It was the pain that jolted Maleficent awake on that fateful morning. Every muscle in her back seemed to ignite as great waves of agony rippled from her shoulder blades all the way down her spine in rapid succession. Red lips twisted into a soundless scream, there was no air left in her lungs left to cry out with and she'd forgotten how to breathe. Her back arched violently as every fiber of her being urged her to smother this awful throbbing. She found that her spine was able to move without hindrance. This was wrong. It was then that the fairy became acutely aware of the unsettling emptiness sitting between her shoulders. Green eyes widened. Fear bloomed in the pit of her stomach as Maleficent frantically groped at the space behind her neck. Her searching hands did nothing but comb through empty air. There was no questioning what this meant, but shocked tears still swam in the fairy's eyes as her hands encircled the bloodied stumps where her wings had been severed.
Maleficent's lungs remembered what they were made for and strangled sobs polluted the air with every heaving breath taken by the fairy as her shaking hands continued to grope for the comfort of her stolen wings. She'd never needed the feeling of a feather's softness beneath her fingertips so desperately.
'Please.'
Empty. It was all empty. Even her fucking insides felt hollow. The ghost of Stefan's loving touches from the previous night burned into her as if his skin were made of iron. All of it had been a lie. Sobs turned into cries.
'Why did he do this to me?!'
The fairy's screams of grief could be heard from miles around. Could she even call herself a fairy now?