The Evil Queen's Chambers

Chapter Three

Emma had been put into a poorly lit, freezing-cold room while the Black Guards awaited their orders from the Queen. Of course she wanted to try and escape, and it would have been the perfect opportunity to, if the Guards had not stumbled in with a rope to tie her to the tremendously uncomfortable chair she was sat on. Whenever Emma tugged at the ropes, they got tighter. She figured they weren't any ordinary ropes and that they were probably magically made or enchanted. "Of course they are," Emma declared to herself, "If she's going to kill me, then why all the theatrics? From what I've seen, this is not her style. What does she want from me?"

*

Emma heard a sudden bang, a clunk and then an unlocking sound. A burst of adrenaline ran through her, putting her on edge to the point where the ropes had grown so tight around her she could barely breathe. A flash of light almost blinded her, the door swung open. "Hook!" she yelled, expectantly. Alas, it was one of Regina's Black Guards. He laughed in his mask, and grabbed her off the chair, leaving the ropes around her so she couldn't try and run. "Oh god." She spoke, out-loud this time.

After reluctantly being dragged up a dark, endless staircase, she came to what she could observe as the Evil Queen's Chambers. The floor was hard and unforgiving, and she could hear every footstep she and the Guards made, echoing louder and louder as it reached an open entrance with a warm fire and candles lit everywhere. If she hadn't been expectant of imminent death, she might have took more notice of the gothic details carved into the candelabra's. She heard a deep cackling getting louder and louder which she recognised as Regina's.

"Oh god indeed, miss blonde hair, blue eyes."

Emma gulped, but tried to remain silent and nonchalant. She couldn't help but feel exposed in this open plan, sinister room, with the Queen standing over her in her tight-fitted, revealing dress. "Let go of her," ordered the Queen to the Guards, "and leave my chambers." Their grip loosened, and in a puff of purple smoke the Queen swiped away Emma's ropes. "Thank you, your Majesty." Emma, after Regina's last outburst, figured this was the right thing to say. "Yes, hmm," declared Regina, holding a quill in one hand.

She'd just been writing something down, Emma observed. Regina then proceeded, with her cherry-tinted lips, to chew on the bottom of it for a brief second, then put it down on her dressing table, which was covered in a black-lace throw.

Emma and Regina kept making eye contact, one second Regina would look at her, mumble something to herself, look away, look in the mirror, mumble something else, then look back at Emma.

"What I can't understand," Regina began, "is why Rumplestiltskin sent you to spy on me. I considered the idea you were just a Snow White supporter, but I was thinking, what is the coincidence of a Snow White supporter simultaneously being under a spell? You must be a spy. Rumplestiltskin has eyes everywhere, but if you are a spy, why would he allow you to walk straight into my path? I can't seem to put my finger on it."

Her eyes glistened in the warm light of the candles and the crackling fireplace. She then looked down to her bowl of blood-red apples, then to Emma directed, "Apple?" Emma looked at Regina in the hope for a sign of the Regina she knows, but all she could see was pain entangled with darkness. She shuck her head, realised her mistake and added "...your Majesty." "Oh, so you're accustomed to my tricks then. You are a spy," she hissed.

Emma couldn't handle this much longer. She couldn't handle Regina circling her like a tiger stalking their prey. It was like being at the early stages of their relationship, when she first came to Storybrooke. She tried to conjure up a believable story, "I assure you I am not a spy, I'm just an ordinary peasant. I acquired this dress from my mother who passed away. I just wanted to go to a ball, I've never been to one, you see. And I didn't assist Snow White, I'm loyal to my Queen," bowing, she then added "I'm sure you can understand, Your Majesty. Your revenge lies with Mar - Snow White, not me." Emma's left-hand made its way to her mouth, surely she had just spoken out of turn. The Queen was as shocked with this outburst as Emma. With one eyebrow arched and lips pursed, she took a step closer to Emma, "And what do you know of my... Revenge?" Rolling the 'r' off her tongue.

"Your lies do not work with me, spy of Rumplestiltskin. He would never bestow a spell on an ordinary peasant. Also, where else would you get a dress so... Ravishing?" Regina rolled the final word off her tongue again, purely for effect. She liked her own portrayal of the dark, alluring, but intimidating woman, far too much. Emma could tell by the glint in her eyes she meant to scare her. Regina cut in, before Emma could say anything in response, "I mean, does he really think those glamour spells work with me? He, himself, cloaked me with one!"

Emma felt sweat dripping onto her cheek. "She can see me, the real me." Emma knew that this time, this mistake could not be fixed. She stammered, the realisation Regina could see her hit her fast, as she had been so distracted by being in the presence of Regina as the Evil Queen, she had failed to realise what this actually meant.

"Wait you can see me?"

The Queen smiled, "of course I can, that's what I've been saying all this time, high cheekbones and button nose." She scoffed, "Peasant! Ha, like I'd fall for that. Now, tell me who you are and what you want before I rip your heart out from your very chest." And with that Regina leapt up close to Emma, glaring down manically at her. Emma could feel Regina's hot breath on her face, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on edge. As she looked-up into her sparkling brown eyes, for a second, a tiny second, she saw the spark she once saw back in Storybrooke. The spark she just loved seeing.

Regina, in that moment, had felt something so forgotten to her it made her furious. She recognised, as she got close to this woman, that she had been wavering because of how striking she found her.

As an all-knowing smile started to creep onto Emma's face, the Queen violently tore Emma's heart out from her chest. Emma gasped for air and saw the Queen's eyes turn back to darkness once again.

"Regina, please!" croaked Emma. "Shut it," spat Regina, "I saw you smiling. Do you think me weak? I am your Queen and you will show me some respect! Tell me who you are. TELL. ME."

Emma couldn't help it, her vision was blurred with tears. She couldn't bear leaving Henry without saying goodbye, she couldn't bear the guilt her parents and Hook would feel on hearing of her death. She then thought of her growing friendship with Regina, and how they had both sacrificed their happiness for each other. How she had denied her feelings for Regina so many times. How she dismissed them as nothing and convinced herself it was all one-sided and that Hook was a better option.

But she noticed something during this revelation of self, Regina hadn't crushed her heart yet. And when she looked up, the Queen, no, Regina, was crying slightly too. "I can't crush it, she wailed, squeezing and squeezing on Emma's heart. "Why can't I crush it? Why won't it crush?" She grabbed Emma by her hair, "What are you?"

Emma, with bloodshot eyes and a face moist with tears, couldn't hold it in any longer. "I'm your friend!"

The final word rolled off her tongue so loudly, one of Regina's many mirrors smashed and the sound resonated down the spiralled stair case, and out of the open balcony which viewed the entirety of the Enchanted Forest. "You are my what?" Regina replied quietly, putting Emma's heart back into her chest, looking deeply into her blue-green eyes that were pooling with tears.