Part I: Orlando, Florida, 2017

Rachel studied the text in her notebook, wondering if there was something she needed to add to the story. She should be doing this when the sun was up, she knew, but for some reason she could not sleep, despite the fact that her jetlag should cause her to be exhausted by now – and that was enough to keep her up and awake, writing down a possible explanation to said mystery. Or rather an impossible explanation; mysteries like this always caused her mind to go haywire.

"Rachel?"

She glanced over at one of the other beds and saw Chris looking at her.

"Sorry, I'll turn off the light", she said sheepishly and put the book away. To her surprise the ginger boy shook his head.

"No, I... I couldn't sleep anyway."

"Well, then there's two of us", Rachel sighed, "though we should still try."

She flipped the light and lay back down, still wide awake. Her eyes soon adjusted to the darkness, allowing her to see the contours of objects in the room.

"Do you remember that story you wrote several years back about us meeting some fairytale characters?" Chris suddenly asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well, seeing as that story was supposed to kick off today, could I read it again?"

She rose up on her elbows and frowned in his direction, even though he could not see it in the dark.

"Well, sure, be my guest. It should still be up on the page."

Chris then pulled out his iPad and started searching for the files she had spoken of. In the light caused by the pad Rachel could see him frown.

"What?" she asked.

"It's like... I have this feeling that I have done this before", he admitted. "That we've had this conversation before."

Rachel opened her mouth to say that he was probably imagining things and that he was just affected by the jetlag, but something stopped her. A feeling in her stomach that she could not quite identify made itself known.

"What are you two talking about?" Jade suddenly asked from where she had been sleeping.

"That this is familiar", Chris responded. Rachel turned in bed and reached over her shoulder to scratch her back, as it was being irritated by the sheets. Her fingers then traced the outlines of a long scar.

"What the hell?" she exclaimed and jumped down from the bed, not caring who she might wake up as she sprinted to the bathroom and tore off the shirt she had used as a pyjamas. Turning her back towards the mirror she was able to see the long, diagonal cut going from her shoulder and down to her hip. Her fingers touched it once more in amazement before she slid down onto the floor, staring at nothing in particular.

"Rachel?" Arianne's voice said through the door. "Is everything alright? What happened?"

Her legs still trembled as she pulled herself up, leaning against the sink and staring at herself in the mirror. When her eyes wandered slightly to the left she spotted a basket by the shower, one of those gift baskets often placed out at hotels. Although this time there should not be one in there; they had been occupying this room for the past two days and gift baskets were only placed out when new guests arrived. While putting her shirt back on she turned and walked over to the basket. It contained fifteen small, blue bottles and a card containing three words.

Drink up, dearie

"Rachel?"

This time it was Ella's voice sounding through the door.

"I'll be right out", Rachel called back. "I'm fine."

She lifted one of the bottles from the basket, clutching it in her hand.

"Damn it, Gold."

Part II: Storybrooke, Maine, 2014

Zelena's old barn had been left as it was after Hook, Emma and the unknown woman from the past had arrived back in Storybrooke. No one had therefore seen the bronze urn that they had also, unintentionally, brought with them. It lay on its side at the edge of the pattern and had been lying there for about a month now.

But no more.

The lid shot out as a blue liquid ran out of the urn and into the pattern. The liquid oozed and condensed the air above it, lowering the temperature of the barn to nearly freezing as it poured out of its entrapment. It filled the whole circular pattern in no time at all. Then it started to grow upwards; a bubble was forming in the middle of the pattern and pulling the rest of the liquid to it. The bubble shifted shape as it grew, turning into something humanoid looking, with a head, shoulders, arms, hands and a torso.

Once all of the liquid had been collected in the creature's body, it sunk into the body and allowed the outside to look human.

It was a young woman with pale skin and pale blonde hair collected in a braid, which was slung over her left shoulder. She wore an ice blue dress with a train of what seemed to be snowflakes. Now she turned towards the urn that had kept her captive and flung her hand out towards it. Ice grew up around the urn and tore it apart. The woman let out a deep breath of relief, before her large eyes turned towards the open doors of the barn. Her heart hammered in her chest; she had no idea what this place was and when she was scared her powers manifested. Thus, as she walked out from the barn and towards the forest, she left a trail behind that did not seem to belong in the warm night of early May.

The ground she had stepped on was frozen.

THE END

The story will continue in Cold Heart, which I'll hopefully start writing in a couple of weeks :) In the meantime check the album on my Facebook page with all the information about the OCs; present and future!

Hope to see you around when Cold Heart starts publishing!