Sunflower | N. Mikaelson

VII

When Rapunzel entered her mother's room, she did so silently and with caution. She tiptoed, bare foot, into the room, lightly shutting the door behind her in case her mother came back while she was in her room. Rapunzel went straight towards her mother's wardrobe where she kept the emergency stash of things such as dead flowers, food ingredients and water bottles in a box hidden behind her clothes.

Rapunzel opened the wardrobe, quickly digging out the box and looking through it to see if there were any flowers she could use. Knowing her mother, she would've only kept edible flowers in the box, and hopefully Rapunzel could find some she used before to make paint. Luckily, she found some red poppies and cornflowers dried out near the top, meaning she could make some red and turquoise paint, not even considering what she could make from the stems.

Quickly, the blonde girl grabbed the flowers, before shoving the box back in the wardrobe and closing it. She shoved the flowers into a secret pocket she sewed into the dress before hastily rushing to exit the room, but on her way, a part of the floor gave way under her foot causing Rapunzel to fall forward, her nose colliding with the floor with a sickening crunch. Yet when she reached a hand up to her face, she felt no breakage of her nose, but when she looked at her ankle, the bone was poking out as it had snapped in two with the girl's fall. Tears rushing to her eyes, Rapunzel yanked her ankle out of the hole in the ground, knowing she couldn't get caught like that. She quickly got the poppy flowers out of her pocket and started eating them. Poppies were a mild sedative or relaxant and could soothe mild pains, so Rapunzel was hoping they would at least lessen the pain slightly.

When Rapunzel looked back down at her ankle, which she could visibly see was pulling itself back together, thanks to her golem blood, a while fleck caught her eye. It was in the hole her foot fell through. Despite her previous regency to get out to prevent being caught red-handed, Rapunzel found herself reaching a hand out to grab whatever was in the hole, finding a metal box. Opening it, all Rapunzel found were old paper documents and photos. She took them out, putting them on her lap and putting the box to the side for now. She ignored her ankle healing as she focused purely on these papers in her hands.

The first photo she stumbled across was a picture of a family: a man, a pregnant woman, and a baby. Upon closer inspection, she could see that the man had clay skin (a pure golem) and the woman had blonde hair like Rapunzel's, and the baby had Rapunzel's eyes. It was her family. Rapunzel's eyes widened. Her mother had told her that her parents died right after she was born, yet this photo showed that she was at least 2 years old when her parents were alive. Rapunzel flipped the photo over to see the back, and there was something written on it in faded black pen. It read: "The baby is thought to be a hybrid - immense power".

Rapunzel's eyes widened in shock. Quickly, she shoved the photo in her pocket, moving on to the next document. It was a newspaper from the day she was born, clearly only meant for the faerie and golem community as the title read "Oldest faerie family no longer pure as the world celebrates the newborn hybrid". The article claimed both sides were happy with her birth, and it even mentioned how her actual mom's parents were thrilled with their grandchild. But her "mother" said that her parents were hated from breeding within species.

Rapunzel was even more shocked and scared at the next paper she viewed. It was a full newspaper, dated on her third birthday, which had a sketch of her "mother" on the front under the title "A faerie and golem left for dead as suspect murders them and kidnaps their child".

Rapunzel's blood ran cold as she stated at the title with unmasked shock. All this time, her "mother" was the one who killed her parents, just to kidnap her. But why? Why would someone do such a dreadful thing just do they could take responsibility for a child for 215 years. Rapunzel was shell shocked, but then she realized that her "mother" would come back soon. She couldn't stay there and pretend everything was fine, that she didn't know the truth.

Rapunzel looked down at her ankle, seeing it healed, and decided to make an impulse decision. She shoved the two newspaper articles she read into her pocket alongside the picture, before jumping to her feet and speeding out the room. She raced into her bedroom, where she found a rucksack under her bed which was previously belonged to her "mother" that she used to put presents for Rapunzel in. She quickly got out a dress from her wardrobe, alongside Damon's hoodie and some undergarments, before shoving them in the bag.

Racing through all the rooms, she shoved in that bag anything important or irreplaceable to her. Inside, she put her paintbrushes, her recipe box, her book of Cymbeline by William Shakespeare, and her favorite book about flowers. She quickly zipped it up, before turning to the doorway with the intent to leave. But she was stopped by the sight of her "mother" leaning on the doorway with a calm yet disappointed look on her face. Rapunzel froze in pure terror.

"And where are you going with that?" her mother asked, making her way towards the blonde girl, like a lion walks towards a bird with broken wings, defenseless unable to fly away, forced to face its inevitable doom.

Word count: 982