Sorry, guys, you'll have to forgive me my mistakes as I don't have a beta to proofread my story. Written for SpookyOQ Week. Thank you for reading and reviewing! Hope you enjoy!

The Mask.

She's dead. She's not sure how or when exactly this happened, she just knows, and the feeling of unbearable cold and numbness keep spreading all over her body. Regina wants to know where she is but she's surrounded by complete darkness.

"Is anyone here?"

She tries, but the only reply is the echo of her own voice, yet it sounds more distant and weak.

"Can anyone hear me?"

There's nothing but the echo again only it sounds deeper and lower somehow, more sinister. But Regina is not scared, she isn't that easily spooked. The thing she is afraid of though is that she would have to stay here alone for the rest of eternity. Now that would be real hell. She feels her heart skip a beat. Or is it her heart? How does one even explain feelings after you have already died? But who cares how or what she feels, she's here all by herself after all. She just guesses she has to bear that all-consuming loneliness in the afterlife as well and it's complete torture. She feels even more numb than she did just a few minutes before like she was turning into a statue of herself. All of that is just really confusing. She's not sure whether she should move or just stay here where she is. Maybe it would have been easier to just let this darkness swallow her whole. Wouldn't she make it everyone a favor if she just disappeared without any chance of ever coming back? Regina entertains this thought for a little while but the more she thinks about it the less she likes it. There were too many people in her life who had sacrificed a lot to not let the darkness consume her whole. She thinks of her friends who are like family to her right now, her sweet son Henry who has always inspired her to fight against any darkness both within her and around her, and Robin... She thinks about Robin, her soulmate, her touchstone who gave up his very own life and his soul for her in a blink of an eye. If she gave up now, his sacrifice would have been in vain.

"You can't have me!" she yells into the nothingness, "I won't let you win!"

She feels so helpless. She doesn't know what to do really it's not like there's a real physical opponent she can confront. But than she hears it. A low hissing voice barely above a whisper right beside her.

"Everyone loses, dearie."

And she's quite sure it isn't Rumple. It can't be him! But this voice get to her, gets under her skin.

"Its a no win kind of situation, Regina."

She hears the voice continue. She has to listen very carefully in order to make out what he's saying at all.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

She's not afraid, she won't let herself be frightened.

"Does it really matter where you are? Or who I am?"

Now the sound comes from the opposite her and it seems to be right by her left year.

"Show yourself!"

She masters all her courage and just yells at that someone. She won't give in. There's quite a bit of a Queen still in her and she'd be damned if she doesn't let it show.

There's a small flicker of very dim light. It's not any real light just a very poor substitute. It's still pretty dark but now when she turns her hear left the only thing she can do is gasp. The man beside her is darkness itself save for a white mask he's wearing.

"Who or what are you?" She all but whispers.

The creature in the white mask starts floating in the air, then crawling on the ground constantly changing its mask expression as it continues its horrid hissing.

"Let's say I'm the one that some are afraid of more than anything, some rather welcome my coming and then there are those like you, Regina. We've always had a complicated relationship, didn't we?"

Flashes of memories of times she was more than willing to take her own life appear before her eyes.

"Are you..?"

"Yes, Regina. You called me so many times yet every time I came you hated me. I came for your father like you wanted it to be. I came later on after your mother who you hated all your life but you were hurt by her passing and then there was your Robin. He welcomed me in your place but instead of being happy and satisfied, you were torn on the inside."

The creature stops and makes a deep sigh.

"You see, I was never to make any decisions. I'm merely a guide."

"What is this place?"

"This is the land of the dead undead, the place of no return."

The creature explains, his mask changes into the shape of death.

"Welcome."