Chapter 25

Choosing Sides

(Daniella's POV)

In the hour we spent at the shops, we've bought some clothes, stationary and books for my new room. Mother decided to go shopping for the rest later since Henry needed to be picked up.

As the car slowed down to a stop, I glanced out of the window to see a building behind gates on the other side of the road. So, this is what a school looks like in this realm.

When we got out of the car, I heard a bell ring through the school grounds. "That's the school bell. It signifies the beginning or end of time periods and lessons. In this case, it's notifying everyone that it's the end of school."

I nodded and walked to the school gates, following my mother's steps. We waited at the entrance, next to a tall oak tree. As I watched numerous kids swarm out of the school and through the gates, I stood a little closer to my mother. I recognised some of the kids. Amidst the crowd, I saw Grace, Hansel, Gretel and Eliza. Seeing them in this realm felt so strange but luckily, I didn't have to interact with them since everyone seemed to be avoiding walking in our direction. That is, everyone except one boy.

The boy is a little taller than me. He has chestnut brown hair, brown eyes and a little dimple on his face. He was wearing a checked red shirt, light blue jeans and was carrying a green backpack. When he approached us, he frowned. He looked at me before saying slowly, "Mom, who's this?"

Mother put her hand onto my back and replied, "This is Daniella. Your sister. She was in a coma in the hospital, remember?"

Henry's mouth fell open. Then, he blurted, "Wha- how is that possible? How did she wake up?"

I wanted to answer but mother quickly replied, "Sometimes coma patient's wake up at completely unexpected times due to unknown reasons. It's not unusual. Now...you should probably welcome your sister and say hi, shouldn't you?"

Henry looked at me with a calculating expression. Then, he quietly muttered, "Hey."

"Hey."

Mother took her hand off my back. Then, she started walking away towards the car. "Let's get something to eat from Granny's, hmm? You two can get to know each other whilst eating."

Henry barely contained a smile. Food from Granny's must be pretty good then.

When we arrived at Granny's Diner, it reminded me of the village tavern. However, the table spaces were much cleaner and spacious. Moments after we sat down, a girl wearing a very revealing red outfit came over and asked for our order. Henry immediately replied with a hot cocoa with cinnamon. I, however, was hanging on an awkward silence when the waitress asked me what I wanted. I didn't know what foods there were in this realm so I threw my mother a look. She seemed to understood my struggle for she ordered an apple crumble for me.

After the waitress left, Henry turned to me and asked quietly, "You like apples?"

I frowned at Henry's tone and replied, "Since when were apples a threat?"

"It's just, no one but mom and you seem to like them in this town."

I shrugged and looked at my mother to see her sport an indifferent expression. Then, she asked Henry, "How was school?"

"Good."

"What did you learn about today?"

I waited for my brother to answer the question. Let's hope that education in this realm is similar to the Enchanted Forest. I have a feeling that Mother will send me to school here soon...which means that I'm probably just going to feel like the odd one out again.

"Ms Blanchard taught us about the food chain in science."

I frowned. Science? Back in our land, it was something weird and foreign. Dangerous even. Some say that science is more powerful than magic. But nothing is more powerful than magic right?

I watched mother nod before saying to Henry and I, "You two should open up to each other a little bit more."

Henry looked at me awkwardly but before he could reply, the waitress came back with our food. She set down Henry's drink and my apple crumble before quickly padding off again.

Mother spoke again, "After you finish, we can take a walk around Storybrooke. I'm sure Daniella would like to have a look around the town since she's been stuck in a coma for so long."

At these words, Henry immediately asked me, "How long have you been in a coma for?"

I felt my heart hammer. I couldn't say that I've been asleep for 28 years! That would make no sense. Besides, it'll just be proving that the curse is real...which is not want mother wants me to do. Quickly, I lied, "Long enough to make me forget things."

Henry snipped back, "That doesn't make sense. How old are you?"

Slowly, I replied, "Umm, the same age as you."

"But then, Mom would have had two babies in the household at the same time." Then, Henry glanced at mother and narrowed his eyes at her. Surprisingly, Mother didn't flinch as she calmly replied, "What are you implying, Henry?"

"I'm saying that the curse is real, and you were the one who've cursed everybody."

"Henry! Please, not now."

"Well then how do you explain Daniella's age? Surely I would have realised that you've raised me with a sibling."

I watched mother carefully as she answered, "There were complications." Well, that's kinda true...

"Like what?"

"I had to give up Daniella when she was a year old."

"Why?"

Mother glanced at me and answered Henry, "Doesn't matter why. Come on, let's not talk about this."

"But-"

"Henry!" Mother said sternly. I nervously glanced around me to see that half of the diner had turned their heads and were looking towards us. When they caught my gaze, they resumed whatever they were doing as if nothing happened.

After that, we ate in silence.

(Henry's POV, the next morning)

I wish I hadn't gotten my real mom to burn those pages that contained the Evil Queen's story. Now, there's nothing I know about Daniella. I mean, I'm assuming that she's awake too, but I still need solid proof of that. I want to get her to admit it but it's hard to do so with mom always hovering over her. However, when she announced that she was going to the sheriff station to see Emma this morning, I grinned.

"Alright, I don't want you two to get up to any trouble. Especially you-Henry. I've told Daniella to make sure that you stay put."

I nodded. For once, I will stay put. Because I need to ask Daniella a few questions.

When mom left, I read through my book again. Then, I padded over to Daniella's bedroom and knocked on her door. "Uh, Dani?"

The door opened and Daniella looked at me weirdly. I frowned. "What? Hasn't anyone called you that before?"

"Um, not really..." There was a pause before she asked, "What is it?"

"Mom said that we should talk more...so here I am."

I saw Daniella let go of a breath that she had been holding. Then, she smiled and replied, "Alright." Moving aside, she let me into her room. She sat down on the bed and gestured for me to take a seat. She was the first to speak.

"Right, um, let's make this as weird as possible should we? Start with your full name, interests, um, I don't know...anything else you want to add."

I couldn't help but chuckle a little at Daniella's way of 'getting to know one another'. But, I answered nonetheless. "I'm Henry Daniel Mills. I like superheroes and reading comic books. I'm terrible at maths, people say that I'm quiet and a little crazy but yeah. That's me. How about you?"

"I'm Daniella Mills. I like horse riding and practising m-..." There was a pause before she restated, "I like horse riding, I'm also terrible at maths, and people also say that I'm quiet."

I frowned. "You know, I've actually never asked about my middle name. I'm guessing that it must have some importance to mom since you're named Daniella."

"Daniel was my father's name."

"Oh...Wait, was?"

"He's dead."

I watched Daniella clench her fists together. Then, I replied, "I'm, uh, sorry. Who was your dad anyway?"

"Who?"

"Yeah, like, what did he do?"

Quietly, Daniella replied, "He worked with horses."

I widened my eyes as I breathed, "The stableboy!"

Daniella frowned. "I'm sorry, what?"

I now watched Daniella's expression carefully as I continued my train of thought quietly, "That means...you're not the King's, you're not Snow's sister."

Daniella was trying to mask an emotion from showing on her face but I saw that she was struggling. Unlike mom, she's not that good at concealing things afterall. "Henry, what are you talking about?"

I grinned, "Oh, you know exactly what I'm talking about." I paused. I needed to tread carefully. Since Daniella had no blood relation to Snow, she's probably on the Evil Queen's side which means...that she won't easily give in to revealing anything.

Daniella looked down and mumbled, "You think that I'm a character from that book of yours."

"I don't think it. I know it."

Daniella looked annoyed. "Henry..." Then, she gave a sigh and said softly, "I'll tell Mama that you were talking about your book again if you keep insisting that I'm a character from your stories."

I grumbled under my breath before storming out, "Fine. You're on her side."

After mother had picked up Henry from Dr Hopper's office, we were on our way home until her phone rang.

"Henry, can you please answer that for me?"

I was sitting at the back with Henry so I passed my mother's handbag towards him. In the car mirror above me, I saw him retrieve something small out of the bag. He flipped it open and held it to his ear. "Henry Mills speaking."

There was silence until Henry spoke again, "Alright. I'll tell her. Bye." Then, he put down the phone. "It's someone from emergency services. One of the mines have collapsed and there's chaos down at the site right now."

Immediately, mother parked the car on the side of the street and turned her head around, "Pass me my phone."

Henry did so, and after mother called back, we were heading towards the mines.

When we got there, there was indeed, chaos. Before getting out of the car, mother spoke sternly to us, "Stay inside. I won't be too long, hopefully." Then, Henry and I were left alone.

We shuffled to the left, where we could see what was happening from the car windows. After a second, Henry exclaimed, "Oh, look! There's Emma."

I turned to face him, "Mama told us to stay inside...Henry!"

My brother didn't listen to me. He opened the car door on the right and exited. I grunted. Well, I guess I'm out too.

Henry ran towards his birth mother but I wormed my way through the crowd instead, in order to hear my mother speak to the people.

"Please, step back. All of you, step back. People of Storybrooke, don't be alarmed. We've always known that this area was honeycombed with old mining tunnels but fear not. I'm going to undertake a project to make this area safe, to rehabilitate it for city use. We will bulldoze it, collapse it and pave it."

Suddenly, Henry ran out towards mother as he shouted, "Pave it? What if there's something down there?"

The crowd began to whisper amongst themselves so I squeezed through and made my way towards Henry. Mother looked down at both of us and whispered, "What are you both doing here? I told you to stay in the car!"

Quickly, I replied, "I was following Henry."

Henry looked at me and narrowed his eyes. Then, he turned back to our mother and whilst pointing towards the mine, whispered, "What's down there?"

Mother immediately replied, "Nothing. Now, you two...go back to the car."

I turned to walk away but I noticed something glimmer on the ground. I picked it up and saw that it was an irregular piece of glass. It was thick, and slightly jade coloured just like...the glass from Snow's coffin!

Henry peered over my shoulder, "What's that?"

I closed my palm and frowned. "What?"

"That thing. The thing you are holding in your hand."

Luckily, I didn't have to show Henry for mother stepped around me and extended her hand. I gave it to her, without revealing what it was and she quickly pocketed it. Then, she threw me a subtle worried gaze before stalking off.

Next to the car, I saw Emma stand there, as if she was waiting to talk to Henry. My brother ran towards her, leaving me trudging slowly behind. This was the first time that I've met Emma in person and I have to say, Henry doesn't really look like her. Actually, Emma doesn't look like her parents either. Snow and her Prince both have brown hair, not blonde. I frowned a little as I tried to pinpoint the genetics that could have resulted in her hair colour. From the royal portraits that hung in forgotten parts of the palace back home, Queen Eva and the King didn't possess light coloured hair either.

I wiped the frown off my face as I approached Emma. Henry must have told her who I was for she looked in my direction. "Hey kid."

I refused to smile at the daughter of Snow White. However, I replied out of courtesy, "Hey."

"You know, you look the hell like your mother...a mini Regina perhaps."

Well, she isn't the first to say that. I snipped back, "I would look like my father too, if he wasn't dead."

I put an emphasis on the last word and Emma seemed to be a little fazed by my reply. However, Henry spoke up before Emma could say anything. "Emma, we can't let her do this. What if there's something down there?"

I sighed. "Henry, there's probably nothing down there. They're just some old tunnels."

Emma crossed her arms and glanced at me before saying, "I agree with Daniella. They're nothing but old mines."

Henry wasn't giving up. "Old mines that just happen to collapse right after you got here? You're changing things, you're weakening the curse!"

Now, I was paying close attention to the conversation between Emma and Henry.

Emma sighed. "No, that's not what's happening."

"Yes it is! Did you do anything different today? Something made this happen...and you know what did."

Emma instantly drew her hand towards the sheriff badge that she wore on her leather jacket. She was elected as the town's new sheriff today. In the morning, mother attended a debate between Sidney Glass and Emma. To her disappointment, the town wanted Emma to be in charge.

My thoughts were broken up when mother came towards us with a glare in Emma's direction. "Sheriff Swan, do your job."

Emma grunted and walked away after giving a small smile to Henry. Then, we both got into the car as if mother's gaze was literally pushing us in. However, mother remained outside to talk to Doctor Hopper who had just walked past.

Henry quietly whispered, "Daniella?"

"What?"

"What was that on the ground?"

I exhaled. "It was just a piece of glass."

"If it was just a piece of glass, why did mom take it from you?"

I shrugged. "Don't they always say to stay away from broken glass 'cos it might cut you'?"

Henry crossed his arms and leaned back into the seat. Outside, I heard my mother seeth towards Doctor Hopper in a low voice, "Sometimes, I think you've forgotten. You work for me. You're an employee and I can fire you. This is my town. You will lose your office, lose your house. I can cut you down to a size until you're a tiny shrunken little creature and this...will be the only roof over your damn head."

I widened my eyes a little. I haven't heard that voice in a long time. My heart started to beat faster as the Doctor replied, "What would you have me do?"

"I want you to take that delusion out of my son's head, and crush it."

*The next day

As soon as mother's car had turned out of the driveway, I heard Henry running towards my room. He poked his head into the doorway. "Hey. Do you wanna go out for a walk with me?"

I put down the book that I was reading. "A walk?"

"Yeah."

"But-"

"I know Mom told us to stay here. But I'm bored, and I wanna go outside. Mom trusts you. If you come with me, it'll be fine."

I exhaled. "The reason why Mama trusts me is because I don't run off like you do. So no, I won't go out with you."

Henry dropped his hopeful expression and sighed. "Fine. I'll got out by myself then." In a flash, he was running down the stairs. Then, I heard the door slam and I quickly padded over to the window. Looking out, I saw Henry run through the pathway and out onto the street with his backpack swaying on his back. I felt an uncomfortable feeling sit in my stomach. I looked side to side and grabbed my jacket whilst cursing under my breath. Alright, but only this time, little brother.

I ran down the street and quickly caught up with Henry since he slowed down to wait for me. As I approached him, he commented, "I thought you were too goody-two-shoed to come out with me."

I smirked. "Since when did you think I was good?"

Henry smiled and answered, "True. You're the Evil Queen's daughter."

I sighed but gave no response as Henry started jogging down the street. I followed him, feeling the cool breeze rush through my hair. It was a Saturday morning so the neighbourhood was very quite. After perhaps half an hour of walking and jogging, we reached the town centre. "Where are we going?"

Henry replied ambiguously, "Somewhere."

"Fine."

I was expecting us to stop at someplace in Main Street. However, Henry kept walking out of the town centre. I huffed and followed him. We spoke little, except for a few random conversations that thankfully did not involve Henry's book of fairytales.

"Henry! Seriously though, where are we going?"

"You'll see."

"Henry-"

He turned around to face me and said, "Come on, we've still got a bit of walking to go."

I groaned. "Can't we catch the bus? We've probably been walking for more than an hour already!"

"Please Daniiiiii, I promise, we're going to someplace um, exciting."

I reluctantly followed Henry without a word. We walked out of town and onto roads that wound around trees of the forest. To my relief, Henry breathed, "We're close now...we're close."

As I walked along the road, I couldn't help but feel as if I've been here before. Or at least, passed this area by car. Wait a second...

"We're here!" Henry exclaimed as he ran down the dusty rubble. I looked at the mining site and my breath stopped. "Henry, why are we here? Mother said that this area is dangerous; it might explode at any minute!"

"No it won't. Come on, Dani!"

I sighed and ran down the hill. When I approached Henry, I narrowed my eyes at him and demanded, "Why did you come here?"

"I did some research last night. And if I'm not wrong, the thing that you picked up from the ground here, was a glass shard from Snow's coffin. So-"

I cut him off. "How do you know that it was a piece of glass? Mama took it from me before I could figure out what it was..."

"I took it from Mom."

I frowned, "When?"

"Last night when she was showering."

"Sneaky. Didn't she realise though?"

"No. She didn't. She probably thinks it's still in her coat pocket."

I crossed my arms and looked at Henry with evaluating eyes. He responded, "What?" However, he didn't leave me time to reply since he started sprinting into the entrance of the mine. For a second, I stood there shocked before shouting, "Henry!...Henry! Please, don't make me come in with you."

An echoed voice answered me, "Are you too scared to come in?"

I huffed and shouted, "No. Of course not." Then, I took a deep breath and went into the dark mines. Well, it wasn't too dark afterall for Henry was shining his torchlight right into my face when I walked in. "Please point that thing away from me," I spluttered.

"Right, sorry," Henry quickly said as he shone his torch away from my direction and towards the path. "Ok, so, let's go in then."

"Henry-"

He didn't listen to me so with another sigh, I followed him deeper into the tunnel. After a minute of walking, he started to mutter, "It has to be in here somewhere. It has to be."

I frowned. "What?"

"The coffin."

I gave up convincing him otherwise. He wouldn't listen anyway..."Henry, I want to go back up now."

"Just a few more minutes, then we'll go back."

I gave no reply and followed him deeper into the darkness. I looked down and tried to concentrate at my footsteps instead of the dark rock walls surrounding me. For several minutes, the only sound was the crunch of stone and gravel beneath our feet.

"Henry-"

He turned around to face me. I saw that he had a strong determined expression on his face. I lowered my voice and stated truthfully, "I don't wanna be squished down here."

Henry opened his mouth to answer but I continued, "I don't know about you, maybe you just haven't looked at death in the face before...but I have. And it's not fun, to not know whether or not you'll see people you love again."

Henry dropped his determined expression a little and quietly whispered, "Are you talking about your coma?"

"Maybe."

"What happened?"

I looked at the darkness in front of us before answering, "There was something wrong with my chest. My heart shut down and I fell into an unconscious state."

"So a heart attack?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know what caused it?"

Quickly, I lied, "No." Well, it was caused by a death spell an assassin threw at me. And that assassin happened to be hired by your blood-related grandfather.

"What happened next?"

"Well, everyone panicked. The funny thing is, even though I couldn't respond to Mama's voice, even though I couldn't move...I was still able to hear what was happening around me."

Henry remained quiet, but I could tell that he was listening intently. I continued, "That's when I fell into a coma. I was still semi-conscious but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't move my limbs. That's probably one of the closest times I've been to death."

"One of the closest? Have there been other times?!"

I chuckled slightly. I thought about all the instances when I could have died. The King wanted to kill me when he found out that I wasn't his, the arrow fired by Snow that was meant for my mother hit me, I could have been executed along with my mother when we were captured by Snow's army, and of course the final assassination attempt that put me into a coma.

"Daniella?"

I simply answered, "You should be grateful about the life you've lived. As far as I know, you've grown up with mother am I correct?"

"Yeah...but she's not my real Mom."

"But you've had someone love you for your whole life."

"And you haven't?"

I looked away, afraid that I'll slip up again.

"Dani?"

Suddenly, numb feelings of jealousy rushed into me. Henry has been with Mama for all his life and he isn't even grateful for that! He's been living in a safe town, under proper parental care, in comfort...and yet he's still looking for more. I glared at Henry but when I saw his concerned eyes look back at me, I softened my gaze.

He's my brother, adopted...but still. I shouldn't be envious of him. He has made Mother happy, when I wasn't able to be with her. My thoughts seemed to crash onto me at once. In an instant, I didn't know how to feel or how to react. Instead, I let silent tears run down my face. Seriously?! Not now, Daniella!

"Dani, you ok?"

I sniffled and walked in the direction that we were heading towards. Then, I mumbled, "Didn't you want to find your proof?"

"Yeah...but you're crying."

"No I'm not."

Henry walked up to me and gave me a hug. Maybe he did care...

I exhaled and whispered, "Thanks, little bro'"

"Little?"

Henry didn't say anything but I could tell that he was doing the maths in his head. If his calculations were correct, then he should be happy...for I just gave him proof of the curse.

"Do you want to go back and wait for me? I'll be quick."

I shook my head. "I'm not gonna leave you here alone in the mines, even though you've dragged me into this expedition of yours."

Henry gave me a small smile, "Thanks Dani." Then, he grabbed my hand and we both begun to walk again, further into the musty mines. The air around us started to feel thicker and more constricting.

Soon, we came out of the tight tunnels and into an open space. It was still very dark inside, but when Henry shone his light around the space before us, we both gasped. There were tiny warm glimmers embedded among the rock walls. Henry was the first to speak, "Well, I guess we're in the heart of the mines."

I nodded but something else took my breath away. I took Henry's torch from his hands and shone it towards a long cylinder-like object that lay on top of a large rock a few metres away from us. "Hey! Dani-" Henry paused mid-sentence and followed my line of sight. Then, we looked at each other before walking cautiously towards the object. When we got close, I realised that the cylinder was actually a thick tree trunk. Resting on top of it however, was a dusty glass cover. Henry took the torch and when he shone his light directly onto the glass, our breaths were knocked out of our bodies.

"Look's like you've found what you were looking for, Henry."