Once Upon a Second Chance

(6) - There's No Such Thing as Ghosts

Ben slowly woke up to a dripping liquid falling on his face as he was laying on the floor. He slowly opened his eyes and found several blurry concerned faces and indistinct voices. He was confused as to what was happening until he remembered the events that had played out before he fainted, and jolted his eyes open.

"Oh, thank the gods," Mal gave a heavy sigh of relief.

Ben was about to get up until he felt another drop of liquid fall on his face. He looked up and realized what the dripping substance was—Gideon's saliva.

"Ugh," he scrunched his nose in disgust before sitting up and wiping the baby's spit off his face.

"Are you okay?" Audrey asked. Ben nodded.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

"About two minutes," Doug answered.

"Sorry," he apologized to his alternate parents, not meeting their faces. He didn't know what to make of the situation. He didn't know how to treat or call them, considering they weren't his real parents... right?

"No worries. Are you alright?" Belle asked softly.

Ben nodded, before slowly getting to his feet, with the help of Mal.

"So, if you don't need further inspection, we may need to get a move-on," Emma said. "There are nineteen of you... well, twenty, including Dude. And so far we only have thirteen. That leaves seven."

Ben nodded his head, still feeling a tad dizzy. "I'm fine. Let's go find the rest of our friends."

"If you have an object belonging to one of them, I could do a locater spell," Regina said.

They all thought for a moment before Harry said, "Ah, yes," in remembrance. He dug into his pockets until he found the object. "This belongs to my sister."

He handed to object to Regina. The former Evil Queen examined the object and raised an eyebrow. "A lighter?" she said.

"Aye, she lended it to me, forgot to give it back" he shrugged. "Oh, that's reminds me," Harry took back the lighter and dug a cigarette out of another pocket and put it in his mouth, about to light it before Killian snatched it out of his mouth.

"And you, young man, are not old enough to smoke. Besides, it can do untold damage to your body," Killian said, confiscating the cigarette.

Harry looked at Killian in a combination of amusement and surprise. Nobody had ever told the seventeen-year-old such a thing before. Nobody had ever cared about such a thing before. He didn't know whether it was supposed to feel refreshing or annoying. Perhaps both.

"Okay," Regina said, taking back the lighter. "We can go to my vault to get the ingredients for the spell. Let's go," she said, leading everyone out of the shop and in the direction of the cemetery.

———————————————

The group was currently walking through the graveyard on their way to Regina's fault.

The entire time, Gil's palms were sweating and he jumped at every little sound, frantically looking around the graveyard. To say he was frightened would be an understatement.

"Harry," the blonde boy leaned over and whispered to his friend.

"What?"

"I'm not the only person who feels we're not alone, right?" he asked, inching closer to Harry.

"Of course not," Harry chuckled. "We have all these lovely decomposed corpses and their tortured spirits wandering around to keep us company," he laughed, gesturing to the gravestones, but stopped after he saw the look on his best friend's face. "Calm yer nerves, will ye?" he sighed. "The only tortured souls here are ours."

Gil nodded, trying to rational. There's no such thing as ghosts. There's no such thing as ghosts. There's no such thi-

His thoughts were interrupted by a distant sound.

"Gil!"

"AH!" Gil yelled, and collided into a very annoyed Harry.

"What is it?!"

"I heard someone calling my name," he said, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"Yer just imagining things," Harry shrugged him off. He looked into the distance but only noticed that they were now straying rather far from the rest of the group. "Come on," he said, wanting to keep up. The last thing he needed was to get lost in a cemetery with Gil of all people.

"Harry!"

Harry jumped. He looked around and his eyes landed on Gil as he glared at him. "That ain't funny," he grumbled.

"What is?" Gil asked, now terrified.

Harry inhaled sharply. "Let's go."

"Gil!"

"Harry!"

The two boys eyes widened as they inched closer to each other. That time, they definitely heard someone calling their name.

"Gil!"

"Harry!"

The sound of their names being called became louder and louder until they realized which direction it was coming from. They turned behind them. "Who's there?!" Harry yelled, holding up his hook, ready to attack.

They then heard footsteps, and as the sound got closer and closer, they realized, a pair of footsteps.

And that was when they were finally in sight.

"Harry! Gil!" The now visible Squeaky and Squirmy shouted, running over to hug the two teenage boys.

"It's the twins!" Gil exclaimed, hugging Squirmy. He turned to Harry who was being hugged by Squeaky. "I told you there was nothing to worry about!"

Harry playfully glared at Gil.

"What's going on here?" Regina asked worriedly, her and the rest of the group coming over, but with two new additions—Dizzy and Celia, who felt a wave of relief wash over them as they went over to hug the Smee twins.

"Oh, you found them," Henry sighed in relief seeing the two children. Apparently, when the group went ahead without Harry and Gil, they had managed to find Dizzy and Celia who originally arrived with the twins.

"We told you guys not to wander off!" Dizzy scolded the twins, who she and Celia both came to see as their little brothers.

"We're sorry," the twins said.

"It's okay," Belle said. "We're just glad all four of you are safe.

"We are, too," Carlos smiled, putting his hand on the younger VKs' shoulders.

"So who's left?" David asked.

Evie answered, "Uma, CJ-"

"And Freddie," Celia said, worried for her older sister.

"So that leaves three people," David said. "Hopefully we'll find them all together."

"Ye better hope to hell ye don't," Harry chuckled, not sure whether to be entertained or terrified at the idea of the havoc his captain and sister could wreak together if they teamed up.

"Then let's get a move on, shall we?" Regina said, leading everyone back to the direction of her vault.