The secret of the Moondrop

Chapter 4: In theory

Rapunzel's POV:

"Look, I'm just saying that..."
"No"
"But the dream..."
"NO"
"I'm telling the truth!" Rapunzel insisted.
Cassandra sighed.
"Look, Rapunzel, I'm not saying you are lying, it's just that..."
"We have travelled all the way from Corona and we aren't going to turn around just because you had a dream?" Eugene intervened from the campsite.
"Exactly" Cassandra nodded.
Rapunzel's shoulders dropped. She had been hopping her best friend would help her interpret the meaning of her nightmare.
The lady-in-waiting put a hand on her best friends shoulder.
"I know that nightmare freaked you out, but couldn't it just be... well, a nightmare? You've been through a lot of stress lately, not all dreams have to have a magical meaning" she remembered her.
Rapunzel pulled a lock of hair behind her ear, thinking.
"You may be right, but..."
Suddenly, Adira appeared from the bushes, holding a lot of apples impaled on her dark stone sword. She took an apple from the rest and started biting it as she walked closer to the two girls.
"Want some fruit?" Adira asked with the mouth full.
None of them answered.
"Was it something I said?"
The lady-in-waiting crossed her arms.
"Rapunzel wants to go back to Corona, she thinks the moondrop is no longer in the Dark Kingdom" Cassandra said.
"It's not like that!" The princess protested.
Adira looked surprised.
"Why would you think that?"
"I just had this crazy dream about the black rocks, and whispers, and someone telling me the moondrop wasn't in the Dark Kingdom, and then I went there and the voice was right and..." she almost blurted.
"Okay, calm down, there is NO way the opal has been removed" Adira responded.
"That's what I've been trying to tell her" Cassandra rolled her eyes.
"But I'm the sundrop" Rapunzel said.
"What's your point?" Eugene asked as he took one apple from Adira's sword.
"I don't know... maybe the moondrop isn't the opal anymore, maybe..."
"Maybe what?" the warrior inquired arching a brow.
Rapunzel took a deep breath, readying herself for the crazy theory she was about to suggest.
"Maybe the moondrop is no longer a thing, but a person".

Varian's POV:

There were two main things Varian hated about being in prison: the first one was the fact that there weren't any ham sandwiches, the other were Queen Arianna's visits.
She came almost every afternoon.
The guards would always handcuff and drag him to a small pink room with a window, they would sit at each of his sides to secure Queen Ariannas safety. And then, she'd just talk and try to make him talk. But Varian never talked and never tried to open himself, he'd rather lick the floor of his cell than share his 'feelings', specially with the Queen.
That day, Queen Arianna was holding a notebook, she stared at him intently, almost... like she was really concerned.
"I heard you've been having some nightmares lately" she said.
Varian shot a poisonous glance at Stan, who probably had told her. The guard shifted uncomfortably.
"Would you like to talk about it?" the Queen asked.
He ignored her, looking at the window.
Queen Arianna sighed.
"I know you are still angry, but you can't continue this way"
Varian huffed in response. "I can and I will"
She frowned, drumming with the pencil against her notebook.
"And where will that lead you?" she whispered "If you continue trapping yourself in your own mind, what will be left of you? Who are you, Varian?"
For the first time, he looked at her square in the eye.
"I'm someone who's already trapped in a prison cell"
Arianna frowned. She put a hand in one of his shoulders, which he immediately shook off.
"Have you been sleeping? You look tired" the Queen asked.
And he was tired, some days ago he had decided it was better for him not to sleep instead of having all those nightmares.
He had looked at himself in the reflection of his googles, pale from the lack of sun and with dark circles around his eyes, he was also a lot thinner for the prison food. Varian almost didn't recognize his own reflection, he looked sick.
"You should be getting more sleep" the Queen insisted with concern.
"Whatever" he just responded.
Arianna suddenly stopped drumming with the pencil, in fact, everything seemed to freeze.The birds flying across the windows, the guards... everything. It was as if time itself had stopped.
"What the...?"
That is when he heard it.
The voice.
"It's nice to see you again, Varian"
Varian jumped from his chair, which fell to the floor without making a noise.
"Who...who are you? Show yourself!" he yelled.
The female's voice laughed.
"But I can't, can I?" she said with a note of anger in her voice "Rapunzel made sure of that"
Rapunzel. Varian clenched his teeth.
"Oh, I forgot, you also hate her" the echoey voice giggled "good"
He frowned, confused.
"Why is that good? Who are you? Are you the one that has been causing my nightmares? " he asked, searching the room with his eyes.
"Tsk tsk tsk, too many questions" said the woman's voice "I just need you to know something"
Varian pulled his handcuffed hands into fists, waiting.
"Firstly, yes, I am the one that's been causing your nightmares, and believe me when I say they won't stop" she told him with a calm yet unsettling tone.
The blood drained from Varian's face. They weren't going to stop.
"Secondly, know that you'll eventually work for me, so don't try to struggle or you'll get hurt" she added with a hint of menace.
He swallowed the lump on his throat, maybe he was just hallucinating. That could happen to people that had been to much time in prison, right?
Don't be an idiot, he thought, you've only been here for fifteen days.
"And thirdly, try to act natural, don't tell anybody about this or you'll pay"
And with that last threaten, everything returned to its place, the time continued to flow and Varian found himself sitting in the same chair he had been before his conversation with the voice.
Queen Arianna gave him a strange look.
"Varian?"
He didn't answer, his mouth parted slightly, trying to find the words to try and explain what had just happened.
"Varian!"
The Queen shook him by the shoulders slightly. Varian couldn't move, but he had to tell her.
"Stan, call the doctor, I think there's something wrong with him!" she told him with alarm.
"Queen Arianna..." Varian tried to say.
He suddenly felt some cold pressure in his neck, as if someone with really cold hands was trying to choke him. "...I wouldn't do it if I were you..." he heard the voice whisper.
The cold, invisible hand squeezed his throat, Varian gasped.
"What's wrong Varian?" The Queen inquired, kneeling in front of him while wearing a preoccupied look.
"No...nothing" he managed to murmur.
As soon as he'd said it, the pressure in his neck disappeared. That would surely leave a mark, Varian thought.
"Are you sure? You are so pale!" The queen exclaimed "what did just happen, Varian?"
He shook off her hands from his shoulders. Fantastic, for once he wanted to talk to the Queen a ghost came and tried to kill him. Typical.
"Can I go back to my cell?" he asked, rubbing his neck. Arianna seemed to notice the gesture, but she nodded.
The guards then escorted him to his prison cell, he was left alone, wondering when and for what would the voice come for him. Had it been an hallucination? Had he just imagined it because he was going insane?
He watched his reflection on his googles.
Varian gasped as he watched the back of his neck, which had a red mark of a hand on it.
Okay, that was creepy, and definitely NOT a hallucination.
"Magic..." Varian whispered with fear.

Chapter end
Strange things start to happen, WOAHAHAHA
please, don't be ghost readers.