"Daniel, I don't think I can eat all of this in one sitting."
Finally, Snow thinks. It's about time one of these things started on a pleasant note. She's greeted by the sight of the two secret lovers sharing a midnight picnic in one of the horses' stalls. Her stepmother is most definitely a teenager now, sixteen if Snow has to guess. She certainly looks more like the Regina she remembers.
She thinks of David as she watches the love-struck teenagers awkwardly laugh at cheesy jokes and semi-funny stories about their days. It's obvious that they love each other. Daniel's eyes practically scream it, and Regina's cheeks glow with the warmth and beauty of true love. He grabs her hand and pulls her closer to her side, and she rests her head on his shoulder.
"Then don't. You can always come back tomorrow night and finish it."
Regina laughs and shakes her head. But it's not genuine, that laugh. Snow sees the sad tint in the girl's eyes. His words have dampened her mood and Snow knows why - Cora. Regina may have been able to sneak out this night, but it would be suicide to try it again the next.
"While I would enjoy that very much, when both know my mother would catch us."
Daniel sighs, a frustrated look taking up residence on his face. "Maybe if you just tell her, we wouldn't need to sneak around, Regina."
Her stepmother pushes herself away from the stable boy, her gaze falling to the straw-covered floor. Snow sees the tears that silently make their way down Regina's cheeks. She can't even try to imagine what it's like to be in love and not be able to tell your mother about it.
"My mother is not like yours, Daniel. She has prepared me to be a royal my entire life. It could not possibly end well if I told her I loved you."
Regina's tears slow some, and Snow watches as she turns to face him, this boy that has stolen her heart. She shakes her head again and begins to rise. She's risking a lot by being out here as late as it is, and Daniel knows that. He stands and helps her to her feet.
"One day, I'm going to take you far, far away from here, and I'm going to spend every day after that trying to make you happy."
Snow watches with sadness as Regina grabs his shirt and smashes her full, pink lips against his. It doesn't last terribly long, and Snow knows it has to be their first kiss. Eventually the girl pulls away and backs away slowly, till she's out the door. Snow watches as the boy gingerly touches his lips as giant smile forms.
She quickly exits the stables and searches for Regina in the darkness. She finds her just steps away from the manor's gates, staring at the sky. Snow expects to see her stepmother smiling as well. Instead, she watches as the girl sobs at the stars.
"I wish I had never met him."
o0o
Snow awakens in the stables...again. But this time, she immediately wants to leave. Her childhood steed is in the last stall on the left of where she stands. Regina is hugging her mother, and Snow can't see her face, though by Daniel's expression, Snow knows she's more than likely smiling. She watches in horror as Cora's gaze drifts to the stable boy.
"Daniel."
Snow squeezes her eyes shut and backs up against the closed stable door. "Guardian, stop! Get me out of here!" she screams.
Cora extricates herself from her daughter's embrace and slowly walks toward the young man and touches his arm, taking only a second to glance at her child before pulling him away to the center of the stables, leaving a smiling Regina by the other door.
"If you want to have a life together, a family, then there's one important lesson I can impart on you. It's what is mean to be a parent. You always have to do what's best for your children."
Snow shakes her head vehemently, presses herself further against the stable door, willing herself to go through it. "Guardian!"
"Thank you. I understand," Daniel says as he looks to Regina, who is still beams from where she stands. His gaze returns to Cora. "Because that's what you're doing now."
"Guardian, please!"
Cora smiles at him. "Yes, it is."
"Guardian!"
But the nightmare doesn't come to an end. Cora's hand plunges into Daniel's chest, and she plucks his still-beating heart from his body. Regina's smile completely disappears, replaced by a look of sheer terror and horror.
"Mother!"
Snow falls to the ground in a graceless, sobbing heap as Regina does the same. "No! No! No, no, no..."
Regina's sobs rattle her whole body, and her hands shake uncontrollably as she gathers her stable boy into her arms. Cora's remain steady as she lets the ash that used to be Daniel's heart slip to the dirty stable floor.
"Mother, why have you done this?"
Snow continues to sob as she watches Regina kiss Daniels lifeless lips in the hope of waking him. Her stepmother's tears only spur hers on as she watches Cora smile at her daughter, a twisted and demented thing.
"Because this is your happy ending."
Snow groans. "Guardian, please, please..."
The lack of complete and total bewilderment on Regina's face makes Snow want to vomit. To think that killing your child's true love was their happy ending - it was too much for Snow to process. It was complete madness! But Cora never wavers, never gives in the slightest.
"You have to trust me, Regina. I know best. Love is weakness, Regina. It feels real now, at the start, it always does. But it's an illusion...it fades, and then you're left with nothing. But power - true power - endures, and then you don't have to rely on anyone to get what you want. I've saved you, my love."
Now Snow knows Cora was truly crazy. What exactly has she saved Regina from? Happiness? Love? The woman must truly have been delusional.
Regina's face is overcome with a look of sheer hatred as she turns to look at her beaming mother. "You've ruined everything," she spits. "I loved him. I loved him!"
Cora shakes her head in disgust, bringing her hands up to cover her ears, as if to protect them from Regina's declaration.
"Enough! I've endured this long enough." She pulls Regina to her feet roughly and grasps her daughter's shoulders with an iron grip. "Now clean yourself up, wipe away your tears, because now you're going to be queen."
Snow curls into a ball as Cora drags Regina back to the estate - back to her prison. She sobs as she stares at the lifeless body of the kind stable boy. A life cut short because she couldn't keep her word, because she had foolishly believed that Cora was truly trying to make Regina happy.
"I'm so sorry," she sobs into the ground. "Regina, I'm so sorry."
o0o
Snow is still crying when the next memory springs to life. She wants this nightmare to end. She wants to go home, she wants to forget that she saw any of this!
She looks around as she wipes at her eyes. She in Regina's castle...and there is Regina, directly in front of her, Eva's crown on her head. She's standing in the doorway of the kitchens, listening to something.
This time she does not timidly creep over to where her stepmother stands - Snow is through with being cautious. She's not actually there. These are only memories. She stops next to her stepmother, for that's truly what she is now. There is a ring on her finger to prove it, as if her mother's crown hadn't. Snow peeks past the doorway to see who it is that Regina is spying on.
It's Johanna, her nanny. And the cook. And several maids. And the new queen in the topic of their heated discussion. Johanna brings her hand down onto the countertop, making a few of the maids jump.
"The nerve! He's married a child to do my job! As if she has any clue how to raise a child on her own."
The cook snorts and the maids nod in agreement. Snow looks next to her at Regina. Her face has fallen, but she sheds no tears. She seems almost emotionless...in a haze. The cooks smacks a mound of dough onto the flour-covered counter.
"The Child Queen, that's what the whole kingdom is calling her. He may be king, but mercy me, what business does he have of marrying a lass of eighteen?"
Snow takes a step back, her chin dropping as she stares into the open doorway. Eighteen? She had been only eighteen? That couldn't possibly be true! Her father wouldn't have married Regina is she had been that young! No, no, it couldn't-
"He can do as he pleases," Johanna says hotly. "Just as long as that clueless brat doesn't get in my way. I don't really care what her age, just as long as she knows her place."
She turns to look at Regina, but her stepmother is no longer paying attention to the women in the kitchen - she's scowling at the bundle of white fabric that skips towards her from the other end of the hallway.
"Stepmother, I found you!"
Snow cringes at the sound of her younger self's voice. Had she always sounded so...whiny? She watches as Regina cringes at her stepdaughter's choice of words, and her scowl deepens.
"Snow, please don't call me that. I've asked you to call me Regina."
Black curls bounce as young Snow shakes her head. "Father says I must call you Stepmother. He says it is your proper title."
Regina turns before the young princess can see her face contort into a mix of hatred and loathing. Snow remembers Regina persistently trying to get her to use her actual name instead of her "proper title", and eventually she had given in.
Regina schools her features before turning to face the young version of Snow once again. She forces a smile and clasps her hands in front of her, waiting to heart what it is the insipid girl wants.
"Father says you will read to me. Will you?"
The tears begin to flow again as stiff shoulder jerk and begin to more as the Child Queen takes the outstretched hand, grasps the fingers that drip the blood of her fiancé.
"Anything for you, dear."