A/N: Hi sorry I forgot to update this flashback when I did the last chapter and I know the last flashback ended in a cliff hanger... So enjoy and let us know what you think you make our day when we read you like it or if you think something should happen. Anyway I won't keep you any longer sit back and read! - Eva

Flashback 9

By SchammieLynn

Oswin was in a meeting when the emergency siren came on. The trade partner that was talking stopped, and Oswin stood. Being the wizard, whenever an emergency happened, he was in charge of spreading the news.

Using his magic, he tapped into all the emergency services, to the reporters and journalists, and found where the issue was happening. But his h were the Emerald City; he couldn't go beyond the city's limits.

He nearly dropped over when he found out it was at Maraude's camp.

For the sake of his society, he had to put Essie out of his mind. He had to focus. He gathered all the information and put it into a vision that they could project on the sky. It was the Emerald City's way of getting the news to everyone quickly.

After he and his counterparts edited the image to make everyone, even the illiterate, understand, Oswin had to try his darndest not to panic. The numbers in the police reports of dead children were rising higher and higher. The cause: the Wicked Witch.

Her personal vendetta against Oswin had always been a fear of his, lingering in the back of his mind. She'd cursed him and Aly when they were younger, and as terrible as that was, he knew for a fact it wasn't over.

Oh, but Essie. Essie had no idea. Of any of it. They'd kept it hidden from her as if the reason they adopted her was simply because they felt sorry for her. While that was the case, Essie was so much more than a pity child. She'd been the answer to their prayers of loneliness and infertility that the Wicked Witch had condemned them to.

And now she was probably dead.

Zelena was ruthless. If she knew that they adopted Essie, and there was no way should wouldn't know, she would target Essie. Not only would the whole camp get burned down, but there would probably be a special ceremony celebrating Essie's demise.

Oswin couldn't bare the thought of it. He bolted from the room. He wanted to be with Aly.

He wanted answers.

Terrance wasn't playing Nets with the other kids, for a change. Instead he was reading a book that Essie had given to him a few months prior. Not one for reading, he usually just avoided it. But he missed her. He always missed her. When he couldn't walk her to school or spend time with her in the afternoons because of her extreme homework load, his day somehow felt incomplete. Orphanage life had gotten more and more brutal as he grew up, but Essie made all of it tolerable. He was reading that book as if he could use it as his little piece of Essie for the day. She was right. It was a good book. Really good.

So good that he didn't notice the giant breaking newsflash shooting across the sky until kids were screaming and parents began frantically grabbing their children from the park and taking them home.

He looked up.

He wished he hadn't looked up.

Terrance instantly hopped to his feet and ran to the nearest emergency station. He should have been there. When she wished for him to go too, he should have gone. Protected her. Gotten her out of there when things got rough. But now there was nothing. No solutions. No causes. There was just a crisis and nobody knew why. He wanted the reports. Were there named of the dead? Of the living? The numbers in the sky that flashed from Oswin's towers we steadily rising. Ess couldn't be one of them. She loved life too much.

And Terrance couldn't lose her.

Not Essie.

He ran full speed, as fast as his ever-growing legs would take him. He knew there would be lines of angry, distraught parents.

But he wanted answers.

There were lots of things running through Alexandra's mind. She couldn't talk about any of them with anyone really. She wanted to tell Oswin, but she didn't want to trouble him with his big board meeting today with all the trading companies within Oz. She knew Essie would be ready and willing to listen to her every woe and make her feel a thousand times better, but was it right to thrust her burdens on her 12 year old daughter as soon as she got back?

The siren sounded just as she was about to doze back off to sleep to let her mind take a much needed break. The sirens hadn't gone off in quite a few years, so she wondered what it was all about.

As she made her way to the window, nothing could shake that terrible feeling she had in her gut.

And she had every reason to feel that way.

The second she peered into the sky, her voice broke, "No… No… NO NO!" She screamed. and threw on the first outfit she saw.

If anything happened to Essie... Even just a scratch…

What if Essie was dead?

Aly couldn't even fathom it. For a girl who brought so much life into the lives of Aly and Oswin, there was no way that an tragedy at a summer camp could separate them.

As Aly exited the building to go to an emergency station, she looked up into the sky and saw the numbers climbing. They were slower than before, but still increasing. Each time it changed, she felt a painful twinge in her heart. There was no way life could go on if Essie wasn't coming back.

She scanned the sky for any more details. There was a note that all parents of children at the camp should report to the school for details and to expect to pick up their child.

But how could that happen if Essie was dead?

Aly didn't just want answers, she needed them.