Hi everyone, I'm back!
Yeah, I didn't really find the time this semester. But I finished my last exam for this exam period today and wanted to finally get back to you. I want to write more often now that I'm on break. Here is a short next chapter for this story, hope you aren't too angry with me for making you wait so long. Enjoy. Well, it's pretty dark, so I don't know if enjoy is a good word...
The next day, Mal hugged her goodbye and Tink carressed her face gently, for Regina would make the journey back to district 8 with only Rumple as company. The trip back home was a long one and went overnight.
It was the middle of the night, when Regina woke from a nightmare, breathing harshly and gasping in horror. She had seen all the tributes, all the dead children laying around her, haunting her, taunting her for murdering them.
She didn't even know who she had killed and who was killed by someone else. Oh, she could only hope that Daniel, sweet and kind Daniel, had been killed by someone else. Of course, she could always watch the footage, but Regina would never be able to bring herself to do that. So she sat in her room and watched the landscape fly by.
The fresh green hills, the dark woods, the breathtaking valleys. Why did she get to keep seeing this while 23 children who deserved it so much more couldn't? She pulled at the curtain decorating the window and managed to rip it off. Expertly - she knew knots after all - she made a sling and fastened the other side on the ceiling fan.
This time, she was found by Rumple who was going to tell her they were almost back. When Regina woke up again, she broke into tears. She had failed again.
There was a crowd of people waiting at the station. Regina didn't want to see any of them. She wanted to see Daniel's family to apologize to them. For coming back in their son's place. But she could not see them. Cora was there instead.
The congratulatory hug her mother gave her felt unnatural and rehearsed. If there had been no one around, it would have never happened. The "I'm so proud of you" that left her mother's mouth was even more staged. All her life, the girl had wanted to hear those words from her mother and never had she been enough. But now, after having heard them, they weren't all that they were cracked up to be. Regina knew better than to expect her mother to truly care for her.
After weaving through the crowd, they were escorted to a big pretty house in the Victor's Village, where they would be living from now on. Upon entering, Cora nodded. "I knew you wouldn't disappoint. Look at you, my efforts all paid off. The money I invested wasn't for naught."
Regina thought she had misheard something. "Did you...did you bet on me? Did you bet on whether your daughter would survive?" Cora shrugged nonchalantly. "Sure, why not? I had to get the money back I put into paving your way in."
The girl had to sit before she fainted. She plopped down in the expensive chaise. Unable to meet her mother's gaze, she asked with a quivering voice: "Tell me this isn't true. You paid people to make sure I would be reaped?" "Always so smart, my girl." Cora grinned. "Yes of course, I did. It got us higher up in society, into this house, got us money…" Cora kept going on, not realizing her daughter had left for the bathroom.
Regina couldn't believe it. It had been her mother's plan for her to become a monster. Oh what a pity she hadn't died, she could have laughed at her mother from her grave.
The next day, there was a knock on the door. Cora opened and was immediately shoved inside by peacekeepers who closed the door behind them. "Cora Mills, you are convicted of bribery and corruption. Did you really think no one would find out your dirty secret?", Snow White herself asked in her icy tone that immediately made the room temperature drop by 10 degrees, making even Cora shiver.
"You should be publicly executed. But then again, it would not do to make it known just how easy to corrupt the system is. And considering you gifted us a wonderful tribute and the best show in forever, we will grant you a quick and private death." She pointed to one of the peacekeepers. "Get her daughter, she should see this."
The man made his way upstairs, only to find the victor unconscious and bleeding from her wrists. "This won't do", Snow White said from behind him in a condescending tone. "I'm on a schedule. Don't let her slip away. We will just kill the mother anyway, I will leave a message."
And yet again, she had failed. Someone had healed the cuts and bandaged her wrists. Shaking her head, Regina got up from the floor and descended the stairs. But the sight that greeted her in the kitchen sent her straight back over the edge.
There was her mother, propped up on a chair, one knife embedded in her chest and one in her skull. Regina recognized the handles, they were from the arena. She screamed in horror. But no one could hear her. The only one in this village was Rumple and he was too far away. She couldn't.
Later that day, two women stepped inside the huge house. They found the girl they were ordered to guard in the kitchen by her mother's corpse, trying to scratch her own eyes out. They had to sedate her in order to be able to calm her and put her in bed.
Blue and Nova were here to make sure the new victor didn't off herself since it wouldn't do to lose the Capitol's golden girl so soon.
So they might have been nurses, but to Regina, they were prison guards. The prison being her life. No matter what she tried, they always brought her back.
No matter how creative the girl got, they managed to stop her every time. That was how the next six months came and went.
Then, it was time for the victory tour. She would have to look in the eyes of the grieving families of the children she had murdered. They had to hate her, how could they not? Maybe one of them would hate her enough to attempt to kill her. That would be good.