About Time

Pt 6

Regina's POV

  "I love you too" I think I just died. Emma did care about me. I knew this was all going way too fast. I mean I only met her yesterday but it felt like forever.

  "What's going on in here?" Charming asked as he entered the small room again.

  "Dear, we can trust Regina." Snow said. WHAT?! Snow White just said she could trust me. Ok then.

"She's manipulating you. She did it before and she's doing it again. Snow don't be stupid. We cannot trust this witch!" He shouted. I couldn't stop the tears from spilling over. I wanted to start over with Snow but if she had to choose, it would be him and Emma would have to go too.

I couldn't put up with this anymore. I couldn't win and Emma would end up hurt either way. The purple smoke engulfed me and I landed of my feet back on the forest floor.

I ran. I ran faster than I thought was possible. I didn't know where I was going but my feet kept moving and I didn't care. I wasn't thinking about my movements, as my kind was too focused on what had just happened. I didn't look where I was until I was in a familiar clearing. My house. The one I lived in as a child.

I cautiously walked up to its large oak door and knocked. Silence. I tried the handle and, surely enough, it opened. The place was dusty and obviously uninhabited. My Mother had not cared for selling the property as we were moving into a palace and wouldn't need the money.

The property was mine but I felt as if I were trespassing. I had been a different version of myself when I had lived here. I had been innocent and kind. I had never hurt anyone and I never thought I would but I was weak. I was my Mother's puppet and I did as she pleased. I winced at the memory of her beating me because I was late home and I moved into the living room from the long hallway.

My stilettos clicked on the polished wooden floor as I walked around the dark coffee table, brushing my fingers over its surface as I went. There was a thick layer of dust coating it and the other furniture in the room.

I walked through the house, taking in every inch of dust and light, stopping in rooms where good memories lingered and leaving rooms where bad ones replayed themselves.

I made my way upstairs and stopped at my old bedroom door. I braced myself for what I was about to walk into and thought about turning and leaving the house forever. No. I had to see it again. I wrapped my fingers around the cold door handle and slowly pushed it open.

I was greeted with the sickly sweet smell of the rose water Mother used to drench me in and the dusky pink walls were lighter than I remembered. My huge four-poster bed stood proud in the middle of the far wall, with white bed side tables on either side. My tall wardrobe stood on the right hand side of the room with a ginormous vanity next to it. I smiled remembering that I had learned how to not use lipstick on that table and laughed at the memory of my Mother's reaction when she found me with a neon red face. God she was furious. I was only six.

The left wall was a huge mirror that reflected its surroundings. My Mother used to stand me in front of it and make me look at myself in huge ball gowns. She would shout at me about how I was to be a queen one day and I should sort myself out. She would abuse me in front of the mirror and if I cried, she would lock me in my room for a week with no food and just enough water to keep me alive. I shuddered at the memory and opened the wardrobe.

Massive gowns jumped out at me and the colours the intoxicating. Every hue of pink, blue, green, red and yellow stared at me and I laughed at how different to clothing choice was now. I suppose I dress in black now to forget the evil pink corsets and skirts.

I pushed the gowns back into their prison and closed the door. The bed made a slight freak when I perched on the edge of it and it made me smile remembering how Daddy used to sit next to me and tell me stories as I fell asleep. DADDY! Where was he-?! Oh wait never mind. He died a year before I was cursed. He fell ill and couldn't be treated. His last words replayed in my mind. "You'll only be happy when you forgive. I know you can." I suppose I have forgiven but I'm still miserable. I care about Snow and Emma. I care about Emma.

I lied down and let the thought of Emma send me to sleep.