Hi again! Thank you for the support! I don't reply to comments, but they mean so much to me! I've decided that I'll make this first chapter without smut, and then the next one will be only smut, so if you aren't fond of smut, that's okay. All the smutty parts won't include the plot, so they'll be easy to skip. Please send feedback, stay safe, and I hope you enjoy!

When I got to the bar, it was like I suddenly switched my brain off. I had no emotions that weren't affiliated with the bar. It was relaxing, not having to worry about anything other than dinner rushes and uncleaned tables. The early-morning cold woke me up as I unlocked the door and that chill followed me through the building until I turned the furnace on.

When I got back from the boiler room, Riley was taking her coat off and adjusting her cream cardigan.

"Morning, Roni!" She beamed. I smiled.

"Good morning. You seem awfully chipper."

"I am. I...got a date with Lacey." She said excitedly.

"Really? I thought Mr. Gold was pining over her."

"Well, they aren't dating, because she asked me out yesterday."

"I'm so happy for you!" I walked up to her and squeezed her hand warmly. "How about a drink?"

"It's...10:00 in the morning..."

"Oh, come on! Why not a little bit of champagne to celebrate? I sure need it."

"Sure." She relented. "Why do you need champagne?"

"Because consuming alcohol when you're irritated is soothing for the soul. Being in the bar is helping too."

"Oh?"

"Melanie and I fought a bit this morning."

"That's to be expected, since yesterday..."

"It wasn't about that." I went behind the bar to the storage room and dug out a champagne bottle. I popped the cork and Riley got the glasses. "Just some petty things. Nothing a bit of champagne can't fix. But this isn't about me. To getting a date with a pretty woman." I raised my glass in a toast.

"And if things work out between us, to hoping we don't fight as often as you and Melanie do!" She raised her glass and tapped it to mine while barely containing her smile. I sneered at her mockingly and took a sip of my drink.

"Just for that, I'm making you clean the washrooms."

"Wait, what?"

"Cleaners, cloths, and scrubbers are in the utility closet."

"I don't want the bathrooms again after last week." I rolled my eyes.

"Relax, I put mouse poison and traps in the bathroom. You'll be fine."

"If I get rabies, I'm suing you."

"It's a good thing I put mouse traps in there then." She huffed in response.

"Can I finish my champagne first?"

"Yes. If it doesn't get done by opening, I'm suing you."

"You can't legally do that, can you?"

"We'll have to see. If it's not legal, I'll just dock your pay for next month."

"Bitch," she muttered smugly.

"Pussy," I said back. She threw back the rest of her glass and went to dig through the utility closet. I pulled out the other batch of cleaner and washcloths and got to work scrubbing the bar. Once that was done, I went around to wipe down the chairs.

Since hiring her, Riley seems to be coming out of her shell nicely. We've made great friends and she's also best friends with Melanie, which could be both a blessing and a curse. She's also been a diligent worker that deserves a raise, if I had the money to do so. If she's brave enough to jokingly insult me, I hope that means she's comfortable around me. I'm proud of her.

A shot of realization shot through my veins as I scrubbed the last barstool. I'm proud of Wolfie. The woman who tore apart my royal guard because of her loyalty to Snow White.

Snow White, my girlfriend. Snow White, my enemy. My two lives, blurring together to make a girlfriend I suddenly wanted to tear the heart out of and kiss passionately at the same time. It was like I was looking at my life from underwater, watching these events unfold in front of my eyes without realizing I've been sharing a bed with the girl that killed Daniel. I'm just now emerging, seeing what I've done.

I thought I had resolved this fight in my head that decided if I loved or hated Snow, but I must not have realized what was happening. Because I wanted to throw a few dozen glasses at the wall at my idiocy.

But I also wanted to throw Snow against the bar and make her legs quiver in the throes of passion. The Evil Queen and Roni were both telling me what to do, like the angel and devil sitting on my shoulders. Both were screaming at my essence, where I am nothing, wanting to mold me into one single person. I didn't know what to do. The Evil Queen was contradicting Roni and vice versa.

"Roni? Are you okay? You look pale." Riley's–Red's–voice asked. Both voices were putting words in my brain that mixed and matched. Yes, I'm fine.

No, I'm not. You rebelled against your Queen and I will make you pay dearly.

No need to worry. Could you restock the pretzels at the bar?

I will enjoy ripping you limb from limb just as you have. Just like a monster.

I've gone over this a thousand times, but I thought I resolved this long ago. I didn't have an identity crisis any longer. But I did, the entire time, I believe. I merely dug myself a deeper hole that I would deal with later. I didn't want to deal with it. I wanted to snap Snow's neck and ask Melanie about her day. I was being hit by a freight train and I couldn't do anything but process this, after I believed to have a processed it already. I realized I didn't respond to Riley.

"I'm just feeling faint, dear." I sat down on the floor, pulled my legs to my chest, and put my head on my bent knees to center my gravity. "Just...keep preparing the bar. I'll be okay in a minute." She scrunched her nose in confusion, but went into the utility closet for a broom.

After many moments, I sorted my memories into two metaphorical boxes: The Evil Queen's memories and thoughts, and Roni's memories and thoughts. I opened the box filled with Roni's thoughts and focused only on her.

Eventually, I lifted myself off the floor and steadied myself on the counter until I was confident I could stop the shaking in my legs.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine." I exhaled forcefully and grabbed the bottle of disinfectant and a wipe to clean the tables.

I previously thought I had my thoughts under control, until the Evil Queen made her return. Unwelcome return, might I add.

With the appearance of the Evil Queen comes destruction. My life is already quite the mess as it is without her influence.

No, dear. It's not destruction. It's fun.

Her voice–my voice–chilled me. It's been a long time since I heard that voice, and I can say that after everything with Melanie, I've not missed it.

I hope you're ready, dear. For months and months, I've been restless. Now, I 'm finally allowed to have my fun.

She had no influence over me. She was my past life and will stay that way. Melanie changed me. More importantly, I changed myself. I've gotten far, but the Queen is going to set me back.

All throughout the day, she pestered me. As I cleaned off tables for the next customer, mixed drinks, mopped the floors, she was there. She narrated her thoughts to me, described in vivid, gory detail what would happen to Snow White if she had a say about it, and even raided the box of Roni's thoughts, jumbling the mix of reality and past every now and then.

Melanie didn't visit me at all during work. She said she had a short shift, but I presume she worked overtime. I'm hoping things with Schaffer went over smoothly. If they did, then that gives me one less thing to worry about.

And one more thing I have to worry about.

Maybe I'll stay in my apartment tonight, without Melanie. I'll get rid of the Evil Queen and make sure she doesn't do something stupid from the confines of my imagination. And Melanie might need the space to think too.

I felt bad all day thinking about the Queen instead of Melanie. I shouldn't, but I do. Getting rid of her has taken top priority. Only then, with her gone, will I be able to be with Melanie and keep her safe. My past self was capable of many things, and ruining my mind and relationships seems like an easy task for her. I felt drained just trying to ignore her and felt dizzy at the end of the day.

"You should have went home earlier," Riley commented as she mopped around the tables. The bar was still bustling with people.

"I was fine staying here," I ground out.

"No, you weren't. I'll finish tonight. You go home and rest." I clenched my jaw but silently left the building. I didn't feel safe driving, but I wasn't keen on walking two blocks, so I got in my Mercedes and started the car. The soft hum of the engine nearly put me to sleep, but the Evil Queen's merciless pounding on the inside of my skull was keeping me from sleeping at the wheel.

I didn't register getting home until I was laying face down on the couch and nearly losing my breath. Before I could fall asleep, I took out a bottle of vodka from my cupboard of alcohol and slowly drank it, straight from the bottle, until I lost my centre of gravity and fell on my bottom in the middle of the kitchen.

The faint buzzing of my phone from inside my jeans registered, but I couldn't make my hand reach back and find it.

Getting blackout drunk won't get rid of me that easy...

"Roni, thank god. I've been calling for hours. What the fuck did you do?"

"...hmm?"

"Where are you?"

"Hmm."

"Can you even answer me?"

"Mmmhh."

"Fuck it, I'm calling Riley. Maybe she'll be able to form a single word."

My hand lazily dropped to the floor when Melanie's voice left the phone. I slid down from my position propped against the couch, laying down on the floor once more and pressing my cheek to the cool tiles. I sighed, spotting the bottle of vodka a few feet away from me, with a quarter of the bottle left. I clawed my way there, since I had no sensation in my toes and parts of my foot. I've drunk much more in a night than this, and yet I feel the most drunk I've ever been. I have no doubt it's because I drunk more than half a bottle of vodka while I was dizzy, nauseous, sleepy, and irregularly hot. Maybe I took an aspirin and forgot about it. Maybe I'm just kidding myself.

I can't tell how long I was passed out. From how dark the room was, I guessed it was around 3 o'clock in the morning. I can't confirm it, but it's silent enough that I could hear my own thoughts. It's never this silent at any other time. And I thought I left the bar at 5 o'clock, like Riley told me to do. Which means I was passed out for...I'm not sure how many hours that is. A lot.

The Evil Queen is taking a break from being in my head for now, until I get my bearings together and can lift my body off the floor. That's not happening anytime soon.

I wish I had my fridge on the floor. That way I could get something to eat without standing up. Or maybe they should make vodka glasses edible, so after you finish the bottle, you can eat it and it'll taste like candy. This is why I should've been an entrepreneur instead of a bartender. Gold really screwed that one up.

Actually, Gold screwed everything up. If he didn't lie to me, I would have a nice, cushy life in a mansion, with money coming out of my ass from a powerful job as the mayor of an entire town. Instead, I'm left with a trashy apartment with furniture I want to burn, my own business that costs half my salary to keep open, and an internal crisis with my past self who wants revenge on my girlfriend. Maybe the Evil Queen should haunt Mr. Gold instead.

I drank a sip of vodka and it burned down my throat. If I still had magic, I would replace the vodka with water, or maybe coffee. I shoved the bottle away and it tipped over, spilling all over the floor. I couldn't care less at the moment.

I'm not sure how long I was laying there, half asleep, but a bright sliver of light suddenly shone on me. Maybe I was dying. I know you aren't supposed to go into the light, but it looked so...mesmerizing. I wasn't willingly going into the light, however. I was being thrusted into it.

"Roni, you are so fucking dead." My surroundings suddenly changed. The beam of light I was being pushed towards was my hallway light. Melanie was carrying me like a sack of flour on her shoulders, jostling my limp body around.

"So I wasn't dead," I meant to say. Instead, my voice sounded hoarse, so hoarse that a series of grumbling, choking, wheezing sounds escaped my mouth. The lights on my ceiling were backing away as I was lowered to my bed.

"I have so many questions to ask you, but I just want to know why you decided to have a bottle of vodka when you were running a fever!?"

"Fever?" Finally, my voice was able to do something, even if it stung to swallow or breath or talk.

"Yeah, fever. You didn't see me running into your apartment? I saw you on the ground and I screamed. You didn't look at me, you didn't respond to me, I thought you were dead. I was going to flip you over and see if I could help you, but when I touched your skin, you were burning. I saw your bottle of vodka and I knew you made yet another stupid decision.

"And then what happened?" I asked. My voice wasn't my own and Melanie noticed.

"God, Roni, you sound like a child. This actually happened. I'm not telling you a bedtime story."

"Then there is no point to listening." the two sets of Melanie I was seeing rolled her eyes.

"I'm getting you water while simultaneously wondering why I ever decided to date you."

"Okay," I answered back. She eyed me wearily and left. I stared up at the ceiling and slightly adjusted my legs so I didn't feel pins and needles anymore. The air in the room felt hot and humid, and my lungs felt like they weren't breathing in anything at all.

Melanie came back to the room with a glass of water. She held it out to me, but I could barely lift my arm without more pins and needles sensations.

"Oh, for God's sake, Regina," she sighed. She lifted up my head and held the glass to my scorching, dry lips. Once I had a taste of the cooling sensation down my throat, I chugged the rest of my water and begged Melanie for more. She walked out of the room again and came back quickly.

"Once you finish, I'm taking you to the hospital. Then, we are talking about this." That phrasing was never a good sign. Especially with the angry look she was giving me. I sighed. The Evil Queen has met her match, but so have I. The only question is; how much will it cost to be rid of that side of me forever. With my past deeds, it will be a steep price.

I haven't been able to proofread and fix my mistakes, so I apologize for that, but I would also like to add that I do not know the symptoms of mixing alcohol with a fever and dehydration, so this isn't exactly factual. Thanks for reading!