Chapter 5

All magic comes with a price

(Rumplestiltskin)

Four of them rush into the room, expecting their queen in danger.

"You there!" She points at one of the guards "Bring her to the dungeons and make sure I don't have to see her face again."

She turns to another guard.

"Saddle a horse and head for Snow White's kingdom.

"Your majesty, I don't understand?"

"It's not your place to understand but to obey. I have a message for Snow and her Shepherd husband."

The Queen laughs.

"Let them know I have something of theirs that they probably want back."

xxxx

I have never been to a dungeon before. As a child, I was awfully curious for ours and tried to sneak past the guards there. I never succeeded.

Just like it's impossible to escape from this dungeon.

The place is dark and cold and smelly.

I sit down in a corner and weep against my knees.

She hates me.

She hates me for lying to her.

She hates me for being me.

I cry some more.

My heart feels like it's weight is a heavy rock.

I am upset with where I ended up. More though about Regina hating me.

It saddens me because I care so greatly about what she thinks of me.

I recall how she kissed me, the taste of her skin. The sound of her laughter. The strictness in her voice when she taught me magic.

The rock in my chest crumbles.

I love her. I love her in the same earth shattering way my parents are devoted to each other.

Whatever true love is made off, she's mine.

The dim light in my cell flickers.

Someone's laughter echoes through the dungeon.

The sound is shrill and high-pitched. The poor soul laughs again.

We once ran into an old woman at the market who had lost the clarity of her mind.

The strange laughter sounds resemble hers.

I don't blame anyone for going crazy in here.

I know I am about to lose it myself when I am being called between the laughter.

"Em-ma! Em-ma! Em-ma! Hahaha! Em-ma!"

I press my hands over my ears but somehow the sound gets louder.

It gets louder until I am convinced the voice calling my name is inside my head.

"Hello Emma."

In an attempt to calm myself I start chanting.

"I am not crazy. I am not crazy."

Again and again.

"You can hear me, can't you, Princess?"

I nod.

"Emma, you hear me. Don't you? Hahahaha!"

"Go away."

The voice in my head mocks me by laughing again.

"Can't go anywhere. Can't go anywhere."

I get up from the filthy ground and walk to the metal bars at the front part of my cell.

It's so dark here.

I light up a torch within my sight.

The voice chuckles.

"Light, Light, Light. Darkness can't destroy the darkness. Only light can do that."

"Go away."

"Told you can't go anywhere. Can't go anywhere but stay and wait."

"For what?"

He laughs again. His voice is shrill and thin as if he hasn't used it in a long time.

"You, dearie, I've been waiting for you."

xxxxx

He is insane. I am crazy for listening to his voice in my head.

Rumplestilskin

I believed him to be dead. My parents told me he was executed before I was born.

"Happy Birthday, Emma."

I don't think there is anything to be happy about today.

I am stuck in a dirty hole like a mean criminal.

My parents are miserable because I run away.

The woman I'm in love with hates me.

I doubt things can get worse. Rock bottom has been hit and it smells of foul straw and rat excrements.

"So full of self pity, dearie."

"Stop talking to me."

He mocks me with his hysterical laughter.

"Be still!"

Rumplestiltskin makes some high pitched screams. He claps.

I try to ignore him talking to me but when he mentions Regina, he catches my curiosity.

"She was mad for not being able to cast the curse."

"Why?"

"Regina has a temper when things don't go her way."

I tell him that's not what I meant. I can't understand why she was unable to cast the curse.

From what I've seen, Regina's knowledge on magic is deep.

"The thing she loves most...hahahaha….loves most...hahaha."

She had to sacrifice the heart of the thing she loves most. I learned that much about the curse from the blue fairy.

"Dearie, can't you tell? The thing she loves most is you. Hahaha!"

I fist a bit of dirty straw in my hand.

"Regina hates me."

"Oh Dearie, hahaha. She hates that she loves you."

I don't get a moment of rest for a long time. Since I don't see the slightest glimpse of sky, telling night and day apart is impossible.

Rumplestiltskin's voice in my head won't be still.

He keeps talking and talking as if he hasn't spoken to anyone in forever.

I learn about his prison in my parents' castle.

I hear of magic ink and potion and curses. Rumplestiltskin speaks of a foreign realm without magic.

"Such a place can't exist."

"Sure can, Dearie. Sure can."

Then he asks me to look for his name in my cell.

I am puzzled when indeed I find a small piece of paper behind a loose rock in the wall. The word Rumple is scratched upon it.

He laughs. I can picture spit bursting out his mouth while he does.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, you would understand, Dearie."

I tell him to be quiet. It's exhausting to have his lunatic laughters echoing in my head.

"Tell me, Dearie, do you want out of your prison? I can help you...if you help me."

I try to reason. It clearly doesn't look like the odds are in my favor.

The woman I'm in love with hates me. I don't believe Rumplestiltskin's theory on her loving me back.

I don't want to risk my parents coming here where Regina might harm them.

Why is she so bitter towards them anyway? It's like the past is a puzzle and I am missing too many parts to complete the picture.

"I can bring you to another place. Out of the dungeon. Or you can rot there...til you smell like foul fish."

"What do I have to do?"

"I bring you to another place. In return you promise to do the same for me. Now, tell me, Princess, do we have a deal?"

I have no idea how he expects me to bring him to another place. Still, I nod my head slowly.

"Touch your fingers to my name. Say it. Out loud. Again and again."

"Rumpelstiltskin. Rumpelstiltskin. RUMP-"

The ground starts shaking. A tunnel of red light opens below me and swallows me. Wind spirals around my body, making me dizzy. I fall and fall.

My head unexpectedly bumps against something hard.

Rainbow prisms flacker in front of my eyes.

It's followed by nothing but darkness suffocating me.