CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Nightmare in Boston

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

     MR. GOLD WAS GONE AND SO WAS PETER PAN. To Zelda, the whole thing felt bittersweet. Pan was finally gone but Gold had to pay the price with his life. He left behind the people he loved and the people who loved him. He left his son and his partner.

     "My father did what he had to do," Neal said and Zelda could hear the pain in his voice. "He saved us."

     "Regina? Are you okay?" Mary Margaret asked as Regina picked up the scroll and said she was fine.

     "Don't let him die for nothing," Neal said.

     "We're here for a reason. Pan?" Killian asked.

     "He's dead," Regina said.

     "His curse remains. Can you stop it? Or should we all start preparing our souls because mine's gonna take some time," Killian chuckled.

     "I don't think anyone can properly prepare for something like this," Zelda said.

     "It's here! The curse is here!" a short man yelled as he ran to everybody standing in the street. "It's coming from all sides. There's no escape."

     "It's not too late, we can still stop it. Regina?" David asked.

     "Yes," Regina said.

     "What's the price? Gold said there was a price, what's our price?" Emma asked.

     "It's not our price, it's mine," Regina replied.

     "What are you talking about?"

     "It's what I felt when I first held it. I have to say goodbye to the thing I love most."

     "Henry?" Emma asked as she pulled Henry to her side.

     "I can never see him again. I have no choice. I have to undo what I started," Regina said.

     "The curse that brought us to Storybrooke," Mary Margaret said.

     "That created Storybrooke. It doesn't belong here and neither do any of us," Regina said.

     "Breaking the curse will destroy the town," David said when he realized what Regina was saying.

     "It'll wink out of existence as if it were never here. Everyone will go back to where they came from, preventing them from ever returning," Regina said.

     "You'll go back to the Enchanted Forest," Emma said.

     "All of us except for Henry and Zelda. Henry will stay here because he was born here and Zelda will go back to nineteenth century England," Regina said.

     The thought of going back to her own world made Zelda worried. She had no idea what would be in store for her if she returned. Would her mother still be there? Would she even return to the life she had before going to Neverland?

     "Alone?" Emma questioned.

     "No. You will take him. You are the Saviour and you were created to break the curse. Once again, you can escape it," Regina said.

     "But, I don't want to. We'll go back with everyone," Emma said.

     "That's not an option. I can't be with him. If I don't pay the price, none of this will work," Regina said.

     Zelda heard thunder as the curse got closer and she covered her ears. She didn't want to go back. The reason she went to Neverland in the first place was to escape her miserable life and now she was going to be sent back there because of a curse Pan casted. Even in death, he was still able to torture her and make her life miserable.

     "Emma, you have to go," Mary Margaret said.

     "But I just found you," Emma protested.

     "And now you have to leave us again. For your best chance and for his," Mary Margaret said.

     "Emma, we have no choice. You have to go," Regina said and Emma finally agreed.

     Everyone went to the town line where Emma and Henry would say their goodbyes. Zelda could see the green smoke getting closer and her heart pounded against her ribs. What was going to happen to her once she returned to the world she came from?

     "Wait," Regina said before Emma and Henry could get into the car. "Take Zelda with you."

     "What?" Zelda asked.

     "If you don't take her with you, she'll go back to nineteenth century England and she'll be all alone. The reason she left in the first place was to escape the horrible life she had and if I let this curse send her back, she'll be right back where she started. She'll be a prisoner all over again," Regina said. "There's something else you need to know."

     "What now?" Emma asked.

     "When the curse washes over us, it will send us all back. Nothing will be left behind. Not even your memories. It's just what the curse does. Storybrooke will have never existed. These past few years will be gone from both your memories and we'll just be stories. As for Zelda, she won't remember meeting any of us from the last few weeks," Regina said.

     "So, what will happen to us?" Emma asked.

     "I don't know. I can give you new memories so you can have a happy ending. My gift to you is a good life for you and Henry. You'll have never given him up. You'll have always been together. As for you Zelda, this is my thank you for helping us save Henry. You will have the childhood you deserved. You may have felt lost and unloved before, but this time, you will not be lost and you will realize that there are people who love you. Emma will help you find a good home with a good family who will give you the life you deserve," Regina said and Zelda could feel her eyes water.

     "You would do that for me? You barely know me. You tried to kill me when we first met," she said as she looked at Regina.

     "As a thank you, I will give you everything you've always wanted. A home, a family, and freedom," Regina said while holding Zelda by her shoulders. "And maybe some new clothes."

     Zelda laughed before wiping her eyes. "Thank you so much," she said before looking at everyone. "Thank you all so much."

     Emma and Henry got in the car but Killian grabbed Zelda's arm.

     "Still don't trust me?" he asked with a sad smile.

     "Once we cross that line, I won't even remember you," Zelda said as she looked up at him.

     "But I'll always remember you. A driven little lady with fire in her eyes and not afraid to fight back," Killian said and Zelda rolled her eyes.

     "Is this how you flirt with all the girls?"

     "You haven't seen what flirting looks like."

     Zelda bit the inside of her cheek as she looked at Killian. She had so much to thank him for but not enough time or words to do it.

     "For the record, I like Killian a lot better than Hook," she said while looking at his hook hand.

     "Zelda, you have to go. There isn't much time left," Regina said.

     Zelda looked at how close the green smoke was getting and sighed heavily. She thanked everyone again and got in the backseat of Emma's car. Zelda looked out the back window and saw Regina tear the scroll and crumple it in her hands. The green smoke turned purple and Emma drove over the town line as the curse washed over everyone. Regina, David, Mary Margaret and Killian. Suddenly, nothing was there. Not even the orange line that marked the border. Zelda faced forward and she looked at her hands which were folded in her lap. Her head was foggy as she tried to remember why she was there but couldn't come to a conclusion. She blinked a few as she looked at Emma and Henry who were sitting in the front.

     "Miss Swan, where are you taking me?" she asked.

     "Home."

━━━━

     WHAT MORE COULD SHE EVER ASK FOR? She had everything she needed. She had a nice home in Boston, a family who loved her and she was half way through her senior year in high school. She was already applying to colleges and even got a part time job. It seemed like she had everything she could ever want or need. The only thing bothering her was the nightmares.

     Every night when she would go to sleep, she would dream about being in this place where time stood still. In her nightmares, there was a boy who called himself Peter Pan. And despite the fairy tales she read about Peter Pan being the good guy, it was very different in her nightmares. She was forced to fight the Lost Boys and it wouldn't stop until there was blood. A shadow would tear hers right through her skin and she always woke up covered in sweat. Her guidance counselor started to notice a change in her behaviour and spoke to her parents about talking to a therapist, despite Zelda trying to downplay it as a bunch of bad dreams. The issue was that these dreams were recurring and so her parents agreed to have her see a therapist. So now here she was, sitting in front of a middle aged woman with her blonde hair tied into a tight bun and a pair of glasses on the bridge of her nose.

     "Did you have that dream again?" the woman asked and Zelda sighed with her arms crossed.

     "You already know the answer to that," she said as she looked away. "It was just a dream."

     "That's not why you're here. Your teachers and parents have been noticing behavioural changes that started around the same time you started having these nightmares," the blonde woman said while Zelda fidgeted with her fingers.

     "All because I missed a few deadlines and my average grade dropped by three percent?" she asked.

     "Poor academic performance can sometimes be caused by emotional distress, which is what these nightmares seem to be causing," her therapist said and Zelda sighed as she finally looked at her. "Where do these dreams take place?"

     "Neverland," Zelda said. She had forty minutes left and the questions were mainly going to be about her nightmares. She didn't want to spend forty minutes sitting in silence while her therapist watched her.

     "Like in Peter Pan?" the woman asked and Zelda shook her head.

     "It wasn't anything like Peter Pan. Yes, time was frozen and nobody grew up. There were Lost Boys and Peter Pan was there too but it wasn't like in the story," she said.

     "What were they like?"

     "Cruel, vicious, evil."

     Zelda didn't want to tell the woman everything about what happened in her nightmares. It was already strange enough that Peter Pan and the Lost Boys were villains but to tell her that she would also fight the Lost Boys and that Peter Pan kept trying to kill her? It sounded way more insane than it seemed.

     "Nightmares can sometimes be a result of post traumatic stress. Was there an event in your life that you would consider traumatic?" her therapist questioned and Zelda shrugged her shoulders. "A year ago, you were adopted by the people who are now your parents today."

     "So?"

     "What was your life like before it was made official?"

     The question Zelda wanted to avoid at all costs. She didn't want to remember what her life was like before her parents adopted her. Her birth parents didn't love her and when they gave her up, they didn't even look back. It was a closed adoption so she was not allowed to contact them. When she was growing up in the system, she was in one other foster home. After a few years, they divorced and when the father left, the mother started drinking heavily and blamed Zelda. The young girl sighed as she shook her head.

     "I don't like to talk about it," she said.

     She was lucky enough to even be placed with the family she had now. Once they adopted her, it took some time for her to adapt but she started to learn what it was like to have people who loved her. To have people who wanted her. She no longer felt lost.

     "If you don't want to tell me the details, that's fine but it might help you understand why you're having these nightmares," her therapist said.

     "You switched from my nightmares to my family dynamics. How are they even relevant?" Zelda asked.

     "I asked because maybe there was an event in your life before you were adopted that may be the cause of your nightmares."

     "Sleeping was the only way for me to escape this world to a better one. Now even that is ruined for me."

     Zelda was practically itching for the session to be over and once it was, she went home and collapsed on her bed. Her parents weren't home from work yet so Zelda had the apartment to herself for a few more hours. Once she sat up, she checked the time on her phone and went into the kitchen to make herself something to eat. Her mother used to say how skinny she was when they adopted her, as if she wasn't being fed properly for years and she made sure that Zelda was well fed. As she was spreading peanut butter on a piece of toast, there was a loud knock on the door. Neither her or her parents were expecting anyone so she thought if she ignored it, they would go away. Unfortunately, the person only knocked louder. Zelda sighed as she tossed the knife into the sink and headed towards the door to find out who was knocking like the police. Once she opened it, a man in dark clothing was standing there. She was pretty confused about who he was and why he was at the door. Did her parents know him? If they did, how come they've never met before?

     "I finally found you," the man said but Zelda raised her hand.

     "Are you here for my parents? Sorry, but they're not home," she said.

     "I'm not here for them, I'm here for you," the man said but Zelda was only getting more confused.

     "Is there something I can help you with?" she asked.

     "You really don't remember me."

     "Sir, we've never even met. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave, but have a nice day and get home safely."

     Before the man could say anything, Zelda closed the door and locked it. She went back to the kitchen where her peanut butter sandwich was sitting and ate it before she lost her appetite. Whoever that man was, he sure was crazy.