Ten: The End

"Rapunzel." I lifted her limp form into my arms, hugging her to me. Her breath was shallow now and there was no color left in her. "Rapunzel, please. Don't leave me here." I sobbed into her shoulder.

"I love you." It was barely a whisper. It was only a breath but it was her last breath. I clutched her against me harder and wept. I rocked forward and back, sobs racking my entire body. My heart felt as if it had been ripped from me.

"What are the words? Those words you sang in the forest?" I begged through gritted teeth as tears streamed down my face and onto Rapunzel's. "Flower gleam? And glow. Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine." I pulled her against me, trying to sing through the pain but nothing was happening. "Heal what has been hurt, change the fate's design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine." I was shaking and couldn't stop as I rocked back and forth, holding her limp form against me. "What once was mine."

I don't know how many times I repeated the song she'd sung to heal me in the forest. I repeated it over and over hoping for her to whisper my name and look up at me with her beautiful green eyes and tell me she was alright. I repeated it, drowning in my own tears.

The sun began to rise and still the twins slept in their bundles of blankets that protected them from the cold air around them. I kissed Rapunzel's forehead and whispered to her my goodbye. "I have only dreamed of one thing. I fell in love with you and I dreamed of being with you. Even while I was with you I dreamed of you. You were and always will be my dream and my love. Our children are my new dream. They're my last bit of you. I love them so much already. I love you. I love you so much, Rapunzel." I wrapped her blanket over her, covering her ghostly white face, and crossing the room to where the twins lay.

I picked them up and walked down the stairs to the room I'd met Rapunzel in. I paused at the window I'd climbed through. The wardrobe she'd locked me in stood against the wall. Her drawings and her life surrounded me. I had cried all that there was to cry. I felt drained and I knew that the only reason I was leaving this tower was because of the two babies in my arms who needed what I couldn't provide.

I descended the hidden staircase carefully and stepped out onto the grass. Maximus stood ready. I climbed up onto the horse, careful of the two babies in their slings that hung from my neck, and looked down at them as they slept. Maximus began to walk toward the kingdom as I ran my thumb carefully over the small faces of my children.

They both had brown hair and startling green eyes that pained me when the first one woke and looked up at me. "Goodmorning, Rapunzel." I whispered. Her sister blinked sleepy eyes up at me then. "Did you sleep well, Elouise?"

It felt like an eternity getting to the kingdom, but we emerged from the forest at the stone bridge that I'd been across so many times. I thought of myself running with the crown in the satchel that was now long gone. I remembered Rapunzel's beaming face as she turned around to face me when she crossed the bridge for the first time. My heart ached, but we pressed on.

"I request an audience with the King and Queen." I announced at the Palace to a guard. "As their son in law." My voice cracked and the guard had me follow him into an empty room.

"Wait here, Mr. Fitzherbert." The guard said before leaving the room. There were other guards posted at each of the doors, but it didn't matter. I sank to my knees, cradling my babies.

"Where is she?" The voice belonged to Rapunzel's mother, the Queen.

"Rapunzel," I choked, not looking up, "is dead."

"No." The Queen breathed and I heard her fall behind me.

"I need help." I felt weak begging for help. "Our children have no mother, no source of nourishment."

"Children?" The King's voice was harsh.

"She fled when she became ill," I said. "She died when she gave birth. I need help."

I didn't know what happened next because it happened so quickly. Rapunzel and Elouise were taken from me as someone twisted my arms up behind my back. Someone punched me across the mouth when I'd yelled and a boot came down on the back of my leg when I'd tried to stand.

"Flynn Ryder, you are wanted for thieving, kidnapping, and murder." A voice hissed. My heart slammed in my chest as I watched the Queen walk out of the room with my baby, my last bit of Rapunzel, my last bit of life. When the King and Queen had gone with my children I was hauled to my feet and out of the side doors.

"No!" I screamed, wrenching my head over my shoulder to where I'd last seen them. "No!" I felt sick and like every bit of me was being torn away. I doubled over as I was shoved into a cell and vomited. "I didn't kill her!" I sobbed, grabbing the bars and screaming. "I love her." I sagged against the bars, sobbing quietly.

The bars fell back from behind me and I was dragged up to my feet. I didn't bother fighting. Everything had been taken from me. The guards walked me down the same path that they had when the jail break happened and I'd escaped to Rapunzel. No such happenings would happen today. Even if someone caused a riot, there was nowhere for me to go.

I felt numb as I stepped up the wooden stairs to where my noose hung. The executioner was waiting patiently. A crowd of townspeople were waiting, watching as the noose was fastened around my neck. I could barely see them. My last rites were being read out.

I closed my eyes and saw Rapunzel asking who I was, flying out of her window with her golden hair, singing at the pub. I saw Rapunzel slamming the frying pan into me to give me a weapon against the guards, diving into the water to try to find a way out of the cave, healing my hand in the forest. I saw Rapunzel dancing in the kingdom and singing under the lanterns. I saw Rapunzel fighting for my life and telling me that I was her dream. I saw Rapunzel.

The trap door opened and I fell.

Song:

"Say Something" by A Great Big World