Warning: Mention of abuse.

Chapter 2

Boston, Massachusetts 2000

It was one year later that the evil queen at all hallows eve was getting ready for a ball. She didn't reflect much over that fact, or that date of the night. After all there wasn't much spirits coming alive on this night, she however liked to scare her people. The dress of this evening was black with patterns of skulls and bones on it. Her hair was put up ever so nicely and on her head a crown in white gold.

She smiled pleased with her reflection when a weak voice spoke to her. She searched her brain as she could hardly hear it. It was like a vague memory in the far distance of her mind. Then it came back to her, it was the girl from the mirror, that had seen her burn on the stake after being lynched. She hadn't died, not fully, only her body, her soul had however been trapped in the mirror. From there she moved from mirror to mirror in her castle. Her wounds from the fire wasn't visible in the mirror. She knew if she was ever brought back to live they most likely would be, she however didn't see that happening ever again. She listened closely to the voice as the girl appeared, this time she seemed older, her hair was in stripes of blonde and purple, she was wearing some kind of clothing, purple that stopped a bit over her waist and a pair of black pants. Her head resting upon her makeup table, she wasn't in a bathroom this time. The queen looked at the surroundings around the girl, unfamiliar paintings on the walls, strange people from another time. A simple bed, the bedsheets was white with little purple dragons on, blood spread upon them. The queen looked at the girl again seeing bloody stripes on her back, someone had hurt her, badly. It was seldom she found herself to feel sorry for another living creature, much less a human, but this time she did, because this human was hurting. This girl that had called for her, the vengeful queen was hurting and in pain, and for whatever reason she didn't like it. Her voice was thick, she hardly recognized it as she spoke saying, "You called upon me."

"I…did," a sob escaped her black lips, her mascara ran in rivers down her cheeks. She was surprised to see the queen in a different outfit this time, and no flames surrounding her. She couldn't be dead then as the legend said.

"Why did you call?" the queen almost sounded concerned.

"I couldn't forget you, I needed to see you again, to see if you were real, the legend say that you died on a stake, is that so?" Emma needed something to distract her pain.

"I was burned on one long ago yes, but my soul got stuck in a mirror instead of moving on. What happened? Why is there blood on that bed?" the queen retorted the question, out of curiosity more than anything else.

"He…hurt me," Emma held up her wrists to her, bluish marks around them. She also turned her back to the mirror, she saw bloody stripes where the fabrics did not cover. The queen could feel her anger rise within as she said, "Who hurt you, Miss…?"

"Swan, but you can call me Emma, my new foster dad as I snuck out to a Halloween party. It was with…fri…people I know. He got angry, there was alcohol there, I didn't drink I just wanted to have one night of fun, this is how it ended, when I do not obey. Do you have a name or is it just queen?" she answered. Asking her to call her by her name seemed farfetched considering she did not know if she would come if she called her another time, or how long she would stay.

"New foster dad? I have a name, it is Regina, Queen Regina," she answered, feeling the need to know more about this girl.

"They never let me stay, always find something wrong with me, no one is ever nice to me. The people I hang with aren't either and I don't trust anyone. They either yell or hit or do something else, my caretakers, I don't even know why they took me in to begin with," a small sob escaped her lips.

"I..don't know you, but I don't see you as bad, I am though. What do you do since they as you say hit you?" she wondered, she heard a knock on the door, no doubt one of her servants.

"Tonight sneaked out to this party, he didn't want that, my foster mom is usually drunk, he is just angry I don't know what is better or worse, caring or…Yesterday it was staying up too late doing something other than homework, to be fair I had studied to about ten pm. He finds an excuse, I stopped caring about why. You are older, is life meant to be easy, will I ever be loved, I mean are you loved, do you know, can one trust people?" she asked, her eyes didn't seem so intense this time as the last.

"I am not loved, I am feared, hence being a vengeful Queen. I was loved long ago, by a good man, he was killed, it is a long story. I know who I can rely on, but trust is another matter, people turn so easily. I don't know what to tell you, people some have happy lives I think, I never did and I doubt I ever will. I have to go, call me tomorrow or when you can I will try to answer, but right now I have to attend a ball," she heard the servants calling outside the door for her, telling her people were arriving. And before Emma could ask more, the queen had vanished. A hand on the mirror as more tears fell, "But I wanted you to stay, I don't want to be alone."

It was the next day and Emma was just done with school. For once she was home alone, at least for now, her foster parents were working. She went to her room and sat down in front of the mirror, "Vengeful Queen, Regina, are you there, please be?"

This was clearly some type of insanity she knew, talking through someone inside a mirror, seeing her on the other side. She waited, maybe she was busy, she was after all a queen and she didn't know what time it was wherever she was. Not to mention how late the party had been the night before, had she been drinking, was she married, did she have children, could she be hungover, had she killed the ones that tried to burn her, how did she survive?

There was so many questions in Emma's young mind and she wanted answers to them all. A hand stroking over the blank cold surface of the mirror as she spoke again, "Vengeful Queen can you please make yourself seen?"

Slowly her own reflection vanished, her hand still on the mirror and she saw her the queen. Her eyes were burning today, at least for now. She smiled vaguely at her saying, "Hi."

"Hello, Miss. Swan, did you get rest last night?" she required, after all she knew it had to be hard due to her back and most likely the severe pain she had to have been in.

Black rings under her dark eyes Emma noticed, she seemed something, annoyed perhaps. Still she took the time to appear and she did ask questions about her well-being. She had to care on some level Emma quickly figured. She smiled at her saying, "I slept for a couple of hours, how was the party?"

"Boring mostly, but I managed to scare a couple of my subjects," an evil grin appeared on her lips, it made chills run down Emma's spine.

"I am happy to hear that," she said, most to please her, before adding, "Can I ask if you are married, or did you take over the role as Queen after your father?"

"I was married, my former King was older than me, he is dead now, I had a stepdaughter somewhere in the kingdom, I do want her dead," she answered without a shred of emotion.

Clearly she hated her, Emma from this answered assumed she had to get married to the king, rather than she wanted to. It was a shame really. She took a deep breath as she studied her, her dress was in a light shade of purple and she was wearing a robe, "Is that your sleeping wear, is it early morning where you are?"

"It's not anything where I am, it feels like I am in some kind of limbo, not alive, still not dead, trapped somewhere in between. I have I guess a chamber and I suppose what would be considered a castle, still my subjects are not live ones and I cannot get in touch with the real kingdom, I can never leave the castle, the only way I can see the outside world is through windows and this mirror. I want to either die fully or be fully alive, but I don't know how to do either," she answered.

Emma thought about what she said, "So in a way you are trapped in this mirror, where there is no time or place? You can't go back and you can't age?"

"I am, and I can't, I am stuck and I can't move on, that is how I show when people call. I can use my magic somewhat to change clothes, but I don't eat, I don't sleep and I can't escape," she explained.

"So you never leave the castle, because you move around mirror by mirror?" it dawned on Emma.

"Exactly, I just want to get out from here, dead or not," she said, looking at the young girl.

"I can understand that, I want to escape too," Emma concluded, her hand rested on the mirror, Regina's hand rested against it on the other side. Both eyes filled with the same hopelessness, sadness, before the queen again vanished. Emma didn't call for her again the next day.

Thank you so much for reading this chapter, I would love to hear your point of view :o)