Hello to you! This is my first one-shot that I will have actually posted, as I tend to get too anxious to actually post anything, but here we go!
A very young Mal has a night terror, which is much worse than a normal nightmare, if you were unaware. Here's how she and Maleficent deal with this random occurrence.
Mal was not a sunshine person, she much preferred the moon to the sun, and because of this she would go to bed as late as she possibly could most nights. And Maleficent? Well, Maleficent could honestly care less what time her child went to bed, as long as she was out of her hair for the night and would not bother her in any way, shape, or form. The less she had to deal with the child, the better. And of course Mal going to bed as late as she could meant she'd sleep a lot of the day, also a plus for Maleficent, if her child was asleep then she was free to do whatever she pleased, without an annoying little ingrate following her around. She was like a dog, no matter how much you tried to get rid of the thing, she still always came.
So imagine Maleficent's reaction when her child suddenly begins screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night, the sun hasn't even began to rise and yet Mal was being as loud as she possibly could. There was banging on the walls, and of course her ear piercing screams; if it isn't already clear, it was loud. Much louder than Maleficent would prefer it to be at any time, let alone at this hour. When the screaming didn't stop (along with the banging still going on as well), Maleficent decided she needed to take action and punish the child accordingly. She knew the rules. Of course it delighted Maleficent to a degree that her child was acting out, she was truly becoming her nasty little girl. Or so she thought. When Maleficent reached the room her young daughter, who was no older than six, occupied, she noticed the child was in bed. Maleficent's eyebrows furrowed in both confusion and frustration, what was with this child? Mal's eyes were wide open, yet she was thrashing around in her bed, occasionally letting out another ear piercing scream.
Not many people had electricity on the Isle of The Lost, and Maleficent was one of those people. She had no electricity, nor did she have any gas, meaning the house stayed quite cold during the fall nights. She honestly didn't see the need for any of it, Mal would bring her wood to stoke the fire in her room and Maleficent didn't need to do anything. Much better, and easier! Though Mal's room didn't often have a fire of it's own, only if the child deserved it, and Maleficent was sure she wasn't going to deserve it for quite a while after this night. She rolled her eyes and made her way to her daughter, who suddenly shot up and was now sitting upright in her bed, breathing so fast she was nearing hyperventilation.
"Curse you, child!" Maleficent said as she was taken aback by the young girls sudden movement.
Not much scared Maleficent, hardly anything at all really, but being in a dark room (only lit by a small candle) with a screaming child would put anyone on edge.
"Mal!" She yelled, hoping to gain her daughters attention. But her attempt was in vain for the child just began to scream again, not seeming to be aware of her mothers presence.
How long has this been going on? Maleficent wondered to herself, something else that was rare in a house on the Isle was clocks, and Maleficent didn't have that either. There was an old grandfather clock in the main room, but it had long since stopped being functional. She estimated it to be about ten minutes since her sleep had been disrupted.
Though Maleficent was unaware of what was happening to the child, seeming to care less each second she had to endure whatever it was, little Mal was going through something terrifying.
Someone was calling her name over and over again, and Mal had tried to make her way towards whoever it was. The voice was deep, much deeper than any voice she had ever heard. The next thing the little green-eyed child knew, she was strapped into a chair and unable to move. She was in a room, a room that she felt she knew, but couldn't place. The floor was made of rotted wood, and the walls were made of a sickly green paper. But wait, what was that on the walls? The paper had been torn, it looked like fingernails only bigger.. Was it claws? Mal felt her heart stop momentarily, and when it's beating continued it was like she had just ran from the butcher after stealing a piece of meat. No, she couldn't be scared. Being scared was a weakness, and she, Maleficent's daughter, was not weak. This little predicament would not scare her, she would remain strong. But before she could finish building up her strength, someone, or something appeared in the room she was currently occupying. Mal was completely confused, how did that happen? There was no magic on the Isle, she knew firsthand, listening to her mother ramble on about her revenge and how she couldn't wait to be able to use her magic again.
The deformed creature, which had originally been just long fingers with long, thick nails, began to transform. He looked somewhat like a wolf, only bigger and more threatening. Mal wasn't much afraid of wolves, she could easily outsmart them, they couldn't even climb a tree. But this was different, this was an animal that was much larger than the one she was used to. Could you even call it a wolf? She tried to pull out of her restraints, but they just got tighter, now it was hard to breathe. Mal looked up and met the eyes of the wolf, who's eyes were now a bright yellow. She couldn't let her fear show, but she couldn't control the feeling that was building up inside of her much longer. Suddenly it pounced and Mal fell backwards in her chair, the wolf-creature above her, snarling in her face. Just one of the wolf-creatures hands seemed to be longer than her entire arm, and she couldn't help but wonder what if she couldn't get out of here. 'Stop! You can't think that way! What would mom say? You're weak! It's never can I, it's when I!' Flew through her mind, but it was no use. She was terrified, she was weak. Mal would forever have shamed her mother, probably the worst thing she could even think of ever happening. Her mom would never be proud of her, and all thanks to this wolf-creature.
Mal was snapped out of her thoughts as she seen the wolf-creature lift it's strange looking hand up to her face, almost looking as if he was shushing her, before he traced a small line against her neck. Mal swallowed hard, even being as young as six, she knew this couldn't end well, that it wouldn't end well. She was a goner. The wolf-creature grabbed ahold of one of Mal's arms, allowing his claw to dig only slightly into it, and though it was a shallow cut, Mal had never felt a worse pain. The strange stinging turned into an intense burning, she looked down at her arm only to see that it was bright red, probably turning quickly into an infection, and let out a scream.
Maleficent couldn't handle yet another scream, she wished the child would snap out of whatever trance she was in. She grabbed hold of a purple lock of hair and yanked, hoping maybe it would wake the child up, but not-so-secretly enjoying being cruel to another. If she had her powers here, she would simply soundproof the room and let the child deal with whatever it was on her own, while Maleficent herself slept. Oh, sleep. What a wonderful thing it was. If only she could be asleep right now, but instead she must endure whatever torture her daughter was giving her.
Mal's arm fell off not long after she recieved the scratch. She was missing an arm! And the wolf-creature was just showing her a very terrifying smile. You could only tell it was a smile because you saw the teeth, nothing else seemed to be smiling. Suddenly Mal was released of her binds, she shot up out of the chair and ran towards a wall, thinking there was a door - it quickly disappeared. She pounded against the wall, hoping that maybe she would somehow escape by pounding, maybe there was a hidden switch! There was a sudden screech and she turned around to see -
And Mal woke up, confused as to what happened. She looked around the room to see her mother staring at her, obviously annoyed, obviously angry. Mal sunk down deeper into her bed, hoping that whatever her mother was angry at her for, she could get out of it. But her attempting to sink away only annoyed her mother more.
"What was that for?" Maleficent yelled.
Mal was completely confused, the last thing she knew she was laying in her bed. She didn't know when her mother got there, or what she did that her mother could accuse her of.
"Don't look at me like that. You've been screaming your head off for at least twenty minutes!"
Again, Mal didn't know what she was talking about, so she just shrugged. Her mothers eyes began to glow green, and Mal knew she needed to just listen to what her mother needed to say. Even if she didn't understand what was going on, she hadn't been screaming at all. She knew better.
Maleficent walked over to the bed and grabbed her daughters chin, forcing her to look her in the eye. "I had to come in here and watch you scream, and have some kind of tantrum while you ignored me!"
"I don't know what happened." Mal squeaked, not wanting to test her mothers anger. The only thing Mal was truly afraid of was her mother, she could be quite cruel when she wanted to be.
Maleficent growled in frustration. "You need to obey me, and when I say you must be quiet and not bother me at night, then that is what you must do!"
Mal just nodded while her mother headed back to bed, she couldn't remember a thing and that was the honest truth. All she knew was she was no longer tired, so she climbed out of bed and headed out her window and up to the roof to enjoy the last little bit of moon that this night had to offer.
She hoped she could eventually understand what her mother was upset about, but sometimes these things happened. Her mother would just go off on her for no reason, at least this time wasn't as bad as the rest.
Okay so I hope you guys enjoyed that! Considering it's my first Decendants fic, and my first one-shot I'd appreciate some reviews. What you liked, what you didn't like, and what I could do to improve! No flames, just some constructive criticism.
Maybe I'll see you all soon with another fic!