Wooh, another chapter!
"It'll be ok, Evie," Jay said, his arm around the girl's shoulders.
"How do you know?" Evie said, sniffling. "She's gone. She didn't even say goodbye."
"What about the note?" Carlos asked, leaning forward in his seat to peer at Mal's bed. "What does it say?"
Evie rolled her eyes and huffed. "I already checked; it's for Ben."
"Oh."
The three friends fell silent, save for Evie's soft sniffles. She had already destroyed her makeup from crying once she had found out that Mal left.
"She has to come back though," Jay said, glancing out the window.
Evie shook her head. "I talked to Doug. If she went to the Isle, she won't even be able to contact us once the barrier closes behind her. And if the curse works like Doug thinks it does, she won't be able to come back at all. Or Ben will die."
"But it's Mal," Carlos said. "She...she can't be gone. She has to come back."
Evie pinned him with a tearful glare. "And she loves Ben. You honestly think she'd rather stay here and watch him die, knowing it's her fault?"
"It's not her fault though," Jay said with a sigh.
"The curse isn't. But she wouldn't ever forgive herself for staying if Ben died because she refused to leave. You know that." Evie wiped at her eyes and sighed when her fingers came away with black smudges.
The door suddenly opened, and an extremely winded Ben stumbled into the room. He clutched a stitch in his side. "Where is she?" When he had suddenly woken up from his nightmares, Fairy Godmother had been able to heal him and briefly explain the situation before he had insisted on running out the door. He hadn't even put on a shirt. As far as he figured, his parents and the headmistress would be right behind him. He was just lucky he was faster than the three of them. Still, his strength hadn't returned, and he felt close to fainting from the sprint to the dorms.
"Ben!" Evie exclaimed. "You...you're alright." Then she dissolved into sobs, leaning against Jay's shoulder.
"Yeah, I am. Where's Mal?" Ben asked. He gripped one of the supporting posts of Mal's bed. "Fairy Godmother said she would be gone. Is she really?"
Evie just pointed a shaking hand toward Mal's pillow, and Ben turned around. His stomach twisted uncomfortably at the sight of the paper and his ring. She couldn't have just left. She couldn't have left his ring too.
He sat on the bed and reached for the note. His hands were shaking, partly due to his emotions and also because of his injuries. Both forearms were covered in bandages, hiding horrible dark scabs and bruises that Fairy Godmother hadn't healed yet. She had said she was afraid they would leave scars if she healed them too quickly. As for his fingertips, they were sore and quite tender to anything he touched. They had said he had had claws. Making them morph back into normal nails had hurt.
He set the ring on his knee and stared at the note silently. Tears slid down his cheeks. It wasn't even more than a few lines, but the thought that this would be the only goodbye he got from the girl he loved made everything within him hurt.
"Ben." Fairy Godmother huffed at him, and he looked over his shoulder to find the woman and his parents standing in the doorway. "You should be resting."
"She's gone," Ben said. "Mal's gone." Really gone.
"How did she even leave?" Carlos asked, looking from Fairy Godmother to Ben.
"I let our driver take her," Beast said.
"You just let her leave?" Ben asked, his voice threatening to break. Belle moved to sit beside him and pulled him into a hug. She stroked his hair.
Beast huffed. "We didn't have a choice. Having her stay here was killing you. You wouldn't even be alive if she hadn't left."
"But she's coming back, right?"
Fairy Godmother shook her head. "We have to break the curse first, Ben. And we don't know how."
"Then figure out how to break it. I want to see her."
"No, you're going to rest. And I won't have you going to the Isle at all," Beast said.
"I can't just sit here," Ben argued, pulling away from his mother. He stood, and his ring fell to the floor. He huffed and bent to pick it up. "I refuse to just sit here." He straightened back up, but he quickly moved to grip the pole of the bed as the room spun.
"You will rest, and that is an order," Beast said, his voice building into a growl. "Those people on the Isle hate us, and they will kill you."
"No, they hate you. You sent them there."
Beast opened his mouth to respond, but Belle shot him a look to silence him. She turned her attention back to Ben. "Maybe, you should agree to rest tonight. And then we can discuss you going to the Isle after you've recovered. Agreed?" She looked between the two men.
Beast huffed. "Fine."
Ben reluctantly nodded and sat back down on the bed. He smoothed Mal's note out on his leg and reread it. The ring was clutched tightly in his hand. "I have to see her, Mom."
"I know, sweetheart," Belle said, rubbing his back. "But you do need to rest."
He nodded, trying to focus on the words written on the paper instead of the tears welling up in his eyes. He already had the words memorized, and he wished he didn't.
Ben,
I'm sorry I couldn't give you a fairy tale ending. You deserve one.
-M
Yeah, but so do you, he thought.
I hope you guys liked this chapter! Please tell me what you think about it in a review! Fave and follow if you enjoy the story. Read on, lovelies.
Foarrin