Once Upon A Time ~ Book 1

Chapter 23 - Changing Her Life

Mr.Gold stood in his antique shop. He walked towards the door and turned the open sign to a closed sign. He turned the lights off and stepped outside, locking the door behind him. Then he walked down the footpath, not noticing the pregnant girl hiding by the side of the shop.
The girl walked to the side door, a brick in her hand. She smashed the corner of the window with the brick, and unlocked the door from the inside.
She opened the door and walked inside, and sneaked through the creepy shop, with only dim lights lit, the brick still in her hand. The shop was filled with dark ornaments, ancient books and creepy antique dolls.
She stopped by a wall with a few valuable paintings. She pulled the one in the middle to the side, to find a dark, metal cabinet.
"Ashley?" said a voice from behind her.
She turned around.
"What are you doing?" Mr. Gold asked.
Ashley looked at him. "Changing my life." Then she held up a pepper-spray can to his face and pressed down on the nossle.
Mr. Gold let out a gasp of pain stumbled back into a cabinet, then knocked his head of the corner of a table, causing ornaments and artifacts to fall and smash.
Ashley looked down at him, unconscious, and a huge, bloody cut at the side of his forehead, from where he knocked his head. She kneeled down and took from his belt some keys.

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Regina stood in front of the mirror, applying lipstick.
"I know you think otherwise, but I don't enjoy these Saterday city council meetings. Sometimes they're just unavoidable."
She walked from the mirror and over to Henry, who sat at the table, reading a comic book. "Now, you know the rules?"
Henry pit the comic down on the table. "Yes on homework, no on TV, and stay inside."
"Good boy." said Regina, smiling, she walked closer to him, and held up his chin. "Under no circumstances do you leave this house."
"You mean don't see my mom."
Regina stood up. "She's not your mother. She's just a woman passing through. Now do as I say or there will be consequences."
She turned and began to walk briskly to the door. "I'll be back at 5:00 sharp."
She opened the door, stepped outside and closed the door.
Henry straight away stood up and from the window as she reversed her car out of the driveway. He then grabbed his backpack and ran out the door.

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"So glad all my stuff is here." said Emma, unpacking the the few boxes she owed.
Mary Margaret handed Emma one of the two plates of food she held.
"Oh, thanks." she took the plate and placed it on the floor next to her.
"So that's all your stuff?"
"What do you mean?"
"Is the rest in storage?"
"No, this is all of it. I'm not sentimental."
"Well, it must make things easier when you have to move."
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Mary Margaret placed her plate of food on the table and answered the door.
In the hall stood Mr. Gold.
"Miss. Blanchard? Is Miss. Swan here?"
Emma walked over to the door before Mary Margaret could say anything.
"Hi, my name is Mr. Gold." he held out his hand and Emma took it. "We met briefly on your arrival."
"I remember." said Emma.
"Good. I have a proposition for you, Miss. Swan. I...need your help. I'm looking for someone."
Mary Margaret stared at his inquringly.
"Really? Um." she shot her looks towards Mary Margaret.
"You know what, I'm going to go jump in the bath." interrupted Mary Margaret, awkwardly and she walked away.
"I have a photo." he took a photograph from his suit and held it out.
Emma took the photo, and examined it. The picture was of Ashley in Mr. Gold's shop.
"Her name is Ashley Boyd...." Mr. Gold steeped inside and Emma shut the door. "......and she's taken something quite valuable of mine."
"So why don't you just go to the police."
"Because...... She's a confused young woman, she's pregnant, alone, scared. I don't want to ruin this young girls life, but I just want my property returned."
"What is it?"
"Well, one of the advantages of you not being the police is discretion. Let's just say it's a precious object and leave it at that."
"When did you see her last?"
"Let night. That's how I got this." he bushed some of hos brown hair from his forehead to reviele the deep, bloody, mark he had got by hitting his head of the corner of the table in his shop the night before.
Emma raised her eyebrows.
"Is so unlike her." Mr. Gold went on. "She was quite wound up, rambling on and on about changing her life. I have no idea what got into her."
Emma looked down, guilty.
"Miss. Swan, please help me find her. My only other choice is the police, and I don't think anyone wants to see that baby born in jail, now do they?"
"No, of course not."
"So, you'll help me then?"
"I will help her."
He noded. "Grand."
The front door opened and Henrys voice came into the room. "Hey, Emma, I was thinking we........" he stopped when he saw Mr. Gold.
"Hey, Henry. How're you?" said Mr. Gold.
"Okay." he said slowly.
"Good. Give my regards to your mother." he turned to Emma. "And good luck, Miss. Swan."
Emma walked to the corner of the apartment where her boxes sat.
He walked pasted Henry and out the door, closing it behind him.
"Do you know who that is?" Henry walked towards her.
"Yeah, of course I do."
"Who? Cause I'm still trying to figure it out."
"Oh, I meant in reality."
"Is that all you brought?" he asked.
"Henry, what are you doing here?"
"My mom's gone till 5:00. I thought we can hang out."
"Kid, I wish I could, but there's something I gotta do." she walked past him as to the door.