Raven was standing on the edge of a crumbling cliff, the old women held the poisoned apple out at her repeatedly saying "eat it" and "take a bite". The earth around the cliff was starting to crumble and falling into the abyss below, causing the cliff to threaten to give way where Raven would surely fall to her death. Even the wind was blowing hard and seemed to be pushing and pushing Raven closer to the edge.
"I need to find the page." She muttered to herself. "But where is it?" She could feel herself becoming more panicked. Her breathing rasped and her heartbeat increased and became so fast that she could hear it in her head. As the cliff gave a groaning, creaking noise and gave way Raven stumbled forward to avoid the petrifying fall but instead she fell on her face. The old woman turned her over and forcefully stuffing the apple in Raven's mouth. The apple oozed out a sticky, black poison as its skin was pierced. The old woman started laughing hysterically before vanishing in a cloud of smoke, taking the page with her and leaving Raven lying on the ground. Her eyes closed and she expelled a final breath. There she lay, stuck between life and death.
Blondie, Cedar, Briar, Cupid, Maddie and Ashlynn had all made it out of their storybooks with old, crumpled pages in their hands. Looking around, they soon found that they were missing two friends.
"Wait a spell...Where's Apple and Raven?" Goldie worriedly inquired to her friends. All of them looked around and shook their heads.
"Only Briar and Apple's story is left right?" Ashlynn looked for confirmation. Everyone seemed to agree. "Well, what are we waiting for? I need to go get Apple. She's my best friend." Briar started moving towards one of the books that Apple could have been in.
"Briar stop! You don't even know if Apple is in there and how will you get out? You're not thinking rationally!" Cupid grabbed Briar's arm to stop her from running off. "I don't care Cupid! Briar's my friend and I need to help her." With that Briar shoved Cupid off her arm, pushing her to the ground. Cupid felt confused and almost hurt from this outburst of unexpected violence but Briar didn't stop to look back. She rushed towards the giant storybook and forced it's huge pages open. A blinding light seeped out of the pages and caused Briar to cover her eyes. She still persisted and pushed her way through the light. The pages bounced closed behind her. There was an awkward, nerve-racking pause between the four students as they waited. Almost 10 minutes later Briar materialised in the room with Apple in her arms. "What happened in there?" Cupid asked.
"I was in Briar's story when I pricked my finger. Thankfully Briar was spelltacular and got me out in time."
"So if you were in Briar's story that means Raven is in your story Apple. And she hasn't come out yet!" Maddie exclaimed as she rushed for the book Raven had entered. She furiously ripped open the pages. The others followed in suit, closely behind.
"RAVEN!" Maddie screamed. The others ran to catch up with her. When they did they found Maddie holding the life-less Raven in her arms.
"What happened to her?" Cupid asked.
"Well if this is my story then she must have been poisoned by the apple!" Apple realized.
"Well what do we do?" Briar asked.
"This is not just right." Blondie exclaimed.
"We need to get Raven out of here." Maddie said confidently. "Apple woke up when she got out of the book so Raven should too, right?"
Cupid and Blondie ran to help Maddie pick up Raven. They clumsily carried her down the grassy hill a towards the glowing light that they had entered from.
"Oh why hasn't she woken up yet?" Apple asked impatiently. She stared expectedly down at the unconscious Raven. There was no way that anything that happened in the storybooks could be permanent, could it? They had laid Raven down on the hard, cold floor.
"Well now that I think about, Apple actually woke up before she left the book. I had to beat this thorn first though." Briar remembered.
"So maybe we were supposed to do something in there?" Ashlynn said.
"What about the page in Raven's storybook? Does she have it on her?" Cedar exclaimed. Maddie quickly checked in Raven's pockets, anywhere that she could have possibly put the page. Finding nothing, she looked up at the others and shook her head.
"It must still be in the story. Maybe that's why she isn't waking up." Briar concluded. "Well then we'll just have to go back in there and get it for her." Maddie exclaimed as she ran towards the pages of the book that they had just left. She went to separate the pages
"Umm guys I think we have a problem." Maddie called out to the others.
"What is it Maddie?" Cedar ran up to her to find out what was wrong.
"It's the book I can't get it open." Maddie huffed as she tried pulling the pages apart, using all the strength that she could muster.
"Here let me try." Apple said as Maddie stepped aside, but try as she might the book stayed closed.
"What are we going to do?" Wailed Ashlynn. The ground started shaking and a loud grinding sound filled the room as suddenly all the books started sinking into the floor. As the room shook even more violently, they found themselves back in the Hall of Heritage. Cedar was kneeling down next to Raven, holding her limp hand. While everyone else was distracted with the change of scenery, Cedar had noticed something. She quickly put her head down to Raven's chest and mouth. "Guys we have to get Raven to the infirmary. She's not breathing and I can't hear a heartbeat." Cedar cried, sounding alarmed and urgent.
"What's happened to her?" Cerise asked, concerned, as she looked down at Raven's sleeping body. She lay rock still on the crisp and starched infirmity sheets. Cerise had rushed to the infirmary. Raven had been the only real friend that she could truly trust, and for that she felt slightly indebted to her. Cerise, Hunter, Dexter, Poppy and many other students had also come down to see Raven. They also listened closely as Cedar explained the situation.
"We were looking for the real storybook of legends and it pointed us in the direction of the story book of legends in heritage hall. We each had to go into a story to retrieve a page and Raven was in Apple's story. By the time we found her it was too late. We think she was poisoned by the apple." Cedar explained. As Dexter looked down at Raven, Apple noticed a sad, longing look in his eyes. She was about to say something when she was stopped by the intercom.
"Could Apple White please report to Headmaster Grimm's office." The voice from the intercom boomed.
"Oh. I bet the Headmaster knows how to help Raven." Apple tried to sound cheerful and put on a fake smile for the sake of her friends, but on the inside she was dreading that any news Headmaster Grimm had in relation to their story would only be bad.
Apple took a deep breath as she knocked on the Headmasters door. There had to be a way to make Raven better and she hoped that she would be able to find it. Apple knew she would do anything in her power to save her friend...and her story. If Raven didn't get better then she wouldn't be able to poison Apple and Apple didn't want to think of that possibility. Who knew what would happen to her if that were to happen. What would her future look like? Would she have one at all?
"Come in," the voice on the other side of the door said.
"You wanted to see me Headmaster." Apple smiled sweetly. Trying to convince herself more than the headmaster that she was doing alright.
"Yes Apple. It's about your roommate, Raven. I'm sure you've come to realized that without Raven your story can't continue. However Raven will only wake up if your story has begun. It's the only thing powerful enough to wake her up except for true love's kiss." Headmaster Grimm explained. He took down a small book from his bookshelf on the wall. Inside it was a sparkling, golden key with a pink gem on the top of it on one side and a purple gem on the other side. He picked up the key and inserted it in a trapdoor, hidden under a royal red carpet. Inside were all the stories for all the students who attended Ever After High. He rummaged around until he found a small book. One side was white and gold with a red apple on it and the other was black and silver with a dark purple raven feather on it. Where the pages should have been on the side was a small key hole. Apple knew what these were. They were the entrances to all of their stories. She knew that in order to begin her story they would have to unlock the book with their Fairytale key.
"So if I unlock our story she'll wake up and then she would have to poison me, right?"
"Well it's not quite as simple as that. For starters you would have to actually find the key. But as a tradition and in order to appease the few Rebel's who felt that all of this was unfair, it's the Rebel that would unlock the book." Headmaster Grimm sighed.
"So you mean we can't unlock the book unless Raven were to wake up?"
"No, we can still unlock it, but if you do you will become the Rebel of the story." Apple gasped and stepped back in shock. She couldn't be the Rebel. After years of being good and trying to maintain her image. What would her mother say?
"So I'd become the Evil Queen and Raven would be the Royal? She would be rescued by the prince and I would be locked up?" Apple was on the verge of tears.
"Yes. Or you could abandon your story, Raven would stay asleep and you could find your own destiny." On hearing this Apple stopped. She could still have a life. Sure, it wasn't the one that she had been promised or the one she had been expecting her entire life. Raven could sleep. Apple felt ashamed that she had even thought of that as an option even for a second. Raven was her friend as well as her roommate.
"I have to think about this." Apple ran out of the office and into her room, where she locked the door behind her. She didn't know if she wanted her friends to know about this, but she did know that she was going to have to make a decision and either way, it was going to impact someone's future detrimentally.