Broken Ever Afters

Chapter Eight

I'm falling off the edge of a cliff. I don't resist it like I did when I first arrived in the Enchanted Kingdom because I didn't fall accidentally - I jumped. Huntsmen and wolves were chasing me. I had no way out. The body of water below will not dampen my fall. It will hurt if I survive. I brace myself for impact. The moment my face touches the water, I jerk awake and my eyes flutter wide open, gasping for breath.

I slow my unsteady breathing and support myself on the elbows, looking around this unfamiliar room. For a small dwelling this room is spacious. Everything is spaced out – there's a small dresser with drawers and a tiny chair, an armchair and a full-length mirror.

"Hello, Quinn."

The sound of my name makes me jump. No one is in the room with me – at least no one was moments ago. Rumpelstiltskin is now sitting on an armchair in the corner by the door. His right ankle rests on his left knee. The arms are splayed, resting on the armrests, the right forearm, holding his head.

Sitting, I pull the top bedsheet cover with me. I'm not wearing anything showy or indecent but I feel bare watching him stare back at me.

"What's the matter with your hair?" he enquires. This comes as a shock to me since I was sincerely hoping he would be the one explaining to me what was happening to it.

"You don't know? It started the morning after the first time we met. I think me being here has made the condition worse."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Rumple says. "It will return back to normal once you return home. It's not why I'm here."

"What do you want?" I say, intently letting my frustration transpire.

"Feisty, are we, this morning," he comments.

He obviously doesn't know what it feels like to wake up from a nightmare and finding a strange man watching you creepily while you were unaware and sleeping. How did he manage to find me here? Has he been following me around or is this because of his magic? More importantly, if he's here how am I going to return home?

"I came to check in on my investment," Rumple says, standing up and pacing around the room. My eyes are trained on him all the time. "Are we getting somewhere?"

Where am I at, exactly? I found Jacob only to lose track of him again last night and I'm nowhere close to locating William. Being side-tracked by Jacob's little quests doesn't begin to cover why the task isn't complete. How do you get two fugitive men, with unresolved issues between them, together?

"I have made progress," I say without delving into details. "I found one of the brothers and working to find the second one."

Rumple stops pacing and looks at me, his lips curling into one of his ugly smiles. I decide to get out of the sheets and sit on the bed, still wrapped in the top bedsheet. If he creeps me out even more, I'm ready to kick him out of here.

"Excellent!" he giggled. "Where is he?"

I don't know. My mind can be cheeky sometimes. I'm meeting him soon. Want to tag along? Nothing compares to the simple truth. The question is, do I trust him with this information? Till now, nothing screams out to me he isn't trustworthy but something about his presence here today makes my blood run cold.

"He's out in the forest looking for some berries," I lie. I agreed to find the brothers for him but I won't be handing them over until he tells me why he needs them.

"You better be quick about it. Don't forget, dear. The life of your beloved rests in your hands."

Rumpelstiltskin claps his hands twice and he's gone in a waft of thick, dark pink smoke. It seems my life is tied to Rumpelstiltskin like a puppet's strings in the hands of a puppeteer. Seeing him or seeing something which reminds me of him, brings memories of home and the people left behind. In other moments, the fairy tales seem to be taking over as my real life. What's going on with me?