PARADISA

[The journal opens this afternoon in a rush, a flurry of pages. Henry actually has to flip around to get to the first blank one.

The holidays have been good to him this year, and it's easy to hear it in his voice. Even with all the bad things, the people he's lost, he's been fighting hard to keep his chin up -- and for the past few days, it hasn't been that hard.]

Hey, everybody! I know Christmas is over now and everything, but that just means we're getting into the best part of Christmas.

Anybody who's not from Earth probably doesn't know this, because most of the time when people explain Christmas they skip over this part, so you're lucky I'm here. After-Christmas is my favorite part. Okay, here it is:

[He pauses, for dramatic effect.]

After-Christmas is just like Christmas, except you don't have to worry about Christmas anymore. Everybody has their presents, everybody gets cookies, and all you have to do is have fun.

Basically, I made sugar cookies and I've been practicing on my sled. Anybody wanna race?

[He's visiting. For lunch, for his lessons, just because. His routine is so simple and easy and practiced at this point that he barely considers the possibility (inevitability) that it might be interrupted.

He's halfway into the rooms before he realizes something is off.

Bandit waits patiently for him at the threshold, still and alert like he almost never is. Henry stands there for a long moment with his hand on the doorknob, as if looking at the empty nameplate could will them back into the castle.

Fleetingly, painfully, he thinks it's good that they got to leave together, that neither of them had to be left here without family like he'd been.

He fumbles with his bag, and the journal opens to Bandit's soft whining.]

Um.

[There's a long pause where he doesn't trust his voice.]

Arya and Robb Stark went home. I... In case anybody didn't know.

[Henry dictates to the journal this morning, his consonants slightly scrambled by the fact that he's a young boy given a credit card in a place with a truly extensive selection of candy stores.

Behind him, there's the beeps of what can only be arcade games, one of the few times he's actually gone to the arcade when he said he was going to.]

You know, while we were here I read something. [A pause while he chews.] It was a story, like the fairy tales we have at home, but from here instead. It was about a boy who liked to draw cats. Everyone told him he shouldn't, that he drew cats too much, and that he should stop to pay attention to other things. He tried, but he couldn't stop.

One day, the boy was in a temple and he drew a cat on one of the screen things. A huge cat, the biggest and best he'd ever drawn.

Then, in the middle of the night, there was a huge fight in the temple. When the boy came back, he found out that a huge monster rat had come to attack the temple, and that something had killed it before it could hurt anyone. And he found out that the drawing he'd made of his cat was facing the complete opposite direction than how he'd drawn it.

[Another pause, and more crunching.]

I'd never heard that story before. I don't think it's in my book. But, there's so many places, so many worlds.... I mean, if we can do this, then it's not that weird to think it might be true somewhere.

[Today, Henry is on a mission. Specifically, a kitchen mission.

Never one to turn down a perfectly good pie, he's painstakingly collected pies from where they've been deposited around the castle, both traditional and kind of weird, and created a sampler for himself at the counter downstairs.

He opens the journal as he eats, and only sometimes talks with his mouth full.]

Hey, everybody. I'm trying an experiment, and I need your help.

The castle keeps turning wishes into pies, and I want to make the weirdest and most delicious pie I can think of. But I can only make one wish, so I wanna make sure it counts.

Suggestions? Ready, go.

[It's the second time he's woken up to an empty room, and somehow he's still surprised.

It figures. Just when things had been getting better, when he'd started feeling alright after having Emma taken away, when the castle had brought Snow back--

Well. It wasn't like his family had ever been whole before, anyway.]

Um. [A beat. He started talking too fast. Try again.] Um, the castle sent Prince Charming home. [amending:] James.

[Home to a curse, which isn't any better.

He's quiet for a while, looking at the other pages of the journal when he doesn't feel like doing anything else.]

I guess it's doing that thing again, isn't it. Where it sends a bunch of people home at once.

[It's been a rough month or so for Henry. But today he sounds determined.]

Hey, everybody.

I know this month has been-- [horrifying, terrifying] --bad. Really bad. I've only been here a few months, so the castle's never done anything like this since I've been here, but.... I know it has before, and I know it probably will again. It's using its magic for evil, but not all magic has to be used that way.

What I'm saying is, we can make it better. Show the castle that it's not going to beat us with stuff like this.

[That's his speech. He's not as good at it as some of the heroes in his book of stories, but he thinks it's about time he start practicing.

What do people need when they're upset? Distractions, distractions are nice. There's a pause, and then, gentler:]

Halloween is soon, we should do something fun for it.

If you don't have Halloween in your world, don't worry about it. The only important things you need to know are that you get candy and that it's awesome.

I guess a lot of people have been leaving lately, huh?

[It's kind of an obvious observation. People have been filing in and out since he got here, but this is the first time it's hit someone he knew, someone from his own world. He hasn't talked to Belle in ages, and now he's realized it's because her nameplate is gone.

He's not quite sure how he feels about that, yet.]

How does the castle pick? Who goes and who stays. Does anybody even have an idea? It can't just be random.

[Right?]