The Forgotten Few

Chapter Thirteen

Killian, David, Snow, Regina, Robin, and Henry all followed Emma to the well in the wood.

"How do we even know it's a portal?" Asked Regina.

"Well, if my logic is correct," Emma responded, "if you enter this portal and come back to this realm, time doesn't change here. Only the Enchanted Forest. If we throw a coin," as she said this, she threw a penny into the moss covered stone well, "it will come back seconds later. But it has stayed in the Enchanted Forest for years." The penny flipped back up out of the well, corroded and green.

The group starred at it in shock.

"Why is time different there than here?" Asked Snow.

Emma responded to the whole group, "I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the way Devon cast the curse." She thought for moment more, then shrugged, "I don't know, but it does prove one thing. If we were to go back into the well now, we would come back a few minutes later years older, and-", but she never finished what she was saying because Devon appeared before the group.

Regina rolled her eyes, "Now what do you want?" She fired.

He looked at the seven people standing before him, "Maybe I shouldn't tell you?"

David stepped forward, pulling a gun from out of his jacket.

"David!?" Snow scolded.

"Spill it blondie!" Shouted David.

Devon put his hands in the air, "Alright. Just here to tell you about something I forgot. One if the perks," everybody had their eyes focused intently on Devon's, "This curse was meant to teach you a lesson. Just like me, you will be cursed with youth."

Everyone had a shocked face.

He continues, "But, since my magic isn't a strong as the Black Fairy's, you have an advantage. Every five years, you will look as if you have aged only one year." The side of his lips turned up in a sly smile.

"Wait," Henry started before Devon could vanish, "am I cursed too?"

Devon turned to Henry and smirked, "With you as an exception."

Emma went to comfort Henry.

Snow stepped forward, "Why are you doing this? Why does your happiness," she hesitated, trying to find the right words, trying not to tick Devon ​off, "come from destroying others?"

Regina nodded silently to herself, and Devon thought about Snow's intriguing comment.

The group heard a slight sniffle, and turned their full attention to Devon. Devon saw their eyes, and quickly wiped away a tear that was slowly creeping to the surface of his eye.

"I just want to reunite my family. Pan, Rumple, and I," Devon said.

The group exchanged warning looks. The one thought ran through their mind.

Isn't Pan dead?

Seeing their perplexed faces, Devon asked, "What's with you guys?"

"Oh, um.." Snow started, but before she could spill the secret, because everyone knows she can't keep one, David is forced to finish.

"Nothing," he flatly states.

Devon gave a slight sarcastic nod, and with a wave of his hand, he dissapeared.

Emma turned to the front of the group, her face flushed, her insides turning with confusion, anger towards Devon, but also pity. She understood how he felt, but she could never, ever forgive him.

"How am I going to do it?" She mostly asked herself, but the statement was loud enough for the whole group to pick up.

"Excuse me," Regina looked to Emma, "but do what exactly?"

Emma looked up from blankly staring at the forest floor, and made eye contact with Regina, Killian, and her parents.

"Well, this is my job, right?" She started, "I'm the savior. I'm supposed to be saving people, this is my fault I can't break it!"

Killian sighed and walked over to his wife, placing his hands on her shoulders for comfort.

"Maybe, sometimes," he said, "sometimes, the Savior needs a break."

"Killian, you may be right, but Emma has a point too," Regina had a look on her face expressing deep thought, "She can't break this curse."

All the while this conversation was happening, Snow and David were talking to each other, their conversation inaudible. Although, this last comment of Regina's caught their attention.

"What are you saying?" David asked, panic lightly woven through his words, only one very observant to notice.

"Well," Regina began, "this curse is different than ones casted by Pan and I. This curse can only be broken by the one who cast it."

At this point, Henry pipped in and asked his adoptive mom, "But how, exactly, do you brake this curse?"

Everyone looked at each other, knowing there could only be one answer.

"True love's kiss," Robin cut the silence with his words, which seemed to echo in everyone's head for a second, taking in the unbearable truth.

"How could anyone ever love a monster like him?" Snow softly asked the group.

Emma interjected the awkward silence, "He had a soft side...once," she hesitated, "I mean, it still could be down there, hidden under all the Evil."

"I guess we will just have to wait until the right person comes along," Regina went on.

Those words still bobbled in everyone's head, like a bottle at sea with a message inside. But this message might never be read, never be fulfilled.

True love's kiss.