1006 Words, this chapter. One more chapter after this one. I'm posting both today.
Chapter Nineteen, Dark Heart
They ran out of Emma's house. They saw Robin a fair distance ahead. "She's gone into the woods!" he cried. "I can still see her."
They nodded and followed after Robin. They gained on her.
"There she is!" cried Robin.
The nun was winded, losing her lead.
"I shall try to hold her," said Gold.
"I'm not opposed..." said Regina, panting, "to throwing a fire ball at her."
"I have arrows."
"No," said Emma. "I've got this." She grabbed a large branch and threw it at Meg's legs.
"Ah!" screamed Meg, tripping to the ground.
"Nice shot," commented Robin with a smile.
Emma snickered. "I'm not touching her again."
David chuckled. "So how we do hold her then?"
"I've got her," said Regina, casting a kind of magic bubble around the nun, holding her.
"No!" screamed Meg. She looked at Emma and collapsed against the bubble. "I was so close!" She sobbed. "So, so close."
"Yeah, well, it's over now," said Emma, barely able to look at the nun.
"So...what do we do?" asked David.
"Mother Superior and I have been conferring," said Gold. "Remember how Belle and I told you we could find no stories with a specific, identifiable person as source?"
"Yeah," said David.
"Well, we don't think Sister Meg here is the source."
"Yes, she is!" cried Emma. "I know it! I remember!"
Mother Superior put a calming hand on her shoulder. "Yes, she's the one who infected you, but we don't think she is herself at blame, not completely. We think she's possessed."
Emma stared wide-eyed at Meg.
"How else could she live as an honest, pure faerie all those years?" asked Blue. "Simple, she wasn't evil, not then."
"The...darkness...it took her, or something?" asked Emma.
"Yes, we think so," said Gold.
"Probably not long ago," said Blue. "I would have sensed something over time. We believe it was your power as the savior that gave her strength."
"And now that the link to you is severed..." said Gold, he looked at Mother Superior.
She smiled. "We should be able to use that incantation now."
He nodded, opening her old book. In a loud, clear voice he began to read.
Meg screamed, clutching her chest. "Stop! Don't do this!" She was bathed in a brown mist. "Ow, it hurts! Help me, Emma!"
David looked at his daughter.
"I'm OK,'" she assured him. "I won't be helping that...thing anymore."
Dave smiled.
The nun continued to scream, then she stopped. The brown mist turned black. It grew, then it snaked out of Meg and formed a cloud.
"I've seen this before," said David.
"So have I," whispered Emma. "In a nightmare, literally."
They watched the cloud continue to drain out of the sister until she collapsed. Regina was having trouble hanging onto both the cloud and Meg.
That is until the cloud began to shrink. It folded in on itself until it lost its thickness and looked like mist again. Finally it was so small that it looked like tiny little particles.
"They're growing even smaller," said Emma.
"It's gone back to it's diminished status," said Blue. "Now that it's out of you."
"It's too weak to cause any real damage," said Gold. "Other than the usual spats and turmoil we all feel normally."
"Yes, it will continue to affect love and affection, in a much weaker way, as it always has, but we can fight it."
"How?" asked Emma.
Blue smiled. "With love, my dear." She turned to Regina. "You can release her."
Regina looked skeptically at the nun. "Are you sure?"
"I am," said Blue. She walked over to Meg, now free and laying on the ground.
"Mother Superior?"
"Yes, dear," she said kindly, taking Meg's hand.
"It...took me," said Meg, crying. She shuddered. She began to cry harder.
Blue took her in her arms."You're alright now."
"I was walking...in the woods," said Meg, shakily. "I saw a lovely flower and bent down to pick it up." She began to shake. "Then this bird...it attacked me. It was so strange...and terrifying. I'd never seen an animal act that way. The next thing I knew...I was laying on the ground and...I felt different."
"I was able to fight the dark emotions I suddenly felt," said Meg. "At first it was just a nuisance really. I prayed. I used my goodness to fight the anger, the hate." She looked at Emma. "Until that morning at the diner when I met you."
"The evil inside me sort of...woke up...in your presence. I felt it surge and I could not fight it. I'm so sorry." She huddled in Mother Superior's arms.
"Sh. It's not your fault. It's gone now."
"Yes. Praise be. It is gone." She began to sob again. "The things I did. I tried to make Emma shoot her son. She did shoot the man she loves!"
Emma winced.
"The Captain is going to be fine," said Mother Superior softly. "So are you. So is Emma."
Meg looked to Emma and sobbed. "I'm so sorry. I tried to stop..."
"I understand," said Emma. "Believe me I do."
Meg nodded.
"I...I forgive you."
Meg gasped. "You do?"
Emma shrugged. "If they can forgive me..."
"We do," said David. "Absolutely. You weren't at fault. Neither were you sister."
"Thank you," Meg said weakly. She looked back at Emma. "You were nearly entirely consumed," said Meg. She chuckled mildly through tears. "And yet you managed to break control. You are truly amazing."
"I'm...not. I had help."
"That is why you are amazing," said Meg. "You made all these people fight for you, despite what your corrupted heart made you say and do. The real you is quite strong."
Emma blushed.
"She is," said David, hugging Emma.
End of Chapter Nineteen