Rumpelstiltskin's Reign-An FTRS and RAR AU

Part 5-The End

She scrubbed. And scrubbed. And scrubbed. The sudsy white soap coated her fingers, slimy and foul-smelling. Gilly wrinkled her nose as she lifted the dish out of the sink, stacking it neatly beside twenty of its brothers. 

She lifted a spoon from one side of the sink, rinsing it under the water. Behind her she heard something shuffling. Gilly risked a glance behind her. At Jax, the handsome blond boy. Sweeping the floor beside her. As he did every day. He turned around, as if noticing her eyes on him. He flashed her a brilliant white smile. She blushed.

It was like this every day. She and Jax spent all day doing chore after chore-as law commanded it, after all. King Rumpelstiltskin had made his laws very clear; twelve chores in the morning, twelve in the afternoon, for every citizen under the age of twenty. Your assigned work could be found posted on a scroll above your bedroom, different every morning. At the end of the day, a palace guard arrived to check your work. If it was done well, then you were cleared. Done wrong, then you had to complete it again, as they watched.

Children were separated from their families at age five. Sent to live in "communities" of about twenty children, where they were closely monitored. Those with promise were allowed to join his villain school, where you could become a member of the Stiltskin Squad. Gilly had never been allowed to go. 

The communities were very small; they packed about five kids to a "room", a marked square of dirt on the floor. Jax and Gilly lived in the same room, but they were forbidden to speak to each other. Every day, they risked those glances. Whispered words at dinner, him sometimes giving her his portion when the guards weren't looking. Little gestures like that.

As she watched him, Jax suddenly looked around him as if checking for a sniper. A rare moment-no guards or other children watching. He met her gaze, holding a finger to his lips. He crossed the little distance between them, grabbing her by the arms. He bent down low into her ear. "Wake up."

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Present Day

Gilly bolted awake, rigid in her dormitory bed. She was covered with a thick sheen of sweat, her breathing like gasps. Jax stood beside her bed, brow furrowed in concern. "Gilly, are you ok?"

She looked up at him, a thousand images flashing through her head. He stared at her. "Another dream?"

She fought to control her breathing. "I saw," she gasped, "I saw how it ends."

He sat on the floor next to her. "Hey, calm down." he took her hand. "You're fine. It was just a dream."

She stared at his eyes, bluer than they had been when she'd dreamed of them. Sharper, somehow. Clearer. "Just a dream," she repeated softly, "just a dream."

"Maxine called me," he explained patiently, "she said you were screaming."

"I was?" 

"Yeah. Thrashing, too. You scared me." he said, rubbing her hand soothingly.

"I'm fine." she said, trying to believe it. 

"Okay," he said, looking unconvinced. He got up and headed for the door. This short, kind, handsome twelve-year-old boy who Gilly could never live without. "Try and get some sleep, will you?"

She nodded mutely. But for hours after Jax left, before the dawn came, Gilly lay in bed, reliving both her dream and the awful conversation she'd had with Kayla's mother yesterday. It keeps happening, Gilly had said, I keep having these dreams.

And the fairy's sympathetic response. It's your fairy blood, my dear. You are a key part of Rumpelstiltskin's book. How she'd taken her hand. Your dreams, Gillian.

They tell the future.

The end. 

SEQUEL IN PROGRESS! EXPECT THE FIRST PART TO BE PUBLISHED FALL 2019