build higher walls around me; [Tag;Regina] *Past

[bellefrench]

build higher walls around me,

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- - - - - - CHANGE EVERY LOCK AND KEY.
NOTHING LASTS, NOTHINGS HOLDS ALL OF ME. MY HEART'S FAR, FAR AWAY HOME AND FREE.[/color][/font]

You can't keep us apart forver. I'll fight for him! I will never stop fighting for him!

It had been nearly a week now since she had been taken into custody by the Queen and her soldiers. At least, she thought it to be a week. She had tried her best to keep track of the passage of time, but it had proved difficult those first few days. After she had been stripped of all her belongings (most of which were pilfered clothes which had once belonged to Rumplestiltskin himself), she had been dragged up a seemingly endless spiral staircase to her cell. During the climb up the tower steps, she had tried multiple times to wrench herself from the grasps of the two soldiers escorting here, but all attempts were in vain.

The cell itself had been larger than she had expected -- at least double, if not triple, the size of her cell at the Dark Castle. Despite it's overall increase in size and the large window overhead, the cell itself had a drab, cold and sinister feel to it. This made any attempts to rest rather difficult. Let us simply say, sleep did not come easily those first few nights. She ate very little. If food had not been vital to her survival, she might have refused it all together. She nibbled at each item on the tray that was brought to her cell, eating just enough to keep her strength up before abandoning it by the door.

After her first night, she began examining her surroundings very closely, seeking out any reflective surfaces, covering them as best she could with torn strips of cloth from the dingy blanket she had been given, or the skirt of her prison garb. Belle was certain that the Queen had eyes and ears everywhere in this facility, but at the very least, she felt a little more secure even if it was a wasted gesture. Rumplestiltskin would have been proud, she thought, to see that she had remembered that minute detail and sought ways to use it to her advantage. His clever little Belle.

She clung to her thoughts when they turned Rumplestiltskin and her father, to those who had been left behind. Her memories of them were comforting, in their own way. They fueled the hope within her that refused to be extinguished -- the hope that one day she would see them again. She often envisioned and imagined her homecoming to the Dark Castle -- the look on Rumplestiltskin's face when he would return to find her in his trophy room, clearing away the rather thick layers of dust that had settled over his precious belongings in her absence. Then the awkward conversation that would follow, each of them laying their hearts bear. And finally, the reconciliation both of them had been longing for...

Her lips quirked upward into a small, weak smile as the thoughts lingered, playing themselves out over and over behind her eyelids. She heaved a small sigh, leaning her head back against the cool metal of the cell wall. She pulled her legs up to her chest, wrapping her selder arms about her knees as she simply sat on the hard cot, lost in her own little world.
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[Regina Mills]

There were few things more misguided and foolish than true love, in the Evil Queen's opinion.

For all its supposed power, it could not protect one from heartache - it could not even break a curse, the way it was supposed to...though perhaps it was solely Rumpelstiltskin who was responsible for that. He was a monster - like her. Was he even capable of love? Had he ever been? Regina knew that she had been, once, but she was no longer certain that this was the case - those days seemed like a distant memory.

It hardly mattered now. What did matter was that, once again, she had the opportunity to gain the upper hand over the Dark One - to learn his flaws, his weaknesses. Depowering him by means of his 'true love' certainly hadn't worked, and Regina had been fairly displeased at first. Now, however...now she had the woman who'd spent months with him locked up in her dungeons. Whether what Belle and Rumpelstiltskin'd had could be considered true love or not, it was quite evident to the queen that they'd formed...some sort of connection. Regina had firmly believed it was one-sided, that the imp was just toying with this girl's affections for his own amusement, before she'd seen the pain in his eyes when she'd told him that Belle was dead. He hadn't been quite quick enough to hide that much from her. And so Regina was certain, in the time they'd spent together, that this young woman must have learned something of value. Even with all the time she herself had spent with him when she was younger - when he'd taught her magic - she'd only ever seen a man who was cold and cruel and manipulative.

Perhaps Belle had seen something a little more vulnerable. And that could be exploited.

But not...too quickly, no. The girl was stubborn - and brave, Regina knew that much. Before she'd be willing to cooperate, she would need to be broken. And months and months in a cell with nothing but darkness and your own loneliness was certainly enough to break a person, but Regina was impatient. Paying her prisoner a little visit or two, she thought, might be just the thing to speed up the process.

The guard had his orders - he remained posted outside the cell, only moving to unlock the door and then close it behind her as she entered. In her hands was a small plate of bread, and a variety of fruits and cheeses - food of higher quality than they'd normally waste on a prisoner. But this was a special occasion. "The guards tell me you've barely been touching your food. I thought you might enjoy something a little more substantial than the scraps that are typically brought to our prisoners." Regina spoke after a moment, her falsely light tone edged with just a trace of amusement. Belle looked none to comfortable, sitting there on her cot - but she didn't look entirely hopeless. Not yet. "We can't have you...wasting away in here, after all." She was certain her supposed kindness would be met with no small amount of wariness - but deception was not her main intention, here. All the better to unnerve her - to make her wonder if perhaps the food was poisoned (it wasn't - there wasn't even an apple on the plate), or fret over what Regina's true intentions were. To dangle the idea of just a smidgen of compassion right in front of her face, made all the more cruel by the fact that they both knew it was false.

It was all part of the game.