Enjoy!


Walking aimlessly, I was thinking about what Emma and I had discussed. I felt removed from reality. As if, life was moving forward, but I was stuck in a place between the past and present. It had been almost a week since I'd read the story book, and ever since, an uneasy feeling had settled in my stomach. Thinking back to the book-

I'd stayed up most of that night, reading it and rereading it. There were a few pages in the back that had been missing, but the rest of it, I tried to burn into memory. I had to know, had to understand the content within. My had breath caught in my throat. That man. I knew that man, but how?

I was at the part of the book, where the Evil Queen rips out her father's heart, in order to enact the curse. "Brutal," I said out loud to no one, when then the image of the man caught my eye. I studied him.

"You're going crazy," I finally told myself. This was a story book. However, it didn't stop me from barging into Henry's room at nearly 4am, turning on his bedside light, shaking him awake, and making him discuss the book with me.

"Henry, this man. What is his name?" I demanded from my half asleep, younger brother. Henry had clearly been confused, and dazed, but snapped to attention when he saw what I was talking about.

"I don't know." He said with a shrug. "Just that he's the Evil Queen's father."

I let out a frustrated huff. Henry gave me a puzzled look, "Maddie, you okay?"

Realizing I was probably just exhausted, and overrating in regards to the gray haired man, I asked, "Who do you think I am?"

"Elizabeth," Henry stated, without hesitation and as if it were common knowledge. "The Queens daughter."

"Why?"

Henry rubbed his face, apparently realizing I wasn't letting him go back to sleep until we discussed this. He sat up, and made himself comfortable, resting his back against his headboard.

"Well, she's the queen's daughter." He repeated, again. I rolled my eyes at him and he added, "And she has your necklace."

My eyes shot up to his, then down to the book. Quickly, I fumbled through the pages, until reaching the part where Elizabeth had stood her ground against the queen, and as a result, the queen had cursed her with a locket. I'd assumed this is who Henry thought I was, but I hadn't really looked at the locket. The locket was the exact same as mine, down to the small engraved flowers.

As I was walking, I was toying with my locket. I'd come to realized it was a bad habit, but I was especially aware of it now, since seeing the exact drawing of mine, in that book. Part of my brain kept trying to chalk it up to coincidence, and that if I just asked my mom, she'd be able to explain all of it. However, between my promise to Henry, and the weird feeling in my gut, I'd done my best of avoid my mother over the last week, instead.

Part of me wanted to take the necklace off, but if I was being honest, I was too scared too. I know, it's silly, it's a locket. A piece of jewelry doesn't hold power over me, but I just couldn't bring myself to remove it.


Opening the cupboard, a mug fell out and crashed to the ground. I jumped back as it shattered into large pieces all over the floor. Letting out an annoyed groan, I bent down to start cleaning up the mess. As I was doing so, the doorbell rang. I furrowed my brow confused as to who it could be. Mom had left for her Saturday meeting thing, and Henry had run out shortly after her, saying he was hanging out with Emma.

Deciding the broken mug wasn't moving anytime soon, I carefully stepped over the pieces and headed for the door. I was about even with the stairs, when the door flew open and there stood Ray.

"There you are! Where the hell have you been?!" She demanded in a somewhat angry voice. "Come on in." I replied back sarcastically, and turned around, heading to clean up the mess I'd been about to attend to. Ray followed me without pausing, but said nothing further. Truth was, I was relieved to see her. I'd been avoiding her, because, well, I didn't know how to tell her what was going on.

Grabbing the broom, I swept up the mug pieces and disposed of them. Then I turned back to the cupboard to pull out another, non-broken one, and the coffee stuff. Ray had made herself comfortable on a bar stool, as I went about my business, but after I had poured the water in the coffee maker, and switched it on, her voice cut through the silence, "Mads?"

There was more emotion in her voice than I had expected. Anger, confusion, irritation, sadness, and maybe frustration. I slowly turned to face my best friend.

"Is this because Derrick finally asked you out?" She demanded. I let out a chortle, thinking she must be kidding. When the look on her face didn't waver, I sobered up and said, "wait, is that what you all think? Is that what Derrick thinks?"

Ray looked at me hard, but nodded her head yes. "No… no, no. That's not it at all. I'm excited to date Derrick!" I exclaimed at her. Angry tears prickled at my eyes and I quickly tried to blink them away.

"Then tell me what is going on." Ray demanded in a stern voice, that let me know she was done waiting for me to tell her at my own pace. I let out a sigh in defeat. "You want coffee?" I asked, as I turned to pour me a mug.

"Sure," said Ray from behind me, as I heard her get up and move to the fridge, assuming to grab creamer. I filled her a mug, and turned handing it to her. She splashed in a dab of creamer, then looked up at me with piercing, expectant, eyes. "Fine," I huffed as I turned to walk to the sitting room.

I situated myself on the floor. This way I could hear and see if my mom randomly drove up, plus Ray and I had all of our important conversations sitting or lying on the floor. Sitting with my back against the front of the sofa, my legs folded under me, and coffee mug in hand, I let out a shaky breath trying to decide where to start. Ray sat in between the sofa and coffee table, crossed her own legs, facing me. Taking one more breath, I decided to hell with it, and started from the beginning. I stared with Mrs. Blanchard first giving Henry the storybook and talked all the way to the events of this morning.

Ray didn't ask a single question throughout the whole thing and when I finished she was staring at the floor. She was clearly thinking, but I was scared to ask her what about. Suddenly, she looked up at me with a decided look on her face. Placing her empty coffee mug on the coffee table next to her, she clambered on the couch behind me. "What are you doing?" I demanded, when I felt her hands on my necklace.

"We're finding out if Henry's right." Ray said back, her hands still moving behind my neck. I felt the locket being lifted off my chest, and over my head. I didn't move, and was holding my breath, but nothing happened.

"Huh," Ray said, after a second. We both sat unmoving, but after about a minute she slowly moved back down to sit beside me. When I finally looked at her, she was seated next to me on the floor, her back against the front of the sofa, and my locket in her hands. "Well, do you feel any different?" She questioned, kind of hopeful.

Thinking about it, I finally shook my head no. "I don't think so. Everything looks a feels the same."

"Guess we debunked that, then." Ray replied, sounding disappointed but triumphant. Eying the locket, I reached out a hand a took it from her. Turning it over between my fingers, I couldn't figure out what I was feeling. I'd been so sure that something would change when I took it off, but alas, nothing.

We were silent for a bit longer, but when we finally made eye contact, both Ray and I burst out laughing. As insane as it all seemed, as stressed as I was, I was beyond grateful to have my best friend to help me though these moments. Part of me was bummed that nothing had happened, but I was more relieved than anything. Plus, Ray had taken it seriously, and I'd been so nervous, but thinking about it now, it was hilarious. I really had been going crazy over nothing.

"Want to get some food at Granny's?" Ray asked, once our laughs started to subside. Getting up, I reached a hand down to pull her up. "I'd love to."


The rest of the weekend passed by uneventful. Henry had told me all about the maid, her baby, and Emma's involvement. I had to admit, I was impressed with her bravery to stand up to Mr. Gold. That guy weirded me out, and I did my best to avoid him when he came around to talk to my mom. I was also somewhat jealous that my younger brother continued to be more daring adventures than me, but whatever. Ray and I had had a wonderful afternoon gossiping and eating diner food, on Saturday. We made all kinds of plans for the next week, and I promised her I'd talk to Derrick.

Even my mom seemed to be in a better mood, no idea why. However, I wasn't going to push it. My grounding was up next week, and well, since Ray took off my necklace I felt relaxed and free. The fact that nothing had changed made the world seem normal again. I hadn't told Henry yet, but I would. I just needed to figure out a way to let him down easy. For the time being, I left the locket on my desk, deciding I was done with its drama.

I'd decided to take a nice bubble bath to end my weekend. I figured a good soak in the tub would prepare me for the next week of school, but I was out of my own bubble bath, so I'd asked my mom to use some of hers. As I was crossing her bedroom, to the bathroom, something stopped me. It was weird that this kept happening, but then my eyes landed on the picture. The picture that was on my mom's dresser. The picture that I'd looked at hundreds of times.

A cold sweat instantly started on my brow and my dinner was dangerously close to coming back up. The picture was from a morning spent by the water, and in it, my mom had an arm around both me and Henry, pulling us into a loving hug. We were all smiling, and actually looked like a happy family, however, that wasn't the problem. Henry was about six in the picture, which meant I should be twelve, but I wasn't. In this picture I was very clearly 16.