August Booth had worked in Mister Gold's IT department for a little over seven years and to be honest the most interesting things to happen in that time was he'd gotten a new typewriter and there'd been a new version of Hannibal Lecter. It wasn't that August didn't like his job, no, it was peaceful enough and he had two friends to work with, Sidney Glass and Isaac Heller; though the latter had always disturbed August. The problem August had with his job was that nothing ever happened. So when Isaac had noticed discrepancies in their firewalls, discrepancies that none of the three of them could quite trace back to a source August had learned to be careful what he wished for. August had wanted to report it all to Gold and Jefferson but Sidney and Isaac had been firmly against it, all too convinced they could figure it out and put a stop to it before they ended up looking like incompetent morons. He'd been against it to begin with but when he'd stopped an thought about it August hadn't seen the harm in not mentioning it … wasn't like Gold knowing would get them a solution any sooner. No, the three of them could keep this quiet and deal with it, all that had happened was someone had looked about in their code; wasn't like a mad man had broken in to kill them all or anything.

It was early in the morning when August arrived at the small, brick building which served as The House of Scarlet's off-site tech support. A quick look at his watch revealed it to be eight-forty-five, he was early for once but he knew that Sidney and Isaac would still be there before him. He parked his motorbike and put away his helmet then slipped into the building and poured himself a cup of coffee. The brown-haired man sipped it as he walked down the stairs towards their work area. Over the years they'd affectionately named it The Cabin, to anyone else it would look like just that, a cabin of bricks but he and the others knew what was inside, knew about the stairs that led to a basement the size of a small aircraft hangar. When he'd first started working there August had felt like some kind of spy but alas he was just a tech.

The Cabin was surrounded mostly woodland, crisp yellow-brown leaves and golden sun creeping through the dark fall trees. There wasn't a single sound and that was just the way August liked it. Upon reaching the door August entered the key pad code and the door buzzed loudly letting him inside, he was four steps down the concrete stairs when he realized something, the door hadn't shut. That door always closed, it was heavy and weighted; it always locked. With a raised eyebrow August turned back up the stairs, his featured grew puzzled when he noticed a stick wedged in the door; one which looked to had been broken recently.

"Strange."

August bent down to pull it free from the heavy door, suddenly it was yanked open and a tall man knocked him backwards down the concrete stairs, coffee splashed everywhere and mug broken into tiny shards. Dazed he tied to push himself up but his left arm gave out as a searing pain rushed through his body; he'd certainly broken his wrist.

August's attacker chuckled to himself loudly as he descended the stairs and with no sense of tune, it just sounded … crazy. The stranger's face was covered by an old rubber clown mask, there were three tufts of blue hair sticking up from the stop and the mask had a huge psychotic grin that was far too big with blood-red lips. The eyes were small holes which revealed bloodshot eyes encased by messy blue that travelled up the masks forehead. The most terrible thing August saw though was the over sized red nose, why did it have to be clowns? August asked himself.

Before he could stand, speak, or anything else the masked attacker was on top of him pulling him up by his short brown hair and dragged him harshly back up the solid steps to the door.

Slams echoed in the hall. One! Two! Three! Four! The heavy, metal door opened and closed again and again until there was nothing of August's head left, until blood pooled on the floor and the sun filled morning became a day of horror. Slowly crimson spread to the edge of the top step where it drip, drip, dripped downwards, such a quiet noise but with the absence of all other sounds it may as well have been a car horn.

The masked attacker had been left coated in blood from the thighs down, warm and crimson but he didn't care, no, he was there for a reason … Lacey.

It didn't take long to get to the rest of them, Isaac had been fixing one of the servers at the far end of the building and had his back to Nottingham, never saw me coming. Sidney had put up a fight though, kicked, punched and almost won but nothing would take Keith Nottingham from his self set mission. The rest was silence.

~X~

Belle slumped down into her lecture hall chair and yawned hoping that Professor Hopper wouldn't see it. Ruby sat beside her and looked at the blue-eyed Australian with concern.

"Are you alright, Belle?" Ruby smiled. "Didn't get much sleep last night did you. I don't think Elias did either."

"Oh my God, you know about that?"

Ruby laughed as took out her text book and flicked through to the right page.

"Belle, everyone knows about that. Except for Zelena and Cruella which I think I a very good thing. You know how those two are. Or at least I don't think Zelena knows."

Oh yeah Belle knew exactly how Zelena was. The auburn-haired beauty knew she should have told Elias about Zelena's stupid joke but to be honest she was scared. She should have told someone the instant SheriffOfNottingham sent her that image. Tell him when you get back to The House Of Scarlet. That's what you're going to do Belle.

"And you don't mind?" Asked Belle amidst the hubbub of all the other students. "That I'm with Elias? He is the boss."

"Tamara is pissed but then again she's felt threatened by you since she met you." Ruby offered a comforting smile, she'd quickly become Belle's best friend in only a short time. "Ashley is really happy about it, she sees Gold like a parent. As for the rest of us, he seems happy and I haven't seen him truly happy in all the time I've known him. You're good for him, Belle. Oh and you were rather obvious, you've never even brought a boy over."

That was true, the idea just made her feel like she would be cheating on Gold. Things had been good over the last few days, even Cruella seemed to be warming up to her. Yes, Belle was officially happy to be at The House Of Scarlet, she had her friends and most importantly she had the man she loved.

"Thanks Ruby, you always know how to make me feel better."

"Of course, Bells. You-"

"Miss Lucas, are you and Miss French going to listen to anything I say today?"

It was only then that the two girls realized the lesson had long since started and they'd been talking through it. The rest of the class stared at them, including Emma and Mary Margaret. Those two hadn't spoken to Belle much since the day she first sat with Ruby, Belle had tried to be friends with all three of them but neither approved of Ruby, it seemed they knew about The House, at least to some extent anyway. Belle still tried though, she'd even taken Emma a birthday present.

"Sorry, Professor Hopper." The two girls said in unison.

Ruby even fluttered her eyes at their red-headed teacher, God she's got it bad Belle thought. Said fluttering made their teacher blush and in that second Belle knew that Professor Hopper had it just as bad. And Belle had thought she'd had problems by dating her boss.

~X~

Hours had passed since the morning, Will had spent most of the day on watch at the security hut, not that anything had happened; a car had broken down across the street around eleven but the poor girl had soon been on her way. Robin was covering the back and Graham would be along to take Will's place shortly. The young man read through his magazine and sipped at the cup of coffee that Belle had kindly brought him after she'd gotten back from school with Ashley and Ruby. Will did like that girl she was so thoughtful and always had a smile, she just lightened the mood of everyone around her. Shame she'd chosen Gold, Will would have liked a shot at being there for her.

Will closed the magazine having read the article he was interested in and looked out down the small driveway, there he paused and peered closer. A man marched up the drive with what looked like make-up on and a jerry can in his hands.

"Is this a fuckin' joke?" He questioned himself as he stood and left the hut. "If that's Robin I'm gonna kill him." Will came to a halt realizing that it wasn't make-up. "Is that a fucking clown mask?"

The man kept walking showing no sign of stopping, sun bounced off his navy jump suit and made him look like something out of a B-movie. Will could hear the girls faintly laughing in the back yard and felt a shiver go down his spine. It had to be Robin, right?

"Hey, if that's you Robin, it's not funny. If you're anyone else this is private property and I suggest you leave before I make you."

The man was no more than an arms length away when he came to a halt, the masked man mumbled something but Will couldn't understand it. Didn't matter though, Will had heard what he needed, it had sounded like an English accent … It's just Robin, we're alri- Will's thoughts were brought to a sudden and quick ending when burning mace filled his eyes, it stung and the guard dropped to his knees in agony.

Will had no idea of the danger he'd just let approach him, Nottingham smiled under his mask and positioned himself behind the guard. Gloved hands slipped around his neck and moments later … crack! Will's body fell to the floor limp and heavy landing on the gravel driveway with a thud, not much of Nottingham's strength was needed to drag Will away by the left leg, hiding him from the others.

"One guard down, two to go."

He couldn't turn back now.