I lied down on a hospital bed staring up at the ceiling, once again, having nothing to do. I rolled my eyes multiple times and sighed. Eventually I got bored enough to play chess with a patient named Cole who had fallen down stairs. He was probably in his early twenties with brown hair. I randomly moved my pieces to the places he said I could move them. He offered many times to actually teach me how to play put I didn't really want know how.
"You can move here." He offered. He pointed to the spot and then a few others. "Or here, here or here." I looked at the spots he pointed to and moved the horse piece to wherever my fingers went first. He immediately moved a piece to replace the horse and put it in line with the other pieces he'd caught.
"You tricked me." I said. He shook his head.
"No I didn't." He moved the pieces back to where they were and demonstrated. "You could've moved you knight here-"
"The horse is called a knight?" I really have no idea how to play this. He squinted at me.
"Yes, and you could've moved it here leaving me only one space here. Then you could have moved your queen here and captured my queen." I stared blankly at the board without actually registering what he was saying.
"And that's good?" I asked. He laughed and nodded.
"Yes." He explained. I shrugged.
"Okay, then I want to do that instead."
"You can't change your move."
"Why not?" He breathed in and looked at the board then slowly he nodded.
"Fine if you really feel like you want to go there instead." He said. I nodded and he left the pieces the way he moved when he was demonstrating it. "You sure?" He asked.
"Yeah, why not?" I replied. He smirked.
"Because." He moved his pointed piece near my king. I looked at him then back at the board.
"I don't get it." I said. He laughed again.
"I just won." He said. I rolled my eyes not understanding a thing about chess. He blow out and ran his fingers through his hair revealing a stitched spot that I hadn't noticed before. "Well you didn't really know how to play anyway."
"No, and I don't plan to know any time soon." I helped him pack up the chess board as Charlotte walked up to me. "Let me guess. I have to stay here for tonight." She smiled.
"No, you can go home as soon as you mothe- uh Felicity comes to get you. Just take this," She handed me a bottle of medicine, "Once a day. And make sure you rest. And light work only, if at all." She noticed Cole and offered to put the board back. He handed it over and Charlotte walked away.
"I have to stay here today and tomorrow then they'll let me go." Cole explained. I looked at him shocked.
"How long have you been here?" I asked him.
"Two days. They would have let me go home yesterday but I did more than break my leg." He said.
"You broke your leg?" I asked.
"Didn't I tell you that?"
"We haven't been playing for that long." I pointed out. "Well, bye." I said and headed toward the door.
"Whoa, where are you going?" He asked. I shrugged.
"Home." I said.
"Doesn't your mom have to pick you up?" He said putting his hand in front of me. I pushed his hand away.
"No." I replied. He looked at me suspiciously. I walked through the door and back to the house. Just the look at the colorless walls made me want to get out of there. And that's exactly what I did. I walked around a bit trying to decide where to go. I didn't have very long until the numbness wore off. I was going to walk to the sheriff station but I didn't think Graham would be too happy to see me. I walked to Henry's castle and sat there for a while until Henry walked up to me.
"Hi." He said as he climbed up to sit next to me.
"Hey." I said. "Where's your mom?" I asked. He recoiled a bit. I forgot that Henry didn't really like talking about Regina. But the question was out there and I couldn't take it back.
"She had to go take care of business." I looked at him suspiciously.
"So are you sure she's the evil queen?" I asked him. He nodded and took his backpack off.
"I'm positive." He got the book out and flipped through the first pages until he saw a picture of the evil queen. The thing was. It did look a lot like Regina. What am I thinking? This is crazy! I nodded.
"Then who are you?" I asked.
"Oh I'm not in here because I was born here." My side started to hurt a bit but I was curious.
"So they stopped writing after the curse?" Henry nodded. My head was spinning. This was all just a bunch of hooey. How did Henry even think this all up? Something told me it was a mystery no one would be able to solve.
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Rumpelstiltskin had just finished destroying a flock of sheep and was ready to move onto terrorizing -and possibly killing- a village. With a wave of his hand he disappeared. I saw my chance and put down the mirror I was looking at to see him. I quickly picked up the bag of supplies. I figured it was now or never. I opened up the door of his castle and stepped outside. I had always thought that he had set magic here to know if I had escaped but he didn't suddenly show up to stop me. I took that as an okay sign to keep walking and that's what I did. Walking at first but then running as I got more confident he hadn't noticed. I shot backward as if I was being pulled. My hands were chained together, as well as my feet. One they linked together to form on collar for my neck. Rumpelstiltskin had found me.
"I'm glad to see your ready for another trip to the village, but I think I like you better in chains." He said giving the chain a hard yank to get me on my feet. My whole body was being pulled back and up again. He purposely let go before I could stand up all the way sending me falling back to the ground. Pain shot through my lip and I tasted blood. "Unfortunately, we'll have to take a detour to another place." I slowly got to my feet accompanied by another yank on the chains. There was a rustling in the forest. Rumpelstiltskin used magic to tie me to a tree as a woman walked up to him.
"Hello Rumpelstiltskin." She said. Even though she used polite words her voice was full of the same untrustworthy and evil voice as Rumpelstiltskin's even though they were different.
"I have no business for you today, Cora." He said referring to the "favor" Cora owed him. I silently struggled against the chains intent on listening to the conversation.
"No, but I have business for you." She said matter-of-factly. "I need your help with my daughter. She doesn't understand that I'm trying to do what's best for her and I don't have a spell that will help her understand."
"Even if I did want to help, that's not how my deals work." Rumpelstiltskin answered.
"I don't need anything but a spell. If you could just-"
"No." Rumpelstiltskin interrupted. "Don't come back to me until I need that favor." He said getting ready to free me from the tree. When Cora didn't move Rumpelstiltskin turned around. "I would go now if I were you. I don't think you want Regina knowing you have a granddaughter." He used magic and Cora was gone in an instant. "Come along, Dearie." He said undoing the chain around the tree. "We've got somewhere to be."
Okay so just to avoid confusion, yes in that last part the character is supposed to be anonymous. Hope you guys liked this chapter! Sorry you had to wait so long for it.
