I Am like a Curse

Chapter 1

Regina's PoV

I was lying in my bed in my prison cell. What an irony! I got away with murdering so many people but when I am innocent I end up in jail! This time I told the truth but no one believed me. Henry came to me and asked me to give in. My heart broke when I saw how disappointed he was. It didn't matter that I wasn't guilty if he believed otherwise. I let Emma lock me up, hoping that my son will believe in me just like he believed in Emma when she herself didn't. And he believed.

"Maybe she really isn't guilty," Henry turned to the sheriff.

"I want to believe that too, kid, but I saw her doing it," Emma looked at me. At first, I thought it was accusation that I saw in her eyes but then I realized it was regret. She didn't want this either. It was as if she begged me to give her some lead to work on. My brain seemed to have stopped functioning though. Probably because of the fact that somebody actually believed in me.

"I know," Henry said, surprising us both. "The shapeshifting spell. Mr. Gold must have used it to frame you. He is the only one except you who can do magic."

"But why?"

"Well, mom kept Belle locked up for twenty-eight years."

"You think he turned into Regina and killed Archie out of vengeance?" Emma sounded skeptical.

"He manipulated me for years so that I would cast the Dark Curse," I snapped.

"Hey, don't shout at me! I am trying to help you."

"It looks more like you are trying to infuriate me," I muttered.

"So it is possible that he really framed you?" Emma asked again.

I looked at her fiercely.

"Okay, I will start working on that," she raised her hands in defense.

"Really?" I asked. It sounded more desperate than I wanted to admit.

"Really, mom?" Henry asked too.

"Yes," Emma said and ruffled his hair as she smiled at him. "However," she turned to me, "you have to stay here until I have proof that you're innocent."

"You are giving me the benefit of the doubt, aren't you?" I asked sarcastically.

"Hey, you can't judge me! I believed in you until I saw you doing it. And even now I am trying to help you. Besides, it will be safer if you stay here."

"Yeah, just in case I turn out to be the murderer."

"No, I meant safer for you. Remember what happened when the Curse broke? The citizens wanted to kill you. Who knows what they'll do if I let you out now when everyone thinks you killed Archie. Not to mention that Gold may hurt anyone else or the people may lose their faith in me and there will be no one to protect you."

"I see you have reasons to keep me in here," I said harsher than I had intended.

"Regina-" the sheriff started but I cut her off.

"I understand. Just do your job and find out what exactly happened, Miss Swan."

"I will work non-stop on that, Madam Mayor," Emma stated coldly but I saw that the corner of her mouth twitched.

She hugged Henry around the shoulders and they walked out of the station.

That was two days ago and I haven't seen neither Henry nor Emma since then. David came by a few times to bring me food and look murderously at me. It seemed that he and Emma had a lot of work.

I was starting to lose my mind. The more I thought about this situation, the more frustrated I became. Gold used me to cast the Dark Curse and then framed me. I slammed my fist against the wall.

"It's not so pleasant when you are on the other side of the bars, is it?" Mary Margaret's voice startled me and I jumped from the bed. I didn't expect to see her here.

"What are you doing here?" I asked without even trying to hide the surprise in my voice.

"Do you know where Emma is?" She inquired instead of answering my question.

"How am I supposed to know?" I was bewildered. What the hell was going on? I panicked. What if something had happened to Emma while she had been searching for clues against Gold? What if she was hurt? "What happened to Emma? Is she alright?" I tried to hide my panic but didn't exactly succeed.

"As if you care for her!" Mary Margaret spat out.

"Of course I do!" I objected a little more fiercely than needed. "I mean… Henry loves her… and she is the only one that believed me," I stuttered when she looked at me oddly.

"If you cared for her, you wouldn't have sent her after Gold. You wouldn't have put her in danger," she hissed.

"Tell me what happened to Emma!" I insisted. My initial fear was replaced by anger.

"Do you really think you have the right to demand that?" Mary Margaret snapped at me, fury burning in her eyes. I have never seen her like that. "Luckily, nothing has happened to my daughter."

I sighed in relief.

"However, that is not thanks to you," she continued. "You sent her after Gold. You endangered her life. But then again that's exactly what you want, isn't it? To get rid of Emma"

"What? No. Why would I do that? She's helping me. She believed in me."

"I don't understand what's going on with her. You say you've tried to help us and she buys it without even thinking twice. You say you're innocent and she believes you." Mary Margaret's rant perplexed me. "At first I thought you had put some kind of spell on her but no magic is that powerful. She is constantly talking about you. It seemed impossible but I am starting to believe that she is in love with you," she screamed in my face.

I just stared at her in pure shock. Did she really say that? Or was it just my imagination?

"After all the efforts I made to keep her away from you…" Mary Margaret trailed off as she finally realized what she was saying.

"What?" I asked, suspicion sneaking in my voice.

"Nothing," she squeaked nervously.

"What have you done?" I growled.

"I… told her to stay away from you… because you're the Evil Queen"

"No, it's not that." I could feel she was lying. I was starting to sound like Emma. Anyway, I could sense that there was something else. "What have you done?" I asked again, my eyes were boring into her.

Mary Margaret couldn't resist my stare and looked aside. And then it hit me.

"No, you did not!" I whispered with such ferocity that she flinched involuntarily. "It was you! You framed me!" I grabbed the bars. My grip was so strong that my knuckles turned white.

"Come on, Regina! You can't be that desperate. How can I frame you? I don't have magic."

"You must have worked with Gold."

"Regina, I am trying to reason with you without being rude but it seems impossible," she started with that attitude that just made me want to set her on fire. "In case you have forgotten, you are the one who kills people not I." She turned her back to me and headed to the door.

"Just think about how disappointed your mother would be if she could see you now" I said knowing all too well how much this would hurt her.

"Don't you dare speak of my mother!" Mary Margaret turned around and hissed at me. "I don't know how my father decided that a monster like you could replace her"

"I wasn't a monster before I met you," I snapped. "I lost everything because of you! If you had just kept your mouth shut, I would have run away with Daniel and you would have never heard of me again." My eyes welled up with tears. "And now you're trying to take my son from me too."

"Henry is Emma's son," she stated coldly. "And I am doing him a favor. He will be much better without you."

I couldn't believe my ears. How could she say that? She knew what it was like not to have a mother and she knew what it was like to lose a child. "Really? Do you think it was better for Emma to grow up without you?"

"It was your fault that she had to grow up as an orphan," Mary Margaret accused me. "I would have been a good mother if I had had the chance because I am not like you. I am not a monster."

It was always like that. I was the Evil Queen and she was Snow White. She would pretend that she wanted to help me and then she would blame me for ruining her life. But not this time.

"You could have kept Emma. You decided to put her in that wardrobe," I stated angrily.

"You would have killed her," she objected.

"I didn't have enough time to search the whole castle. You could have hidden her and you could have kept her. It was your choice to give her up."

"I wanted to save her from your curse."

"You wanted to make sure that you would defeat me. You chose victory over your child." Mary Margaret took a step back as if I had slapped her. "That and the fact that you want to take Henry – my happiness – from me makes you a lot like me."

"I will never be like you. Do you know why?" I raised my brow. "Because I am a hero to differ from you." She turned her back to me and headed towards the door.

"Keep telling yourself that, snowflake!" My voice was dripping with disdain. "You might actually believe yourself in the end." She stopped dead in her tracks. I thought she would say something but she didn't. She left without so much as another word.