Sunlilly: When history repeats

Chapter 4: family reunion

I wake up alone in a long black car, bracelets still secured to my wrists, I sit up and see a man in a black suit sitting in the driver's seat
"Hey, where am i?"
I ask him
"Your in auradon"
He responds blankly, I look out the window and see huge green hills and clear blue rivers. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't beautiful. I look around the car and see shelves with jars of brightly colored sweets, i take a long rainbow colored rectangle out of one of the jars and take a small bite
"Sour...but sweet"
I think. An hour or so later the car pulls up at a huge castle and i'm told to exit the car, when i exit i see five people waiting at the front steps surrounded by an army of cameras and reporters all yelling my name, I stopped to take a look at the five people there was a woman with green eyes and short brown hair, I also saw man with short dark brown hair and brown eyes like mine, a couple who appeared to be king Adam and queen Belle, and a little boy who looked about my age with light brown hair, the brown haired woman runs up and hugs me with the brown eyed man following behind her
"Who are you?"
I ask the woman, she looks down at my face and holds it in her hands
"I'm rapunzel...your mom"
She says with tears in her eyes
"...can you let me go?"
I ask, she let's me go and the brown eyed man crouches down to my level
"I'm Eugene, i'm your father"
He looks me up and down for a second and looks at my satchel
"I see you took after me"
He says, I let out an anxious laugh and he guides me through the sea of press and inside the castle. I'm taken through grand hallways and giant stairs, Eugene or i guess "dad" stops me at two double doors and gestures for me to open them, when I open the door i'm greeted by a giant bedroom and walk inside, there's a giant canopy bed with a pale pink blanket and soft fur rug and a grand window with a bench
"You like it?"
Eugene asks
"Yeah"
I respond, still in awe at the size of the room
"I'll leave you be for a little bit, and then we'll explain everything ok?"
"Ok"
Eugene leaves me alone in the room and i hop on the bed almost sinking into it, i empty my satchel onto the bed looking at what little i had with me, the money, my now bloodied dagger, and the stuffed rabbit, don't know where it came from but it had some sentiment to it and brought some comfort, i held the rabbit and lied down on the bed trying to take some time to process, I was essentially abducted, I'm apparently a princess, and i'll never see my friends again. An hour or so later Eugene came back to explain everything. I put my dagger under a pillow on the bed and he led me to what appeared to be a living room, it had long couches and chairs, a big fireplace and television. Sitting on one of the couches was king Adam and queen Belle with the little boy and on one of the chairs was Rapunzel, i sat down on a nearby chair as king Adam started to talk
"I assume you want some answers"
He says
"Yes, actually for starters, why did you send the banana brigade to abduct me!?"
He looks to rapunzel and she gives him a nod
"Well, you weren't technically abducted by us. You see, about ten years ago when you were a baby, we were rounding up some straggler villains and Gothel was one of them. I still don't know how she did this but she managed to break into the castle and steal you and then sneak you into the isle. We've been looking for you for years and once we found you I sent the guards immediately"
I went quiet for a minute, just processing all of that and then he kept going
"Now, we were also looking for you because your an heir to the throne of Auradon"
"What!?"
I yell shocked
"Yes, you see Ben, my son, your cousin..."
He gestures to the boy sitting next to him
"Is the heir to the throne and in a couple years he will be king...but if anything were to happen to him then the crown would go to you"
I put my head in my hands and let out a slightly aggravated sigh
"So let me get this straight... I was kidnapped as a baby and it somehow took you ten years to find me despite there being really only one place I could have gone, and then you sent a bunch of guards to knock me out and reverse kidnap me back here because i'm a human fall back plan if anything happens to him"
I point to ben
"Well not exactly-"
King adam tries to explain but I keep going
"And honestly this all kinda sounds like your fault given as king you have control over all the country's security and it seems you never thought to have guards blocking any points of entrance which frankly, is a very bad move on your part especially since apparently villains were still on the loose at that point and you essentially allowed a known kidnapper to kidnap me!"
The room goes silent, everyone staring at me in shock
"Raina-"
Rapunzel speaks up

"I know this is a lot to take in-"
I don't even let her finish her sentence before i opened my mouth again

"No. Look, no offense, but I don't want to hear it, because what this sounds like to me is that you weren't really trying to find me and decided to scoop me back up the moment it was convenient to have your kingdom's little contingency plan back"

I interrupted 

"Raina, it's not like that, we've been looking for you for years, we wanted our daughter back"

Eugene defended 

"And that took you ten years!? I didn't want to leave and your guards have the scars to prove it. I have people that need me! people I need to protect! I've spent my entire life on my own, surviving because I knew there were people I couldn't leave, and now I have...so congratulations, you got your precious daughter back... but she lost everyone for it"

 
I storm off, tears in my eyes and find my way back to my bedroom, i sit on the bench by the window and tuck my head in my knees... and begin to cry, i could never go back to the isle, i was never gonna see harry again, go on stealing runs with jay again, Gothel is probably a pile of dust by now without me there and now I have to be some perfect princess? Suddenly i hear a knock on the door
"Go away!"
I yell
"It's ben"
I hear a small voice from outside the door
"Can we talk?"
I wipe the tears from my eyes
"Fine"
Ben opens the door and joins me on the bench
"You alright?"
He asks
"Does it look like it?"
I say, eyes red from crying
"Fair"
Ben sighs
"Can I ask you something?"
He looks at me with a kind expression
"Depends"
"Well, where'd you get that pocket watch?"
He gestures his head towards the pocket watch harry gave me when we were eight
"Oh, a...friend gave it to me"
I say
"Does this friend have a name?"
Ben asks
"Why do you want to know?"
He shrugs his shoulders
"His name is harry, he's one of captain hook's kids, he gave it to me a couple years ago"
"One of?"
Ben tilts his head to the side in curiosity 
"Yeah, he's got two sisters, Harriet and Calista Jane"
I say, ben gets up and heads for the door
"Where are you going?"
I ask
"Oh, i'm just gonna go talk to my parents"
He says, he leaves the room once again leaving me alone.
Later that night i'm sitting in bed undoing my braid, i look at the sea of hair going down the bed and around the floor
"I could cut it"
I thought to myself
"It's not like I need it this long anymore...I guess"
I hear another knock at the door
"Raina, it's mom"
"Come in"
I say, Rapunzel opens the door and comes and sits on my bed
"So, Ben told me you have a friend back on the isle... Harry, right?"
She says
"Uh, yeah what about him?"
I ask
"Well... me and your dad thought that we could arrange a way for you to talk to him"
She hands me a notebook and a pen
"We're going to try and arrange for you to be able to write to him"
"Really?"
My eyes lit up at the prospect. Being able to talk to Harry, to know he was ok...it was almost comforting
"Yes, but no promises"
"...thank you"
I couldn't resist smiling a small bit
"No problem sweety"
She says, she's about to leave when i stop her
"Uh, hey...mom?"
She turns to look at me
"Could you...help me with something"
I ask
"Of course"
She comes to sit back down on my bed and I pull out my dagger from under my pillow
"Could you help me cut my hair? I mean it doesn't have to be so long anymore and you know better than anyone what a pain in the ass it is to carry all of it around so-"
"Of course"
She interrupts, i hand her my dagger and she cuts my hair so it ends midway down my back, i suddenly felt...free
"Thank you"
I say, Rapunzel laughs a little
"No problem, goodnight Raina"
She gives me a kiss on the cheek and leaves the room and closes the door, i put my dagger back under the pillow and open the notebook, i grab the pen and begin to write

Harry,
I don't know if you'll ever get this but today has been a crazy day hasn't it? I mean I got reverse kidnapped and found out I was a princess! I also cut my hair, it feels nice to not have to pull it around... I don't know what I'll do without you, or Jay, or Mal, or everyone back on the isle and I'm not sure I'll ever see you again but... I miss you. Hope you write me back!
I love you
- Raina