Chapter 18

Belle's Point of View

It wasn't meant for me to witness. He never intended or suspected that I had woken up from the chemically induced nap he had bestowed upon me with a tainted cup of earl grey tea. I had been in deep, REM sleep for at least for hours when a sound pierced through the fogginess in my brain, stirring me from my slumber. My body ached, my brain struggled to focus on the sound but something in my soul pressed me to get up, to walk shakily to a safe view point of the shop. As I neared the curtain that divided home and business it became unnervingly clear what the noise was - screams. Pleading, young screams. I stood at the curtains edge, tucked in a corner but able to see enough and hear more than enough to make my stomach instantly nauseated. How could he do this? He knew what it was to lose a child, the pain and the agony. Was it not enough he had kept her locked away in two worlds? And now he's given the poor child false hope that she would have a family only to place her under the guardianship of the devil incarnate and in doing so stripping her of the only loving, female figure she's ever known. He was still a monster – he may have been a better Rumple but at the end of the day he still, obviously, was not a different Rumple.

My heart broke at the betrayal of the drowsy drink he had given me, knowing if I had been awake I would've stopped his plot or at least attempted. A portion of guilt flooded my chest as well because…I remembered her. In the other world I had seen her once walking through the dungeon corridor, she was tiny and quiet, her eyes filled with fear and void of hope. Now she was grown, a teenage beauty but those deep blue pools were quickly filling up with the same fear they had overflowed with in the dungeon that day. Too afraid of Rumple's wrath to speak up, I pretended not to see the little girl. I left her helpless to be abused, battered with no way of escape. But I'd be damned if I were to do that again. This was my chance to be a hero instead of a coward.

"Come on darling let's go home." Cora's sickeningly sweet voice sang grabbing Arena by the wrist "I'll be in the clock tower extracting what I'll need to solidify the success of my plan." Her eyes felt to the girl's chest, to the spot where her heart was no doubt beating fast in horror filled realization.

"I'll be there at midnight." He confirmed with a nod before the woman and the distressed young teen disappeared in cloud of red smoke.

I swiftly exited back to the bed, tucking myself in and calming myself down. I knew what I had to do.

"Rumple…" I cooed, voice laced with feigned sleepiness "Rumple where are you?!"

"Darling I'm on my way to you." He answered promptly, a hint of nerves in his voice, in a moment he walked in "Someone was sleepy."

"I suppose getting used to this new world really took it out of me." I forced a yawn, stretching my arms over my head "Now I'm hungry."

"And what does my princess want?" He asked taking my hand in his, pressing a kiss to the top of it.

"Mm…one of Granny's burgers and an order of fries sounds perfect." I grinned making him laugh with a shake of his head.

"You and those greasy contraptions, you know I could magic us anything you wanted – gourmet meals but instead you want those pedestrian burgers of Widow Lucas's." He rolled his eyes playfully.

"Please…" I pouted before sitting up, a gleam in my eye "I'll make it worth your time later..."

"Ah." He answered with an almost shy smirk "in that case let me get my cane."

He stood up with a wink, leaning over to place a light kiss on my lips.

"I'll be back soon, if you need me call and I'll be here in a minute." He promised sincerely "I love you Belle."

"And I you Rumpelstiltskin." I replied honestly, deepening the pain in my heart of what had to be done, of how I was about to betray the love of my life to save a child I didn't even know – a move that would benefit , of all people the evil queen who imprisoned me for the entirety of the curse. But it was the right thing. And it would be done. Period.

Once he was a safe distance away I quickly slipped on a pair of comfortable shoes and slid a heavy sweater over my clothes before taking off out the back door only to realize I had no idea where Regina had gone. How would I find her in time? It was then that my hands lifted to the necklace that I wore, the gift he had given me that I initially thought was a beautiful, extravagance but later one he would explain was enchanted with a locator spell. All I had to do was focus on the object of my desire to locate and it would let me know where I needed to go.

This gift was intended to always keep his location available to me but tonight the gift would be turned weapon against the giver as I began to focus on none other than her Majesty Mills. Within a moment the sapphire jewels began to glow before projecting a picture of a distressed Regina, tears staining her face as she walked intentionally to the bridge, a look of determined depression in her eyes.

"Oh God…" I gasped realizing where she was going, what she was going to do –Arena had become Regina's reason and without her the brunette had lost meaning and was quickly slipping off the edge of sanity.

Grief , of course has a way of pushing us off of the edge we've always teetered on.

I took off running in the direction of the bridge praying Granny's was slow making the burgers so that Rumple didn't arrive home to early because she knew instantly upon his discovering I was gone he would transport to where I was and if he got to her before I got to Regina, all was lost.

With that thought in mind and the image of Arena's fearful expression seared in her mind, I pushed my legs to run faster.

This was not how this story would end.