The town line was on the one stretch of road that connected to the rest of Maine. It was the only way in and out of Storybrooke. There were no street lights along the road, just the ‘Welcome to Storybrooke’ sign that sat at the edge of town. The road was illuminated by Gold’s car headlights and the full moon.

The pawn shop owner sat in his car that was parked a few feet from the town line. This is it! He thought to himself. He did not bother waiting until the next morning to leave town. He had already waited more than a century to be reunited with his son, he couldn’t wait a second longer. Belle glanced at the older man. He had been quiet the entire drive and seemed to have a lot of things on his mind.

Ever since she woke up from the curse, her days with Rumplestiltskin seemed to only be a tiny step up from living in a psych ward. She was living in his house but she barely spent much time with him. In the daytime, he would be at the back of the shop mixing potions and at night he would be in the basement spinning straws into gold.

They hadn’t even discussed their relationship yet. In the Enchanted Forest, the two of them had fallen in love after months of being the Dark One’s servant. Belle saw something in Rumple, something human. The sorcerer had allowed Belle to leave the castle to run an errand expecting that she would not return but the young servant met the Evil Queen on the road who told her that True Love’s Kiss could break the curse that turned Rumplestiltskin into the Dark One. The kiss had almost worked but Rumple chose power instead of love. He told the young redhead to leave the castle and she did. It was Regina, the Evil Queen, who told Rumplestiltskin that the servant had killed herself after being tortured for her association with the Dark One.

Belle did not get a chance to see much of this new world they were in. She felt like she was back to being Rumplestiltskin’s maid, trapped in the Dark One’s abode, cleaning up his home. She was surprised when Rumple suddenly packed both of their clothes in suitcases. He told her that he had finally located his son in a placed called New York. She could only imagine the place to be a similar town like Storybrooke with metal carriages and stone buildings.

The locks on the car doors unlocked and Gold opened the driver’s seat door and stepped out. He took his time to plant both feet on the ground. After bringing magic back into Storybrooke, he no longer needed to rely on his walking cane.

He got out of his car and walked towards the town line. While the curse was still in effect, anybody in town who attempted to cross the town line would be stopped by the curse except for Regina as she was the one to cast the curse. Whatever that was beyond the line was new and unpredictable. He had no idea if his curse had any effect on him. He wanted to be sure and not risk crashing his car against the welcome sign like Emma did her first night in town.

Upon reaching the edge of town, Gold slowly stretched out his hand and took careful steps forward as though he was looking for a wall in a dark room. He only managed four steps before he was thrown back. He yelped at the excruciating pain. Belle gasped. She struggled to open the car door, pushing and pulling every part of it before finding the lever that opens the door. She ran over to her lover who was in the midst of standing up.

“What happened?” the redhead inquired.

“It appeared that the curse had built a wall on the town line. Nobody will be able to leave the town while the curse is still in effect.” Gold explained.

“Did you know that this would happen?”

“Does it look like I did?” irritation apparent in his voice.

“I guess this is the price you have to pay for enacting this curse.”

The older man did not require a lecture from his former help. He turned to his girlfriend. “I’ll find a way around this.”

“Why don’t you just lift the curse?”

Rumple scoffed. “If I do that, Regina wouldn’t learn her lesson. Nobody messes with Rumplestiltskin.”

Belle silently looked away. The older man could see that he was taking his anger out on her.

“Look, Belle, Regina locked you up for so many years. I’m only making sure that she won’t do anything to you again.” He reasoned.

“But you are using her son to hurt her and making everybody else stuck in the same time loop!”

“Knowing Regina, she will break the curse… eventually.” He couldn’t help grinning wickedly at that statement.

“If I have to be stuck in reliving the same day over and over again, I don’t want to be anywhere near you!” the young woman turned on her heels and started to storm off.

“Belle! Where are you going?”

“To get far away from you!” She yelled, not bothering to turn around to look at the old man standing in the middle of an empty road.

                                                           *****

After failing to find Cora’s spell book, Regina thought that she could engage the sheriff’s help to look through her magic books in case she missed out on something. It took her two days to find an easy way to convince the ever sceptical, Emma Swan, to help her immediately when the day resets itself.

The moment Regina appeared in her son’s bedroom, she hauled herself to her car and drove like a mad woman down to the hospital. She did not bother parking the car. She just kills the engine and removed her keys before heading inside to look for the blonde.

Once inside, she braced herself from being tossed around in the storage room. She blocked Emma’s hand from grabbing her and instead pushed the blonde into the storage room. Once she got in there, she pinned the blonde against the wall and covered the Sheriff’s mouth.

“We don’t have much time. I need you to calm down and listen to what I’m about to tell you.” Regina would start saying calmly despite the manhandling she did earlier. “Everything Henry told you about the curse is true.” This always made the sheriff’s eyes grow wide.

The mayor slowly released her grip on Emma and continued. “I’m sorry I tried to poison you and ended up poisoning him instead. But we have managed to wake him up before.”

“What do you mean before?” the blonde would always ask.

“The dark curse I cast twenty-eight years ago was already broken by you. Henry dies and you kissed him back to life, breaking my curse as well. But there is a new curse now that I’ve not been able to break, cast by the same man who created the dark curse.”

“Who?”

“Rumplestiltskin, but over here he is known as… Mr. Gold.”

Emma would stand there, slacked jaw. Initially, Regina would wait for the inevitable ‘why’ from the blonde but she was tired of having the same conversations over and over again.

“He wanted to punish me for something I did to him way before the curse was cast.” The sheriff opened her mouth to say something but the brunette cut her off. “Yes, I know I shouldn’t have messed with him and yes I know this is all my fault. No, I do not have magic to break the curse… at least not yet. I need your help to find a way to break this curse. Come with me.”

The blonde watched as the mayor walked out of the storage room. She silently followed behind, confused as to what was going on and how Regina knew all the questions she was going to ask.

The drive to the cemetery was always quiet as Emma was still confused and unable to process what was happening. She would find herself opening her mouth as if to say something but shut it again because she did not know where to begin.

Upon reaching the vault, Regina gathered the books they had not looked through and piled a few in front of the blonde, taking mental note of the titles so that they don’t waste any time looking through the same books again. She didn’t have many books that were written in English so she still had to do the bulk of the research herself. She wished she had Belle on her side because the redhead is an avid reader and could read many languages including elvish.

After the fifth day of going through this routine, they have managed to look through all the magic books Regina owned, cover to cover. They did not find anything new. The mayor pushed the pile of books off the trunk. They made a huge thud as they hit the ground.

“Regina! It’s okay… we’ll find a way.” Emma placed her hand on the brunette’s arm, consoling her.

“This is pointless without my magic.” Regina looked into the blonde’s eyes.

“Do you know how to get it back?”

The brunette nods her head yes. “My mother’s book… but I don’t have it.”

“Oh.” Emma did not know what to do in this situation. The whole thing was odd for her. They stood there in silence, looking at the ground, feeling defeated.

“I think I know who has it. But we need a plan to get it.” Regina said all of a sudden.

The brunette was interrupted by the sound of Emma's cell phone ringing.

                                                             *****

Belle knew that this world was strange to her and that she had no idea where she was going but she knew that the vengeful man she left at the town line was not the man she fell in love with.

She stopped at a junction in the middle of town. A huge clock tower caught her attention. It was almost midnight. Most of the town was quiet save for a few random townspeople either heading home or out to the local bar. She wondered what was underneath the clock tower. She could see the windows were boarded up.

Curiosity got the better of her. She crossed the road to investigate the building further. She was thankful for the bright street light that bled through the gaps in the boarded up window. On the other side of the glass were old pieces of newspaper taped up. She cupped her hands on either side of her face and peered through a gap where a sheet of newspaper had peeled off. Books!

To say that Belle was passionate about books would be an understatement. She lived for them ever since she was a little girl.

The bookworm walked towards the front door. A huge ‘ENTRANCE’ sign displayed prominently above two huge white double doors that were chained up. She took a few steps back and looked up. ‘STORYBROOKE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY’ clearly displayed just below the clock tower.

A library!  Belle thought to herself. She had found a new purpose in her life, to find a way to access the books that were being held hostage behind the locked doors.

“Hey!” Are you new here?” a sweet soft voice came out of nowhere startling the redhead. Belle turned to see who it was.

Her jaw dropped at the sight before her, a tall, slender brunette with red streaks in her long dark hair, a shirt tied in the front revealing pale skin in the midriff and short jean cutoffs with knee-high boots. She wondered how the younger woman standing before her could withstand the cold weather wearing those clothes if you could even call them that.

“Erm… yeah. It’s my first time here in town.” It wasn't a complete lie, she had only just had the opportunity to explore the town.

“I’m Ruby.” The tall bubbly woman held out her hand to shake Belle’s. The redhead reciprocated the handshake.

“Belle.” They released their grip.

“Welcome to Storybrooke!”