Darkness gathered in the room, it's presence one of comfort to her. She liked the dark. It seemed to calm her slightly..
She never used to like it. In fact, you could have said, she used to hate it. When she was younger, darkness meant something bad. It would creep in when she was locked in the cellar, it would twist around her, mocking the thin, trembling frame of the five year old. It would create monsters that lurked just beyond her eyesight, though none of the imaginary beasts were as bad as the ones she faced every day. Darkness used to be her worst enemy.
But now, now it was her best friend. And that was only because she had seen so much of it, that she had grown to accept it.
So now she sat, head resting against her knees, back against the cold, stone wall, and she was just..thinking. Because that's all she could do, and it distracted her from the shouting voices echoing from her foster parents room. Perhaps if she had been younger, she would have cried, but years in abusive foster homes had taught her to never, ever cry. It was seen as a weakness, and it had usually angered the abusers more.
And so, Emma Swan didn't shed a single tear. She let her thoughts drift to things even only slightly happier then what was happening this moment. If her thoughts were ever broken by a shout, she would hum and softly song words to a tune. Where she knew this song, she didn't know. Maybe it had been her birth parents who had sung it, not that she remembered them.
With every tick of the clock, it got harder to block out the noise. It got harder to pretend that she was ok with the yelling and screaming. The teenager stood, taking slow steps towards the window.
When she was younger, she was put in a foster home that loved fairy tales. So every night, she was told of a magical ever-boy by the name of Peter Pan. She could hear her old foster mother now.
"Second star to the right, and straight on until the morning. It's Neverland, Emma. And all you have to do, is believe"
The cool night air hit her face, causing an unpleasant shiver to run down her spine. Emma shook her head, climbing onto the window sill. She sat, arms around her knees, head turned sideways so bright green eyes could scan the inky sky.
There it was. The second star to the right, one that shone ever so slightly brighter then the rest, a hidden jewel among darkness...unbeknownst to her, that star was like her in that way. A light that shone in darker times.
"Second star to the right, and straight on until morning" She whispered, voice barely audible to even herself. God, she was an idiot if she believed this would work. Magic didn't exist, those were just stupid fairytales, created to make children believe life was less painful. And yet, she found herself continuing.
"I believe"