Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 13)

Ch.44 Pain in the mines

When they arrived at the entrance of the mines, Aidan and Terrence stood there while taking deep breaths as Terrence held onto Francis's Revealer Rays.

"You ready for this?" Aidan asked.

"Let's do it" Terrence breathed as they turned on their flashlights and entered the mines.

"Damn it's cold in here" Aidan shivered as they stopped.

"Here" Terrence handed him the Revealer Rays "I have glasses on so you look."

"Don't mind if I do" Aidan rook the Revealer Rays and put them on as he watched the little Blue Fairy fly around "Okay... she's searching- whoa hold, she's getting something."

He began down the mines with Terrence following.

"Okay she's definitely got something" he stated when they came upon an empty area where they stopped.

"Why did we stop?" Terrence questioned.

"Um-" Aidan replied as he watched the fairy pointing to something glowing in the wall as he gave a grin "Oh yeah, I think she found it. Give me a pick."

Terrence handed him a gem pick as he went over to the spot on the wall where the fairy pointed, and with the pick, he began to carefully chip away the wall surrounding the gem.

"Here we go" he grinned some more as he managed to pull the gem out "Got it."

"Really?" Terrence's eyes widen as he went over and examined the gem in his brother's hand "Is that really is?"

"It's what the fairy says" he replied before taking the Revealer Rays off "It really does look like an ordinary gem."

"Yeah, but with a sinister power. Let's just get out of here and show the girls."

"I don't think you two will be doing that" they jumped as they turned to see Noah with some of his crew next to him.

"Oh jeez!" Aidan gasped while clutching his chest "I hate being startled like that!"

"How did you know we were here?" Terrence demanded them.

"We knew you were going to look for the Trigger, and what better place to start looking than the mines?" Noah sneered.

Aidan kept the Trigger clutched in his hands and keeping it near him.

"You know I'm surprised you're still standing" Terrence suddenly commented, "I really thought that stab wound would have done something to you."

"Well too bad it was just a pair of manicure scissors. But moving that to the side, why don't you be a good boy and hand over the Trigger?"

"Yeah right," Aidan doubted "You come near me and I'll use this pick on you."

But that just made Noah chuckle "You really don't wanna go against me Charming. Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Hand over the Trigger, and we'll leave you boys unharmed."

"I doubt that" Terrence scowled "You'll try to kill us anyway."

"Are you suggesting we do this the hard way?"

"I suggest you back off" he snapped.

"Very well then, hard way it is."

And with that, he snapped his fingers as Aidan and Terrence's flashlights suddenly went off. And before they could even react, they began to feel hard punches and kicks against their bodies while crying out in pain. They tried to fight back, but not only was fighting in the dark almost impossible but Noah and his crew were faster and stronger than them.

And by the time everything had stopped, Noah turned on a flashlight and shown down at Aidan and Terrence who were now lying on the ground, covered in bruises and blood on certain spots on their bodies, specifically their faces. 

"Well that was fun" Noah smirked as he held up the Trigger in his hand "Thank you boys for the Trigger, you really saved us time in finding it."

Terrence tried to spat out a comment, but he was in so much pain that only a cough came out as he tried to reach for his glasses that had been knocked off during the fight.

"Oh are you looking for your glasses?" Noah taunted before stepping on the glasses, crushing them "Oops."

Terrence let out a growl while trying to get up, but only to fall back down from the pain.

"Good luck trying to find your way out of here" Noah sneered as he and his crew left the brothers alone and in pain.

"I wanna murder those guys" Aidan managed to growl while slowly pushing himself up as he cringed in agony "How are you feeling bro?"

"Hurt" Terrence mumbled while also trying to push himself up "Though I don't think anything's broken, well besides my glasses."

"Well I think my nose is broken" Aidan flinched while touching the blood that was running down his nose "Jeez."

"They got the Trigger" Terrence winced "What do we do?"

"Well first let's get out of here, we gotta warn the girls."

He carefully pulled himself up while continued to cringe by the pain he was feeling.

"Can you get up?" he asked his brother.

"I might need some help" Terrence mumbled as Aidan steadily helped him up "I can't see anything."

"Don't worry I'll guide you, and luckily we got plenty of spares."

With Terrence holding onto the Revealer Rays, Aidan used one hand to hold the flashlight and the other to steady his brother as they began to limp their way down the mines.

_________

Now back in the room at the motel, Noah handed Lydia the Trigger as she took it with a smile on her face.

"Excellent" she breathed in delight "Just what we needed."

"So you gonna do it now or what?" Noah asked.

"Not yet, because in order to active this gem, I need one last thing."

He gave a small groan "What is it?"

"I need something known as the Dark One's Dagger. One tap from the blade and the gem is activated."

"The Dark One's Dagger huh? I've heard of it, never seen it though."

"Well it's gotta be here, it's one of the items that can break this curse."

"In case you forgot sis, we haven't been able to find any of those items."

"Then keep looking" she ordered, "I know it's here, and we won't stop until we get what we want."

He gave a small sigh before giving a promising nod.

"By the way Noah-" she added, "You should wash your hands, you've got blood on them."

He looked down at his knuckles and saw that there was, in fact, blood on them.

"And I know it's not your blood."