Thank you all for reviewing my chapter 1! I added another one-shot called "Relive". It's my version of Cora's death and Regina's new beginning. If you have time, check it out!
It was wild when I put my blood to the test tonight on Keith. Back in the old world, my blood could not retrieve someone from the dead or cure illness, but it sure could help regrow missing body parts. I didn't know if all my power was back, and I didn't know if it would work, but I had to try because anything would be better than watching mute Keith using broken sign language to pick up girl.
It was quite late when I left work. I got on my bike. Sadly, I did not have a car because my pre-broken-curse self was a tree-hugging hippie who painted. No offence to hippie, but I preferred living a luxury life.
I was riding on the right side of the street when a car, turning right from the side street, smashed my bike. I fell off the bike, my helmet got thrown off my head and my hands and knees were bleeding when I hit the pavement. I looked around and I saw a woman got off the car.
"Oh my goddess, you are not dead, are you?" I saw a familiar face. She lent me a hand, "I am sorry I didn't see you." I didn't know she was a friendly person. I had heard things about her. Her reputation was not good.
"I am okay, Mayor Mills," I wasn't really sure if she was still the mayor after the curst was broken.
"I am not the Mayor anymore," She said coldly. She picked up my helmet and threw it at me, "Call me Regina."
I hopped a few steps and she volunteered to wrap her arm under my arm to help my walk. We walked over to my crashed bike. Both wheels were twisted and broken.
"Great, another reason for me to get a real car," I laughed. No way, not with my artist and bartending salary. I could see a lot of walking and jogging in the future.
"Let me drive you to the hospital," Regina proposed.
"No, it's okay. I fall off things all the time. I have been through worse," I knew I would sleep it off. I tried to clean off my wounds with my handkerchief. I might look like I was in pain, but it was nothing.
"But you are bleeding and you can't walk," She wouldn't understand.
"Trust me, I am okay. Can you please drive me home? I don't think I can walk home in this condition," I put on my begging face and she agreed.
She opened the trunk and the two of us tried to put the bike in it. We failed. "Let's just leave it here. I will take care of it tomorrow," I said. She helped me to get on her car and I guided her to my house, "So, why are you up so late for?"
"It's none of your business," She said.
"I saw some plants in your back seat... Are you a part-time farmer after you lost your mayor job?" I joked and was returned a deadly stare.
"Just turn right on Bear, my place is the third townhouse on the block," I pointed.
"Nice drawing," She walked me into my house and she saw the painting hanged by the front door.
"Thanks, I am a painter," It's great to know someone liked my painting. I had always suspected what Mr. Gold did to my art. Sell them? Burn them?
"Your hands must be very important," She put me down on the sofa, "Where is the first aid kit?" She went into the bathroom to look for it.
"I don't really have one. I have some bandage in the kitchen, but I don't think that is enough," I replied.
Regina sat down next to me with a box of tissue paper. She held my hand and looked at my wounds, "This is really bad. I should have taken you to the hospital."
"Don't worry about me," I wiped some blood off my hand. She shot me with an over-protective mother look.
"I have special medication for my bleeding problem," She looked at me, not believing what I was saying, "Can I... can I drink from you?"
"Drink from me?" She raised her eyebrows.
"Well, we all know we are not exactly from here. Where I came from, some of us were damned and we drank blood to live," I slowly told her the truth, hoping that she wouldn't freak out.
"So, a vampire?" She asked.
"I never liked labels," I complained, "But it is true. So, can I please?"
"All right," She unbuttoned the first few buttons of her shirt. I placed my hand on her neck and was ready to bite her.
"Wait," She said, "If I am going to be drunken by a vampire, can I at least know your name first?"
"Millie," I shook hand with her, "I work at the Rabbit Hole."
"Oh ya, I remember meeting you the other night when the slob was hitting on you," She wiped my fresh blood off her hand.
"Keith wasn't hitting on me. He was just teasing," I laughed.
"I got so drunk that night I didn't even know how I got home, but I did have a great dream that night," She smiled.
Thanks to me. "So, are you ready?" Before I even got a reply, I bit and drank from her. Seriously, I drank a lot from her. I let her go and looked to my hands, "It worked, I'm healing!" She looked surprised too. She had probably never seen a vampire healing.
I hugged Regina, "Thanks, Caramel Chocolate!"
"Caramel Chocolate?" She put on a puzzled face.
"That's what you taste like," I answered. She rolled her eyes.
She stood up and wanted to leave, but she felt dizzy and fell on the couch again.
"It's like after you donate blood, take a break. Take a nap. Let me get you some tea and cookies," I insisted. I served her my best black tea and cookies, left over from my pre-broken-curse days and she kindly accepted.
"So, why are you not afraid of me? I am the Evil Queen," She asked after she took a sip from the tea.
"Why should I? You just fed me; now I am like your pet or something. Maybe now I should come by your house every night like a neighborhood stray cat." I joked. She laughed.
"To be honest, I don't come from your land," I said, "I have absolutely no idea why I was even bought here. I have heard things about you, mostly bad things. Your reputation preceded you, but I don't really know you in person. I can't let prejudice change my way of treating a person. Why would I hate or be afraid of you?"
"You are very sweet," She grabbed my hands.
"I really should thank you instead," I wanted to tell her my appreciation, "In my land, I was the villain, from other people's perspective of course. Bring me to here was like giving me a new beginning. For all these years, before your curse was broken, I didn't have to drink. I lived a normal painter life. Now that the curse is broken, I can't go out during daytime and I have to drink blood. That's why I work at the town bar now."
"That curse was not supposed to help you, you know," Regina said, "It was supposed to be my happy ending."
"But it did help me, so, thank you," I pressed my hand against my heart, "Want a tour to my art studio?" She nodded her head.
I guided her to the studio. She was not dizzy anymore and could walk on her own. Something caught her eyes. "It's a painting of an apple tree with a little girl, her father and her horse," I introduced, "This girl is learning how to ride her horse when she sees the tree. She is hungry, so she begs her father to pick an apple for her."
"It's really beautiful," I saw tear at the corner of her eyes.
"If you like it, you can have it," I said, "Consider that my gift for thanking you bring us to this new world."
"Then I will keep it," She gave me a nice smile, "Thank you. What are you drawing now?" She walked to my easel. On the unfinished painting canvas, I drew a young woman, around nineteen, with strawberry blond hair.
"Laura," I said it briefly, "She was my lover."
"Oh," She said it like something touched her nerve, "Is she in town as well?"
"No. She begged me to turn her into one of my people, and I did. Her family didn't understand her and sent a vampire hunter to kill us. She died," I took a deep breath, "I was responsible for her death. If I had never turned her, she wouldn't have been killed."
"When my old memory came back, I felt something was missing in my life. I realized I don't have a picture of her. There were old paintings, but they were in my castle. I am afraid that one day, I will forget her face, so that's why I paint her," Regina placed her hand on my shoulder.
"I knew you lost a lover too. Would you like to tell me about him?" I asked.
"How did you know?" She asked.
"I could see, or more accurately feel, what you had experience when I drank your blood. I don't know your story, would you like to stay and tell me?"
"I was..." Regina told me her story, how she and Daniel felt in love and how her mother brutally killed her lover because little SnowWhite spilled the truth. She cried in the middle of it, but I quickly comforted her. We had fun.
She felt asleep on my daybed and I took the moment to do a quick sketch of her sleeping. I touched her face, such beauty, wasted when married to the old king. I wished I had found her earlier.
After the sun was up, I put on some sunscreen and went to the garden to pick some fresh fruit and vegetable. I didn't have much food in the house. These plants were from the organic hippie days. I made a garden salad for her breakfast after she woke up.
"This is really good," She was impressed, "Why don't you eat with me too?"
"Can't consume human food," I said.
"I can't let people think I am a nice person. Nothing happened here last night, I did not sit here and chat with you," She insisted.
"Okay," I rolled my shoulder.
"I must go now," She finished her breakfast and wiped her mouth with the napkin.
I guided her to the door, "You know, it was fun listening to you last night. If you ever want to talk again and don't want to pay a therapist, you can always come find me." She smiled and walked back to her car.
Something crossed my mind. "Don't forget my gift," I quickly ran back to my studio and grabbed the apple tree painting, but when I got out of my house, she already left.
Soon, I took a shower and went to bed. Later that afternoon, when I woke up to go to work, I opened the door and I saw my bike, all fixed up. Oh good, stuck with the bike again.
= End of chapter 3 =
If you don't hate my chapter, don't forget to leave me a review! (Like I said before, it will be a while before I write a chapter 4. It will probably take place after the rescue gang returns to Storybrooke in Season 3.)
Now, I shall return to my Rocky Horror Fan Fiction world.
