Enchanted

Chapter Six
Thief part two
~Emma~

I paced in the living room looking at the clock on the wall. It was two AM, Krissi was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t like her to stay out this late. The last person to see her was Regina, with Amanda and Henry sleeping upstairs and Killian out looking for Krissi I wasn’t going to waste time here anymore. I grabbed my keys and headed out to join the search party for Krissi.

As I made my way up the street I heard my cell phone start to ring. I pulled it out of my pocket seeing it was Killian.
“Please tell me you have her”.
I said quickly, Killian sighed heavily.
“No luck with that Love, but we did find her phone”.
I felt the tears building in my eyes.
“Where are you?”

I looked around.
“The docs”.
I hung up rushing towards the docs. Killian was standing with my father and the dwarfs sure enough Killian was holding Krissi’s cell phone, I took it into my hands tears rolling down my cheeks.
“She can’t swim, Oh god! What if she fell in?”
I moved towards the ledge but Killian grabbed me pulling me back.
“Emma, we don’t know she’s down there, we need to wait”.
I narrowed my eyes at Killian.
“What for what? For her to die?”
I shoved him back from me as I felt my anger rising inside me. Killian looked at me.
“Emma if she fell in we both know she’s already dead! We can’t recover a body when it’s this dark out”.

I cupped my hands over my mouth at the thought of Krissi being dead.
“She can’t be dead, she can’t”
My dad put his arm around my shoulders and ushered me towards a bench, I sat down cupping my hands over my face trembling as I cried.
“It’s all my fault, I thought I was protecting her”.
“Emma, we don’t know if she fell in or not, let’s not jump to conclusions here”.
I looked at him.
“My daughter could be dead! And it’s my fault!”
I looked around noticing that Gold wasn’t here with the others.
“Where’s Mister Gold?”
Dad shook his head.
“He’s checking the forests, it’s her favorite place”.
I stood drying my eyes.
“The forest is a big place we should have a search team out there”.

Dad nodded.
“That’s what your mother thought, she and the fairies went with him, I think Belle went too”.
I stood trying to gather myself together. I didn’t want to think of Krissi drowning because I wouldn’t let her take swimming lessons. I had to think positive, maybe she just fell asleep in the forest and lost track of time. It wouldn’t be the first time she did that. I headed towards the edge of town coming to a stop by the grave yard as I saw purple smoke in the air.
“Krissi!”
I called out instantly thinking of her. Running towards the smoke it led me to Regina’s volt, the smoke was coming from inside.
“Krissi? Regina?”
I called out coughing as I made my way inside, Regina was on the ground out cold and the inside of the volt was on fire. The purple smoke was coming from all the magic burning in this place. I grabbed Regina pulling her out of the volt before it exploded into violent angry flames. Regina winced coughing as she started to wake up her eyes widened in horror.

“NO!”
She screamed but I held her back.
“You can’t go in there! It’s too late to save anything”.
Regina struggled against me.
“You don’t understand! There are objects in there I can’t replace!”
I looked at her gripping her shoulders.
“Krissi’s missing! We think she fell in the water, her phone was found by the docs but we have no way of knowing if she’s down there”.
Regina looked at me tears coming to her eyes.
“What? How could you let that happen?”

I looked away from her.
“Look, I need your help if Krissi is in that water and there is a chance she could be saved”.
Regina shook her head at me.
“Emma, I left Krissi at noon, if she fell in the water between now and then”.
I looked down my knees giving out.
“This can’t be happening, I’m supposed to be the savior but I couldn’t even protect my own daughter!”
The fire department arrived as I sat on my knees feeling defeated like I had just lost a huge piece of myself. Like my heart really had been ripped out.
“What happened here?”
Robin asked as he rushed to Regina’s side.
“There was a man in my volt, I don’t know how he got in. he stole a book and some fairy dust”.
I looked at her tears rolling down my cheeks.

“Fairy dust?”
Regina nodded. I started to run through the people I knew of that could benefit from fairy dust. Hoping maybe it would lead to Krissi, that maybe she hadn’t fallen into the water.
“What did he look like?”
I asked drying my eyes shifting into sheriff mode. I stood doing my best to stay composed.
“He was tall, I didn’t see his face Emma, and he used a sleeping powder on me and set the place on fire. It was weird I thought he said something before he left”.
I nodded to her taking a step forward.
“Do you remember what he said?”
Regina sighed trying to think.
“I, I don’t know what he said I blacked out”.

Regina looked at me as a thought came to her mind.
“Have you checked the forests? The observatory?”
I shook my head turning away from her.
“Her phone was found by the docs, it doesn’t look good Regina”.
Regina narrowed her eyes at me.
“So you’re giving up on her already? Assuming she’s dead?”
I looked at her narrowing my eyes.
“Of course not!”

Regina shook her head.
“You find it so easy to give up on her, maybe she’s not as easy to look after as Amanda and Henry. Maybe she’s just too much for you to handle. But I know Krissi wouldn’t just lay down and die not without a fight!”
I moved in on her again narrowing my eyes.
“Are you saying I can’t take care of my own daughter?”
Regina didn’t back down her hands clenched into fists.
“I’m saying if you knew Krissi like I do, you wouldn’t assume the worst without checking all the other possibilities, maybe you just want her dead save your little title as “the savior””
I narrowed my eyes at Regina slapping her across the face as hard as I could.
“You think I want my daughter dead?”

I screamed at her shaking I was so mad. Regina narrowed her eyes back at me.
“I’m saying if you spent half as much time with her as you did Henry and Amanda maybe this wouldn’t have happened! She feels alone! Do you know she talks to herself? I found her talking to her reflection today!”
I looked at her feeling the tears rolling down my cheeks.
“You have no idea what she’s going through! To be the outcast! To feel like no one will ever love you because of what you are”.
I growled at her.
“You think I don’t know what it’s like to be alone? I spent my whole life alone! Because of you and your selfish pride! So don’t stand there and tell me I don’t know what she’s feeling!”

Regina shook her head.
“You’ve never truly been alone though Emma, Mommy and Daddy were always thinking of you even though they didn’t know it. Her own twin sister ditches her to hang out with her high school friends! Krissi pushes it aside because she loves her! Because she wants her to be happy and do what makes her happy! She’s already sacrificing her own happiness for everyone else’s! You never had to do that as a child!”
I looked away from Regina.
“If you spent just an ounce of time with her talking to her, helping her through these changes. Maybe she wouldn’t have run away!”
I looked at Regina.

“Run away?”
Regina nodded.
“It’s all that makes sense, she probably dropped her phone because she didn’t want anyone contacting her”.
I shook my head.
“Krissi wouldn’t want me to think she was dead!”
Regina moved forwards.
“Someone who feels as alone as she does, I don’t think she’d care what we thought at this point”.
As the flames died down the sun was rising. I walked through the streets of Story Brook thinking about my encounter with Regina. Had I really been so blind to how alone my daughter felt? She was my whole world. I looked up seeing Mister Gold.

“Gold”
I called out to him rushing to catch up with him. He turned to me looking tired and stressed out but more than anything he looked worried.
“Did you find anything?”
I asked, He shook his head.
“No, there was nothing”.
I felt my heart sink and my hope that maybe she was alright wavered. Then for no reason at all I thought about Regina’s volt and what was taken from it before it was destroyed.
“Regina’s volt burned to the ground, everything was destroyed but someone took fairy dust and a book from the volt before burning it to the ground”.

Gold narrowed his eyes.
“That makes no sense, between that and the crystal that was stolen from my shop it sounds like someone is planning a ceremony”.
I frowned at him.
“What kind of ceremony?”
Gold shook his head.
“Could be any number of ceremonies. I’ll have to do some research but I’m betting whoever is planning this ceremony has Krissi. Someone with her power would be able to perform any number of ceremonies”.

I felt that sinking feeling in my heart again. Of all the possibilities Krissi being kidnapped or stolen made the most sense to me. Something clicked inside me and I knew what I had to do.
“Find out what ceremony this person wants to perform! I’m going to gather the town’s people and have everyone search everywhere. They can’t be far. If Krissi’s been kidnapped the person responsible is going to pay!”