Grave Roses

by Isybelle

When Emma broke the curse and the people of Storybrooke immediately incarcerated Regina. Panicked Regina resorts to an old plan, an old plan that involves one of her pawns, murder and Rumplestiltskin, but not necessarily in that order. AU in which Jefferson does not free Belle. Here be angst, twoo wuv and devious plans.

1. Prologue

She fell, she died

There is no way to trace the dead. The soul has left the body nothing but an empty shell. Rumplestiltskin knew this better than many, and yet he still tried to find her using magic to call out; and when all he heard was the void he bellowed in grief, sinking to his knees in the library… her library… as though his shouts would recall her spirit to him, if only to tell him to try and quieten down as some were trying to read. But of course, dead is dead.

He scoured Avonlea for her grave before he realised hers would not be marked. She was a suicide, held up as dying in sin and therefore was, most likely, buried at some crossroads.

That day, fragrant and fragile rose bushes sprung up at every cross road in the lands. Few noticed and less cared to ponder this floral anomaly, in fact the only person who gave it any thought at all, apart from he who conjured them, was a girl locked in a tower. From her vantage point she could see three different cross roads and immediately noticed the identical rose bush at each. She had many different theories as to why three magnificent rose bushes had sprung up from nothing simultaneously at cross roads, and theorising on this strange phenomena kept her entertained in her darkest hour; which was ironic really, as it was her darkest hour the flowers symbolised.