A/N: This chapter is just the introductory chapter. It's less than 1000 words, which is much shorter than the rest of the chapters will be. But I think it's necessary to add a bit of Henry to the story, since most of the plot will end up revolving around him. This chapter is nothing special, so don't give up on me after reading this. There are much more exciting moments to come.


Henry wasn't a bad kid. In fact, he was quite the opposite. He went to school when he was supposed to, studied more than anyone else in his class, and he listened to his mother… for the most part. But ever since he'd gotten that book of fairy tales from his teacher, Miss Blanchard, something felt different inside of him. He felt restless, like he was supposed to be doing something more than he was. He realized just how simple and boring his life was, compared to the fantastic adventures that went on in his book. And the more he thought about it, the clearer it became.

Storybrooke isn't normal.

And not just because it's lacking swords and horses and dragons and dwarves and princesses, which all felt oddly normal to him, but because nothing happened here. Time seemed to be standing still, which was made infinitely more clear to him by the fact that the clock tower always showed the same time. Not to mention the fact that he was the only kid to age, the only person who did things differently from day-to-day, and really the only variable in this town of constants.

Over the past few years, Henry had started to work things out. He started to see strange parallels between characters in the book, and the people all around him. And the more he thought about it, the more he came to realize that the parallels were just too strong to be a coincidence. The people around him were the people in this book. They were trapped there by a curse; a curse which can only be broken by the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.

And if he was right about this book, and about all of the characters in it—which he had no doubt about—that meant that he knew exactly the person that would save them all. His mother.

Not Regina, his adoptive mother. She was clearly the Evil Queen, someone he tried his best to stay on the good side of. But rather, his biological mother. All he knew about her was that her first name was Emma, and she lived in Boston, Massachusetts.

So Henry started spending all of his free time going to the library to use the public computers. He searched for his mother's exact whereabouts to the best of his ability, and finally, after almost three months of searching endlessly through online profiles of Emma's in Boston, he found her. Her name was Emma Swan, and the address to her apartment was posted directly on her profile on her agency's website.

There would be nothing easy about leaving Storybrooke unnoticed and getting himself all the way down to Boston. It wasn't too far, but he would definitely need money, which was a luxury his mother never gave him. According to her, he had everything he needed right there in Storybrooke, and if he ever needed something more, all he had to do was ask.

But this was out of the question. If he even brought up the idea of looking for his biological mother, he was sure Regina wouldn't let him out of her sight for weeks. She was overly protective of him, and he was certain it was for a reason other than just caring about him. Because she didn't care about him; she only cared about keeping him prisoner. She only cared about making him do exactly what she wanted, which was precisely why Henry did his best to be a good kid, who does well in school, doesn't get into any trouble, and does exactly what she asks of him.

But finding Emma was way too important. He knew it would take something drastic for him to get away. He needed money, a ride there, and a perfect moment to leave when Regina wouldn't notice he was missing for at least a couple hours. That way, it would give him the time he needed to get away. Unfortunately, Regina didn't just keep her money sitting around the house. At least not enough for it to be of any value for him. So he had to find another way.

He decided he would need to use a credit card; something he knew he could easily swipe from his teacher's purse one day after class. So on the next Wednesday, when he knew Regina would be at a meeting after school, he stole the credit card and called a taxi from his home phone.

While he waited for the taxi to come, Henry grabbed a handful of candy bars and stuffed them in his backpack so he wouldn't get too hungry on the way. He grabbed his book, made sure he looked okay (this was, after all, going to be the day that he finally meets his real mom), and headed off to the town line, where he told the taxi company to have him picked up.

It wasn't 15 minutes before the cab showed up, and though the man gave him a slightly puzzled look—it wasn't every day that you picked up a 10-year-old kid in the middle of nowhere—he didn't say anything to Henry other than, "So where to, kid?"

"The nearest bus stop, please." Henry grinned.

This was it.

This was the moment his life would change forever.


A/N: Make sure to leave comments/reviews letting me know what you think so far! Any and all feedback is great, and will help me decide where I want to go with the next chapter. I have a couple different ideas in mind.

I should be posting the next chapter within the next couple days.