With the cries and the shots still ringing in his ears, he forced himself to keep running. His lunges were burning from the exertion, his chest was heaving with every breath he drew in. It hurt, but he had to get away. So he kept pushing himself to keep his feet moving, knowing that with every step he took he left it all a little further behind him. The only thing grounding him at the moment, was feeling the hard soil under the worn out soles from the second hand sneakers the last family had given him.
Why does all the bad stuff need to happen to him? He didn't do anything wrong! But from the moment he had been born life had dealt him the wrong cards. His mom dying from an overdose when he was just 4 months old, nobody knew who his father was and there had been no other family members to take him in or who were willing to do that anyways. Since the dead of his mother he had been bouncing around amongst foster families and group homes. There were a few decent ones amongst them, but most of them had just kept him for the money he brought in. The scars on his growing body were proof of all the times foster parents had decided that he needed a punishment of some sort. He could live with the scars, but the nightmares he kept having were to worst of all. It had been at least 3 years since he had a full night of sleep without waking up, sweat covering his entire body and dark, painful images swarming in his head.
Shaking those dark thoughts out of his head he took a left turn. He needed to figure out where he was. They had blindfolded him and took him to some warehouse full of carton boxes and very bright lights. His eyes had needed some adjustment time after the blindfold had been removed. Once they had adjusted to the light he had noticed the man and woman kneeling in front of him, hands behind their head. The woman had been crying while the man had tried to explain something with a voice that was intertwined with fear. He hadn't been able to process anything what was being said. He had heard enough stories from the others to know what was going to happen here. He had only hoped that they would leave him alone, but they had other plans with him it seemed. His only thought at that moment was: 'What are they going to do?'. He didn't need to wait very long to know the answer to that question. As the images flashed through his head again, he clenched his fist a little harder and pushed himself a little more. He felt tears filling his eyes again, blurring his vision a little.
He didn't know how he had been able to escape, but at some point he had seen an opening and he just ran. He had never excelled at running, but now it felt like he was flying. A flight that was cut short as he ran into someone.
In a reflex he put his hands on the woman's waist to steady himself at the same time that he felt 2 hands on his shoulders to do the same. That didn't prevent him from body slamming the woman in front of him.
"I…I'm so.. sorry." He said trying to catch his breath a little. Before the woman could say something he turned around and stared running again. He knew he was close to where he could stay safe for a little while. He just hoped he had time enough to think about some things before they would find him again. Because he knew one thing for sure, they would find him. No matter where he would be.
"911, what is your emergency?"
"Hello, I would like to report a strange occurrence."
"Go ahead, I'm listening ma'm"
"A young boy just ran into me." The woman started as she looked down to her clothes. "And he …" Her voice trailed off as she looked into the direction that the boy had ran off to.
"Ma'm, you still there?"
"Yes, yes I am."
"What about the boy Ma'm?"
"I think he was covered in blood" She said looking down at her clothes again, seeing the dark red stains the boy had left behind on her white blouse when he had ran into her.
"You need to stay where you are Ma'm, a patrol car will be with you shortly. Can I have your name, please?"
"Regina. Regina Mills."
"The boy ran." On the other end of the line a deep sigh could be heard.
"You think he will tell?"
"No, he was scared as hell and where would he run to anyway."
"Good. Clean up first and then go find him. And then explain to him how it is going to be from now on."
Detective Emma Swan was sitting cross legged in her sofa, papers scattered around her while she was eating some take out Chinese. Soft music was playing in the background to fill up the silence as she went over the cases again. Cases that she was stuck on and for which she needed a new lead. She loved her job, but this was one of the more frustrating aspects. That and paperwork. God, she hated paperwork. So, here she was, sitting in her one-bedroom apartment going over those files again hoping that she would notice something that she had overlooked.
She had worked her way up from street agent to a detective in the organized crime unit. It had taken her 10 years to get to where she was now. 10 years of hard work and dedication, working night shift, doing odd undercover jobs. But she did it, she had beat the odds in her favor. Not many of the people she grew up with could say that.
She had started out her life being abandoned at the side of the road near a diner. A little boy had found her and from then on she had been in foster care. The first 3 years she had spend with a loving family. They gave her everything she needed and took care of her like their own, but that was until they were expecting their own child. In no-time she was handed back into the care of the state. After that she had been moved from one foster home to another with some group homes in between those from time to time. She had known starvation, abuse and it had even come close to sexual abuse. Scares where scattered over her whole body, each with their own story attached to it. They were like a map of the journey of her life. Most of them were invisible when she was fully dressed, but the one on her wrist was more difficult to hide and the reason she tried to wear as much long sleeves as she could. Or she tried to hide it with a big watch big enough to cover it up.
She got the scar when a foster dad had tied her to the bed because she made too much noise as she played with a broken doll she had found somewhere laying around the house. She could still smell the alcohol in the man's breath as he tied her up and spat venomous words in her face. She had been tied down to that bed for 2 days. She had tried so hard to get away that she had opened up her wrist to the point that is was just raw skin. It had taken weeks until it was healed, malnutrition isn't very conducive for healing so it seems. She sometimes catches herself tracing the rough patches of skin on her wrist when she's lost in her own thoughts.
When she hit the age of 14, she had been through 10 foster homes. Because of that and some problems she had with authorities, the state classified her as 'troubled' and 'not placeable '. Once you receive those 2 stamps on your file, you get shoved into a group home with more kids then they could handle. But a year later she got lucky, well it depends on how you define 'lucky'. She was roaming the streets and didn't feel like going back to the group home. But as the evening fell she got hungry. So she decided to go about her old ways again and try to shoplift something. It was not like she hadn't done it before, it had been necessary at some point. But it seemed that she had lost her touch. The owner of the store caught her and knew who to call to find out who she was and where she lived. Her social worker came by and both came to the agreement that they wouldn't call the police but she had to go back every day after school to help out in the shop.
She doesn't know how it happened, but at some point she had moved in with the man and his family. She got a taste of how life could be for her. They had guided her into doing better in school and even helped her to form a dream of her future. So, when she graduated she had signed up for the police force.
That is basically how she ended up on her coach on a Friday evening surrounded by papers from a job she loved. An evening that was being disturbed by her phone ringing. Glancing at the screen, she felt a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
"What do you want Rubes?" Emma said faking annoyance in her voice.
"You. Me. Some music and probably an indecent amount of alcohol." Came the shout on the other side of the line. Ruby Lucas had started the academy at the same time and they had hit it off immediately. Training together, boxing up against all the obstacles and climbing up ranks. Ruby worked homicide but seeing the nature of organized crime they worked together from time to time.
"I see." Emma said as she let out a little chuckle. "And what if I decline, because, I don't know, I'm on call this weekend?"
"Then I will tell Granny where her favorite glass bowl disappeared to." Came the immediate response.
"Hey! That was an accident!" Emma countered; remembering their drunk night last year while Granny had been out of town for 2 days. They had been drinking in a bar close to the diner that Ruby's grandmother owned and decided that it was a perfect evening for late night pancakes to soak up some of the copious amount of alcohol flowing through their system. While they had been preparing everything on the worktop in the dinner's kitchen, the flour Emma was pouring into the glass bowl had slipped out of her hands. Let's just say that her reflexes were still present but calculating the distance of her outstretched hand had been too much for her inebriated brain, which resulted in a flour covered floor and a very, un-reparable broken favorite glass bowl. After cleaning up the mess they made, it was mutual decided that they wouldn't utter a word about the incident to Granny. They already had some reprimands on their plate for drunken entering the dinner to make themselves something and not cleaning up after themselves, this would only be cause for some more severe punishment from the older woman. And they both wanted to avoid anything in the line of the punishment of the summer of 2009.
"I wonder if Granny will see it that way." Ruby said innocently on the other end of the line.
"You know, I will take you down with me! It will be the summer of 2009 all over again." This caused Ruby to gasp loudly into the phone.
"Don't say such foul things to me!" Ruby exclaimed. "I still have nightmares about that summer." She continued, which caused both women to erupt in laughter. "So Lacey's in about an hour?" Ruby asked when the laughter had stopped. "That should be enough time for you, so you can get out of those sweats and tank into something descent for the evening."
"I feel that I don't have much of a choice here."
"Well, your feeling is very much correct about that."
"Fine." Emma said with a sigh. "I will be ready, but there can be no nagging about the choice of clothes!" Before Ruby could counter Emma beat her to it, "Yes it will be 'going out' appropriate according to the Ruby Lucas guidelines."
"Okay then." Ruby said with an exaggerating sigh. "You are no fun at all!" She snapped at her favorite dress-up doll.
"We both know that is not true." Emma replied smugly.
"I hate ya!"
"Oh I love you too Rubes! See you in an hour." As she heard the distinctive sound of the end of the phone call, she let out a deep sigh. Breaking the cases would have to wait a little while. Maybe it was good that she took her mind of them for a while she thought as she got up from her couch. She had been buried into them for quite some time now and getting her mind off of them could provide new insights and ideas.
And who knew, maybe tonight could be fun. God knows how long it had been since she had a good night out or some fun in general. Walking over to her closet, she started looking through her 'Ruby-appropriate' section. Yes, it had come so far that she had let her friend organize her closet space. In Ruby's mind it was necessary when they had to move fast. Rolling her eyes at the memories of that evening of re-organizing she pulled out a red dress. Laying it out on her bed she decided that her black pumps and black vest would be good enough to accompany the dress. Glancing down one more time on her dress, she walked over to her bathroom to wash away the week.
"In what direction did the boy ran off to?"
"As I already told your colleague," Regina started with venom in her voice, "He ran in that direction." Pointing to her left, down the street where she had come from. This had been going on for the last 20 minutes. She already answered that question and many more, had given them a description of the boy and answered some more personal questions. She started to wonder how the police solved any cases at all with this kind of inefficiency. But then again, it made her work as a lawyer so much easier when she could claim some sort of technical error or a procedure misstep. Not that she had a lot of cases that involved police investigations, but still. Right now though, it was getting on her nerves how long they were taken to actually do something. They should be looking for that boy instead of asking her the same questions again. He could be hurt. God how she wished that she had taken a closer look to see if he was hurt. Looking up again she saw that Mr. inefficient 2 was looking at her expectantly. "I'm sorry?" she said as she tried to put on a polite smile.
"You need to come back with us to the station Ma'm." The man said as he put away his booklet.
"And why is that?" Frustration very apparent in her voice.
"We will need your clothes to help the rest of our investigation."
"You what?!" Realizing that it wasn't just a weird request, hence the blood that was smeared on her clothes, she let out a frustrated sigh. "Fine." She said before the man could say anything else. "But can I first pick up a change of clothes at my home?"
"I'm sorry Ma'm, but our orders are to take you to the station immediately to avoid contamination of the evidence." Throwing the man a death glare she let out a deep huff. Knowing that arguing was going to be pointless she just gave the man a curt nod.
"What about the boy?"
"All patrolling cars are informed to look out for him. And there are officers going to start looking for him in the area you pointed out for us." He said as he opened the door of the car for her to step in.
With a soft thank you she stepped into the car and closed her eyes for a few seconds. She wanted to let her head rest on the seat but decided against it as she remembered where she was. Who knew who had occupied these seats before her.
"I can't find the boy."
"What do you mean, you can't find the boy!?" His bosses' voice boomed through the phone.
"He didn't go back to the group home." He stuttered into the phone, knowing that this phone call could end bad for him.
"Ask Blue for some information on the boy, maybe that can help you find him." His boss said after a few seconds of silence. "You better find him, knowing how you work, I'm sure he's a liability of some sort at this moment."
"I will find him. I swear."
"I know Hook, but do make sure that this doesn't happen again. I would hate to replace you." With that warning the line went dead. The cold words let a shiver run through him from head to toe. Putting away his phone, he went on his search to find that boy.
He slumped down into the tower of the wooden castle on the playground. This playground was the only real constant place in his life. Wherever he was placed, with a family or in a group home, he always was near this playground. He lost count of how many times he had come here to hide away. Here the dragons and wizards of his imagination had come to life. Imagination that was suppressed fast when he started to understand the 'real' life. Still, it had become his place, his safe haven.
Leaning his head against the wooden panels, he lifted up his hands so they were level with his eyes. Turning them around he could the smudges of blood on them. He wondered how the rest looked like. Judging from the horrified look on the woman's face when he; quite literally, ran into her, it wasn't a very promising prospect.
Looking over his hands one more time, he cradled his head into them. Feeling his eyes sting with tears that he didn't allowed to fall before, he couldn't hold them in anymore. As sobs ripped through his body, the only thought crossing his mind was what was going to happen to him now. He was at a loss.
"Shots!" Ruby shouted as she slammed her credit card on the bar and looked at the bartender with a smirk. "And keep them coming." Throwing in a seductive wink.
"Really Rubes? We just got here."
"All the more reason to catch up with the ones who were here before us." Ruby said as she turned to her friend with a shot in each hand. "Drink up, so you can stop whining!"
Emma accepted the shot with an eye roll and downed it immediately. Feeling the burn of the alcohol, she closed her eyes until it had reached its destination. Giving the glass back to her friend, she opened one eye to see a smirking Ruby.
"Good stuff right?!"
"A little too good if you ask me." She replied, still feeling the burn.
"Oh hush." Ruby said as she accepted another pair of shots from the bartender. "Let's drink another one and then we can hit the dance floor!"
"If you say so Rubes." Emma said as she accepted the shot with another eye roll. "But after this one, I won't drink anymore. Just remember that I'm on call this weekend."
"Yeah yeah. I know." Her friend answered with an eye roll of her own after downing her own shot.
"Well, just don't forget about it before you go all crazy on me this evening."
"With that being said, let's go dancing!"
Putting down her own shot glass, Emma followed her very exited friend to the dance floor. Seeing how the brunette locks disappeared into the crowd, she knew that it was going to be an intense night. She just hoped that their wouldn't be a phone call too early tomorrow or even better, no phone calls at all. But somehow she knew it was wishful thinking. With a soft sigh she let herself disappear into the crowd of moving bodies, letting the music lead her through the night.
A light beam broke through the darkness in the wooden tower, revealing a slumbering boy. Telling his colleague to call it in, Leroy climbs inside to tower. Looking down at the small boy, he sees the dried blood marks on his clothes, hands and some parts on his face. Seeing no signs of any cuts, bruises or anything that could point out that it was the child's blood, he wondered what must of happened to the fragile looking boy. Crouching down beside him, he puts a hand on his shoulder to softly shake him awake. Seeing some movement in the slumbering child, he sat back a little on his heels to give him some space to wake up.
"Hey, it's time to get up."
Startled by the voice that interrupted his sleep, he woke up in no time. Looking around he saw a man sitting next to him, not looking twice, his running reflexes came to the fore front full speed. He scrambled to get up and tried to get out of there, but strong hands pulled him back.
"Wow, slow down there tiger!" Leroy said as he pulled the boy back. "I'm not going to hurt you." He said as he released the boy, holding up his hands to show that he meant no harm. "I'm from the police. See!" He said pointing at his uniform.
Those words seemed to hit home somehow as the boy leaned back against the wood and made no intents of running again. Still weary of the man on the other side of him, he looked him up and down to gauge his intentions. Being in foster care hadn't only made him weary of people in general, but had taught him a few lesson about policemen as well.
"My name is Leroy. What's yours?" The man said as he saw the boy glancing over him.
"Henry. My name is Henry." The boy said softly.
"Well, Henry, I have to take you to police station okay?" Receiving a little nod, he stood up and laid a hand on Henry's shoulder. "Let's go then."
The walk over to the squad car was in silence.
"What's going to happen to me?" Henry asked as Leroy opened the door for him.
"Well, our colleagues are going to ask you some questions and from then on it depends how the investigation goes." Came the honest response.
"Okay." The soft response came. Not knowing what he had expected, he felt some relief. They were not bringing him back to the group home nor were they going to lock him up or something in that order. But then again, what was he supposed to answer when they were going to ask question? How would he explain all the blood?
"I promise, we will take care of you Henry." Leroy said before he closed the car door. Walking over to the driver's seat, he let out a soft sigh. He just hoped they would be able to keep the boy out of more serious business, but looking at it now, he was afraid that it was already too late for that.
"Boss, we have a problem."
"That doesn't sound really promising Hook." The tone of the voice on the other end of the line send shivers down Hook's spine. "Well, out with it then. I don't have all day to listen to your incompetence."
"The police has the boy. I just saw them escorting him out of the playground where he was hiding." Hearing the frustrated sigh on the other end, Hook prepared himself to be on the receiving end of an angry rage.
"I'll take care of it from here Hook." Came the controlled response, much to the surprise of the receiver. "Just make sure that there are no solid traces that could lead back to us."
"Sure Boss."
"Oh and Hook."
"Yeah?"
"Make sure that I don't have to replace you. Getting rid of you would be a very messy debacle." That was the second threat in a mere 8 hours he had received today. He was used to the threat that his boss threw in his direction on an almost daily basis, but this, he wasn't used to. There must be something bigger going on, otherwise his boss wouldn't be throwing those intimidations around so easily. Whatever it was, he was sure that he would know eventually. But now he would just have to wait and see what the future would bring.
Putting away his phone with a soft sight, he walked over to his car. He knew that he had a few hours of work ahead of him to make sure that there were no traces before he could even consider taking a break. Otherwise his boss would come through on his promises, of that he was sure.