This may be the last time I can update in a little while, my family is arriving in 10 minutes and will be in town for about 10 days. I will try to update though. Please review, this is a pretty significant chapter so I am interested to see what people think.
Enjoy.
Regina sat on the corner of her bed, through her black gloved hands she stroked a lock of hair, dark like that of her mother's. It had been a week, but she still couldn't believe she was gone. She still expected to feel a tug near the bottom of her dress, or demands for playtime that Regina could hardly ever refuse.
But they won't come anymore, her daughter was gone.
She heard movement in her chambers and reflectively put the lock of hair back in a locket and set it besides her.
"Mother I told you I'd…" Regina looked up, expecting to see her mother but instead seeing a very different creature standing before her, a man with golden scaly skin and long greasy hair. "I'm sorry I expected my mother."
"No trouble dearie." The man replied with a wave of his hands.
"What are you doing here?" Regina asked, all of a sudden realizing the absurdity of having a strange man in her chambers, not sure if she should be concerned for her safety.
"I just came to pay my condolences, I heard about your loss. Children should never go before their parents."
Regina held in a sob, if her training to be a Queen had taught her one thing it had taught her to maintain her emotions.
"Thank you" Regina said, looking him in the eyes before the realization that she had seen this man before came to her. "Wait, I know you."
"Yes we have met before" The man replied, "On your wedding day."
"You gave me my looking glass" Regina replied, gesturing to the large mirror that stood only feet away.
"Glad to see it has been put to use, I come again with a gift."
"A gift, why?"
"I too had a child once, I lost him, I know how painful that can be. So I brought you something to ease your pain." At those words he withdrew a small vial from within his coat. "One sip of this and you will no longer mourn the loss of your daughter."
"How does it work?" Regina asked hesitantly.
"Well, you won't remember her" the man replied with a laugh.
Regina shook her head, "I don't want to forget my daughter, I just want her back in my arms."
"No way to do that, she is dead." The man replied with the same laugh. "Magic can do many things, but not bring back the dead"
"Why are you giving this to me?" Regina asked, as she took the potion, holding it in her hands as if it were a poison.
"It is just a gift from one grieving parent to another." The man said before waving his hands and disappearing, Regina thought she saw his reflection in the looking glass.
She blinked a few times, it couldn't be. If it weren't for the vial in her hands she would have doubted that the strange encounter had happened at all. She set down the vial on the table near her bed and stood up to stand in front of her mirror, pulling on her dress, making sure it lay flat.
"Good dear, you are ready." Her mother said as she entered the room, also dressed in a black gown. "You don't want to be late to your daughter's funeral do you?"
Regina gasped for air as a tear rolled down her cheek, every time she was reminded of Danielle's death she felt as though she was being stabbed, she didn't know how she would survive the funeral.
"Come dear" Cora said as she wiped the tear from her cheek. "Stand tall, your people will be there, you must remind them that you are their Queen, even in this difficult time."
"Why do they have to be there, it should just be an intimate affair."
"The whole kingdom cared about their princess, they want to say goodbye."
"But she wasn't a princess, she was my daughter." Regina replied letting out another sob.
At this Cora walked around in front of her and took her by the shoulders, "really dear you have to pull yourself together, I understand you are grieving, we all are."
"No mother you don't understand." Regina replied, and saw the figure of the man she was just talking to appear in the mirror in front of her, gesturing for her to push.
"Regina, stop being ridiculous, now come on, let's not be late." Cora replied. A mix of grief and anger stirred inside Regina, and looking up again she saw the man again making the same gesture. And for some reason she felt compelled, as if she was not in control of her limbs to step forward and push her mother away from her.
Cora stumbled and fell backwards towards the mirror, and through it as it open up like a portal. She grasped onto the frame for a moment, with a look on her face that Regina had never seen in her mother before; fear.
"Mother" Regina said in a whimper as Cora fell through the portal.
Regina looked down at her hands, not sure of what she had just done.
Just then she heard a knock at the door. "The carriage is leaving your majesty."
"I understand" Regina replied, before taking a deep breath and running out the door.
So what do people think. We are on our way back to being closer to the canon of the show.
Let me know what you think in reviews.
