A Little in Love

Just a story

"Mother. Mother! Can you tell me a story before I go to sleep?"

Snow smiled as her daughter's excitable voice called out to her from across the room. The queen rose gracefully from her chair, where she had been embroidering a cloth, and crossed the room to the blonde girl in the bed. She lowered herself down to sit on the shimmering blue covers and placed a kiss on her daughter's forehead. "Of course my darling. Any one in particular?"

Emma bounced up eagerly. "Tell me the one about the Evil Queen!!!!"

Snow continued to smile, but inside she felt her stomach clench. She felt it bizarre that her daughter always requested this story out of all the others she had told her, the one story that was the darkest and the most true. The White Queen maintained her composure and tucked her daughter into bed before brushing her blonde curls away from her face.

"Ok." She replied. Emma's green eyes were fixed intently on her mother's face. The White Queen sighed and began her tale.

"Once upon a time, there was a princess and a prince. They were happy and although they faced many struggles, they always found each other again...."

She told of their struggles against Regina, but as always, Snow found herself exaggerating Regina's evil for Emma's benefit. As she talked, she was aware that her daughter was listening eagerly, drinking in every word. The Evil Queen fascinated the young girl, but Snow was not sure why. The White Queen had not visited Regina in ten years, ever since that final meeting the month before she had given birth to Emma. She'd decided to put a barrier between the past and her future with her family. Emma could never find out that the Evil Queen was real, nor that she dwelled directly below their feet...

Snow White finished her story, then tucked her daughter into her soft bed. She placed a kiss on Emma's forehead. "Goodnight Emma." She smiled, blowing out the candle on Emma's bedside table.
"Goodnight mother." The young girl replied, before allowing her eyes to slide closed.

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The moonlight streaming in through the window awoke the young princess abruptly. The room was silent and a ghostly glow had settled upon it. Emma sat up slowly. She no longer felt sleepy, as though the moonlight had leached her tiredness as well as the colour from the room. Slipping on her pale blue cloak, the blonde got up and moved to the door to peer outside.

No guards were stationed outside her room, which was strange to Emma as her parents usually made sure that there was at least one. Frowning slightly, Emma glanced along the corridor then grinned. The coast was clear- time to explore! The blonde pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and crept along the corridor into the depths of the castle...

A long room, full of old, dusty tapestries and broken mirrors was Emma's favourite to visit. The door was sealed so she could only get in by wriggling through a hole in the wall created by removed a couple of loose stones. Once inside, Emma knew to tread carefully on the loose floorboards as each one felt as though it could crumble beneath her weight.

Her lithe fingers brushed over the cobwebbed surfaces of her favourite paintings. Each one had been sealed away from the main castle, Emma did not know the reason why. The portraits were beautiful; delicately painted with rich colours. Emma walked slowly, closing her eyes and allowing her senses to take over. She felt the grooved paint under her fingertips, smooth then rough, before she felt the  dusty cloth that covered the painting she loved the most. Opening her eyes, she turned to face the hidden portrait. The sheet covering it was a dull beige, frayed and moth eaten. Raising her arm, Emma tugged sharply on the fabric and it fell away.