Welcome to a Nightmare

Chapter 12: Location, Location, Location

Crystal takes off down the street across to the sheriff's station, knowing she's going to have to do something to help Aurora. The princess is going to lose her son if she doesn't act fast, and this will, in turn, strengthen her grandmother's curse. She figures the best place to start is at the place of law, despite what she's heard from everyone about Stygian having no real laws or police officers. At this point, she really doesn't care and just wants someplace quiet to think.

Unsurprisingly, the place is pretty much shut down with chains around the front doors and boards covering the windows. Graffiti covers the outside of the station as well, most of it using the slang "pigs" in it. It disgusts her how far the city has fallen in this curse. The world just seems to be getting worse and worse.

Crystal goes around the back entrance of the place and uses her magic to unlock the door. When she enters, she's hit with the awful smell of must and mildew. She looks around the darkened station, remembering when she'd sometimes drop by to visit Emma and David, bringing them coffee and food whenever she felt like it. The place is now covered in dust and cobwebs, spiders mostly making their homes between the bars of the holding cells. Emma's office windows are completely shattered, all the furniture has been turned over or destroyed and even the interrogation window is gone, which is often hard to do. Crystal navigates around everything until she comes to Emma's office; she finds the map of Storybrooke that hung behind the blonde's desk is torn in half and the flags of Maine and America are faded and ratted. She finally opens the filing cabinets and begins flipping through them, hoping for a break. If the curse was as detailed as she thinks it is, there might be a chance that Phillip's missing person's file would be in here, even if the station isn't in use anymore.

Without much success in the first drawer, the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin tries the next one, looking through the dates. With some great relief, she finds Phillip's name as Phillip Jacobs with a big red circle around it and writing scrawled next to it saying Cold, Close as soon as possible.

Crystal conjures up a light orb to illuminate the room for her. It hovers over her shoulder as she scans the document, which is not very thick. She doesn't need to know the details, just the prince's last known location, but apparently, she can't help but read some of his made-up backstories. According to the curse, Phillip's background included the fact that he was a veteran who served in the army outside of Stygian. One of the suggested reasons for his disappearance was due to post-traumatic stress and that the crime-ridden city was too much for him. Another suggested reason was gang violence. Rumple's daughter prayed that neither of these was true. Hopefully, her magical sight can do the rest and she can find this missing prince.

Phillip disappeared right on the edge of town; he had been at the park with his son, "one moment he was there and the next he wasn't..." says one of the witness statements, leaving Phillip Jr. all alone in his stroller and his dog tags from his time in the army on the ground. Crystal quickly opens up the bag containing the evidence and then looks at the location. The prince had vanished where Henry's castle playground stood... if it was still there of course. With this new curse, almost anything was possible. She then realizes she might need some backup. Knowing that Regina and her father always kept emergency locator potions in the sheriff's office just in case they had to search for someone. She uses her sight to detect magic in the station. She goes to one of the upturned desks with its legs sticking up in the air, removes the false bottom of one of the drawers and finds several bottles of said potion. Grabbing one of them, she then hurries off to her destination.

...

Her hike eventually brings her to what remains of Henry's castle playground. What it seemed like a manipulative gesture on Regina's part at the time had become a well-loved place for the children of Storybrooke. Even Crystal would take the time to walk by it or sit on the swings when she wanted some peace and quiet. Now, it's rusty and dilapidated. More graffiti covers the structure and the wilderness has claimed back some of the space, but it seems relatively untouched due to it still being in the woods. She wishes beyond all belief that she could use her magic to bring the place back to life, but for now... she has to remain low-key and not give away her existence to her grandmother or the fact that she's actively trying to break the curse.