None of the characters or Once Upon a Time belong to me.

She couldn't remember how long it had been since she had last seen sunlight. She wasn't sure what day it was. He had been drugging her ever since she was taken. Left alone in the damp, dark room. There was a single light fixture at the top of the room that flickered when it was on. There were no windows in the room. He would come in every now and then to give her food and bathroom privileges, but other than that, Emma never got to see his face. She had been beaten or punished only a few times while she was there, only because she had tried to attack him and escape. She didn't even know who this man was or what he wanted from her. She wasn't sure how long she would be alive.

Why she had been taken, she would never know. She was never going to get out of here. All she remembered before being struck in the head was that she was chasing down one of her bail skips down an alleyway. The guy jumped the fence and she ran up to him to catch him when someone hit her over the head from behind. The next thing she knew, was that she was tied up in the chair in the room that smelled of mold.

The guy hardly said anything to her. He always had a sickening grin on his face. Emma also took notice of the gun that he always had at his side. To say she was scared was a complete understatement. When sudden banging noises, loud footsteps, screaming and yelling came from upstairs, that made everything worse. Her heart beat erratically in her chest. The people above her didn't sound very friendly. But, it wasn't like she could cry out for help. Her hands were tied behind her back and a piece of duct tape was over her mouth.

The unmistakable sound of a gunshot rang out and more shouting. Tears slipped down her cheeks. 'I'm going to die here,' she thought. More loud footsteps were all over the house. She could hear that it was multiple sets, so whoever was here didn't come alone.

Normally, Emma Swan wasn't one to give up so easily in hard situations, but she didn't have any kind of weapon on her to fight back or untie herself. Sure, living wasn't the easiest when she was always alone, but that didn't mean she wanted to die. No, no. That was the last thing she wanted to do. But, she didn't know how long she would have to survive in the basement before either dying or slowly losing her insanity- whichever came first. Either way, both of those options didn't sound very appealing to her.

The basement door suddenly swung open, and she looked up. Her eyes weren't used to the bright light that came flooding in through the open door. Emma's eyes watered and she turned her head away. The man knelt down in front of her, but it wasn't Walsh. A strong scent of cologne filled her nose and she wanted to take a deep inhale of it, but since her life was on the line, all she could do was wonder if this person was going to be her savior, or her worst nightmare.

"Don't scream," the man warned her. She looked up at him and saw that he had dark hair and scruff on his face. "This is going to hurt," he mumbled as he grabbed the duct tape and ripped it off her mouth. Over the past couple of days in the basement with the man who had abducted her, the times that she had misbehaved or tried to escape were turned into punishments. The tape that was quickly ripped off her mouth hurt a lot less than the raw skin because of the ropes around her wrists. The man with the scruff moved behind her and cut the ropes from her wrists and sliced through the duct tape around her ankles.

"D-don't hurt me," she pleaded. Her voice rough and scratchy. Even she hadn't recognized it.

"Humbert, Nolan, down here now!" The man yelled. He looked back down to Emma and shook his head. "You are going to be just fine, love. Can you stand?"

"I-I don't know." He held out his hands for her and helped her stand up on shaky legs. She slowly let go of him and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. 'I'm free.' The thought went around and around her head as a smile appeared on her face internally. Outside, she was terrified. Was her kidnapper dead? Had these men shot him and killed him? There was only one gunshot sound and the man who had untied her didn't seem to be injured. He didn't seem to have any blood on him at all either.

Two men stumbled down the steps. She couldn't see much of them, only that one had scruff while the other had a clean shave. "Get Miss Swan to the car. We have to have Whale look at her."

"How do you know my name?" Emma asked, looking between the three men that were surrounding her.

"I promise that I will answer whatever questions you may have as soon as you are looked at by a doctor and have some food in you." The man who untied her put a hand on her shoulder and smiled reassuringly. He looked back up at the two men and nodded. One of them wrapped his arm around her shoulders and helped her up the steps.

Emma was all but pushed out of the house, not getting a chance to look around at her surroundings. She was then taken to a black van and was helped into the car in the very back of it. One of the men came to sit in the row of seats in front of her while the other moved to the passenger's seat. None of them said one word about who they were or how they found her. But, she didn't find herself in much of a talking mood anyway. It was only a few minutes later when the first man came out of the house and to the driver's side. He quickly started the van up and pulled away from the curb. A loud explosion made Emma turn around in her seat as much as she could to see that the house was up in flames. Her breath caught in her throat. Only one thought went around in her brain.

Who the hell are these people, and what did they want with her?

Author's Note

This is the first thing I have published on, so I beg for some mercy. But, criticism is welcome. Chapters will eventually get longer.