Reawakened: A Once Upon a Time Tale (25 page)

“Nothing’s going to happen tonight,” Mary Margaret said. “You’re worked up, it’s freezing. Stay with us at our place for the night, think this through. Get a good night’s rest.”

Ruby looked at both women. It didn’t take long for her to nod in agreement.

“Okay,” she said. “One night.”

• • •

Granny, Red’s grandmother, welcomed Snow into the cottage with a tough-minded generosity. Snow liked her immediately, even though she seemed like she could be prickly. Red immediately told her about what they’d found outside, and the three went back out.

Granny looked grimly out at the scene near the well, and with the full light of the morning, she went to town to sound the alarm. Soon tens—if not hundreds—gathered at the town hall for a meeting to discuss what was to be done. What the locals here called “Wolfstime” was nearly finished, apparently,
but now the mayor was infuriated, as a half dozen of the town’s strongest men were dead. A good many of the people, men and women both, were hungry for vengeance. There was talk of another hunting party to go looking for the wolf that very night.

Snow White wondered just what she’d happened upon. A part of her thought it might be best to steal away in the night, but there was the threat of this wolf. And what’s more, she knew that while people were distracted with their own problems, they wouldn’t worry much about her.

“The one thing I know is that last night was the VERY LAST MASSACRE!”

The crowd cheered its approval. Many stood and cried, “Kill the beast!”

“Had I stayed with the party for just ten minutes longer, I would have been among the dead!” cried the mayor. “And had I doubled back? Perhaps I would have been able to slay the beast!”

“You surely would have failed,” said a voice.

Snow looked to her left, as did Red. Granny had been the one to say it.

Snow could see that Red was mortified by her grandmother’s comment. She noticed Mayor Tompkins scanning the room, looking for the source of the remark. His eyes lingered on Red’s, and he smiled at her. Red looked away.

Hm, Snow White thought. Something’s there.

“This creature is more powerful than you can imagine,” said Granny. “Stronger, smarter. You wouldn’t have had a chance, Mayor. Stay inside, lock your doors, hide your children, forget your livestock! That’s my advice!”

Granny’s advice was greeted with derision and boos.

“We’ve heard this from you before, Widow Lucas,” said the mayor.

“Aye, you have,” said Granny. “But I haven’t told you how I know.”

The crowd went silent. Granny stood.

“Nearly three score years ago, I was a child with six older brothers as big as oak trees, all of them veterans of the second Ogre War. And my father, the biggest of them all. Come one Wolfstime, he decided to go out and take on the wolf. A different wolf back then, of course, but just as fearsome. They did it for me. They went out there to protect me.” At this point Granny nearly broke down, and Red reached up and took her hand.

Granny continued: “I was supposed to be asleep, but I crawled out on the roof and lay down in the thatch to watch. They had the beast surrounded, the seven of them, with spears all pointed in at it. Then it started…. It was lunging. Not at the men, but at the spears, grabbing with its teeth, breaking the shafts. They stabbed it with the splintered ends, but it didn’t matter. It tore their throats so fast that not one of them got a chance to scream, or pray, or say good-bye.”

The crowd remained rapt. Granny gave them a long look, remembering.

“It looked at me with black eyes that didn’t even seem to be there. They were holes in the world. And then it walked away. You ever see a wild animal just turn its back and walk away like you don’t matter? If this wolf is like that one, there is no defeating it. It has already won just by existing in our world. You don’t kill it. All you do is hide.”

Granny released Red’s hand, reminded her to wear her hood, and told the two girls that it was time for them to leave.

It was only midday when they returned to the cottage, and Granny—exhausted from her night awake—told Red and Snow that she needed to lie down. “Don’t go far,” she said. “And don’t be outside anywhere near dark. Promise me?”

“I promise,” said Red.

Once Granny had closed the door of her room, Red took Snow’s hand and said, “Come on.”

• • •

Mary Margaret was tired of waiting around for things to happen.

The next morning, while Ruby and Emma still slept, she packed a bag and went out to the woods at the edge of town, intent on finding Kathryn.

She remembered how Emma had ordered them to move in a long line when there had been hundreds of people to help. Alone, though, it was harder to come up with an efficient system. She parked her own car where Kathryn’s had been found, double-checked her compass, and decided that she was just as likely to find something walking in a random zigzag as she’d be following any type of rules. She headed out into the forest.

She searched for two hours, being sure to check back and reorient herself at her car every now and then. As she searched, she thought about David, and Regina, and who in town was even capable of harming Kathryn. David? It was impossible. She didn’t doubt that Regina had it in her to do something like this, but for what reason? Mary Margaret couldn’t see it. And
that meant the culprit was someone who seemed normal and safe, some kind of sociopath. She thought of Dr. Whale, or Sidney Glass. She could make any—

She stopped in her tracks.

David was standing ten feet from her, his eyes glazed over.

“David?” she said, walking toward him. “What are you doing out here?”

It was strange—he didn’t seem to recognize her. He walked past her and said, as he went by, “It’s me.”

“I know it’s you. You don’t look right.”

“I’m looking for her.”

“David, listen to me,” Mary Margaret said, falling in behind him. “Emma doesn’t really suspect you, no matter what she said. Kathryn is okay, she’s somewhere. We just have to—”

“I’m looking” was all he said.

Mary Margaret stopped, and David continued on, zombie-like.

“David?”

“I’m looking,” he said again. “I’m looking.”

• • •

Henry sat with Ruby in the sheriff’s station, ticking down a litany of job openings in Storybrooke, hoping to help Ruby find new employment. Emma was at her desk, going over Kathryn’s disappearance in her head, but she wasn’t getting anywhere. She listened to her son being helpful. He suggested sales; Ruby said she wasn’t interested. He suggested being a bike messenger; Ruby said she was a klutz. “There’s nothing I can do, really,” Ruby said. ‘That’s the whole problem.”

“I’m sure there are things you can do,” said Henry. “Maybe you just don’t know about them yet.”

“All I’ve ever done is work at this diner,” she said. “There’s got to be more to life.”

The phone rang, and Ruby picked up. After listening for a moment, she assured the caller—Ms. Ginger—that the “footsteps” she was hearing were Archie’s dog, Pongo, and not a prowler. Ms. Ginger thanked her and she hung up.

“I just wish I had skills,” Ruby said. “Anyway.”

Emma smiled.

“Seems like you have some.”

Henry and Ruby each looked over a shoulder. Emma shrugged.

“Look, you need work, I need some help around here. I have it in the budget. Why don’t you come on board as the office manager?”

“Oh no,” said Ruby. “I couldn’t do police work.”

“I just mean answer the phones and help out, that kind of thing,” Emma said. “You won’t have to shoot anyone.”

“Oh.”

“I need someone. Whaddya say?”

Ruby thought about for it a moment, then smiled and nodded. “I say okay,” she said. “Thank you, Emma. Thank you for giving me a chance at something.”

“My pleasure,” she said. “And your first job can be to go over to Granny’s and pick us up lunch. I’m starving and I don’t have time.”

“Done.”

Ruby grabbed her purse and went to the door. Before she could reach for the knob, however, the door swung open, and Mary Margaret, looking frazzled, burst into the room.

“I just saw David in the woods,” she said. “He’s looking for Kathryn.”

“She’s not out there,” Emma said, shaking her head.

“Something is wrong with him,” she said. “He’s… confused. And disoriented.”

• • •

Red led Snow White into the forest, and the two talked about Granny’s story, and the wolf. Snow was glad that Red didn’t seem too interested in her path and wasn’t asking any questions, and so she let her new friend talk about being stuck under Granny’s wing. Red told her all about Peter, too, and how the two of them planned to be together.

“Is that the boy you were talking to at your window last night?” Snow asked.

“You saw that?”

“I was hiding in the woods,” she said. “I heard your voices. He seemed cute.”

Red smiled mischievously at her. “He is,” she said. “We’re in love. We’re going to be together, but we have to get away from here.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s nothing here for either of us,” she said. “We belong in a big city. A castle. A court. We’re not meant for the dirt. It’s violent and dangerous and small-minded here.”

Snow had quite a lot to say about how violent and dangerous and small-minded things could be at court, but she held her tongue.

“What’s Peter like?” asked Snow.

“Brave,” she said. “Charming. Strong. Smart.”

Snow smiled, looking at Red’s face as she listed the qualities of her lover. Snow wondered if she herself would ever meet someone who made her feel that way. She hoped so.

“I’m worried that he’s going to try to hunt the thing tonight, though,” Ruby said. “And that he’ll get hurt. Which is why
we’re
going to track it down right now.”

She gave Snow another mischievous grin, this one meaning something completely different.

“What?” said Snow. “We can’t—”

“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun,” said Red. “And besides, we’re safe in the day. It doesn’t have its full powers until the middle of the night.” She laughed, and Snow was shocked—and a little impressed—by how cavalier she seemed to be. She liked this girl.

“I’m a good tracker,” Red said. “I know how to find it. So we’ll catch it in its den or in its cave, then we’ll be able to lead the hunters right to it.”

“I don’t know,” Snow said. “It seems dangerous.”

“Come on, Mary!” said Red. “Live a little.”

If you only knew, thought Snow.

They crossed an open field, trudging through the snow, and Red explained how to look for tracks. They scanned the ground in likely spots for nearly an hour. Snow would occasionally call Red over and point to this or that divot, and Red would disabuse her with a “That’s a deer,” or a “Dog, for sure.” Snow was growing tired, and her feet were freezing, by the time Red called to her and said, “Now, here are some monster wolf tracks.”

What Red pointed to seemed large enough to be the tracks of a dragon. Snow White could hardly believe her eyes.

“And look, look at this,” said Red, leading her in the direction the tracks went. “Look at how far apart they are.”

“How big is this thing?” Snow White said, gaping at the length of the wolf’s stride.

“Big,” said Red. “Really big. Come on.”

• • •

They followed the tracks for a quarter mile. For a period, the wolf seemed to have been running somewhere, but as they climbed a hill—and Snow said, “Aren’t we getting close to the cottage again?”—the tracks were less spread apart. The two were also confounded when the size of the paw prints seemed to decrease.

“Is it shrinking?” Snow said, both of them hurrying along.

“I don’t know. I—” Red stopped and pointed. “Look.”

The paw prints weren’t shrinking. They were changing shape.

“What kind of a monster is this, Red?” said Snow White.

She asked because it was plain: The tracks had become boot prints. Mid-stride, the wolf seemed to have turned into a man.

“One that’s not just a wolf,” Red said.

They continued to follow the tracks over the hill and back down into the valley. Neither woman spoke, even as the cottage came into view.

The tracks led directly to Red’s window.

“I don’t understand,” said Snow. “Who else was at your window last night? Besides Peter?”

Red, her hand up at her mouth, said nothing.

“Red?”

“No one,” she said. “Just Peter was here.” Eyes wide, she looked at Snow White. “Peter is the wolf.”

• • •

When Ruby returned with the sandwiches, Emma looked at her and said, “Leave those wrapped up. Mary Margaret had to go. We’re going to look for David in the woods.”

Ruby looked surprised, and Henry glanced up at Emma and gave her one of his coy, knowing grins.

After Emma had calmed Mary Margaret down and sent her home, Henry had opened up his storybook and shown her the story of Red, and said, “She’s always struggling with feeling worthless, see?
Look.
You have to actually let her do things. She can track, even. See?”

“There’s a real investigation going on, Henry,” she said. “Someone is actually missing and in trouble. I don’t want you getting too caught up in the curse stuff right now.”

“But all I’m saying is that Ruby can help,” he said. “I know her.”

“Okay,” said Emma. “Fine.”

And so she asked her to come along.

• • •

Emma and Ruby arrived at the edge of town, where Kathryn’s car had gone off the road, and they headed north, into the woods. There was no sign of David anywhere, and it was only a couple of hours until dark.

“Not good,” Emma said. “If he’s out here somewhere, and something’s wrong with him…”

“What would be wrong with him, though?” asked Ruby, looking out into the trees.

“I don’t know,” said Emma. “A holdover from the coma? I don’t get it, either. All I know is Mary Margaret seemed pretty shaken up.”

“I shouldn’t even be out here,” said Ruby. “I’ll probably just screw this up, too.”

Emma liked Ruby, and wanted to ease her anxieties, but she also didn’t have time for this, and regretted bringing her
out here. Ruby was picking her way through the rough terrain like someone who’d never been in the woods, and even more distressing, she seemed more preoccupied with her own problems than with the task at hand. Emma took a breath and kept herself from suggesting that Ruby go back to the car. Two bodies out here were better than one.