Long Lost | Once Upon a Time (REWRITING)

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Witch Hunt

Storybrooke
Present

The moon was now high up in the sky, indicating that it was nearly midnight. Grace had been lying on her bed, not sleeping, just thinking. After yesterday's events, they had all gone down to city hall and gathered all the citizens of Storybrooke in hopes of making their situation a little more clear. The only thing they learned was that everyone in the town was affected by this, as they suspected, and that no one knew a thing. It was pretty frustrating and Grace had no idea what move this family would take next. And now with Snow being pregnant, she wasn't sure she knew what to think about anything anymore.

This whole thing was confusing, and not just to Grace either. All the citizens of Storybrooke have been on their toes about the whole 'second curse' thing and the dwarves have taken to going around and trying to make the town more secure. They first started at the town line to try and see if they could figure anything from there, but to no avail. The only thing they had discovered is that slowly, one by one, they had all begun to go missing. And not just the dwarves either.

When they had gone down to the city hall, they took a count of everyone there. They were almost certain they had managed to gather everyone and so they made a good guess on who was missing. The only issue they found was that there were at least fifty new citizens in their quaint town, leading them all to believe that they had been swept up in this new curse as well. But out of all the people there, Neal wasn't one of them, along with Hook and a few of the dwarves. Grace wasn't sure what to think. For all they know, they might not have gotten swept up in the curse at all, but seeing how many people did makes that thought very unlikely. David didn't seem nearly as phased when seeing Hook missing over Neal. But of course, they couldn't focus on finding just one person, they had to focus on finding them all. Grace had voiced her ideas and thought the best way to start would be to find out what took them all in the first place, and it was clear that her father was thinking that as well.

As she continued to just lay there in thought, a sudden pounding at the front door caused Grace to raise her head. She furrowed her brows and looked to her own door before slowly rising up from the soft mattress. She heard someone open the front door before talking, and judging by the voice, she knew it was her father that had answered. She stood by her door for a moment as she tried to make out any words exchanged between the two, but she was soon sent into shock when she heard the other person speak. It was a very familiar voice that she couldn't mistake anywhere, and just by hearing the blonde downstairs, Grace couldn't help but smile. She left her bedroom after a minute or two and looked down into the living room of the apartment. She saw her mother there as well and took notice of the dumbfounded expression Emma held on her features. Ah, she must've seen their mother's protruding stomach. I mean, it wasn't hard to miss, what with her practically being at the point of labor any day now.

After a moment of just standing there, Grace finally left the rail she had lent against and trudged down the stairs, the sound of her feet stomping on the metal steps causing all heads to turn. She stopped about halfway down the stairs and leaned onto the rail with her side as she looked at her sister up and down. Finally, she flashed a grin before beginning to walk over towards the three of them while saying, "Well, you weren't gone for very long. You just couldn't stay away, could you?" She remarked, earning a soft smile from her sister.

It appeared that she knew a bit about their situation as she quietly reminded her, "It's been a year." Grace seemed to have already forgotten that fact, seeing as how it feels like she just said goodbye to her yesterday.

Grace's lips parted as she nodded. "Right, I forgot." She let out before crossing her arms and standing beside her father.

"So you guys really don't remember?" Emma began, the look of shock not once leaving her face. "A whole year's passed and... nothing?"