"The monsters were never under my bed. Because the monsters were inside my head."

~ Nikita Gill, Monsters

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Third Person's P.O.V

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    It was barely three in the morning when Alice was woken up by another nightmare. The girl's chest heaved in terror, the effects of her vision not yet gone. She placed a shaky hand over her mouth and the other over her rapidly beating heart as she willed herself not to scream. She spared a glance to her side, thankful that the two boys next to her were still asleep. This would make it the sixth time in a row that she'd seen the same harrowing monster in her vision.

    She shivered, recalling how the demonic figure loomed over her like a deadly shadow, it's tallons reaching out to grab her...

    The scene had changed. And the pentagram was no longer drawn in an empty field but in a dark forest, one that suspiciously resembled the woods in Storybrooke. It looked to be around the late hours of twilight, close to two in the morning. The scene would have been peaceful, serene even, if it weren't for the monstrous scene in the middle of the woods. A hooded figure stood cowering before a large creature that occupied the space inside a hand-drawn cage.

    The creature bellowed something in an ancient tongue, the flames around it singeing the hooded figure's outstretched hands. The cloaked figure yelped, flinching as The Beast pounded onto the barrier that separated it from their trembling form, its talons barely breaking the line of chalk.
    "Please, master," they begged, in English this time, their voice raspy, as if they had been screaming for hours on end. "I just need a little more time."

    "Vou had time!" the creature roared, flapping its wings as its shrill voice breaking through the tranquil silence like the crack of a whip. "Lots of time!"
    "P-Please," they pleaded, kneeling in front of the fiery demon, intertwining their hands in front of them like a prayer. "I-I've almost d-d-done it, master. T-They're on the verge of giving up soon."
    "FOOL!"
    They jumped back as the flames licked their exposed forearm, marring their pale skin.

    "I've had my eye on vhese people for vears. They don't give up that easily," the creature seethed, annoyance obvious even through its heavily accented voice. "Especially not vhen they're so close to vinding the truth."
    "B-But they don't know that—"
    Its accent thickened, if that was even possible, when it uttered the next few words. "Are vou voubting my vords?"
    "N-N-No!" they hastily corrected themself, shaking their head profusely. "I was merely pointing out that-"

    "SILENCE!"

    The hooded figure shut their mouth, cradling their injured arm under the thick cloak that was draped over their body.
    The creature growled. "I knew I should've saved the other Vegacy instead of vou. You're vorthless compared to vour sibling-" the cloaked figured flinched at the creature's words but remained silent. "-I can't believe I vhought you would be more capable. I should just collect the both of your souls now-"

    "NO!" The hooded person protested, stuttering even more when they saw the piercing look in the creature's eyes.
    "P-P-Please, master," they continued seeing that the beast hadn't raised its tallons to smite them. Yet. "I can do better. I promise. I overhead them saying that they'll try a different method, one that'll lead them down the wrong track, if they don't get any information from the King."
    The creature's eyes glowed crimson. "Arthur knows."

    "We all do. But he doesn't remember anything," the cloaked figure quickly added. "None of us do."
    "But they vill soon," the creature narrowed its eyes at the person before it. "And they'll come for me if someone doesn't vinish their mission."
    "I'll finish it before the third moon rises," they promised. "You have my word."
    "Your vord means nothing to me, not vhen your soul belongs to me. But I'll suppose three days von't hurt," the creature mused.

    The hooded figure fell to their feet in relief. "T-Thank you, master. I'll get it done, I swear."
    "See to it that you will, or I may just veunite you and your sibling vith the rest of your fallen family-" It narrowed it's piercing red eyes at the cloaked figure. "-and if you ever interrupt me or disobey me again, I may just kill the other Vegacy for vou to watch."

    And with that the winged creature disappeared in a burst of flames, leaving behind a circle of dying embers in its wake. The hooded figure slowly got to their feet, barely lasting a few seconds before breaking down and screaming at the heavens in anger.

    What is that? Alice wondered, shivering at the haunting idea.
    The wavy haired girl slowly untangled herself from the sleeping boys' limbs before getting off the bed. Which, due to Will being an extremely restless sleeper, was easier said than done as Alice had to take a good five minutes to remove his arm from her waist without waking him up. The archer/swordsman stirred a few times, but stayed unconscious long enough for Alice to leave the room.

    She tip-toed out of the room, closing the door behind her with a soft click before she began her trip downstairs. She was almost at the end of the corridor when she decided to make a U-turn to check up on the boys.
Thankfully, they were still in their beds. Or bed, if you counted the fact that the twins had pushed their beds together to make a bigger bed -one that was big enough for three little boys to sleep in- in the middle of the room.

    Alice smiled when she spotted Cassie, snuggled up in between his two older brothers with his thumb in his mouth, sleeping soundly. The twins had formed a blanket-cocoon around the three of them, the thick quilt dwarfing their small bodies.
    Letting out a sigh of relief, Alice closed their bedroom door.

    Removing the rubber band from her wrist, she tied her hair into a loose bun as she made her way down the stairs. Alice yawned as she approached the table where she stashed the book that she "borrowed" from Belle's library.
    I'll return it to her later, she told herself as she removed the strange-looking book from her bag.

    She tried to open the latch on the book, but the leather strap just wouldn't budge. Frustrated, she flipped the book over, looking for another way to open it. It took awhile, but she managed to open it. Making an effort to avoid the eyes of the strange book, she slipped the strap out of the latch.
    Alice blinked. Did its eyes just shift?
    "Must be my imagination."
    If only it was.

    The teenager let out a startled shriek when the book started moving. "Oh my God!"
    She yelped, dropping the supposedly-inanimate object onto the tiled floor with a thud. The monster book snarled, bearing its sharp teeth (its jagged pages) at her as it cornered her to the nearest wall. Alice jumped onto a nearby chair, avoiding its sharp fangs.

    She waited until the book charged at her again to jump on top of its head. The monster book screeched as it's mouth was snapped shut.
    Still shaking, Alice kneeled down to pick up the enchanted book, taking extra care not to open it again by accident. It was only when she stood up did she notice that something had fallen out of the book.

    It had to be from the author, or someone who had first-hand experience with the book as written on the square piece of parchment was instructions on how to open it safely. In the middle of the parchment was three words written in small scratchy font.

Stroke the spine.

    Alice smacked her forehead, but regretted it immediately when she felt the pain. God, I'm an idiot.
    "I knew it looked familiar," she muttered as she ran her fingers down the length of its spine, letting out a deep breath when she felt the enchanted book relax in her touch.
    You'd think after a decade of reading Harry Potter I'd remember this book, she thought to herself when she finally managed opened the bestiary.

    The book was heavier than it looked, but Alice supposed that was due to the fact that it was alive, its pages yellow with age.
    "Let's see what we have here," Alice said out loud as opened the bestiary.
    She skimmed by the different chapters, her eyes darting across the pages.
    Banshee. Cyclops. Minotaur. Seer.
    Alice let out a frustrated groan. For a book that's over a hundred years old you'd think that there'd be more mythical creatures in here.

    "Wait. In The Kane Chronicles there was a character in the trilogy with the head of a jackal and the body of a man-" Alice paused, flipping the pages back to the start. "-what was his name? Ra? No, it can't be. He's the King of the Gods."
    "It was Anubis," quipped a voice from behind her.
    She was so caught up in her reading that she completely missed the teenager sneaking up on her.

    He stood with his back against the wall, hands in his pockets, his hair in a messy frizz.
    "What are you doing awake?" Alice asked.
    "Something woke me up," was his reply.
    "Sorry," the brunette apologized, a sheepish smile on her face. "I didn't mean to wake you."

    He shook his head. "You didn't wake me. Lewis did."
    "Was he snoring again?" Alice asked. "You know you just need to push him to his side, that always stops him."
    Will shook his head again. "He kept kicking me."
    "Jeez, you'd think he would've stopped doing that by now."

    "Yeah," Will chuckled, pushing his fringe away from his eyes. "Can't imagine how we've managed to sleep in the same bed with him all these years."
    "So—" He took a few steps forward, his long strides reaching Alice in a matter of seconds. "—Whatcha' got there?"
    "Just doing some light reading," she answered when he peered over her shoulder. "Nothin' interesting."

    "Hmm," Will hummed, his eyes darting across the open pages of bestiary. "You're trying to figure out the source of your night terrors, aren't you?"
    "How did you—"
    "I've known you since we were kids. We've been skipping classes together for book fairs since we learnt what the word "truancy" meant," he added as if that wasn't enough. "Give me some credit."

    "Sorry," she repeated. "They get out of hand sometimes."
    "You don't need to apologize," he told her. "It's not your fault."
    "It-It's hard," she admitted. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm going insane."
    "You're not insane," he promised. "If anyone's insane, it's Jo for staying with Lewis."

    Alice's lips curled up into a small smile.
    Will beamed at her. "There's that smile I've been waiting for."
    "Thanks, Will."
    He shook his head, his dark hair flying. "Thank me when I've helped you find who's been haunting you."
    "No, I mean it," she took his hand in hers. "Thank you."
    She didn't need to speak for him to know what she meant for her eyes said everything that she could not.

    "Anything for you," Will replied. "Now, let's see what this ignorant git is trying to accomplish with bothering you."
    "I'm pretty sure there's a warning somewhere that says that the Gods could spite you if you insult them," Alice stated.
    "They can spite me all they want, I'll never let them touch you."
    "I still can't believe you called Jo insane for staying with me," came a voice from behind them.

    "Lewis," Will whined. "You ruined the moment."
    "Yeah, well, get used to it," Lewis replied as he snuggled up in between the two of them. "It'll stay that way until I'm dead."
    "Maybe then I'll finally get a decent sleep," Will muttered.
    "Will!" Alice chided, smacking his shoulder.
    "I'm kidding," he quickly amended.
    "I'm not kidding," Will mouthed when he thought Alice wasn't looking.
    "I saw that," she snapped.

    "He started it," Will complained.
    "Did not."
    "Did too."
    "Did not."
    "Did too—"
    "I don't care who started it, I'm going to end it before I kill the two of you myself," Alice warned, her eyes threatening them to disagree.
    "Yes, ma'am," they replied in unison.

    Alice nodded her head. "Good, now stop behaving like children and help me figure out why the Egyptian God of the dead keeps appearing in my visions."
    Both Will and Lewis rolled their eyes. "Yes, mum."

****

    Meanwhile, back in the sheriff's station Killian was busying himself with (trying to) interrogate Arthur.
 

  "Who's Nimue? What the hell happened in Camelot?"
    "I wish I knew." Arthur shifted uncomfortably against the metal bars as Killian tightened his grip of him. "That blonde demon took my memory, same as yours."
    "Then why destroy Merlin's message?" Killian demanded. "What aren't you bloody telling us!"

    "That's enough!" David exclaimed, pulling Killian away from the King.
    "He doesn't know anything. He's a King with no kingdom and as much as he hates it—" David glanced at the man he once called a friend. "—He's not important anymore."
    Regina glanced at the one handed man with a raised eyebrow. "Feel any better?"
    "I'll feel better when I have some answers," Killian replied. "Emma said this whole thing was about me."

    Regina scoffed. "Are you really that naive? She's manipulating you. That's what The Dark One do."
    "No," Killian denied. "This was Emma talking."
    Despite herself, Mary Margaret spoke up. "There may not be any Emma. Not anymore."
    "She's right," Regina agreed. "This Dark One, she has Excalibur, and she is going to destroy all light magic."
    "So, that's what you think it's about?" Killian asked skeptically. "A sword she hasn't actually used?"

    "Well, obviously, she needs another ingredient to cast the spell," Regina stated. "So, we figure out what that is and stop her from getting it. And we get our Emma back."
    Killian shook his head. "You can all look at magic spells till you're blue in the face. But something happened between me and her in Camelot—" he walked past the others and headed towards the door. "—and the only way to help Emma is to find out what the hell it was."

****

    "Emma Swan!"

    Killian peers off the edge of the roof, contemplating if this would actually work. He had made a visit to Rumpelstiltskin a few minutes prior for help and was given a rather odd piece of advice.
    The crocodile better be right about this, he thought to himself as he stepped onto the raised platform. Or else I'll be flattened into a bloody pancake.

    Truth to be told, he wasn't entirely sure if the old man knew what he was saying, but it was worth a try. He glanced down at the distance below him before shaking his head.
    One more try wouldn't hurt...
    "Emma Swan!" he yelled once more. "Emma Swan!"
    He waited for the ivory-haired woman to show her face, but there wasn't even any sign that she was here, or that he heard him speak at all.

    "I guess I'll have to do this the hard way," Killian thought out loud.
    He took a deep breath, then lept off the raised platform. For a millisecond he felt weightless, then gravity took over and he felt himself plummeting towards the ground. He would've fallen down three stories if it weren't for a cloud of black smoke that started to surround him. In a blink of an eye he found himself back on the ground with Emma standing standing in front of him.

    Her eyebrows were narrowed at him. "You were sure I'd save you?"
    Killian let a breath out. "Well, I'm either optimistic, or desperate or both."
    "I need to know what happened between us in Camelot," he said after a second of silence. "Just tell me."
    Emma's eyes darted away from his face. "It's not that easy."
    "It can be," Killian pressed, ignoring the look that Emma shot him. "Whatever you did, whatever you are trying to atone for, I already forgive you."

    "I don't need forgiveness."
    "Then come clean. I assure you, you've done no worse than I," he insisted. "I was a pirate for hundreds of years."
    "And you think it's the same?" Emma asked, offended.
    "You see this?" Killian pointed at a ring on his finger. It's jem was dull, dirty with age. "Belonged to a man named Barnaby. Called me "One Hand Jones." I killed him in front of his wife, took his ring."

    "This one, Edgar." It was a silver ring this time. "Fine sailor. I caught him drinking the captain's wine. I drowned him. Every ring is a sad story."
    "What about this one?" Emma asked, opening up her hand to show her a plain metal ring attached to a chain.
    A look of pain crossed Killian's face. "You have it. I thought I lost it in Camelot."

    Emma held the ring in her hand. "You gave it to me to keep safe."
    "It's the saddest story of all." Killian swallowed the lump in his throat. "Belonged to a better man than I. My brother Liam."
    Emma looked down at the ring. It felt so much heavier now that she knew its worth to the man in front of her. "You can have it back now."
    "Keep it," Killian closed her fingers around it. "You know, I used to wear these rings as trophies. But all that changed when I met you."

    Her gaze softened, ever so slightly. "What are they now?"
    "A reminder," he told her. "That all sins can be forgiven when someone loves you. And I was absolutely wrong before. I love you, Emma Swan, no matter what you've done."
    Emma tried to repress a smile but she couldn't find it in herself to stop. "So, you really want to know the truth no matter how awful?"
    "I do."
    Her gaze turned serious. "Then there's something I need to show you."

-
A/N:

Hi everyone. It's been almost four years since I last updated this book — I've already explained why in my previous (and recent) announcement, but I'm coming back to upload this last chapter since some of you requested that I post it.

In case you didn't see my earlier announcement, here's how I planned for the Pan's Game trilogy to end: I was somehow going to bring Peter back to life in Checkmate and have him end up with Alice. Will and Ares were going to end up together. Ray was going to end up with Tia. And I was going to kill Hunter off. For the still-unnamed 3rd book, I was going to do a crossover with The Boy With The Limp (my other fanfic). I was going to have Newt escape the flare by magically having him and Peter switch places (think like Jason and Percy in HOO but across the multiverse) and have the two books scramble to find their friends. I don't know how I was going to do any of that, mind you, because, like a total and complete idiot, I wrote all my stories without a plan and basically just winged it this entire time. Hence, why there is a revised version of Pan's Game. Feel free to write your own version of events if you want to, just be sure to drop me a quick dm telling me about it and give me credit if you use my ideas or characters :)

Anyways, Pan's Game is about to hit 800K reads so I wanted to upload this now as a thank you. Please keep in mind that this chapter is an unedited chapter from way back in my 2017 drafts and, like I mentioned earlier, I don't know how I planned it to go so, unfortunately, I won't be able to answer any questions. This chapter will be the last official chapter of Checkmate. To those who are still reading this trilogy or who have just picked it up, thank you so much for your support, it really means a lot for me to read your comments and dms ❤️

Love, Alice