The door knocker is shaped like an octopus. Two of the tentacles trail lower than the others and intertwine to form a handle. Eric grabs the knocker and taps it against the door three times. Then he waits.
A cold wind is rising in the east. Clouds are gathering at the edge of the sky. A storm is coming. Eric turns up his collar against the wind; it does little to help. He hopes the door will open soon so he can get out of the cold.
Ursula comes to the door half-dressed in a loose black robe. Her dark hair curls wildly around her face. She opens the door only enough to show her face, but not enough to let the outside light filter into her home.
"Come in quickly," she says.
Eric does so. Ursula shuts the door behind him and latches the deadbolt.
"Cautious?" Eric asks, nodding his head toward the lock.
"Something like that," says Ursula.
The inside of her house is dark, darker than it should be. There are windows, but the curtains are drawn in front of them. The walls, the furniture, the curtains, it's all invariably dark. The house almost seems to absorb light, as if some dark enchantment has been cast to keep brightness out. Eric is entranced by the darkness; he feels ineffably drawn to it.
Ursula's voice snaps him out of his reverie. "You've been thinking a lot since our last chat, haven't you, Eric?" she says.
Eric shrugs his shoulders noncommitally.
"We had a deal," she says.
"Nothing official. You just told me to seduce Ariel. It didn't work," he replies.
"You barely even tried," says Ursula venomously, "You backed down at the first sign of rejection! How can you possibly succeed if you give up so easily?"
"How did you know what happened?" asks Eric.
"I have my ways," she replies, tossing her hair over her shoulder.
Eric notices that Ursula's robe has slipped off one of her shoulders. Ursula doesn't.
"You want me to try again," says Eric.
Ursula "tssk"s and steps closer to Eric. She puts a finger beneath his chin and tilts his head to face hers. When she speaks, her voice is syrupy and heavy, like bad perfume.
"That girl was supposed to be yours, Eric. Don't you want her? Don't you want to prove that you're better for her?"
"No," Eric is surprised to hear himself say.
Ursula scowls. She whirls away with a swish of black fabric.
"Then why are you even here?" she says with a snarl.
"Because I've lost her," says Eric.
"That was your own fault! You poor, unfortunate soul. You insist on playing fair, and then you're surprised when you don't win. What did you expect?! With that pirate in town, you never stood a chance at keeping her unless you were willing to fight dirty!" shrieks Ursula.
The cabinets shake and rattle. A glass somewhere nearby explodes. Ursula's eyes look wild and insane; her hair and robe float around her as if she is suspended in water.
"If that's the only way to keep her, I don't want her," says Eric, trying to keep his courage.
"Then what do you want?! You humans are all the same! What is it?! Power, revenge, magic? It's a two way street, honey. Now tell me what you want!"
"Revenge?"
Ursula smiles. The room suddenly becomes still; Ursula's rage has vanished. Eric knows that can't mean anything good for him.
"Who?" asks Ursula, "The girl?"
Eric shakes his head. He can't risk hurting Ariel.
"Fair enough. The heartless little bitch is being punished enough as it is," says Ursula, "Who, then? The pirate?"
"The pirate," says Eric wonderingly.
Does he want to hurt Killian? He's punched the guy in the face once, and that felt pretty good. The stinging scar in Eric's arm makes him itch for some payback.
"The pirate," he says again, more confidently.
"I can do that," Ursula says, "But you have to be willing to meet me halfway. When you're in league with a sea witch, there's no room for hesitation or cowardice. I can see the blood in your eyes, dear; don't deny it. You want revenge, and you want it bloody. Are you prepared for that?"
Eric nods. He says, "But if we harm the pirate, then Ariel..."
"She won't be bothered by it," says Ursula, "The girl's got no heart. She can't feel a thing."
"No heart?" says Eric.
"None at all. I took it in exchange for her legs," says Ursula.
No heart. Ariel's got no heart. It's as if Eric has been looking at everything with blurry vision and someone has just given him glasses. Everything is so much clearer and makes so much more sense. Every little thing she's ever said to him, every time she's left his house instead of spending the night, and every time she's refused to indulge in any romantics: it all makes sense. She's got no heart.
But what about Killian, then? Ariel was definitely lying when she said he was just a friend. They must have known each other before the curse, if he's new in town. Eric wonders how strongly Ariel must have loved the man before the curse is she still does even now. It must take an awful lot to love someone when you haven't got a heart.
"You have Ariel's heart," says Eric.
"Locked away somewhere safe," says Ursula with a wink.
Ursula opens one of the cabinets that had rattled menacingly when she had been in her rage. She pulls out a bottle of wine and two glasses. She fills them both and hands one to Eric.
"The girl was careless. She threw her heart away for a man who had abandoned her, and she paid the price for it. She knew the risks of making a deal with me," says Ursula.
"So you still have it?" asks Eric.
"Of course. Hearts are valuable. I'm not the only one who has them, either. The evil queen - Regina? I know for a fact that she keeps an enormous vault of hearts buried somewhere in town," she says.
"Don't you think Ariel deserves her heart back? She's had to live without it for over thirty years."
"My deals are permanent."
"If you give it back, she'll feel more pain when we hurt her pirate."
"Don't think I don't see what you're doing. You're trying to convince me to give her heart back. You still love the girl."
"I never loved her."
It's a lie. Eric can feel the lie turning sour on his tongue. He swallows some wine to dull the bitterness.
"I feel your pain, Eric," simpers Ursula, "I really do."
She tips back her glass of wine and swallows half of it. A drop of wine trickles down her chin; it almost looks like blood.
"Let me help you," she says.
"How do I know you don't want my heart, too?" asks Eric.
"Oh, Eric, I do. But I'll tell you before I take it. I'll let you know exactly when I'm going to rip it out. And when I do? You'll thank me."
"What do you mean?"
"Having a heart makes you weak. You've let that mermaid toy with you for too long. It's time to fight back." Ursula raises her wine glass in the air. "To power!"
"To power," says Eric bemusedly.
He watches Ursula swallow the last of her wine. She grins like a madwoman as she clutches the stem of the glass with bony fingers and too-long nails.
Killian steps away from the window. Ursula keeps her curtains drawn, so he didn't see much. But he saw enough. If there's one thing that he's now sure of, it's that Ariel's heart is somewhere inside the house.
Does he dare break in now? With Ursula inside, it's a pretty big risk. But being away from Ariel so long has made him impulsive. He has a hook and a sword; he can handle some sea bitch easily. And if the prince who's so taken with Ariel is also inside, then Killian will just have to cut him down, too. The idea is not entirely abhorrent.
Where to start, he wonders? Upstairs? The basement? The latter seems more likely. Being of the sea, the woman will not be overly fond of high places. Killian wonders how large her basement is, and whether it extends to the sea. The ocean is only just across the street.
After circling the house once, Killian finds a wooden door into the cellar. He breaks the lock easily enough with his hook, though he does try to be quiet about it. The steps creak as Killian descends into the cellar.
The walls are stone and black as night. Carved into them, there are images of sea creatures and shells. Some stones are missing from the wall, the space used for storage of myriad potions and magical trinkets. Killian does not want to consider what sort of wicked magics the sea witch has worked within these walls.
Killian can feel the evil crawling up the walls of the cellar. It unnerves him. He knows that he is a villain to many people of this town, but the sea witch is evil beyond anything he has ever contemplated. And she has power beyond belief, too. Killian wonders whether she could beat Regina in a fight.
He steps forward into the darkness of the cellar. He can see the faint outline of the walls ahead. There almost seems to be an eery light coming from beyond a corner. Is Ariel's heart beyond this wall?
He never gets the chance to find out. He hears a wild shriek somewhere to his left, and then he is blasted back against the wall. His head snaps against the rock painfully; his vision blacks out for a moment. When he gathers his senses, he can see someone looming above him in the darkness. With a horrible churning of his gut, he realizes that the sea witch has caught him.
"Ursula," he growls.
She does not speak.
Smoke billows out across the cellar floor. It feels heavy as it envelopes Killian's legs. Then his skin begins to burn. Suddenly, it feels as though someone is ripping the flesh from his legs. He screams out in pain.
"You meddle in things which do not concern you," says Ursula in a deadly calm voice.
He cannot reply. His head is screaming. He might be screaming aloud, too; he's not entirely sure.
Finally, blessedly, the pain stops. The smoke retreats. Killian can swear he hears footsteps somewhere on the other side of the cellar, but Ursula's voice is much closer than that. He dismisses it as the folly of a pain-addled mind.
"Are you going to kill me?" Killian asks.
In the way of answer, he feels a knife slash at his leg. Then Ursula's voice, somewhere near the ground, says, "No. But if I ever see your wretched face again, I will not hesitate to slit your throat. Stay far away from me, and far away from your little mermaid. Her heart belongs to me."
Killian laughs. Pain has made him reckless, for Ursula will almost surely want to cause him more pain for laughing. But he laughs, because Ariel's heart has never belonged to Ursula. When she made her deal, when she got her legs, and for all these years of being cursed, her heart was never Ursula's, even if it lay in her hands. Ever since the moment Ariel and Killian first met, her heart has belonged to him.
The knife slashes at his leg again. Killian does not cry out. He has grown accustomed to the pain, and his head is beginning to swim. What is pain to a man desperately in love?
"Leave. Now," commands Ursula, "The way you came."
Leaning on the wall, Killian rises to his feet. He can feel the blood slithering down his legs. He limps over to the steps and ascends them into the open air. Now that he is free of the crushing darkness of Ursula's cellar, his head clears and the pain sharpens.
Killian looks down at his legs. Blood is flowing freely from the two wounds on his left one, but he can feel worse damage beneath the legs of his pants. He can examine it more clearly once he is away from the sea witch's house.
After ten minutes of limping through the streets of Storybrooke, Killian realizes that he has not been heading towards his ship. In fact, he is only a block away from Ariel's house. He must have come in this direction on pure instinct. It's probably for the best; he doesn't want to patch up his legs alone.
Only after he has rung Ariel's doorbell does he remember his promise not to return without her heart. He wonders whether she will be angry to see him. But the pain in his legs tells him that it is too late to reconsider, that he needs her help more than she needs her heart. Then Ariel opens the door, and he is relieved to see nothing but concern on her face.
"What did you do?" she asks worriedly.
"The sea witch," he says.
He is slumped against the doorframe. After walking so far on his bloodied legs, they can no longer support his weight. Ariel sees that and allows him to sling an arm over her shoulder so she can lead him to the couch.
"I'll get some bandages," she says.
Killian is left alone for a few minutes, bleeding freely all over Ariel's couch cushions. He considers whether it would be worth it to try breaking into Ursula's house again, perhaps waiting this time until he's sure she is not at home.
Ariel returns with a roll of bandages, a bottle of disinfectant, and a dish towel in her hands. She kneels on the floor beside Killian and sets the items on the coffee table.
"You're a fool," she says, looking deep into Killian's eyes.
He can't help but smile. He is in an enormous amount of pain and Ariel is no closer to getting her heart back, but her mere presence is making misery impossible. And he cannot help but think that there was a small measure of adoration in the way she called him a fool.
"I was trying to save your heart," he says.
"You were being an idiot. Taking on the sea witch, I mean really," she says.
"Taking on the sea witch for you. I would do anything for you. You know that, love," he says.
"Stop calling me that."
"What?"
"Love. You don't…I'm not your love."
Killian shakes his head. He reaches out a hand to touch Ariel's cheek.
"Don't you understand?" he says desperately, "You are. Even if you don't have a heart, even if you don't love me, I will always love you. I will do anything for you, Ariel. I –"
He is interrupted by a knock at the door. He lets his hand drop from Ariel's cheek as she gets up to go answer it. He stares up at the ceiling, cursing his inability to say those three words sooner.
"Eric, I'm a little busy right now," he hears Ariel say.
Killian sits up straighter so he can see over to the entryway. Eric is standing there, looking disheveled but happy. Killian glares at the man. He wonders what he was just doing at Ursula's to put him in such high spirits.
"I have something for you," Eric says to Ariel.
"Now really isn't a good time," she protests.
Eric disregards her words. He pushes a small, leather bag into her hands. Ariel looks at it in confusion. Killian catches on a second before she does. And he hates Eric for achieving what he couldn't.
Ariel opens the drawstrings of the bag and peers inside. She gasps.
"Your heart," says Eric proudly.
Ariel looks up at him. She smiles. "Thank you. Really, thank you, Eric."
Eric nods. Killian can see in the way he smiles at Ariel that the man really does adore her. Happy as Killian is that Ariel has her heart back, he can't help but resent the man who got it for her.
Ariel gestures for Eric to come into the house. They come over to the couch, near Killian. Ariel holds her heart gingerly in her hands; she looks at it as if it is made of gold. To Killian, it is.
"May I?" asks Eric.
He is holding his hand out. Killian realizes that Eric wants to be the one to put it back in Ariel's chest.
Ariel shakes her head. She turns to Killian. She doesn't ask him out loud, but the question is in her eyes. She holds the heart out to him.
Killian swings his legs off of the couch. With a grunt, he brings himself to his feet.
"Do you trust me?" he asks Ariel.
She nods.
"Are you sure? If I – if I mess it up somehow –"
"Shut up and do it," she says.
She means to sound resilient, but Killian can hear the fear in her voice. She has gone over thirty years without her heart. The thing is as foreign to her as the heart of a stranger. He would be scared too, if he were her.
He takes the heart from Ariel. He pulls it out of the leather bag and lets it sit in his hand for a moment. He looks at the spot on Ariel's chest where it ought to go, just above the top of her tanktop.
Killian pushes the heart forward, through Ariel's flesh, and into her chest. He does not waver, does not stop, does not hesitate. If he does, Ariel's heart will surely not survive. And that would kill them both.
He feels Ariel's heart lock into place, as though it has found where it belongs in her body. Killian's hand lingers for a second, afraid to let go, but then he pulls his hand out just as quickly as it went in. Ariel gasps aloud. Her knees buckle, and she grabs hold of Killian for support.
"Ariel?!" he says.
Her eyes close as she regains her strength. She takes several deep breaths. Her grip on Killian's arms lightens. Then she straightens and opens her eyes.
"Ariel," says Killian again.
"Killian," she replies.
She is looking at him so differently than she did a few minutes ago. This is the gaze of the mermaid he knew thirty years ago. These are the eyes of the woman he loved more than life itself, so bright and green and lovingly alive.
"How do you feel?" Killian asks.
"I feel…I feel…" she trails off, and then it hits her. "I feel!"
She raises a hand to trace Killian's jaw. She smiles; he has never seen a sight more lovely. She laughs aloud from joy, and then she steps forward and kisses Killian.
Eric clears his throat. Ariel jumps back and laughs.
"Sorry," she says.
"It's fine," Eric says.
"Thank you, really," she says.
"I was happy to do it," he replies, "Ursula was distracted. It was easy to get in and steal your heart. She probably doesn't even know yet that it's gone."
"What about when she realizes? She'll know you took it," she says.
Eric shrugs. He simply smiles at Ariel, clearly enjoying seeing her so whole for the first time.
Killian slumps back down to the couch. He had summoned the strength to remain standing long enough to restore Ariel's heart, but that strength has gone. The pain in his legs has returned in full force.
"Killian!" exclaims Ariel.
"I'm fine, love," he says, wincing.
Ariel settles on the couch next to him and places a hand on his arm.
"You're not. Ursula will pay for this," she says.
"The sea witch doesn't matter now. You have your heart back," says Killian.
"You're wrong," says Ariel, "She'll know who took my heart. And she'll want revenge. I'm not about to let her hurt either one of you."
"What are you suggesting?" asks Eric.
"I'm going to kill Ursula," says Ariel.
For a moment, Killian thinks she is kidding. But one look in Ariel's eyes tells him she is completely serious. She may have her heart back, but Ariel is not the same woman Killian knew thirty years ago.