Chapter One : Voyage to Never Land
Alice had never been to Never Land. And if one were to honest with oneself, then Alice had absolutely no inkling of what exactly she would once she got to Never Land. In order to buy herself time she committed herself to retrieving Henry, after all that was the responsible, heroic thing to do although it had been quite some time since Alice had been much of the 'heroic' type.
After Rumpelstiltskin had declared he was the only one who could defeat the infamous Peter Pan and poofed off to Never Land, Alice sat in silence with Regina, watching the blue choppy waves both lost in their thoughts off in far away lands. Alice possessed no malice against Regina after all that she had done, even after what she had done to her once dear, dear friends Graham and Jefferson. And it was possible that Alice was most probably the only passenger aboard the Jolly Roger who could bear to be around her, so Alice resolved out of pity to stay in her company for the time being. We mustn't forget that Alice was well acquainted Cora, the much more evil mother of Regina, very, very well. Cora had tormented Alice for many years as the Queen of Hearts while she resided in Wonderland, she could hardly fathom Regina's life as her daughter. Alice had saved herself by submersing herself in Wonderland, but she came from the mortal world where no one was looking for her. Regina came from evil and one cannot simply run away from evil. So Alice resolved to return Henry and accept Regina.
It seems that's what Alice did best. She accepted things and people the way that they were, never requiring 'change'. Two golden irises focused on the salty waters as they began to swirl into memories, the memories of Ellie Loveless, the lonely girl of Storybrooke.
Crisp fall leaves fell on the concrete sidewalk as Ellie wandered the streets of Storybrooke in a blur of reds and browns, alone as usual. Her two friends, Graham and Ruby were off at their day jobs leaving Ellie alone to her own devices. Done with schooling by seventeen and alone without any family meant getting a job in Storybrooke without any connections was nearly impossible. She just wished she had something to do. The more Ellie thought of it, the stranger she realized it was that Storybrooke never seemed to have any job openings.
Ellie found herself gazing into the window of Mr. Gold's shop of ill-retrieved wonders, a pawnshop filled of items that had mostly been repossessed by Gold as payment for some old debt or another. From the window she could see a whole new world: a treasure chest, a wooden lighthouse, a pair of marionettes, a beautiful globe, and chipped teacup that probably wouldn't sell for very much, just to name a few things. Every time she walked by the store there were new treasures behind the glass. Ellie was eyeing what looked like a new inventory of antique books lining the front counter when she felt something tugging at the hem of her plaid button-down. Slowly prying her eyes from the window, Ellie looked down to see an eight-year-old Henry, son of the mayor, looking up at her curiously.
"Why don't you ever go inside?" he asked her through a missing front tooth.
"Henry! What are you doing out here by yourself? Regina will have a cow if she doesn't know where you've wandered off to this time!"
Regina gasped cutting Alice's reverie short. "What the hell—"
Alice shrieked as the boat had jolted as if an underwater asteroid of sorts had struck it. She looked wildly for the source of the disturbance but failed until it struck the other side of the ship more vigorously, this time it was Snow's turn to scream.
"Mermaids! HOOK!" Charming called as the ship rocked thunderously. They were coming from every angle now, Alice could see them clearly. She and Regina looked at each other unsure of what course of action to take when Hook clambered out with Emma in tow. The weather, which had cleared up after passing through the slightly horror-inducing portal, regained its ominous gloom and the water rose violently threatening to take the ship down like the Titanic. Mermaids shrieked viciously while propelling their attack, the ships crew ran back and forth doing what they could do to ward off the monsters. Emma and Snow grabbed a net to foolishly try to capture a single mermaid while Regina took a more practical approach by blasting fire into the black waters. Alice stood by unsure of her position, she was just a girl, there wasn't much for her to do.
Regina's fiery defense worked like a charm to stave off the mermaids for the time being—that is until they reeled the mermaid trap out of the ocean. Alice looked at Hook questioningly, he knew better than to bring a mermaid aboard. Emma began demanding information about the attack while Regina spewed inquiries about Pan. The sky was completely black now, the air felt like a hurricane was gathering. "It's useless," Alice said almost absent mindedly, "they don't know about Pan, they just do as they're told like everyone else."
"I think the girl may be on to something," and with that, the Evil Queen turned the mermaid into stone.
That's when all hell broke loose.
Suddenly each member was pitted against another of the crew, screaming and throwing punches left and right. Alice ran to the wheel to try to take control of the ship which was one wrong turn away from taking a nose dive under a wave while Hook was otherwise…engaged. Emma began shouting trying to put a halt to the madness when Alice caught her glimpsing into the water, Emma's face lit up with an idea. "Emma!' Alice cried, "Emma don't you dare…!" but it was too late. Emma had scrambled up the wall of the ship; she walked the plank right into Hades sea.
That was the last thing Alice saw before she hit the floor.
They say while unconscious the mind dreams of the last thought waking thought it had. Perhaps Alice would have liked to erase the frightening storm and Emma's suicidal stunt from her mind, because she drifted back into her peaceful memories of Gold's Pawn.
Day after day Alice stopped by Mr. Gold's store peeking through the looking glass to see what new jewel was inside, but she didn't dare step inside. Mr. Gold was the type of man known for making deals and trades, but Ellie had nothing of value. On gloomy days Ellie would make up small stories about things she had seen through the window, like about a snow globe that could show you other planets or a baroque styled chair that was once owned by a European queen. She began to catalog the new things she saw each day obsessively, organizing them by the items physical descriptions, purposes, dates, and the stories about them of which she made up in her head. Little did dear Ellie know, each time she would stop by the window during lunch and peer into the darkened store, something far more powerful than she could feel her presence from the outside. It was on Ellie's birthday (of course she did not actually age in under Regina's dark magic) that a strange letter in a scarlet envelope appeared in her mailbox. Ellie picked it up on her way to way have breakfast at Granny's before making her rounds through Storybrooke. She almost didn't open it, for this spell had made the ever-curious Alice a bit more cautious and watchful, but sitting at a table sipping orange juice Ellie plucked up the courage to peak inside. The envelope contained a strange piece of paper—a parchment really—with a simple sentence scrawled across the middle in noir ink, "Brave: go inside the pawnshop."
After breakfast Ellie made her way to the police station where Graham was shooting darts in his office and Leroy was sobering up behind bars thanks to a ruckus he had most likely caused the night prior.
"Ellie, my girl! Happy birthday!" Graham said as he tossed a dart perfectly into the center ring. Ellie smiled wryly and pulled the letter out of her tan leather satchel. "What've we got here?" Graham raised an eyebrow.
She handed the letter over. "Not sure, I found it in my mailbox this morning."
"Could be anyone, I'm sure just about everyone in Storybrooke has seen you creeping around Gold's place. Well go on, check it out then."
"You're the sheriff Graham, isn't 'checking it out' your thing?"
Graham laughed, "well, you see Leroy—"
"Regina," Ellie rolled her eyes, "have fun with your confinement."
Graham called after her as she left his office, "at least I'm not afraid of getting what I want!"
Ellie hesitated outside the door of Gold's Pawnshop anxiously before it swung open before her. "Miss Loveless, how lovely to see you. Come in, come in," said Mr. Gold himself. Ellie stared at him with eyes the size of Bambi's, her heart stopped and she resisted the urge to run back to the safe, monotony of the station. "What can I do for you, today?" Mr. Gold asked as Ellie closed the swinging door behind her.
The air was cold inside the store and the floorboards creaked beneath her feet. "I'm not sure," she said lightly, it was as if she was in a daze. "I got this letter, I don't know." She pulled the envelope out of the bag but there was no writing on the page, which was now ordinary notebook paper. She wrinkled her nose.
"Come now, there must be a reason for you to have stopped by my store on today of all days. It's your birthday isn't it? There must be something that you want."
Ellie nodded her head wracking her brain for some sort response. Mr. Gold was quite the intimidating man. Frightening, actually. "Umm—well you see—I—I was wond—dering if you might have a need for a—an employee of sorts. Maybe, perhaps…" she trailed off as her face flushed bright crimson. Oh, how Ellie wished she hadn't followed the letter into Mr. Gold's shop. How silly she was to trust something that couldn't possibly be real.
Mr. Gold raised an eyebrow, "you've come to shop in search of employment?"
Ellie rung her hands nervously, "I can't find a job anywhere else, all the positions are full you see. I don't need you to pay me much, whatever you would like really. Maybe you need someone to keep the shop open while you make your rounds or keep inventory or something?"
Mr. Gold chuckled. "I don't need anyone to work for my shop." Her face fell and she began backing towards the door slowly, but he continued. "I said I didn't need any employees, but considering the circumstances and the dumb courage that possessed you to turn to my shop a job might be created here. Yes, I could divert my time to other…business perhaps with someone to work in the shop. I do believe we'll be in touch, Miss Loveless."
It seemed a beam supporting the mast had swung dangerously in the catastrophic storm and hit dear Alice square in the back of her head. While the others ran to Emma, Hook checked her skull finding a bump but luckily no blood or serious damage, a concussion at the worst. Emma had returned safely to the ship and the storm had vanished by the time Alice had come back to consciousness. Alice glanced around carefully and found herself bathed in sunshine, lying next to Snow how had kept a watchful, motherly eye over Alice after Emma had recovered from her potential drowning incident. She sat up slowly and Snow gave her tender smile.
Alice looked around until her eyes locked on a lush island surrounded by a strange, sparkling mist that looked like the drawings on the pages of a novel she once read in Gold's shop.
"Hell, is that Never Land?"