Chapter 5
She took her favorite white scarf and stuffed it in her bag. Quickly, she slipped her shoes on and got out of her room. It was Friday, six o'clock, almost seven, still dark outside. She had showered just minutes before. She had brushed her teeth... or perhaps she hadn't, she didn't quite remember. She walked down the halls, strode past every door of every bedroom. She got down the stairs, not looking were she set her feet. On her way to the entrance, she walked past her mother's office; it was already lit. She didn't stop.
The headmistress got up of her desk, hearing her daughter's faint steps, and tried to get to her before she exited the dorm, "Jane, where are you going?"
The rushing girl barely turned to look at her, "I'm gonna see Dad."
She left.
XxXxX
Evie was sent at the palliative hospice of St Cassiodore, in King George Town. There, two nurses and a doctor, Mr. Arkan, had studied her case very thorougly: such a thing was, indeed, a rather rare thing to observe in Auradon, especially since magic was replaced by technology, and biology, and astrophysics, and biotechnology, and nanotechnology... Dr. Arkan noticed her wounds were already starting to mend, but what wounds; fissures, as the one that could be seen on a broken vase, clumsily pieced back together by a eight year old. Furrows creasing her skin on her entire body, within which appeared the pink of her flesh and vestiges of dried blood. The nurses made sure none of her wounds would get infected. The doctor ordered to let her rest, while he would try to figure out her case.
Prince Benjamin had in plan to pay a visit to Evie. He knew Mal was at the hospice already, and felt guilty of not having accompanied her there when she was so worried about her friend. But the Queen had asked him to come to the Castle for a visit; she needed to have discussion with him. Given the rigidity and coldness of the message he had received, he knew it wasn't something nice she wanted to talk about. The time for him to forsake is teenage life and take hold of the power was approaching, and his parents needed to make sure he would make a good and righteous King.
He entered his mother's room. She seemed to be putting something in her huge ebony cupboard.
"Looking for something?" he said.
The Queen jolted with surprise, and quickly slammed the doors of the closet shut.
"You startled me," she whispered and placed her hand on her chest, "Sit." She indicated the armchair next to her commode. She looked very worried - a little vertical wrinkle at the center of her frown trenched her forehead. Ben saw her delicate fingers wrap around a golden key, clenched so hard her palm went white. She marched up to her son and sat on her bed. He waited for her to talk. But the silence, the raw quietness which came instead of the sound of her voice was louder than anything she was to pronounce. Something was wrong, he could feel it. He could feel the tension floating in the air. The key was still resting peacefully in her tight grip. She looked down on it. Eventually, a small, sad, smile blossomed on her face, and she broke the silence.
"I hear you have befriended one of the islanders," she lifted her chin and looked at her son, "I am glad you were able to get along with each other. In the end, I believe bringing those youngsters to Auradon was a wonderful idea. Are they enjoying living here?"
"Well, they're still getting used to it. But it bet they love it already."
"Why, how great. I feared they would feel uneasy, this being quite a big change to their usual lifestyle," she smiled. Then she sighed.
"Mother," Ben inquired, "is there something you want to talk to me about?"
Queen Belle hesitated. The key was rubbing her fingers, "Well. About Mal. It seemed that you two are very close to each other."
"Yeah, she's real cool. We actually have quite a lot of things in common," he explained, but he felt the Queen wasn't paying attention. Her stare focused on the windows behind him, and seem to be blurred by a veil of dullness and blankness. He kept talking, but it felt like he was alone in the room. "I'm sure you'd love her."
She shook her head.
"I'm sure you would! She's -"
"Prince Benjamin!" she snapped. Finally she looked at her son, right into the eye. "What about Princess Audrey? She is your girlfriend, you cannot act this close with Mal in front of her and upset her thoughtlessly! Have you not any manners?" She grabbed her forehead and and rubbed her temples with her index.
"What?" The prince frowned. "Me and Audrey broke up."
The Queen shot him a death glaze.
"Prince Benjamin. You and Audrey belong together-"
" - No we don't! - "
"The King and I even thought you would get married after your coronation."
"What?! Are you insane, mom?"
"Prince Benjamin! How dare you address your mother the Queen in such manners!" She jolted up her bed, like a fury, "From now on, as the soon-to-be King, you are to talk formally; rid your mouth of this foul language, it has become much too unbecoming! Regarding Princess Audrey, I demand you to re-kindle with her: you might not understand now, but this is for your best interests... Apologize to her."
"What are you talking about? I'm not apologizing to her, she's a horrible person!" He got up and stepped towards her, "Why do you want me to be with her anyway? She's selfish, shallow, and the rudest person I've ever met!"
"ENOUGH!"
Eyes bulging and veins creeping and pulsing underneath her skin, she tensed her whole ridiculously petite frame and nearly crushed the key, still melting in her firy tight shut fist.
"It is not for you to choose!" She turned around and strode accross her room. She had decided she wouldn't face him anymore for the day. She wouldn't make the conversation any longer and she wouldn't tell him. Not now. The King and her had enough on their minds already... With the coronation coming up, and the arrival of the 'islanders', as she liked to call them, many problems had started to surface and were threatening them on a political level.
Recently, on the Isle of the Lost, many riots had broke out - caused by some cruddy rascals who were utterly pissed they hadn't be able to get out of this mudhole instead of the four lucky ones - at the Goblin Wharf dock; the only place of exchange between Auradon and the Isle. Products were shipped in every day and, very occasionaly, they used it to mail letters from the realm to the island. Never the other way around. Being the only way in (and thus the only way out), and the only place of near inefficiency of the enchanted force field, it was the main target of attack of those who desperately wanted to flee: groups of yougsters would spread on the dock with sticks, stones and handmade weapons, and hit on every motioned being in order to seize the wheel and sail away. Guards always stopped them from getting on the boats, so they resorted to set fire to the ships and the barrils of mercandise, which hadn't yet been knocked open, with slingshots and rocks smeared with pitch. The poor fools were only making their case worse by wasting their own food and badly spoiling the ships that provided for them. They would run back home at some point, leaving behind them a big mess of burned wooden boards floating pitifully towards the Kingdom, and sludges of now unedible food that the crows were eyeing up and considering for dinner.
The lark had been lasting for several days, now, but it wouldn't be long before the King had enough with the joke and slammed his fist accross his desk. He was considering blockading the port for a while so they could learn the lesson. But the Queen thought it was to harsh of a punishment, inflicting starvation on a whole people when only some critters had done wrong.
She sighed and held her forehead, feeling a wind of anxiety blowing over.
"You may leave, now."
The Prince hesitated for a moment. His mother aswell, who thought of telling everything that was going wrong in the kingdom. After all, he was going to be King soon. But she remained silent, and Ben exited the room and shut the door. He then headed for King George Town, ignoring his mother disapproval.
Once he had left, Queen Belle headed towards her cupboard again. She unlocked it and took a box hidden far behing a stack of clothes. It was a leather box, kept shut by a golden clasp. She set it on her desk and swung it open with her thumbs. The box opened wide on a old bister paper sheet. The Queen picked it up, an umpteenth time in the week, and read it again.
"Letter to the King of Auradon, King Adam the Mighty, and to the beloved Queen of Auradon, Queen Belle the Wise.
"On behalf of all the great names that have once ruled these lands, and are now yielding the throne to a one and only King for the welfare of the people, we demand that, in the name of equality and loyalty, the Kingdom will not only be ruled by one lineage, but several.
"This is why, the King shall swear, that at the end of his reign, the monarchy will receive new blood that had formerly been royal, in order to thrive and prosper in the fairest and most honest way. This new blood shall come through the withdrawal of the current King, or by marriage.
"This change of blood will not be postponed or revoked.
"The King or Queen who attemps to postpone on revoke this change of blood will lose all of his or her powers and will be sent to the Isle of the Lost, for he or she will be considered as disgraceful as the ones dwelling therein.
"With all due respect, the Grand Duke of Fortuna, official mediator of the United States of Auradon."
"P.s. : the ones who will receive that message shall keep it with all secrecy."
XxXxX
Everyone at school had heard about it. Every student was rambling about poor Evie whose frail little body had litteraly broke with no reason. People were speculating over who had done it. Some thought it was a curse. Some were scared it might happen to them. Audrey was madly chuckling in her head. All this was so funny. All this was so horribly, wonderfully funny!
Oh, my! Evie, ya shoulda been more careful with your stuff, dontcha think!
How hilarious. It was lunch time. But she wasn't hungry. The relishing thought of Evie at the hospital had fed her enough happiness for her to feel full. She chuckled on the grass with glee, in the large garden of the school. Sitting down on the freshly moaned lawn, she patted her skirt pocket.
Pat-pat. Clink-clink.
She laughed hysterycally.
What joy she was feeling. No. Not joy. She felt power. Like the life of her sworn enemy's best friend was hanging by a thin thread, and she was rubbing it softly with a sharpened blade. The pieces of mirror in her pocket spiked her thigh a bit. It was only pleasant pain. Because she knew, if she wanted, she could...
No... it feels to weird to say it... can I say it?
She could kill her.
She shivered at this thought. That was scary. And really cool.
Of course, she didn't have the intention to kill her! But she kept it just in case. As a collateral, somehow. If Mal, or Carlos, or Jay (or even good ol' Benny Boo) would get on her nerves, she would take the biggest piece out of her pocket and smash it on the ground. Easy. Or, she could break it piece by piece with a mortar and send Mal every other bit of it as she watches her friend slowly slipping away... Or she could just swing it out the window and watch it fall down and hear the music that it would make once it would touch the ground... So many things she could do. But she kept it in her pocket.
Though at first, when she heard how badly Evie had been harmed, Audrey could not help but feel bad for her. In a way, it was unfair that she had hurt her, when they weren't even in that bad of terms. She didn't mind Evie. Well, she was kind of annoying, but her real problem was Mal. It has been Mal all along. But in the end, she understood hurting Evie had been even more devastating for Mal; it had broken her, and made her weak. She even thought that she had shed a few tears. And that made her feel ecstatic.
She shifted a few inches on her right, and lay just within a splash of sunlight. Her pocket clinked when she moved her hips.
Now that she had the mirror, she couldn't help but wonder about the spell book. It was still an undeniable threat to her wellfare. She knew having the book in her possession was a great advantage to Mal. "What if she cast a spell of truth on me? I'd have to admit I was the one who'd done that to Evie..." she said to herself. That thought had immediatly ruined her mood. She clapped her hands on her face in desperation, and released a sigh of anger. A big bestial puff that made her sound really bull-like. A second after, she clapped her hands back on her lap and said: "So what?" A cloud floating up in the sky flew in front of the sun; the splash of sunlight vanished. "So what if she knows? What is she gonna do to me? Turn me into a frog?" Her mind caught a glimpse of her as a green taud, small and gnarly, wearing a cute light pink dress upon her pimply skin. She trembled and gulped back her digust. The cloud flew away and the sun came back. She sat up.
Mal wasn't here at the moment. She was all the way up in King George Town, looking after her sick pal. It took around an hour to get there, same to get back here. Forty five minutes in the evening - certainly not in the afternoon. She might have not taken the book with her to the hospital. Probably not since she was escorted in Fairy Godmother's car, and she was now strongly against magic. She wouldn't dare take it. Or maybe she would, but she forgot. It was an emergency so she forgot. Maybe it was still in her room. And everyone was eating at the canteen.
She got up. Her skirt was all wrinkled and greenish on the bottom. She rushed back inside the dorm. Her pocket was encouraging her with the clink-link, clink-link playing when she walked. She arrived in the corridor. It was empty. As she got closer and closer to Mal's room, excitement was growing in her. She couldn't help chuckle, picturing herself tearing the book apart and burning it to ashes until she was able to blow on it and watch it shrivel in the air. The door came up. She looked to see if anyone was coming, and once she was positive all was secure, she opened the door.
A hot flash took hold of her when she got in. She started sweating. The door closed behind her and she began searching. She lifted up Mal's cushions and looked inside their pillowcases, and under her blanket. Then she lifted the mattress up, but there was nothing. So she sought on and under and behind and inside her desk, and then emptied her drawers inside out and knocked down her commode. She saw nothing. She then headed towards Evie's side of the room, but she stopped in shock.
Evie's desk, where her sewing-machine was previously set, looked like it had been wiped over by a tornado. There were pieces of blue porcelain scattered on the end of the table, around a light-blue lampshade and near a half busted light-bulb. Books were strown all over with ripped pages and half of it had fallen on the floor. On the other end of the desk, she saw bobbins and needles. A free thread was roaming the table and slaloming around little red stains, it went all the way down from the desk to the floor, where lied the machine, completely smashed. A feet from it, there was a little red puddle. It was drying, and seemed to be drawing a sort of mosaic. She knew Evie had been lying there.
Audrey got closer and examined the stain.
"Mmm. They could have cleaned that mess."
And she started to look for the book again.
Aside from Evie's desk and the floor, she found the room was pretty tidy. Meaning, it was pretty tidy before she came in and tore the room apart. Yet the book was nowhere to be seen. She decided to bend over to see if she could find anything under the beds. She squinted her eyes to pierce into the darkness; that only made her look like a crazy old hunchbacked hag, looking for her lost cat. But no book. She trod around the room with her crooked back. Minutes were passing and she still coudn't find the stupid thing: it was driving her crazy.
She ended up running around the room, bent over, with her hands on her head, while she hollered hysteriously: "The book! Where is the book!"
She would have been ripping her hair off if she hadn't caught a glimpse of that little silver gleam under the closet. It was glowing through the darkness, but only when she placed herself in the right angle. Right before the window, from which a thin sun ray had been able to peep out, the silver gleam twinkled slightly. That discreet and small signal, almost imperceptible, was what Audrey was looking for all along. She jumped right in front of the closet and knelt, so she could take a look at the thing: the silver glow came from a greyish buckle, fastening a old leather clutch bag. She grabbed it.
She stood back up and observed the clutch. It was light purple, however it must have been dark violet once upon a time, but the fabric was so worn out; the years must have rid it of its color. "How authentic," Audrey thought, "perfect size for a spell-book."
She unbuckled it. And there. There it was. That purple thing. It smelled like pine trees and undisclosed witchcraft.
Finally! I have found it! The holy Grail!
"Audrey?"
She froze.
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
Hello! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
I know I'm updating with a lot of delay, but I've been really busy these months because of my upcoming exams. I'm really sorry, I'll try to publish next chapter as soon as possible.
Thanks for reading, Atshepsut XXXX
N.B. Mulan will appear in my fanfiction, however I decided to go a little out of character with her: Lonnie has never seen her mother, since she abandoned her a little time after her birth. They will meet at some point in the fiction.