Disaster [Once Upon a Time] (Wattys 2016)

Chapter 1: A Horrible Start (Revised)

"What are we supposed to do? It seemed like there was finally going to be some time us," Emma says.

"It's alright, love," Hook says. "Everything's going to be fine. This has happened so many times. We'll get through this, I promise." With that said, he leans in and lightly kisses her cheek.

Emma gently releases from her pirate's embrace, and out of the corner of her eye, she sees someone frantically running from Granny's Diner towards the library.

"Emma! It's Neal! I don't know what's wrong with him!"Mary Margaret, Emma's mother, shouted out.

For a moment, when Emma heard the word "Neal" she thought her lover came back from the dead, but she soon realizes that it's only her baby brother..

Emma hurriedly runs toward her mom and holds her pale arms to keep her from shaking. "Mom, what's wrong?" Emma says, with her eyes nearly popping out their sockets, clearly she is very worried also.

Mary Margaret looks frazzled and panicked with her short black hair all ruffled up, and outlines of tears that recently ran down her white-as-snow face.

"I don't know. He just started screaming and...and then he started shaking like he was having a seizure." She motions her hands in a wiggling sense to attempt to illustrate her child's shaking. Tears stream out of her eyes as she recalls the memory.

"Where is he now?" Emma asks, attempting to stay as calm as possible in hopes   her mother will do the same.

"With David in the apartment." She says, as she looks back from where she came from, "Come on, let's go, we don't have time to waste!"

Emma gives one long look of hope towards her mother and reassures her that "Everything is going to be okay". Quickly, Emma, her mother and Hook recoup and sprint  towards Granny's bed and breakfast, which is where Mary Margaret and David live at the moment. On the way, Henry joins the pack and asks, "What's going on?"

"Not enough time to explain right now, kid. This is life and death," Emma replies harshly, as she realizes that she may not even be able to save her baby brother.

As a result of her ever growing terror, Emma snaps "Come on!" And they begin to run faster and faster.

As the four of them near Granny's, all of the Storybrooke residents look in shock, since they had just returned from the Underworld and there's already another adventure beginning.

In a rush, they run up the steps, but once they reach the third door, Hook stumbles down the stairs, hits his head on the railing, and collapses onto the ground and doesn't get up. He's out cold.

Emma quickly runs down the stairs and sits next to him to examine his injuries. His leg is twisted in a way that it probably shouldn't; it's obviously broke, and blood streams from his nose. He broke it from the impact with the railing.

"What in the..." She murmurs as she takes his pulse.

A ghostly figure emerges from the shadows, as it moves closer, it forms the outline of a man. This extremely pale man is clearly Mr. Hyde, whom Emma had only met briefly in the past, and hoped she would never have to see again.

"Hello, I'm Mr. Hyde. We haven't formally met..." He holds his skeletal hand out to Emma, who rejects and backs away. Emma then pushes Henry and Mary Margaret behind her to protect them from what is to come.

"Decisions, Decisions, Miss Swan. You're the savior, and the only one in Storybrooke who can save both of these very special people... However, you can only rescue one, because I need an extra dead body for my experiment."

"No! Who do you think you are?" Replies Emma boldly. "You just came to Storybrooke and you're already causing a scene! Well, hate to break it to you buddy, but villains never win, we'll find a way to beat your dark magic!"

He maniacally cackles , but Emma tunes him out and turns to her mother, who is now hysterically crying.

"We can't give up your brother. We can't. It's not the right thing to do." She begins to hyperventilate. "I can't lose another child. Not again, Emma."

Emma looks from Hook to the door separating her from Neal and David.

"Henry. You can help me, since you're kind of a savior. Maybe you can save Hook while I get Neal," Emma says.

"Time's a-ticking... you've only got fifteen minutes, and you can only save one of them, and if you try to manipulate my plan by brining your scrawny son Henry into this, I will kill him as well... chose wisely Miss Swan," Mr. Hyde interrupts.

Emma, without even thinking, pushes through the door to the apartment where Neal and David are and runs upstairs to the loft. When she reaches the top of the stairs, she sees her father, with many tears rolling down his cheeks. She has never seen her father cry before. He's leaning over the cradle of a screaming baby Neal.

"Emma," he says in his relieved voice. "You're here."

Slowly, Emma inches her way towards the tiny bed with fear.

'What if I can't save him? I'm going to let everyone down. Everyone is going to hate me, especially Mom and Dad,' she wonders.

Anxiety is rolling in...

As she sees her little brother wiggling around in the crib, she remembers that she has seen something like this before, but only in the movies.

"This isn't normal magic. This is...this is witchcraft," Emma declares as she recollects the three unforgivable curses from her favorite book series.

"It's called the Cruciatus Curse."