Short one!

CHAPTER 3

EMMA'S POV

When I wake up it's dark.
I have no doubt it's way past 5 and I can basically hit myself for missing my meeting with Miss Mills.

I squint my eyes a little, trying to focus on anything and then see that all of the bunk beds around me are filled.
So I missed dinner as well.
Grant.

I can only imagine the actual hour
but decide not to ponder on what time it is or isn't and dismiss the thought.

My feet take me through the hallways of the institution towards my safe place.

As I roll myself through the small passage the cold night air hits me, but I'm fine.
This is nothing compared to what I've been through earlier today.
I rest my head against the chilled stone and put my hands next to me on the ground where I sit.
My right hand lands onto something round.
I'm confused and pick up whatever it is.

I can't help but smile when I see the apple.
Since I haven't eaten since breakfast this will come in handy sometime during the night when my stomach will undoubtedly start to grumble.
I put the apple in my lap and absentmindedly glide my fingers over it's smooth skin.

As I sit there with my back against the wall and look up at the blanket of lights covering the infinite darkness...
I can't help but wonder if any of those lights see me. And if they do, are they laughing at me?

A small cough abruptly pulls from my thoughts. I hold my breath.
Shit.
I need to get out of here as fast as possible.
Someone coughs again and I realize the noise is coming from outside.
From the other side of the wall.
From the side of the tree and I almost can't believe it.
I gasp.
Probably too loud because they hear me.

"Hello?" a warm voice speaks up.

It's her.
My head spins.

"Regina?" The name is out before I know it and I could slap myself.

"I'm sorry Miss Mills." I quickly correct myself.

It's quiet for a moment.
Maybe I was wrong.
Maybe it wasn't Regina.
Maybe there's no one there and I imagined it all.
Maybe I'm sleepwalking. Maybe I'm

"Emma?" She hesitantly asks and I swear I almost faint on the spot.

"Yes. It's Emma."
I decide to confirm, hoping it won't get me into trouble.

"What are you doing out there Miss Mills?"
I just can't help it, I'm too curious.

"I… nothing I just like it here. Look you can't tell anyone. And"
She trails off
"Not Mrs Mills either."
She sounds so young when she says that.

"Where are you?" her tone's little afraid.
I facepalm myself.
She's probably utterly confused since she can't see me.
Thinks I'm invisible or something.

I chuckle at the thought of that actually being a possibility since magic seems to be a thing.
"Oh sorry, I'm on the inside." I explain to her.

"Where's that?" It's still not clear to her.

"I don't know there's some kind of hole in the wall here and… I've been coming here since… forever."
Forever has a whole new meaning.
I've probably literally been coming here since forever.

"Oh" she seems to understand now.

"You know what I mean?" I smile, a little confused she actually knows what I mean.

"Yeah it's the dog toilet." She laughs.
Her laugh is very very very beautiful but her words confuse me.

"The what, there's dogs here?"

"There were at some point."
She says sadly and I don't want to pry but I do want to know so that's why I ask her.

"Why are they gone?"
She doesn't respond right away and I almost think she's left

"Because I liked having them around."

And I instantly know what that means.

Cora's got her as trapped as she has the rest of us.

Even if Regina gets to see the other side of the wall and what lays beyond.
She's not free.
Freedom is more than walls or no walls or spells that keep you tied to a single spot in a weird bathroom.

"What was that place you found me in today?" I ask her.

I hear her shrug. "I… I don't know."

"Did you never stop and wonder. Wow this kind of is a weird room…"
I try to make it sound comical, to make the conversation seem light.
But really it isn't, is it?

"I…" she's thinking "no" and she sounds weary.
A little annoyed even.

"Emma, why do you keep asking all these weird questions?"

"Because things don't add up!" I respond to her right away.
She sighs loudly.
Probably wishing I wasn't so damn weird.
She's gonna get angry if I keep talking about it.

"What are you doing out there?"
I bravely ask her, hoping I'm not out of line by doing so.

"Nothing much. Sit. Think. Not think. I like it here." She says

I can imagine she does.
Who wouldn't.
Anything's better than being inside the walls.
I wish I was allowed outside.

"Yeah I bet it's nice, not having to look at walls."
I try to make it sound light, I don't want her pity.

"Oh yes" She smiles as she answers.
I hear her smile.
Then she's quiet.
She realizes I never get that privilege.
She regrets sounding as happy as she did while admitting it's nice.

"It's okay. I'm happy for you" I tell her and she still doesn't answer but I understand.

"You weren't there at 5." She suddenly speaks again and I close my eyes in defeat, she's dismissed the other subject.

"Yeah sorry, I slept until now."

"How long did she make you stand there?"
She sounds mad, but not at me.

"Honestly, I have no idea. I was there since first period."

She's silent again.
I think that means she realizes I'd been standing there an awfully long time.

"What do you see?" I ask her.
I close my eyes and imagine her smile.

"Nothing much. I see the lights in the sky." She says

"As do I." I softly tell her.
She probably doesn't hear me through the wall when I speak this quietly.

"What else do you see?" I ask her a little louder.
Hoping she'll tell me of all the wonders in front of her.

"Pavement." She merely answers.

My face scrunches up, because that's obviously not the answer I was expecting.
I know there's at least a tree there.

"No woods?" I ask her.

"Woods? Emma you know there's no such thing."
She says somewhat annoyed.

I roll my eyes and can't believe she's actually trying to fool me like this.

"Regina I can see the tree from here, I know it's not fiction."

"Excuse me?"
She really genuinely sounds confused.

"The apple tree, I can see it. One of the branches hovers over the wall."

"An apple tree?"

"Yeah, Regina, an apple tree. A tree with apples. Apples hanging from a tree.
Who would have known."
It's my turn to be annoyed.
I can't handle all these lies anymore.

"Miss Swan, you ought to address me by my last name. And you should return to your bedchambers immediately."
The cold tone is back.

"But. look I'm sorry Miss Mills. I didn't"

"Now." She growls.

I gather she's sick of my weirdness.
She probably gets how her mother could punish me so severely,
since I'm so fucking annoying and strange.

"But the apple tree'"
I check once more but I shouldn't have

"There's no such thing Miss Swan. Go. Now. Before I get the principle."

Oh it stings when she says that.
She basically threatens to let the devil loose on me.
She now knows what her mother is capable of when it comes to me and she still says such a thing.

I want to cry.
Almost do.
But obviously don't.
Then I leave without saying another word.
I get into bed and shiver.

Under my bed there's a robe and an apple I wish I could forget all about.

REGINA'S POV

Why Emma Swan keeps doing these things to get herself into trouble is a huge mystery to me.
She's a bright girl, popular and very beautiful.
But I shouldn't focus on her beauty as much as I do.
It's wrong.
I sometimes don't get myself.

If mother knew… I shake off the thought.
I'm pretty sure it's the one thing mother doesn't know about me.

Why would she make up something like an apple tree?
It makes no sense, no sense at all.
One moment she's completely normal, easy to talk to even.
Then the next thing I know, she sounds like a complete lunatic.
Maybe mother's methods are strange, but perhaps she knows how to fix Emma.
Fix Emma.
That sounds horrible.

What I know was done to her today does seem like horrible punishment though, and I can't seem to phantom how that could ever help the blonde in any way.

Emma was shaking.
Her skin covered in goosebumps.
Her fair skin.
I swallow.
I'd never think I'd see another woman without clothes.
Especially not Emma.
It shouldn't affect me the way it does.
The circumstances were weird.

All circumstances where I'd see Emma without clothes would be weird and inappropriate but why does it take so much strength of myself to not imagine any.

I turn myself on my right side and sigh.
I hope sleep will come soon.

I hadn't allowed myself to look at her body that much, luckily.
That's good of me, I praise myself for that and then remind myself of how it's only normal.
But it still somehow feels like an accomplishment.

Emma would surely not have appreciated prying eyes on her, not in that situation. Not in any situation.
Not my eyes.
Killian Jones's, perhaps.
I've seen them kiss.

I can't help but wonder if that's all they do.
Also what kissing is like.
All the wondering makes me sleepy and I guess that's when I fall asleep because that's the last thing I can remember before my mind goes blank.