Once I reached the end of the hall, I knocked on the door not really wanting an answer. I got one anyway.
"Come in." Miss Dulch called. And if I don't your pet gargoyle will kill me? I opened the door and walked inside. The room was bigger than I had expected. She was sitting behind an old looking desk that had two old looking chairs. That was it. There was no other furniture in the room.
"Please sit down." She gestured for me to do so. I sat down reluctantly. She kept staring at me which made me entirely uncomfortable. We sat there in silence for a while until Miss Dulch spoke up.
"How's your side?" She asked. There it was. Another question that caught me completely off guard. I assumed Felicity had told her everything about everything. Why would she care though? I reached down to my side. It didn't hurt at all, but I was sure it was bleeding. I looked down expecting to see blood all over my clothes. There wasn't any. I quickly lifted my shirt and unwrapped the bandage. It was absolutely amazing! All that was left of the gash in my side was a scar to remember it by. Miss Dulch leaned over the desk.
"Ah, good. The magic is working." She said. I quickly pulled my shirt down. Magic? I'm healed because of magic? It didn't make any sense. Especially since Henry had always treated magic like a bad thing. But it couldn't be! It just healed me without me asking. And I hadn't even said thank you! Thanks?
"Last time Shelly trusted the healing magic she lost three fingers." She told me casually. I was freaking out entirely. I wanted to bolt for the door, but that didn't seem to work out so well last time. Who is Shelly, and what had she done to her fingers?
"How long am I going to stay here?" I asked. There were so many other things I could've asked just then: You can do magic? What's that gargoyle thing? What have you done to those kids? Who is Shelly and what had she done to her fingers? But what I did ask showed all too much that I had given up.
"Nobody ever leaves here," she cackled. "Unless you fancy suicide. Don't worry. You'll learn to love it here." I thought about the kids, probably still laughing in their room. They did seem to enjoy it here. Yeah, because this is the only place they can murder and get away with it!
"I will never enjoy being trapped in a house full of psychotic children!" I yelled. Miss Dulch shook her head.
"Oh dear, it appears we have one that will not cooperate." She announced. Just as she had, the gargoyle-whose name, I'm guessing, is Aerolith-dropped in through another hatch in the roof. Note to self: Don't forget to look up.
"Aerolith." She said. "Take her to her room please." She turned to me. "We will allow you to have access to the library, but that is all." Aerolith grabbed me once again and carried me out through the hatch. He took me to another building that looked like an observatory without the telescope. It was alone in the woods and was entirely black, blending in with the night sky. Why didn't he just leave me in the room where all the other kids were? He dropped in yet another hatch and set me down. The room was entirely white making Aerolith stand out like a peacock in a crowd of chickens.
"The library is in there." He pointed at a small door. Before I could turn around, he was gone. I looked around the room, but everything blended together. I managed to find a door with no handles. I ran to it and started pushing as hard as I could. I looked closer at the door and noticed a "Pull" sign. But there's no handle! I screamed in my head. I thought about Storybrooke and how I would've given anything to be there right now. I slumped to a small white bed in the middle of the room. What if I hadn't run away? Would I be here now? That's when it happened. Laying there on the cold bed seemed to be more real than anything. I felt my side for once hoping that it would be hurt. Of course it wasn't. I curled into a ball and slowly cried myself to sleep.
Nothing like a weird dream to follow an even weirder day, right? I stood on a straw covered pavement. In front of me was a lot of greenery but nothing else. Why hadn't my mind taken me somewhere useful? I knew very well that I couldn't move in these dreams. I heard voices and laughter behind. I tried to move anyway. Ended up spinning in a full 360 degree circle and facing right where I was before. I tried to slowly turn around this time. It worked but it was like I was sitting in a spinning chair. Except I wasn't sitting and there was definitely no chair. There were three ladies in fancy dresses walking toward a carriage. I almost didn't notice girl in rags pointlessly sweeping away at the hay. I decided to try walking. It surprisingly worked. I tried to get in the carriage with them remembering that nobody could see or hear me. I got in, but the carriage pulled away leaving me in the exact same spot.
"Do not despair, my dear, you will attend that ball." I heard behind me. I spun around twice before I located the voice. There was a small person flying in front of the sweeping girl.
"Who are you?" She asked. I was glad she asked my question for me. The fairy didn't respond right away. Instead she grew in size and folded her wings out of view. She had dark skin with curly black hair and wore a big, orange dress.
"I'm your fairy godmother, and I am here to change your life, Cinderella." She replied. I came to the slightly obvious realization that this was the story of Cinderella that Mary Margaret had read to the class a while ago.
"But…," Cinderella started. "My stepmother said that I couldn't go. She forbade me to leave." She explained sadly. I sat down and decided to just enjoy the show. All I needed was some popcorn. The fairy godmother slightly rolled her eyes.
"Your stepmother doesn't have this." She claimed holding up a stick. Sorry not a stick. Unless sticks sparkle and glow. This was a wand as orange as the fairy's dress. She waved it around a bit.
"This wand has the power to take you to your ball," she said taunting Cinderella with the wand. "To your prince, and to a-"She was cut short by herself exploding. I fell backwards in surprise. That had never happened in the books Mary Margaret read. I sat up as quickly as I could. All that was left of her was her wand. Cinderella looked at the now empty space in front of her, terrified.
"What did you do?" She asked…me? No it couldn't have been me. I looked again at the spot where the fairy had been. There was a man there all of a sudden. Just in the blink of an eye he was there. He bent over and picked up the wand.
"Now, now." He said comfortingly. "I got what I wanted." He had a really weird high pitched voice that almost seemed familiar. "There's no need to be frightened."
"No need?" Cinderella said breathlessly. "You just murdered my fairy godmother!" She had gained her voice back now. I would have to, but I didn't have one to begin with. "She was trying to help me.
"Was she?" He said not wiping the smile from his face. The feeling that I had seen him before was killing me. I walked closer to him. He had shiny leathery skin resembling a lizard's.
"Do you know what this is?" He sang. Waving the wand like the fairy had.
"Pure magic." Cinderella said in awe. The man slightly shook his head.
"Pure evil." He corrected. Where was this coming from? I know that this wasn't in the book. "Trust me. I've done you a favor." Then a litter more cheerfully. "All magic comes at a price." I thought about for a little bit. What price would I have to pay for the magic that healed my side
"Go on back to your life," he instructed. I hadn't seen him frown yet. It was extremely creepy. "And thank your lucky stars you've got something to go back to."
"My life is wretched." She replied with anger in her eyes. The man leaned in closer.
"Then change it." I woke with a start. I hated those dreams. They were usually based off of fairytales but had weird twists to them. I walked to the door that apparently had a library behind it. I opened the door to find a single bookshelf with old books on it. I sighed. If this was going to be my only entertainment for a while, I might as well start reading now.