Troubled Water

34. vanish

vanish : to disappear entirely without a clear explanation

*  *  *

"Where's Emma?" Hook heard as he started to regain conscience. He slowly opened his eyes and saw an agitated Regina. "She can't have just vanished!" she added. He sat up and they all noticed he was awake.

"What happened?" Baelfire asked him.

"I don't know. Emma's gone?" he asked and you could feel the concern in his voice.

"Nowhere to be seen!" Regina replied, clearly mad, a little at him. "Did you see anything?"

"I stayed with her during her watch because of what happened yesterday and I just fell unconscious." he explained.

"Why would he have taken her?" Tink asked, interrupting the both of them. "I know she's the boy's mother but is there something else?"

"Well they used to be together." Robin said and pointed Hook. "But it probably is something about the boy."

"You were with her?" Tink asked, surprised.

"Yeah, long time ago. What are we still doing here now, let's get going!" he almost yelled.

I should have protected her, he thought. I should have protected her.

* * *

Her head felt heavy, she felt like something was dripping on her forehead. She had a hard time opening her eyes and when she did she saw blurry lines in front of her that turned into bars. What the hell? she thought. Around her, it seemed like a cave : dark. How did I get here? But there was only one answer : Pan.

* * *

"You're obviously pissed at me." Hook said to Regina, sometime after they had started walking. She kept arguing with him over some stupid thing. "About Emma." he added.

"Yes. Yes I am! You act like you two are together but you can't! You hurt her, that's all you do, that's all you're good at! Every time she's around you, something happens to her. Now, she was fine these past years but you just had to come back and ruin everything! So stop being the one that seems so crushed by her disappearance. You don't get a say. She is NOT yours." Regina well, yelled most of it, letting off her chest the feelings she had been keeping to herself about Hook. In her head, not like in Emma's, he could not be the man he used to be. She only saw her friend hurting with him around and she hated it. Regina then looked away and kept on walking.

Just a little farther, watching the whole scene, was Pan, smirking.

*  *  *

"There you are, I figured you'd come see me." Emma said after waiting for what seemed hours for an explanation. She wasn't afraid, not so much but the most important : she could no show any sign of fear. It would be too easy and satisfying for that annoying young boy. "So, what do you want?"

"Oh, I don't need anything from you. Staying in that cage will do just fine. I need you out of sight." he replied.

"And why?"

"Well first, because of Henry. He needs to believe his mother abandoned him, not that she came here to save him." Pan explained. "He needs to become like all the lost boys, an orphan."

"What do you need him for?" she asked and you could feel a little anger in her voice. She wrapped her hands tight around the bars.

"Can't say. But why do you care? You've never been part of his life and you won't after that." he replied. 

"What do you know about it?" she yelled. "We did what was best for him, I could not take care of him. He probably was better of without me, yes, but you don't get to judge me on that!"

"I know a lot more than you would think." he declared.

There was a silence, Emma let go of the bars and sighed.

"What's the other reason I'm here?" she asked.

"Oh, that. I'm just having a little fun watching your friends screaming at each other, but most importantly, watching that filthy captain suffer." he said before a cloud of smoke appeared and he disappeared.

*  *  *

Pan magically transported himself at his camp, where his lost boys were either talking or practicing shooting their bow and arrows or sword fighting. He looked around, scanning all the young boys and looking for one in particular. Where is he? He walked over to Felix. 

"Where is Henry?" he asked.

"Just... here." he said, turning his head and pointing the log where Henry had been sitting minutes ago.

"You lost him? You lost him?" Pan asked again, yelling. "Find him! You all know how important he is!"

Felix gathered the lost boys and moments later they were all out of the camp.

*  *  *

He was running. He did not really know where he was but he wanted to get as far as he could from the camp. He ran, probably longer then he ever had. He was next to a rock, a really big rock and found a small entrance. A cave, great, maybe I can hide there while I figure out what I should do next.

He got inside. It was very dark and seemed to hear a sound.

"Is someone there?" a female voice asked, from afar. He squinted but he really did not see much. 

"Yeah..." he replied, not sure if this was a trick or not. she recognized the voice. She looked at him again. It was him!

"Henry?" she asked. W-what? How? It must be a trick! he thought.

"How do you know my name?" he asked and she felt the fear in his voice.

"I know it's gonna sound crazy but my name is Emma and your father came to me for help, he wanted me to help finding you but I'm trapped, I can't get out. But..."

"Emma..." he spoke. "You're my mom..." he declared. He tried to walk towards her voice but suddenly there more light filled the cave and the ground fell, literally, except where Henry was standing and where the cage stood. He laid eyes on her mother, trapped in a cage.

Hey! Sucky chapter again sorryyy :(

At least I got time to finish it this morning cause my class was cancelled xd 

Question of the day (or chapter) : favorite song of the moment? :) I need new music haha :)

Comment your thoughts on the story xx

- L