Dark Hearts | Once Upon A Time

LViii. A Storm is Coming

Storybrooke. Present-day

THE TWINS HAD stayed joined at the hip, ever since the death of Neal, Erica was too afraid to leave her sister, knowing what she was like the first time she had lost Neal, she had completely shut down. It took months for Erica to see some semblance of the girl she had known all her life and it took her, Erica's old boss and ex-girlfriend along with a mutual friend of theirs to pick up the pieces and help her to move on with her life after she got out of jail. Neal leaving her then had really hit her hard and now that Neal was actually gone. She hated to think what him being dead would do

After all, he was Emma's first love.

The funeral was perhaps the hardest thing that she had to get Emma through, watching silently as she stood next to her sister as the blonde refused to let the tears fall and trying to be strong for her son, no matter how many times that Erica told Emma that it was okay to cry and having a breakdown was somewhat normal  and that it didn't make her any less strong, but she had not cried since that night 

Instead, Emma focused all her energy on trying to find and kill the wicked witch which wasn't so much a bad thing since Erica was doing the same thing but the thing was Erica knew how to control the darkness inside her, it was a part of her and she had come to see the darkness as a friend -- a little dangerous she knew but she actually figured out that facing her darkness head-on, doing sword fighting hanging out with the pirates (who now she was one) that she now held so dear to her heart and facing the darkness instead of running away from it like she had done for so long actually helped -- but her sister was a pure soul, she was the product of true love like Erica but she had light magic travelling through her veins she didn't know what it felt like to have her heart tainted with darkness

Not like Erica, Jaclyn, Elizabeth, Will, Killian or Regina

They have all killed, manipulated, cheated and lied in order to get what they wanted. In order to tie up the loose ends. It wasn't like her parents who have made mistakes but who eventually found their way back on the right path because that's what made them human making mistakes and learning from them. No, they all had darkness built within them and it was the fight the urge to give in that was the hardest fight that she had to face  

That's what scared Erica the most that one day she'll wake up and have nothing left to fight for...That every good decision that she made won't count and all that she will be judged on is her twisted and dark heart 

Will was sitting in one of the booths, teasing Erica every time she takes her eyes off Emma for more than a few seconds he would pull faces at her and try -- and succeed -- in making her laugh, which confused the hell out of most of the people in the diner

 A dart wedging its way into the dartboard brought Erica back to reality and she sighed as she watched Emma land another dart on the dartboard. She had been doing this for hours and just watching her made Erica itch for a fight, something in her heart was just calling for her to do something anything to take her mind off everything and she knew she had to find Jaclyn. She would know how to get her head back to normal

"Hey, Emmie take it easy okay?"

"I'll take it easy once we have the witch dealt with" Emma bit back and honestly Erica couldn't blame her, she was thinking the same thing. Only she had gotten better at hiding her thoughts and feelings and keeping everything close to the chest until she needed people to know 

Her thoughts travelled back to the missing year...Davy Jones...Revenge...Soon

She shook her head to clear herself of her thoughts and instead focused on her sister Emma liked to let her emotions cloud her judgement and as long as Erica was around she wasn't going to allow that to happen