Dark Red|| Rumpelstiltskin

Chapter 8

OUAT
Season 1, Episode 21 and 22
An Apple as Red as Blood, A Land Without Magic

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R E G I N A

As Emma swings the sword down, aiming straight for her neck to behead her, Regina wakes up. She gasped, tears welling up in her eyes. It had all been so real, they had all woken up. They had killed her, and Peter, her sweet Peter who she loved so much, had cheered them on. The boy she had raised since he was a babe, her precious Henry had helped them. She let out a choked sob, stumbling out of her comforter ungracefully.

She went down the hall, each step causing a small creek in the floorboard. She would have to get them replaced soon, preferably when Henry wasn't in the house for a few days. The sound they made was terribly irritating, and they were more prone to collapse under someone's weight than to support them. She stopped in front of Henry's door, the blue carpet shining from underneath the gap from the floor. She opened it slowly, she didn't need to wake him up and worry the kid.

She peered in, the outline of Henry sleeping bringing her a bit of comfort as tears rolled down her cheeks. There used to be a time where she wasn't this afraid to wake her kid up. Where she could just walk into his room and soothe him from a nightmare. They used to play trucks in the living room, and have lovely dinners with the Reid system once a week.

It was only as he grew older that the problems had started. The questions about the clothing in the stores; why had the same clothes been on display for years. She had been able to brush that one aside, the clothes were in such high demand that they've been produced for years. The others concerned her, he was the only one to ever go to a different classroom, different teacher, different classmates. Any friends he had made didn't ever seem to remember him once he moved up in grades, their body's the exact same as they had been when he was four and started preschool.

Nobody left town, and if they tried they disappeared or ended up in a terrible accident. The same people spent years at the hospital for something as trivial as a broken bone, Peter and Ashley being the only ones to ever leave the hospital once they had been admitted. Nobody quit their jobs, nobody ever moved houses, people rarely died and if they did it was of unspecified reasons. Eventually, he was so disturbed and terrified by everything in the small town that Ian eventually begged her to let him see a therapist.

Peter, the lovely boy she had raised. She needed to know if he was okay, just to hear his voice. She practically tip toed out of her son's room, making sure the door didn't make a peep as she pulled it in. She rushed back to her room, the door swinging closed as she fumbled through her drawer for her phone. It turned on, her password unlocking it. It was henter, a password to honor both of her boys. The phone app popped up quickly, finding Peter's number had been relatively easy after that. It was the one of the two only favorited number in her phone, not even Graham had had that privilege while he was alive.

It rang, the sound reverberating throughout her bedroom. She waited anxiously, the thought of him not answering sending her into even more of a panic. Right when it was about to disconnect, he picked up. The sound of a heater came through the phone and echoed throughout the lavish bedroom. "Hello." His voice was deep, heavy with sleep. She could imagine Peter rubbing his eyes like he did when he was a baby, his cheeks puffing out. "Are you ok?" She asked, though she didn't need to. The way he had answered proved he had been sleeping when she called, probably cuddled up with Mr. Gold.

"Yeah, I was sleeping though." His words were slurred, like he had just woken up from the best sleep he had ever had. "I was having the most amazing dream." She sighed and nodded, he hadn't been distressed in his sleep. "What's wrong? Do you need to come over?" He asked, his hushed whispers carrying worry. "No, I just had an urge to call. I'll see you later." She didn't want to see him later though, she wanted to stay up and talk to him all night long about all of her worries and her nightmare. She couldn't do that to him, he needed all the rest he could get, rarely did he ever seem to be fully rested anymore.