Chapter 9: The Letter

Emma gasped for breath, the seat belt finally releasing so she had better movement. "Rose? You okay?"

Nothing.

"Rose?" She turned to her left and fear squeezed her heart.

Rose slumped over in her seat, her head against the steering wheel. Her face was still. Was she even breathing?

"No. No, no, no, don't do this to me," Emma pleaded. "Come on. Open your eyes. Please!"

Rose didn't respond to her frantic hands. Was her skin really that cool? Or was it just because of the wind blowing through Emma's now open door? Pulse! Where's her pulse?

Emma found the vein behind Rose's jaw. She breathed out in relief as she felt the strong, steady beat. "Thank you, God," she gasped out. She pulled out her cellphone and called 911.

"Storybrooke's Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Graham speaking."

"Graham, this is Emma," she said. "Ari and I were in a car accident."

"Where are you? How bad?" he asked.

"Storybrooke welcome sign," Emma answered. "A white wolf appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the road. Ari slammed on the brakes to keep from hitting it, she lost control and crashed into the sign. She's out cold."

"I'll be right there," he said. "Keep an eye on her vitals. Call the hospital if she takes a turn for the worse." The line went dead.

Emma dropped the phone, trying to keep her cool as she combed back some hair from her sister's face. She bit her lip. "Don't leave me too," she pleaded. "Please, don't leave me too." She then looked upward, trying to look beyond the car's roof, maybe even beyond the sky.

Rose had always been more open to the invisible world. She had especially latched onto a belief in a supreme being after they stumbled into a church building one Sunday around twenty years ago. She'd become obsessed, then after "finding Jesus for herself" she had seemed to mellow out. Her obsession became a quiet, resolute strength. Personally, Emma could never understand how or why Rose could believe in all that. But now that was all she had to cling to.

"If you're up there," she said, "let her stay with me. You stole everything else away from us, from me. Don't take her too." She wanted to fling herself upon her sister, but she couldn't for fear that she hurt her further. She could only settle for grasping her hand tightly.

She jerked as the glove compartment popped open. Emma blinked as she turned to see what had happened. Just as she was about to close it, she spied an envelope with her name written on it. It was unsealed, but the flap was tucked inside.

She frowned at a curious bulge but when she opened the envelope, she stared in wonder. She carefully drew it out. A ring of frosted silver like moonlight on snow set with a snowflake gem, ice blue, moonlight through ice. It was nothing that could be crafted in this world. She couldn't even rightly say that the gem was a stone. It was more like ice, preserved for all time.

She tucked the ring into her pocket and pulled out a letter. She quickly checked Rose's vitals. Assured she was still there, Emma once again grasped her hand and opened the letter. Her eyes were greeted by Rose's elegant script.

Dear Emma,

I fear that when you find this, it is because you've either been going through old papers to toss, or you are ripping through everything in a grief-driven rage that I'm gone. I sincerely hope that I am able to share the contents of this envelope personally instead of like this.

The ring is from another place: The Enchanted Forest. Jack says that it is known as Mist Haven in other countries. But that is unimportant. What is important is that, that place is where I was originally born and raised, and it was where you were born. Do you remember all the tales that I would tell you as you fell asleep? All those stories are adventures that I shared with your mother and father.

Your mother, Snow White, and your father, David (Prince Charming), are among the few people who could actually see me. Yet more importantly, they are wonderful people. Your mother is nothing like the Snow White tales they tell here. She is a fighter, brave, fierce, loyal to her people, willing to sacrifice everything to save them from the Evil Queen. Your father . . . he lived the life of a humble shepherd until he was coerced into posing as his twin brother, the adopted son of a wicked king. He was also a fighter, a slayer of dragons, breaker of curses, clueless in the fine art of catching a woman's attention, and at first meeting, far from "charming." At least based on how Snow and I met him. But, he was honorable, a man who loved his mother and came to love yours.

It would take an entire novel to even begin to chronicle what all they had to go through to finally be together. They had to fight against the Evil Queen and David's adoptive father. They had to fight against potions and curses. They lost those they loved. They gained friends who came to be family. For an instant, I thought that they had finally achieved their happy ending. Then the Evil Queen dashed those hopes. The nine months your parents shared were clouded over by the threat of a curse, a curse to end all curses: The Dark Curse.

We did not know what this curse involved, or what it would do. All we knew was that it would destroy everything that we had worked for and tear us apart forever. But, we had a single hope: you. You were prophesied to end this curse. I don't know how, but you will break the curse. However, in order for you to break it, you had to escape it.

The Blue Fairy found an enchanted tree, a tree which Gepetto fashioned into a wardrobe. The plan was for you and your mother to go through before you were born, since it was said that the tree could save only one. Yet, you were born just shortly after the wardrobe was finished. We had no other choice but to send you through, the curse was already sweeping upon us. I managed to fool the wardrobe's magic so that I came along with you. Due to the way I traveled, I grew younger so that when we reached this world, I was only four-years-old in appearances.

Now you may be wondering who I am to Snow and David, and how I could have tricked the tree's magic. I am Snow's older twin sister, and I have been invisible, truly invisible, for most of my life. I fell for the Guardian Jack Frost. He fashioned the ring, that I slipped in here, with his own magic.

I'm asking you as a friend, and sister by choice, if nothing else, on your twenty-eighth birthday, please, find Jack. Find him and give him the ring and tell him sorry that I couldn't be there when the curse was broken.

Thank you, Emma, for being my sister, the "Snow White" to my "Rose Red."

With all the truest love from all the worlds,

Rose

Emma cried. Rose had considered everything, even her own . . . absence, and prepared to make sure she would fulfil her destiny. Sirens brought her back to reality. Shoving the letter back in the glove box, she once again checked Rose's vitals.

A soft groan caused Emma's heart to leap. Rose blinked her eyes, then with another groan, she fell back under.

Emma fell back with a great breath of relief. Rose would pull through.

"Emma!" Graham's voice was beside her, the man peering in. "How is she?"

"She just roused for a few seconds before going back under," Emma said.

"Thank God," Graham said softly. "We'll have to work together to move her to the squad car."

An hour later, Emma found herself sitting on the floor of the sheriff's station beside the couch Rose was laying on. Her hands were anxiously working her fingers, fashioning scrap paper into a pattern her muscles still remembered from a long time ago.

Author's Note: Any thoughts on this chapter? Did you enjoy the glimpse into Rose's past? A peek at the change in Emma's life with Rose there?
Next chapter we'll be seeing a couple more people from Rose's past in Storybrooke.