Captainswan One-Shots

Witch

Emma Swan stood in the middle of the forest, staring at her fiery hands. They were glowing with an inner red light and orangish red flames twisted and curled from her fingertips every few seconds.

She was terrified. Absolutely terrified.

The forest was pitch black and she herself blended into the surrounding trees and bushes rather well. Except for her hands. Her heart hammered painfully fast in her chest and her breathing was shallow, and she was sweating even as her breath plumed out of her mouth.

She jumped and stiffened, raising her hand up and a full-blown flame appearing in her palm when she heard a noise in the black of the trees. Was it someone coming to kill her? Put her out of her agony? Or were they coming to rescue her? Or maybe it was an animal, able to sense her fear? She was certainly pouring out the scent, not that she could smell anything. She heard the whoosh of the flame near her face and flinched but didn't feel the heat. Her fear was overwhelming her now, able to feel it in her stomach and every painful shudder of her limbs or flicker of flame from her fingertips.

Staring down at her hands again, she found herself trembling and whispering to herself. "No, no....No I won't be like the Evil Queen. I'm not her. No. No..." Emma watched the red pulse beneath her skin and sank to the ground, her dark cloak billowing out around her.

Another noise and her head whipped up, all her senses quadrupled by the sheer amount of terror and adrenaline racing through her. She felt, deep inside her, that she could and would easily kill something. But that wasn't her and she knew it. She was Emma Swan, the savior, not the killer.

She saw, suddenly, something leap out at her. Before she even thought about what she was doing, Emma reached out and blasted the creature with red-hot flame. The creature was ashes within mere seconds and she didn't even know what kind of creature it had been or if it had been trying to hurt her. She didn't need any help with that, she was hurting herself enough as it was.

Looking at the ashes that were barely visible in front of her, bile rose in her throat and she staggered to her feet then immediately doubled over again to retch. Terror was blinding her now and she stumbled deeper into the forest, unable to see or think straight, much less run. Her breathing came in gasps and as she attempted to run from herself, she saw things darting in and out of the corners of her vision.

Killian, screaming her name as he took an arrow to the chest.

Her mother, sobbing over her dead husband. Something black was oozing out of his mouth.

Henry, reaching out to touch her only to withdraw in fear when he saw what she was. The look on his face was enough to make her stomach twist even more.

Her foot caught something in the dark and she tumbled down, her head hitting against the ground hard. She found herself sobbing uncontrollably now, tears streaming down her face. But they burned, leaving scars along her cheeks and the smell of melted flesh assaulting her nostrils. Emma screamed and curled up into a ball, shaking. Everything was black, everything was wrong, everything was bad and she was the one causing all the pain.

She wouldn't become Regina. She wasn't evil.

But she was, now, for a reason she couldn't understand.

Her hands glowed red and she brought them to her face, unable to feel the heat, only able to feel herself spiraling into insanity one agonizing second at a time.

Her soul was being ripped to shreds by her own thoughts. Her thoughts were being torn apart by her own heart. She was dying, killing herself without knowing how to stop it.

And then it was over.

She was back in her own bed having woken up from the worst nightmare of her life.

Her hands were normal.

Her family was still alive.

She was okay.

Emma bit back a cry of relief, and lay back down on her bed, a sigh heaving from her chest as silent tears rolled down her cheeks.

She was safe.