Ten Years Ahead

Starting to Believe

The next morning, I'm awoken by a strange yet familiar voice.

"Mom, you stayed! Wake up I have something to show you!"

I slowly opened my eyes, slightly confused until I saw the young boy standing in front of me and at that moment, the memories from the night before finally all came flooding back. I was in this strange little town, with my son, in the Mayor's guest bedroom.

"What is it Henry?" I asked, still groggy from sleep.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of bed.

"You have to see this mom!" He said with a hint of excitement on his voice as he lead me over to the large window still covered by the curtains which he then drew open.

I looked out the window then back at the brunette young boy standing at my side, his eyes sparkling with happiness.

"Look at the clock tower!" He said pointing at the large grey tower off in the distance.

I looked at it briefly, slightly confused at what he was getting at.

"Okay? What about it?" I asked as I turned my head to look back at my son.

God that's weird... my son...

He smiled up at me again. "Because you decided to stay, time is no longer frozen here! The curse is finally breaking!"

I gave out a slight laugh in disbelief before remembering one of the very weird conversations we had last night.

"It's already... eight fifteen?" I questioned.

"The clock always says eight fifteen, time stands still here."

"What?"

"The Evil Queen did it," Henry said. "Stopped time. She sent everyone here from there. From the enchanted forest. So everyone is trapped here. And trapped in time, too. They don't even know."

"Oh right, I forgot about the Evil Queens curse." I said somewhat sarcastically but decided to play along with the kids game.

"So you actually believe me?!" He asked happily.

"Sure kid, just like how I used to believe I would find a family, we both know how that ended up..."

His smile dissipated. "But you did, see?" He said as he opened the brown leather book I didn't even realize he was carrying with him. He flipped open to the page where there was a picture of a baby wrapped in a white blanket with the name 'Emma' embroidered on it with purple ribbon.

As I looked closer, I actually recognized the blanket as the one I carried around with me as a child, and was one of the few things I even still kept to this day from all those years ago. While it was odd, I just shrugged it off as a coincidence, that whoever made the blanket had read the book, and decided to copy it.

I sighed and gave him a pat on the back.

"It's just a coincidence kid, I'm not in a book, none of us are."

"If it's such a coincidence, then why does Jiminey look exactly like Archie?" He said as he flipped a few pages and pointed at a photo of a nearly exact, but younger photo of the shrink we saw last night.

Still just a coincidence. There's no possible way...

"If it were just a bunch of stories, why would the evil queen look like my mom?" He said after flipping a few more pages and pointed at a photo of a beautiful woman dressed in black, with long black hair. But as I looked closer, my eyes went wide when I noticed the facial features.

The shape of her eyes, the point of her nose, the scar just above her lip...

Henry looked up at me "you believe me now, don't you?" He asked with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"Yeah, okay kid, I believe you. So what now? What am I supposed to do?" I asked still in shock and needing time to process all this information.

"You're supposed to break the curse, save the town, and help my mom find true love." He said with a smile.

"Okay, and how exactly are we supposed to go about breaking this curse?" I asked.

"That I'm not sure yet, I still have to figure it out, but in the mean time, you take this, I have to go to school." He said handing me the large storybook and walking towards the door to leave.

"Wait, kid you want me to read this? The whole thing, in the 7 hours you're at school?" I asked skeptically.

"Yup! Make yourself at home, I'm sure my mom won't mind." He said as he walked out the door.

I stared at the book in my hands then back at the door Henry had just walked through and shook my head with a slight smile on my face.

Even if I didn't completely believe this kids wild imagination, what else was I supposed to do. I sat down on the bed and opened the leather bound book hesitantly.

What if what he's saying is true? What if my entire family, my entire history is right in front of me?

I just had to find out.

A/N: well guys, I've finally decided to come back after two and a half years and complete the story after years of writers block and no motivation after the show ended. I know this chapter is shorter than usual, but I wanted to slowly make my introduction back into the story. I hope you continue to read the story, it will only get better. Thank you all for the love and support over the years! More updates tomorrow. XOXO