Regina sighed and leaned back against the wall, sinking down to the ground in front of 'her portrait'. Once upon a time she would never have deigned to sit on the floor of this place. It was filthy. Frankly, Regina had never seen anybody clean the floor the whole time she'd been trapped in this place. And she'd been here for seventeen years. She shook her head angrily. Just as she'd been about to cast the Dark Curse, that obnoxious Blue Fairy had tried to kill her. She'd failed, but Regina had been so shocked that something had gone wrong with the curse. Instead of being placed in a small town where she had complete control, she'd been trapped inside this...place. She still wasn't sure where she was. All she could tell was that it was dimly lit, full of poorly made and maintained automatons, and strange, small horseless carriages carried and ever changing crowd of people through. From the snippets of conversation she'd heard over the years, she'd learned that she was in something that was supposedly Dracula's Castle, located in the city of Lagoon. However, she knew that couldn't be right because she'd been to Dracula's Castle and this was far too dirty, small, and well, poorly lit. Besides, Vlad would never allow such poor automatons or so many peasants to be in his castle. And he certainly would have visited at some point during the past seventeen years.

Regina punched the wall next to her, only for her fist to go right through it. That was the worst part of being trapped here. She was completely impotent. Not only could she not actually touch the world around her, nobody could see or hear her. It was awful. Being trapped here, that was one thing. She could have handled that. There'd been a time when she was stuck inside of a screaming painting at the end of the entry hall, and she'd survived that. But being incapable of doing anything? Being less able to affect the world than a breeze? There was nothing worse than that. There was a movement at the other end of the hall, and Regina looked up to see the doors opening to reveal a young blonde woman wearing the blue shirt and khaki trousers of the people who worked around the castle.

Emma scowled as her small flashlight went out. The thing was a complete piece of junk, but that's what she should have expected from a flashlight that was only six inches long. As she walked through the entry hall, straining her eyes for any sign of something that could pose a problem to the carriages, the portrait screamed, making her jump. "Dammit Sarah!" She snapped. She always forgot about the motion sensitive picture, so she'd given it a name so she'd feel slightly less weird about yelling at it.

"My name isn't Sara." A female voice muttered. "It's Regina." Emma froze.

"Who said that?" She called anxiously, looking around. Regina stared at her in disbelief and stood up.

"You can hear me?" She demanded incredulously, rushing to the girl's side.

"Aw crap." Emma moaned. "I knew this job would drive me crazy, I just didn't think it would happen on the third week." Regina scowled.

"I assure you, I am no hallucination Emma." She'd spent too long effectively alone, she was not letting her one chance at human contact to think herself crazy and leave. Emma looked confusedly in the direction of the voice.

"How do you know my name?" Emma demanded. Regina sighed and pointed. Once again, a useless gesture since the younger woman couldn't see her, but it was instinctive.

"It's on your badge." She reminded Emma, indicating the rectangle of plastic on the collar of the girl's shirt.

"Oh, right." Emma said sheepishly. "So...you're a ghost?"

"More or less."

"Did you die here or something?" Emma asked, trying to remember if she'd ever heard of someone being killed in Dracula's Castle. Regina shook her head.

"No. I was killed in a castle, but it was a far different one, clean and large enough to actually be a castle." She paused. "Should we start walking? If I remember correctly you need to continue checking the castle and the enchantments that keep the carriages moving." Emma gave a strange look in Regina's general direction.

"Enchantments?" She asked, walking along the track.

"Oh, right, no magic in this world." Regina said, following her. She'd momentarily forgotten why this specific world had been the destination of the Dark Curse. Emma frowned.

"This world? You're not an alien ghost, are you?"

"Alien?" Regina asked, also frowning.

"You know, from outer space? Up there with the stars?"

"No. I do come from another world, but not in the way you're talking about. Another name for the worlds are realms." Emma gave a blank look, and Regina sighed. "I've also heard them referred to as dimensions." Emma started.

"Wait, seriously? Alternate dimensions are real, they're not just comic book stuff?"

"I have no idea what a comic book is, but I assure you, the other worlds are quite real."

"Wait, if you're from another world, why are you here? Does everybody who dies in your world come here as ghosts?"

"I doubt it. No, I was casting a spell to bring me and a large group of people from our world to this one when I was killed."

"Why would you want to come here? There was magic where you come from!" Regina hesitated, and decided to give Emma a sanitized version of her history.

"In my land I was a queen. There was a group of people who'd attacked me and then used magic to make it so that I could not hurt them in our world. So I found a spell that would create a prison in this world. It would have made a small town that none of us would have been able to leave. In addition, I would have been the mayor and the only one to remember our world, making me the warden. However, one of my enemies managed to get past my guards and stabbed me in the back with a dagger just as I had begun to cast the spell. I lashed out with my magic and while I managed to cast the spell, the only thing to come into this world was my soul." Emma raised an eyebrow as she ducked down to fit through the tunnel at the end of the ride. Technically she wasn't supposed to go through it, but she didn't want to break off her conversation with Regina.

"So you've been trapped in here for how long?"

"Almost eighteen years." Regina said morosely, following her.

"Huh. Funny, that's how old I am." Emma commented. She stepped out of the ride onto the 'front porch', and then paused. "They found me on the side of the road as a baby. Did you...?"

"Of course not." Regina said quickly, stopping just short of the exit. "Why would I bring a baby but leave my body? Besides, if my spell had brought you here you wouldn't have aged."

"Ok." Emma looked from the general direction of Regina, to the control panel for sending the carriages through. "Do you mind if I keep working?"

"No, go ahead."

"Thanks." Emma said, turning and sending a carriage through. Regina stretched out a hand, only for it to be stopped by the invisible wall that was in place at every exit. She scowled. She'd hoped that Emma being able to hear her had meant that she'd be able to leave soon, but apparently that was not the case.

"What is this place?" Regina asked, looking around. She'd gone to the main entrance and exit before of course; but she'd never paid much attention to what was going in the 'front porch'. "I know that it's not really Dracula's Castle, and that it's located in the city of Lagoon, but that's all I know." Emma looked incredulous.

"Seriously? You've been here for almost eighteen years and you don't know what this is?"

"May I remind you that I'm confined to the inside of this building Emma, and you're the only one who can hear me." Regina growled, irritated.

"Right, sorry." Emma said with a wince. "Well, first off, Lagoon's not a city, it's an amusement park. People pay money to come here and ride the rides and stuff."

"People pay you money to go through this dingy, dark building full of poorly made automatons?"

"Well, not just this place. We have roller coasters, Ferris wheels, and other stuff too."

"What's a roller coaster?" Regina asked, confused. Emma frowned.

"It's hard to explain..." She said slowly, thinking. Regina shook her head.

"Don't worry, it's not important. It's not as though I'll ever be able to see one." Emma gave a pitying look in the direction of where she thought Regina was. "Why are you looking at that owl automaton like that?" Regina asked with a frown. "Is something wrong with it?" Emma flushed and turned in the right direction.

"Sorry, my hearing's not great." Regina realized that Emma's look was one of pity.

"I don't need your pity Emma." She snapped, bristling.

"Well too bad, you've got it." Emma replied stubbornly. Regina chuckled. 'This could be interesting' she decided.