Welcome to a Nightmare

Chapter 50: Instinct

"What happened to you kids?" Mary Margret asks.

Immediately she had snapped into mother mode, had both of them sit down in some of the dressing room chairs. She pulled out the first-aid kit and began helping treat the kids' wounds. She found an instant cold pack, usually used for sore muscles or sprained ankles due to dancing in heels, cracks it and helps apply it to Crystal's eye. Once the cold compress is in place, the formerly fairest of them all get out some antiseptic wipes to treat the cut on the girl's cheek.

Crystal winces in pain while still holding the ice pack. It was interesting to think that even though Henry was the target of the gang, she was more beat up than him, but that was probably because she's the one who fought back.

"We got jumped by a gang," Henry says. He too has an ice pack under his chin, where the leader had slammed his jaw, likely by accident but it still hurt.

"Which one," Mary Margret mutters, searching for band-aids in the kit.

"No idea," Crystal says. Again, she wishes that she had her magic so she could heal herself. At the same time, she felt glad that she was being taken care of by her surrogate mother, someone she'd missed dearly while in New York. Even though Snow White could never replace Lillian Miller, the former princess managed to fill some of the mothering roles that Crystal had longed for. Snow, Regina, and Belle were all considered maternal figures that the daughter of the Dark One could look up to for advice and support whenever needed. It was reassuring to see that the curse had not destroyed Snow's capacity for love. "They seemed to have a vendetta against Henry."

"They had tried to rob me the other day, but my grandpa stopped them and beat them with his cane. I'm guessing that is hard to forget when you're humiliated like that."

"Doesn't justify going after two teenagers like this," Mary Margret reasons. "Honestly, what has this world come to?"

"Depression, hatred, despair, hopelessness; you can take your pick," Crystal mutters sarcastically.

The exotic dancer frowns.

"Sorry, sarcasm is my defence mechanism," the young adult explains.

"I am inclined to agree with you overall," Snow nods, handing a band-aid to Crystal for her cut. "But I do try to look for the positives in every situation. Keep hope alive." She then turns her back to put away the kit.

Henry and Crystal shoot knowing looks at one another and smile contently. This is the Snow White they know and love. Always talking about hope... while repetitive and sometimes tedious, the speeches about good triumphing over evil and remaining optimistic were uplifting, especially considering how hopeless their situation seemed to be at the moment.

"It's a good philosophy," Henry agrees.

"If you don't mind me asking, what are your names?"

"I'm Henry," the author says.

"And I'm Crystal."

"Those are great names. Are you brother and sister?"

The two share a look of flickering panic; technically they're on the run and hiding from the Black Fairy so they will have to come up with some kind of lie to tell people, even if it is a family member. Their brunette hair could allow them to pass as siblings.

"Yeah, I'm twenty and he's fourteen."

"Quite an age gap there. Now, what the hell were you two doing out after dark anyway? If you live in the city, you have to know how dangerous it is at night."

The use of a "curse" word seemed so bizarre coming from the princess's mouth, so much so that it shocked them a bit.

"We knew," Henry says. "We were actually on our way home, but we... stopped at a food truck for a snack and got attacked."