Narrated by Aubrey
"A CURSE IS COMING!" Grumpy frantically cried out as he was running through the streets. Chaos stirred in the people since a reddish, heavy fog was spreading across town, beginning to engulf it. But Kaylee and I knew it was not a curse; rather, it was magic coming to town. I wondered how Mr. Gold brought it here. As soon as the entire town was completely engulfed, the magic fog slowly began to disappear, and as soon as it was gone, all the people murmured among themselves, confused and surprised that nothing happened. "Well, it looks like the Evil Queen's second curse failed!" Grumpy gloated.
Just then, Regina appeared in front of the crowd of people in the streets. "Oh, that was no curse, and that wasn't me," she said, showing pleasure in her face. "That was magic, and now it looks like the Evil Queen is back!" Suddenly, she formed a fireball in her hand then tossed it at the people, stirring them up into a wild frenzy, and many fled with terror.
"We should have killed her when we had the chance when she was powerless!" exclaimed Grumpy with rage.
Regina laughed tauntingly and replied, "I guess you should have!"
Just then, when Grumpy and the rest of the dwarfs were about to attack the queen with their axes, Regina threw them all back with her magic. "How pathetic," she jeered. "Do you all honestly think you have a chance against me?"
"Stop, Regina!" Snow exclaimed pleadingly. "You don't have to be like this. We gave you mercy so you could have second chance to change, so why can't you just try?"
"Because I don't need to change!" Regina shot back, drawing her lip up into a snarl. "And seeing you all miserable is what will finally make me satisfied."
"No, it won't, Regina," Snow replied. "It will only deepen the hole in your heart. Why can't you just learn to love?"
"Because love is weakness," Regina retorted angerly.
"You are wrong," Snow replied sorrowfully. "Love is the most powerful thing, something that only can bring true happiness and satisfaction. You only bring misery onto yourself because of the dark path you choose, and you blame us for it when it's all you. I feel sorry for you."
"Don't talk to me like you know me!" Regina snapped. "I will get my happiness, but I won't give into weakness!" Then she disappeared in a magic, whirling cloud.
Narrated by Kaylee (continued)
"Well, that's great, she has her powers back," Aubrey said sarcastically.
Suddenly, a thought struck me. "Do you remember seeing an urn on Regina's mantelpiece?"
"Yeah, what about it?" Aubrey questioned.
"It looked exactly like the same urn that we destroyed back in the Enchanted Forest with the sword of Nayu!" I exclaimed. "It might be the urn needed to enact the time travel spell. How is it here?"
"Oh, yeah! That's a good question!" Aubrey exclaimed. "Maybe it has to do with this time aberration," she concluded.
"We should ask Mr. Gold about the urn," I returned. "That might explain why he seemed so hopeful we would succeed in this spell. Maybe he really did know the urn was in Storybrooke. He might answer our question why it is here. And I also want to ask the reason why he wanted to time travel that time back in the Enchanted Forest even though he was aware of the dangers." We entered Mr. Gold's shop. "Mr. Gold, we need to speak to you," I said.
Mr. Gold stopped dusting and looked up. "Alright, Deary. You have my undivided attention."
"We just realized that Regina has the urn we had destroyed back in the Enchanted Forest," I said. "Does that have anything to do with the time aberration? Did you know it was here?"
"Very peculiar indeed," replied Mr. Gold. "That, Deary, is a mystery to you as to me. I'm sure you are clever enough to figure it out in time. Perhaps you are fated to enact this spell."
"Why did you want to time travel?" I then asked. "You warned us about time traveling so what reason would you have to do so?"
Mr. Gold grew solemn and silent. "I will give you the full truth," he began. "I am a coward, and I could never let go of my power. I paid the price of losing my son, Baelfire, as a result, and I have to live every moment regretting the most unforgivable mistake I have ever made. I abandoned my son; I let him slip away from me, and now he is fatherless because of me. And ever since then, I have been trying to find him. I will never stop trying." Mr. Gold was deeply agonized in that moment, his lip quivered, and I saw tears welling up in his eyes.
Aubrey and I exchanged surprised glances, for we remembered his name being mentioned in Neverland, the one who Pan thought was the prophesied one to defeat him. "Where is he now?" Aubrey asked.
"He is in this very land we were cursed in, a land without magic," Mr. Gold replied. "He begged me to come with him through a portal to this land, but my power held me back. I let him go and live with that regret ever since. That is why I planned to time travel, so that I could undo my mistake. I even failed communicating with him, using the Dreamstone."
"So that explains why you wanted us to get you the Dreamstone from the beanstalk," I said.
"If you want to find him and he is in this world, why don't you leave Storybrooke and search for him now?" Aubrey asked.
"Oh, trust me, Deary, I will find my son in time, but it is important that we focus on fixing this aberration first," Mr. Gold returned.
Aubrey and I felt a little sorry for Mr. Gold. We had no idea that he had to live with pain. "I know you will find him," I said encouragingly. "And you will make it right. Anyway, we are hoping to take the urn back from Regina tonight," I added, changing the subject.
"Let me guess, you plan to break into the mayor's house and steal it," Mr. Gold concluded. "Just know that you won't have a happy mayor after that."
"We have no other choice," I replied.
"A chance you will have to take," said Mr. Gold. "But keep in mind of any possible consequences; for messing with time is a serious thing because any mistake will be on you. Remember, Deary, magic always comes with a price. Time travel is a tricky business that one should avoid, however, for our case, we might not have any other option."
Later that night as we were on our way to Regina's house, Aubrey stopped short. I turned to her. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"I don't feel good about sneaking into Regina's house to steal," said Aubrey. "What if we're caught?"
"Let's hope we aren't, but what choice do we have?' I said, sighing. "As much as I hate breaking in to steal, I don't know how else to get it. I'm sure Regina would not willingly give it to us if we asked."
"Let's just get it over with," Aubrey replied.
Once we approached Regina's house, I took out a bobby pin and picked the lock, then finally we got the door open. We stealthily snuck into the dark house and shined our flashlights around the place then went into the living room. My heart raced; for I was so fearful Regina would hear us and catch us snooping around. She was probably asleep as I guessed. I shined my flashlight on the fireplace mantel and found the urn. As we took another step, suddenly, an alarm went off, causing us to jump, and we froze there, feeling mortified. We were screwed now. A moment later, the light flicked on. Regina had caught us. "What on Earth!" she exclaimed, looking half asleep. We froze there, feeling embarrassed, and then exchanged nervous glances. "Please explain why you are snooping around my house like a bunch of robbers. You nearly gave me a heart attack. What is the meaning of this?" she questioned sharply.
"Uh...well...," I stammered.
"Well, what is it?" Regina questioned, scowling. "What are you trying to steal this time? And how on Earth did you get in?" she asked sharply.
"We saw kids breaking into your house and we chased them out," I suddenly blurted out. "We were checking if they did not cause any damage." I felt guilty for lying and stared down at my feet. Aubrey stared at me like I was crazy for making up a lame lie.
Regina eyed us suspiciously. "Oh? So, they didn't take anything?"
"No, we caught them in time," I replied.
"Alright, you can leave now," Regina replied, turning around. "I will make sure to install security cameras for now on and put extra locks on the door." She then left the room, and we let out big sighs of relief.
"I was so sure we were screwed in that moment," I said. "I was also sure that she would know that I was lying."
"Well, I guess she didn't," Aubrey replied with a shrug. "Now I feel guilty because we were the robbers."
We quickly grabbed the urn and left the house. "She will definitely find out why we were really here by morning," I said grimly.
By morning, as we were taking a walk, we heard clamor, and we ran to see what it was all about. We found a crowd of people who were gathered around the town line. "What's wrong?" I asked. Grumpy then replied:
"My brother, Sneezy, crossed the town line, and now he doesn't remember who is! He has his cursed memories again! So, if you cross the town line, your memories will be lost!"
"For the hundredth time, my name is Clarke, not Sneezy," replied the dwarf irritably. "Just because I sneeze a lot doesn't make it right to call me by that name. I'm not your brother nor is my name Sneezy. Now if you would excuse me, I have a store to run."
"I'll get you back, Sneezy!" said Grumpy as his brother started to stomp away. The people started to despair.
"Settle down, People!" David hollered, getting to the front of all of them. "Don't despair; we'll think of something."
"Don't despair?" questioned Grumpy. "Of course we should despair! We are trapped here which means we can never leave! Not to mention, Sneezy doesn't remember who he is! We are no better than when we were cursed!"
We brought the urn to Mr. Gold. Belle was helping to run the shop. When Mr. Gold asked about the commotion, we explained to him about the memories being lost due to crossing the town line, and cursed memories would return. "If the curse is broken, why does crossing the town line take away memories?" I asked.
"As soon as I brought magic to this town, it had to come with a price," replied Mr. Gold. "And it looks like we just found out what that price is."