The Lost Boy (Sequel to The Lost Realm)

Chapter Nineteen

A long long time ago
Peter's POV

"Goodnight," I say to my mother as she tucks me into bed.

She smiles, "Goodnight my little Peter. Are you excited for tomorrow?" A smile stretches across her face.

I return an excited nod. My ninth birthday was tomorrow and the anticipation was killing me. Already my friends at school had told me that were going to get me the biggest gift they could find!

My mother's warm face brightens as she sees my happiness. I lay my head onto my pillow and she kisses me on the forehead.

"Goodnight, my little Peter," she says once again. Then, she blows out the candle illuminating the room, and leaves me alone to the darkness and my slumber.

However, my thoughts remain on tomorrow, and I lie awake staring up into the dark ceiling. Images of what might happen when the sun rises rush through my head.

Suddenly I hear voices from downstairs. My parents. They grow louder and more tumultuous with each passing second. Yet, they don't reach the point where I find the speech audible. Then, the voices stop, and I hear footsteps coming up the stairs.

Quickly I shut my eyes and pretend to sleep, I'd be in grave trouble if I were found awake past my bedtime.

I hear my door creak open and someone enters. I feel him or her approach my bed and sit down gently, as not to wake me. Through the soft sobs I recognize the tone of my mother's voice.
"Dear-dear Peter," she says softly. A few more light sobs escape her, "please, please....never fall into the darkness."

Present Day
Arabella's POV

I'm frozen, my body not knowing how to react to the scene in front me.

Rumpelstiltskin's eyes pierce into mine. I feel the anger boil up inside me.

"It was you?" I say sharply, stepping toward him. The door slams shut behind me.

He gives a cackle, "But of course Dearie. What do you expect of the Dark One?"

My eyes shift from his to my sisters'. They're full of fear, but plead me not to push forward. I avert my eyes back to toward the demon in leather.

"My parents were right about you."

His evil smile grows, "Well of course they were. You see, I've had my fair share of dealings with your parents, it would have been wise to listen to them."

"Why?" I demand.

"Why what?" He smirks.

"Why me and my sisters?"

"Ah, you see-"

A figure appears out of the shadows and my stomach drops. Behind Rumpelstiltskin is another monster, one who has haunted my nightmares and my thoughts. One I'd hoped I'd never have to face again. Regina.

She wears a long, dark blue gown with a blood red diamond necklace. Her face is twisted into an evil smile and her eyes shine with triumph.
"Hello Darlings," Sarcasm drips through her blood red lips.

I open my mouth to ask a question but she interrupts, "How did I survive? Well you see I always did have a back up plan. All I needed was to get a hold of something Rumpelstiltskin here needed, and he would ensure my safety if something went out of plan."

"He needed Peter, didn't he?" I ask, glaring at the both of them.

"Yes, after all I believe in family and what better way than to reunite a father and a son!"

An evil smile cuts deeper into Rumpelstiltskin's mouth, realization strikes through me. Then, the anger comes.

"It was you!" I yell at him. "You killed his mother! You tried to abandon him!" I'm screaming now. It's as if all the anger Peter ever felt was being channeled through me.

He gives a dark laugh, "Please, I didn't abandon him, he left me! And his mother needed to die, she was in the way of both of us."

I feel my body lurch toward him, only to be permanently frozen.

"Now now, don't try anything little Arabella, it's best if you save your strength," Regina laughs.

I attempt to speak, and surprisingly I'm able to, "Is he really alive?"

"No," Regina says coldy, "We killed him." There's a bluntness about the statement that makes her utterly believable.

All the hope inside me drains, and the hurt that I'd felt falling through the portal into Floristian comes flooding back. How could I have been so stupid? Some people just aren't meant to have happy endings.

"Now if you will excuse us, it's time for us to head out," Rumpelstiltskin says, in his eerily cheerful voice.

A portal opens in the middle of the room, it's a dark grey color with a gross green tint.

He and Regina gaze into it, then look at my sisters, then me.

"Wouldn't mind if we take your sisters now would you?" He gives a cackle. I lock eyes with my sisters and see the fear in their eyes has intensified. I try again to move, but I fail.

Suddenly my sisters, still tied to their chairs, rise into the air. I watch terrified as they levitate above the portal.

"No!!" I scream. They plummet.

"Didn't think we'd leave them here did you?" Regina asks, laughing. "Give your regards to your parents for me! That's if, you ever see them again..." She gives another chord of laughter and leaps into the whirlwind.

I stare Rumpelstiltskin in the eyes, as if somehow he'll cower, but he just smiles. "Goodbye Dearie! Off to Tenebris I go!!" He jumps into the portal and it closes just as quickly as it opened.

I fall to the cold, marble floor-now finally released from my confinement.
Tears fill my eyes as I stare at the floor where the portal had been.

Two of my sisters are in the hands of the two most treacherous individuals to ever walk the realms, and the other is in another realm I can't reach, worried sick. Then, there's me-alone in a realm without family, without anyone.

I stay on the floor and suddenly the tears fall. My thoughts go back to our old home on the beach. Things had been so simple then, we had each other and that was enough. But, as it is with the Ocean, the tide changed, and we got trapped in a labyrinth of good and evil.

"Arabella!!! Arabella!!!" A voice from somewhere in the hotel suite calls.

Every part of me lights up as I recognize the speaker.

Peter.