The Monster Within

Chapter 37

"Regina please open the door," a comforting voice calls, knocking on the distraught woman's door.

"GO AWAY!" is the response.

"Please, Regina we just want to see you. Make sure you're all right," another says.

"I'm fine, now go away!"

Regina lays on the couch in her pyjamas; her mop of black hair unsightly, her cheeks stained, a pillow against her stomach, wadded tissues carpeting the floor, a tub of melted ice cream on the coffee table, re-runs of Heartland on the TV and a bottle of wine clutched in her one hand. She doesn't want to see anyone. It's been two days since she yelled at Robin and broke up with him and she never wants to leave her apartment again. Why does it seem like she's always the one who loses? No matter what she does, she always ends up broken-hearted. She can't catch a break no matter what she does. Zelena says that Regina always got exactly what she wanted, but one thing... love.

Suddenly, the door opens. Regina sits up abruptly as Emma and Mary Margret enter her trashed apartment.

"How did you get in? The door was locked?"

"You learn things when you grow up the streets," Emma says.

"Well go back out there," the brunette says, throwing her pillow at her friends. It merely hits the pregnant Emma in the leg and lands on the floor. The blonde feels a sharp pain go through her as she bends over to pick up the pillow. Regina goes back to watching the TV.

Mary Margret immediately goes towards her friend and uses the remote to turn off the TV.

"What the hell?"

"Regina, we need to talk," the teacher insists sternly.

"No, we don't," the broken-hearted woman says. She attempts to grab the remote, but Mary Margret keeps it out of her reach.

"Regina we're worried about you. We tried calling you so many times," Emma says.

"My phone is at the bottom of my toilet bowl," the real-estate agent says, turning away from her friends again.

Emma goes around the couch and sits on the opposite end, ignoring the movement of the baby. Her stomach was turning slightly, but she ignored it for the sake of comforting her friend. She places her hand on her friend's leg.

"Regina, we know you're hurting right now..."

"No hurting is when you scrape your knee on the sidewalk or someone forgets your birthday, this is..." Tears flood her eyes again. It's amazing she still has fluid in her body, one would think she'd cried herself dry over the past two days. She clings to another pillow and refuses to look at anyone.

"Devastating...?" Mary Margret suggests, taking a seat in a chair next to the couch.

"Wounding, damaging, heart-breaking, upsetting, like someone ripped your heart out of your chest and stomped on it?" Emma suggests.

"All of the above," Regina mutters.

"We know how that feels..." Mary Margret says sympathetically.

"How? How could you possibly know? You're married to your Prince Charming, you have a beautiful son and a place to call your own. While Emma has a son, a new home, the man of her dreams and another baby on the way! Meanwhile, I'm the spinster who can't keep a man for more than two years and is destined to be alone..." she sobs.

"You're not destined to be alone," Mary Margret says comfortingly.

"And you seriously don't think we know what it's like?" Emma says in frustration."I was in love with a man for more than ten years. He asked me to marry him and I thought we'd grow old together, but then he upped and left, leaving me with my son and nothing else... It felt like a huge hole was punched through my chest and I just kept bleeding and bleeding, nothing could stop it."