Evermore ~ Rumplestiltskin

Chapter Nine

RUMPLE

    Today is valentine's day, the day I have always hated with a burning passion, a day that always reminded me of what I had lost. How I lost my son, and how I had lost my Liana, and how I got her back, and then how I lost her again, all because of this damn curse.

    It's a sunny day so I put on my shades before I head out of my house. I walk down to main street to see Mr. Moe Sterling selling flowers from his van. The sight of him angered me. Moe– also called Maurice is Liana's fatherly figure. After she left... she went to him, as he was the first person she met in the Enchanted Forest. And when Liana came back to me, she was covered in cuts in bruises. He hurt her. I gritted my teeth and said, "Well, this is just perfect. I've been looking for you, Mr. Sterling."

    "I'll have your money next week," he replied.

    "Terms of the loan were fairly specific," I said. "Take the van," I told the man behind me. The man nodded his head and did as I said.

    "Wait!" cried Moe. "No! Today's Valentine's day! It's the biggest day of... I've got a grand in roses in the back! Stop!" he then turned towards me. "You gotta let me sell em!"

    "I'm gonna allow you two to continue this conversation," I said, walking away.

    "This is no way to do business, Gold! You are the lowest!" I smirk as he almost keeps getting hit by the van. "People aren't going to put up with this!" The Van drives away and I walk over to the sidewalk and see Mayor Mills standing there.

    "Mr. Gold. That was quote a show back there."

    "Well, Mr. Sterling is just having a bad day," I replied. "It happens to the best of us."

    "I've been meaning to talk to you about something..."

    "Yeah, and the moment you have something I want to discuss, we'll have that little chat." I try to walk away. She stands in front of me. I grit my teeth. This woman.

    "No," she said. "We're going to do this now. It'll only take a moment."

    "Is there something eating you dear? Something you need to get out in the open?" I asked. "Because it's going to have to wait." Before she said anything else I said, "Please."

    I then walked past her, leaving her standing there, alone.

                        +++   

    I head back to my house to find the door unlocked. I carefully push open the door all the way, and look around, looking for more evidence of a break in. I take my gun that I own out of one of the dwarfs in the dresser by the front door just in case I need to protect myself from the intruder. I then walk into another sitting room within the house and I turn around, an instinct that someone was right behind me. It was Emma. We both had locked our guns and pointed them at each other. "Sheriff Swan," I said.

    "Your neighbors saw your front door open. They called it in."

    "It appears I've been robbed," I continued.

    "Funny how that keeps happening to you," said Emma.

    "Yeah, well," I said, uncocking my gun as I lower it. "I'm a difficult man to love." I say, thinking back to my memories to which Liana was once my maid before she became my apprentice, and then my lover.

    I remember sitting at the long hard-wooden table, waiting for her to serve me. Liana came out wearing a long black dress, this was the same dress that she had come here with. It looked beautiful on her. "You will serve me my meals," I said. "And you will clean the dark castle."