Chapter Six:
By the time Zelena entered the main hall of the church to thank the preacher for his hospitality her tears had dried, but the dream was harder to shake. Dreams experienced by people with magic tended to have greater meaning than those experienced by the non-magical community. Generally they were memories, prophesies, or reflections of some sort of mental state. Zelena would have bet the endless amount of money her full magic could produce that the third one applied to her situation.
While she had paraded into Granny's and gloated about Neal's death at the time it had also been a strange way of confirming her reality. By seeing the horrified expressions on the fairy tale denizens' faces the truth of Neal's death was confirmed.
Zelena enjoyed blaming her failure to succeed in her plan on the confusion she had felt afterward and previously it had been just in playful self-pity. However, now she could believe that Neal's death really might have effected her psyche enough to derail her mind from its goal.
Zelena found the preacher wiping down the altar with a wet cloth and instead of approaching him directly she walked through the pews to the center aisle and stood in front of him. She wasn't particularly religious, but it felt like the right thing to do. The preacher looked up and greeted his guest with a soft smile that she returned with dubious success.
"How did you sleep?" He asked.
"Very well, thank you. My stuff's all packed in the room I just wanted to thank you for offering me a bed for the night before I leave."
This man had accepted her without judgement, without reluctance. There was no need for sarcasm in a heartfelt expression of gratitude.
"You are very welcome. I hope you have a safe journey. Bless you."
Zelena's eyes widened. According to the little she knew about Earth religions, being a murderer meant you went to hell. There was definitely an irony in blessing the most mortal of sinners. Despite her predisposition to appreciate only the irony, Zelena couldn't help but feel a rebellious twinge of pleasure when she was blessed.
She nodded to the kind preacher and grabbed her bags from her room before exiting without looking back. She mounted the bike and glanced up at the sky, the green fairy dust trail appearing right before her eyes, stretching off into the distance. It had changed direction but looked as strong as ever. Sighing at its persistence, she kicked off of the curb and roared off on the bike.
Zelena had to admit, she enjoyed riding the motorcycle. It sped up easily and she could feel the road thrum under the wheels like she was riding across the grooves of a record player. It was also black, a color she had always enjoyed, and felt a little like riding her broomstick. Oh, that had been the life, flying over the verdant forests of western Oz, whooping like a wild animal when she was sure no one was in earshot.
Highway Eighty flew by beneath her wheels but around four hours in with no sign of change in the direction of the dust, Zelena was regretting not eating breakfast in town. She got off the highway at the next exit and purchased some food but thankfully the dust seemed to understand it was a pit-stop and didn't move in the sky to recalculate her route. She continued going, glancing dispassionately at the scenery as it passed.
A large lake appeared at one point, Lake Erie according to her map, but miles of water became rather boring after a while. Three in the afternoon came and went but she spotted the next lake. Lake Michigan, the map informed. Now why would someone name a lake after only one of the four states that touched it? She must really be bored to be asking such questions.
Zelena vowed to never go on long trips alone again if she could avoid it.
Barely thirty minutes after she saw the lake a large city appeared in the distance. The green dust was headed quite determinedly towards it. Zelena groaned mentally. She didn't want to have to interact with lots of normal people as they would be difficult to convince of magic. What did a girl have to do for a love interest that actually would know what she was talking about? Not kill people, a nasty voice in the back of her head said. In response she cranked hard on the throttle and rushed down the highway.
Around four thirty she entered the city proper on South Clark Street. A large black building rose on her left. The building was constructed of shiny black rectangles overlapping each other until it formed a staircase of random heights. Two white spires rose from the flat top of the building, earning the building its classification as a skyscraper. If the colors had been different it would almost have looked like a tower in the Emerald City.
The signs in the area let her know the city was known as Chicago. Zelena vaguely remembered seeing this city on a map in Storybrooke while attempting to maintain her cover as a midwife. Or as much of a cover as the truth could be. She really had been a midwife in her teenage years.
A kind woman passing through her hometown had bowed to the relentless pleas of a child needing work and deigned to pass her craft to Zelena. Afterwards Zelena helped most of the town's women through pregnancy, a time she kept deep inside her soul. She had been dangerously near happiness.
Her father passed his fear of her to his drinking buddies and them to their wives, but Zelena's expertise and efficiency earned the trust of the wives and husbands alike. Being Snow White's midwife, for however short a time it was, brought back that sensation but it was embittered by her quest for revenge. She had been a mess of contradictions. Wanting to give in to the feeling of helping someone bring life into the world, but also being poised to hurt both mother and baby for her own ideas.
The further she went down Clark Street the larger the buildings seemed to become, and the more glass they seemed to contain. If Zelena had to give the city a color it would be black and shiny silver. Cars rushed out of the city on their way back home early and she found a lot more concentration was needed to ride the bike properly, even at a lower speed.
She felt a slight claustrophobia as the buildings cut the sidewalk thinner and grew upwards with an alarming speed. If they fell inward or even collapsed downwards, she would die in minutes. She turned left onto Van Buren Street, passing under the teal colored L track.
A few more streets and suddenly as she passed a gray brick building she felt a rush of magic so strong she almost fell off her bike. With as much coordination as she could, Zelena parked her bike on the side of the road and approached the building. The magic was both familiar and unfamiliar. A mix of different magics from different realms had taken up residence in this building. Either it was a near stockpile of magical artifacts, or visitors from other realms had picked here as their place to stay.
Zelena bent over the bag on the back of her bike and discreetly summoned a large wad of money, about five hundred U.S. dollars in cash. The money and bag in hand, she cast a protection spell on the bike to keep it from being stolen and entered the building.
Inside she found an extravagant check-in desk connected to the right wall. A man stood a the desk, his posture almost as reminiscent of the military as his suit which included a cylindrical hat and epaulettes. Zelena approached him confidently as the smell of magic was present on him. He looked imperiously down his nose at her, or as imperiously as he could, being several inches shorter than her.
"Hello Ma'am. May I help you?"
She smiled pleasantly at him then morphed it ever so slightly to the Wicked Witch's insane grin, a talent she had perfected during her years in Oz. To his credit, his eyebrows only rose slightly as the danger he was in became a little more apparent.
"I was wondering if you had a suite open?" She paused. "I just arrived….in the area and need somewhere to stay. I am quite well prepared to pay any price."
The man nodded ever so slightly, understanding her subtextual meaning. He turned to his computer and pulled up a couple tabs.
"We have several openings. What kind would you like?"
"Just one bed, preferably a queen with a separate kitchen. Also, are there any not on the first floor?"
"I have just the room for you ma'am. It is a third floor suite, queen bed, kitchen, living room, and a view out the front. It is a corner suite. Is that to your liking?"
"It's perfect. How much a night?"
"$300."
"Done."
She set $300 on the counter, purposely making the snooty guard pick it up himself. He put it into a safe then handed her a key.
"Enjoy your stay."
She had already walked off when she heard the remark and merely waved a dismissive hand behind her. The building was quite large and at any other time Zelena would have explored every inch, especially the hallway labeled "Pool," but it was almost six and she hadn't sleep for quite a while or eaten. Thus, she merely climbed the stairs to the third floor and opened room 46.
She barely even registered the features of the room before locking up, throwing her bag on a chair, and collapsing on the bed.
Author's Note:
This chapter was really a labor of love. I am trying so hard to make this story as authentic as possible and this requires a lot of Google maps, pictures taken in the city itself, and general map reading. It is incredibly hard. But I'm willing to do it for my readers. Thank you for sticking with me this long and hanging on through my infrequent update schedule. Please R&R as reviews just make my day every time.
P.S. If anyone wants to know, the building Zelena stays in is actually called the Union League Building. Look it up on Google Maps if you are interested.