had her, and he would do anything to get her back.
Even fool a girl he had met years ago at a ball. He felt guilty about tricking Goldilocks – she was definitely a special girl, but he had to do what he had to do.
He felt something vibrate in his back pocket and dug out the sea shell Cora had given him. Looking into it, he saw her face looking up at him. He hated her – from her brown hair all the way down to her shoes.
"What do you want?" Charles snapped grumpily.
"Now is that any way to treat the person keeping your girlfriend alive?" Cora said back, emotionless.
"Fine," Charles said through gritted teeth. "What do you want, Your Wickedness?"
Cora smiled as though they were just friends messing around. "I want to know how you're doing. Find anything?"
"I made it to the town," Charles said. "But nothing else. I'm just settling in."
"This is taking longer then necessary, Prince Charles. You better hurry, I don't want anything unfortunate to happen to little Jasmine."
"Hey, tomorrows a new day. I'll find out what you need."
"You've better."