When she was a child Emma dreamed of the mouth of Hell
She stands at the brink; stares inside. It's black and endless and has teeth, like dark rocks, that are sharp and jagged.
It's horrible and frightening and she wants to run, and run, and run away.
But she can't. Emma's here, she's always here.
Like Destiny.
Emma doesn't like that word. Sounds like shattered dreams, it tastes of bitterness, smells like lonely nights, and feels too heavy a weight on her shoulders. And it looks like this.
Like staring into the mouth of Hell
And inside lives the Devil—eyes glowing like gold and false hope as he cackled and twitched in unhinged and heartless delight.
Emma knows he wants her misfortune, her cruel fate, because it's all part of his plan.
It was a masterful game—filled with special pieces—and she was to be his Queen. He would tell her over and over again. As if it was the most important piece. The one she should remember.
He needed Emma to break.
Then he beckoned and cooed at her wildly, sometime even tenderly, and tells her that she belongs to him. That her Mommy and Daddy had forfeited her life to him.
"But I don't have a Mommy and Daddy," she would tell him, thinking herself so clever—how could they have given her away if they were never real. Mommy and Daddy only lived in her fairytales. And you weren't supposed to believe in those.
He would laugh at her foolish tragedy. But it was an empty and hollow sound.
"It was a bargain, you see—a deal." He tells her, weaving his tale like a masterful puppeteer, his eyes twinkling. "They wanted to save themselves. To keep on living in their shiny happy world full of heroes and love, burning light and blinding goodness. And so they offered their golden girl's name to the monster that spins and sealed her fate. Destined her to be pulled and threaded by his hands and his darkness."
But Emma doesn't like this story. She tells herself not to trust him, and to never believe it. It's another fairytale and you shouldn't believe in those.
That's her strength, and her protection.
It makes him angry. But he's trapped and can't reach her.
So she wakes up.
But the dreams come and come and come until one day she says her name and sets the Devil free.
And then he makes her believe.
Author's Notes:
Hope you enjoyed.
I don't know where this came from…it just sort of popped in to my head and demanded I write it. It seems my muse is going through a dark phase at the moments so I'm struggling to write something a little more lighthearted and upbeat. I'm working on it though.