Author's Note: Posting this a day late because I was overcome with so many SwanQueen feels after last night's airing of Good Form. Sorry about that! But here it is. As always, I love to hear from you guys and will do my best to respond to all of you. Thanks so much for all of the support you're giving this story!
Chapter Ten: Mirror Trap
Before Jefferson could react, he felt an incredible burning from within his chest. His mocking eyes filled with tears as they traveled slowly down his torso. Regina's arm was extended straight into his chest as his own rib cage greedily swallowed the Mayor's entire hand. She was smiling wickedly as her fingers teased the outline of Jefferson's rapidly beating heart.
It had been far too long since Regina felt a living, beating heart in her hands. Her powers trembled beneath her skin as a wave of unseen magic swept through the room. It wasn't long before the seductiveness of her dark powers consumed her and teasing fingers tightened around Jefferson's beating organ that was so vulnerable and so ripe for the picking.
"No...p-please, Your Majesty…" Jefferson begged.
But Regina merely laughed at his patheticism. She had forgotten just how much she absolutely loved doing this. She loved the steady allegro beating of the vital organ in her hand. She loved the whimpers and pleas falling from her victims lips. But above all, she loved watching fear overtake her victims as they realize just how stupid it was to double-cross the Evil Queen; the fear when they realize their inevitable demise.
Paying the whimpering mad man's cries no attention, Regina savagely ripped his heart straight from its secured position behind his rib cage The man with a once severed head crumbled to a heap behind the counter. Regina allowed Jefferson a few brief seconds to adjust to the newfound emptiness within him.
"You...fucking...bitch!" Jefferson spat between labored breaths as he pulled himself from the floor to stand before his Queen once more.
Instead of speaking, Regina just smiled and gave his a heart a little squeeze and Jefferson
doubled over onto the counter, clutching at his empty chest as more tears fell from his eyes.
"Is that any way to address your Queen?" She chided with a click of her tongue.
"You are...no Queen of mine."
Regina squeezed just a little harder, causing Jefferson to fall to the floor again.
"That's right," Regina cooed. "Kneel before your Queen like a good boy. Now, are you ready to cooperate?"
"Yes," Jefferson begrudgingly muttered through clenched teeth.
"Fetch me the antidote, pet," Regina demanded, releasing her grip ever so slightly on the man's heart.
"I...can't."
Regina squeezed, growing tired of this game.
"Ugh..I...I don't have one!" Jefferson cried out, still grasping helplessly at his chest.
"What!?" Regina yelled. Magic crackled around her with the insurgence of her rage.
"I - fuck - can you stop ahh squeezing so hard? Please, Your Majesty…"
Against her better judgment, Regina released her grip on Jefferson's heart and immediately the man began gasping for the air. Sweat coated his face as his labored breaths produced wisps of fog on the cool glass countertop.
"I'm sorry, perhaps I misunderstood. Did you say that you don't have an antidote?" Regina regarded the beating heart in her hand with little interest now that it's rhythm had slowed to a dull humdrum.
"You didn't misunderstand, Your Majesty," The words came out as a soft whisper. "I used the last of my ingredients to make the poison," Jefferson admitted.
The rage inside Regina was building again; boiling furiously as Jefferson's admissions pushed her further and further into the darkness - closer and closer to the precipice of no control. 28 years in a land with no magic really did a number on her ability to control her powers. She narrowed her eyes and grabbed the miserable man by his ridiculous scarf.
"You dare to trick me? You really are incredibly stupid, Hatter," Regina pushed him backwards into the shelves causing many of the mannequin heads to tumble to the floor.
"P-please my Queen, if death is my fate please do it now," Jefferson begged.
Regina walked behind the counter, carefully depositing Jefferson's heart into her purse and making a mental note to have it dry cleaned later during the week. She sauntered right up to the sniveling man, bringing her hand to stroke his trembling cheek.
"No, pet. I have a much worse fate than death in store for you," Regina purred, dragging her fingernail along his jawline. "You, my dear Hatter, will never, ever have your daughter. She will never know you. And you…" Regina laughed. "You will spend the rest of your meaningless existence as my pet, my slave. For the rest of you days, you will be endlessly tortured, watching Grace grow up with a family that it not her own. You will watch her be happy without you. That...is your fate."
Without another glance, Regina whisked out of the Hatter's shop, her purse made heavier with Jefferson's beating heart and bottle of poison she snatched before leaving. For a moment she felt incredibly proud of herself. Stealing his heart was the less desirable path but it was the only way. Well, technically, she could've just killed the bastard but murder in this world is just too messy. Too much paperwork to deal with. No, stealing his heart and locking it away with the hundreds of others would do just fine for the time being.
It goes without saying that Regina's morning was going about as smooth as sandpaper. She wasted a considerable amount of time washing, drying, and folding Emma's clothes. Now, she had to make yet another unexpected stop at her father's mausoleum to safely store the heart of the Mad Hatter. She'd been gone much longer than she wanted and she still had to stop at Granny's to grab lunch for the ailing Sheriff.
When Regina finally arrived at Granny's she hurried inside and snapped her fingers to get Ruby's attention which was currently invested in a rowdy table of dwarves; chatting and cajoling about something Regina imagined to be incredibly mundane. But just like a good little dog, Ruby showed up within seconds with her pen and pad to take the Mayor's order.
"The usual, Madame Mayor?" Ruby asked, chewing obnoxiously on a stick of Big Red cinnamon gum.
"Yes, Miss Lucas, and add a chicken tender platter with honey mustard."
Ruby eyed the Mayor up and down but proceeded to jot down her order before turning around and traipsing to the kitchen window.
"Oh and Miss Lucas?" Regina called after the waitresses retreating form. Ruby turned around and walked back to Regina. "Do show some manners and close your mouth when you chew. One might think you were raised by a pack of wolves with the way you're chomping away on the gum."
Ruby rolled her eyes and made a spectacle of chewing even louder just to spite the properly mannered woman sitting before her.
Regina rested impatiently on the barstool, glancing at the clock practically every 15 seconds. Why was she feeling so on edge all of the sudden? Although she didn't want to admit it, Regina knew it was because of Emma. It just didn't make sense. She shouldn't care what happens to the blonde life-wrecker. In fact, it would be more than ideal if the woman just keeled over and died. Especially since she could make Jefferson fess up to poisoning her. Kill two birds with one stone - or lie - as the saying goes.
But even still, the thought of allowing that to happen gave way to an unpleasant feeling somewhere in the untouched recesses of her mind. Refusing to dwell on it, for fear of what she might find, Regina chalked it up to her newfound plan for the Savior. If anything were to happen to Emma now, everything she was doing would be in vain.
That's right, just think happy thoughts.
Ruby sauntered back over with Regina's order all boxed and bagged to go just a few moments later. In turn, Regina fished out a twenty from her clutch and handed it to the waitress, instructing her to keep the change - which was far more than what the harlot deserved.
Making haste to get back home, Regina swarmed through the door of Granny's with eyes focused on the clock once more. She collided, quite roughly, with another hurried body entering the diner. Both women audibly gasped as they felt the pain of the impact in their offending shoulders.
"Watch where you're going!" Regina snarled, tearing her eyes from the clock to come face-to-face with an embarrassed looking Mary Margaret.
Oh for the love of god!
"Mayor Mills!" The schoolteacher uttered. "I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking, are you okay?" Mary Margaret's eyes fell shamefully to the ground.
"I'm fine, now move."
"Of course," Mary Margaret stepped out of the way and watched as the Mayor hurried towards her car. Biting her lip in apprehension, Mary Margaret ran after Regina. "Mayor Mills, could I have a word?"
Regina rolled her eyes. "Make it quick, dear. I'm rather busy at the moment."
Mary Margaret nodded, twisting her fingers as she was unsure of how to approach the topic.
"I got a text from Emma last night," She started, unable to look Regina in the eye. "She said that something came up and that she needed to leave town…"
"I'm sorry, Miss Blanchard, I fail to see how this concerns me," Regina spoke, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"Well I just didn't know if you knew why," Mary Margaret said sheepishly as she wrung her hands. Regina, however, was not at all ignorant to the woman's soft-spoken insinuations.
"Are you implying that I have something to do with Miss Swan's sudden disappearance?" Regina catechized, stepping further into the schoolteachers personal space.
"No!" Mary Margaret waved her hands wildly in front of her. "Of course not, Madame Mayor. It's just...well...I didn't know if you perhaps heard anything about it is all."
"Rest assured, Miss Blanchard," Regina stared at the pesky virginal woman in front of her. "The whereabouts of Miss Swan are of no importance to me. In fact, nothing would please me more if I never see her again. She has no place here or in the life of my son."
And with that last verbal slap, Regina turned on her heels, leaving Mary Margaret to gape at her in bewilderment. Not even sparing a final glance towards the schoolteacher, Regina pulled away from Granny's diner, making her way towards Mifflin Street.
Moments later Regina was walking through the front door of her manor. Hanging from her left shoulder was her Prada purse and in her right hand was the bag of carryout food from Granny's. She thought for a moment about setting the table for Emma and herself, knowing the formality of it was excessively unnecessary, but she couldn't bring herself to eat in her room; on her bed.
There had been many times in the past - some being relatively recent - when she scolded Henry for eating in his room. Perhaps it wouldn't matter so much if he didn't drop half of the food on his bed or if he remembered to bring his dishes down to the kitchen afterwards. But sadly, the 11-almost-12-year-old couldn't seem to manage that.
Shortly after Emma's appearance in Storybrooke, Regina set about her weekly task of changing the sheets on Henry's bed when a positively foul odor smacked her right in the face. Dry heaving once because of the pungent aroma, Regina pinched her nose and began searching for the culprit of the stench. After systematically inspecting his muddy sneakers and dirty clothes hamper, Regina had failed to locate where the smell was coming from.
It had taken the better part of an hour but Regina finally found what she was looking for. Underneath his bed was the remnants of what Regina could only assume was once a chocolate milkshake. The styrofoam cup from Granny's was half-filled with a vile sludge decorated in varying stages of decaying fungus.
Henry had definitely been grounded for that little stunt. But the punishment was clearly not severe enough to deter him from doing the same thing...again. It wasn't even a month later when Regina discovered a half-eaten, shriveled, and decaying pepperoni pizza under his bed. Only this time there was a note scrawled inside of the lid of the box that read "don't let your mom find out about this one, kid" with a lazy smiley face drawn at the end of the note.
The same thought that had once made Regina furious had now somehow brought a smile to her face as she stood motionless at the bottom of her staircase, completely consumed in her reverie. Reflecting upon the past was not an activity Regina Mills practiced often. Mostly because the majority of her past was comprised of one painful event after another. And so, Regina broke away from her stilled position and began ascending the stairs.
She was met with silence as she approached the door to the guest bedroom much quicker than intended, seeing as she practically sprinted up the stairs without realizing it. Regina turned her lips down into a grimace as she realized her irrational subconscious urgency to get to the guestroom.
The door to the bedroom was still open, just as it was when Regina left a couple hours prior. She walked through the open door while simultaneously rapping on the siding.
"Miss Swan?" She asked. Regina was nothing if not polite and would rather alert Emma of her presence instead of walking in unannounced.
Scanning the room with her eyes, Regina felt her stomach drop as she quickly noticed the lack of a blonde woman in the room. The purse and carryout food were unloaded hastily on top of the dresser as Regina searched through her pockets for her phone. However her plan to phone the Sheriff backfired once she remembered that she had confiscated the other woman's phone the previous night.
Taking a breath to calm her mind, Regina closed her eyes, trying not to imagine the worst case scenario when she heard the unmistakable sound of glass shattering in the adjoining room. Running to the bathroom door without a thought, Regina banged on the door while twisting the handle only to find that it was locked.
"Miss Swan open up this door right now," she yelled frantically still banging on the door. There was no response, no noise, nothing to indicate that anyone was on the other side.
"Emma?" Regina tried again, desperate enough to use the Sheriff's first name. "Emma, open the door, please?"
No response. Nothing. Just complete worrisome silence.
"I swear to god Miss Swan - do not make me break down a door in my own house," Regina swore, her irritation and panic growing as the seconds ticked by.
"This is completely ridiculous," Regina whispered to herself, throwing her hands in the air out of frustration. Though the squall of emotions in her head bordered on vertiginous, Regina struggled for control that she was losing quickly.
Since magic was born from emotion, the Mayor struggled to remain calm, fearing that if she were to use magic on the door right now, it would likely blow off the hinges and splinter into a hundred pieces. That was not something Regina wanted to deal with right now. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, feeling her skin tingle and crawl with power. Once she had a firm control over the power, she flicked her hand in a practiced manner at the door, sending it flying open so hard that it slammed against the bathroom wall but luckily remained on it's hinges.
A look of shock momentarily crossed her face but was quickly replaced with fear as she took in the sight before her. Acting out of instinct, Regina bolted into the bathroom and grabbed the Sheriff by her shoulders, whirling her around so that she was forced to look directly at Regina. Carefully, the Mayor took small steps backwards, bringing Emma with her so as not to trample upon any of the countless shards of blood covered glass on the floor.
"Oh my god, Emma! What have you done!?" Regina wanted to scream, wanted to yell, wanted to slap the blonde across the face. But her voice betrayed her as the words came out as a shaky whisper.
Emma said nothing, she just looked Regina in her eyes with a vacant, lifeless expression. Her eyes were swollen and pink from a long, hard cry and her body was visibly trembling even though her skin was once again coated with a sheen of perspiration. Regina noticed that quickly and brought her hand to the Emma's forehead, pressing it there for a second before removing it turning her attention towards Emma's bloody hands.
Regina's hands were shaking but she tried her best to keep a firm grip on the younger woman's forearms as she looked over the damage Emma had brought upon herself. Embedded in her knuckles, on both hands, were slivers of glass in varying sizes, ripping the flesh apart with every move the blonde made. There were dozens of cuts and gashes adorning her wrists and her forearms as well but thankfully there didn't appear to be any glass in those cuts.
The blood was dripping from her hands, staining the white bathroom floor with her own life essence but Emma barely seemed to notice. Her eyes were glazed over with a murky sheen and Regina watched as silent tears fell from behind her lids. Haunted. That was the only word that came to mind to describe how Emma looked in that moment.
But Regina had little time to dwell on that as she now, once again, had to play caretaker for Emma. Her irritation however was outweighed by her concern and she guided the blonde to sit on the toilet as she searched through the cupboards, collecting all the available towels at her disposal. Within a matter of seconds, Regina had successfully procured a large bucket and filled it with hot water from the bathtub as well as a pair of tweezers, and a smaller cup to deposit the pieces of glass into.
Emma was flexing her fingers, balling them into fists, watching the jagged glass split her skin further.
"Stop doing that, you'll only make it worse," Regina reprimanded her. "This...won't be pleasant but do try to sit still, okay?"
Emma nodded, sniffling, and wanting nothing more than to wipe away her trail of tears with the backs of her hands. Though she didn't quite have the desire to smear blood and glass all over her face which was the only reason she hadn't done so.
"Tell me what happened," Regina said as she gingerly held the blondes right hand with her left and used the tweezers to start pulling out shards of glass from her red-stained flesh. The bigger pieces were the easiest; it was the smaller pieces that would be troublesome. They were hard to see because of all the blood, but Regina didn't want to begin scrubbing her hand if there were any slivers remaining as that could potentially drive them in deeper.
Emma sniffled a few times. "I..I just had to t-take a p-piss."
Regina inwardly cringed at Emma's crassness but chose not to comment on it.
"And so you smashed my mirror?" Regina asked, digging out a deeply embedded piece of glass which caused the blonde to hiss and retract her hand. But Regina's grip was strong. She had pulled one too many splinters out of Henry to know that if you didn't hold them still, they'd pull away like a little baby.
"I got...stuck...in the mirror," Emma whispered.