Time is running out for our favorite former thief. Will he manage to break into Rapunzel's room?
1. This is an edited version of this chapter. Check author's notes for changes.
2. As always, apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes that fall through the final cut. I hope you enjoy reading this chapter!
Chapter 28 - Tick Tock: Part 1 of 2
Type: Two-shot, part of 'The Chains of her Sorrows' storyline.
Description: Time is running out for our favorite former thief. Will he be able to break into Rapunzel's room and save her before it's too late?
"Rapunzel! Rapunzel, speak to me! Say something! Anything!"
Eugene banged and banged and huffed and puffed, harnessing all his pent up anger and frustrations into his movements against the door, shaking the grounded Pascal with his vibrations. There were no more sounds coming from the inside and the knowledge sent horrible goosebumps down his lower back.
He feels like he's going to be sick. He feels like he is going to faint and die like he did on that day four months ago when the witch impaled him with her sharpened, iron dagger.
"Sunshine, Rapunzel! Please! Don't do this, you don't deserve to die!" He begged and pleaded with her, but received no response in return.
Just. Silence.
No sound. Just...the complete and utter coldness that was seeping through his very heart into his whole form, his whole body. He pounded against the door one final time before dropping to his hands and knees, his head collapsing down as he slowly lost his will to fight...his will to keep going…
He knows that time is running out, and is starting to think that he is completely helpless to do anything to prevent the inevitable from becoming his dark and depressing new reality.
For all he knows, Rapunzel is all but destined to die now, today, in this room.
And it's no one's fault except his own.
"Captain!"
Captain Jones of the Coronan Guard jerked his head to the side, away from the conversation he was just engaged in with guards Pete and Stan. He had just been discussing patrol duties for the night when he heard the voice of his majesty bark down to them from the top of the main stairs that led up to the castle's entrance.
"Yes, sir!" Jones saluted his highness, and Pete and Stan did the same from his side.
Frederic ran down to them and caught his breath. "The castle is on high-alert and has been placed under lockdown." Captain Jones' eyes widened at that remark, "Take your finest men and grab hard and heavy materials with some rope. You will go to the body of land outside my daughter's balcony."
Pete and Stan exchanged looks and Captain Jones stared absentmindedly at the monarch. "Si-sir, what happened?" His inner suspicions are making him suspect it has something to do with her highness, Princess Rapunzel. He has not seen his majesty King Frederic wear such frantic, fearful eyes in quite some time. And he's willing to bet the man hasn't worn such a face since...the day eighteen years ago when..
"No questions, soldier! You will do as asked or be relieved of duty!"
Jones lifted his straightened hand to the top of his head and saluted, meeting the King's frantic and fearful gaze with a look of obedience on his own before turning to Stan and Pete. "You heard his majesty! Let's move, Men! Move!" He pointed in the direction of the stables and immediately went into a run, with Pete, Stan, and the few guards his majesty had brought along the way following suit.
Frederic watched some of his finest guards jog off to the horse's stables before he himself ran back into the castle.
As he entered, he was greeted by the sight of five castle servants running frantically down the hall. News has spread fast of the castle's new situation, and he knows where all five of them are heading.
Without further hesitation, he made way to follow them.
The silence was deafening. Eugene's neck wore permanent goosebumps up to this point from the fear that has been rising within.
The chill of the cold November autumn night isn't helping his case, either. He knows the chances of him catching a cold are almost confirmed. He knows that, yes, he is risking his own life by being out here, but he has to...he has to keep fighting.
There's a chance it isn't too late. And as he leaned in for another punch against the hardened glass door, he heard a whistle coming from down below.
"Fitzherbert!" Eugene jumped at the sudden noise, the unfamiliar sound of the Captain calling him by his birth name.
He ran over to the balcony's edge, and the first thing he noticed was the Captain docked on an all-too familiar white steed. In his hand, he held a large rock with a rope tied onto its exterior.
All around him stood six or seven guards, Stan and Pete being two of them. They all wore worried and fearful looks. They must know something disastrous is on the brink of occurring and that he is the only man who can possibly prevent it.
"I'm going to throw you the rope!"
Eugene nodded frantically in response and jumps over the railing, holding on with one hand as he leaned over and down with his other, watching as Jones brought his hand back before lunging it forward, throwing the rope up to him. It barely reached his height, but he was able to firmly grasp its scratchy exterior before jumping back over the rail onto the balcony.
With both his hands attached, he pulled and tugged on the rope, suddenly finding himself to be having a hard time breathing. The cold is definitely not helping his situation; if anything, it's starting to hinder his strength, his ability to act.
Finally after a long battle that felt like hours, he managed to pull the heavy rock up. "Hurry, Eugene!" Jones yelled up to him.
Eugene took hold of the rock with both hands, holding onto it with the strength of a man possessed. He barely felt the sensation of Pascal running up his body before eventually perching on his shoulder.
And then, without a moment's hesitation, he threw it. He threw the rock against the glass door and held his arm up in front of his face, protecting himself as he stood there and watched it easily shatter and break apart, as if it had been holding on by a mere thread.
He lunged forward and grabbed at a few of the pieces that still remained in their spots, slitting his inner palm in the process. From a quick glance, it appeared to be a bad cut, though, thankfully, not as deep as the one he had gotten back in that cave.
He was able to pull back the curtains through his newly created hole, and his suspicions rang true. Right in front of him, barely a few inches away from his face, rested Rapunzel's dresser. The blood from his cut was now dripping down his palm and it began to race down his wrists before he eventually took hold of the side of the dresser and pushed it just enough with all the strength he has left. The hole he made for himself was small, but large enough to barely squeak through.
Eugene sighed out of relief because he was expecting to see Rapunzel's limpless...lifeless...body on the floor….in a pool of blood…
But what he saw in front of him was almost as sickening.
There was blood on the floor, much to his dismay. But it wasn't much. Rapunzel had to of either run into her mirror or threw it, because all of its remnants now rested peacefully on the wooden floor, shattered into a million little pieces.
Eugene raced over to one and noticed a few specks of blood that tainted its shiny surface. He scrunched his eyes shut in agony, in anger, and inadvertently he clenched the fist that held the shard tight. His blood was boiling as he created another cut in his skin, the same hand that already was bleeding from when he entered.
I'm too late…
He jumped, a tad startled from the noise of the frantic banging coming from outside her bedroom's door, which was also blocked and barricaded from the inside with a piece of her furniture. He thought for a few moments about letting them in. But he quickly found himself having a hard time working up the courage to walk over there and open it because he knows that once he does that, everyone outside in that very hallway would come pummeling in without a single care in the world.
If she…
If she's…
He can't even pull himself to think of the word.
If what he suspects is true, then he has to be the first one to see her. He has to be the first one to hold her in the same way she held him when he was on the brink of death..
His lip began to involuntarily tremble again and he turned to face her bathroom door. It's shut, and it's the only possible place in this otherwise empty room she could be. He began his slow walk over to it and Pascal by this time had hidden himself under the fabric of his shirt on his elbow. The little guy's freezing, poor thing.
The sound coming from the outside suddenly came to a halt, and the only thing he could now hear, the only sound that filled this dark and messy room came from the wall clock that rested over her desk.
Eugene stopped moving and the hairs on his neck stood tall as a cold-sweat took control of his whole body.
Tick-Tock went the clock.
Tick. Tock.
Tick. Tock.
Its sound reminded him of only one thing: that time is running out.
A/N: Just did my best to refine some of the dialogue/sentences.
Edit History (MM/DD/YY):
1. 6/12/20