The next morning Emma had made breakfast and she and Henry were watching cartoons. I grabbed a plate and joined them, enjoying the surprisingly relaxing and normal morning. But reality set in when a call from our parents came in asking if we were ready to meet, and we all prepared for what the day ahead had in store.
Emma decided to send Henry off with Ruby for his protection, given magic was here and Rumplestiltskin had basically a day head start on whatever his plan was. If anyone would figure out how to use magic in this world it would be the Dark One.
We met Ruby, David, and Snow outside Granny's Diner, the sky quickly darkening due to an incoming storm. After Emma sent Henry off with Ruby, Snow decided to take the moment to confront us both, desperately wanting to talk, not being able to wait anymore. The fact our phones hadn't been blown up the night before or this morning honestly was a testament to her patience.
I was secretly glad for the directness since I was feeling the antsy need to just talk to them, but on the flip side I still had no idea what to say or if it was even my place to say anything at all. Every time I tried to run through potential conversations I came up completely blank with only too-fast-racing thoughts. The fact I was able to sleep last night was a damn miracle in and of itself.
In true Mary Margaret fashion, she knew Emma wasn't completely happy about us all being together. Emma gets her spiel out and I don't even have a chance to speak up before we are off, heading to Gold's. Honestly, she spoke a lot of my own conflicting thoughts so I didn't even feel like I had much to add. If they hadn't sent us through that wardrobe, we all would have been together.
If I hadn't been born, Emma and Snow would have gone through the wardrobe together. If I hadn't been born, they could have stayed together. I felt my heart clench but pushed the feelings and thoughts away, focusing instead on Emma and Snow.
I put my hand on Mary Margaret's - mom's - shoulder as a sign of comfort before following after Emma, quickly catching up with her.
When we got to Gold's he was, as I had predicted, unhelpful and not willing to provide anyone with answers. He did confirm that the purple haze that came through town was, in fact, magic as we had suspected, but he wouldn't explain why.
Then, and I shit you not, a fucking earthquake happened, the shaking of the ground so rough I almost fell, bruising my shin on the corner of the display case nearest me in my stumble. I followed Snow and Charming to look out the windows and see what was causing everything to go crazy. Gold explained that whatever it was that was causing the craziness outside the shop was to take care of Regina and kill her for all the pain she had caused.
A storm had rolled in, the sky was dark and full of clouds. Lights burst outside and sparks flew as the wind picked up and blew debris through the streets as an eerie shrieking floated on the wind and I knew that whatever it was we were about to face, it was going to be freaky as fuck.
Terrific. We definitely deserved porch time after this.
We ran off into the wind and the scattered explosions of sparks to try and save Regina from whatever the hell Rumplestiltskin had sent after her. When we got to the Sheriff's office Graham was on the floor, holding a hand to his head and what looked like a Dementor in real life was floating in front of the now-open jail cell, sucking out Regina's soul or some shit. I stood there, frozen, while Snow and Charming didn't even hesitate to jump right into the action and save Regina, banishing the thing out the window using a lighter and some flammable spray in a canister.
I managed to break out of my frozen state to check on Graham, who seemed to have been thrown across the room into a filing cabinet by the floaty dementor thing. Once he was up and in a chair, I walked over to everyone. That's when I noticed the brand on Regina's hand and winced.
David's outburst to let her face the wraith and face the consequences of her actions shocked Emma and me. We weren't going to let Regina die, we had already discussed that yesterday. But his reasoning this time was to ensure everyone's safety from the wraith - let it take what it wanted and leave. Obviously, we weren't going to do that - we had promised Henry she wasn't dying and we wouldn't break a promise to him.
Regina's plan was to send the wraith somewhere it couldn't hurt anyone - to the now-nonexistent Enchanted Forest. We went to Regina's office, and I decided to speak up to everyone telling them I didn't think the plan was a good idea - but it was the only one we had, and since I didn't have any better ideas, we just had to go along with this one.
We tried to prepare and get ready for when the wraith returned, grabbing brooms and lighters and setting up the alcohol bottles Regina had around the office for us to use as something flammable. Snow had figured out back in the Sheriff's Office that the wraith didn't like fire and we were going to use that to our advantage. However, holding a broom as a torch felt, well, a little ridiculous.
I grabbed my on-fire broom from David - my freaking dad - and took position. Emma and Regina were standing with a large top hat that would open a portal to the Enchanted Forest where we could banish the Wraith through, no torch brooms for either of them, so it was up to us to keep the wraith away from them until they got the hat-portal to work. David stood closest to the door, Snow stood behind him, I stood further behind her, and then Emma and Regina were all standing further back with the hat.
I felt the same tingle I did when the purple cloud washed over me as Regina began to spin the hat, trying to get it to open the portal, but it wasn't working, nothing was happening. The wraith burst in and David closed the gate between us and the wraith that stood in the middle of the room as Snow lit the banister on fire, having poured alcohol along it and creating a firey barrier between us and the wraith whose shrieks and howls caused a shiver to run up my spine with primal fear.
David was fighting the wraith on the other side of the flames while Snow was standing by the fiery inferno that now divided the room in two. The wraith flew at us over the inferno and I swiped at it with my torch, glad for the distance the broom gave between me and the wraith.
Emma touched Regina's arm, standing on her other side, and the hat began to spin and opened a swirling black and purple pit where the hat used to be - the portal Regina must have been talking about.
I swiped at the wraith and pivoted to follow its trajectory when I stumbled and fell. I felt my stomach drop as I fell into oblivion, being dragged into the darkness, my last thoughts of Henry's storybook and the life I had just discovered before my consciousness slipped from me and I was swimming in a sea of peaceful blackness with no idea what to expect next.