I tried.

Prologue

Cold grey sea softly rocked the boat. A girl who was sitting on the stern lit a cigarette and threw the match overboard. Her hair was wet, ends of long strands were faded red. She slowly dragged on and looked around.

At this early hour the pier was empty. Storybrook always was and always will be just a sleepy little town, even when magic returned. Empty grey streets with parked cars, black and white interior café "Granny's", school corridors – nothing changed, except herself. Townsfolk still do their job, eat their dinners and watch TV at night. This world is huge, people of the Enchained Forest are not capable to discover it. They want to spend their tiny lives in their tiny houses with geraniums on the windowsills. This is stupid.

Few months ago a girl in the boat was one of these people. She went to school, she even was a captain swimmers. Of course, she was a troubled teen, but her troubles weren't as serious as now. She swam a lot, that's all. She dyed her hair red, but many girls did it. She didn't know who she was all this time.

Now she knows, and it changes some things.

When you are caught, it doesn't matter where you are, even if your cell is full of sorcery. "You are still caught. You can't even go to the goddamn college, because you will lose your goddamn memories."

This girl was very angry at this early hour. To tell the truth, she was angry all the time. Yeah, fairytale characters can be mad sometimes too. She thought about her situation again and again, but she couldn't come up with anything. Helpless, she sat and smoked in the old boat of her father.

Suddenly sound of steps on the pier drew her attention. She turned around and saw a man. He did not observe her. There was something familiar in his figure, and the girl did not have time to recover, as in obedience to the reflexes, she slipped into the water. In the very, very cold water. Hiding behind the boat, she quietly swam to the pier.

She didn't feel how heavy became her shoes and sweater, she didn't feel how a big silver fish swam past her feet. She still had a cigarette in her mouth, so she took it with wet fingers and smoked.

She was almost under the pier, when the stranger disappeared.

"What the Hell?!" – she thought and went under the water.

He couldn't just vanish in the morning air. Of course, if he didn't use magic. She decided to at all costs to find out where did he go. A mystery was solved when she suddenly hit at something big and wooden under the water.

"A ship," – she realized and suddenly felt suffocated.

A moment later, she saw the ship's planking, a high stern and tall, slender masts. "Oh, what a surprise. The Coast Guard is not properly performing its duties." The girl swam to the porthole and looked into the cabin.

When Mark finally came to the pier, his friend, wet from head to toe, was sitting on the deck. He rushed to her immediately.

- What happened?

The girl raised her head and smiled weakly.

- He's here, Mark. He's in town.

The boy helped the girl to her feet and asked:

- Who's in town, dear, what are you talking about?

She grabbed his arm and whispered:

- Hook.

- No way, Ariel. No way.