"I have to get the hell out of here, now!" Emma thought to herself as she sprinted from one tree to the next. Her heart pounded in her chest so hard she could feel it vibrating in her head. She was out of breath and exhausted, having been on the run for what seemed like days, sometimes weeks at a time, through The Forest of The Dead.

Each and every single one of the trees in the dark and eerie forest that separated The Queen's castle from the rest of the kingdom, was twisted and gnarled in such a way it reminded Emma of a bunch of evil skeletons.

Nevertheless, Emma bobbed and weaved her way through the skeleton trees trying her best to avoid being captured by The Queen's soldiers.

"There must be a dozen of them at least." She pondered as she took a breath behind some brush.

In the far distance she could see what appeared to be a clearing and a building of some sort; a barn!

"If I can just make it to that barn" Emma thought to herself, " these scumbags should make themselves scarce. They've avoided all other human contact like the plague."

Emma hoped her plan would work. She was completely out of resources - at this point her life depended on it!

She took her breath in, steadied herself, and on her count of three, took to the clearing...

Halfway there, an unaccounted soldier jumped from above and tackled Emma to the ground and they quickly began to spar, one against the other.

Quickly, the soldier knocked Emma to the ground catching her off guard. The soldier grabbed her by her hair, pulling her up to deliver another blow... Emma, gasping for breath, was franticly moving her hands among the ground to grab at anything she could find! Suddenly, her eye caught sight of a small, thick branch just by her knee.

Emma's thoughts went wild "a shiv in a pinch" she grabbed the twig and thrust it through his neck, pushing the soldier off and continuing her sprint to the barn before the rest of the soldiers could catch up.

Quickly, Emma slipped inside the cracked door of the barn, peering out through it; watching the group run by missing her completely.

She breathed a huge sigh of relief! Safe at last! "Thank God!" Emma said to herself.

"Safe and sound are we, Miss Swan?"

Emma's eyes widened and her body tensed at the familiar voice coming from behind her.

Turning around now, to face what she feared most, all of her relief quickly drained from her.