Chapter Text
I didn’t mean to make the entire school hate me.
I didn't mean to make her cry.
I didn't mean to destroy the one moment I knew meant so much to her.
I, Raven Queen, never intended to do any of these things.
Then again--
Maybe I truly was wicked!?
Despite my hopes and beliefs that I was not the person legacy drafted me to be, our story always contained a tainted opening?!
One not meant to surpass the preface of Legacy Day!
After all, the Great Authors must have found humor in making me male.
Everyone knows that the old hag etched in Snow White’s tale is a jealous middle-aged woman.
Not a royal by birth, male, unimpressed with his own vanity, but envious of golden curls that he can't hold between his fingers!
Blue eyes, he's not allowed to peer into!
Rose lips, not meant to hold a smile for the likes of me. Let alone kiss!
Sadly, my being made only covers half of the drama unfolding here at Ever After High.
Trouble has been brewing all Spellmester, but I wasn’t feeling guilty about what I had done at Legacy Day!
Yeah, sure, I woke up with the intention of doing what we had rehearsed for years! Approaching the great Storybook of Legends, etching my family into the legacy I was born to have, and watching as everyone celebrated it.
But tell me why the book felt so heavy in my trembling hands?!
Why did the pages rattle like old bones? Begging me not to sign! To stand up for what I wanted!
My entire graduating chapter was a chorus of chaos awaiting my decision, while the girl I loved the most stood heartbroken like an angelic tree ornament.
She doesn’t know. She can’t know. I'm about to destroy everything she’s trained her whole life for.
Only the rustles of gowns and gasps, reminding me that my action held power! That, what I was about to do, would make them all hate me!
The storybook opens on its own — a page marked with his destiny. *Evil Queen. Poisoner. Path of ruin. Fate of Snow White.*
My eyes meet Apple’s eyes.
Seeing her hope, her trust, but all I see is the girl who snuck me cinnamon cookies in detention, and who used to read me bedtime stories on rainy days!
Followed by a prophecy, where I will kill her!
My throat clenches.
“Raven Queen,” Grimm intones. “Do you accept your—”
"NO!"
So why did I feel so empowered in that moment of pure rebellion?
“No.”
A collective gasp. Birds scatter from the rafters. My peers immediately seek out my presence to roast me! That is, except for Maddie, who gives me a double thumbs up!
Apple’s hands fly to her mouth. Her eyes — so full of faith — crack like frozen glass.
“I refuse. I won’t sign." I manage. Wishing I could have said out loud, I won’t poison her.”
The Storybook of Legends slams shut so violently that the podium shudders beneath me.
Everything — the cheers, the gasps, the shouting — fades under Apple’s lone whisper: “Raven… why?”
I open my mouth wanting to tell her everything I could never utter before this moment, including the one truth I was scared of the most. "I Love You!"
Apple White, the Princess of my dreams, stood in a bed of roses, which brought out the rubies encrusted upon her bodice. Her lips urged me now to do the right thing!
Ha, the right thing! She had no idea our visions of the right thing were entire libraries apart from each other!
"You still have time!" she urges with a fierceness that makes the other crowned jewels move as she steps forward. "Sign it, Raven! Sign it now!"
So tell me why, despite knowing, I was throwing not only myself, but others in danger just for the hope she may live!?
One might say an apple for your thoughts! I had to make things right all the same!
Just may the narrators let her forgive me!
I would rather the entire realms burn than the world let me hurt you.
Approaching the apple-framed door, plastered in shards of heavenly golden and deep ruby, I hesitate to open my mouth as her sobs greet the dark hall between our chambers with a broken melody.
My hands keep stretching for the door, but never make it past the threshold line, as they instead tremble with "Whatever Afters" of just leaving things broken as they are.
I had no place here, no reason to pretend I had a backbone to stand up on, but yet... I couldn't just bail! I had already cast the attention I never wanted upon myself before our graduating chapter, that there was no throwing in the bookmark now.
I couldn’t leave the pages torn between us.
Destined villain or not, I couldn't leave her heart broken when I held the pieces.
I am not the monster she accused me of being. I am far weaker than she'll ever know by just her presence alone.
I may not be sorry for my actions, but I can say that I am sorry I devastated her like this.
Over the years, our fellowship thrived mostly in vain, but I was selfish in my desire to keep it despite it not serving either of us a purpose by the great narrators.
To want to fix what had to be the most vile thing I've ever done to her, ruining her big moment without even giving her a why.
Soon to be a villain-or not, my amethysts cast softly upon the very princess' door that I was born to despise.
My jaw clenches knowing she'll likely refuse me as I knock patiently.
The seconds I'm left out in the dark hall burn into minutes, and minutes flutter into eternity as I wait for her to come.
Silently praying to the Great Narrators above, she’d at least stop sobbing long enough to scold me or tell me to go away!
“Apple, please, I know you’re in there...and I know you don’t want to talk to me, but you have to understand-I had to do it! I’m not the wicked person that destiny wants me to be. I am who I-”
“BUT WHY CAN’T YOU BE YOU AND JUST DO WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DO?" The thunder of her voice cracks with her stormy gaze. The firmness of her door slams open with such fierceness that I'm left without balance as I slink back. "I’VE DONE NOTHING TO CAUSE YOU NOT TO WANT TO BE A PART OF MY STORY!" She accuses with a thrust of her singular glove hand against my chest. "HOW COULD YOU HAVE DONE THIS TO ME? AFTER EVERYTHING I’VE DONE FOR YOU?!”
Weakly, my lips try to push a naive smile, as if I don’t know Apple White is angry at me. As if I can make up for it. As if I don't find every angered scrunch of her face delectable.
“You're right.” I sigh as my shoulders dip back. “You’ve done a wonderful job welcoming me, ever since we first met in Nursery Rhyme School.
Despite knowing her place in the table of contents of life, Apple never turned a dimpled cheek upon anyone.
When her birthdays came, she sent carriages to all.
When Daring attempted to start a prince's duel upon the playground, Apple yielded a sword for those too small to fight on their own bootstraps.
So she was right, through every chapter, Apple had built this golden bridge between us.
The simple years I once hated are longed for now. In our small school, Apple was the only one in our class to acknowledge my presence without fear.
Who made sure I never ate alone.
Who tried to bestow me some kindness.
Something along the edges of repaying me for the ever after she had been promised since her first breath of air.
Crossing her arms, those golden brows furrowed as the storm before me collapsed beneath a wave of sadness.
“Raven?! Do you not understand that if you don’t go to Headmaster Grimm and accept your legacy that Daring and I may never get married?” Her hands tossed dramatically. Making her cherub-like cheeks fluster with each petite move she made. “THAT I MAY NEVER BE QUEEN-AND THAT WE COULD DISAPPEAR JUST ALL BECAUSE YOU DON’T WANT TO BE EVIL?”
“But Apple, I can’t —” a golden decal nail thumped into my chest this time as her glove was tossed behind us.
“I’ve got news for youuuu! Your life isn’t being lived for just YOU! IT'S ABOUT ALL OF US, AND BECAUSE OF YOU, WE MAY NOT BE HERE PAST NEXT YEAR!” The storm stirred her voice but lacked its boom as it soon faded in the awkward hold of the threshold between us.
It was times like these I had to consider that maybe Apple had been too welcoming?! That our friendship had always been a double-edged curse to this whole Legacy Day nonsense.
While I wanted to help her achieve her dreams, I knew I could never harm a curl of her head.
Parting my lips to speak, Apple’s sigh interrupts me before I can even speak.
“I can’t believe that even after this, you’re just going to go back to your desk and pretend as if I never uttered one word in protest at your dumb, stubborn warlock-like logic.”
Rolling my eyes, I lower myself to meet the gaze that fights to resist my own. The threshold seems more crowded as our steps lace further into her room.
“How do you know that’s what I’m going to do?”
“Because I know you.”
Apple was no doubt right. My stubbornness was likely going to place me at my desk sooner or later. Unconcerned about the mess I had made for not only “our” story but the fates of others.
But I couldn’t put my name in the Storybook of Legends, I just couldn’t! A force greater than legacy was keeping my hand withdrawn.
Soon her frame left the door, allowing me to either follow her or just leave her be, as she took her place on the gold fainting couch. A true divine portrait of a princess fair, if I had ever known one.
Keeping her thoughts to herself now, she fidgets with her reading glasses as if I'm not even there.
Hoping somehow she can be rude enough to scare me as if we hadn't spent a lifetime learning otherwise.
Stepping further into the golden and red realm known as Apple’s room, I did my best to avoid stepping upon the pearls, the forgotten oceans of fabrics, or the majestic crown she had worn only hours ago with pride, as they lay carelessly on the floor.
Legacy Day is obviously no longer something either of us was waiting to think about!
I had ruined everything in just three breaths for the girl who spent years preparing her Legacy Day speech, dreaming about the day that was supposed to make her life complete.
I knew I couldn’t give her this day back, nor could a simple apology mend everything I had shattered, but here I was ready to try all the same, anyway.
Approaching the fainting couch as she remained lying back upon it, I knelt on one knee.
Knowing that if only my mother could see me, she'd be throwing me out to survive my odds in the blistering bogs.
“Do you remember what I said about everyone getting to choose their own destiny now?”
An annoyed shuffle answers me as she refused to give me proper audience of her gaze, which toys with her glasses.
Gently, I command it, with a tilt of her chin, bringing those oceans closer to my shore of reach.
Apple has spent a lot of time reflecting upon her Ever After, but so have I.
“I know what you want, but I’m not rejecting my role to hurt you, Apple. I am truly not..." My courage begins to squirm like newts in a pot the more she gazes upon me. "I'm... I’m doing this for you--”
“--What do you mean you’re doing this for me?”
“I-I-” I stammered. Feeling as tongue-tied as Hopper did with Briar was about. I try not to let my fear prevent me from speaking about the way I feel any longer. But before I could gain the courage to speak, her impatience reared its head, and she cut in.
“See? You don’t even know why. What you did tonight was unspeakable! I know you’re just trying to distract me and, frankly, I don’t have the mind to play games right now. So why don’t you just leave me alone so I can do my best to forget this night? I need to finish my Kingdom Management project, so show yourself out!” she expressed, flatly.
Princesses are spoiled to believe the conversation always twists around their crown jewels! But I knew my chance was gone. She was right; I was probably wasting her time.
Leaving, I tried not to pout, but everything about tonight was going wrong!
Scowling, I strolled across the parlor, which served as the main entryway between our dorms. My frame suddenly collided with what felt like a brick wall. Shaking it off, I scoff.
It was Daring Charming, Ever After High’s anticipated future King, and Apple’s soon-to-be.
Groaning about how our collision had created creases in his tuxedo. His fist immediately swung back to knock me to the ground.
He wasn't the outstanding hero, everyone made him or his brother out to be, but good luck spinning that tall tale past anyone, including Headmaster Grimm.
My parents often joked that Apple and Charming were the most perfect couple there ever was. Stating that they only cared for one another because they were sheer reflections of each other.
That was a statement I never agreed with. Daring was everything Apple was not. Daring was more comparable to a rock than the jewel Apple was!
That, or maybe I should say his head rattled with them!
It really made me want to launch a wall when I considered this bowl of hair gel was who I stood in the shadows of.
Attempting to rise, knowing Daring was nothing but trouble, I catch the blinding beams of his smile before his arms easily thrust me against the brick wall.
“Oh, Birdman, you’re quite the pathetic sight to behold. First, you choke on your Legacy Day speech, then you ruin it for the rest of us, and now you’re trying to ruin my Happily Ever After.” Daring sighed.
Knowing far more about my true heart's desires than anyone has ever bothered to consider. I suppose my mother often said You're either the hunted or the hunter.
I would knock him into tomorrow's chapter, but Daring was such a beloved character around our school that I knew it would only further get me into trouble.
Hissing as I take the crack of his fist to my jaw, I fight myself between accepting the detention I'd be in and my pride.
Not wanting to ever be seen as violent, but unable to deny the small taste for blood I had naturally as the Evil Queen's only child.
"I’ll just make this easier on both of us.” He hissed. “I’d rather not decorate my new silk coat with your blood. So heed my words! Apple isn’t interested in freak shows like you, and neither am I. So just crawl back into the shadows where you belong before you end up dark in the ground!" Daring growls.
A fire burns through my lungs as he knocks the wind out of me.
“Oh, and a word of advice,” He said smugly. “Remember, Villains, don’t live happily ever after with the royals! They’re wiped out by heroes like me.”