The Last Time (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 16

I backed away from the woman officer.

"Sabrina. It's not what it looks like." she tried to tell me.

"What do you mean that it's not what it looks like? You have the paint on your hand. You knew about the paint before I said anything and I highly doubt that you talked to Granny. You're the reason all of this is happening,."

She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off,"I don't care how, I just want to know why."

She glanced at all the other officers and tried to grab my arm, but I jerked it away.

"It all makes sense," I said,"You were the only one that would have known that Mirror told me about the Pink Hand. It makes sense because you were the officer on guard that day. You found out about how he revealed what he knew and you knew that he would have figured out more if it meant to repay the debts that he had towards me. You killed him before he could do it though. And now. The only reason that you're cleaning up still is because just like me, you're looking for something.  What is it?"

She turned her head again and all of a sudden, jumped at me and wrapped her arm around my neck and into a choke hold. She pulled a rag out of her back pocket as I clawed at her hands and tried to reach my leg around and kick her from beneath herself. She removed the one hand that was over my mouth and placed the rag over both my nose and mouth. That was the last thing that I saw before I collapsed.

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I awoke with a start. I remembered all that happened.

Ella was a member of the Pink Hand. She was the reason why all of this is happening. What did I do that made her want to do this? Where am I?

I moved to get up, but my arms never left their place. My wrists were knotted to the wooden chair that I was sitting on. My legs were also tied up.

"Oh, so I see that you're up."

I looked toward the direction of the voice. My eyes landed upon Ella. If my feeling of hatred weren't so strong, I would have said that she looked absolutely stunning.

The blonde was wearing a large, pink gown. The corset was heavily studded with jewels and sparkles. Her long hair was swept into a neat bun and in each wrap were jewels. She had done her make up lightly with soft rose colored eye shadow and a light rose to bring out her lips. The only thing that ruined the whole look that was huge scowl spread across her face.

"Hello, Miss Grimm. It's good for you to see me in my true form."

"What are you talking about?" I said, with a groan as the rope dug into my wrists.

"All these years, I had to work as a poor, police officer and cleaning up the mess that that Mirror made with his schemes. I had enough of being see in that ugly uniform. It's absolutely amazing that you get to see me in this!" she said with a spin.

I rolled my eyes,"What does your appearance have to do with why you tortured me and then tied me up?"

Her cold blue eyes landed on me again and she spoke,"It doesn't."

"Then can you tell me why you tied me up and brought me here." I said as I looked around at the surprisingly clean and tidy room.

"Well, it all started when I married Prince Charming. After about a year of marriage, he asked for a divorce so he could marry that Snow girl. Everything that he gave me was ripped from my clutches. Including love. After he left me, I had no family left and no compassion. I decided that I would make them all sorry by creating something more than they would ever had. First, I took half of everything that Charming had and left with it. After a while, I realized that money couldn't buy what was taken from me, so I bought this castle and fixed it up to hold me and my family."

"What family?" I asked.

She smiled,"Exactly. That's exactly why I wanted you. You see, I didn't want to hurt you or even kill you. I just needed you to be broken enough so that you would do anything that anyone asked you. I guess it didn't work because that Goodfellow boy saved you. I had to get rid of him. He was standing in my way."

I ground my teeth together because I had learned a long time ago that when the villain has the upper hand, it is better to just sit quietly.

"You see, I need you to become a part of my family." she said with an evil laugh.