Hello Everyone! We are getting close to the end now! Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to read this! I'm guessing there will probably be about four more chapters after this one. Pretty good, considering I originally mapped it out with twelve chapters!
As always, please leave a review when you are done reading. I've been having a hard time getting up the energy to finish this mammoth and your reviews always give me such a boost!
Princes, Princesses, and Apple White's Poison Dreams
Raven wakes up early on Saturday and quickly dresses. She chooses a layered dark blue dress that Apple had bought for her, one that has no evil implications, and she pulls her hair up and to the side, leaving her Evil Queen crown on the vanity. Darling shows up a few minutes later, all soft voice and imposing figure.
"Thank you so much for coming, Darling. I know this will never work, but I have to make it look like I expect it to work."
It's been a week since Blondie's mirrorcast and what a week it has been. As expected, Headmaster Grimm confiscated all of Blondie's electronics. He even went as far as confiscating most of Blondie's friends electronics, but he did not get all the copies of the next mirrorcast. Later that evening, King Charming made an announcement that Apple had indeed been poisoned by her Prince Charming, who, for unknown reasons, had taken the place of Raven Queen, leaving Raven no further part in the story. The entire kingdom went into mourning immediately. Raven knew the people of Ever After loved Apple, but she was shocked by just how much they loved her. People posted rants and raves on the mirror net, people wept, everyone wanted Apple back, but who was her Prince Charming? Over the next few days a steady stream of wannabe princes lined up at the gates to Queen White's part of the enchanted forest. Each one hoping for a chance to kiss Apple White and try their luck.
"Of course, Raven. I'm glad you asked." Darling Holds up different pieces of armor, trying to find the piece that matches best with Raven's outfit. "It must be so hard for you right now, with all these princes."
"It is awful. I can't stand to think about it. What kind of story puts an unconscious woman in a glass coffin and then asks random strangers kiss her. None of these people even know Apple! Shame on them!" Raven Picks up a random piece of armor off the bed and turns it around in her hands.
"Well, I think it is wonderful what you are doing and I want to thank you for having me along. I'm glad to be a part of this statement. Why does it always have to be princes?" Darling finally settles on a set of armor and helps Raven into it. Once she is done she leads Raven over to the mirror and shows her.
"Darling, it's hexcellent!" Raven checks her reflection at every angle in the mirror. The armor matches her dress perfectly. "I feel like a new person!"
""I'm glad. It's nice to dress someone else up in my style and I must say, you wear it well." Darling gives Raven a smile.
"Are you ready?" Raven holds out her hand.
"Let's do this!" Darling takes Raven's hand and the two of them disappear in a cloud of purple smoke.
XXX
Snow White walks up and down the line, accepting condolences and greeting each of the prince's personally. Each prince is quite taken with Queen Snow and they are all at their most charming. She tries to give each one as much hope as possible, but deep down, she is tired.
'All these princes come to wake poor gay Apple White. What a bunch of morons.' she thinks as a giggle escapes her lips. She's been laughing to herself quite a lot recently. She tries to keep it down, but she can't help. It just bursts out of her every now and again. She's noticed a few of the prince's filming her on their mirror phones, which is driving her insane. Why would they be filming her when she can't stop herself from laughing? They are all beasts. Evil beasts, just like her husband.
'I'm not thinking in a way that is fairest.' Snow takes a breath and tries to push her thoughts down and away, but they just won't go away as easy as they used to. Her charming smile is slipping. She can feel it. Perhaps this was a bad idea. Every now and again she catches a prince looking at her in sympathy. She tries not to sneer at the little bastards.
Near the end of the line she is met with Raven queen and Darling Charming. A group of princes around them, filming them with their mirrorphones and asking them questions. This is the reason she came to this god awful show in the first place. She puts on her best smile and heads over to greet the two girls.
"Raven, Darling, how wonderful to see you!"
"Your Majesty." Raven curtsies and Darling bows.
"What are you two doing here?" Snow keeps her intonation under control, making the question sound like it is nothing more than small talk.
"We are here to try and wake Apple," Darling says. "I've woken her once before and Raven has an intimate relationship with Apple, so we feel we might have a better chance than any of these princes, Your Majesty."
"Oh, you two are such wonderful friends to my little Apple, but you don't have to do this. It's a lovely thought, but I don't want either of you acting unmaidenly on Apple's account." Snow can feel her smile slipping.
"Oh no, Your Majesty, It is not a problem for us at all. Anything for Apple." Darling again. Raven stands by watching, her mouth agape at Darling's ability to charm.
"It is very sweet of you, but I just can't let you do this." A very wonderlandian giggle escapes Snow's lips. The crowd around them gasps and many of them turn their phones on the giggling Queen.
"But Your Majesty, we might be Apple's only chance!" Darling's charm slips.
"You are not Apple's only chance!" Snow turns to the bystanders who are all filming her. "Turn of your damn phones! What about this conversation is so interesting that you feel the need to film it? Can't you go a day without those stupid mirrorphones?" The crowd gasps again. Snow can feel the situation slipping form her. She stares at the crowd, wanting to say more, but she knows she must walk away. "Well, thanks for coming, girls, but unfortunately, we can't have you kissing Apple. It just isn't right. Please leave."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Darling puts her hand in Raven's, both of them looking extremely crestfallen, and the two disappear in a puff of purple smoke.
Snow White ignores all the onlookers and heads back to her limo. She was supposed to see Apple today, but she decides against it. Snow knows what it is like to be in poisoned sleep. Everything ceases. No dreams, just a perfect destruction of ego.
What snow doesn't realize is that poison apples affect each person differently. For Snow, there is nothing. For apple there are dreams. Vivid dreams.
XXX
Apple opens her eyes to Raven, arm crossed over her chest holding the opposite elbow, bottom lip pulled between pearly white teeth and, just behind, a hint of pink. They are at some kind of party. A wedding ceremony. The street is dirty and the air hangs with an awful stench. The street is lined with houses, the kind that look quaint in old paintings, but here it seems that everyone is living on top of each other, trying to avoid the dirt, disease, and disgusting habits of their neighbors.
A pause in the conversation. A conversation that never started, will never end, and has been going on in all directions, through infinity, since the moment they met.
"I know I was terrible, Raven. I know that I tried to get you to follow your destiny, but please understand, I was really scared! I believed my parents, and Headmaster Grimm, when they said our destinies were the only things that made us real and they were right, Raven, we are entertainment for another world!" Apple tries to reach out to Raven, but her villain steps back, just out of reach.
"None of this matters, Apple, because I'm not gay. I would never have wanted to be with you if it wasn't for the malicious magic that was cast upon me. I don't know if we were ever really friends. I just… kind of… put up with you. Maddie is my best friend for ever after, so where do you even fit, Apple? Why should I put up with your constant judgement? Your conservatism?"
"No, Raven, I was young when we met. I was sheltered, I didn't realize that everything I believed was spun to look a specific way. You changed all that, but I couldn't set myself free in one day, It took time, but you made me realize so much more. You've made me who I am. You allowed me to be free! That has to count for something!" Apple tries to look into Raven's eyes, but Raven is staring at the ground, her hand on her chin as she thinks.
"Set you free in one day. Set… I've got it! I can set you free!" Raven sits down at a tea table that appears out of nowhere and offers Apple the other seat. The wedding scene dissolves as she sits and is replaced with the walls of her home. They are sitting in the little room reserved for tea parties.
"Why are we here, Raven?" Apple stares down at the exquisitely painted cups and saucers on the table. Each one hand-painted with an apple theme. Some with apple trees, others with bright red apples, her's is a a thin branch with a tiny little blossom, opening shyly for the first time.
"I'm going to set you free. In one day, no less." Raven pulls out a scroll
"How?"
"Easy… magic." Raven unrolls the scroll, it is completely blank. "Draw your self. A self portrait, just like in art class." Raven pushes the scroll over to Apple.
A hiccup in time, an afternoon passing. the world continues to rotate, stories are born, stories die, and Apple White finishes her self portrait. A cute amateurish drawing, just like she used to do in spellementary school. The sun sluices through the tatted curtains and colors her picture orange. She's proud of it. It turned out exactly as she wanted it to. She pushes it over to Raven.
"This is so well done! I'm proud of my little Apple Blossom!" Raven's mouth with her mother's words spilling out. Apple slides back in her chair, startled.
"Are you ready, Apple?" Raven puts both of her hands on the scroll and Apple can feel Raven's hands on her body, as if she were the portrait. She lays back in the chair as a soft moan escapes her throat. Raven's hands, warm to the touch, touching her, glowing purple, casting magic. "Two minus one, release the bad left undone, one for the moon and one for the sun." A blast of purple magic envelopes the scroll and Apple can feel it around herself as well.
"I'll set you free. In just one day." Raven holds up the scroll, portrait towards Apple, and slowly tears it in two. As the tear reaches her portrait, Apple can feel herself tearing in two. She reaches up and feels her head split. She follows the tear down her own face and starts to cry. She tries to push her head and face back together, but they wont budge. She looks back at Raven who is still tearing the scroll, smiling like a true Evil Queen. Apple falls back in her chair, grits her split teeth, and tries to let the process complete.
She can feel parts of her rushing, separating, and flowing to either side. All of her base emotions, her shame, fear, hatred, and jealousy, the bully inside of her that had shaped Daring to her will, and tried to do the same with Raven, the blossoming teenager, masturbating to female models in magazines and then crying tears of pure shame afterwards, the blonde-haired near-sighted guilt, all the things she hates about her self collect in an oily circle, like a yolk, and flow to one side, whereas all of her higher emotions, her love, kindness, and happiness, saving Daring from the dog, her selfless love of destiny, all of these things, pure thin liquid, flow around the oil of her darker emotions, like water, and collect in the other side. Finally, it is done. Two Apple Whites sit on the chair, but she is only one of them.
"But Raven, which one am I?" Both Apples ask simultaneously.
"We won't need her for awhile, so where can we keep her?" Raven asks the Apple to the left of Apple.
"I'm the bad one, aren't I?" Apple brings her hands to her face and looks at the Apple to her left. She draws in her breath as she takes herself in from the third person perspective. How many times has she seen herself in the shrine she calls a mirror and worshipped her own beauty? But this, this is something all together different. Seeing herself as another human being. How many blemishes she'd missed! Her posture is terrible, she is way too skinny and her skin is disgustingly pale. Bones poke out at random places. She is all knees, elbows, and bent back. Bile rises up in Apple's throat at the sight of herself, divorced from herself. She can see the same look of disgust on her twin's face.
"Let's throw her in the well!" Other Apple says as she claps her hands together, a beaming smile crossing her face.
'Just like my mother,' Apple thinks, 'so charming.'
"That is perfect. She can wait there until the end of the story." Raven stands up as she speaks and reaches across the table. The walls melt away as her hands make contact and they are dragging her through a field. Other Apple is singing her favorite song as all the animals line up and watch, happily bobbing their heads in time with the song.
The field they are dragging her through is filled with dry rye and she knows where they are taking her. Fear explodes through her and she starts blubbering, begging them not to do it, crying and struggling, but to no avail. Other Apple and Raven look at each other and smile, as if they were the only two there. They pull her through the remains of an old wooden fence, the old wood scratches her skin and she feels a thousand little splinters bury themselves in her skin. They are close now. They pull her to the side of the well and unceremoniously toss her in. She tries to hold on to the edges, but there is nothing to grab, her hands slip down the rock as she crashes into the water below. For a moment she can see other Apple and Raven peeking over the side. They both smile, and then they are gone.
Apple screams. She begs and pleads, hoping they are still up there. She screams until she is hoarse and tries to climb, splintering her nails on the hard stones. Darkness and silence are her only response, so she treads water, praying that her strength wont give out.
Perhaps, this is what she deserves, she is the bad one after all. She is the one who hurt Daring so badly that he poisoned her to get revenge. She is the one who tried to bully Raven to accept her destiny, she is the one who secretly liked girls. The other Apple, the one out there with Raven, she's the good one. She's the one that will follow her destiny and live happily ever after with Daring Charming.
Her legs pump continuously, trying to keep her head above water, but they are tired. So tired. Too tired to keep it up and she starts dipping under the water. The dirty green water. Her head aches and she realizes she must've hit it on the way down. She's bleeding from her scalp, coloring the green water red. She goes under again, her legs cramping up, but she gains a second wind and pops back to the surface. Unfortunately, this is short lived and she sinks again. This time, her legs won't respond. She is drowning.
Everything is a roaring light-green. She rolls in the water, sometimes she can see her hands, sometimes she can see her feet. A beautiful apple, red and crisp flashes through her mind and she wonders, for just a moment, if she even likes apples. Raven's naked arms, her lips, the feeling of Apple inside Raven, rubbing, caressing, loving her, all of these things are devoured by the green. The green takes her in as she opens her mouth and takes it in. She is part of the murkiness and it is the murkiness inside of her. Green pushes out light and dark and pain and rapture until she is floating in a silent green sky leaving behind nothing but a bright red trail from the back of her head.
Everything outside of her, all of the green, is perfect, but inside something changes. Something is kicking, thrashing, and pushing to be let out. Her body bloats and stretches as she takes green into her lungs and her legs kick involuntarily until every nerve in her is singing. Bubbles well up from her lungs as she sinks.
After years of floating her back finally hits the muddy floor. A cloud of dirt puffs up in the water around her. She lays silently on the floor, stretched out, then sits up and looks around her. This vast expanse of water is much bigger then the well. She can't see anything that will help her understand the size of the watery grave she now inhabits.
She feels something hard and cold underneath her hand. She pulls it out of the mud and stares at it. An old rusty chain, secured to some kind of block. She stands up and follows the chain, pushing through the greenness. Eventually, a dark shape appears before her. she pulls on the chain, which sets the dark shape bobbing. Whatever it is, it is connected to the chain. As she gets closer she realizes it is a body, floating in the greenness at the end of the chain. A body that looks an awful lot like Raven, but isn't Raven.
She pulls the body closer until they are eye to eye.
"Please don't make me put on the shoes. It is a horrible way to die. my skin bubbled as they lowered me into the shoes and then peeled off in layers as they shoved my feet inside. Then they made me dance. They made me dance as my muscles and bones melted and pooled around me. Please, don't put me in the shoes." Not Raven takes Apple's hands in her own.
"Where am I?" Apple stammers, unsure how to respond to the awful things not Raven has just said.
"This is where they put us villains when they are done with us. Some of us were boiled alive, others had their stomachs cut open, and I was forced to wear burning iron shoes and then dance until I died."
"But we don't do that anymore! Nobody dies because of their stories!" Apple tries to pull her hands away.
"But we did, Apple White. All of us did. It doesn't matter to us if you don't do it anymore." The not Raven releases Apple, who falls to the muddy floor and cries.
"I know! I know the entire system is awful! I deserve to be down here! I'm all the bad that lives inside Apple White!"
The not Raven let's out a laugh.
"But you aren't the bad Apple at all, you're the good Apple. The bad apple is up there, with the not Raven."
Apple looks up and it is Raven standing above her. They are in their dorm room and Raven is wearing the layered blue dress Apple had bought for her. She is in some kind of armor, the type Darling wears. Apple grabs Raven's outstretched hand and yanks her into bed with her. They both crawl under the covers and take off their clothes. They make love and reach heights of feeling only possible in dreams.
Afterwards, Apple falls asleep in Raven's arms. Everything in the world is perfect.
Apple opens her eyes to Raven, arm crossed over chest holding the opposite elbow, bottom lip pulled between pearly white teeth and, just behind, a hint of pink. They are at some kind of party. A wedding ceremony. The street is dirty and the air hangs with an awful stench. The street is lined with houses, the kind that look quaint in old paintings, but here it seems that everyone is living on top of each other, trying to avoid the dirt, disease, and disgusting habits of their neighbors.
A pause in the conversation. A conversation that never started, will never end, and has been going on in all directions, through infinity, since the moment they met.