"So you're telling me there is no way out of here?"
"Nope."
Today was not a good day for Maleficent's daughter.
To begin with, she'd woken up far too early for a villain on a school day, Lonnie's chipper singing from the shower having disturbed her most pleasant nightmare of the week. With a groan, she'd gotten ready an hour before she usually would, leaving a very moody Mal to endure the struggles of a morning at Auradon Prep.
Then, some kid had bumped into her on the way to breakfast, causing her to unleash one of her less-practiced spells and letting out an epidemic of butterflies rather than toads, which had made everyone extremely happy. It was disgusting.
Then, during gym, the teachers had decided that a game of dodgeball with mixed boy-girl teams was a great idea, and although Mal's team had won, they'd sent her and none other than Prince (King?) Ben to put the sporting equipment back.
Which lead to them being locked in the sports equipment cupboard together with no way out.
Mal was not having a good day.
"If only I had my spell book..." Mal muttered as she sat against one of the walls, "Why is it so hot in here?"
"The air-con is broken in here, so its slightly higher than average temperature," Ben explained, trying to unlock the door.
Mal leaned heavily against the wall. She'd spent days trapped in Cruella De Vil's fur closet, with high temperatures and barely any room to breathe. Her mother thought it would help her training if she could survive in such conditions, but in reality all it did was make Mal fear small stuffy rooms. The heat didn't help either, as she was used to extreme colds rather than extreme heats.
She was able to contain herself for the most part. She focused on one spot and breathed in deeply, then out, then back in, and so on. She could survive a few more hours in here, she was sure of if, and soon enough someone would notice Ben gone, right?
The heat was getting to her head quickly. She felt dizzy and malnourished, the latter probably being her fault, but she was determined to stay awake.
Ben sat across from her in the little room, having given up on opening the door for now. He looked at Mal worriedly, sitting a little bit straighter as he observed her.
"Mal, are you alright?" He asked, tempted to place a hand on her arm.
"I'm fine," She grumbled, "Just hate the heat."
They sat in silence for a while, the only sound being their breathing. After a few minutes Ben noticed that Mal's breathing wasn't steady. It was ragged, fast, and only seemed to get faster as the minutes ticked on.
Then, there was nothing.
Ben looked over to where Mal was sat. Only that she was no longer sat in place; she was laying on the ground with her eyes shut, motionless.
"Mal?" He called tentatively, kneeling next to her, "Are you alright?"
When he got no reply, he tried to shake her arm gently.
Nothing.
"Oh no," He muttered to himself, sitting Mal up, "This is not good."
Dodge. Duck. Dodge. Hit.
Maleficent's Goons were amongst the toughest creatures to battle on the island. They were fierce, having being created by Maleficent herself, and would stop at nothing to complete their master's orders.
Today, the mistress of all evil had ordered for the Goons to attack Mal until she could no longer stand.
Thankfully, Mal had been training hard for the past few months, so in just over an hour she'd taken five out of the six Goons out. The last one was proving to be a little bit more difficult, having gained a few hits on her.
"Must obey Maleficent," It would chant, over and over until Mal had to smack his head with her staff to get him to stop.
By the time she'd taken him out, she was exhausted. The sun had set not too long ago, meaning she had the whole night to walk back home on the other side of the Isle. She really didn't like her mother's methods of teaching sometimes, but she knew that this was the only way she could become stronger. To become pure evil.
With a deep breath, she stood up and began walking through the dark forest towards her home, ignoring her aching limbs and bleeding lip. She was not going to be spending another night in the forest this week; she was still scrubbing away the dried blood on her leg from the previous night.
The path home always changed, and sometimes she wondered if it was because of her severe lack of sense of direction or if her mother's magic had somehow been returned to her to make Mal's training even harder. She kept walking fearlessly however, because she knew that she could take anything the forest had to throw at her. Anything.
However, what she hadn't accounted for was magic.
She'd taken a break after a few hours of walking, the moon now shining brightly onto the forest meadows. Nothing was pretty about the forests on the Isle. Most of them were polluted, with rotting fruits and savage creatures, and of course the occasional teenage girl with a psychotic mother. She leant against a tree to catch her breath, not caring that her clothes would most likely be stained by whatever liquid was on the tree.
The moon seemed to shift places as she rested. Not too far ahead was a small pond, mossy and uncared for but still glimmered in the moonlight. The glimmer caught Mal's eye, as she'd never encountered a pond in the forest before. Slowly, she made her way closer to the edge, the moon shifting with her until it was directly on top of the pond. She peered into the water, and thanks to the moonlight, she could see her reflection.
Although it wasn't only her reflection she was seeing. It was three of them.
The middle one she was certain was her. She was wearing her trademark leather outfit, and her face was as sunken in as she imagined, dirt and blood in streaks on her cheeks. The strange liquid from the tree had indeed stained the left side of her jacket, but she was certain she could wash it off.
All in all, she looked terrible.
However, the reflection to the left made her smile. It was still her, but in her mother's robes and two black horns coming out of her head. She had a wicked glint in her glowing green eyes, just like Mal wanted.
Just like her mother wanted.
She turned to the next reflection, and stumbled back in confusion. She could barely recognise herself. her hair was longer and sleeker, in soft curly all the way down to her waist. She was wearing a dress for heaven's sake! In lilac too! It ended at her knees and seemed to be embellished with small glittering jewels, definitely not her taste.
There was a tiara perched in her hair, simple yet elegant and definitely not something you'd find on the Isle. There was a crest in the middle of it, yet she could not recognise it at all.
The scariest part? She was smiling.
She wasn't grinning or smirking. The reflection was actually smiling at her in happiness, a smile so pure that it could've vanquished her mother into hiding. It was enchanting, so much so that Mal couldn't stop staring at it.
"Choose your fate wisely," A gentle voice said, "And always remember that you have a choice."
With a gasp, Mal stepped back, the reflections dissolving away as she did so. The moon was no longer illuminating the pool, leaving her in the dark once more.
For once in her life, she was terrified.
"Mal? Mal please wake up!"
Mal's eyes shot open as she felt something touching her hands. Green eyes met with blue, and Mal suddenly felt at peace again.
That is, until she realised that Ben was holding her hands.
"What happened?" She demanded, pulling her hands away from him, "Why are we still in here?!"
"You passed out from the heat, I think," Ben explained, shuffling backwards to give Mal more space, "And Evie and Jay are trying to open it from the other side. They went to get a teacher so I figured I'd try to wake you up again."
Mal stood up. She was a little shaky but she managed to walk over to the door, tugging at the handles until she realised something.
Ben had left the chain for the lock inside the lock, therefore locking the doors from the inside.
"You idiot," Mal muttered, unlocking the door and pulling it open, just in time to find a pair of surprised idiots on the other side.
"Nothing to see here," Mal snapped, pushing past Evie and Jay and walking towards the locker rooms, not even bothering to see Ben's starstruck expression.
By tomorrow, she'd have wrecked havoc throughout the school, and no one would know it was her.
A/N: Soooo... That happened.
I didn't know how else to give you guys a snapshot into Mal's life on the Isle without revealing too much, so here it is! I really hope you enjoyed! Please review the chapter with any criticisms or ideas, it always brightens up my day to see a new review :)
Until next time.
