Hey Guys! I'm sorry that it took so long to write this chapter. I wasn't sure where I wanted the story to go at this point. I promise that the next chapter will be so much better. FYI, there may or may not be a trigger in this chapter. It depends on your point of view. Thank you so much for the reviews! Please keep them up, I love to hear what you guys think.
Mal POV
Mal slowly woke up from her never ending nightmare that had been plaguing her for months. She opened her eyes to find her surroundings were not familiar. Mal was lying on her back in a warm bed, her head resting on pillow that was as fluffy and soft as a cloud.
Where am I?
As she slowly began to gain more consciousness, she realized that the room was not hers. The bed, though it was more comfortable, was not hers. The lighting in the room was too bright to be hers. The pressure on her chest was not coming from her.
Mal looked down to see what was on her chest and found an arm draped across her chest, an arm that was not hers.
What the? Who?
The arm was a light tan skin tone with brown hair lightly covering the forearm and was very muscular. Mal followed the length of the arm to the shoulder that was flexed, awaking desire inside her
Whoever's shoulder this is must be an athlete or warrior or something.
She continued her trail up to the messy brown hair that had light streaks running through it.
It looks so familiar. I know that hair and that scent. It's, oh gosh, it's, who is it again?
Mal stared at the boy's hair, lifting her arm to brush his hair away from his face in hope of seeing who he was. Unfortunately he was facing away from her, but the feel of his hair beneath her fingers was enough.
Ben.
Ben was laying on his stomach with one arm curled under his head and the other was draped across Mal's chest with his hand under her pillow. He was holding her close, as if he was protecting her from outsiders, but also as if he was afraid she would leave him. Mal lifted the blanket up that was covering them both and tried to shimmy out from under his arm. She made it and was sitting on the side of the bed when she noticed her pajamas.
What am I wearing? Is this Ben's Jersey? How did I get in this?
Mal walked slowly across the room, trying not to wake him. She found her original clothes draped across the table chairs in his room.
What happened here?
Grabbing them, she looked back at the bed, noticing for the first time that Ben didn't have a shirt on.
He's shirtless and hot. But if he doesn't have a shirt on and I have his Jersey then… what did we do? Oh no! Not that! Anything but that!
Mal slowly backed away from the room, closing the door as quietly as she could. Jogging down the hall, she opened the door to Jay and Carlos's room to sneak in before anyone saw her running from Ben's room in noting but a shirt. Both boys were still very much asleep when she turned around. Neither one had noticed someone sneaking in their room.
Mal dropped her clothes that she was carrying and walked over to Jay's bed. He was fast asleep on his side with a pillow cuddled into his chest.
"Jay." she whispered while pushing on him lightly. Jay reacted by grabbing Mal's wrist and staring intently at her before realizing who she was.
"Mal?" he asked sitting up, "What are you doing?"
"I think I did something bad."
"You what?"
"Jay, I think I…" Carlos picked this moment to grumble at Jay for talking to loud. Jay threw his pillow that he had been cuddling at Carlos's head.
"Hey! Why did you do that?" Carlos yelled at his roommate while rubbing his head.
"What were you saying?" Jay asked Mal after rolling his eyes at Carlos.
"Oh hey Mal! What time is it?" Carlos grumbled as he got out of his bed and zombie walked over to Jay's bed.
"It's," Jay glanced at the clock, "5," he did a double take, "5 am! Mal! What are you doing here at 5 am!"
"5 am! I should still be sleeping." Carlos grumbled.
"Sorry, I just wanted to talk. Focus guys," she chastised them, "I think I did something bad."
"Okay?" the boys gave each other a look, "Is it something our parents would do?" Carlos asked.
"No, gross."
"Is it something that would require magic?" Jay asked concerned.
"No."
"Then is it life or death?" Carlos asked her.
"No."
"Then we wait for Evie." Jay decided. They were all sitting in a circle on Jay's bed with a spot open for Evie.
"And how is she going to know to come?" Mal asked the boys.
"Right, you didn't come from your room did you?" Jay smirked.
"No, I didn't," she answered in a tone that wiped Jay's smirk off his faith.
"Let's go then." Carlos answered annoyed. He picked up Dude who was still sleeping on Carlos's bed and walked out the door in only shorts with one black leg and one white leg. He was always clueless in the mornings. Jay laughed as Carlos left the doorway, shaking his head at his friend. He finished getting out of bed, grabbing his hat and Carlos's fur jacket. He turned to look back at Mal who hadn't left his bed yet.
"You coming?"
"Ya, right," Mal's eyes focused and she grabbed her stuff leaving the room with Jay.
Evie POV
Evie was getting even more worried as the time ticked by.
This is the second night in a row that she hasn't come back!
Evie sat up in her bed, she was restless from waiting so long. She looked over at the clock and noticed that it was 3 am.
3 am! And nothing from Mal or Doug! That's it!
Evie, having had enough of her friends for the day, reached for her mirror on the nightstand.
"Magic Mirror in my hand, where is Mal in this land?"
The mirror swirled to show Mal, sleeping in someone's bed.
"Not so close please."
The mirror zoomed out enough for Evie to see that Mal was asleep in Ben's bed.
Well, that's just great. She goes off and sleeps with her boyfriend and doesn't tell me!
Evie, annoyed, dropped her mirror on her bedside table and threw her head onto the pillow. Just when she shut her eyes, Carlos came jumping on her bed.
"Carlos! What was that for?" she grumbled at him.
"Get up Evie!" he answered jumping on her bed.
"Get off!" she pushed him down as she sat up.
"Come on Evie!"
"Fine! I'm awake!" She answered as Jay and Mal walked in. Jay sat on Evie's bed, laying down next to her so that he could get some more sleep possibly.
"And where have you been?" Evie asked of Mal.
"Uhm, well." she answered as Carlos laid on the other side of Evie. Both boys were exhausted. "It's a long story."
"Ya right." Evie rolled her eyes at her friend.
"Can we just get on with it already so that we can go back to sleep?" Carlos whined. Dude jumped up on the bed and curled up next to Carlos.
"Fine," Mal answered as she sat on the foot of Evie's bed. "I think I did something bad."
"Okay?" Evie sat up straighter.
This has to be good if all of them are here.
"I think I slept with Ben." Carlos sat up, knocking Dude off the bed, with his mouth hung open. Jay just opened one eye and looked at her.
"What do you mean by 'think'," Evie asked.
"Well, I don't remember." Mal answered sheepishly.
"What do you remember?" Jay asked her.
"I remember leaving your room, fighting with Ben about something, and then falling asleep I think."
"Not to point out the obvious or anything, but that doesn't exactly constitute as bad. You guys love each other, right?" Evie asked.
"That's not the point. I woke up with only his shirt on and in his bed."
"That doesn't exactly mean that you slept with him though." Carlos answered.
"But what if I did! We are only here until we mess up and do something bad."
"And you think that sleeping with Ben is going to send you back?"
"It might," she sighed, "he might say that he loves me, but what is he going to do when he finds out about my past and our pasts."
"Well, when you put it that way." Evie answered. "So what do we do?"
"I don't know. Everything has gotten so much more complicated since we got here."
"Maybe you should just tell him." Jay answered. "We do need to put faith in our relationships here."
"And what is to stop the King from sending us all back?" They all looked at each other, no one knowing what to say to their sister.
"We just play it by ear, I don't think you slept with him though." Evie answered.
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because normally people wake up naked after they sleep together." Evie smiled. Her mother had taught her everything she would need to know to be a good wife back on the Isle.
"I don't know," Mal got up and walked over to the window. It was still dark outside, but all of the Isle kids could still see fine in the dark. That was one perk of growing up on a dark island. "I just need to take my mind off it then."
"We need to do something together, just the four of us then." Evie replied.
"What did you have in mind?" Carlos asked.
"I have an idea," Jay smirked, "meet me in the gym in an hour."
"We are not playing Tourney." Evie answered.
"Nah, it'll be something more rotten." Jay laughed.
"Not enough to get us expelled I hope." Carlos answered, "I'm… I'm not going back there."
"You take all the fun out of things, but no it won't be something bad."
"Then how is it fun?" Mal asked.
"You'll see," Jay answered as he left the room with Carlos and Dude following at his heels.
"Great," Mal groaned as she made her way over to her side of the room.
"So, is there a reason you are shutting me out?" Evie asked as she got out of bed. She only had an hour to do her morning rituals.
"I'm not shutting you out." Mal replied as she pulled out a set of workout clothes from her dresser.
"You're doing it now M." Evie was pulling out her drawers to get ready.
"I'm sorry Ev," she sighed as she sat down on her bed. "It's just hard to understand."
"Is it the dream again?"
"Yes and no." Evie raised in eyebrow in the mirror at her roommate. "My past is catching up with my future."
"Afraid that Ben isn't going to love you when he finds out about Jay?"
"How did you?"
"Mal," she set her brushes down, "we all know each other's secrets. I know about Jay and I know all about how we all coped with our old life and so does Carlos."
"Right." Mal got up to go take a shower.
"Mal, if you tell Ben about your past, he won't get as mad about it."
"I'll think about it." She answered while going into the bathroom.
Ya right, like hell you will.
Mal POV
Not very likely
Mal stepped into the warm shower and stood there, lost in her thoughts.
I can't tell him, he won't understand. How can he? He doesn't know what it's like.
Mal grabbed the body wash and squeezed it into her hand.
Why didn't I have any scratches this morning?
Mal started to rub the body wash into her arms when she got a flashback of someone else washing her body. Ben was rubbing a washcloth up her arm, washing the scratches away.
What is this?
Ben dragging the cloth agonizingly slow up her legs.
When?
Ben wiping the cloth across her chest and throat.
The bruises, there were bruises last time.
Ben's lips on hers.
"No!" Mal slammed her hands into the shower door, shattering the glass.
I can't have allowed that to happen.
Mal looked at her shaking hands and clenched them, anger at herself increasing. She looked at the sharp glass longingly.
"Mal," Evie knocked, "you okay in there?"
I can't not now, just hold it together till you can get away.
"Ya, I'm fine." Mal looked at the door again and sighed. With a wave her hand, the glass that was shattered resealed itself to the door. She finished showering and left the bathroom after changing into black leggings and a purple tank top. Evie was just putting the finishing touches on her makeup when Mal walked out of the bathroom.
"You should blow dry your hair, it's not good for your split ends to dry themselves."
"Isn't it the other way around?" Mal smirked at her roommate while using a towel to dry her hair.
"That's only if you aren't trying to impress someone."
"Fine," she laughed at her friend, grabbing her hair dryer she blow dried it to a soft curly blow out. She pulled her shoulder length hair up into a tight pony tail.
"Are you ready?" Evie asked as she finished her braided crown. She was wearing the same black pants and tank top as Mal, but it was royal blue. Her hair was pulled up into a tight pony tail with curls falling down her back.
"Yep," She grabbed her jacket and headed out the door with Evie at her side. It was still early before the sun came up so no one else was awake yet. They made their way down to the gym without running into anyone, not even workers. When they finally made it to the gym, they saw that the boys were already there. Carlos was wearing black basketball shorts and a white long sleeve shirt. He was playing fetch with Dude and a red ball. Jay was wearing black Harem pants and a yellow tank shirt. He also had his red hat still on his head.
"So, what are we doing here?" Mal asked when she made it to the center of the room. It was a large square gym with a control panel in the center.
"We are going to have some fun." Jay smiled, "Let's play a game of capture the flag."
"In here?" Evie asked.
"What is this place?" Mal looked around, not seeing anything interesting.
"This, is the gym. It's a programmable room and I just programmed it into the most awesome practice field." Carlos muttered happily. He had hacked the system earlier in order to create the perfect setting for their game.
"I don't get it." Evie answered.
"Watch," Carlos rolled his eyes and pushed a few buttons on the consol. A few moments later, the terrain in half the gym rose to create a field that was similar to a paint ball field, but there were also blocks hanging from the ceiling and floating in the air. There were creeks that ran through the blocks and fans blowing air in different directions.
"This is…" Evie started.
"Amazing," Evie and Mal said together.
"So, how do we do this?" Mal asked.
"Well, I was thinking that we each get a flag to protect or hide and the first one to get all four flags, wins."
"Okay, boundaries?" Evie asked.
"No magic," Jay looked at Mal purposely.
"Since when do we play by the rules," she smirked in return before stepping onto the field.
"Uh, Jay? So, where are we going to get these flags?" Carlos asked as he secured Dude on the sidelines. He didn't want his furry friend to get hurt.
"Right," Jay thought for a minute, "I've got nothing."
"Our shirts idiot. There all our colors." Mal filled in for her friends without looking back at them. She was still scoping out the terrain in order to find the best place to put her shirt.
"Good idea!" Carlos yelled out while taking his shirt off so it came as more of a mumbled nonsense to his friends. The others rolled their eyes at his enthusiasm while taking their own shirts off. Despite the Isle kids never working out at gyms in their life, mainly because the Isle didn't have a gym, they were all extremely toned.
Carlos, the smallest of the group, still was defined like a runner would be. He was known for being fast on the Isle. He never needed to build up muscle mass because he could out run everyone on the Isle. Jay, the largest of the group, was taller than everyone else, but he also was the most defined. He had larger muscles from practicing fighting with Mal while growing up. They were both known for being the best fighters on the Isle. Mal and Evie were both toned very similar, but Mal had a few more muscled than Evie did. Mal had on a dark purple sports bra while Evie had a dark blue one on.
"Well, now we have flags." Mal murmured as she flipped her shirt between her hands.
"Now we need a weapon of choice," Jay smiled his devious smile as pushed a button on the control panel. It revealed a wall decorated with many different weapons in different sizes.
"These heroes certainly know how to stock up." Mal admired the many weapons. There were swords, bamboo staffs, daggers, throwing knives, shields of varying sizes, bows and arrows, spears, axes, fans, throwing weapons, nun chucks, hammers, and whips.
"What do they use this all for?" Evie asked as she picked up a set of throwing knives. They were black steel with a royal blue blade on both sides with deadly points carved into the edges. It was designed to do extra damage as the victim pulled the knives out.
"Practice mostly, there aren't any villains here to fight against." Carlos answered as he strapped one of the arrow tubes to his back.
More like a precaution.
"Now there are." Jay grumbled after taking a set of Chakram blades down. There were spikes along the blades edges that would make it impossible to make a clean cut, but they would prove to be useful against Carlos's arrows.
Mal grabbed the all black Sai blades, tying them to the outside of her thighs before grabbing the wooden staff. The staff was her weapon of choice because it was similar to her mother's, but she always liked to be prepared.
There is no way this stupid bamboo staff is going to hold up against anything.
They all made their way into the corners of the floor in order to hide their flags.
"Ready?" Mal called out to her friends. She had hidden her flag on the edge of the floor and placed a protective barrier around it. The barrier was 10 feet out from the flag so that she would know to come back and defend it. Next, she placed another charm on the flag itself so that it would fade in and out of existence every minute and would pop up in random places throughout the circle as a projection of the real thing when it was invisible.
No magic, HA! Like hell I'm playing this game without my best defense.
"Ready!" Came the chorus of her friends. They all prepared to run and prepared their weapons to attack. Carlos placed and arrow on his bow and pulled the string enough so that he would be able to use it at a moment's notice. Jay gripped his blades in his hands and swiped at the air in order to get a feel for how the blades moved through the air. Evie twirled her throwing knives around her fingers, waiting patiently for Mal to yell go. She wasn't much of a runner, she preferred to let the competition come to her.
Mal took a deep breath in focused her energy. She didn't need to be out of control when the game started.
I already am out of control. Breath Mal, focus.
She twirled the staff around and into her back, tightening her grip.
"GO!"
