Welcome to a Nightmare

Chapter 3: Get Out!

Meanwhile,  just outside of town, Crystal wakes in the back seat of her car to hear the loud noises of motorcycle engines. She had pulled over to the side of the road just outside of town, waiting for the residue of the curse to clear up so she could investigate and find out how much damage had been done to her home. She knew she'd been lucky and avoided being swept up by the curses in the past, but she knew the aftermath of them too well. She'd read Henry's book and been told the stories by her family and friends.

How much had changed? Was Storybrooke gone forever like Pan's curse had done? Were everyone's memories wiped like the one that Killian and Emma had cast, under the power of darkness that is? Had it cursed everyone to be completely different from the heroes Rumple's daughter knew them as? Just like Regina's curse...?

There's suddenly a weird sound coming from her driver side door, Crystal sits up to see some random guy trying to break into her car. He has a leather jacket over a hoodie, which is pulled over his head to conceal his identity. He also wears a ballcap with a wide brim, but even in the gray morning light, the daughter of the Dark One can make out that he has a beard.

"HEY!" Crystal screams, pulling herself into the front seat and blasting her horn to get her point across.

The guy is startled and drops his metal device, the very same device she used to use when breaking into cars back in New York. Needing some way to take out her anger on everything that's happened, Crystal opens the door, still in her nice dress, curls her hands into fists, ready to confront the guy.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she shouts.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, leaving your car on the road like this?"

"I was... waiting," Crystal lies, knowing that this person would never believe that she was waiting for a curse to be finished. "For someone."

"Well maybe you should wait for that person further away from here," the guy says. He removes the top of his hood and his cap. Crystal gasps, recognizing the face instantly.

"August?" she manages to say. All her hatred is immediately gone, and she runs to embrace him tightly. Pinocchio, son of a woodcarver, she found him. He too had avoided a curse in the past and he is more knowledgeable about these kinds of situations than she was. "Are you okay?"

The guy in the leather jacket pushes the girl away from him in confusion.

"Who the hell are you? And how do you know my name?"

"It's me... Crystal, don't you know who I am?"

"Not a clue, you're just some chick whose car I was about to unlock and move before some thugs tried to steal it."

"Wait... that's what you were doing? You were breaking into my car, so you could hide it?"

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"Of course, I am, I'm Crystal Millar, the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin, I've been to Storybrooke so many times, it's my home, where my family lives; plus I plan to move here really soon."

August looks at her like she was completely nuts. He chooses to skip over the Rumpelstiltskin part and ask this girl further questions. "Why would you want to move here? And you were around when Storybrooke still existed? Sweetheart, you can't be that old."

"What do you mean when Storybrooke still existed? Old, what old, I'm twenty-one."

"Storybrooke used to be the town here. I can hardly remember it myself. My father moved here with me just after my mother died and he opened up a carpentry business, but then the town fell on such hard times that Mayor Blackwell-Gold decided to let a few businessmen establish a couple of casinos here to drum up business. Since then this place has become a gambler's paradise. It's become a mini Sin City in the state of Maine. The place was just renamed Stygian, it's Latin for something, but my father can't remember what. Most people just call it "Styn City" and now it's one of the most crime-ridden cities in America. That's why I was going to move your car, take it to what used to be a police station and have you claim it there. I wanted to get it out of here before some punk steals it... you just surprised me that you were sleeping in the back. But if you know what's good for you sweetheart, you won't move here, but instead take your car as far away from here as possible."

"Hey, Beardo think fast!" a voice behind them shouts. A car of partying drunk teenagers drives past them on the way into town. An empty can of beer hits August in the back of the head and covers him in the sticky residue. Pinocchio grimaces and begins to try to wipe himself clean. Despite how confused she is by all this information, Crystal comes to his aid, grabbing some Kleenex to help him clean up.

"See what I mean?" the writer grumbles. He angrily shoves Crystal's offers to help him away and heads toward his motorcycle, which is parked in some bushes nearby.

"Get out of here while you still can," he says, putting his helmet on and revving up his bike. Crystal remembers that August took her riding on his bike a couple of times, which wasn't hard since she used to ride them herself.

The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin is so utterly speechless... at a loss on how to react. The place she knew as a home is gone, replaced by Stygian... whatever that meant. She lifts up the skirt of her dress, kicks off her heels, and tries to stop August from going back into town.

"Wait! August, what about the curse? What did the Black Fairy do to you? Where is my family?"

"WHAT?" he calls out over the revving of his motorcycle.

"WHERE IS MY FAMILY?!" she screams.

"Beats me princess, but it's best that you leave and never come back," he shouts over the engine of his motorcycle. He then takes off, down towards what was once Storybrooke, into a filthy and polluted looking environment.

Crystal feels tears on the edge of her eyes, her mouth agape because of how scared she was and how chaotic everything felt. Nothing was as it seems, but the only way she's going to find some answers is to enter "Styn City."

A/N: Two movie references in this chapter. Can you guess what they are? Also Stygian is Latin for something. I challenge the readers to find out what it is and comment your answers in the reviews.