Chapter Text
An Even More Different Life
Once upon a time is a common phrase of how many stories begin because they all have a beginning, one that perhaps has not been determined with certainty and that is why this trivial phrase fills in the spaces that could be left empty. This story began in parallel with another that has already been told, but that, at one point, the road forked, and different routes were taken, but fate, if you want to call it that, acts in mysterious ways, and no matter how many different turns along the way, you will get to where you need to be, at the right time.
But this story start in this way.
For Sarah Thomas her life had always been full of situations that could be considered strange, since she was a little girl, she knew that her parents were not her real parents, or that at least they had no biological relationship with her, not only because they physically had little, or better yet no resemblance, but because she simply knew it.
In her early years when she looked in the mirror she saw at times a different image, light skin, golden hair with waves and bluish-green eyes, but in a blink and the image disappeared and was herself again. But somehow, she recognized herself in that other image weird but true.
Other strange things happened around her, the lights flickered when she felt a very strong emotion, a couple of times some light bulbs exploded, but her parents attributed it to failures in the electrical service, but she knew that it was not so, that whatever happened was related to her.
Until she was seven years old, she used to feel sad constantly and could see it in the reflection she looked in the mirror, she would extend her hand, but before she could touch the surface the image changed. But after her seventh birthday, that feeling of sadness and loneliness was never present again, on the contrary, something in her was full complete, happy, very happy, but she also knew that this feeling was not hers, because her life was far from perfect, on the contrary, it was very, very far from it.
At the age of eight her adoptive mother (although she had never been told that she was adopted) had died in a traffic accident, a whole family tragedy, which destroyed her adoptive father who was never the same again, because literally the person she had met in the last 8 years of her life had become extinct, he had died along with his wife and had taken refuge in alcohol to try to forget his grief. That's how Sarah, at such a young age, had to take charge of her own life and start taking care not only of herself, but of the person who was supposed to take care of her, a huge responsibility, for someone whose only concern should be getting up early to go to school or that there would be for dinner.
Living in a city like Boston, it was not strange that people did not notice if a little girl went alone to the supermarket to make purchases, to the few who showed some interest, she only answered that her father was waiting for her outside and that answer seemed to calm the initial concern of the adults who asked her, and since the credit card never presented problems, there were no suspicions and therefore no other questions arose.
Sarah continued to attend school to save appearances, although classes were something that bored her tremendously, she had learned to read from a very young age, was extremely good at mathematics and literature, and had learned through books more than they could teach her in school, so her knowledge in various subjects was vast. Her favorite book and movie were Matilda, because she identified with the main character, only she didn't possess telekinetic powers (although strange things used to happen around her), or she had stumbled upon a Miss Honey in her life.
Over the years, her father stopped working, the work stopped mattering to him, but that seemed not to be a problem because the money kept coming from somewhere, so he had his drink and she had her food, so everything was fine.
And so, with that dynamic, that silent agreement, things worked for a long time, inexplicable situations and strange things kept happening in her life; once she thought she saw in the distance a person with the same features that she used to see in the mirror, accompanied by three other people, two women and a man to whom she did not pay attention, because her concentration was placed on that face so familiar and at the same time unknown to her. She tried to cross the street to go to meet her, but before doing so, she felt her arm being pulled away preventing her from advancing, because in her eagerness to go to that meeting she did not realize that the traffic light had changed and that the vehicles were again traveling and when she could finally cross, that young woman with the face of the mirror had disappeared.
On another occasion, when she was 15, she had come across a young man with brown hair, about 21 years old, wearing a black coat and scarf with red and gray stripes. The young man had been dumbfounded to see her, and had even followed her through a couple of streets until she managed to evade him by hiding in a shop. She could see how the man looked everywhere trying to find her again, but after a few minutes, he returned along the road from where he had arrived, and fortunately, no other stalker had stalked her after that.
At 17 and a half years old, she became one more statistic of teenage pregnancies, victim of that 1% ineffectiveness of condoms, and just after that, her father, who had succumbed to alcohol by losing his wife, made a revelation that would change her entire existence, and that of so many other people.
Sarah had just entered her house, coming from the supermarket carrying a couple of bags, her condition was already being noticed and she was starting to feel a little more tired. Although she hadn't told her father the news yet, because basically with him there was never a right or wrong time to start a conversation.
"You should go" began to say the man, who, for the first time in a long time, was not as drunk as he used to be.
"Excuse me?" replied Sarah in surprise by placing the paper bags on the floor as she approached the man sitting on the couch.
"I said that you should go, no you have to go, I think my curse began when I brought you to this house" continued the man "I should never have taken you, I should never have acceded to Ally's wishes" he continued to speak.
"What are you talking about Dad? Sarah asked him intrigued by the words of the man who barely spoke to her, sometimes weeks went by without her father saying a word. Sarah only saw him on the couch drinking from his glass.
"I'm not your father Sarah," the man confessed.
"I always knew that, somehow I knew it" the young woman replied "but hearing you say it feels in a certain way liberating" confessed the young woman "I do not have to question myself more if I am well or not in my head because I could not connect with you or feel more than a simple appreciation like the one I would feel for any human being for you" half smiled when responding.
"You don't understand," the man said.
"That I was adopted as a child," Sarah replied, "I don't think there's much to understand beyond that.
"We didn't adopt you" spoke again the man "I took you" said again.
"What are you talking about?" asked the young woman intrigued by the words she had just heard "did you take me from where? Or from whom?" the young woman asked again.
"From the center, I took you from the center," the man continued to speak vaguely . "the old man already had one, he had only asked for one, and Ally, my beloved Ally wanted a baby so much that I just took you to make her happy" he began to cry when remembering his late wife "but I was punished, we played God and I was punished for it"
"Dad" Sarah began to speak, but was immediately interrupted.
"I already told you that I am not your father!" said the upset man "I am not!"
"Okay Bill" Sarah started talking "what center did you take me from?" .
"The old man with the cane was crazy, but he had a lot of money, we were ambitious, and we gave him what he asked for, and I paid the others not to talk about you, so I just took you and brought you home and handed you to Ally" he continued "but from that moment my curse began" he said crying again "so go, leave my life, look for her, you belong to her," Bill concluded.
"I don't belong to anyone," Sarah replied angrily, because she was not an object to be someone's possession or pass from one owner to another. “I am my own person and I have taken care of myself for the last 10 years,” the young woman claimed, who began to get angry and at the same time the lights began to flicker.
"Take this," Bill told to Sarah, handing her a manila envelope, "pick up your things and leave this house, maybe then my curse will end, and I can be at peace" he ended up leaving the room.
Sarah was still standing in the middle of the room, not quite sure how to react to what had just been revealed to her, although she never felt that she belonged to that place, this house was the only home she had known for almost 18 years. Sarah opened the envelope that had just been delivered to her by the man she thought was her father, and inside of it she found enough money to spend a very good time without worrying about not having shelter or food, because with what was in the envelope she could easily stay in a decent place and have three meals a day for a couple of months; in addition to the money, there were several documents and a photograph, which, when seen, many things began to make sense to Sarah, and at the same time everything became much more confusing.
Without giving more wait, the teenager went up to her room packed her belongings, (the most important in a couple of backpacks), took them to her old black VW Beetle and without saying goodbye, or looking back, she left in search of a place to stay to start putting together the different pieces of what her life had become.
And so it was that a new stage of her life began, a journey into the unknown, where she could say with certainty that she had no idea what she was going to face, perhaps she would finally find answers to so many peculiarities that had been a constant in her life, or perhaps she would find none; but instead of being nervous or anguished, her instinct told her that finally her destiny was going to begin.
"Come on Gary" Sarah said turning on the radio of her car "let's find a place to stay, and then we'll look for answers, we'll start looking for Emma Swan"
TBC...