Oh Dear (Regina Mills x Fem Reader)

Chapter 16

(A/N: The poem that was being referenced in the last chapter was The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.)

Y/n swore it got darker as she trudged on down the dark path. Her skin getting cuts from loose branches and thorn bushes, and she lost count of the amount of times a stumbles or trips, but she didn't stop. She didn't dare. It must have been hours that the girl walked down that treacherous road, but eventually she found the bushes and trees getting less dense, and a clearing looked to be just up ahead. The clearing's plant life seemed more alive, but it still no doubt had a dark tone to it. In the middle stood a jaded wooden cottage.

Y/n's steps were slow, yet inside her heart raced. She needed to know, she needed the truth. What had she derailed her original mission to know, what had she blown off her meeting with Dracula to see? What was behind that cabin door? All she hoped, is that it would be worth it.

The door opened with an unsettling squeak, and her steps echoed on the rotted wood floors.
She could barely believe what she was seeing, there at the table was her brother, father, and mother, but they were dead. How could this be? No doubt some dark magic, maybe a trick, or even necromancy.

Yet it felt so real.

Her father smiled warmly, he and rumple didn't looked plagued as the darkness they once were. Even one as cruel as her mother, seemed less frightening and evil in the dim cabin light.

"We've been waiting for you dear, take a seat." Her mother spoke calmly, and y/n sat with no doubt or resistance in her heart.

"Am I dead? Did something happen? How are you all here?" Y/n rapid fired her questions.

"Calm down little sister, you aren't dead...yet." Rumple said with a amused expression.

"You're in the land of the in between, and you have been for some time. Since you first left the castle in fact. You were attacked, but we cannot tell you everything. You must forge your own path. Make your own deductions." Her father said in a gruff tone that demanded respect.

"So you all are real. I'm actually meeting you all here." The young brunette's voice almost cracked due to the emotions running through her chest.

Her mother nodded, then spoke, "Yes, we'll the part of us that you needed anyways. We have traveled far to meet you, so don't waste what we give you now. It's time to embrace your darkness dear, it's the only way you'll survive. If you don't, it will kill you."

"I thought I already did. Wait, what do you mean it'll kill me?"

From the shadows another silhouette walked into the light, Y/n had only ever seen pictures of her before. It was her sister in law, Belle. She stood behind rumple, with the kindest of smiles don her face, "You only unlocked part of what you could be. You are destined to be one of the most powerful beings that all of Storybrook has ever seen. To have such darkness in you and not let it take over on your own terms, well it will get restless and take you itself. You wouldn't survive if that happened. Yet this doesn't mean after your transformation that you can't still be a good person. Your choices are everything."

"Okay, what do I have to do then, to change fully and fulfill my destiny?" The dark one asked her family.

"You must take a heart, and crush it. You must cross the line, and kill. It must be someone you feel passionately about. Either someone you hate or love." Rumple explains.

"You want me to kill? I don't know if I can do that."

Her mother leaned forward, "That Regina woman would do just fine."

"No, she's off the table. I can't hurt her like that, I won't kill her. No way."

"Then it seems there is only one other candidate" Her father said.

"But who, who is it?" Y/n begged to know.

Rumple stood up and walked over to his sister, "We can't give you all the answers dearie, now it's time to wake up. WAKE UP!"