Sorry the chapters are taking so long to get out, but you know, I'm a lazy teenager. Hope you enjoy it!

Oh also, this chapter goes back to Grave Thoughts. And there is NO Tamara in this story! And August will stay in his beautiful manly scruffiness.

Love and All it's Monsters

The nameless boy sat alone in the corner of the Collin's house. It was filled to the brim with screaming children. It was known that the Collins only took on so many kids to supply their drinking habits. To be honest, he was quite scared. Back home, he'd only been to a pub once. It was filled with hags and rowdy dwarves, but it wasn't anything compared to this.

One boy, however, approached him. He sat himself down across from him and stared.

"Why are you here?" he asked. The boy shrugged.

"My papa let me go," he mumbled. A look a sympathy crossed the opposite boy's face.

"I'm Owen. My dad was captured by an witch. I stayed with my uncle until last week when he had a heart attack. Mr. Collins is my next closest relative." he said "What's you name?"

The boy shrugged. Owen laughed.

"You can't not have a name! Here," he said, pulling off a book from the shelf. "The First Third, by Neal Cassady. You can be Neal Cassady then."

The boy, now known as Neal, smiled.

"Thanks Owen."

Their friendship grew within the short time Owen was there. When his uncle got better, he had to move back to Pennsylvania, but they kept in touch through e-mail and letters and it wasn't long before Neal's foster father had to go one a business trip to Pennsylvania. Neal needed a place to stay.

OUAT

"So Neal, you're from Maine, aren't you?"

Neal was sitting at Mr. Mendel's dining room table. Marcus Mendel was Owen's uncle on his mother's side. Neal's foster father was on a business trip in Pennsylvania and Owen had asked if he could spend the night.

Mr. Mendel was nice enough, but very nosy. Owen was mostly quiet, but Neal got the feeling he was the kind of person that kept to himself a lot.

"Um, yeah," he replied uncomfortably. Maine is where he had been found when he first came to this world. Mr. Mendel frowned.

"Whereabouts?" he demanded, leaning in closer. The table fell silent. Neal gulped.

"I-I don't know. I didn't live there long," he stammered. That was the truth. He was only in Maine for about three weeks before he got shipped of to Tallahassee. Before Mr. Mendel could ask another question, Owen swooped in.

"Neal, are you done eating? Let's go up to my room! I just got the complete Star Wars movies that we can watch." Neal sighed with relief, but couldn't shake off the icy glare Mr. Mendel was giving him.

It was rainy the day it happened. The road was wet and sleek, the sky a cold, dark black. The few cars that slid by were slightly swerving in the downpour.

Four twenty-one year old boys were sitting in a smoky bedroom. The source of the smoke came from the shaggiest of the boys, a black haired young man who was smoking something that was not tobacco.

A cell phone of the youngest boy went off, a simple text from a girl requesting her younger brother to come pick her up from the supermarket since she didn't want to bike in the rain at nine o'clock at night.

"Hey Neal, Juliette wants me to pick her up and I'm too tired. Can you come with?" Greg asked.

Neal shook his head.

"Nah, come on man. You're a big boy. You can do it," he laughed.

The rest of the company laughed along too. Greg was almost always the end of jokes for being the youngest. Smiling, he grabbed his keys and headed out the door. The boys continued throwing popcorn at each other.

Neal took a slow sip from his beer as he felt a pang of guilt in heart. Juliette was his girlfriend, after all. But as he fingered the ring in his pocket he knew one night wouldn't count in the many more they would hopefully spend together. If she said yes, that is.

Neal Cassady loved Juliette more than he loved anything else. Everything about her was perfect. The way she laughed, the way she talked, even the way she smelled was just...great.

Before he had made the decision to ask her, he had consulted just about everyone he knew, including his friend who lived in Pennsylvania, Owen Flynn. He met Owen when he had first gotten to this world and he still could remember it like it was yesterday.

Barrett brought Neal out of his thoughts by flicking a piece of popcorn at his eye. It hit its target perfectly and Neal cried out. He was just about to aim his own piece back at Barrett when his cell phone rang, along with August's and Barrett's.

The three boys froze. Neal rose the device slowly to his ear.

He remembered answering. He remembered dropping it on the floor and hearing it make a thumping sound. The rest was a blur, until he got to the hospital.

It was dark, they said. The car probably slipped, they said. Nobody's fault, they said.

Hit a tree. Dead on impact. Snapped neck. One survivor. Life support.

These words rang throughout his head. Half of them he'd never heard of. The worst part was realizing that he would never here Greg's voice again. Neal didn't know why, but this sadden him the most.

Greg was driving. Juliette was in the front seat beside him. She dropped her phone. He bent down to pick it up for her. A truck driver who'd been driving all the way from Los Angelos drifted off for a fraction of a second and swerved. Greg didn't have a seat belt on. He swerved to avoid the car, right into a tree.

They always warn you in school about these kind of things; if you don't buckle up you could die. They say it, but no one ever believes them. They laugh and giggle and say it'll never happen to them, they're too smart to get in a car wreck.

Greg was about as smart as they come. He was getting a degree in law at the time. It's funny how one moment of stupidity can erase all that. How life can pivot in one fraction of a second.

Greg was the one that now lay dead, but his sister had the worse fate. Juliette was now hooked up to a dozen different machines, depending on them to keep her alive.

His Juliette, the bright, laughing girl that he wanted to be his bride.

Neal saw Mr. and Mrs. Mourne talking to the doctor over in a corner. They were both sobbing, and nodding at the doctor. Neal went over to them.

"Is she going to be alright?" he managed to choke out. The doctor looked at him sadly.

"I'm sorry, but there is no way we can save her." he said in a sickly sweet voice. Neal stood there in shock. He wanted to yell at the doctor, to scream at them all and take Juliette away and heal her himself.

But he couldn't. He was frozen, rooted to the spot. He felt tears gliding down his cheeks effortlessly and noiselessly. As if some greater was guiding him, he walked slowly over to where Juliette lay on the hospital bed. He planted on last kiss on her forehead, running his fingers through her hair one last time.

"Goodbye Juliette. I love you so, so much," he whispered, and in his heart he knew this was the last time he would ever say those words again. He would have never admit it to anyone ever, but in that moment he could see why his father had wanted magic; to save those he loved.

It was storming outside and Tigerlily struggled to get down the sails of The Jolly Roger. She looked up and grinned when she saw a figure making its way towards the boat.

She was a bit disappointed Neal hadn't brought Greg back with him, she'd really liked hanging out with him, but not so much in a romantic way.

Grinning, Tigerlily ran up to him but she stopped short.

Neal's arms were covered in vertical slashes and were drenched in blood. Tigerlily knew just from the sight that they were self inflicted.

"God, Neal," she whispered, "What the hell did you do to yourself?"

Neal smiled. It was a crazy deranged smile that sent shivers up Tigerlily's spine.

"I deserved it. I killed them, it's all my fault. All of them. I didn't go with Greg, even though he asked." he whispered.

Tigerlily's eyes widened, "Neal what are you talking about?"

He looked up at her, the rain swirling with his own tears.

"They're dead, Tigerlily! Dead and it's all my fault. Just like it's all my fault that thousands of people had their happily ever afters taken away because I didn't love my father hard enough! Just like all those people who died because they accidentally hurt me, even if it was my fault. There was a man my father turned into a snail because I ran in front of his cart. He had a wife who was pregnant and two small kids, but my father killed him. The baby died a year later because the mother couldn't afford to feed it because it's father wasn't there! Everything I touch breaks!" he sobbed and proceeded to collapse on the ground.

Killian helped Tigerlily moving him into a bed that they kept in the ship. Killian was shaking with rage.

"What's the matter?" she asked tentatively.

"Neal is so broken right now because his father was a selfish bastard. When I find that crocodile, I will make sure he suffers." he growled and stalked out of the room.

In the end, they both decided it'd be best if Tigerlily accompanied Neal back to his world to ensure no more "accidents" happened. She met one of his friends, a nice young man loved Star Wars and loved her. She had every intention to return to her home, but Owen Peter Flynn was the best person she knew, and she would stay with him until the end of time.

Hook stood in the doorway of the apartment building, smiling maliciously.

"Killian, you promised you wouldn't without my consent!" Neal growled. He was referring to the time when Neal made him promise not to kill his father until he got Neal's permission.

Hook shrugged. "Plans change lad, and I have every intention of skinning a crocodile today."

"You know each other?" Gold barked, glaring at them both. Neal opened his mouth to reply, but Hook stopped him short.

"Well, the boy ought to know his stepfather, shouldn't he?" he smirked.

Gold let out a bark of rage and ran at Hook, forgetting that there wasn't any magic in this world. Hook smiled and lunged. His hook landed in the place nearest the old man's heart.

Gold gasped, and dropped on his knees at Hook's feet.

"Goodbye crocodile," he hissed, raising his hook to deliver the final blow.

There was a thunk sound as a piece of wood hit the back of the pirate's neck. A man with black hair and sea-green eyes peered up at the group.

"You're welcome," he said, dropping the weapon and grinning. Emma looked confused.

"Who are you?" she asked. Another grin from the man.

"Barrett Vanir, at your service," he smiled, extending his hand.

Sorry this took so long to get out, but I hope you like it! Next chapter we may get to see what the effects of having a magic-tainted soul are... Please review! :)