Fifth Destiny // Ever After High as Fifth Harmony Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Six: Gleam and Glow

{Chapter 26 POV: Austin King}

I was having second thoughts.

My flight to the Well of Wonderland was scheduled to leave in an hour. I was to go alone, without security, and tell no one where I was going. My team would surely realize within two hours that I was nowhere to be found, but my main concern wasn't them.

If I go to Wonderland, I risk ruining everything. To start, it's technically illegal, unless I get special permission from the monarchs themselves, which isn't going to happen. On top of that, it would ruin any hope at an acquaintanceship with Lizzie, my last chance at returning home for real. And Holly. Everything I do manages to alienate her further from me.

Be honest about your feelings. That's how you keep you and your music most authentic, Blake used to tell me. Yeah. That backfired. Being honest got me in this mess.

Ask Lizzie out, that'll be great for you. Maybe if it all works out, she'll let you go home, he told me after I first met Fifth Destiny. And I went with it. I wasn't going to fall for his girlfriend anyway.

Until I did, and then someone else came along and ruined everything more. No one knows Holly better than me, she said. I know you're the one she really likes. Trust me. I can help you.

By the time I realized she was manipulating me, it was too late and everything was ruined. But she managed to reel me back in anyway. I promise, if you stick with me, I can fix all your problems.

And then my management team joined in on the Austin's Personal Life is Over Party. Start this fake relationship, it'll bring you some good attention in the midst of all this other crap, they'd told me. It was done then.

My whole life I've been controlled by people, forces, that aren't thinking of my best interest. I casted everyone out of my life, and now I have no one.

I had Blake. I had Lizzie. I had Holly, and Kitty even. Maddie was never one to hold grudges, but it's been years since I've seen her. I'm not sure about Bunny, but Alistair was a definite lost cause. Poppy can't be trusted, and everything feels like an act with Becky.

I miss Blake the most. Blake had my back the moment I met him. Exiled from Wonderland and abandoned by my parents, I exited the Well of Wonderland all alone. Nobody even told me where I'd end up, though I knew they tracked this kind of thing in Wonderland as well as the outside world. I was twelve years old.

When I fell up the well, I smacked right into a form bent over the well's edge and knocked us both to the ground. As I lay there in the grass rubbing my bruising forehead, the person at the well sat up two feet away, laughing like I just told him the funniest joke he ever heard. He massaged his head as he said, through laughter so hard he might have been in tears, "where does that well go? Where did you come from?"

Once he caught his breath, he crawled over and gave me a hand up. The boy, my age, had rugged brown hair, huge green eyes and a natural smile.

"Wonderland," I whimpered, still rubbing my forehead.

He swatted my hand away. I watched in utter confusion as he took his hand, wiped the tears off his cheeks, and wiped his wet fingers across the red bump forming above my eyebrow.

I made a face at him. "What are you..."

He closed his eyes and he started humming a melody so softly I could barely hear him, even up this close. His voice was easy and effortless. When he was finished, he opened his eyes and flashed me a sheepish smile, but motioned to my head.

My forehead was smooth and painless as I brushed the spot where the bruise had been forming.

"Are you some kind of magic sorcerer?" I shouted, scooting backward away from him.

The boy was still smiling, but he shrugged. "Maybe. Are you mad?"

"Mad? Why would I be mad?"

"Isn't everyone from Wonderland?"

At the mention of my former home, I swiveled my head around me, taking in whatever this place was. I was at the edge of a bright forest. A large lake stretched beyond its edge, and a small wooden boat was leaned against the sandy ground before the grass began.

In the distance, a small kingdom sat upon a large hill of an island. At the hill's top, a shining castle stood. The sun, peaking just above it, made everything gleam and glow from the gates to the tall spires of the castle.

"Um.... where am I?"

"Corona," the boy said. He got to his feet, and I did as well. "My name's Blake. Well, technically, my full title is Prince Blake Eugene Rider Fitzherbert of Corona, but you can call me Blake."

I scrambled to bow, though the boy was no older than me. "You're a prince?"

"No no, don't do that. Save that for my grandpa, King Frederick. Mom and Dad and me don't care too much for all the formal royal customs and things. Well, now you know me. What's your name?"

"Austin," I said. King no longer felt like it was my name to claim.

"Okay, Austin. I have a deal for you. You tell me all the cool things about Wonderland and I'll bring you back to the castle and we can eat all the cookies we can until we burst. Mom makes really great peanut butter chocolate chips. Deal?"

I took him up on his deal. We were best friends from that point on. And it's true, Blake's mother makes the best cookies you'll ever eat.

I almost called him, but I didn't. My homecoming wouldn't be anything like I imagined it would for all these years. For a few years, I lived in the royal castle in Corona. I should've been sent to the orphanage, but Blake's dad had a soft spot for orphans. I had my own room, but a lot of nights I would just sleep on a pile of blankets on Blake's floor and we'd stare at the ceiling and just talk and talk. I never imagined a homecoming without him there with me. My best friend and my strongest supporter, by my side when I finally got to go back to the home that didn't want me. It would be a lot to take in and I always knew I would need someone to lean on. I no longer had the best support system I'd ever been lucky enough to find. I know I never deserved them.

I stood up from the plastic chair on the hotel room's balcony, overlooking the bustling and bright city of Storywood. When I wheel my suitcase to the elevator and step in, I think about how every shining sign and star in Storywood could never compare to the golden city that took me in, the kingdom on the hill that glimmers in the sun's unmatched light.