They All Stood Still

Tally Marks

Puck POV

I don't remember much from the days in the cell. I remember the first day pretty clearly, but after that, most of it is foggy. I remembered being fed this awful tasting oatmeal and severe burning pain like nothing I'd ever felt in my leg, except maybe when the jabberwocky almost killed me.

But the thing I remember most clearly is Sabrina. I remember her helping me and bandaging my wound and the feel of her hands on my skin seemed to help draw the pain away, if only for a second. I remembered opening my eyes one day and seeing her blonde hair with an angelic halo of sunlight shinning through it.

I wanted to reach up and tuck it behind her ear. She looked so stressed and worn down, I wanted to help. But I could hardly keep my eyes open and already, I could feel myself drifting back into the nothingness.

I don't know how or why it happened, but one morning, I woke up and I was perfectly fine.

I looked at my leg and saw that I hadn't bled through the bandage. Unwrapping the wound, I found that the ugly gash had healed overnight. It seemed my everafter healing had magically returned just as fast as it had gone.

I was so elated that I jumped up and moved my leg back and forth to make sure that I wasn't just dreaming. I grinned and spun around, letting my pink wings spring out.

"...Puck?"

I glanced up from admiring my suddenly whole thigh, and smiled at Grimm. As soon as I saw her face though, my smile dropped.

This was not my Sabrina. This girl was dirty and sad and had tearstains down her face as if she had been crying for days. She looked weak and the hope that always shone in her eyes had gone out. This was not my stubborn, strong, sassy Sabrina Grimm who would rather punch someone in the face than let them see one tear.

"Sabrina...?"

I didn't need to ask if she was okay, because it was so plainly obvious she was not. I crawled over to her and she threw her arms around me. I held her as she cried. I couldn't tell what was wrong exactly, but the way she clutched onto the back of my shirt, like she was afraid I would fall back into the frightful state I was in, said that some of these tears were happy.

When she had calmed down a little, I started rubbing smooth circles on her back. If she wanted to tell me, she would. I couldn't imagine what would make Sabrina Grimm sob like this, and I almost didn't want to find out. Had she met the queen? Did Pan hurt her?

I clenched my jaw at that thought and clutched onto her a little tighter. I rocked her back and forth and felt her sigh into my shoulder.

Then I noticed something on the wall over her head. There were white tally marks that had been scratched into the brick with a rock that rested on the ground underneath them.

I stopped rocking.

There were 62 tally marks.