True Love's Curse (SwanQueen)

Chapter 19

Emma's POV:

"Red you need to leave, now." She doesn't move but my heart beats faster. "You need to go now. Regina will skin you alive if she finds you here!" I warned, glancing about as if she was going to appear at any time.

I watched as Red transformed back into her human self. "I'm not scared of her Emma. And if you think I'm going to leave you here all by yourself, then you don't know me at all."

I leaned against the wall running my hand through my hair. I needed to get rid of Red but how? She's so loyal and stubborn it's ridiculous. Red walks over to me and places a hand on my shoulder. She looks at me with comforting eyes.

"Emma. I need to get you out of here." She whispers, "We can run for it now and the Evil Queen will never know. You can come home and we can return to normality."

"I don't want to return to how it was before." I replied, "And even if it were physically possible to get out of here unnoticed it wouldn't be the same. I'm no longer royalty remember and what about Regina? She would be even lonelier and who knows what she'll try then. At least with me here, I can give her some company and try to persuade her to not go ahead with her plans."

"Emma if you stay here you'll get hurt and I can't promise that you won't be injured by the attack." Red's eyes are wide with worry. I know she's my friend and she cares for me but she needs to leave. I'd rather have my friend alive than dead.

"Wait, what attack?" I ask, finally realizing what she let slip.

"Nothing. Pretend I didn't say anything."

"But you did say something."

"I can't talk about it here. Now come on we need to go." She grabs my arm and starts pulling me towards the door.

"Red, stop. I can't go with you!" I declared, yanking my arms free from her. Her eyebrows furrow together. "You need to leave before the queen finds you. I'll be fine, I promise. It's better for everyone if I stay here."

"It certainly will." I jump at the chilling sound of Regina's voice. Red looks behind me and growls. I turn slowly, already knowing she'll be angry.

"Skinning people? Emma, you should know by now that, that is not my style." She may be talking to me but she's not looking at me, and that's somehow worse. Her focus is on Red, she glances her up and down with an unimpressed frown planted on her face. "I'd rather rip her heart out and crush it in my hands."

Regina steps towards me and although she still doesn't look at me, she uses one of her nails to lift my chin to look at her. She gives me a quick death glare, which makes my knees want to buckle. Her attention is brought back to Red when she growls at Regina again.

"Oh, go take yourself for a walk." She declared, flicking her wrist. When I turn to look at Red, she's gone. I look about the room, panicked. Where did she go? What has Regina done? I run to the window and look out of it. I can't see her anywhere!

"I haven't skinned her if you're still worried about that," Regina said.

I turn around and ask, "How long were you listening in on us for?"

"Long enough to know that my castle will soon be attacked by your beloved family." She remarked.

There's a pause. It's a very uncomfortable one. I want to know what she did to Red. I want to shout and scream at her, but I can't because my overwhelming worry for Red's safety could be the thing that gets her killed. That can't happen. My mother would never forgive me. I would never forgive me.

"Answer me this Em-ma." She said, looking about the room as if it's a place she hasn't seen in years. "Why did you open the door?"

"I don't know."