Chapter 7
Present
The next morning did not give Matt much comfort. All he can hear is Penny's voice telling him to get out and live his normal life. After his conversation with Emma Swann, he knows that this town is not going to give him that and that he should leave.
The question is why didn't he?
Matt keeps replaying the conversation in his head. Based on her point of view, Emma told him everything. She didn't lie to him. What she told Matt was definitely enough to make anyone leave out of the town like a Meatloaf song.
She told him about how the town used to be cursed. How the Mayor was really the Evil Queen. How she changed. Emma told him how she got into this crazy town and how she was connected. She told him that the stories that he knew were not completely accurate. She also told him how the town seems to attract…trouble.
In other words, what Matt may have to deal with if he accepted the sheriff.
Emma did say something that did made him glad that he talked to her as opposed to the Mayor.
"This is a wonderful place to live. Everyone in town are hardworking decent people. But I have family here. So, I am probably not going to leave. You can. So seriously think about it. I want you here, but this place is a lot to handle. No one will blame you for not accepting the job. After all, you don't have any powers."
Matt can not help but wonder: What can he do in a town filled with magical villains?
It has been the question since he left Mystic Falls. What can he do?
Matt knew the answer. The answer was what made him left Mystic Falls. The problem Matt is having is why hasn't he left Storybrooke?
With that question hanging over his head, Matt could not get any sleep. His mind rewinds to all of his failures as he stare at the ceiling in his motel room bed. For a person that had so much potential in high school, all Matt can see was how he failed as an adult. His failures are simply proof that he could not be sheriff to this town. The list seems to be growing.
Once the sun came up, he had to get out of his room.
He puts on his running gear and start to run.
Matt did not care if Mr. Hyde try to kill him again. Matt did not care if he saw Sister Green. Matt wants to do something to clear his head before making a decision on his future.
Matt runs down the main street of the town. He runs past the harbor and the docks. He runs into the forest. As the town slowly comes to life, Matt simply focus on the road ahead.
Matt finally stop running at the edge of the town's limit.
He look at the sign stating "YOU ARE LEAVING STORYBROOKE." He stare at the sign as he catches his breath. At that spot, Matt decides on one thing: Today, he is going to see something extraordinary.
Matt runs back to his room, takes a shower, and get dressed. He picks up some coffee and a map of the town from Granny, walks to his truck and drives out to the fields. Matt drives until he sees a woman looking up at the sky in a field.
Without giving it a second thought, Matt press on the brakes on his truck. He stares at the woman. He grabs the map that is on the passenger's seat. He looks for an idea on where he is. Matt can sees that he is not far from the convent. Matt start to scan the area. Once he sees the house off on the distance, Matt smiles. He look back at the woman.
She is staring at the morning skies as if she is expecting something to see. Matt drives his truck off to the side of the road, parks his truck, and get out of truck. He walks towards her. As he got closer, Matt realize that it was not who he thought it was.
"Hello." said the woman as she stare at the sky. Matt see the classic 1930 look.. He remembering seeing her at the diner the other day.
Matt was hoping to find Lilly. If there is anyone who would be able to help him in look for something extraordinary, she may help him without any question.
"Hi." answers Matt as he looks up at the sky. "What are you looking at?"
"Looking for my daughter." reply the woman as she pause to look at Matt. "You must be Matthew."
"Yeah." said Matt. "How do you know?"
"Regina." answers the woman.
"Who has she not told?"
"I am an old friend of her." said the woman to answer Matt's question. "You can call me Maleficent."
Matt looks at the woman as he try to keep his heart from bursting out of his chest. He did not know how he should feel. After all, she did gave the 5 year old version of himself nightmares. Matt places his focus on the morning sky, trying to keep his composure.
"You're Lilly's mom." said Matt after a stretch of silence.
"Yes. How do you know?" ask Maleficent.
"I met her in the diner yesterday. She mentioned that she's a dragon."
"Yes..." She waits for the explanation on how Matt figured out that Lilly is her daughter.
"So, I figured that if you can change into a dragon, that she had to be your daughter."
"Fair assumption." Maleficent looks at Matt. "You should stay."
"Excuse me?"
"Lilly mention that you had a conversation with Emma Swann about taking the sheriff's position. She must have explained this town's situation here."
"Yes."
"Well. My opinion is you should stay." said Maleficent.
"Ok. Why?" He is curious. After all, she really did not have thing to gain or lose if he stay.
"I don't know." said the woman looking for her daughter in the sky. "It is just a feeling."
Matt shakes his head. He really was hoping for more than that.
"I don't know. I have been over it in so many ways in my head. It come back to the one important question: What can I do to actually help? I don't have magical powers. How can I protect anyone against something or someone with magical powers?" Matt did not want to add the fact that this question has been in his head for a long time.
Maleficent takes another look at Matt and smile. She places her attention back at the sky.
"Knights would look for my kind. They would challenge us without any regard of their own safety. When one really thinks about it, it is stupid to go against something that is bigger and stronger than you. Most of them would die. However, there are a few that did kill some of my kind." said Maleficent. She turns to Matt. "They did not have any power other than the sword by their side and the wits inside of the brains."
Matt looks at her.
"Let that ponder in your mind as you make your decision." said Maleficent with a smile. "I can hear her now."
She looks up at the sky. Matt looks up to see a dot. Matt is wishing for binoculars to see the dot.
Without warning, he could hear the sound of wings flapping. The dot grows bigger. Within seconds, Matt see something that he never thought he would see.
A dragon flying in the sky.
Yep, there is the extraordinary thing he wants to see.
The dragon slowly land on the ground. Matt could feel the ground shake underneath his feet. No matter how softly a dragon lands, everyone will know that a dragon is landing. The dragon is the largest thing Matt has seen in his entire life.
As if it won a fight, the dragon rise his head and look up at the sky and lets out a yell.
Maleficent looks at Matt, who is fixated on the dragon, and she smiles at the man.
As quickly it landed, a puff of smoke covers the dragon. Matt watches as the smoke dissipates to reveal Lilly Page kneeling on one knee on the ground. She is wearing a t shirt and jeans. Lilly is breathing heavily. She looks up and see Matt.
"What are you doing here?" ask Lilly Page. She did not bother hiding her confusion.
"You're dragon!" said Matt as he process what he just saw.
"No kidding." said Lilly as she stand up from the ground.
"Seriously! I know you said it, but it never really registered!" said Matt. Lilly smiles.
"I get it. Like the Grand Canyon. They tell you it is huge and beautiful but you really don't get it until you actually see it." Lilly walks up to Matt.
"Yeah."
"So, what do you think? Scary enough for you?" ask Lilly.
"Yeah. Plenty."
"So, why aren't you running away?" asks Lilly as she stares at Matt.
"Because he is a knight." said Maleficent with a smile. "They tend to be stupid."
Matt looks at Maleficent and realize that the woman from the fairy tales just made a joke. It is not meant to be mean spirited. Matt allows himself to smile.
"I guess I am." said Matt. Lilly lets out a laugh as she shakes her head. Her mom making a joke is a rarity for Lilly to hear.
The whissing sound that Matt hears interrupt the laughter.
He start to look around only to see Lilly collapsing onto the ground. The second whizzing sound sound like it pass him. Matt see Maleficent collapsing onto her knees with a small dart on her neck.
Matt start to look around for the attacker, wishing that he did not leave his gun in the truck. Footstep running toward him alerts Matt. By the time it registered where the footsteps were coming from, Matt felt a blow on the back of his head.
Matt collapses onto the ground unconscious, not seeing his attacker.
Matt opens up his eyes to a painful headache. He can feel the grass on his left cheek as he lie on the ground. He really did not want to be awake at this moment. Whatever is going on, it can not be good. The headache is the simple proof of that. Still, he had to.
Matt rolls onto his back to see blue sky with fluffy cloud. As he sits up, Matt sees that he is sitting a small landing with some grass. He approaches the edge to see that the plateau that he is on is unusually high. In fact, he could not see the ground because of some clouds are covering up.
"It is a long way down." said a deep voice.
"Crap." said Matt under his breath. He remembers that he got hit in the head. He really did not know who was his attacker, but he did not care. He moves himself away from the edge and stands up to confront his attacker.
The old man is standing in the middle of a rope bridge that looks like it had better days. Even on its better days, Matt figures that it was not that reliable. The problem is that the bridge is the only exit from the plateau. It is attached to another plateau that had to be a football field length away.
The old man is wearing a black long coat. Matt did not know why the old man had leather pants and black shirt. Matt wonder what the coat was concealing.
"Where am I?" yells out Matt.
"This is the Bloody Bridge!" yells out the old man as he walks toward Matt. Matt can see the salt and pepper hair. His face has not been shaven for a while.
Matt instinctively go for his gun, only to realize that he left it in his truck.
"Your pistol is still in your truck." said the old man confirming what Matt thought.
Matt simply watches as the older man continue to walk toward him.
"I have to say, Hyde screwed up." said the older man with a smile. Matt could feel his blood boil at the sound of Hyde's name. He does not know what he did to Hyde, but right now, Hyde is making Matt's life very difficult.
"Hyde sent you to kill me."
"That was his plan." said the old man named Abraham. "Long time ago, I met his alter ego, Dr. Jekyll. He needed my help in containing the monster within. Unfortunately, I was no help to him at the time. Being a drunk and all. Then I met Hyde. He offered me help. He would find a way to stop my problem. Of course, it was all a ruse in order for me to do his bidding. But, today he screwed up."
"What do you mean?"
"He did not know that you were wearing a ring. " Abraham points to Matt. At first, Matt did not know what the old man is talking about. He look at his hands. Once he sees the ring on his left hand, Matt realize what the old man is talking about: The Gilbert Ring.
"He does not realize that you are wearing a hunter's ring." said the old man. Matt looks at the old man.
The ring hadn't work in years. Ever since the destruction of the Other Side, the ring was really a tricket now. Matt wore it out of habit now.
"Sure the ring is incomplete, but it told me so much about you." said the old man.
"What do you mean by incomplete?"
The old man smiles at Matt.
"The spell that created your ring only linked it up to one limbo. Something tells me that you know it can't work if there is no limbo to attached it."
Matt looks at the ring.
"So, I made sure that it is linked up to all limbos."
Matt looks at the old man.
"Didn't you know? There is more than one limbo. There are so many places that the dead can resides." The old man smiles.
"For example, this place." The old man extends his arms as if he is showing Matt a car. "This is a hunter's limbo. This is where all the hunters go when they die. Think of it as Valhalla. This is our price in order to have the power to beat the monsters out there. We don't move on to see our loved ones. We come here."
Matt starts to look around. He could feel it now. Matt might not see them, but they were there. He could feel the eyes looking at his direction. He places his focus back on the old man.
"Who are you and what do you want with me?" ask Matt.
"Who I am is not important. What I am is. I am like you. A hunter." answers Abraham.
"I am not a hunter." said Matt.
"The ring says otherwise."
"A friend of mine gave that to me. It does not mean that I am a hunter."
"You are right. It does not make you a hunter. It does tell me that you know what is out there. Sure, you can tell me that someone gave it to you. That says a lot about you because no one gives this ring up unless someone does not care about you. But that is not why I don't believe you. You said that you were not a hunter. You are not referring to deer.." said the old hunter with a smile as if that made his point.
"Again what do you want with me?" ask Matt.
"I want you to take my place." said the old man as he stop at the edge of the bridge.
"No." said Matt without hesitation.
"Really. Why not?"
"Because every hunter that I know has died in a very horrible way. Considering that I don't want that and I have my own plans that does not involve vampires or other supernatural events that could get me killed, I think I will pass on the offer." said Matt.
The old hunter smile bigger.
"You said vampires." said the old man known as Abraham.
"Yeah. No sense in denying it to you that I know about vampires and werewolves and witches."
"You know what I think?"
"No."
"I think you are full of it." said Abraham as he confronts Matt about the truth. Matt stand up from the ground and stares at the old hunter.
"What other plans do you have?" said the old hunter. "Answer that to me."
Matt simply stare at the old man.
"You know the problem with dealing with vampires and other supernatural things. You can never go back. No matter how much you try. No matter how far you go. It does not matter if you have a house with the picket fences with apple pie baking in the oven. You will always know the signs. You will always see what is out there even if you don't want to. If this tell me anything.."
The old hunter toss an object on Matt's feet. Matt look down to see the old badge that he had in his truck.
"...it means that you will try to help anyone that is in trouble. I know who I am talking to even if you want to deny it yourself."
Matt bent down and pick up the badge. He forgot to give it back to the mayor at Mystic Falls. When he realize that, he simply stuff it in the his truck's compartment and forgot about it.
"You can try to fool yourself. You can say you want a normal life. You can tell whatever lies you want. But you know who you are deep down. You want to protect people. You want to help people. Whatever made you doubt yourself, it doesn't really matter. You swore to protect and serve. What I am offering is the means to do that. I am not offering some stupid title. I am offering you the power to be their equals I am offering you power to protect people from all the nasty things that are out there."
Matt puts the badge in his pocket and place his focus back on the old hunter.
"Beside, if you want to leave here alive, you have to be my replacement."
"There is a test, isn't there?" ask Matt, knowing that he is going to hate the answer.
"Yep. You just got to cross this bridge." said Abraham as he slowly take a step back.
"Let me guess, you are going to try and stop me." said Matt.
"Not only that, I am going to try and kill you."
"Of course you are." said Matt. "I am betting the ring wouldn't work here since this is a limbo.
Abraham nods his head in agreement.
"I cross this bridge or I die. I don't have any choice in the matter." deducts Matt.
"You really don't." said the old man. "If it makes you feel better, I am rooting for you."
Matt shakes his head in frustration. He look at the old man.
He did not want to admit it, but the old man was right. No matter what is going on, Matt will always want to help. That will never change. It is the reason why he came to Storybrooke. He wants to be sheriff again. He want to protect and serve.
He also can't forget about vampires, werewolves, witches...and dragons. He doesn't want too. Ignorance was not bliss when he lost his sister. Matthew Donovan did not want anyone else experience that.
Matt know that he really did not have any choice.
He then takes a step forward to try and cross the bridge.
