Phuket, Thailand

October 2011

"Ma'am, the long it takes for you to answer the questions we have for you, the longer you're gonna sit on your sorry ass and stay locked up here." I had to roll my eyes at this since this was not even close to being a serious thing for me to take. I was sitting in an interrogation room, hands cuffed to the table now and my own leg tapping, a nervous habit that I inherited for quite a long time. The boring room I was in was duller than the previous one they caught me in. But here's the thing about.

I've broken out before.

I have no real record as to where I came from originally, but I know where I have been. It's one thing to know your birthday, but I don't even know that. Sad as it is, I don't even know my own parents, or where I grew up. It sounds both said a typical, with no records or information on me to who where I came from, and yet I was so used to it now. I was used to being alone, used to not having someone near to me since I was constantly moving because of my the job description at hand. All of that was a huge blur to me, the only thing I do remember is waking up in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the forest with no clear mindset as to what was going on to me. The only thing in front of me was an old beggar woman who looked hideous at first, yet she was looking at me with interest and caution in her stance. But after a moment or two when I asked here where I was and if she could help me, she then transformed within a magnificent light, into an Enchantress.

You heard me right: an Enchantress.

She told me I had a purpose, that I had a gift for helping people that needed help and guide them when they needed guidance. I had no idea as to why she wanted me to do such a thing, but she reassured me that she had a divine plane for me. To hear from Enchantress that she had a plan for me was already bizarre enough, but then again I had nothing else to loose and nothing else that was a part of me, a part of my past.

All except for one thing: a small necklace that has a pendant of thread wrapped around a bobbin. That was it. All of my history and past was placed there within that necklace, and I wondered why I couldn't remember a thing.

Another thing that I had that was a mystery: scars. Scars all over.

It was like I was carved into, someone was trying to retrieve something in my body that made me sorry or wonder why I had these scars. But then again, they weren't that vibrant, curves along my arms, a cross on my neck, lines digging into my calves and along my hips. But the worst, the most noticeable, were the two faint lines near my mouth, one on each corner. Like I was trying to smile bigger than before, it was bizarre to see on my face then. It made me more confused as to where I came from, what happened to me to look like this, and why I was in the Goddamn forest.

Ever since then, I've been roaming around from place to place, trying to keep my eyes down and completely every task that was given to me. I only had one backpack with a handful of cash, my necklace that I wore ever day, a few shirts and pants, and a mission that I knew I had to complete. There was nothing left to lose, nothing else to really to back to, except for a promise made to me from the very fairy who found me in the forest with no memory and no real recollection of what happened to my life. I remember that talk with her perfectly like it was yesterday.

"I can't retrieve your memories," Enchantress reassured me in a kind manner, having me stand in front of her in front of the forest with the necklace out in front of me in a clenched fist and a worried look on my face. I thought she would have some reason to help me since she was a fairy or at least someone whom I thought would help. But it broke my heart already, knowing she had no real answer for me.

"However," she said to me, having me look at her now in curiosity, "If you help me guide others, lead them onto a good path and make good decisions, then I can help find more pieces to your past."

"Pieces," I said to the fairy now in skepticism,"You make it sound like I'm a lost cause."

"No one really is, not to me," Enchantress countered back at me with her kind tone.

"I don't know who I am, where I am from, and I'm supposed to just trust you in bringing back my memories?" I asked her, seeing her just smile and nod her head at me.

"I have enough magic to get you some of your memories, but not all of it. I'm not that power and I don't have enough magic though to tap into your mind and retrieve your memories that are there." She explained to me, having me sigh and look down at the bobbin necklace pendant. It was all I had to find out about my past, all that I can hold onto and hope that I could find some kind of answer.

"What do I have to lose?" I said to myself now, trying to find some hope in the situation.

"I know you are lost," She said to me, having me look at her again,"And I want to help you find a purpose and find your way back to where you came from."

"What can I do for you? I don't even know what I can do." I said to her now with no sense of hope in my voice now.

"It doesn't hurt to try to see what you can do," She said to me.

And that was when I decided I have nothing else to do or to hold onto. I decided to follow this Enchantress if she was powerful enough to help me find my way and get my memories back, then I can trust her.

And I did.

Since I said yes to Enchantress, I have helped those whom she seemed fit that needed help and she gave me such an ability that made it possible. At first, I didn't think it was physically possible, but once gave me the ability to do so, I was floored on what I could do and how I could do it.

I could shapeshift. Plain and simple.

The magic she gave me was enough to transform to whom she wanted me to be for a certain individual that she wanted me to help with, almost like I was working in her favor. it was annoying at first, that much of certain. How could I trust an Enchantress to be willing to have my body transform for her? She reassured me that it was my kind heart, my kind soul and the trait of loyalty that she sense in me that made me capable of such things. It made me, in a certain time, once a cat to guide a young girl into a rabbit hole, a goldfish to keep a close eye on a puppet, a horse who carried a young woman to an enchanted castle, and a mouse to have a young girl fulfill her dreams at a ball.

I know, it sounds so stupid and plain to become animals, not to mention at different realms and worlds, but with the purpose that came with those animals made it more than what it seemed. I was helping others, guiding them on the right path and not leading them astray, that or keeping an eye out for someone whom the Enchantress wanted me to watch and observe. Either way, I was going more places than I thought possible and seeing things that I never thought would be real.

Which lead me to sit in a chair in this handcuffs in this interrogation room. Great.

"I told you, I don't know what happened back there with that fire," I said to the policeman, who was leering at me now with a scowl on his face. At this point, at 2 in the morning and my leg was still twitching, I wanted nothing more than to disappear and get out of there before anything else happened to me. Enchantress sent me to Thailand, in the remote place of Phuket, in order to fulfill my next mission and to help the next person that she seemed fit that needed guidance. She didn't me who it was, only that I would know who it would be from the moment I saw him. This wasn't the first time I ended up in cuffs because of a bad case of miscommunication. I just happened to be at the fire at the very wrong time, since a certain villain was trying to set me on fire with me knowing why. Well, I did know why: I was in the way of him trying to kill the very person I wanted to save and protect. Enchantress wouldn't tell me who it was that I was trying to save, only that it was of great peril that I went to find him. But once I got there, the old Villian and his mass army of puppets who were possessed got the best of me and set the building up in flames in hopes that they killed me.

"I'll keep you in here until you decide to open that trap of yours and talk," he said to me, walking away from me now and leaving the file there on the metal table as he walked out of the door. I sighed, leaning back and trying got find a way that I could get out of here without anyone seeing me. There were no cameras since this was another small town hat had on real money in the thought of placing cameras in the room. It was simple enough, which made glad that this was going to be easier than it has been before.

The picture of my mugshot was on the top of the file, having me peer down at the file in front of me and smirk at what I was seeing. There I was, holding the sign with my name and the serial number on the top of it. I was curvy, to be honest, but built too since the constant running and fending for myself. My hair was short, an auburn color with a mix of orange in it and chopped to my jawline, way and angular with the current hair trend of today. I had bright green eyes, pale skin that almost looked like the marble if stature in the light of the picture, and of course, my scars along my face and near my mouth.

I had what they could call the Glasgow smile scar: two lines on the corners of my mouth, making a bigger grin that would both seem haunting and scary to look at for far too long. No wonder they thought I was a criminal, I looked the part to be sure. People must have thought I was in some huge fight or was an assault from a past lover or my father if it was true, but I had no choice but to wear it. Fortunately, the make-up technology was flawless in making my scars less daunting and more like faint lines along my skin. I would wear it every day, both in shame and in wonder as to where I came from. If there I was one thing I was ashamed in my quest for answers and my past, it was my scars.

"Okay, how am I going to get out of this one," I said to myself now under my breath as I was looked around for some kind of way out of the room. There had to be some kind of weak spot, a way that someone very small, almost like an animal could get into. It had me draw my eyes up to the vents above me, seeing the vent right above me on the ceiling and how it was leading out of the room. I smirked.

Perfect.

Walking down the street with my hands shoved in my pockets, I looked back behind me once more to see the police station there, no one moving and no one raising the alarm at all. I grinned walking in front of me again and aiming to go back to my apartment that I knew would be down the street. I thought I was in the clear, another escape routine that I was so used to since I happened to always be at the wrong place at the wrong time. I then heard it from behind me that made me panic:

Sirens. Shit.

I ran, pumping my arms and legs as fast as I could down the street now as I could hear cars starting and the sirens were getting louder. Did the know it was me? I thought I was sneaky enough to get away, but I was far from being right then as I turned the corner now and into the building I was aiming for. Ducking away and barely seeing the cop car flying past me down the street, I sighed in relief and leaned by lead against the wall, people walking by and seeing me with confused looks as I sighed in relief.

This was not the plan so far.

"I didn't think you would be in trouble with the law so soon," Enchantress said to me now with a stern look on her face as I was talking to me via a mirror, the only way we would ever communicate at that point. I sighed, looking at her with a hint of annoyance there on my face as I was sitting on my couch, Indian Style, with my jacket in my hands and sewing another patch to the fabric since it was ripped from my escape. That was another thing about me that I picked up really quick, I knew how to sew.

Hell, I sewn most, if not all, of my clothes that I had with new patches and new pieces if it was ever damaged or ripped. It came naturally to me for some reason, but I didn't mind. It was some sense of peace for me, having a thread and needle in my hand and between my fingers, and I wondered if it had something to do with my past. Was I this good in my past? Where did I learn this trade from? More questions for my mind to fill as I glared at Enchantress. For one, she was beyond beautiful, making me look hideous in comparison in how she would smile and light up a room, or how her hair would flow and wave like it was water yet it was golden like the sun.

"I'm sorry, but that fire that nothing to do with me. They only singled me out because I was a foreigner. Besides, that Stromboli freak of nature was waiting for me since he knew I was going there." I explained to her.

"But it still is not right for you to end up in that position," She scolded me, having me nod in agreement.

"I know, and I am sorry on how it was played," I said to her, placing the jacket down next to me and getting up to face the mirror she was using on the wall opposite of me, "I just….I don't know how much longer you want from me with this whole 'guide people's lives and help them' kind of life. I want to know what's going to happen to me, and all you have given me is the only piece of information that I came from the world that no longer affiliated with the Enchanted Forest…or any other realm you've set me in for that matter."

"I understand your frustrations, truly I do," She said to me, having me roll my eyes, "But there is more at stake than you can imagine."

"Like what?" I asked her, annoyed now since it sounded like she was putting off my own destiny and past for another mission.

"I have found Pinocchio." I was floored when she said that to me, having me almost fall back onto my couch again when she said those four words. The one person, back when I knew him he was a boy, whom I thought was long lost within this world. Did she find finally him?

"He's alive? In this realm?" I asked her now in shock.

"Alive as you are now," She replied to me, having me breathe out slowly with this new information, "He is the reason why you are here."

"How is that possible?" I asked her in stunned disbelief.

"I cannot answer that for you, but he is here in the city." Enchantress explained to me calmly again.

"He's my mission, here in Phuket? Why is he here in the first place?" I asked her, more questions coming to my mind now as I remembered my time with him when he was a mere puppet. She could sense that I was getting worried about him and held up her hand for me to fall silent again now.

"He has strayed from all that he was taught by The Blue Fairy. He has forgotten to be brave, truthful and unselfish, and you are here to remind him of what his purpose is." She explained to me.

"Does this mean he's a puppet again?" I asked him, "I thought that was part of the deal."

"No, The curse that is over him is permitting him from turning into a puppet again, but the decisions he has not made it easier for him to go on his mission." I raised an eyebrow to her then, not understand that Pinocchio was on his own mission too, not just being a regular real boy. I had no idea that this was real enough, or that he was within this timeline of a world.

"What mission?" I asked her, not understanding what truly was going on.

"That is not important in this matter, you need to find him and make sure he is safe. He goes by the name August W. Booth now in this world, and he is in danger." She explained to me now, having me rethink this whole situation once more. My heart was still hurting for hearing what was going on with the boy I once knew, the puppet I once knew. If only he knew what he was doing to himself and how this was going to affect him later. But now I still had a mission, to find him and make sure he was going to be safe. For some reason, Enchantress wanted me to find him for some great importance. I could see it on her face, this was a mission that was vital for me to fulfill.

"Where is he now?"

One rule about my line of work with Enchantress: Never give away why you're there. You're not supposed to tell whomever you're trying to guide that you're there to be their guide. It's not appropriate to give away your real reason that you're there, or that you're human in the first place. I never did that, not once since I started helping Enchantress, and she once again reminded me that Pinocchio, or August Booth for that matter, must not know who I was when I first met him. Way to kill a reunion there, Enchantress.

I weaved my way through the dark alleys of the Phuket, hearing people around me inter native language as I walked with my head down and my hoodie over my face now as I was looking for the young boy I thought I knew, I thought I saw turn into a really boy, and whom I thought would change. It still confused as to why he would be here, at all places and in this much trouble for me to be sent by Enchantress. I could only remember what Pinocchio said to The Blue Fairy at one time when they first met and I was merely watching from the side when I knew I wasn't supposed to be watching:

"Yes, Pinocchio. I have given you life."

"Why?"

"Because of tonight, Geppetto wished for a real boy."

"Am I a real boy?"

"No, Pinocchio. To make Geppetto's wish come true will be entirely up to you."

'"To me?"

"Prove yourself brave, truthful and unselfish, and someday you will be a real boy."

If only those things were simple again, and that they were real. I knew I would go into worlds that the Enchantress would send me to help those in need, but this was the first time a magical being would be in the real world, and I would stay in the real world and help them. I could only think of the worst that happened to Pinocchio if he was a real boy in this world or something, or someone else really.

Walking down the alleyway some more, I saw someone moving past me in a fast rate that I had to move to the side now to get out of her way. She looked stern like she came from a bad fight. I watched her with my eyes now as she kept walking at a fast pace and I was about to follow her when I heard someone crying, almost like a broken sob breaking into the bustle of the alleyway. I shot a looked back over there, somehow that sob sounded familiar. I knew that sound, I hear sit before and it made it walk ever faster towards the end of the alleyway, hoping that I wasn't going to find what I thought it was.

At the dead end of the alley, I someone on the floor on their back, weeping like they were just shot in the chest or something of that nature. I looked down to see who it was since others were passing him by now as I walked a bit closer, hoping to know that this was the one I was looking for. It was a full grown man, still young enough to be considered to be in his early 30's maybe, of not his late 20's. He had brown hair, wavy and short and shoved to the side as his handsome yet broken face was seeing weeping to the sky now. He was alone, and I could tell be was beyond broken now as I didn't know what to do then.

"Sir?" I asked him, hearing him subtly stop his sobbing on the ground and now sniffle a moment or two when he heard my voice. I had a hunch that this was him, the same person whom I knew long ago, but I had to make sure. He opened his eyes and looked at me now, bloodshot and glistening with tears. But it was the color of his eyes that made me remember: they were blue. I was brought back to a moment when I saw a puppet turn into a real boy, having me lose my breath now as I locked eyes with the man. I remembered.

"Father, whatcha crying for?"

"Because…you're dead, Pinocchio."

"No! No, I'm not!"

"Yes, Yes you are. Now, lie down."

"But father, I'm alive see? And…and I'm…I'm a real boy!"

It was him, the very boy whom I thought was long lost so many years ago when I left him and Geppetto. I snapped out of it now as he was looking at me, this full grown man with tears in his eyes as I then knelt down.

"Are you alright?" I asked him, trying to sound soothing and calm as he was looking at me up and down like he knew me. He couldn't have known me, I was not who he thought I was when we saw each other last, "Let me help you up."

"I'm….I'm okay." He said to me, having me analyze him and see that he was lying to me about it since he was no longer crying, but he looked like he was still hurt about it.

"You don't have to lie to me, sir," I reassured him kindly, "Let me get you on your feet." I grabbed him by his arm and hoisted him up onto his feet, feeling in grunt a bit and stagger as he eyed me again from his spot. He was taller than me to be certain, making me pushing my hoodie up from my eyes now for him to see my face clearly.

"Thank you," he replied, his voice sounded warm and get staggering from his sobbing. I just smiled at him.

"Do you have a place to stay?" I asked him, seeing him sighed and look around like he was certainly lost.

"Not really no," He replied to me.

"I can tell, you're a tourist." I joked with him, hearing a small chuckle from his lips now as I pointed back towards the front of the alleyway,"I'm a tourist too, but I can take you back to my flat if you need to find a place."

"No, it's okay—" He started with me.

"Look, I can see that you're not in the best place at the moment and you don't have a place to crash. I don't want to leave you out here by yourself if you have nowhere to go." I explained to him hoping and praying that he would at least consider coming with me. He was my mission after all, and I was not going to let him slip out of my sight. Not again. He looked at me after a short pause, making sure that what I was saying was true and that I was there to help him. I just smile at him, trying to show no harm and no foul on my part. He took the bait.

"Sure….that'd be great." He replied, a small smile on his lips now.

It was the start of a wild adventure for me,