| OC x OC |
| Once Upon A Time |
| Light and Dark Series book 5 |
| Pre-season 1 - Post season 4 |
Rachel Woods is a baker in a town called Storybrooke, it was a normal town that followed the same routine day in and day out. Nothing ever seemed to...
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THE WORLD AROUND them seemed to get darker, the closer Alice and Rapunzel got to the tower and passed through each Kingdom in which Alice fell sulkier and moodier with each Kingdom they found themselves in and Rapunzel could have sworn she heard Alice mutter the name Anastasia on many separate occasions swiftly followed by a curse falling from her lips
Soon they found themselves on the boards of Snow White and King James' kingdom. Rapunzel didn't know much about them or their kingdom as she had been out of the loop ever since her return to her rightful place in her Kingdom, but the few chances she was able to sit in the Council meetings she managed to sneak into, she had figured out that James and Snow were in a bitter war with the Evil Queen (over what she still didn't know) and that the Queen had a way of tipping the scales in her favour although neither Alice nor Rapunzel knew what that was
"So we're nearing the heart of the Enchanted Forest, princess" Alice snarked, elongating the word princess and it made Rapunzel freeze. She had been so careful trying to hide her identity because she was scared that something terrible would happen again if someone was to know her identity, she had already spent the first twenty-one years of her life in a prison of someone else's making she didn't want history to repeat itself "There isn't much here so why are we still going?"
Taking a deep breath, Rapunzel tried to calm herself down as her mind wandered back to Eugene. Eugene was usually the best at helping her quiet the swirling thoughts in her head but he wasn't here and while that made a sinking feeling open up a gaping hole in her chest.
Rapunzel knew she must continue. This was her mission after all
If Alice noticed Rapunzel's sudden panic, she didn't say anything and let everything go and continued to walk on in silence which for once the blonde was grateful as she gathered herself before speaking again "That's the point. We need to be in the middle of nowhere"
"Of course because that makes sense"
"Look if you don't want to be here, then why are you still following me?"
"I have nowhere else to go" Alice whispered in a rare moment of vulnerability and despite not really liking the girl all that much. At that moment her heart bled for the young teen because she knew what it was like to be stuck somewhere and have nowhere to go. It was like that for Rapunzel for twenty-one years and she had lost hope of ever finding a way out
Her world was lonely and quiet and got even worse every day. Rapunzel would build up worlds in her head, and read books because they were her only friends. They would tell her company and keep her occupied and stop her screaming out into the void of isolation.
Stories were pages bound in ink and paper, with words written across it. Theroticallly they weren't anything special, they didn't mean anything not really. Until someone peeked inside and suddenly those words that weren't anything special made a sentence and that sentence made a paragraph and that paragraph makes a chapter and that chapter would make a book that built castles and places that were far beyond the reaches of the tower allowing Rapunzel the freedom she so desperately craved.
Books were all Rapunzel had
Until a thief decided to climb up her tower and change her whole world
"I get it" Rapunzel admitted after a moment, her voice just as soft and quiet as Alice's was, as memories floated behind her eyelids of her time in the Tower and her breath hitched with a particularly bad memory came to her and she squeezed her eyes shut
Eugene lying on the floor. Dead.
Only this time Rapunzel couldn't safe him and he just lay then limp and lifeless in her arms as she cried over his body, praying to the Gods for a way to reverse time and get him back. She kicked and screamed as Gothel dragged her away by her chains, only this time nobody was there to hear her
If Alice realised that Rapunzel was on the verge of freaking out, she did nothing to help. Too wrapped up in her own world and honestly Rapunzel could hardly blame her, she was a teenager after all and if she did notice, what was she to do: It wasn't as if she knew what Rapunzel was going through
"Are you seriously doing the thing where you say you know what I'm going through and we bond? Because I'm sick of adults saying they get me and then when they hear my tale, saying I'm too young to have any trauma and that it doesn't count because I'm young and don't know what real problems are"
Alice's words hung in the air like a sticky fog as they trudged on. Every step was closer to the tower and Rapunzel could only hope they would arrive there soon. Tiredness clung to her skin like the ghost of a lover and she was really starting to tire of Alice, as mean as that was for her to say. Finally, Rapunzel gathered enough energy to answer Alice properly
"Listen I try to not make it a habit to say things I don't mean and I mean it when I say I do get it. See for nearly my entire life I grew up thinking an evil sorceress was my mother as she had kidnapped me when I was a baby and cut me off from the outside world making me scared of everything and anything. So yes I do get what trauma is like and I am not saying you are too young to have trauma"
Alice stopped in her tracks and spun around as she raised an eyebrow "Wait are you the lost princess? I think I heard something about you after I left Wonderland"
"Yes I really didn't want anyone to really know. So keep it quiet at least for now"
"Okay" Alice nodded, in all seriousness "Okay. I won't tell. I promise"
