Finally! My Day Five entry for #InspiredByOQ Week! I hope that you enjoy this story and I hope that you have enjoyed reading all of my other stories from this week.
This last story is inspired by an edit by miladystheif (Instagram).
He had been gone 2 weeks now and she still can't hold herself together long enough to go through a simple 10-minute town meeting. It was getting ridiculous. People said that they understood what she was going through but she knew that they had no idea how she felt. She was finding it really hard to cope without him but with the rules, he basically doesn't even exist anymore. She replays the moment over and over again in her head every time she thinks of his name. The funeral is in 3 hours and she is not prepared. The whole service is organized thanks to Snow who basically took over when Regina broke down but she knew exactly what to do.
When it was one hour before the service she decided it was time to try and get ready without changing her outfit to something that she would wear if they were meeting up. She would often have these thoughts when she was alone, forget his death and everything that had happened and just think that she was meeting him until reality hit, he had died and she could do nothing to change that. This did make her cry and it was painful but it was something that she would have to get through sooner or later.
She had taken on the responsibility to take care of Roland but every time she looked into his big, blue, gorgeous eyes all she could see was Robin. She hated to cry in front of him so he spends most of his time with Snow and David. She thought that if he could see her at her strongest points he knew that he would have to be okay and know that everything was going to be alright.
When she finally finished getting ready she stood in front of the full body length mirror and begun to look herself up and down. She wore a tight black knee length dress that highlighted every curve of her amazing body, a black cape coat that crossed over her chest to button up on her right shoulder. Her hair was in a low bun and a black hat with netting covered her face and most tears that fell from her heartbroken face. All she did was cry, she couldn't stop, she just kept thinking about how he would never go to the underworld then to a better place, he is just gone, non-existent. She must have been crying rather loudly because Snow had slammed the front door and came running up the stairs to Regina's room where she saw Regina had collapsed on the floor sobbing to a picture of them both on their date before going to the underworld.
Snow crouched down next to Regina and wrapped her arm around her. "Regina are you okay?"
"I can't believe he is really gone. I loved him so much," she continued to cry heavily, "he never deserved to die, it should have been me!" she screamed the last words and then buried her head into the crook Snow's neck. She began to calm down when Snow soothed her by stroking her hair.
"It's going to be okay, Regina. You will get through this." she continued. "The hardest parts are finding out and moving on. You have already found out, so when the funeral is over you can begin to move on."
"But I don't want to move on, I want Robin and only Robin. I will never love again, and that is a promise that I can keep."
"Regina, when I said move on I didn't mean find another man, I meant to get on with your life. Be there for the boys and keep your head held high. I'm very sure that Robin is fine wherever he is and you just need to learn to cope with this."
Regina sat up. "You're right, I managed to cope with my mother and father's deaths, this can't be much different can it?"
"Well, some people, when they are told that their true loves have died they believe that there is no one else for them so it often makes them miss their loves a lot more and they happen to take longer to grieve. But you will get through this. You have all of your family and friends."
"Do you know what I fear most? If I get so angry and frustrated and I hold it all in for too long and eventually it turns into a hunger for revenge and the Evil Queen comes back."
"Regina, you have too many people that will stop you turning evil again. You have come too far to let us all sit back and watch it all come crashing down in front of you."
"Thank you, Snow. I don't quite know how any of us would cope without you here."
"Now what do you say we wipe your makeup off and I will re-do it with my waterproof makeup." They both stood and walked to the en-suite bathroom so that Snow could fix Regina up.
When they arrived at the church all of the guests were standing outside waiting for the hearse to arrive with the body of her deceased true love. She could see on all of their faces as the car parked up that they were all trying to stay strong for her but you could see the pain and sadness in their eyes. Regina got out of the car, greeted and thanked most guests and everyone was called into the church.
When the service was over everyone left the church and continued on to the burial. Everyone placed arrows on his coffin and once everyone had placed an arrow, they began to walk away until it was just Regina alone beside the coffin containing her soul mate.
She stood there for a while, smiling, going through the moments they had shared together over the years, and the most important words she had ever said to him before they tried to save his daughter were, "I'm with you, always."
