WARNING - This chapter talks about some rather violent abuse. If you cannot handle that or do not want to read that part, please skip down to the horizontal line. If you skip it but want to know the jest of it for future plot purposes, please let me know, I have a summary written up that will happily send to you.

This chapter is a little shorter, but important. Enjoy. As Always, thank you everyone for your feedback. I am overwhelmed by such an awesome response and group of readers/supporters. Please continue to review. Your reviews are what keep me going. So without further Ado...Chapter 10.

Chapter 10 - Nightmares

The street was dark and desolate. Almost deserted, papers blew between the empty buildings. It wasn't any place that I recognized. The buildings looked like they had been erected at a 15 degree angle. All of the bricks were fire red. All of the windows were painted black.

"You were supposed to die," It was a low gruff frightening voice that said the words that I heard from behind. I spun around quickly and saw no one.

"Because you survived, we have to go back." Again the voice was behind me and when I turned no one was present. Just the sound alone sent chills down my spine.

I began to walk down the street; I was looking for any sign of anything that would look familiar. Where was I? Why was everything so dark? I heard another voice, only this time it was the sound of a kid. I turned toward the sound. There he was, a kid running through the intersection ahead of me.

"Henry" I called. What was he doing here? "Henry, answer me."

"You were supposed to die." The voice was behind me again, and again I spun to face it seeing nobody. But it didn't completely pull my mind away from the kid that could only be Henry.

"Henry," It sounded like a scream in my head but came out as only a whisper. Why was he running away from me?

"Because you survived, we have to go back." It called again, this time it was deeper and colder.

"Henry, don't leave me…Henry."

"Back to hell with everyone," the sky was turning a morbid shade of gray.

Suddenly I was transported back to the Cooper's living room. I felt the fist connect with my face. Lying on the floor, a foot thrust itself into my abdomen; over and over again. Tears were streaming down my face. I screamed for help, but it no one could hear me.

"What do you think of yourself now, Savior?" Mr. Cooper's voice boomed. I felt another kick to my side. I curled myself into the fetal position.

"Dad, get the hell off of her!" Was that JC's voice that I heard? A baseball bat connected with my shoulder.

"How the hell are you supposed to save an entire kingdom…Savior?" The word savior was announced with such venom. Another blow to my gut; "Huh, savior? I think that you need to save yourself first."

"Dad, get the hell off of her." The bat was swinging in my direction again.

There was a loud bang in the hallway of the hotel that ultimately ended my nightmare. I sat up in my bed quickly. I was breathing heavy, sweat pouring from my forehead. Tears were streaming my cheeks. I looked around the room to reacquaint myself with my surroundings. It took a minute for me to remember that I was in a hotel room in Augusta, Maine. I reached for my phone to check the time. 3:37 am.

I closed my eyes, trying to remind myself that it was only a dream and trying ease my breathing. "It was only a dream," I kept repeating to myself. Maybe if I said it enough I would start to believe it. I went to the bathroom to wash my face and calm down. I have had nightmares before but nothing as real as what I had just experienced; part of it being a dream and part being a memory.

I studied my face in the mirror. I wondered how my life had become what it was; I wondered how I survived Mr. Cooper. The sound of my stomach growling pulled me from my reverie. I never did eat dinner. I had flicked the television on as soon as I got back to the hotel room that evening and fell asleep. I remembered an all night grocery store being only a couple of blocks down the street. Maybe a walk in the fresh air would do me some good. If nothing else, I could grab a bag of chips and a soda.

As I walked, I thought about Gold. It had been two full weeks. Two weeks of inconspicuously following Gold around only to get me nowhere. He was living in Augusta running a real estate law practice; mostly drawing up contracts for rental agreements and home purchases. He left Augusta for a couple of days to make a trip to New York. His destination was, of course, Neal's apartment. It had long been rented to a new tenant and all of Neal's belongings had been place in city storage. A public notice had been issued for Neal or next of kin to claim the belongings within a year. I had found the notice when I was digging for clues to find Gold's whereabouts. So there was little doubt that Gold was just doing his part to close up Neal's estate.

During the off time that I had from following Gold, I took it upon myself to do some research on Lily. Unfortunately, I didn't find much that I didn't already know. She was in the foster system and adopted during her teen years. After high school she joined the police academy. Starting out as a beat cop in Boston, she worked her way up to detective finally taking a job for the Augusta Police Department. At one point in time, she had been engaged to be married to someone named Jerszy Wilson; interesting name.

I had finally decided that maybe it was time to go back to Storybrooke. After all, my journey had seemed like a colossal waste of time. I walked around the store thinking about what to do next and although I didn't want to admit it, the answer seemed clear. Nothing was happening. I had worked myself up over nothing. My stomach growled, again. I plucked a bag of chips from the shelf and made my way to the soda coolers.

"I love the smell of the bakery, makes it so hard to pass up the donuts." The voice came from my left. It was a voice that I didn't recognize.

I looked up to see a middle aged man with medium length scraggly hair (that looked like it hadn't been washed in a month) eyeing me up and down. He was wearing a holey T-shirt and pajama bottoms. "I'm sorry?"

"The bakery," he pointed with a nod of his head. "They come in early to make the bread and donuts." Now he was smiling at me. If his look wasn't enough to send me over the edge, his rotten toothed smile definitely was. The pain in my stomach went from hunger to disgust. "What do say, you and I can grab a couple donuts and go get a cup of coffee somewhere?"

Now it was just plain nausea. "I'm sorry," I look at his body from head to toe. My lip curled. I tried to cover by turning it into a slight smile. "As attractive as you are in your…pacman pajamas…I'm afraid I have to pass. Thank you, though…for the offer."

"Are you sure? We can skip the donuts, if that suits you better?"

I was just about to respond with the "leave me alone" fist to face when I heard another voice. "Ah, there you are…did you find what you wanted?"

That's right, Gold had just come to my rescue. He put his hand on the small of my back and gave me his best smile. You know that smile right? The 'I was just able to help you out of a jam and now you owe me' smile. In return I gave him the tight lipped 'kiss my ass' smile. But I kept up the façade, anyway, just to get rid of this creep.

"Yeah, I just wanted something to crunch on for the rest of the trip." Pajama man made a slight groan then turned to walk away. I waited until I knew he was really gone before turning my attention back to Gold. "What the hell are you doing here…at this time of night?"

"I could ask the same of you, dearie, I doubt that Prince Charming would approve of his only daughter traipsing around an all night grocery being hit on by midnight's finest slime balls."

I rolled my eyes, "present company included? I can take care of myself."

"Oh, I don't doubt that. You are pretty handy with that gun of yours. So what are you doing here at this hour, so far from Storybrooke?"

"I was hungry." I wasn't in the mood for his cryptic talk at 4 in the morning. And now that I think about it, why does all of this cryptic stuff have to happen so damn early in the morning?

"No, it's more than that. I don't believe that you traveled all the way to Augusta for a bag of Red Hot chips and a Grape soda."

"Red Hots?" I looked down at my hands. "Damn, I meant to grab barbeque."

"How's Belle?" Clearly he was unamused with my banter.

I studied his eyes for a minute. I pushed my lips into a thin smile, "As well as can be expected. She's been taking care of the library and the shop."

"Has she asked about me?"

I could tell that his missing her was sincere. The longing in his eyes as he spoke of her was a dead giveaway that he wanted to find his way back. The only problem was that she was only a side dish in the meal that fueled his actions. He had never intended to fall in love with her. But he did. "Considering that this is the first time, since you left, that I have been outside of Storybrooke…And, since I don't make it a habit of giving you a call to shoot the breeze…no. She hasn't asked about you."

"But she knows that you came looking for me?" I knew that he was prodding me for an answer as to why I was in Augusta. And yes, it was to look for him. But I was certain that I didn't want him to know my reasoning.

"I don't recall anyone saying I came to look for you. And, the only people who know the reason why I came to Augusta are my parents." Ok. It was a stall tactic. I was feverishly wracking my brain to come up with a quick reason to be here; a reason that did not include him, JC, or Lily.

"And I see you brought something to remember them by." I followed his gaze to my hand. My mother's wedding ring. That was it. I never took it off because I didn't want to risk losing it. But that brought me the perfect excuse. Or at least I hoped it would be the perfect excuse and he would buy it.

I flipped my hand over to admire the antique gold emerald ring that adorned my finger. "Ah, the ring. I brought to a jeweler to be repaired and appraised for my mother. The rock was loose. And with it being such a special family heirloom, I was finally able to talk her into getting it insured. I'm sure that you can understand the importance of insurance."

"Yes, yes. Insurance is important." He raised an eyebrow at me, "and you're wearing it…"

"So I don't lose it." I retorted quickly. "Can you imagine what my father would do to me if I lost his mother's…my mother's ring?" He nodded his head with a smile. "Yeah. Exactly."

"Well, Ms. Swan, I supposed you should be getting back to your hotel, would you like me to walk you?" I eyed him suspiciously. "It is the honorable thing to do."

"No. Thanks. I'll be fine." I reached into the cooler and pulled out the soda that I had wanted ten minutes ago.

"As you wish." He turned to walk away, but then I heard him call back to me. "And Ms. Swan?"

"Yeah," I said half heartedly. What more could this man possibly have to say to me.

"I am not the one that you need to be looking to for answers." Ok. He got my attention. "You need to turn this investigation to your own family and even yourself." He smiled as he turned on his heel and walked away.

He left me standing there, dumbfounded. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

Please review...also if there are any scenes that you would like to see written into this story, please let me know. I'm always looking for good ideas and if I can make them work with the outline that I have, I will use it.