Chapter 1

The Hallway to Nowhere

"Come on Emma sweetheart this way" Snow called as her daughter drifted off into a hallway in the opposite direction to the one in which they were going.

Running back to her mother the little princess pointed towards the hallway she had disappeared into seconds before "but why can't we go that way mummy?" she asked an imploring look in her big green eyes,

"Because little princess that isn't the way to the dining room" Snow chuckled fondly as she placed a gentle bop on the end of Emma's nose,

"But what is down there?" Emma pressed,

"Nothing anymore" Snow answered honestly "It used to lead to another wing of the castle, not much different than the rest but that side of the castle always gets damaged by the big storms in winter and it had to be repaired so many times one year that your grandfather eventually gave up and decided that we had more than enough wings in our castle anyway so he had it sealed off, I haven't seen it since I was little girl, it must have gone to ruin by now"

Emma frowned slightly as she listened but seemed to accept the explanation because she nodded slowly in response and didn't ask any further questions,

"Come on then, your father will be waiting for us" Snow smiled brightly turning to walk in the direction of the dining hall and after a final fleeting glance back at the empty hallway that led nowhere Emma scurried after her.

"Daddy" she shouted excitedly throwing her arms up for her father when they entered the dining hall a few minutes later,

"Emma" her father replied picking her up and twirling her in the air before hugging her close just as happy to see her as Emma was to see him "I think you must have grown at least six inches since I last saw you" he teased her,

"Really Daddy" Emma giggled innocently taking the bait for she had only seen him at breakfast, and it was impossible for the little to have grown so much in a day,

"So, tell me princess, what did you do today?" David asked as he gently lowered his daughter onto her seat and took his own and the head of the table,

"Umm, well first me and baby Rose played under the big apple tree in the garden" she said eyes wide as saucers as she relived the joy of those memories with her favourite baby doll in her head, David's brow however creased into a deep frown as he turned to address his wife,

"Who let her play there?" he asked "It's not safe at this time of year, the apples are dropping off the tree's faster than the servants can collect them all, she could have been hurt" he said,

"I let her play there" Snow replied reaching out to place a reassuring hand over David's which was resting on the table next to his cutlery, but his frown only deepened at her words,

"David the tree that she plays under hasn't bore any fruit for years and this year was no exception, every year the leaves bloom and drop off just like all of the other tree's but there is never a single apple to be seen, it's a shame really because the tree whose fruit it grew from grew the most delicious apples I've ever tasted" she shrugged, David's features finally relaxed into a smile again and he returned his attention back towards Emma,

"That sounds like fun" he said "What else did you and baby Rose do today"

"Mummy said that baby Rose had to go to bed after that so that I could learn numbers with Miss Martha" Emma pulled a face "I hate numbers" she said and David chuckled,

"Do you want to hear a secret?" he asked leaning in close, Emma, eyes growing wide with anticipation looked at her father and nodded eagerly"

"I always hated numbers too when I was a boy, I always thought that they were so hard" he whispered

"Really" Emma asked in awe

"Yup, your Uncle James though he was always a whizz at them, I was so jealous growing up" he laughed again,

"Wow" Emma breathed staring at her father struggling to believe that he had ever found anything difficult in his life,

David smiled affectionately ruffled his daughter's hair then turned his attentions to his wife

"And what about you, how's your day been?" he asked her

"But I haven't finished telling you about my day yet" Emma complained

"You haven't?" David looked back at Emma in surprise, and Emma shook her head solemnly,

"Nope" she said "the best bit happened on the way here just now" Emma told him excitedly,

"It did?" David replied and Emma nodded eagerly,

"Mummy told me all about the secret wing" she whispered eyes wide with awe again,

"Secret wing?" he repeated turning his attentions towards Snow again,

"It's nothing really Snow shrugged, just our curious little adventurer wandering into corridors we don't use anymore because my father had the wing that it once led to blocked off years ago" she explained with an off handed shrug,

"But why would he do that? David asked,

"Because Daddy" Emma answered seriously "The big storms kept breaking it"

David was still looking a little confused, so Snow offered him a quick explanation as their dinners were served,

"Make sense I suppose" David shrugged taking a mouthful of food, "There is one thing I don't understand though, I've been all the way around the perimeter of this castle many times and never once seen any part of it in ruins"

"That's because of the glamour that daddy had put over that section to disguise the damage" Snow explained, David nodded and continued to chew thoughtfully but didn't pose any further questions and soon the topic of conversation changed as David and Snow began to talk about their own days until little Emma's eyes began to droop, and she almost fell asleep in her dessert.

"Time for bed little one" David murmured gently lifting Emma up into his arms and carrying her through the hallways towards her sleeping chambers,

Emma's head lulled sleepily on her father's shoulders as he carried her down familiar corridors her eye's barely staying open until they approached the one that led to nowhere,

"Goodnight" she whispered with a yawn as they passed it by finally giving up the fight and letting her eyes fall closed,

"Goodnight little Princess" David replied believing that Emma had been talking to him when in fact her attention had been entirely focused on the dark corridor that she had spotted over his shoulder just before she fell asleep.

That was the first night that Emma dreamed about that hallway,

In her dream the hallway was easy to find even by herself and with nobody to stop her she wandered further down the hallway than before only stopping when the wall stopped her, it didn't look any different to any other castle wall but when she raised her palms and pressed them against it, it felt alive, Emma pushed hard desperately wanting to see what was on the other side, but the barrier held fast.

tears of frustration sprung in her eyes as she pushed harder still the barrier tingled beneath her fingers, but the wall never changed, she tried and tried again and again until exhaustion finally consumed her, and she fell to floor, where the dream was no more.

Outside of Emma's dream world panic ensued throughout the castle, after one of the Nanny's raised the alarm when she went to check on her young charge as usual and found her bed empty.

"Where can she be?" Snow sobbed into David's when their daughter still hadn't been located more than an hour later, all of Emma's favourite spots had been checked both inside the castle's walls and out in its ground but there was no sign of the little princess, now the occupants of the castle had all been roused and were systematically checking the whole castle, with each passing minute without her daughter in her arms Snow became more distraught,

"We'll find her" David soothed his wife his own features etched with the worry that he also felt inside,

"But what if we don't?" Snow sobbed "what if she's been taken? Even with everyone searching it'll take hours to check the whole castle and if she's still not found, if she has been taken, she could be long gone by then, Charming I think it's time to call in the fairies, put an end to this madness and worry, wherever Emma is the Fairies will find her"

David briefly considered his wife then nodded his agreement and Snow releasing a small sigh of relief called out into the night,

"Blue"

The fairy appeared in an instant,

"What's happened?" she asked in alarm upon seeing Snow's distress

"Emma's missing" Snow sniffed "The whole castle has been searching for over an hour now and still nothing, we were hoping that you might have better luck"

Blue nodded and closed her eyes reaching out for the princess,

"She's still in the castle" Blue assured the royal couple as soon as she felt Emma's presence "and she's perfectly fine, in fact I'd say that she's sleeping" the fairy smiled opening her eyes to meet two very relieved looking faces,

"Come on" she said flying towards the door without further ado "I'll take you to her"

Snow and Charming hurried after the fairy following her through hallways until she finally turned into the one that led nowhere, They hastily followed Blue her glow lighting the otherwise pitch black passageway until they came to the wall blocking any further progress and there at its foot bathed in the fairies blue light they found there little princess curled up fast asleep completely unaware of the mass panic that her disappearance was currently causing in the castle.

Snow let out a final guttural sob, this one of relief rather than despair and threw herself onto the ground beside her young daughter, pulling Emma into her lap, disturbed by all the sudden activity Emma blinked blearily a confused look on her face,

"What's going on? Where are we?" she asked looking to her mother for answers,

"We are in the hallway to the sealed off wing" Snow told her,

"We are?" Emma asked looking at the wall in wide eyed awe, vague flashes of her dream coming to the surface of her memory, "But why?" she whispered

"That's what I was going to ask you" Snow replied, "The whole castles been searching for you Emma I was so worried that I even called Blue in to help, she's the one that found you here, you know you're not supposed to wander around the castle at night Emma" Snow berated gently her relief at finding Emma safe preventing her from feeling truly angry at the child's late-night wanderings,

"But I wasn't wandering the castle mummy" Emma said eyes imploring and confused "or at least I didn't know I was" she frowned a little and continued to explain "I was dreaming about coming to the hallway and then I woke up and I was here" she said

"Maybe she was sleep walking" Blue said flying closer to Emma's face sparing the wall a backwards glance before returning to face the princess with strange look on her face that the young girl couldn't decipher before she turned back to face Snow features now smoothed out into a neutral expression "Maybe we should get everybody back to bed now" she suggested "There are still a few more hours before dawn"

Snow nodded and clamoured to her feet helping Emma up beside her and taking one of her hands, remembering her dream Emma reached out to place her other palm on the wall before her mother could pull her away, she couldn't control the gasp that escaped from between her lips the second that her palm connected with the stone,

"What, what is it?" Snow asked looking at Emma alarmed,

"N Nothing" Emma stammered hand still on the wall "It's just really cold" she lied, because even at seven she knew that telling her parents that there was a living wall in the castle wasn't going to bode well for her in fact they probably wouldn't ever allow her to come back here again and as Snow pulled Emma away and her palm lost contact with the smooth stone of the wall that had been pulsing underneath it Emma knew one thing for certain and that was that she needed to come back.