Belle sat the little table in Granny's Diner, both hands wrapped around her mug of coffee. The windows were fogged up from steam but she wouldn't want to look outside anyway. Granny's was her safe place, the one clean spot inside a town gone to ruin. Storybrooke had succummed to crime and filth when she was little. Little enough she didn't even remember what it was like when it was a nice place to live.

Her clothes were well worn and her converse had a few holes in them but it was much nicer than the man in the booth a few feet away. Her little bookshop got her by, most people didn't even have that. Homelessness and employment were as rampant as disease.

Belle looked up as a the bell over the front door chimed. A boy came in who looked no older than 13. His curly black hair was a ruffled from the wind and his coat was a few sizes too big but he had a big smile on his face nonetheless. She couldn't help but smile, he seemed so happy and that was such a rare thing. She watched as the cheerful young boy order a bottle of pop from Granny, he was just chatting away like she was his best friend. When Granny walked over to another customer the boy turned to look at Belle. She looked back down, not wanting him to realize she'd been watching him. But next thing she knew he was sitting down in the booth opposite her.

"You're like me," he stated with confidence.

"What'd you mean?"

Instead of answering with words he reached out and touched one finger to her mug. The coffee inside it, which had still been steaming a little started to freeze. It started from where the boy touched it until Belle was able to turn her cup over and dump a frozen cylinder of coffee on the table.

"I'm afraid I can't turn coffee into ice."

"That's not what I meant. You have a gift, like me. I can just tell. Name's Bae." The boy stuck his hand out with another smile. Belle shook it.

"Belle."

"Well, Belle, you should meet my papa and his friends. They're like us."

"Freaks huh?" The man from the other table staggered over. "Freaks! Abomi-abom-mutants! Fuck you. You ruined my life! This whole town went down the shitter because of freaks like you!"

Belle would've just ignored him and walked out but he'd moved between her and the door. Even worse he'd moved within a foot of Bae.

"Fuckers!" the man shouted and pulled a gun out from his lower back. Belle didn't even wait for him to aim the gun she launched herself over the table pushed Bae to the ground and covered him just as the shots rang out. Three of them, two went into the floor and the third hit Belle in her lower back. She groaned at the pain and shut her eyes tight. She didn't move until she heard the man stagger-stomp away shouting about his victory over freaks. Belle rolled onto her back and Bae popped right up to his feet.

"Did he get you?! I think I'm okay," he was running his hands over his chest with a worried expression on his face.

"Yeah but I'll be fine, it only hurts for a bit." She got up and lifted her jacket and shirt to show Bae her back. Even though she couldn't see it she knew there'd be just a slight red mark.

"Whoa...you're invincible aren't you?!" He looked excited but Belle just shook her.

"I don't think I'd go that far. But let's just say this isn't my first time being shot."

The two of them left the diner. Belle was going to go back to her little apartment in the southern part of Storybrooke where he fiance waited. Instead she decided to walk with Bae, to keep him safe until he got home. She was surprised at how short of time it took for this boy to talk his way to her heart. He was so sweet and pure, and the city tended to crush people like that. He talked so much she barely got a word in. He lead her to what looked like it had originally been a school. The windows were all broken. The door was broken. The grass was dead and a ghostly playground sat off to the side a ways. As they walked across cracked pavement a man pushed the open.

He was much older than Belle and had long brown hair with a little gray mixed in. He leaned on a cane and stood in the doorway with a scowl on his face. As Bae and Belle neared that scowl became less pronounced. For someone who lived in an abandoned building he sure was dressed nice. It wasn't fancy but it wasn't what Belle expected.

"Bae, what did I tell you about dragging people home with you?"

"Papa she's like us. She can get shot and not die!"

"Well Bae I'm sure lots of people can do that."
"No, I mean she didn't even bleed!"

This time Bae's father looked at Belle a little more closely. His brown eyes locked with her blue ones for what felt like an eternity to Belle. He was no longer scowling, if anything there seemed to be the ghost of a smile on his face.

"Why don't you come in, meet everyone."

"I really ought to be going-" Belle started to walk away. But the man kept speaking.

"You can't say you've never wanted to be around people who accept you." Belle stopped in her tracks. "There are people here who've dealt with this before. The hatred. The pain. The loneliness. Most of them don't even have any family. Before they came here they had no one to turn to." Belle turned back around to look at him. He was pleading with her to stay. He wanted her to stay. Even Gaston hardly wanted her around, until he got hungry or horny.

"Please." This time it was Bae giving her the puppy dog eyes. His father was much more stoic. "Just for a few minutes. They're cool, I swear."

"Okay, I'll come in but only for a bit my fiance is probably waiting for me." She hated using that lie but it got her out of so many things it was the first excuse she always used.

She followed the man and his son through the creaking doors into a rundown hallway. The walked a little ways into the building and as they walked Belle thought she could she shadows walking with them. He'd said there were others here but it was like every time she heard a noise no one was there. It was creepy enough that maybe it was haunted. The man stopped at a door, looked back at Belle then pulled it open.

The sight inside made Belle gasp. It wasn't run down at all. It had clearly originally been a gym of some sort but now it was like a bunker. The walls were padded with a black cushions. There were dummies set up in one corner. Mats covered most of the floor. A display of knifes, swords and guns stretched over half of one wall. There were a couple doors leading into other rooms and in the middle were tables and chairs. She barely even registered the people that were in there.