Illusions

Chapter One

The rapid thundering against her heavy wooden door still pounds in her head, in sync with the tempo of her beating heart. Emma grips the steering wheel tighter, the leather rubbing against her slick palms as she inhales sharply and pleads for the images to vanish from her brain as she rolls up to the stoplight.

She had swung open that door without a moment of consideration as to who she may find on the other end. Her glossy green eyes absorbed the dark tresses in an instant, wondering if they always appeared so dull and lifeless.

"What are you doing here?" She bitterly snapped, so desperately attempting to mask the pain still so fresh in her heart.

"Please-"

"You should have told me," she had cut her off instantly, but cringed when she heard the break in her own voice, provoking her to fold her arms protectively over her chest because her heart couldn't take another ounce of pain.

"I know," she choked out and the vulnerability stealing this broken girl's voice was enough for Emma to meet the watery eyes staring back at her. "I'm so sorry, but how was I suppose to know what we would become?"

"This was all just an illusion."

"We were suppose to be a drunken one night stand-"

"That has somehow lasted an entire month," Emma mumbled under her breath, releasing her death grip around her chest and pivoting, before stomping back toward her bed in the studio apartment. "Seriously, what do you want? I need to finish packing," she said, holding back all the emotions swelling in her throat and threatening to reveal her true heartache.

"Emma, please." The sound of the door softly clicking shut resonated in Emma's mind just as she was whirled around by her wrist, with a set of warm lips colliding brutally against hers. "Please," she gasped again, "I know you have to go," she whispered, timidly threading her trembling fingers through her golden hair to memorize her and it physically killed Emma to see the evidence. "But please, make love to me one last time," she pleaded, tenderly, molding her lips into the comfort of Emma's once again.

"I don't want to go."

"Remember me like this."

A very angry horn blares from behind her old beat up, yellow bug, dragging her mind away from the past and shoving her forcefully into the now. She blinks, the sound of her own turn signal slowly comes into focus before she visibly sees the green light before her.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going," she grumbles to herself and quickly jerks her wheel, making the turn through the intersection.

The winding road that she turns on is engulfed by monstrous evergreens on either side of the black pavement. Her eyes flick down to her phone for a split second to confirm that google maps is in fact leading her in the right direction before she sighs and continues her travel. She forces herself not to think about the past because in the end, that's something she can't control and Emma Swan is one for always being in control.

She glances down at the file resting safely in the passenger's seat and inhales another deep and calming breath. Her firm grip tightens around the leather steering wheel again as she thinks about her assignment and reminds herself why she's there right now.

Nobody could ever accomplish this job quite like she has. She can pick up her sad little duffel bag stuffed with clothes and travel wherever the hell her captain tells her to without a moment of hesitation. She easily slips into the role of whomever she needs to play, in whatever town is necessary because of her past.

Poor, little orphan. Foster kid at the young and impressionable age of five, when she was dragged out of school without her mommy and daddy and escorted to the local police station. There, some kind, young officer, with a low blonde ponytail and bright blue eyes, had taken her into a cold, damp room, offered her a hot chocolate and told her that her mommy and daddy weren't coming back. Emma had no idea what that meant at first, but her chin wobbled and her vision blurred from the hot prickly tears. When she had finally sobbed and begged and pleaded for her parents, the officer explained that they had died that morning, after dropping her off at school, in a car accident.