I greatly apologize for the long wait. Not really. Maybe. :)

Now

There's a dull pressure and ringing in my ears as my senses begin to ebb back to life. My arms tingle and I can feel the softness of dirt pressing against my chest and cheek. My arms, feeling like lead, lay limply, my left arm twisted painfully under my side and my right flung out across the ground. A wave of warmth flows through my torso and I become aware of my own breathing, quick and shallow gasps. I suddenly become aware of someone shouting behind me.

"Somebody help! Help!" a voice shrieks. "It's the Evil Queen!"

There's the word again. Evil Queen. Who was that that called me that? What was his name?

"Where are Snow's men? Are they nearby?" Another deeper voice cries out. "She's here!"

I rack my brain, trying to think through the dull throbbing on the right side of my head, just above my brow.

"They were headed east towards some of the villages, but they can't have gone that far from here."

Oh, Robin Hood. That was his name.

"I know that—Hey, do you have your dagger?"

"Yes-"

"Well, what if we just… ended everything right here and now?" the deeper voice says gruffly. "It'd make this a whole lot easier."

Wait, these people also said Evil Queen. But what if they're talking about someone else…

The forest is silent for a moment. "No, Snow said she wanted her-"

"I know, I know. I was just thinking-"

"What if she wakes up and sees us?" The voice hisses back.

Are they talking about me? I think they are, but my brain feels like it's been sloshed around in a bucket and thinking straight is nearly impossible.

"You hit her in the head with a slingshot. She won't be waking up anytime soon," Comes the reply, in a low uneasy voice.

A slingshot. So that's what it was. I become aware of the pulse throbbing in my head, as if a beating heart had been placed there.

"I know, but what if she really does wake up?"

"Oh," The deeper voice replies, "we'll stand up and fight for the kingdom. We're not cowards.-She's here! We've found her! Can anyone hear us?!"

My mind soaks up this information, trying to piece everything together. I try visualize what I can't see. Two men, who I'm assuming knocked me out, are talking with each other about the Evil Queen and one wanted to kill me…

I hear the sound of metal sliding out of a sheath. My heart stops.

"What are you doing?!" I hear someone half-hiss-half-shout. "Give that back!"

I hear the crunching of leaves approach me. "I'm going to save everyone in the kingdom from more trouble. Having her alive means more people suffering. More people dying. Do you remember Stealthy?"

"That doesn't mean that we should-"

"Well, then how many more are we going to lose?" I hear the voice crack a little, then continue on steadily. "Because I'm not going to lose anymore."

"No stop!"

I hear scuffling and a few random exclamations of words that I can't quite make out. I hear something land by my side, but what that thing is, I cannot tell.

I try to move, but my arms lay paralyzed at my sides. I try to kick out my legs and roll over, but my legs are as useless as my arms. I try to open my eyes, but my eyelids remain glued shut, and all I can do is feel my own breath quicken in panicked gasps. Suddenly, I feel my heart explode in a flurry of pounding, sending a tremor of awareness and clarity through my mind and body.

Every nerve in my body lights on fire. My eyes fly open and my back arches as my mouth takes in a gaping breath of dry, dusty air. I'm momentarily blinded by the sunlight and put up my hands to block it, squinting as my eyes begin readjusting to the brightness. I hear someone let out a terrified scream and turn my head around just in time to see that someone instantly bolt off across the road, disappearing into the thicket of trees and undergrowth on the other side.

The other one stands stark still, frozen with the look of sheer and utter terror on his face. His eyes stay fixated on me and I can tell he's holding his breath.

I push myself off the ground, stumbling as my head suddenly begins to spin. I rest my hands on my thighs as I take a moment to regain my balance. The man might as well be a statue wearing faded rags and worn out leather boots because when I look back up, he's still standing there.

We stand there in silence, staring intently at each other all stiff and shaken, the both of us wondering who will be the first to take a move. I watch his fingers fidget, his eyes taking blinks every other second. He looks down at my torn clothes, then back up at my face, as if expecting me to do something. I feel the corner of my mouth twitch.

Then he looks down towards the ground. I follow his gaze to a gleaming dagger with a black hilt and a glinting blade laying by my feet. My hand slowly reaches down and grabs it, picking it up with trembling fingers. I look back up at the man, whose face has gone stark white.

"Umm…" I say, not knowing what to do. "Are you-"

I'm interrupted by his ear piercing shriek as he takes off running in the same direction his companion went. In that moment, I realize the person who knows more about what's going on than I do has just fled, ruining my chance to figure out what's happening. I immediately take off after him with the dagger still in my hand.

"Wait!" I call out, running with one hand holding up my dress. I look down and realize that I'm doing it and let go of the matted skirt. I leap over a fallen log and call out again. "Wait!"

The man, a short and stocky fellow, glances over his shoulder and yelps at the sight of me. He puts his hand to his head to keep his flapping hat from flying off. "Dopey!" He bellows. "Doc!"

He begins to trip and stumble over his own feet as he weaves in and out of the tress. He glances over his shoulder again and screams again. "Happy!"

I pump my arms harder, tilting my head in confusion as he continues to shout words similar to these. "Sneezy!"

"Stop!" I yell. "Wait!"

The little man only quickens his pace and darts ahead, letting out distressed squawks every other second. I lengthen my strides and begin to gain ground, catching up slowly.

It then occurs to me that this person won't help me, regardless of if I caught up to him. In my moment of distraction, my foot hits a fallen log that seems to have materialized out of nowhere. A strange noise comes from the back of my throat as I'm sent toppling over the log, my momentum carrying me over in a flying pinwheel.

For a moment, it seems that I'm weightless and I watch as the world flips upside down with my face inches from the ground, my feet towards the sky. Everything hangs still in a frame of time, peacefully frozen in a moment of calmness. The dagger, which has flown out of my hand, floats upside down in the air a couple feet away. My skirt ripples in slow motion as my hands wave freely in front of me. I see leaves falling through beams of light streaming down through the branches high above.

Then time speeds back up and I feel myself falling. My back slams flat against the ground, knocking the wind out of me. My legs come down next, sending a jolt of shock through my entire body.

I groan and cough as I learn to breathe again, not knowing whether to clutch my chest or my stomach. My face scrunches up and I lie on my back, listening to the crunch of the man's footsteps slowly diminish until the only sound filling the forest is the wind brushing past the leaves. By the time I open my eyes, he's already gone.

When my mind manages to somewhat pull itself together, I push myself off the ground and stand up. My eyes scan the ground for the dagger, but it has disappeared among the weeds and shrubs covering the floor. My eyes look up and glance around as they take in the scenery. Which is basically tall trees, trees, and more trees. Trees with rough barks and thick trunks, some stouter than others. Their branches bend out at various angles, each one fighting for a spot in the sunlight.

Not a single other thing is in sight. I turn around, looking for some sort of sign that I'm not lost. A person, a road, a…I realize that I don't know what to look for.

I look to my left and take a step, then hesitate and take a step in the opposite direction. I look the right at the endless mass of trees. A sick feeling grows in the bottom of my gut. My head begins to spin and a question rings in my head. I think about it and try to forget it. But it sits there, in a dark corner in the back of my mind, waiting to be answered.

When am I going to know what's going on?

I conclude that the question won't be answered until I find someone. It then takes me about two seconds to decide to head in one direction and see where I end up, when my plans are interrupted by a voice cutting through the silence.

"Well, dearie, that was a rather amusing chase to watch."

I nearly leap twenty feet into the air and whirl around to come face to face with a short man smiling madly at me. His skin is scaly and leathery with an aged brown tone, showing signs of time gone by. He wears a leather vest with cloth sleeves hanging around his arms. His brown leather boots and black pants cover his skinny legs that jump up in excitement. His fingers lightly touch each other, with spaces between his palms.

I scream and turn to run away from the madman, when suddenly the ground beneath my feet opens up in a deep whole and I fall in. The moment my feet hit the bottom, the dirt magically fills in the empty space around me, leaving me immobile from the waist down. I scream again, this time not from panic, but from the sight of the dirt having a mind of its own.

I push off the ground with my arms, but to no avail, as my legs are lodged firmly in the ground. My body freezes in terror as I watch the man step in front of me. My arms forget how to move properly and they weakly continue their futile attempts to push myself out of the earth. My eyes meet the man's eyes, two green-grey irises that sparkle wickedly.

I can only imagine what he's going to do to me. Either bury me alive or bash me to death, while I scream for help that won't come. I can't decide which one I'd prefer.

"Now there's not need to panic," the man says, bringing my attention to him. "Unless of course you'd like to sit there thrashing around."

Fear has closed up my throat and I'm unable to make a sound. Instead a high squeak escapes from the back of my throat.

He takes this as a suitable reply and nods his head. "Well, if you want me to help you I'm going to have to trust that you won't run away."

For some strange reason, this calms me enough to get my voice working again. "I-uh-"

"Good," he says quickly and waves his hand.

I blink and find myself standing on top the ground, no longer stuck in a hole, the pressure around me legs gone. I squeak, stunned.

"How'd you do that?" My stomach turns inside me. Something clicks in my head as if I've met this person. Yet, at the same time he's a complete stranger. I look up at his hideous face. "Who are you?"

He lets out a high pitched laugh and his eyes widen, seeming amused by my stupefaction. He prances a spry step towards me. "You know who I am, dearie. You've just forgotten." He laughs again and points a finger me, with his other hand by his face, the tips of his fingers curled. "Do you even know who you are?"

"N-no," I stutter, panic in my voice. "Wait, how'd you get here? I didn't see-"

He holds up a hand to stop me. "Ah-ah-ah." His voice grows as he says, "You're asking too many questions. Why not just one?" He scrunches up his face and pauses as if for effect, before leaning closer and saying, "Or unless you don't want to ask a question. Too frightened to speak?" He laughs at my bewildered face. "The real question is, how did you get here?"

He watches as I open and close my mouth, unable to answer the question. I remember waking up on the hill, next to a tomb. I remember hiding in the old stables as the knights rode on by. How I ended up there, however, is beyond me. I want to say this out loud, but the look on the man's face makes me want to do otherwise. He stares devilishly at me, waiting for my reply.

Half of me wants to use this as a chance to get away and save myself. The other half knows that this man knows something about me that I don't. And I need answers right now.

"I don't know," I say, watching the man as he continues to smile. "I don't know who I am-"

"Yes, yes, I know that," he says. He throws up his hands in a gesture of excitement. "Since you don't know who you are and don't recall who I am, let me introduce." He bows down, one hand in front of his chest and the other out to the side. "The name's Rumpelstiltskin."

Silently, I say his name, feeling the word roll over my tongue. It feels familiar as if I've said the name a thousand times over. I've met this Rumpelstiltskin before, I'm assuming. He knows me. I stare at him, not sure of what to do. Then, I blurt out, "Who am I?"

He laughs again. "You're the Evil Queen, of course."

Suddenly I remember Robin Hood again. How he threatened to kill me, the Evil Queen. I remember the two men running away with terrified faces. I look up at Rumpelstiltskin. He steps towards me and I take a step back, putting out my hand in defense. "Wait, someone else also told me that."

His expression looks as if what I just said were the most obvious thing in the world. "Well, I'm not surprised. There's a lot of people terrified of the Evil Queen."

I mull over the thought in my head, confused. "But I'm not evil." I realize that maybe I've forgotten I'm evil. I think about it for a moment. "Wait, am I?"

He looks at me and says flatly, his voice rising in pitch, "Well, why don't you tell me?"

I again, can only watch as he continues to grow entertained by my speechlessness." He laughs as my mouth speaks without me realizing. "Do you know who took my memories?"

"Of course, dearie. Do you miss them?" His eyes glisten with a look of satisfaction. "Do you uh—want them back?"

Does he have my memories? I'm in such shock that I don't realize that I've spoken aloud. I feel blood rush to my face.

"You seem rather…baffled. Now, let me ask, why do you want your memories?" He says.

"I need to know who I am," I say nervously, staring into his cold, grey eyes. I get the feeling that he's keeping something from me.

"Well, if you want them back," He says, quieting his voice. "Come to my mansion and I can get your memories back!" He stands up straight. "Come find me when you're ready, dearie."

"Ready for what?"

He takes a step back and jumps up again in excitement. "Why, ready to answer all of your questions. You see, right now let's let things simmer a little. Come to me after you've got a chance to learn more about this world. Yes, yes. Come when you're ready!"

"I'm ready right now," I say, realizing how much I want everything explained. I want to know why someone threatened to kill me. Actually, two people. I want to know why there were knights roaming about. I want to know why I woke up at the top of that hill. "Do you have my memories?"

"Well, since you seem to want them so badly, then it shouldn't be so bad to take a little stroll on over to my mansion, right? Right?" He says, leaning back on a leg and pointing a finger at me. "I'll expect to be seeing you soon then."

"Wait, can I have at least one question answered right now?" I say quickly. I watch as he looks back at me, considering the question. I wonder whether or not I've irritated him.

"Uhh—what is that?" He says, his voice small and flat.

My throat closes up for a second as I take in Rumpelstiltskin's full appearance as a man not to be messed with. A man who most likely always gets what he wants. It's in his eyes, his walk, how he holds himself up, and I can only imagine the things that he's capable of. I do my best to keep my voice steady. "What is my name?"

"Why, dearie," he says, opening his mouth in a wide grin, revealing yellowed teeth that only add to his mad nature. "It's Regina."

Before I can say anything else, he disappears in a cloud a black smoke. The spot where he stood, empty, as if he had never been there at all.

I stand in my spot wordless and confused as ever. I try to comprehend what I just witnessed. I try to grasp the meaning of the situation. A million questions swirl through my head, muddling my thinking. And of course there's one that I realize I should have asked: Where is his mansion?

What do you guys think? Tell me your opinions in the reviews!

(Unless of course you don't want to. You do what you want. I'm not your mother.)