Sleep didn't come easily. It was as if she had a traumatic experience or made a shocking discovery. It would be impossible to get good sleep after that. So when Aurelia finally fell into a exhausted slumber, far past midnight, it was a disappointment with what the sleep brought.

She heard voices while she slept. She heard the royal man's voice from the map repeating what she had heard earlier.

"You're a demon! I never want to see you step foot inside my kingdom again." The hissing tone of a surely dead noble caused her to toss in her bed. The old yellowed parchment gave the dream a flat feel. It quickly shifted so that the marking changed. A circle became the moon and the royal figure disappeared into trees.

She had a vision of a bright, gibbous moon looming over her head. Trees were tall giants that isolated her, making her feel as if she was in a maze. Sweet, melodic notes of song reached her ears. She shivered at the eery tune.

A sparkling, azure lagoon with heavy hooded trees now came into her view. There was a frantic splashing in the lagoon as a body was dragged under by mysterious forces. Ripples spread with the displacement of water. As quickly as they appeared the ripples stopped as if they had never even appeared. And with that everything went silent, including the haunting melody.

Things were becoming eerier and eerier.

The dream world began spinning, moving faster and faster. It made her want to crumple to her feet, but the dream wouldn't let her. She was very aware that this was a dream, but she had no control over it.

The cool colors of the lagoon and the forest were replaced with a soft yellow. She was in an all too familiar room. Her breath halted as she backed away into the wall. She was in a room full of straw. Mountains of it reached the ceilings. It was more straw than she'd ever seen in her life. It was more than all three nights worth.

Her eyes went wide at the sight. She didn't want to be here! She never wanted to have to lie about spinning straw into gold again!

She didn't know why she strode over to the spinning wheel. The dream made her. She didn't want to touch it. Her finger grazed the wheel, sending a shiver down her spine.

"You made the deal. Now you have to deal with it." Mr. Gold's voice was followed by his crazed laughter. "I hope you can live with your decision."

Another noise reached her ears. Crying. Someone was crying. It was child-like and so full of innocence Aurelia had a sinking feeling that it was some sort of trick. She didn't trust the crying.

She looked around the room, looking for either Mr. Gold or the source of the squalling. She saw neither. There was only mountains of straw in the room she knew she was locked it.

She uttered the last word of the dream. It left her lips as easily as breathing.

"Rumpelstiltskin,"

Aurelia jolted awake.