Chapter One:
Magic. Belle had always been fascinated by the very idea of it. During her childhood, she had always begged her father to let her go see the magic shows, where men and women would preform the strangest of things. And if there wasn't a magic show, she would either be found at the library researching magical relics or at the museum seeking out the most interesting objects.
Of course, by the time she had turned eighteen and gone to college, she no longer believed that such a thing could exist, but she still found the stories and endless legends fascinating. It was one of the many reasons she had come back to Storybrooke Maine to become a security guard at the local museum.
She enjoyed walking the halls alone at night, often imagining one of the statues or wax figures coming to life and chasing after her. She knew that it was just tricks of the light, or more often the shadows, it still made her job more adventures.
On this particular day, Belle was waiting in the main lobby of the museum when a security guard came in, holding a wooden crate in his arms, a worried frown on his face.
"Ah, so here it is at last," Mr. Gold said, clasping his hands together from where he stood beside Belle. He was a small man, dressed sharply in black slacks, red dress shirt and a purple tie. He had shoulder length brown hair, and deep chocolate eyes. But it was his bad leg and ever present cane that was most associated with the thirty-two year old man. Mr. Gold was Belle's boss, and owned the museum as well as much of the town.
"Where do you want it Mr. Gold?" the security guard asked.
Mr. Gold turned and motioned towards a room in the back, "Put the crate in the backroom, I'll have them put it out on display when I'm finished repairing it".
"Yes sir," the guard said and quickly did as Mr. Gold instructed.
Belle followed the two men into the back, and leaned against the doorway while the two men went over the contract.
She found herself more than a little curious as to what was in the crate, the museum hadn't had any new displays for several years now, which meant that whatever lay inside that crate was truly something special if Mr. Gold had wanted it for the museum.
Perhaps it was a relic from ancient Egypt, her employer seemed fascinated by those, especially ones with legends behind them. But then again, he himself was fascinating, or at least Belle thought so.
The man had a reputation as the town monster, and though she knew him not to be a bad man, Belle also knew that no one got that kind of reputation by accident. But she had always found it rather amusing to see people practically trembling when the man came around, despite the fact that he was a slight man, and a crippled one at that. Mr. Gold had used a cane to walk for as long as Belle had known him, and probably had long before that due to his lame leg.
"Alright, that's everything you need to sign, so if we're all good here, I'll be taking my leave Mr. Gold," the security guard said, all the while clasping the clipboard with the forms on it to his chest.
"Yes, yes, that's all," Mr. Gold said. He dusted off the top of the crate and was about to open it when the guard cleared his throat.
Why is he so nervous? Belle wondered, noticing the man's nervous figiting, and the way his eyes flitted from Mr. Gold's form to the crate.
"Mr. Gold, you are aware of the legend yes?" the guard asked tentatively.
Belle frowned, the poor guard looked about to pee himself. But it wasn't just that that worried her, it was the fact that the guard felt the need to remind Mr. Gold of the legend associated with the item.
Mr. Gold looked up and scoffed, "Do I look like a fool dearie? I'm well aware of the legend of the Dark One's curse, and you'd be a fool to believe in such things".
Finally Belle was unable to contain herself any longer, "What curse?" She held Mr. Gold's gaze defiantly when Mr. Gold looked up at her with narrowed eyes, obviously annoyed.
Her boss opened his mouth to contradict her, but the security guard instantly jumped at the chance to warn them again.
"The Dark One's curse is attached to an ancient dagger," the security guard began, motioning towards the crate, "According to legend, if someone cuts themselves on the blade and their blood touches it, they become the host to the curse, which causes them to change in horrible ways. It gives them the power of magic, very powerful and dark magic, and it slowly warps their mind until they become nothing more than a monster".
Mr. Gold snorted, "As I said, anyone would be a fool to believe such a thing". He motioned with his cane for the guard to leave, an irritated look on his face, "Now if you excuse us, we have work to do. Ms. French, please escort him out and then attend to your duties".
"Alright," Belle sighed, and led the nervous wreck of a man to the front doors. Right as she opened the double wide doors and started to shoo him out, the man grabbed hold of her arm, and whispered in a fearful tone:
"Be careful Miss, that blade is a retched thing. Even if your employer has yet to see its horrid power, it will bring this town nothing but misery". The man then went outside and ran towards his vehicle, which glowed silver in the light of the full moon.
Belle watched him until he had pulled out of the parking lot, then grabbed her keys and locked the front doors, and then placed the keys back in her pocket and turned around, ready to start her rounds about the museum.
The main lobby was a huge circular room, with the front desk in the middle, with a few displays littered around in random spots. Just behind the front desk was the marble staircase that led up to the second floor. Belle decided that she would start up there tonight and then work her way down.
The second floor resembled the main lobby, only it had a dozen doorways at the back of the main room on the second floor that led into different parts of the museum.
She started her round in the room on the far left, nicknamed the Egypt room, due to it being filled with just relics from Ancient Egypt.
She checked to ensure that all of the mummy cases still held their mummies, and that everything else was in place, including all the ancient and very exotic jewelry that Queens and kings had once worn.
After the Egypt room, she went into the three prehistoric animal rooms, then the African Hall, American history, Japanese and Chinese culture, and the European history, and ancient relics room.
By the time she was making her way down the stair case to the first floor, she had forgotten all about Mr. Gold staying late in the backroom on the first floor to restore the Dark One's dagger. So upon hearing the sound of a person's footsteps coming up the stairs below her, Belle drew her tazer out of her belt and pointed it in front of her, and turned her flash light off to avoid giving away her position to the intruder.
When she saw the shadowy form of a man just in front of her, she lunged forward and turned her flashlight back on, pointing the beam straight in the man's face, and waved the tazer to ensure the intruder got the message to get out.
But the moment the flashlight beam hit the man's face, she realized the intruder was actually Mr. Gold, who had been going up to the second floor to put the dagger on display.
Almost immediately, the man stumbled back in alarm, accidently dropping his cane and fell back on the stairs.
Belle lunged forward again and grabbed his hand to keep him from falling any farther down the stairs, but as soon as she did so, he cried out in pain.
When she had grabbed him, he hadn't dropped the dagger, and having her hand crushed against his had pressed the sharp blade of the dagger into his palm, drawing blood.
Luckily he dropped the blade, and she was able to help her boss to his feet, hoping desperately that he wouldn't fire her over her little mishap. Belle was clumsy by nature, and she didn't want that to cause the end of her career as a night guard.
"Watch what you're doing you clumsy girl!" Mr. Gold spat, his eyes blazing with fury. He shook himself and then leaned down to pick up his cane and the Dark One's dagger.
Belle grabbed her flashlight from where she had dropped it on the floor, and placed her tazer back into her belt, freeing her left hand. She scowled at the man, and retorted, "If you hadn't frightened me, I wouldn't have shone the light in your face".
He glared at her and huffed, "Well, now thanks to you, I have to clean the dagger, go get me a wash cloth from the back room and meet me in the ancient relics' room," he snarled at her, and continued up the stairs.
"You need to go down to the backroom anyway to get your hand bandaged Mr. Gold, you could be hurt badly," she scolded him, which caused the older man to halt on the stairs.
He turned around and glared down at her, "Then go get it Ms. French since you're the one that caused the clamity," he sneered, and then stalked the rest of the way up the stairs.
Belle glared at him for a moment, hating how stubborn the man was, and then ran down the stairs and into the backroom to go get his needed supplies.
She grabbed a washcloth, and wetted it before wringing it out. She then grabbed the medical box and stormed back up stairs, easily finding Mr. Gold in the fifth room from the right.
He was standing by an empty display case that hung on the wall, the dagger in one hand, while his other hand rested on the golden handle of his cane.
Belle stalked over to him and handed him the damp cloth, which he immediately used to clean off the dagger, before he placed it in the display case. Mr. Gold was extremely careful not to let more of his blood drip down onto the dagger while he cleaned it.
While he did this, Belle crouched down and dug through the supplies in the medical box until she found a roll of sterile bandages and the triple antibiotic. She then stood up and grabbed Mr. Gold's injured hand, causing him to glare even more fiercely at her, but she ignore him and bandaged up his hand.
Having taken care of the man's injuries, Belle placed the bandages and triple antibiotic back into the box and picked it up, turning around to find that Mr. Gold was starting to walk out of the room.
Just as he reached the threshold of the doorway, He turned and called over his shoulder in his usual sneering tone, "Try not to cause anymore damage dearie, or I'll have to replace you". Then, he walked out of the room.
Belle folded her arms and scowled, listening to the fading sound of his footsteps and the tapping of his cane. When she could no longer hear anything, she turned and glanced at the dagger before beginning to walk out of the room herself.
She stopped dead in her tracks, and then looked back at the dagger. She moved closer to it, so that her nose was only inches from the display case and stared wide eyed at the blade.
She could have sworn that there was nothing but odd patterns on the blade of the dagger, but now she could see that written in curvy, ink black lettering was the name Rumplestilskin.
I hope you guys will enjoy this fanfic; the next chapter should be up soon.
