Dark Tales ~ Regina Mills

First Meetings

The Enchanted Forest
Lydia's pov

Another day of agonizing despair. Waking up to birds chirping and the sun shining makes me want to kill myself. Rumple is taking me to meet his new student. He says she's the one who's finally going to cast The Dark Curse. I highly doubt it; he said it about the last one and the one before that. He's too desperate, it's ruining it for him.

"Why are we walking?  You hate walking places," I say to Rumple, as we walk through the forest. "Because I felt like it today, now shut up," he says harshly. I can do nothing but obey. We have been walking for what feels like ages. "And now we're here there is no need for your complaints," Rumple says dramatically, looking ahead, my eyes are met with the most beautiful sight. She's young, around 20 maybe, with gorgeous long raven colored hair that's tied up in a braid. My eyes meet alluring dark brown eyes. I can hear Rumple clear his throat. "Are you done because we have things to do," he says in his same old mocking tone. "Yes sorry, I'm Regina," the young woman said cautiously. "Lydia," I say, back in my annoyed tone. "She's gonna teach you because I have other things to do," Rumple says, doing his stupid hand gesture. "Oh, alright," she says defeatedly. "This is supposed to be the one to cast the dark curse?" I say questioningly, she is pathetic; it takes killing the thing you love most to enact the dark curse. Rumple says she wants revenge on her now stepdaughter because she is the reason her boyfriend died. They always have a sob story, but only so many have what it takes to embrace the darkness. "So now that you've met; I'm going to leave," Rumple says, before vanishing. "So who are you?" Regina says I look at her, she's sweet, it's obnoxious. "I'm a witch and I guess you could say I'm cursed. I don't really know," I tell her honestly, there's no point in lying. I understand her curiosity, Rumplestilskin isn't the kind of person to let some random person do something for him. "What kind of curse, I've been reading about dark magic, so maybe you could tell me," she says, I laugh. I haven't laughed in what feels like centuries. She seems shocked at my reaction, understandable. "You're adorable but so unbelievably naive, sweet girl," I tell her, I watch the blood rush to her face at my words.

"I don't understand," she says. "You won't learn about my curse in any book because it's not a curse. It's supposed to be a gift." I say, masking my sadness with annoyance. "Well then what's your so-called gift?" She asks genuinely, I look her in the eye, and they tell me nothing but that her intentions are pure. "I was given eternal life; as long as I served the Dark One faithfully. That was well over two thousand years ago," I say, I laugh dryly at my comment. Eternal life is not what it is told to be. People view it as a gift given by the gods. Even Merlin himself wanted to cut away his immortality. "So you're older than the dark one entirely?" she asks, it's intriguing that she's so invested in me. "I knew the original. She made me her apprentice and as time went on and new dark ones came along I became more of a guild than an apprentice." I tell her truthfully, if she wants to know who I am she can know. "So you guide the dark ones down their dark path?" She asks, which just further proves her innocence is still there no matter what she's gone through. "Why do you want to learn magic, Regina?" I ask her. I can see her mood shift. "I want to be stronger. I want to get revenge," she tells me, they always want revenge, to hurt the ones that hurt them. Maybe I don't understand because I'm the only one that's ever hurt me. "Anyone can get revenge, but what you are attempting to do isn't something you can change once you get what you want. It consumes you." I tell her, she needs to know the full truth of what she's getting into before she does it. "I know that. I know wanting revenge is cliché, but I can't just let her get away with ruining my life," she says, I can feel the anger building up inside of her.

"Princess Snow, your stepdaughter; Rumple told me part of what happened but I want to hear it from you," I tell her, I walk forward to a tree stump and sit. "I saved her and then I asked her to keep a secret and she was unable to succeed in something a toddler could do. She told my mother about my fiancé Daniel. My mother killed him that night," she tells me sadly, I can see the tears threatening to leave her eyes, but I can also feel the anger trying to fight its way out. I was told that in this case feelings this strong can lead to great power, whether that's light or dark depending on the actions made. "I'll teach you, meet me back here at the same time tomorrow," is all I say before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.