Chapter four
It was seven o'clock in the evening, Emma Swan was leaving work for the day. She passed by Gold's shop, and wrinkled her nose with disgust. It still smelled like charcoal on an old grill. That's going to take months to repair, she thought. She squinted "huh?" She realized that there was a small light moving around in the window. Has Gold decided to tempt fate? She walked up to the door, and was about to knock, when she heard voices on the other side.
"...didn't work!" Said a feminine voice,
"I know" said a much deeper, gravelly voice "it's alright, he just got lucky."
"I...I don't know if I can do this!"
There was a long pause "I don't believe it!" Shouted the dark voice "After what that man did to you, to us, you would just, give up so easily?!"
Emma peeked through the keyhole. On the other side of the door, she saw the back of a young girl. In front of the girl Emma could just barely make out the shadow of a tall, bulky figure.
"Alright, I'll...try." Muttered the girl.
"Good" purred the other voice, "you may go now." The girl nodded and left through a side door.
Emma quickly stood to the side of the door and pretended as if she hadn't seen anything. The girl walked around the corner, smiling as if nothing had happened. Emma stared at her, she had blonde, braided hair, blue eyes, a white dress, a tattered shawl, bare feet, and a long scar running down the side of her face. She fits Gold's description perfectly. Thought Emma.
"Hey!" She shouted, the girl didn't seem to hear, "hey... Vanessa!"
The girl finally stopped, "I've been called that before" she said, turning around, "but not by you. Hello, Miss Swan."
Emma stopped "how do you know my name?"
"Isn't that what Rumpelstiltskin calls you?" she said, spitting the name out as if it would poison her.
"Why do you want him dead, Vanessa?" Asked Emma
"Oh, you mean he didn't tell you? I can't say I'm surprised." Vanessa said.
"So, you're saying he's lying?" Asked Emma.
"No" said Vanessa "what he told you was true, but it's what he didn't tell you that was..." she looked over Emma's shoulder "oh, on second thought, why don't you ask him yourself?" She pulled out a match and lit it.
"Emma, get back!" A voice behind her shouted. Vanessa dropped the match,
"Whoa!" Emma jumped back, away from the flame. The fire blazed for only a moment, and then Vanessa was gone.
"God, I hate those things..." someone behind her muttered. Emma turned around.
"Gold, how long have you been standing there!?" She asked
"Long enough" he said "are you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." Said Emma. "Wait a second." She gasped, Vanessa, she responded to the name Vanessa. "Gold" she said, scrutinizing him, "are you absolutely sure that Vanessa died that day?"
Gold sighed, "to be perfectly honest, no."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I saw her, lying in the snow and she appeared to stop breathing; but I didn't see her burial, or what became of her after that."
Emma inwardly groaned "well, I think it's her."
Gold gave her a funny look "what?"
"I think that girl may be Vanessa." Said Emma
"May I ask why?"
"Because I called her Vanessa, and she told me 'I've been called that before, but not by you.'" Emma narrowed her eyes "she also said that you were hiding something from me."
"Hiding something?" He was caught, she knew it.
"Yes, specifically the reason why she wants to kill you. Speaking of which, she and another guy were just in your shop, talking. He was encouraging her to try again."
"What did this, 'other guy' look like?" He asked.
"I couldn't really tell, all I saw was a shadow. He was a big guy, bulky with a gravelly voice, that's all I could tell."
"Bulky man with a gravelly voice" murmured Gold, thinking.
"Hey" said Emma "you still haven't elaborated on why she wants to kill you?"
"That's because I'm not sure, dearie." He said evenly.
"You're not sure, or you just don't want to tell me?" Asked Emma.
"I think we can solve this mess right now" said Gold, abruptly changing the subject.
"How?" Asked Emma,
"With a, change in the weather" said Gold. A cold breeze blew past them
"How is a little breeze going to stop her from lighting a few enchanted matches?" Asked Emma, shivering.
"It's not the wind that's going to stop her" said Gold "I'll give you a clue; she has no shoes, no warm place to go to, and a box of exploding matches which only work well if she has another source of dry wood."
"Alright Gold, what's about to happen?"
"You'll see" said Gold "and I hope you own a heavy coat Miss Swan; because Storybrooke is in for a particularly nasty winter."
By the time Emma had returned home that night, the first of the snowflakes were just beginning to fall.
...
"Hey everyone" said Emma walking through the day.
"Hi Emma" said Snow, her mother, who was standing at the back of this room "can you believe this weather? I can't remember the last time it snowed here!"
"Me neither" said Emma, Gold, this had better work. She thought.
"Hi!" Said Henry, walking down the stairs.
"Henry" said Emma "listen, I need to see your book."
"Why?" Asked Henry,
"I need to find out the story of someone here." Said Emma
"Um, okay" said Henry, rushing back upstairs to retrieve the book, and then rushing back down again.
"What's the person's name?" Asked Henry, opening the book.
"Well, I sort of know who she is. She's the little match girl." She said,
"The little ma-" said Henry, he suddenly realized something "Rumpelstiltskin."
"What about him?" Asked Emma.
"You've been pulled into finding out who set his shop on fire, and he didn't tell you something, so you're trying to find out yourself, right?" Asked Henry.
Emma raised her hands above her head "guilty, as charged."
Henry smiled triumphantly, and skimmed through the book, "little match girl, little match girl, little match girl..." he muttered. His hand stopped on one page, "here it is!"
Emma glimpsed at the story for a moment, "is that her?" Asked Henry, pointing at the drawing. It depicted a young girl with loose blonde hair, she had one blue eye and one milky white. She clutched a tiny doll in one hand, and a skull with glowing eyes in the other; sticking out of her pocket was a box of matches.
"Add the scar, braid her hair and make this eye blue, and that's her." Said Emma, "but why is there a house on chicken feet in the background!?"
Feel free to PM me if you know who the match girl is! (As with a few other characters in OUAT; she is a combination of more than one fairy tale character.) I want to see if many people know this story other than me! (I'm nearly always the only one at school who does!) Thanks for reading!