Welcome to a Nightmare

Chapter 25: Raw

Crystal and Henry materialize at the entrance to the penthouse, both completely shell-shocked by what has happened to them. Crystal is barely able to catch her breath, gasping loudly and Henry is still unable to hear properly because his ears are still ringing and popping from the immense pressure of the seismic wave. Both felt like they'd just gone through a minefield and barely survived a bomb blasting off in front of them, Crystal's magic being the detonation. Neither can really speak or stand in the hall, trying to recover.

Eventually, Henry opens the door and absent-mindedly begins walking towards his room, with the daughter of the Dark One eventually mustering up the courage to follow him. She ignores the fancy and elegant looking décor of the penthouse that was all around her and stumbles up the stairs. Once she enters Henry's room and he locks the door, she collapses to the floor and bursts into tears. Her shaky hands cover her eyes in shame and anger.

Crystal Miller begins to shake erratically, she can feel the darkness still fighting its way through her body and the blast of energy has left her feeling drained. Her ears are ringing like Henry's and she bites her lip hard enough to bleed, trying to hold in the pain. It doesn't last very long... She lets out a primal scream of pain... Anger and pain, in its rawest form. Her soul aches in pure exhaustion too and she just begins to cry loudly, curling up into a ball to protect herself. Her breathing becomes shortened to the point where she's hyperventilating. Every part of her body hurts like a thousand red-hot knives are stabbing every inch of her being, the pain unbearable and she is paralyzed in this agonizing state. At the same time, she feels that she is being pulled apart, her skin stretched until it would be ripped from her body, blood flowing out of her human form. There was a coldness in her mind, unfeeling, like a stone that dragged her further into this pit of evil. The guilt of what she'd done down in the alleyway and the fact that she'd almost taken another life leaves her sobbing without an end, the tears soaking her face and pooling on the hardwood floor where she lay.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry," she shouts to no one in particular.

"It's okay," Henry says, even though he knew it wasn't. Nothing that she'd done was okay. He'd seen the darkest side of Crystal Miller and it terrified him. His mother as the Dark One was a unicorn compared to the inner evil he'd seen within her.

However, she doesn't seem to hear his reassurance and she just keeps repeating:

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." Her voice becomes raw and it cracks due to her continuously shouts.

It's then that Henry realizes that she's in shock and is talking fitfully to no one in particular. It's her way of trying to soothe herself, talk herself back to a calmer state.

The author sits on his huge King-sized bed and grabs some tissues from the nightstand. He wipes any leftover blood that might be leaking from his nose and then lays down with his eyes shut, waiting for the ringing in his ears to stop. At this point, Crystal's shouting has decreased to a whisper, something that he could consider calming. His body is also shaking, but not as severely as his companion, who still looks like she's having convulsions in the corner by the door.

There's a long pause after the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin finally goes silent, feeling coming back to her body and the ringing has begun to fade. She still remains in a ball on the floor, still panting awkwardly due to her hyperventilation and crying. She lays in her salty tears, gazing over at Henry.

She can't believe what she's done. She nearly took someone's life, and in the cruellest way possible, by crushing their heart. While the man was definitely no saint, he tried to assault her and cut Henry's throat, he didn't deserve the "Force-choking" that she'd done and nearly extracting his most vital organ. The man must be scared out of his actual mind, which could work in their favour that the police would not believe that she'd attacked him with magic, but... the darkness. Her darkness.