A New World | THE BIG FOUR: Book 2 ✔

24 : WOUNDED

The rays of the moon glazed over the balcony. The set of four chairs and a table were empty but at the father end, two silhouettes painted at the corners of the wall. Silence stretched between them. The wind blew freely.

Jack's arms rested on the rails while his eyes darted into the numerous trees just across them. Rapunzel also watched with him, never knowing that something unexplainable and absurd happened at the cloak of darkness in the forest.

She still can't put her thoughts together.

"I was really worried for you, Rapunzel." Jack started, not looking back.

"You were gone for hours." He pressed. "What really happened back there?"

With the increasing tension, Rapunzel could fully feel the stare from the man beside her. Asking for answers. Extracting the truth within her. And for all she knows, Jack will truly understand her; wouldn't doubt anything from her stories.

Rapunzel knows it.

Finally, she stared back and saw those familiar icy blue orbs of his.

"Remember the time I saw you," Jack listened to her immensely. "In the alley with the freezing cold wall in front you. I-ice powers."

Jack saw it coming. She is here with the same intention as him—to say sorry and ask for forgiveness. It's been so long since this mess separated them for quite a moment and this will be the perfect time to fix it all.

He almost smiled but with a tint of sadness.

"I won't forget that." Jack muttered.

"I'm sorry. I was just...s-scared you know. I don't what to say, don't know how you'll gonna react. And—and now, I understand it all."

Jack smiled genuinely. Hearing those words from her, he could clearly distinguish the sincerity in her voice. The way it pierces him inside. Jack can hear his heartbeat.

He nodded softly.

"I know this is weird that I'm telling this to you," Rapunzel breathed. She gazed at him directly.

"This past few weeks, I had been experiencing dreams. Not just the ordinary ones—they seem so real to me. But when I wake up, I tend to forget most of it and keep some of the fragments."

"Tell me about it."

Rapunzel's eyes stilled. Her lips slightly opened—like she was struck by something she cannot decipher.

"There's this one specific dream I remember..."

An ancient tower entirely made of bricks with a wooden window at the very top it stood singularly in the middle of the forest. Hidden. Where the entrance was made up of curtain of leaves inside a barren cave into the clearing and with a constant waterfall beside.

The room with colorful strokes and lines painted the walls. It was really old but appealing to the eyes.

"Sing, my flower."

A woman with white streaks in her ebony black said softly. She was wearing a renaissance clothing—dark fitting red dress and a long black cape that touches the floor on her soles.