The Girl With Lost Memories - Parts 1 & 2 (An OUAT Fanfiction)

𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 28: 𝒜𝓁𝓁 𝑀𝒶𝑔𝒾𝒸 𝒞𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓈 𝒲𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒜 𝒫𝓇𝒾𝒸𝑒

I storm into Mr. Gold's shop, making the bell sound like it belongs on a fire truck.

"I need help," I say, striding to the counter.

"Don't we all?" he says from behind it, reading a book larger than Henry's. He flips a page, then glances up from it. "You look different."

"Mary Margaret took me shopping."

"Well, that was kind of her." He turns another wrinkled, crisp page. "What do you want, Miss Palmer?"

I want a lot of things, as most people do. I want a family. I want a mom and a dad. I want to be happy. I want to be a singer/songwriter. But, right now, I want to know what happened to me. "You clearly have a knack for magic. I saw that creepy stuff in the back room."

He looks up from the book again, closing it. "So, you're the one who took the pirate clothes?" He wears a smug, intimidating expression.

I sigh. "You knew it was me."

"I did." He smirks, amused by the situation. What's so humorous about me stealing from his shop? Doesn't he care?

"Why didn't you have me arrested?"

"Why would I arrest you for taking back what's rightfully yours?" What's rightfully mine?

"What are you talking about?"

"That costume. It belongs to you."

"It's a pirate outfit. Besides, how could something of mine end up in Storybrooke?"

Mr. Gold lowers his head, then brings it back up. "What do you need my help with, Miss Palmer?"

"I was looking at Henry's book, and something weird happened..." I take a deep, shuddering breath. "Light came out of it, and it... shot at me."

He straightens himself, intrigued by the mention of the supernatural. "Magic?"

"I don't know what it was," I say, avoiding his eyes.

"Do you remember anything from your past?"

"I wish people would quit asking that. I don't know what I'm supposed to remember."

He gives a mischievous grin—one that frightens me. How am I supposed to know whether he has any tricks up his sleeve? "I might have something that can help with that." He bends and pulls out a small, wooden, black box. He slides the book over and sets the box on the glass countertop.

"What is that?"

"It holds one of the many things I have collected over the centuries."

I raise an eyebrow. Centuries? He's exaggerating, right?

"All those acquisitions ended up in my shop with the curse." Mr. Gold removes the lid with a crystal nob at the center. He puts his hand inside the box and takes out something strange.

My stomach turns, and it isn't because of my late-night lasagna or because I haven't had breakfast yet. "Are these..." my head lifts to him in disgust, "bones?"

"Indeed. They belonged to your pet. In the Enchanted Forest, you carried them around with you after she was killed."

"Was I really that creepy?—Not that anything you said happened. It didn't. Magic doesn't exist."

He nods with a tight expression and a condescending grin. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes."

"Then go ahead. Touch them. Magic is in everything, especially the things which mean the most to us."