Aurora sucked the life out of everything around her as she approached the house. She sucked life just as the fake Hamiltons did to the original ones.

"Remember me to never make you angry, Aurora. I’m afraid you’ll suck the life out of me," Regina muttered.

It was serious business when Aurora destroyed the garden she once found to be her comfort space. The one space she could run away from what others had to say about her. The once beautiful garden she hid in was now turning black and withering away.

Regina wanted to see the extent of Aurora’s power.

"Who are you-Hmph."

The mouth of the guard, who spotted the trio, suddenly closed in the middle of his sentence. He clawed at his lips to pry them open but it would not work.

Aurora and Vincent looked at Regina as the culprit as neither of them had done it.

"This spell stood out to me for many reasons, and it was easy to do. I thought about getting my mother to stop nagging me when I saw it," Regina shrugged her shoulders. "Turns out I was right to get it after all. I didn’t have a lot of time to practice so it will go away soon. You should knock him out, Vincent."

The guards stopped clawing at his lips and shook his head not wanting to be knocked out but it was no use as the last thing he saw was Vincent’s fist heading straight for his face before he blacked out and collapsed to the ground.

"Move quickly before we are spotted again," Vincent advised the two of them. The plan would fail if they were spotted by a lot more guards. There would hardly be any time to start a new plan and the Hamiltons would be alerted of their presence.

"This way," Regina and Aurora said at the same time.

They led Vincent to a door leading into the kitchen. It had always been hard to keep closed and so they used it when they used to sneak out and play at night. The book promised not to tell Minnie or Rachel about the door so the two of them could keep playing.

"They never fixed it," Regina smiled when the door easily pushed open. They were able to enter the house thanks to the years of sneaking around to have more time with Aurora. "We should get Minnie first. My father will back down if we have Minnie and my mother will follow whatever he says."

All the flowers placed in the kitchen continued to die when Aurora walked by. As it was late in the night, no servants were present while the trio roamed the halls to go toward Minnie’s room.

"It is odd. I can smell your mother, father, and brother clearly along with all the servants but I cannot smell your grandmother. It is as if she is not here," Vincent spoke while they walked up the stairs leading to the second floor.

"She was not seen leaving the house. Do you honestly think there is another way out of here? Let’s say she is not here, why would she have left? Who did she think was watching her leave? Where would she have gone? Did she know we were coming?" Regina threw out a list of questions.

"There is no way she would have known we were coming. Something happened in the days you were not here," Aurora looked at Regina. It was a good thing Regina left before something bad could have happened to her. "It is odd you cannot sense Minnie here but everyone else remains."

"Honestly, she seems to be the type to leave everyone else here as bait. The house is normally this quiet but it does feel as if something is missing. I don’t see Esmeralda’s ghost either. I feel like we are in for a grand surprise," Regina’s heartbeat began to beat louder with each step she took.

"Please find a way to calm down your heart. It is hard for me to listen to everything else when your heart is so loud. Which way is it?" Vincent asked Aurora when they reached the second floor.

"This way," Aurora turned right, and as soon as she did Aurora noticed something odd. "Your door is wide open, Regina."

"They must have been searching for how I managed to escape. I can’t bear to look at the mess they’ve created," Regina internally cried over the loss of her wonderful bedroom.

"I smell blood coming from that room. It is faint and covered with other smells like the servants had been trying to clean it up. It is the blood of an old woman."

Aurora and Regina looked at each other. They both had the same thought but then shook their heads as both could not believe it. There was no way the blood could belong to Minnie and everyone else in the home was calm. How would anyone even be able to lay a hand on Minnie when they were all scared of her?

Had someone finally snapped and gotten rid of Minnie? Who could the person be?

"Do you think my mother finally killed Minnie?" Regina saw her mother as the only person with the balls to try harming Minnie. "I’m more surprised it didn’t happen sooner. Maybe Minnie has not left but something happened to her. What if they killed and buried her?"

"We are getting near to her room. Are you sure you don’t smell or sense her presence there?" Aurora asked Vincent. His sense of smell was out of this world and he could not smell Minnie at this point, she was not in the house and they needed to switch their target quickly.

"She’s not here," Vincent concluded after sniffing the air and listening for any heartbeats or movement nearby. He remembered Minnie’s scent and presence from the many times he got close to her to try killing her. "That blood seems to belong to her the more I smell it. Someone left in this house attacked her. Who will you go after to get questions about her?"

"Her son and the best person to get questions out of him is his favorite child. Regina, do you think you can handle it? I can-"

"I will do it," said Regina.