Mal's Punishment
(A "Descendants" Fanfiction)
By Shawn Campbell
"The world may be against you, but at least your parents love you…right?"
Though this statement would not be posed to her until weeks later, it resonates deeply at the current moment as a definite negative. Mal did not feel loved as she lay at the bottom of the dark closet, hands bound behind her back and her mouth gagged with an olive cloth pulled between her teeth and tied behind her purple hair.
This was one of her mother's punishments, dished out whenever Mal didn't meet her strict and nigh unreachable standards. This week's wrath was incurred when Maleficent's own daughter was unable to memorize every line of the spell book.
"Do you understand how important this is?" Maleficient spat at her daughter as she grabbed her by the back of her hair, pulling her close. Mal yelped in pain and her mother gripped tighter.
"You go to Auradon in three weeks!" she hissed into Mal's left ear. Mal flinched, trying to maintain her posture despite her mother holding her slightly down.
"What's the big deal?" cried Mal, toeing the line between blatant disrespect and realism, "Even you don't have the entire thing memorized!"
Evidently this was the equivalent of cursing her mother with profanity of a poisonous sort, for she received a rapid and painful smack across the face. She screamed in pain and fell to the floor, bringing a hand to her own face to soothe the red area. Maleficent yanked up Mal by the back of her shirt, exposing her bare back that had scars from previous punishments that her mother had dealt to her. Evidence of scratches, whip scars, and bruises from beatings with her mother's staff. She tried her best to succeed, but she felt like she could never live up to her mother's expectations. She also felt that she was her mother's own personal punching bag, taking all of the agony her mother felt about being banished from her native kingdom and stripped of all of her powers. She may not control the incredible magic that she used to wield, but there was one thing she could control: the future of her daughter.
Producing a length of rope from inside her robe, she began binding Mal's wrists behind her back. Mal winced as the abrasive rope cut into her wrists. She would have to wear bracelet whenever she visited Jay, Evie, and Carlos. They need not know what is transpiring right at this instance. She fought back tears as her mother pulled the bindings tighter, tugging on them to ensure that Mal could not escape.
After finishing the binding, she dragged her daughter over to the closet. Realizing that the closet was her destination, Mal instinctively was about to drill her feet into the floor, preventing her mom from bring her to her "time-out spot." She had spent far too many hours of her life in this dark closet, cut off from the world and left with nothing but her stinging wounds and her tears. The only thought that stopped her brain from fighting back against the movement was her knowledge that there was no way that she could win this. Each of the gang, Jay, Carlos, Evie, and Mal, were the human voodoo dolls for their parents' true enemies, and they were utterly helpless to their sadistic wills. Evie, the beautiful porcelain doll with sapphire hair, flawless complexion and posh sense of fashion, secretly cries herself to sleep most nights. Her mother, the Evil Queen, instilled a fear of physical imperfection with her. Every day is a constant struggle to look beautiful that she is not able to live her life. She is her mother's doll, to remain immobile and to be beautiful forever. To lose this, Mal feared for Evie's safety.
Maleficient cursed Mal's pathetic existence as she dragged her to the closet, producing a length of olive green cloth. With her left hand, she grabbed Mal's mouth and squeezed.
"Open wide, bite down, and shut up!" spat Maleficent as Mal opened her mouth and regretfully accepted the green cloth to be pulled through her teeth and tied behind her head.
Before shoving her into the darkness, Maleficent grabbed her daughter by the mouth once again.
"No one back talks me. Not even my worthless daughter." She smacked Mal across the face once again. It stung, but Mal was slightly grateful that the gag absorbed a portion of the blow. She was shoved into the closest and the door was slammed shut and locked.
Mal bit down on the gag as she struggled to swallow saliva to soothe her hoarse throat. She moved her wrists slightly, testing the strength of her mother's knot in the hopes that it might be crudely done due to her mother's haste. She tried to get the knot done but to no avail. Perhaps it was for the best. If her mother caught her trying to make her situation less painful, her mother would see to it that her bindings and gag were more extensive the next round. She had no intention of welcoming the ruby red ball gag back into her mouth, complete with the straitjacket. Well, perhaps the jacket would be less of a strain on her wrists; it would not leave a mark.
After a bit of struggling, she decided to lie down as best as she could on the cold stone floor. She considered herself more grateful for this decidedly meager punishment today. Though it may seem like utter torture to any regular resident of Aurodon, her punishments this year ranged on more intense scales. Last week, she had accidently broken her mother's broom while attempting to sweep her mother's potion's lab. In retaliation, she had found herself bent over the lab stool, with her purple jeans around her ankles, exposing her apple green panties. Her hands were bound with steel shackles, chained to the bottom of the stool. She was biting down on a thick dishrag that her mother had jammed into her mouth. She tongued it and gagged. It had a foul, bitter taste. She had no idea what it had soaked up before it now soaked up her spittle. She was now receiving multiple licks across her posterior. Her mother had splintered the wood to make it more painful. After enough hits that she deemed necessary, her mother had dragged her to the closet, not bothering to pull up her daughter's pants.
Now, you would think that she would have been released within the hour; surely within the night. As it turns out, she was completely forgotten about. Her only existence was to be her mother's focal point for her frustration and flawed ambition. Mal was forgotten about when she served no purpose. She had Evie to thank for her rescue. After hours and many tears, she closed her eyes quickly when the blinding light hit her when the door opened. After adjusting her eyes to the light, she saw Evie standing in the doorway, gasping. She rapidly knelt to the ground and pulled up Mal's pants to give her immediate decency, simultaneously pulling the rag from her mouth. Mal gasped for air.
"Thank you…Thank you Evie…" groaned Mal, trying her best to sit up. Evie, fighting back tears, tried to use her lockpick to undo Mal's shackles.
"How long were you in here this time? I wish I could say that I can't believe your mom did this to you, but let's face it…our lives are wretched," she said, sniffling.
Weakly, Mal replied, "Word on the street is that that new prince, Ben, is going to be King of Aurodon, and his first proclamation is to bring us kids from this Evil Isle to Aurodon to become model citizens of society."
"We shouldn't get our hopes up, Mal." Said Evie, with a sad glance. They had lost hope through the years of abuse, and it wouldn't do to get them up for a rumor.
"It's more than a rumor," Mal said, rising from the floor, "Mother's punishing me harder than usual because she wants me to memorize her spellbook for when we get to land and I get my magic back."
"She wants you to use her magic to bring her back to the mainland?"
"Yes she does, but it'll be a cold day in Hell when I let that monster regain her power."
"You better not let her hear you say that."
"What more can she DO to me?" cried Mal.