New Beginnings

21

Regina and Henry were eating dinner in silence at home. The doorbell rang.

Regina frowned. "I don't recall us expecting company."

She got up to answer the door. It was Emma. Emmett stood just behind her. "Sheriff Swan. Deputy Swan. What are you doing here?"

"Henry invited us," Emma replied.

"Do you honestly believe, I'd allow you into my house for dinner, after all the threats you made to my family?"

"We didn't come for dinner."

"Then, what did you come for?"

"You," Emma and Emmett said.

Regina, confused, looked behind her into the kitchen and saw that Henry was gone. She turned back to Emma and Emmett, where several Storybrooke citizens had gathered behind them.

"We all did," Emma added.

Regina turned around and retreated into the house, when she saw Henry holding a noose at the top of the stairs.

"Henry," Regina called.

The mob brought Regina to the main street, where an apple tree had sprung up in the middle of the road. They tied her to the tree as she protested. The rest of the town watched.

"No... No... Let me go. I command it!" Regina cried.

Ruby narrowed her eyes. "After everything you've done to all of us?"

"My apologies, Your Majesty, but my conscience is clear!" Archie said.

"You're not Queen anymore, sister!" Leroy added.

"Tighter!" Granny ordered. "She needs to feel our pain!"

"You took our love and ripped it apart!" Mary Margaret yelled.

"And now, you're going to pay!" David finished.

Emmett approached Regina and picked one of the blackened apples off the tree. He held it in front of Regina and crushed it in his hand. "Rotten to the core."

"I just wanted to win... For once," Regina admitted.

Emma grabbed Regina by the throat. "You took away our happiness, and now it's our turn to take away yours."

"...What? Henry. Henry, please don't let them do this to me."

"You did this to yourself," Henry said.

Emma wielded the sword, aimed for Regina and swung. Before the sword hit her, Regina awaked from the dream and jolted upright in her bed. She quickly got up and headed to Henry's room to check on him. Inside, she saw him underneath the blanket.

Instead of Henry under the blanket, it was a pile of pillows.

---

They drove along the road that led out of Storybrooke.

"Is that all your stuff?" Henry asked.

"All I need," Emmett replied.

Henry frowned. "Wait. You want to go now? We're leaving now?"

"Uh-uh. I'm getting you out of here. Away from all this. Away from her."

Henry shook his head. "No, no. Stop the car! You can't leave Storybrooke. You and Emma, or one of you, I'm not sure, have to break the curse."

"No, I don't. I have to help you."

"But you're a hero -- you can't run. You have to help everybody."

"Henry, I know it's hard for you to see it, but I'm doing what's best for you. That's what you wanted when you brought me to Storybrooke."