Chapter Forty-Six
ADAM
Adam awoke early, right before dawn while the moon was still high, just as he normally did, and immediately set about to get ready for his early morning patrol. Today he would be making a longer patrol since he would be on a picnic with Snow White. He was jittery in his excitement for the day's events and he could not stop smiling. He almost wished he could stop smiling, but every time he thought about going on his little date with Snow White, he couldn't help himself. He tried not to fight it too much since he wanted to be positive today.
He was overly aware how his anxiety and fears have been ruling him like a hamster on a wheel to do the same things every day. Both he and Snow White needed a little time to themselves, without the Dwarves interference and away from the cottages, just so they could have one day of happiness while they figure out how to get things settled before spring comes. Adam wanted to have had all of this resolved before the end of summer, but there are simply too many things outside of his control.
Slipping into his coat and tying the laces of his boots, Adam carefully shut the door behind him. In the quiet of the early morning, Adam could hear the soft snores of Snow White in her room and it only encouraged the smile to stay on his face. Staying as quiet as he could, he descended the stairs and exited the house. Normally he would cast an enchantment on the door as he left, but since he planned on coming back to change, he decided to wait until his return to do so.
Standing outside his cottage he looked over to the right and saw that the Dwarves, only six of them, were lining up and leaving. Doc led the way with Grumpy in the rear. He looked especially grumpy this morning, between having to get up and being in this cold, Adam couldn't blame him. Still, Grumpy shut the door behind him and stepped into line with the others. Instead of going over to enchant the Dwarves' cottage he decided to go ahead and check the perimeter. He would be out longer than normal this morning, but since he planned to come straight back, he would enchant their house as soon as he came back.
Though the morning air was cold, it was rather refreshing too, almost as if it knew that today would be a good day. He had five checkpoints that he would examine along the perimeter, the first being the closest to the cottages by six miles at the edge of the Dark Forest. The next would be a ten-mile hike at the last edge of the Dark Forest before it connected to the cliff. From the cliffs he would go to the lake where he planned to take Snow White today. He might even brush away leaves at the perfect spot. The fourth and fifth were two more spots behind the cottages that would be a little more difficult to get to.
In a matter of minutes, he was already at the first part of the barrier where he quickly set off to the second one at the cliffs. It was actually part of the reason why he got up so early, he liked to catch the sunrise of each day. It almost seemed to promise him the hope of a better tomorrow as it lit up the land. Still feeling a little jittery, Adam broke out into a jog that eventually turned into a run to get to the cliffs. He loved the way his blood pumped and his adrenaline pushed him to go faster and farther. It just gave him a weird feeling of being free.
The cliffs howled on the wind in welcoming his arrival and he just barely beat the sun to the spot so he could watch it rise. He whispered the enchantments for the barrier as he watched the sun rise. As it rose the sun was especially red today. Adam was rather taken aback by that, but the sun remained red as it climbed above the trees. As he watched it rise, an old sailor's tune ran through his mind.
"Red in the morning, sailors take warning. . ." He mumbled to himself. "Red at night, sailor's delight."
They were nowhere near a sea, Apfel was very much landlocked, so he found it very odd that such a thing would come to him at this time. The tale had a lot to do with how the sea was supposed to fair, but it also had to do with how the weather would act for the day. Adam felt his smile falter and all the happy unfamiliar feelings went away and allowed the anxious well-known ones to return.
"Please let this be a good day." He said aloud as he turned his head to the clouds in the sky. "Please, we just need one reprieve for the long winter's hardships."
Not that he was expecting anyone or anything to answer him, but Adam was unnerved by the silence and he wanted to return home instantly. He turned and looked in the direction he would need to take to get to the cottage and pursed his lips. He wanted to go back to the cottages immediately, but he needed to at least secure the lake before he returned.
Moving quickly, Adam entered another part of the forest to find the lake. He happened across it one day on his patrol and made it one of the parts for the barrier so he could go and see it every day. It was such an odd thing he wanted to see every day, but it broke up the monotony of trees and swamps. The air was cleaner, the water was clearer, and it was a serene place he liked to go to.
The leaves crunched under his feet and he was sniffing the air to know when he was close. The lake had a very different smell to it than the swamps, like a sweet perfume to a musty dumpster, but as he continued to sniff the air, something was off. Instead of going directly down the middle, like he normally did, Adam decided to climb the boulders that created a wall at the entrance of the lake. It was as if the mountain had fallen at one point and all the rocks and boulders wanted to protect the small body of water somehow.
Staring down below, nothing was different about the forest floor, but he immediately noticed that there was a gondola in the lake. From this point of view he could see that there was a small branch from the lake, a river perhaps, where the gondola could have entered from. Seeing the boat, his blood ran cold and he knew today would not be the good day he wished for. With a frown, he turned to leave and nearly jumped off the edge as he looked at an exact replica of himself with green eyes. With a large rock in his hand preparing to smash it over Adam's head. He quickly moved to the right to dodge it and as soon as the rock made contact with the earth, it shattered into smaller fragments. Adam held his breath, waiting for the next attack, and looked at Grünes.
"So, you're Grünes?" Adam glared, his hands curling into fists, and all the raw anger and anxiety that had built up over the months rushed back to him.
Grünes said nothing and stared at him blankly with those green eyes, as if he hadn't understood what Adam had said. He just tilted his head to the left before straightening up, pulling back a first, and hurled himself forward at Adam.
Holding up his arms to shield his face, Adam quickly grabbed Grünes by the wrist, spin him around and tried to sling him to the ground, however, Grünes's reflexes were strange and his body contorted so his feet met the ground and Adam was the one that was slung through the forest.
Swiveling his body around, Adam used the strength of the forest's trees to catch him and regain his footing quickly to evade Grünes's next oncoming strike. Adam barely moved out of the way and watched the tree he had used as his leverage be splintered off into slithers. For once Adam was actually aware that this fight could cost him his own life if he wasn't careful.
Not wasting time to allow Grünes to engage again, Adam held out his hand and started expelling some of the toxic poisons from his body. Dark purple globs expelled from his body and joined together to form larger orbs. Pulling back his arm, he flung the poisonous orbs at Grünes, but he immediately ran off and barely missed the orbs. His own black coat began to singe from the burning poison and eat away at the edges of Grünes's coat.
An odd adrenaline rush, just on the border of that old blood lust, began to fuel Adam as he ran headfirst into the battle, emitting more poisons from his body, making them stronger, deadlier and kept flinging them at Grünes. Grünes was very good at running and dodging, but each time Adam threw more and more he could see Grünes's coat being eaten away by the poisons. The poisonous globs just kept eating away at his coat until it was almost to his waste. As if finally noticing it, Grünes discarded his coat from his body and pulled out a pair of daggers that were hidden underneath the coat.
He held the jagged daggers with the blades pointing down, and those green eyes were only growing more and more feral by the minute. Bending his knees and getting down low, Grünes ran at Adam as though he were a feral madman just out for blood, which Adam knew he was out for far more than that. Still flinging his poisons about, Adam had to take steps back and to the side as he evaded and avoided Grünes's haphazard strikes. Adam hadn't even had the chance to draw his own sword because Grünes's attacks just kept coming, and coming. There was no end to them. Twice he nearly drew his sword, and twice Grünes nearly sliced his neck.
It was almost as if the two were in a dead dance of death as they continued to hack away at each other and kept dodging the other until Grünes's blade finally caught hold of Adam's left arm and he sliced it down. A gash from his elbow to his wrist that had inky red and purple slithering from the wound, bled through his now shredded coat sleeve. The stabbing feeling mixed with his own poisons caused enough pain through Adam to make him want to rip his arm off. Still only able to dodge, Adam's cheek was met with the blunt end of the dagger and was knocked to the ground. He did a half roll before catching himself on his bad arm and was further tackled by Grünes.
Grünes now straddled him, daggers raised high, but Adam took the chance, grabbed a rock in his hand and flung the rock along with as much of his poison at Grünes's face. Grünes let out a terrible shriek that was the shrill of a pig as he rolled off Adam and held his face. Globs of purple ate away at the left side of his face. Gritting his teeth and using his bare hands to pull it off his face, Grünes only continued to shriek in pain as the poisons burned his flesh.
"Looks like you're not as resistant to poison as I am." Adam heaved as he took the chance to draw his sword. Running at Grünes, who was thrashing about trying to remove the poisons still, Adam sliced his sword down, only for it to get caught by Grünes's jagged dagger.
Through gritted teeth trying to refrain from shrieking further, Grünes glared at Adam, and snorted before shoving Adam off and slicing the air madly with his daggers again. Grünes was much stronger than Adam had anticipated, and his reaction times to things were just as quick as his own. The Evil Queen had practically made another version of himself, though he knew that Grünes was not as whole, nor that his life was truly meant to anything in any of the Realms. Had the Evil Queen not succeeded in creating Adam first, perhaps he would have been as mindless and obedient as Grünes. But he had something to live for, something to fight for, something to actually look forward too, he would not be bested by an insignificant failed copy of himself.
Metal continued to grind and catch on metal. Grunts were passed, poison was thrown. Clothes were torn, blood was shed. Pain had been inflicted on them both and neither of them would back down, despite the exhaustion that was growing ever apparent on them both. Grünes was staggering more now that so much poison was in his body and Adam could hardly feel sorry for him as he had caused many gashes on his own body. Still, the battle had been drawn out far too long by now and Adam needed to get back to Snow White. If Grünes was here with him, that had to mean that the old hag was out and about trying to cause trouble.
"How about we finish this, eh, Grünes?" Adam panted, his sword being heavy in his own hand.
Still not wanting to end the fight, Grünes lunged forward, but Adam was just as quick with his sword as Grünes was with his daggers. Just a hair's breadth away from his own throat was where the tips of Grune's daggers rested, but deep in Grünes's stomach was where Adam's sword rested. The daggers fell from Grünes's hands and now gripped the sword that was plunged into his stomach. With desperate and angry attempts, Grünes tried to remove the sword, but Adam held firm.
"Don't be too angry, Grünes. . ." Adam panted as he struggled to keep his hands on the hilt of the sword. "You fought hard, and if you had a soul, you would have been of equal measure to me. . ."
Just as the words escaped his mouth, his eyes widened, and he looked at the still struggling and fading Grünes.
"The transfer can only be done of that with equal measure." He repeated quickly and stood firm as the words from the Transfer spell began to flow from him. "Let it be trapped under the full moon this night, Between us, the two of equal measure and equal blight." He grunted as Grünes almost seemed to be fighting back harder now. It was almost as if he knew what was about to happen. There would be no escape for him now.
"From I born out of hate and scorn," Adam's voice rose and he felt lighter, as if his burdens were leaving him. "Let this cursed magic begone and transferred to this poppet whom none shall mourn."
As the words flowed from him, so did the poisons to the sword, and from the sword did they instill themselves to Grünes, who in turn threw back his head in pain and agony as twenty years of poison entered his body. With the feeling of being lighter, a terrible burning purged itself in Adam and too let out his own yells of pain until Grünes's body suddenly flung itself free from the blade, breaking it in half, and convulsing on the ground.
Purple black and even ominous shades of green poison oozed itself from Grünes's open stomach wound, his eyes, his nose, and even his mouth until his body froze and became black until it caught fire, turned to ash, and was sent away on the wind.
"Did it. . .work?" The broken blade clattered as it fell from his hand and Adam looked down at his hands. From using so much poison the gloves had been burned off and even the previously open wounds were sealed and were just scars. Still looking at his hands, he fell to his knees and simply tried to catch his breath. He definitely felt lighter, but that could also have been from the lack of blood he had lost in battle, but other than that he had no way of knowing if he had truly been successful in getting rid of every last ounce of poison from his body. If even the tiniest teaspoon had remained, it would only re-manifest itself within him.
"God, how I hate magic and curses." He hissed as he pushed himself from the forest floor and back to his feet. He wobbled and staggered and his head made him feel dizzy, but he didn't have a moment to lose. He needed to see Snow White. What was worse was that his vision was starting to blur and get black around the edges.
Turning to leave, he forced his body to move, but after the recent events it was moving the slowest it ever had. He had to use the trees for support as he forced himself to walk. He was several miles from the cottages and that put too much time between him and the old hag getting to Snow White first. Gritting his teeth and further forcing himself to move, he trudged through the Dark Forest. He would go back the way he came, it would be the fastest way, plus once he made it the first enchantment he would be nearly there!
"Come on." He panted as he stopped using the trees for help. "You have to save her. . . You have to protect her. . . You made a promise!"
Despite his own body defying him, he pushed himself and kept going past the cliffs and back to the Dark Forest enchantment. His body screamed at him, his lungs felt clogged, everything was far too dark, and everything was deafening louder than it should have been.
He stumbled over tree roots and kept falling on the trees, but he made it to the first enchantment spot. From there he squinted at the cottages. He could see smoke coming from their own chimney, but the front door was wide open to the Seven's house. Pushing himself off the tree, he had hardly made any progress when he recognized a terribly shade of green and purple hat. It was Dopey, he was pulling his hat over his ear and screaming.
"No." Gravity suddenly increased, and Adam wanted to vomit. "No, no, no."
No longer defiant, his body kicked itself into gear and he ran. He ran faster and faster all the way to the cottages. Dopey was frantically saying something to him, crying all the while.
"Where is she?" Adam demanded as he asked with his hands. "Where is she?"
Crying and practically screaming, he pointed into the house. "Snow White!" Adam called and ducked into the cottage. "Snow White!"
He looked around the living room, nothing. His entire body turned to the kitchen and it felt as though winter finally came and everything froze. There she lay face down, in his favorite dress, the dress she made for him, eyes shut tight and an apple not too far from her hand.
"S-Snow White?" He called and went to her, picking her up in his arms. She was warm, but she wasn't moving. "Snow White?" He whispered and with a shaky hand poked her cheek. She didn't stir.
"Please, my darling." His eyes were hot as his entire hand caressed her cheek. "My love, My Snow White, please wake up. . ."
His voice wobbled and his hands shook as he gingerly and ever so gently petted her head, held her face, moved her so gently but trying to wake her. "No." The first tear fell as he looked at her long lovely eyelashes and those red lips. "No, this wasn't supposed to happen!"
He drew her closer into his arms, hugging her, rubbing her arms. She was still warm, still breathing, but she wasn't waking up! Her head rolled onto his chest, and he pressed his forehead to the top of her curls as his tears fell. Unintentionally he began to rock the already sleeping maiden in his arms, begging, pleading that she wake up.
Time stood still and soon his own screams of mourning joined Dopey's. The clock struck twelve and he heard the shuffling of feet and the "Hi, Ho" sounding in the distance. Not wanting to be seen in a sorry state, nor wanting to worry them any more than they were going to, Adam scooped up Snow White into his arms and held her against his chest before standing and taking her to their cottage. He would lay her in her own bed so she would stay warm and so he could properly explain things with the Dwarves.
His body moved mechanically stiff and it was only by the sheer force of his will power that he was able to do so. His heart ached as it screamed at him with regrets, anger, and just the overall sadness of the situation. She wasn't dead, he could feel her soft breathing and see the rise and falling of her chest, but she wasn't waking up. It was as if she were under a sleeping curse, which knowing how that old hag worked, it wouldn't surprise him.
Upon entering the house Adam half expected her to awaken, and was sorely disappointed when she continued to dream. His eye burned with more tears threatening to fall, but he bit the inside of his lips, ascended the stairs, and entered her room. It smelled of sunshine and the autumn air from the window being open, but it was still warm, as if she had just left. He carefully laid her on her bed, resting her head delicately on the pillow and her feet at the end. He slipped off her shoes, pulled the comforter from the window, and draped it over her. He took a step back and just stared down at her sweet sleeping face.
She had the prettiest lashes, even in a terrifying sleep, and looked so peaceful. He hoped she had happy dreams because he was living a nightmare in reality. He tore his eyes away from her, closed the window to her room, and left her room. As the door clicked behind him he could hear the other Dwarves talking and consoling Dopey. His hands clenched into fists as he descended the stairs and tried to think of what to even remotely say to them. This was all his fault; he had failed to protect her and now she was in a cursed sleep. Exiting the cottage, the Six surrounded the Seventh, trying to get him to calm down, but as soon as Dopey caught sight of Adam, he flung away from his brothers and bolted to Adam. He fell at Adam's feet and held the end of his tattered coat.
"Dopey come back!" His brothers hollered after him.
"Ih'm sovvy!" He cried aloud. "Ih'm sovvy!"
His head dropped and rested against Adam's knees. The realization hit him that Dopey was blaming himself for this. Biting the inside of his mouth so hard he tasted bits of iron, Adam knelt down and wrapped his arms around Dopey. There was nothing he could say that Dopey would hear, but he wanted to convey that this wasn't his fault and that he was not mad at him. If anything he was furious with himself for falling into the trap.
"It's all right. . ." Adam said as he patted the small Dwarf's back. "It's not your fault. . ."
"What the hell is goin' on?" Grumpy roared as he stomped over to Adam. "Why is Dopey crying you -?"
"Grumpy don't!" Doc was close along with the others as they trotted over to meet Adam and Dopey.
Whatever else Grumpy was going to say fell away as Adam looked up at him. Adam wasn't sure what face he was making, he was sure he looked terrible from his battle with Grünes.
"What happened?" Grumpy glared, his hands balling into fists. "Why do you look like you've been to hell and back?"
"What's wrong, Adam?" Doc asked. Happy and the other Dwarves pulled Dopey away from Adam and tried to communicate with him.
"Everything." Adam's hands fell to his sides limply.
"Where's Snow White?" He looked back to the cottage.
"She's sleeping. . ." Adam found a terrible lump to swallow in his throat.
"What?"
"Don't be lying to us, boy!" Grumpy spat. "What's happened?"
"The Evil Queen was here. . ." Adam grimaced in admittance.
"Where were you?" Grumpy pointed a finger as the others gasped.
"I was in a battle with her minion Grünes at the third enchantment point. . ." Adam looked down at his hands. "I was able to get rid of the poisons in me, I think, and I hurried back here, but when I did, Dopey was screaming – for help I think – and when I saw her, she was on the ground. Sleeping."
"Why was she on the ground?" Grumpy's brow furrowed.
"She took a bite of the Evil Queen's poisoned apple. . ." Adam explained.
"How do you know this?" Grumpy squinted suspiciously at him.
"Because the black apple is lying on the floor in your cottage!" Adam snapped. His hands went through his hair and he pulled slightly. "She took a bite of the apple and now she's sleeping, and she won't wake up!"
His eyes were hot, tears wanting to fall.
"Is there a way to undo it?" Doc asked calmly.
"I don't know." Adam shook his head pitifully. "I don't know. She never once told me about this. . . I had no way of knowing. . ."
"Right." Doc nodded his head understandingly and turned to his brothers. "Men, get Dopey into the house, and clean up any mess that's there so he doesn't continue to be in hysterics."
"What are you gonna do?" Grumpy groused and crossed his arms as he looked between Doc and Adam.
"I'm going to see if there's anything we can do." Doc said simply. "Adam, I need you to take me to her."
Wordlessly and very mechanically Adam rose from the ground and led the Dwarf to their cottage. He walked slow enough so Doc would keep up and wasn't surprised in the least when Grumpy tagged along.
The cottage was unnervingly quiet as the three entered the house, and the gravity of everything seemed to weigh heavily on Adam. He took them upstairs and Doc didn't even gasp when he saw Snow White. Adam remained at the doorway and watched as Doc looked her over, making hand gestures and motions as he pulled different examining enchantments to examine her. Grumpy stood outside with Adam. Adam couldn't help but pray and hope that Doc had some sort of answer. However, when Doc sighed it felt as though all hope was lost.
"She's definitely asleep." Doc confirmed as he stepped away from her. "She's under some magic of the Dark Arts too."
"Is there anything you can do?" Adam asked much weaker than he expected.
"'Fraid not." Doc shook his head with a grimace. "We use the Light Arts, if we tried to do anything to wake her up, it could have an ill effect on her."
"Nothin' we can do?" Grumpy asked through gritted teeth.
"Nothin' save do our bests to keep her alive." Doc sighed
.
"What?" Adam blinked.
"We can't do anything to wake her up." Doc restated. "But we can make something for her that will protect her and keep her alive until you can figure out a way to break the curse."
"I don't even know where to begin." Adam raked his hand through his hair as his mind whirled on what to do.
"You can start by tracking that witch down." Grumpy harrumphed as he went to the stairs. "I'll tell the others what we must do. Take care of this one."
"Right." Doc sighed as he looked up at Adam. "Let's get you fixed up."
"I'm fine." Adam said reflexively.
"Have you seen yourself?" Doc asked gently. "If she were to wake up right now, she'd be terrified because you look like you crawled around in Darkness. . ."
Stepping away from Snow White's room, Adam went to the bathroom and saw how truly haggard he looked. He was battered, bruised, and bloodied all over, not to mention the ruined state of his clothes and the ever-present new scars on his body. He had never once had to worry about that before because his body naturally and quickly healed itself. . . this was definitely going to be something to get used to.
"Just take a seat and let me look you over." Doc ordered as he pointed to the edge of the tub. Adam did as he was ordered to do and glared at the floor during his own examination.
"You fought hard." Doc commented as he held Adam's left arm out where jagged daggers tore the skin. "Gonna need stitches here."
"Just do whatever you need to do." Adam sighed.
"You must have actually gotten rid of the poisons in you." Doc spoke gently as he cleaned the wound. "Before now you wouldn't have let any of us get close to you without a ten-foot pole."
"It was necessary." Adam said bluntly.
"Though the princess refused to listen to any of us on that. . ." Doc laughed half-heartedly.
"Oh how I wish she would have. . ." Adam pressed his face into his other hand as Doc began the stitches. The needle pricked his skin and caused him to grit his teeth, but he was glad that the physical pain was enough to momentarily distract himself from the pain in his heart.
"I know you and Dopey are blaming yourselves. . ." Doc said as he kept his eyes trained on the wound. "And I know you're not going to believe me when I say this –"
"Don't you dare say it wasn't my fault." Adam said sharply.
"But it isn't!"
"But it is." Adam hissed. "If I hadn't fought Grünes – "
"You would have either been with her, or off at the next enchantment spot where something even worse could have happened to her." Doc said sternly.
"You're saying this isn't the worst thing that could have happened to her?" Adam looked evenly at Doc.
"Is she dead?" Doc asked simply.
"No."
"Is she hurt?" Doc resumed his stitching of Adam's arm.
"Not that I know of. . ."
"Is she safe?"
"Now, but not when it happened!"
"Are you just going to let her continue to sleep?"
"Of course not!" Adam jerked his arm away from Doc. The needle and thread hung from his arm. "But my being here in this Realm makes this my fault entirely!"
"But you saved her instead of killing her, didn't you?" Doc crossed his arms as he looked at the now stunned Adam.
"You knew?"
"We knew you were dangerous." Doc admitted. "But when you kept coming back and begging us to hide her here, we knew something changed within you."
"So much has changed. . ." He slumped against the wall and Doc picked up his arm again and continued his sewing.
"Yes, yes it has." Doc nodded his head. "And if there's anyone who's going to break her curse, it's you."
Adam looked at him skeptically. "How are you so sure?"
"You broke your own curse, didn't you?" Doc smiled kindly at him. "You'll break hers. And we'll watch over her until you do."
"Curses are never simple."
"Neither is life." Doc tied the knot to the stitches before cleanly cutting away the needle and thread. "The tragedy that has befallen us is no one's fault, Adam." Doc said sternly. "If we were going to pin the blame on anyone it would be all of us equally. The men and I went to work instead of staying here; you went on patrol instead of staying here; Dopey slept in instead of waking up. You fought the enemy and won and took one less obstacle out of the way. There was no way any of us could have anticipated this happening."
Adam's hands balled into fists, "I should have. . ."
"But you didn't." Doc groaned as he stood, his knees popping. "You can't change what has happened, but do your best to change things now."
Adam said nothing in response because Doc was right, though Adam would still continue to blame himself for his failure.
"Now stop blaming yourself and get some rest. . ." Doc sighed and suddenly looked ancient. "The others and I will do our best to get things ready while you rest."
Without looking back, Doc left Adam alone and exited the cottage. Deciding to attempt to listen to Doc, Adam pushed himself up from the edge of the tub and went to his room. The window was open and the room was cold and he saw the pages in his book bouncing back and forth on the gentle wind in the room. With a sigh he went to the window, pulled his comforter from it, closed the window, and placed his hand on the pages to keep them from fluttering.
He glanced down at the words on the page, and the script written on the pages were not his handwriting. It was Snow White's handwriting.
"What in the . . ." He dropped the comforter and stared at the words on the page. His eyes watered as he picked up the book and read.
October 2
Dear Adam,
Please forgive me. I set about cleaning your sheets and your room, like you have asked me not to do several times in the past, and I knocked over your precious journal. I must also apologize for reading it, not all of it, but specifically the entry of September 21. I had not planned on reading any of it, I just wanted to smooth out the pages, but your special mission of keeping me safe caught my eye, and I must admit that I read it.
He wasn't even mad.
Oh, my dear and precious Adam, how much I love and adore thee. You always seem to be looking out for me, seeing things that I try to hide, helping me when I most need it, and always finding some way to make me smile.
Oh the aching in his heart at those words.
I must admit a secret to you, that I have been losing hope recently. I've been worried I've caused too much trouble, and reading your journal only seemed to confirm that; but I can't say that I'm entirely sorry for that. You have made me so happy Adam, I only wish that there was some way I could return the favor for you.
Just waking up would be enough.
I know you've been trying really hard to get rid of your poisons, and though I dared the one kiss and I crave so many more, I've resisted giving you the second kiss because I really really want you to be the one to give it to me. Even if you were to kiss me in my sleep, and I never know of it, I would be ever so happy.
His hand covered his mouth as tears began to slip to the brim of his eyes.
Until the day comes where you and I can finally be together, no matter how long it takes, I promise that I will be waiting for you, Adam. You are the prince who saved me from the terrible world I only ever knew, and I look forward to the future of being by your side with you.
Please don't lose hope. I know things have been tough so far, but I know you will find the answer. You always do. I believe in you, my Adam, I believe that you will overcome whatever tries to get in your way.
Here's to the hopes of our future, and the hopes of my second kiss.
Sincerely with all my love,
Your Snow White.
Off to the write where she had signed her name, there was a small red imprint where she had kissed the page. "Oh, Snow white. . ." He finally released the breath he had been holding and allowed his lips to touch the imprint. His heart ached, but it was not as painful as it was before. He pressed the book to his chest and hugged it tightly. He felt as though he could hold onto a little bit of hope. He would wake her up, he had to.
Author's Note:
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you're enjoying the story!
Please leave a review and tell me what you think.
Thanks for coming along the journey with me! Stay tuned for more!
Ko-fi/SarahtheWriter.
