Welcome to a Nightmare

Chapter 7: No Existence

Crystal weaves down the back alleyways of Stygian City, hopping over fences and sidestepping a lot of overflowing garbage cans that litter the pavement between buildings. The once clean, peaceful town of fairy tale characters and hope had become a filthy, noisy wasteland and one of hopelessness too. As she gets further and further from the noise and lights, the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin was finally able to calm herself down from what had happened to her less than an hour ago. It seems that her entire world has been turned upside down and inside out. She hopes as she travels further to the outskirts of the city that there is still even the slightest trace of the place she'd wanted to call home for so long.

As she hops another fence, she's met with streets that are crumbling with age. It's as if she's emerged from a fog and soon recognizes where she's now standing. She's on Main Street of what was supposed to be Storybrooke... It's as if she's stepped back into a memory...except the once lively community is now a hollow and empty ghost town.

The town of Storybrooke was merely a shell of its former self now. It seems to be covered in a permanent gray mist/fog, taking the colour out of the once brightly coloured buildings. It was like walking into a horror movie set. The daughter of the Dark One no longer feels comfortable and safe like she had when she'd first come to town. The streets that used to be bustling with people going about their daily lives are quiet with barely a soul to be seen. The place no longer smelled like seawater and crisp fresh air, but of pollutants and smog. One of the reasons for the stench was the full trash cans lining the streets outside of the shops and businesses... at least the shops that are able to remain open. Many of the buildings and businesses she remembers like The Dark Star Pharmacy, several clothing stores, the Marine Garage, Any Given Sundae ice cream shop, and Archie's Psychiatry Office are boarded up, completely empty, and had large closed signs in front of them. Time, the weather, vandals, but more than likely the curse had torn the places to pieces, smashing out windows, chipping the paint, damaging shingles, covering the walls in graffiti, even some fire damage, and overall making them look like hollow skeletons of buildings. It is like walking into a memory, of a life she once knew.

The girl then wonders what happened to the place she was going to call her home... It was unlikely that it fared very well either. She'd found an apartment not too long after she'd first met her father. She'd bought it off Sydney Glass, Regina's former magic mirror companion, for a great price and just a little bribery of the former news reporter. She'd used her magic to transport most of her stuff there and was beginning to make the place feel like a home. The last time she'd seen it was barely over a month ago, she'd entrusted her step-mother, Belle, to keep an eye on the place until she returned. If this truly was what had become of Storybrooke because of the curse, a strange and gloomy place, she had hope that somewhere... anywhere in town, there was something familiar and could give her even the slightest bit of comfort.

She hurries down the street, knowing exactly where to go to get to her place. Her heart pounds in her chest as she pushes herself down the street, ignoring the darkened windows of other buildings that seem to stare at her like sinister eyes. She's scared at what she might find and wasn't sure if she wanted to go any further.

She gasps in horror to see what was supposed to be her apartment is nothing, but an empty lot filled with dirt, trash, and the remains of cement and construction components. There is a sign saying No Trespassing and a rusty metal fence surrounding the lot. Crystal feels her heart drop to her stomach and her knees becoming very weak to the point that she must kneel on the sidewalk from her shock and grief. She clings to the fence, not caring about how much it hurt her hands. Everything she had, everything that was familiar to her was gone. Her photos, her jewelry, her clothes, but most of all, her mother's possessions were gone. Everything that she had treasured from the woman who loved her the most was gone, vanished in the black clouds of her grandmother's curse.