Our Once Upon A Time

*Chapter 13*

Status: Updated :)

Holly POV

After looking around for a while longer we walked out of the cottage. Night had fully fallen and the tall trees casted their ominous shadows onto the ground below. I looked up through the trees to look at the starry sky... stars. I've... I've never seen stars in real life before and I almost missed them. I smiled a little as I've only seen stars in drawings in old novels I used to steal from the more wealthy people of the Isle. I even saw the moon, now that I had seen before, but never so bright.

Who knew the moon could cast such a bright light? I sure didn't, it looks so beautiful with the dark blue background and the stars complimenting it too. Gee, all these royal bastards have kept this all to themselves for all this time?

Harry saw that I was looking up and looked up with me as the tension in the surrounding air only grew thicker like a dense smog. It bothered me a lot, but how could I focus on that when the stars are twinkling? I didn't know stars twinkled either, it's like they're talking to each other by blinking back and forth in a language unbeknownst to us. Harry glanced over to me as I kept my concentration on the stars before looking back up, we both silently appreciated the dark sky for a few moments before looking back ahead.

By the rising second, the tension was growing, and I could not figure out why. Maybe we're about to be attacked? That doesn't sit right with me whatsoever, I took a long sigh and looked to the people around me with high suspicion. Ben looked back to all of us for a moment and stared at me for a moment or two more, narrowing his eyes as he seemed to analyze my face for whatever reason. Maybe he thinks I look like Mal? It would make sense, we are sisters. We do look alike to a point that's for sure, but a swift glare later and he turned his attention right back to Mal,

"You're gonna have to tell me how you got so many people out of the Isle to help"

Ben said with an uneasy tone before turning back around to look at me again. I flashed him a harsher glare to basically tell him to quit it and made him turn around again,

"Actually Mal promised to get all of the kids that wanted to off the Isle!"

Evie said, sounding rather excited about the whole thing. I am too, to be honest. I'm not exactly an innocent, but there are plenty of kids who are on the Isle that don't deserve such a cruel and miserable environment. I know for a fact that if I didn't grow up on the Isle I would have come out far... different I guess. Ben furrowed his brow and looked at Mal with a very confused expression that put me off,

"Oh really?"

He said, he spoke as if he had not a clue of what Mal was talking about. That worried me, it worried me more than it should have,

"I need to tell you guys something"

Mal seemed to blurt out as she turned around and faced us all. The group as a whole stopped walking, the smog of tension grew almost suffocatingly thick in the air,

"That bad feeling is hella strong now"

I whispered to Harry as I saw Mal's eyes brimming with tears. He glanced down to me to see my worry and I looked up at him for a moment before looking back to Mal and raising a brow at her,

"I lied to all of you"

It hit me. I knew it. This was way too good to be true. Mal's always been a two-faced conniving snake, I should have known better than to trust her, I can already tell that was a mistake. Jay spoke up,

"What do you mean?"

"We aren't taking any new kids off the Isle. The programs shut down, we're actually planning on closing the barrier forever, for Auradon's safety"