*Slowly emerges*
Heeey, look who's back.
(Me, I'm talking about me, if that wasn't clear.)
So, I know it's been a while, (7 months and 15 days, or something like that). Sooooo... sorry about that. Don't ask for an excuse, because I don't have one.
Anyway, THANK YOU Nicholas Dreamer FOR FOLLOWING!
THANKS TO Nindragon AND Sammie W. FOR LEAVING REVIEWS!
BIGGER THANKS TO Paulo Neto FOR FOLLOWING, REVIEWING, AND FAVORITING!
Enjoy this much longer, no beta chapter. (Speaking of, does anyone wish to Beta this story? I am awful with grammar lol.)
Henry slowly opens his eyes. He stands up, confused about how he got there. Where am I? He looks around the room, taking in the dark mirrors and torches along the wall. Why does it seem so familiar? And why is my memory so fuzzy? What happened? He searches his memory.
"No." He whispers, realizing where he was. I'm under the sleeping curse.
Henry goes over to the wall, and leans against the it near a mirror. Did the plan fail? Is everyone under a sleeping curse now? Henry's thoughts are cut short when he hears whispering. He quickly gets to his feet.
"Hello?" Henry listens as the whispering continues. "Hello? Is someone there?" He walks into the middle of the room, looking for anyone. He listens again, but the whispering is gone. Great, now I'm going crazy. He sits back down by the mirrors again, then sits up alert as the whispering starts again.
"Hello? Who's there?" He stands up and tries to pinpoint where it is coming from. He starts walking around his spot, hearing the whispering get louder and quieter. He spins around and walks toward the wall again, hearing it get louder. He steps straight up to a mirror, where the whispering is loudest. Is it coming from the mirror? He leans in close. It is. He looks along the edges of the mirror, but doesn't find any cracks. Where is that sound coming from then?
Henry thinks about the situation. Maybe I'm hearing people that are awake? He thinks, recalling the last time he was under a sleeping curse, and how he could sometimes hear what was going on.
No, that doesn't make sense. If they were awake, I would be awake. Or maybe it's just my mind playing tricks on me. Henry groans. Probably that. He makes to move away from the mirror, running his hand along it as he walks off. He stops as he feels a tingling in his hand where it had made contact with the mirror. What in the world? He looked at his hand, then slowly places his hand back on the glass. Like his hand is an ON switch, the mirror flashes, and then fades out to show a scene he remembers well.
"Woah." Henry breathes, watching the exchange between himself and Emma in the mirror. (Past Henry and Emma argue over the curse, until he bites into the poisoned apple turnover and collapses). His gaze gets pulled away as he sees another flash out of the corner of his eye. He watches as each mirror flashes, one after another. He backs into the middle of the room, glancing at all of the mirrors and the scenes inside them. What is this? This didn't happen last time. He looks at each mirror for a moment, recognizing some things, but not others. How am I seeing all of these? he wonders. How is this possible?
Henry looks at every mirror, seeing different moments. One with Snow and David arguing, in the way only they can. ("This is about why we insist on doing this with everything else going on right now.") Henry keeps walking along until he stops at a mirror with his book. He steps up to it and watches with wide eyes, wondering when this happened. (Regina flipping through his book, and stopping when she came to the end, looking at the last two empty pages of his book.)
"The end of the story." Henry whispers, making the connection. "The final battle." He backs away from the mirror, shaking his head. "The final battle can't be so close. We were supposed to have more time." He looks at the other mirrors and almost runs when he sees Emma with a sword.
But just as Henry reaches the mirror, it goes blank, and a wave of magic washes over im. No. He thinks, knowing what that was. I'm waking up! "No!" He yells, feeling the curse start to fall apart. "Let me finish! Please!" The room swallows his cry, and one by one, the mirrors shatter. He backs into the middle of the room, and stands frozen as everything fall apart. The mirrors disappear, and the floor starts to disappear with it. He watches everything, and as the floor underneath him finally disappears, and he falls into nothing, he wonders what it really means.
Henry gasps as he opens his eyes, filling his lungs with air. He sits up and looks around at everyone else coming to. I'm awake, he thinks. I'm okay. He gets up and helps Emma and Hook to their feet, ignoring the haunted looks in their eyes.
"Emma!"
Henry turns in the direction of the voice, and grins as he sees Snow and Charming run over and envelop his mother in a hug.
"Are you ok?" Snow asks Emma, releasing her from the hug. "What happened?"
"Well, uh-" Emma looks at Regina for an explanation.
"We spread the curse out over everyone, and it woke you up."
Snow and David stare at Emma and then take in everyone else in the room.
"Well, I think I speak for both of us when I say thank you." David nods at everyone, and puts his arm around Snow. "Thank you."
Slowly, people filter out of the office, giving their congratulations to the newly awakened couple. Henry sits in the back of the room, deep in thought. Regina notices and joins him.
"So," she says. "What are you doing?"
"Thinking." He replies.
"What are we thinking about?"
"Was there anything different about this curse than the last one?"
Regina stares at him, surprised at the question. "Not really, as far as I know. Why do you ask?"
"Something seemed different I guess."
"Like what?" She inquires.
"I... don't know." He lies. Great, let's add another thing onto the list of things I should tell people but don't. "It was just off." He goes to stand up, but pauses. "When was the last time you had my book?"
"Uh, a couple weeks ago, why?"
"No reason."
Just then, Emma walks up to them. "We're all going to Granny's to celebrate... You guys coming?"
"Yeah." Henry says, getting up. "Let's go." He walks out the door into the hall, pretending he doesn't hear the next words exchanged between Emma and Regina.
"Did I interrupt something?" Emma asks Regina.
"I don't know. He was asking about the curse, but didn't tell me anything about it. I think he's hiding something."
"Want me to talk to him about it?"
"Would me saying no stop you?"
"Probably not."
"If you do, Emma, be careful how you go about it. If he is hiding something, he will tell us when he is ready."
They are quiet for a moment. "You're worried about him, aren't you?" Emma asks her.
Regina sighs. "Yes, I am."
Henry leans his head against the hall wall for a moment. Me too.
Henry sits at his desk, recording his time under the curse. First Regina and the book, then Snow and Charming arguing. He starts writing about Emma and her fight, when he stops, an idea popping into his head. What if I can write it so she wins? He quickly grabs his quill, and dips it in the ink, ignoring how it starts glowing. He brings it to his notebook, and doesn't even have to think about the words.
Emma Swan wins the final battle.
Henry holds his breath, waiting to see what will happen. He quietly gasps when the words disappear from the page, as if they were never there in the first place.
Henry groans, rubbing his hands over his face. What in the world, or any realm, does that even mean? He puts his quill back in its spot, then goes back to studying his notebook.
"Hey, Henry."
Henry turns around and looks at Emma, quickly closing his notebook. "Hey mom."
"What are you working on?" She asks, walking up to his desk. She frowns slightly when he puts his notebook away.
"Nothing much, just some stuff. So what's wrong?"
Emma smiles at him. "What makes you think any thing is wrong?"
Henry mentally rolls his eyes. "Three things. A, you used my actual name, instead of just calling me kid. B, you're wringing your hands, which you rarely do-" Emma looks down at her wrung hands and quickly puts them in her pockets. "And C, you have that look in your eye."
"What look?"
"Just that look you have when somethings bothering you."
"Oh." She bites her lip and sits down on the bed. "Well, you're right."
"As usual."
Emma chuckles. "Yeah." She is quiet for a moment. "Was it the same for you?"
"Was what the same?" He asks, confused.
"The sleeping curse, the first time, when you ate the apple turnover."
"...Oh." Is this about her conversation with Regina, or something else?
"I know it's a touchy subject for you, and I never really thought much of it, but now after being under it, even for a little while, I just wanted to know... What was it like for you?"
Henry bites his lip, silent for a moment, debating whether he should say anything or not.
"It's okay if you don't want to tell me." Emma says. "Sorry if I interrupted you." She gets up to leave.
"It was cold." Emma looks back at Henry, who has started talking. "But not cold at the same time. It was the kind you could feel in your bones, when it doesn't seem real, but still painful. It was dark, no source of light except for torches lining the walls. The worst part was the mirrors. Mirrors were along the wall all the way around." He chuckles sadly. "I wonder if that was on purpose. Every time I looked into those mirrors, all I saw was myself, constantly reminding, tormenting me that I was stuck in this curse... Alone."
Emma lets out a shaky breath, her chin quivering. "Henry... I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault."
She shakes her head. "It is. I'm your mother, I should have believed you. But I didn't. I'm the one who was supposed to eat that apple, who was supposed to go under the sleeping curse. But you ate it, knowing what would happen, even though no one believed you, and you knew you might not have made it out."
Henry stands up and wraps his arms around her. "But I did. Because even though you didn't believe in the curse, I believed in you, and I knew you would find a way to wake me up."
Emma goes into the hug, a few tears falling from her eyes. "How?"
He smiles. "Having the Heart of the Truest Believer has its perks."
Emma laughs through the tears, a sound that Henry enjoys, because he knows it won't last forever.
So a lot has happened in the OUAT world since I last posted, and I am still in shock. So if anyone wants to cry virtual tears with me, send me a PM or something, cuz I need support.
Idk when I'll post again, but I will try to do better than 7 months.
... Bye.