The moment I step into the threshold, everything transforms into a cave as I look outside, there's no cornfield and I saw all the people including Teersa waiting for my return. Is that real or magic? What was that?
Rocky and cold as I continue deeper into the cave, the silence is deafening and that bothers me when I hate the quiet. I don't know how that is possible but I could see the huge drawings on the cave as clear as day even though this cave is dark as night, cornfield, the twins, a huge monster coming out of the ground, the wolf but the wolf has a crown above her head. Strange.
I continue investigating the cave as I go deeper, a woman with black short hair, I saw that woman before in my dreams, Regina. Queen Regina burning the cornfield, I felt the sadness the moment I touched that drawing, the screaming and the cries of the twins. I flinched my fingers from the drawings then kept going, the twins with thousands of children followers with cornfield crosses. The wolf is right behind them, and she's bigger than the cornfield. The dark entity attached to the twins, the huge monster is behind the twins as if he's controlling them. She Who Walks Through the Twin Rows. The wolf acts as an anchor for the twins, a good entity trying to free their curse.
I stopped when I went too far and much deeper, completely lost when the drawings stopped. What do they have to do with my family, though?
The machine with two arms pointed at the small white round table, it's still writing whatever it is on the book. I bumped into a leg as I looked down, ahhhh. I heavily sighed at the skeleton, it's three skeletons, only three came out alive. Why weren't they able to leave the cave, I wonder.
The spirits appeared then I stopped to watch the show. A beautiful woman, bright brown and red hair with thicker lips holding the girl with blue eyes, the boy is sitting on the floor playing with something, whatever that is. She's the mother of the twins, I smiled warmly at how affection she is towards them. I wish I could watch more but it's gone, aw man.
The closer I got towards the machine and it turns out the white round is a floor, not a table. I curiously looked at the machine with wires with many wonders how there can be a machine that works. What is it and how does it work?
No. Noooo. I struggled to move out of the circle, stuck. I looked up terrified as it started beaming a sound, shrieking as I covered my eyes when it brightened the room that I couldn't see anymore. Ahhhh, my arm, I fought to pull away when it's doing something to me. Stop! Stop! I passed out from abnormal fear of pain, the girl curled lay in the middle of the circle with a mark on her left wrist. The symbol of the mark exhibits bilateral symmetry with each half spotting two spirals, in milliseconds her eyes opened, bright as blue eyes in the same as the twins.
I can't see!
Why can't I see?!
The panic sets in, panicking and panting as I try to find a way out, no, no! I touched the walls to find an opening but there's none. I repeatedly banged on the stone walls then I burst into tears as I fell onto the ground. Too many memories, I rubbed my head to release the torture of my headaches, too much. Stop! Stop!
Reign
"How about creating a doorway like Jefferson's hat?" Emma offered an idea and Reign is nowhere to be found. The twins are staying in the country mansion with Robin and Alice, and Zelena's daughter is staying with Mal's granddaughter.
It's not going to work, but "there's a door that Zelena created to trap the Queen, remember?"
That came from the Land of Oz spellbook and I don't have it anymore. "There's a spell that creates doors in Oz."
"Get her!"
"She must pay!"
Thousands of Storybrooke citizens in pitches, forks, and fires chasing after Bertha throughout the forest. Emma looked up through the back door, noticing fires and people in the crowd marching through the forest with a warning tone, "Regina!"
Regina followed Emma to see what was going on, the endless forest. I know she'll be protected there, "nothing we can do for a moment, Emma."
"She's going to kill them all, Regina. We have to warn them!"
Mal thought of an idea to safely put Bertha in instead of an endless forest, "the cornfield, Regina."
I angrily shot Mal a look, it's not happening, "no, that's suicide."
Emma puzzledly looks between both of us then Zelena, "is there something wrong?"
Mal took over for Regina when she was deep in thought, worried for her daughter, "she asked me for help to identify different objects that Bertha stored in one of the underground vaults. One of the items; which reads He Who Walks Behind the Rows, has cornfield seeds in it."
Regina furiously shouted at Mal, "I said no!"
Mal sighs trying to encourage her to be reasonable about this, "Regina, she'll be safe there and I tested every magical residue known to men. You had the fairies and many others to test the residue if there's any evil in it."
Emma wondered if it was really that bad, "did you feel any evil, Regina?"
Zelena thought she'll try, "Regina, if there's another way to protect Bertha and our people, we would have done it already. There's no way for us to send her to the Enchanted Forest anymore." Regina permanently closed the getaway to Enchanted Forest and other worlds to keep the people safe from harm from crossing worlds.
"Why can't we use a mirror to send her to Endless Forest?" Emma remembered the time Regina did the same several times.
"It doesn't work like that, Emma. You send someone through a mirror, they will never be able to return," Mal replied for Regina as she quietly looked out through the window, hearing her howling and growling, even from afar, they could hear the fights and cries of the humans.
Emma's phone continued going off, ringing several times, and again for the tenth time from Emmett then Regina got tired of hearing the phone, "Answer your phone!"
"It's Emmett," Emma forces herself to answer the phone and mostly already knows the news about Bertha and the people. Emmett needs help to contain and calm the citizens of Storybrooke before they get themselves killed. Emma lightly touches her shoulder for little encouragement with a soft warning tone, "Regina?"
I would have put her underground, but there's a way out as usual and the prison will not hold her, she's too strong. The hospital is out of the question, I can feel my heartbreaking to put so much on Bertha, my daughter. I barely whisper with such sadness, "do it."
"Where is it and where do we put the seeds?" Emma wondered how to grow cornfield within minutes, but Mal took over, "I'll do it and set it behind my house?"
"No," Regina shook her head; don't want to put kids and the family at risk, "put the cornfield beyond the borders of Storybrooke."
"We can't put it in the Land without Magic, babe."
"My former house is beyond the borders of Storybrooke. It'll be safer to put cornfields there," Zelena knew what she was talking about, so she answered for her.
Regina hates to agree to it, but there wasn't any choice at the moment until we can find the Pensieve device, "Emma, go help Merida and Emmett to warn people," redirected to Mal and Zelena, "go to the vault and set the cornfields there. Make sure there are no roads towards it as well. We cannot risk anyone getting lost on the way there or finding the cornfield." As for me, I'll look for my daughter, "I'll bring her there."
I waved my body, purple smoke, teleporting to the middle of the forest and following the cries and the noises. I heard my wolf whine when someone pinches her skin, the torches of hundreds of people with weapons, including guns. People should know already that guns don't work on her, it'll sore and go through but she wouldn't die anyway. I grabbed one of the man's arms when he was about to throw fire, "leave now before you hurt yourself, young man."
I hovered over the people, creating confusion and mist into the air so they wouldn't see my wolf. One by one, or several by several then order them to leave and guide them back into Storybrooke. Slowly, they started leaving after their stubbornness and arguing with me but I reminded them that I am the Queen and the law of harming my daughter. I cleared the mist within seconds and was surprised to see my huge black growling with her teeth and her mouth bleeding from humans. I scanned around to see how many people died by her bite, it must be over twenty people. I checked to see if there were any wounds on her body, carefully without threatening her. I see burn marks, and some deep wounds but she'll survive.
"Bertha," the kind soft voice with the hope it'll help calm her but sadly, it doesn't when she growls louder. The wolf walked around me, marking me for the attack as I struggled to hold back my tears for the next moment, "please don't, Bertha."
She jumped into the air with her mouth open but I couldn't look at her for what I'm about to do, so I turned my face sideways with tears. My arms stretched out to freeze her, more of my body frozen into the air. I held my magic to keep levitating her into the air instead of falling onto the ground.
I quietly whispered, lightly touching her face, "I'm sorry, baby. I'm so sorry." I relocated both of us to Zelena's former house, the house transformed into a small cabin instead with thousands of cornrows. I scanned for Zelena and Mal before I put Bertha into the cornfield to be sure there wasn't any evil entity residing in the cornfields.
"Maleficent," I spotted her walking out of the cornfield, "anything?"
"I enchanted underground to keep the entity from the cornfields. Zelena used her blood oath and tested the cornfields," shooting Regina a look that there's nothing and everything is clear, but still feels nervous about doing this. I heavily inhaled one last time before I released Bertha as she jumped into the cornfield. Zelena gave me another reassurance that she'll be safe and sound.
He Who Walks Behind the Rows is the deity worshiped by the titular in Children of the Corn, a strict master who demands anyone of a certain age be sacrificed. Randall Flagg is the main force of evil, who assembles a society full of psychos, liars, and murders by going against God. No matter how many times he loses, he'll always try to earn a different outcome. Randall Flagg has lived and done evil under multiple identities, such as a Las Vegas group designed to combat God's representative Mother Abigail in Boulder, Colorado called The Stand. He appears to Mother Abigail and her disciples inside maze-like fields of corn several times and seems to have dominion and control over this area. He even sends an army of weasels to attack Abigail during her waking hours, as she travels to a nearby farm to retrieve chickens to cook, which emerge from the corn and return to it when she faces them down.
Every now and then, Flagg loves a good human sacrifice and becomes a type of anti-God, a malevolent counterpart to the divine. Flagg rises up one of the many possible leaders of the new world, after his defeat, he is seen in the epilogue after nuclear-blast, having been transported at the last second, still alive and looking to be worshipped. He makes one of the appearances as a wizard who wants to kill King Roland and become a King then another as a supernatural being who wants to keep Roland from reaching the Tower so he can claim it for himself and become a God. In each and every incarnation, Flag is always a being who wants to be worshipped.
Emma stopped reading midway with such surprise and now understood why Regina was anxious to do this, but it's too late to form an opinion. "What if he comes back?" Emma looked between the three of them because in every story in the book that Bertha wrote, he always comes back, somehow and someway.
She scammed through the pages and saw a paragraph of connection between The Stand and Children of the Corn. When Stu Redman is having a dream of Mother Abigail and the cornfield, this text appears: "A cloud came over the sun. He began to be afraid. He began to feel that there was something terrible, something worse than plague, fire, or earthquake. Something was in the corn and it was watching him. Something dark was in the corn. He looked, and saw two burning red eyes far back in the shadows, far back in the corn. Those eyes filled him with the paralyzed, hopeless horror that the hen feels for the weasel. Him, he thought. The man with no face. Oh dear God. Oh dear God no."
Meanwhile, in Children of the Corn, this is written "It was coming closer now and he could hear it, pushing through the corn. He could hear it breathing. An ecstasy of superstitious terror seized him. It was coming. The corn on the far side of the clearing had suddenly darkened as if a gigantic shadow had blotted it out. Coming. He Who Walks Behind the Rows. It began to come into the clearing. Burt saw something huge, bulking up to the sky… something green with terrible red eyes the size of footballs. Something that smelled like dried cornhusks years in some dark barn. He began to scream. But he did not scream long."
Bertha added a side note that the descriptions and actions are perfectly identical, but it leaves room that He Who Walks Behind the Rows is just another guise for Flagg. Bertha has been looking for the origin of He Who Walks Behind the Rows for years as the book goes on about him. "She's good," Emma pointed at the book, "she researched and added every story, notes, and every little detail between both of them."
In the last few pages, Bertha made a simple list of Flagg, "listen to this, guys.
"He burned down and killed his adoptive family.
He raped Roland Deschain's mother.
He attempted to murder Roland.
He poisoned the king of Delain and framed it on the king's son.
He destroyed Gilead.
My god, guys, this is a very bad idea. He ..," the list goes on of his evil deeds, "he massacred thousands of people."
Mal took the book to show her the last page, pointing at the bottom, "Bertha went back to Gatlin several times to make sure he didn't return." Emma wasn't confident about this when she looked at the dates, 1963, Gatlin. Jonah, Oklahoma. 1971. Gatlin, Nebraska, 1984, "it reached Chicago?!"
"He's everywhere, Emma," Regina understood the anxious tone behind it and agreed wholeheartedly.
"It stopped spreading during the 2000s," Emma continued reading the dates and where it was located. Regina explained as she pointed to the side note, "people stopped caring about the corn and turned to the world wide web, gaming, and the cellphones. The internet added in Gatlin and she helped to put it on the map and built more towns for them."
Emma read the buildings, the people, and electricity to add into Gatlin, "oh I see, but it doesn't stop a god from taking over the internet, though."
"He can't because Bertha added a block between the cornfields and electricity," Regina turns back several pages to show her additional information of enchantment.
Regma immediately appears in despair and irritated without giving us time to process, shouting at us, "where's Bertha? Enchanted Forest is in trouble!"
"We need her! Mother is in trouble!"
"What happened, Regma?" trying to calm her daughter while hoping she'll help her instead. Regma threw a fit and doesn't have time for this, "where's Bertha?!"
"She's the full-on wolf," Emma replied for Regina when she tried to walk cautiously forward to smooth her daughter, "maybe we can help, tell us what happened?"
"Someone started resurrecting Mother Gothel, Cora came back to Enchanted Forest, Peter Pan, Rumpelstiltskin, the Dark One and the Dark Fairy and …," eyeing her mom."
"Me?"
Emma's puzzled looks between her and Regma, "what do you mean her?"
Regma barely whispers, "I'm sorry," then answers, "Evil Queen is back."
In a huge realization, Zelena stood up at the box that was beaming loudly on the kitchen table, "maybe it's a warning for Bertha."
"You think someone released whoever it was, … not in the box anymore?" Emma looks down at the box when it stops beaming. "Okay, now we need a pensieve device, I mean now!" Emma changes to savior mode.
"Wait, what do you mean you need a Pensieve device? Doesn't Bertha remember anything?" Regma stopped everyone from moving to prepare for their leave.
"Bertha was given a gift from goddess sisters to turn back the clock and it goes with her memories," Regina explains what happened in paradise and the memories along with it. Regina wondered why didn't Grace tell her, "Where're your sisters?"
"Cora killed them," Regma looks down, fighting hard to go back in time to save her sisters, but now Bertha can't help her anymore. Regma whispers when Regina swallows hard in shock, "that's why I have been trying to call for her, but she never shows up."
Zelena and Mal took over for Regina when she became frozen and sat on the couch in the formal living room, "we're going to Oz to receive the spellbook to create a door to Enchanted Forest," Mal redirected to Emma, "Emma, you'll need to gather troops because it won't be easy to take the Pensieve device. Call every deputy who is not on duty then meet us at the Town Hall, but no guns, so go to True Swords shop instead," Zelena kissed the top of Regma's head with the promise to bring back her sisters.
After everyone left, Regina thought hard about how to redeem the Evil Queen then conjured an ink, a feather pen, "Regma, I have something you can do." Regma was glad to do something other than failed missions when Regina continued, "do you know where the Evil Queen is located?"
Regma touched the feather in wonder, never having seen it before, "she has been living in the Dark Castle, alone."
"Emma?"
"Cora reforms her into a statue, mom has been trying to free her but failed because it was too late because she …" into a completely different person.
"Go back to their home, and call for her," Regina puts her arms up when she protests, "wait. I'm not finished."
"I have a spell to free Emma, so don't worry about that. We are going to use Evil Queen to our side," pointing at the ink, "find a way to have her sign this and she'll be frozen for sixty seconds. You'll have to work fast, I'll duplicate my heart then take hers and it'll do the rest."
Emma has been calling every deputy in town to help with Merida while feeling awfully familiar with the term "He Who Walks Behind the Rows," which prompts Merida to refocus on her task. Maleficent knew the exact location to get the seeds hidden underground vault while Zelena took care of the area. Regina conjured an empty heart and magically duplicated and faded when touched with another heart. Regina didn't want Regma to go anywhere since she was distraught and something is different with her caused the mother's intrusion signaling. Regina gave her the ingredients she needed with a promise to return with news and help further as needed.
Sima
My memories were interrupted by the guards as she abruptly looked up when the guards hit several times on my legs and body for attention. He grabbed me by the arm to force me to get up, "the Queen requires your audience."
The two guards pushed me forward, "get moving, peasant."
I forced myself to walk a little faster as I silently growled at myself to control myself. What does the Queen want with me? Thanks to the training with my former master, I know how to respectfully walk properly as if I am royal.
Alice. I don't know why I don't feel fear as people fear her, but I don't, thankfully. I could see the similarity between Zelena and her, very little similarly such as her hair. I refused to bow before her when she ordered the guards to leave to give us privacy.
"Sima of the Dark Kingdom, I bid you welcome."
Her eyes didn't show any genuineness as she spoke those words; even though I remained quiet for I didn't want to give her the power over me. She's been circling around me with curiosity.
"You were very hard to find," pleased to catch me red-handed.
"Where is she, Sima?" levitated me a few inches above the air while choking me. I fought against every ounce of my will to keep silent. She's going to kill her and I can't have anything happen to her no matter what for her fate is tied to mine.
"No one has seen or heard of her and I even asked your so-called friends, their honor is …," couldn't find the words how loyal they are to me when there's hatred for Alice throughout the Enchanted Forest. I smirked happily that the little girl slipped from her fingers while massacring thousands of children every couple of years. There's no one to trust to keep the girl safe when she's of age when Alice killed the last remaining of Mills' bloodline. Regina only lets people believe there's only one bloodline, Emmett's, and not the twins and Bertha for protection.
"Do your worst, your highness," sarcastically with laughter. I can't help wondering what her plan for the future is; bring her brother back or what is it she wants, "what's your plan, Your Highness? Live forever or what is it you're hoping to receive at your end?"
She seems surprised by my bold questions, "I'll make you a deal. Question for a question. First, where is she?!"
I answered as honestly as I can, but I do know my crew is on board looking for another stone. I am assuming she's going to the same path as I am, "what makes you think she's here? I never knew about her."
Her face changed, a puzzling look as she lowered me as I realized she cannot kill me because of my former master. I knew she refused to answer, "you're looking for something, aren't you?"
"Guards!" she magically painfully threw me across the room and into the fireplace. The guards rush back and grab me onto the arms, dragging me back to prison. It was kind of them not to throw me into it, instead, they opened the cage door and let me in. I thought back to the last memory, I don't know how many nights I passed out, touching my tattoo on my left wrist, bilateral symmetry with each half spotting two spirals.
Regina
Regma surprises me in my vault, determined to do something that is dangerous, "mom, I want to go back in time to bring back my sisters."
"Absolutely not! What's the first rule of magic?"
"I don't care! They were …," my responsibility and I was supposed to look out for them, "I failed them! I was supposed to be one step ahead of them." I never thought my grandmother, even though she doesn't hold that title, would actually kill her grandchildren. "Why am I alive, mom? Why them?!"
She dropped, so I grabbed her hard into my arms. I can't imagine what she's going through if I'm being honest with myself. The pain she felt is more than she can bear, I continue comforting her in my arms without a word knowing nothing I can say would help her feel better. There's one thing she can do but only one chance.
"There might be something you can do, however you get one chance to do this right." Regma looks up to me in eagerness, "please mom, we can't let them die. All I need is one chance."
I search for one hidden vial that my mother made, a power booster from extremely rare ingredients. I hid it further and deep for no one can find it if ever I went missing or dead, conjuring the dark black thick vial, "this boosts your power and it lasted exactly ten minutes to get what you need. I hope it's more than you need."
"Why ten minutes?" Regma curiously studied the vial.
"The power it holds is too strong for human and magical alike, even myself."
"I don't understand," utterly confused about what she's supposed to do with this vial, so I took it back from her to begin to explain the plan.
"You listen to me, you get one chance, and this only works once for ten minutes, so practice first without being seen, including yourself. You cannot let you see yourself or it will be chaotic. You still have to make yourself believe they are dead and everybody else."
"What the hell do you mean? I don't understand, mom."
"You have to bring them back in this timeline, right now in my vault instead of my house. You can only catch them one second before Cora while making them believe they are dead."
"That's impossible, mom. I was there and Cora ...," she cannot finish it and I understood. "I don't know why she kept you alive but everything she does is for a reason. The longer you are here, the more suspicious she will become. You have to go back and stay to find out because she'll do more harm than good."
I gave her the vial as I held her hand, "one chance, Regma and you still have to let yourself believe they are dead. You have to send a message to yourself to stay and not come looking for your sisters."
Impossible is the word she's going to use, "you need to go back to find all the players on the board before you make your move, Regma." Regina rechecks to make sure Regma has all the ingredients she needs, pixie dust, good luck charm dust, dwarf's ax especially for freeing Emma with a clone heart that will merge with hers and ink. I repeated all my instructions to make sure Regma knows what she needs to do with the equipment. The last I held back is the darkest potion with a warning because I do not know how her body will react to the enchanted booster.
The phone rang twice, it was time, I tightly embraced Regma for a small encouragement that she can succeed as she teleported out. I answered the phone before Emma started, "I'm coming, Emma." We hung up while I'm gathering my necessaries for Enchanted Forest then relocated to the Town Hall. I was not expecting so many women and men armed and dangerous for war standing outside of the Town Hall. Emma immediately hugged me without a care that people were looking, "Regma?"
Another time as I silently shook my head, "how many men?"
"I tried to get 40 people, but only 27 volunteers," Emma hopelessly shrugged. I lightly touched her upper arm, that's fine, "it's more than we need, Emma." I thanked everyone for volunteering as we walked inside where Mal and Zelena are preparing to create a door to Enchanted Forest. I stopped Emma from following me, "Emma, I need you to stay outside with your men."
I know Emma doesn't like it but I need her to hold the fort while we take care of things. Mal and Zelena already started, chanting and mixing potions in my office, empty, "I see you cleared my office?"
"We should have little changes in this office, greener, and fewer tables and couches," Zelena laughs, teasing her sister when Regina smirks back. "You succeed, sister."
Mal pointed at the book to change the topic between bittering sisters, "it's a complicated spell, Regina."
"The White Queen was kind enough to let us 'borrow' this, if you believe it," Zelena was surprised as well when Regina looked up from the book. Zelena nods in agreement, "I know."
"You didn't steal it?" Regina curiously asks what happened in Oz, and Mal explains the dispute between the three Queens and finally agrees as long as they return the book. Mal continued about the mixing ingredients, "we are missing one."
Taaffeite, Regina knew this crystal, remembering Rumple's lessons, "it's the rarest crystal composed from Beryllium, Magnesium, and Aluminum."
"I don't have those ingredients," Regina looked between Zal and Mal, but they shook their hands, "we don't have it either."
"Rumple always hides valuables in the shop," I am positive he has one, somewhere hopefully. Mal didn't want to wait another day, making a suggestion, "what if we replace the crystal? Specifically, Poudretteite."
Regina remembered while conjuring two crystals in a leather bag, "I believe I have it but what is the weight to equal Taaffeite?" Regina rereads the spell and calculates in her head, "okay … three times the weight … less two pounds?" Regina gave back to Mal to make sure she's right since it must be exact, "1.3 ... under two pounds." Zelena crushed the crystals and weighted it, eyeing both of them to be ready, "everyone stand back." It exploded and slowly mixed itself as Zelena looked at the last part, "it'll be ready within minutes."
Now the serious discussion as I shot her a look, "Where is it, Zelena?" Zelena gave herself a heavy sigh before answering, "the island."
Oh no, not the island, swallowing my throat, angrily shooting her a look again, "you mean ?" The darkest island filled with venereous and malevolent spirits. The most murderous spirits roaming through the island, much worse than a siren island. The men, I pointed to all the men out there, "they all will die!"
"We need as many men as we can for the buffet zone, Regina, or we will not make it through," Zelena tries to convince me to see it through. This will not end well, "were you going to share the room or wait until we reach there to use them?!" Zelena was never going to tell Emma or the men, so I repeated, "they have to know, Zelena!"
"Regina!" I ignored her calling as I left the office to find Emma outside with more men, I saw more men kept coming to join us; which I am thankful for their willingness. I stood in front of them, my people, and I began my speech about the island.
I explain what to expect on the island, "under no circumstance, you think of any person for they will use them to deceive you. Brume Island is filled with dark spirits and a monster living in the seas." I welcome them to leave as they do so and several men didn't want to go through the hard journey.