Musical Love

Chapter Thirteen

     Aaron is sitting on the bottom bunk in his dungeon cell, staring out the window. Every day is pretty much the same: he would up in the cell, hoping that his daughter being taken away from him was just a terrible nightmare, only to have that hope dashed. Then he spends the day either pacing the cell, trying to figure out a way to escape, or sitting on one of the bunks, staring out the window and worrying about Nevaeh. Then sometime in the evening, the same witch comes to the cell to give him scraps of food and a cup of water. Every day, like clockwork.

So it doesn't really startle him when he hears the sound of the dungeon door opening, footsteps walking near his cell, and his cell door being unlocked and opened.

"Dinner," the witch says.

Aaron pays her no attention. He hears her footsteps approaching him, and the soft thud of the plate of food scraps and the cup of water being set on the wooden bunk bed. There's a moment of silence, and then the witch turns to leave.

"Why do you work for him?" Aaron suddenly asks.

"What?" she questions.

"Why do you work for him?" Aaron repeats, and he finally looks at the witch. "I know that Rumpelstiltskin abuses you and your fellow witches, and yet you remain loyal to him. Why?"

"Mr. Stiltskin is the only person who has ever seen me and my friends as anything more than just some evil, crafty witches who cast curses and evil spells on people. When the king and queen signed their kingdom over to him, he allowed us into the castle," the witch replies.

While her voice sounds angry, Aaron can hear sadness in it. And he can't help feeling sorry for her. She and her friends were mistreated because they were witches?

"What's your name?" he asks her.

"I'm Baba, Mr. Stiltskin's second-in-command," she replies, curious as to why this man wants to know her name.

     "Well, Baba, did your boss happen to tell you that I'm a witch as well?" Aaron asks her.

Baba looks at him with surprise.

"And before he took over, I used to be a knight for the king and queen, but they didn't mind that I was truly a witch. The same went with my daughter. She inherited my powers, but the king and queen loved her like she was family," he continues.

"Well, maybe you both were loved and respected because you look normal!" Baba snapped at him.

Those words felt like a knife to Aaron's heart. So Baba and her friends were mistreated, not only because they were witches, but also because they looked different from everybody else. That's one of the problems with the world: some people think appearances are everything. He remembers when the king and queen treated him and his daughter with such kindness. They didn't mind that he and Nevaeh could do magic. The king and queen loved them genuinely.

     "I'm sorry," Aaron says.

     Baba's eyes widen a bit.

     "What?" she asks, wondering if her ears were playing tricks on her.

     "I'm sorry. Being physically different was no excuse for you and your friends to be mistreated and disrespected. You shouldn't have been treated that way because of your looks," Aaron tells her.

     Baba stares at him for a moment. How was it possible for this man to exist? Her friends brought him and his daughter to the castle by force, they threw them into this cell, and her master sold his daughter to the Piper and separated them. Yet he's showing her pity, after everything that's happened? After what felt like hours, she turned and left the cell, locking the door behind her.

     Aaron walks to the window and stares at the view outside. The sun was setting outside, the sky slowly getting darker. He sighed sadly, as another day has passed where he's trapped in this cell, far away from his child.

     "I promise, Nevaeh, I will escape, and I will find you," he says.