Once Upon A Wondrous Love (A Once Upon A Time Fanfiction)

Chapter One: Storybrooke, MA

NINETEEN YEARS LATER

I stood outside of the deserted bus station and took in my dank surroundings. An old man slept on a bench underneath a leaking alcove. The rain was coming down in sheets and all I had to cover me was my old umbrella. 

Gathering up my courage, I grabbed the map he had given me and studied it. About four miles North, I would find it. I started walking. My boots made splashes in puddles ankle-deep as I tried to map out my exact location. 

The stormy Maine day mimicked my mood as the wind whipped my skirt around my legs. I even second guessed myself a few times. How did I allow myself to believe someone I didn't even know? For all I know, this could be a big hoax. 

I came upon where the map was marked with scrawl that once read 'sign' but now, after countless folds, the paper was worn and the only way I could tell it was marked was the smudge. I looked up and there was nothing but plain road. The road did not wind, it went absolutely straight. 

On, and on, and on. I tried to steady my breathing. 

"Perhaps I am in the wrong place." I checked the bus ticket and matched the neighboring town's name on the map. I began to fume as I looked about the dripping forest. 

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. 

Angry, I tossed my umbrella on the ground and added the map to the sopping pavement. Tears started to fill my eyes. How could I have been so stupid? Squeezing my eyes shut, I began to try to figure what I could possibly do to get home. 

I had spent all my money like a fool. I was so caught up in my fuming, I almost didn't hear the crackle that sounded like electricity. Glancing overhead I looked for powerlines. There weren't any. 

I turned and found my umbrella to be smacking something that crackled blue lightning. 

Astounded, I walked towards it cautiously. My map was now floating in mid-air, being pushed by the wind against what seemed to be some type of wall. Hope flickered in my stomach. 

Perhaps all of what he said was true. I grabbed the umbrella by it's handle and hastily closed it. I took a deep breath and reached for the paper. 

At first, my hand brushed against something hard, then before I could plant my feet onto the ground, I was pulled through. My body felt as if it were being squeezed and electricity buzzed all around me. 

My skin shook and warmed as I hit the hard pavement on the ground. 

For a moment, I rested there, unaware of what had just happened. Then, as I stood up, I realized that I had fallen forward. I let out a melancholy sigh and then started to head back to the bus station. 

My body smacked something hard and I was thrust back. Once again. I slapped the cold, wet pavement, only this time, I was twenty feet away from where I had just been standing. 

A slight buzz still ran along my veins as I stood.

"Okay, here goes nothing." I noticed that the road now curved and up ahead, I couldn't see. Donning my umbrella, I continued my journey. 

After passing a few colorful houses, my head began to spin. Shaking it off as nothing more than hunger, I returned my thoughts to one thing: my parents. He had said this was a secret town. 

Perhaps they were all a bunch of occult members...or perhaps Jim Jones fanatics. None of that mattered though. I didn't care if my parents sacrificed animals or drank kool aid, just as long as they were mine. 

A town square came into view as I mounted the hill and descended quickly. Only a few people were out; the rain seemed to keep everyone inside. 

I passed a school where inside I could just glimpse at the children who sat learning. A tall clock tower was the zenith of the square and as I closed in on it, my chest began to ache. 

Hunger. It must be hunger. I told myself. I swiped dark strands of hair from my eyes and found that even when I did, they did not go away. 

My head spun some more and my legs betrayed me as I crashed onto the pavement. 

The clock glared back at me. Time is wasting. It said as my vision went black.