Once Upon A Time ~ Book 1

Chapter 101 - The Queen Of Hearts

The Queen and Jefferson ran up the path in the midst of the high grass and toad stools.
"The Looking Glass, there it is! Come........" said Jefferson as the Queen stopped in her tracks. He turned and looked at her impatiently. He walked from the looking glass qnd toward her. "What are you doing? We can't stop now. We got to get out of here."
"There's something I need to do first." she took a knife and cut a little from a toad stool. "A little snack." she walked towards the looking glass.
"Are you mad? Do you know what the food here does?"
"I'm well aware." she placed the chest down on the path and opened it, putting the piece of toad stool inside and quickly stepping back. Then suddenly purple smoke came from the chest and drifted in the air and by the looking glass the Queen's father, Henry appeared, smiling.
Jefferson stared at him in shock.
"Oh, Daddy!" said Regina, running towards him and putting her arms around him.
"This is what she took from you? Your father?" asked Jefferson.
"The Queen of Hearts has always seen me as a threat." she said, turning to him, her voice deeper. "So she wanted some leverage....... I got it back."
The gaurds voices could be heard in the distance, calling and shouting.
"The Queen's soldiers. We must hurry." said her father, takin her arm.
"You knew only two can go through the hat."
The Queen turned back to him and glared at him.
He scoffed. "Which is why you didn't tell me about your father."
She stepped closer. "It was the only way to make sure you would help me."
Jefferson stepped forward, his arms held high, rage in his eyes, but the Queen waved her hand and the ground beneath him allowed his feet to sink and stick into the ground.
"Wait, wait! Wait! Please!" he called as they walked towards the looking glass.
They stopped.
"My daughter........ My Grace. She's.......waiting for me. I promised her I'd be home for tea."
The Queen turned on her heal. "A promise which you now have broken." she stepped closer. "If you truly cared for your daughter, you never would have left her in the first place." she glared at him, shaking her head. "You were right, Jefferson....... You don't abandon family." she turned back to her father and took his hand.
"No!" screamed Jefferson as they stepped into the looking glass and disappeared. "No!" he breathed.
Footsteps approached him and the gaurds walked towards him, lead by a man in fine red clothes and a hat. They walked towards him and the man leading looked him up at down then around at the gaurds.
Jefferson didn't even finch, he just stared in hopelessness at the looking glass, the light drained from his eyes, his mouth dropped in shock.
"Take him to the Queen." themes ordered and tapped his hands.
Two gaurds took his arms and dragged him backwards, as he still stared ahead, refusing to move.

The gaurds walked him accross the courtyard in the Queen's dark, large castle, with banners having with a printed heart. Beyond the gates behind them there was land to be seen floating in the blue sky.
They ascourted him to the Queen who sat in her thrown, wearing a red gown and a vale hiding her face. Next to stood the man and in the courtyard, men and woman were lined up, all of them wearing red and decorative, dark masks hiding their faces.
The gaurds bowed their and stepped away.
The Queen of Hearts held up a long black trumpet like instrument and whispered into it. The man held the other end up to his ear and listened carefully.
"Her Majesty says she knows you're responsable for helping to steal from her." said the man.
"The Queen, she trucked me......" The people in the courtyard gasped in shock and the Queen of Hearts stomped her foot.
"That woman's name is Regina." said the man slowly and sternly. "There is only one Queen. The Queen of Hearts."
"Yes. Of course. My apologies. Now, please........"
The Queen began to whisper into the turkey again.
"Her Majesty wishes to know how you got to this world." said the man. "How did you come to Wonderland?"
"If I tell you, will you let me go home to my daughter?"
He chuckled.
The Queen whispered a little louder this time into the trumpet. "Off with his head........"
Jefferson's eyes widened in fear and one of the gaurds, wearing a beaked mask walked towards him, a hand guillotine in his hands. He held it up and stricked, cutting his head from his body, which fell to the ground with a thud, his head held up by the gaurd who grasped his hair.
Jefferson opened his eyes in shock, his head dangling, blond dripping from his head, onto his body on the ground beneath him. He looked at the gaurd walk away, the blade of his hand guillotine blood stained. He gasped in fear. "I'm alive. I'm alive!" he screamed in fear.
"If you wish your body back, then answer. How did you get here?" said the man.
"The hat. The hat. We used my hat." he stammered.
"Where's the hat now?"
"She took it....... Regina."
"If all you require to travel to your homeland is this magic hat, then surely you can make another?"
"I can't. A hat without magic is just a hat. It won't work."
"Then there's your task. Get it to work."