Let's Write Together
Your username and team: girlie_girl_23 / Team Regina
Your co-author and team: spartan_muse / Team Swan
Word count: 1,020
Prompt: flames
Summary: Henry and Aurora find each other in the burning room.
Rating: PG
The books always wrap up the stories so neatly. The prince saves the day, the villain is defeated, and then 'they all live happily ever after'.
But that isn't the truth. Not even here in fairy tale land.
The truth is that there is no happily ever after. Not when your prince is killed. Not when your curse isn't really broken but just regulated to the hours that you're asleep. Asleep and unable to wake yourself up. Unable to escape.
Flames.
Flames, everywhere. Burning, blistering, heat and flames.
It's hell on earth. Aurora's very own hell. Maleficient's final victory. Even after being woken up, even after breaking the curse, it continues to live on. It keeps her trapped in this burning room, this hell. It's worse, in fact, now. Being under the curse wasn't like this. She was trapped then, yes, but not like this. Not with the flames. Instead, she'd been trapped with her own regrets. Nightmares that haunted her, played over and over.
But then Phillip had kissed her. He'd woken her up and the nightmarish visions had faded, unable to hurt her any longer. Her happiness had erased them. But it can't erase this. Nothing can erase this, and not only because there is no happiness left for her now.
She often thinks it'd be easier to just end it all. Death can't be worse than this. Not when she's already lost Phillip. There's nothing left here for her. But she cannot seem to bring herself to end it. So she stays, and she fights sleep, but eventually she fails and finds herself back there, trapped in a burning room all by herself. She screams and cries and tries to wake up, but she can't. The flames lick her skin, scorch her clothes, and singe her hair. She tastes the ashes in her mouth as she chokes and coughs. Alone and afraid and slowly burning alive.
Until suddenly there's someone else there with her. A little boy. Even through the flames, she can see the lightness of his eyes, the goodness of his heart. He yells across the flames and she has to convince herself that he's real, that this isn't something her mind has conjured or just another horrible torment brought on by the curse.
But he isn't. He is real. He's strong and brave and when he tells her to not be afraid, she feels a sudden sense of calm. Even his name is somehow comforting.
Henry.
Henry. The little boy who will be her savior.
**
If there's one thing that Henry has learned about fairytales, it's that 'happily ever after' doesn't really mean anything. It's a pretty way of solving many things, of making people believe that a wedding equals infinite happiness or something. Living what he's had to live, he knows better than to believe that.
The story of his grandparents, of his own mother, have taught him that one doesn't get a 'happily ever after' just because. In order to get that, there are always many obstacles to defeat - many curses to break. Finding your better half and marrying them is not really how stories end. He should know, he's seen his grandparents going to Hell and back and there they were, trapped in different realms. After suffering so much, he'd expect them to be finally happy, but no, life is never that easy.
Henry sees the flames around him. They're scaring, they burn and hurt and they remind him of a dragon he's never seen before. Everything has happened so fast he isn't sure what's real and what's not. He never had nightmares before, not until that night with the apple turnover, before he simply had dreamless nights full of numbness. It wasn't pretty, but it wasn't uncomfortable at least. At least he never woke up crying in terror, not that he can remember.
The nightmares began after the Sleeping Curse. He hadn't realized, of course, because he hadn't had time to fall asleep. When he finally realized, he had been terrified, crying out for his mom. He wasn't sure how to explain what he had gone through while unconscious. He had been trapped inside his mind, replaying false memories of the many ways things could have gone terribly wrong. He wouldn't have minded the flames if he could only have been sure there was someone out there who would rescue him, but there wasn't anyone. He wasn't sure if they could reach him, how could they?
And yet, for all the terror he feels, there's a tiny spark of hope. He somehow clings to the sound of Emma's voice and doesn't let go. It helps him go through the fear he feels. That's everything he's got and for the moment, it should be enough.
Then he hears someone crying and yelling. It is then when he realizes he isn't the only one trapped in this horrible world surrounded by angry flames burning everything they touch. There's someone else here, someone he's never heard of before and someone he isn't sure he's read about in the book. She's a young woman, that's all he knows, and she's terrified. She's gone through so much already. He can sense her pain, she's mourning for someone she's just lost - he guesses she is, anyway, because after Graham had died he had noticed the sadness rolling off Emma but she never said anything. This woman is the same. He likes her. He thinks there's decision behind all her pain.
He yells, hoping to attract her attention. He wants to make her feel less desperate. He wants to tell her that everything will be alright, because someone will help them. He wants to believe because maybe then the flames will disappear. He tells her his name and listens to hers, that's better, knowing her name makes her real, knowing her name means she won't fade away. It is a pretty name, he thinks, as he tastes it in his mouth trying to say whether it fits her, or not.
Well, she was the dawn in this nightmare so yes, Aurora definitely suits her.
Your co-author and team: spartan_muse / Team Swan
Word count: 1,020
Prompt: flames
Summary: Henry and Aurora find each other in the burning room.
Rating: PG
The books always wrap up the stories so neatly. The prince saves the day, the villain is defeated, and then 'they all live happily ever after'.
But that isn't the truth. Not even here in fairy tale land.
The truth is that there is no happily ever after. Not when your prince is killed. Not when your curse isn't really broken but just regulated to the hours that you're asleep. Asleep and unable to wake yourself up. Unable to escape.
Flames.
Flames, everywhere. Burning, blistering, heat and flames.
It's hell on earth. Aurora's very own hell. Maleficient's final victory. Even after being woken up, even after breaking the curse, it continues to live on. It keeps her trapped in this burning room, this hell. It's worse, in fact, now. Being under the curse wasn't like this. She was trapped then, yes, but not like this. Not with the flames. Instead, she'd been trapped with her own regrets. Nightmares that haunted her, played over and over.
But then Phillip had kissed her. He'd woken her up and the nightmarish visions had faded, unable to hurt her any longer. Her happiness had erased them. But it can't erase this. Nothing can erase this, and not only because there is no happiness left for her now.
She often thinks it'd be easier to just end it all. Death can't be worse than this. Not when she's already lost Phillip. There's nothing left here for her. But she cannot seem to bring herself to end it. So she stays, and she fights sleep, but eventually she fails and finds herself back there, trapped in a burning room all by herself. She screams and cries and tries to wake up, but she can't. The flames lick her skin, scorch her clothes, and singe her hair. She tastes the ashes in her mouth as she chokes and coughs. Alone and afraid and slowly burning alive.
Until suddenly there's someone else there with her. A little boy. Even through the flames, she can see the lightness of his eyes, the goodness of his heart. He yells across the flames and she has to convince herself that he's real, that this isn't something her mind has conjured or just another horrible torment brought on by the curse.
But he isn't. He is real. He's strong and brave and when he tells her to not be afraid, she feels a sudden sense of calm. Even his name is somehow comforting.
Henry.
Henry. The little boy who will be her savior.
**
If there's one thing that Henry has learned about fairytales, it's that 'happily ever after' doesn't really mean anything. It's a pretty way of solving many things, of making people believe that a wedding equals infinite happiness or something. Living what he's had to live, he knows better than to believe that.
The story of his grandparents, of his own mother, have taught him that one doesn't get a 'happily ever after' just because. In order to get that, there are always many obstacles to defeat - many curses to break. Finding your better half and marrying them is not really how stories end. He should know, he's seen his grandparents going to Hell and back and there they were, trapped in different realms. After suffering so much, he'd expect them to be finally happy, but no, life is never that easy.
Henry sees the flames around him. They're scaring, they burn and hurt and they remind him of a dragon he's never seen before. Everything has happened so fast he isn't sure what's real and what's not. He never had nightmares before, not until that night with the apple turnover, before he simply had dreamless nights full of numbness. It wasn't pretty, but it wasn't uncomfortable at least. At least he never woke up crying in terror, not that he can remember.
The nightmares began after the Sleeping Curse. He hadn't realized, of course, because he hadn't had time to fall asleep. When he finally realized, he had been terrified, crying out for his mom. He wasn't sure how to explain what he had gone through while unconscious. He had been trapped inside his mind, replaying false memories of the many ways things could have gone terribly wrong. He wouldn't have minded the flames if he could only have been sure there was someone out there who would rescue him, but there wasn't anyone. He wasn't sure if they could reach him, how could they?
And yet, for all the terror he feels, there's a tiny spark of hope. He somehow clings to the sound of Emma's voice and doesn't let go. It helps him go through the fear he feels. That's everything he's got and for the moment, it should be enough.
Then he hears someone crying and yelling. It is then when he realizes he isn't the only one trapped in this horrible world surrounded by angry flames burning everything they touch. There's someone else here, someone he's never heard of before and someone he isn't sure he's read about in the book. She's a young woman, that's all he knows, and she's terrified. She's gone through so much already. He can sense her pain, she's mourning for someone she's just lost - he guesses she is, anyway, because after Graham had died he had noticed the sadness rolling off Emma but she never said anything. This woman is the same. He likes her. He thinks there's decision behind all her pain.
He yells, hoping to attract her attention. He wants to make her feel less desperate. He wants to tell her that everything will be alright, because someone will help them. He wants to believe because maybe then the flames will disappear. He tells her his name and listens to hers, that's better, knowing her name makes her real, knowing her name means she won't fade away. It is a pretty name, he thinks, as he tastes it in his mouth trying to say whether it fits her, or not.
Well, she was the dawn in this nightmare so yes, Aurora definitely suits her.