Setting the World on Fire

by Lostinthought87

Emma Swan returns to her hometown of Storybrook after 11 years of running away from her past. What happens when her perfect plan of starting over is threatened by the reappearance of an old friend.

1. Prologue

AN: So to anyone actually reading this – I want to start by saying thank you. This is the first thing I have ever tried to write (not for school), so any constructive criticism is appreciated. That being said though – please be patient, it may take me a while to find my footing. Hope you enjoy it.

Berkeley, California

June 2016

"Today is a day of thanks. A day to thank those who helped you get here—nurtured you, taught you, cheered you on, and dried your tears. Or at least the ones who didn't draw on you with a Sharpie when you fell asleep at a party. Today is a day of reflection. Because today marks the end of one era of your life and the beginning of something new."

Sitting in a crowd of her peers, watching Sheryl Sandberg provide the commencement address, Emma Swan still couldn't believe that she was finally here. After five years of graduate school, endless all-nighters and countless cups of coffee - it was finally over. For the majority of students, graduation is associated with feelings of joy and excitement, underlined with feelings of uncertainty over future job prospects. For Emma however, those feelings were overpowered by the imminent fear of going home, the place she had spent the last eleven years trying to escape.