Chapter Nine
"Ben!" Mal cried, standing up and rushing over to him. She knelt beside him on the damp ground, brushing the long, scraggly hair out of his face. His eyes were closed, but he was still breathing shallowly.
In an instant, the others were by her side. Tears were streaming down Belle's face, but she didn't make a huge show of it. Instead, she reached over and took her son's hand. "We need to get him to the healers," she said, looking up at Adam.
Adam nodded, and everyone stepped aside as he lifted his son's limp body into his arms.
"He'll be okay, right?" Mal asked, wrapping her arms around herself. When nobody answered, she felt tears stinging her eyes. "Right?"
Belle went over and wrapped her arms around the girl, who turned to her and buried her face in her shoulder. "We'll see, Mal," Belle said. "We'll see."
An hour later, they were back where they had started, all five teens waiting outside a closed door. Belle and Adam were talking with the healers inside the room.
"This is killing me," Mal said finally, after a while of waiting. "I can't sit out here any longer!" She stood up, and nobody stopped her as she opened the door and barged in.
Belle and Adam looked up, along with the two healers. Ben was unconscious in the bed.
"Mal?" Belle asked. "Is something wrong?"
Mal looked back over to the former king and queen. "I need to know what's going on with Ben," she said. "I can't sit out there and wait with the others."
Adam and Belle exchanged hesitant glances.
"Please," Mal pleaded.
"Okay," Belle said, and pulled up a seat next to her.
"Healer John, would you tell Mal what you told us?" Adam asked.
The healer looked warily at the VK, but went along with what they told him to do. "So, we still don't know what kind of magic those kids used against Ben to keep him in his Beast form, but we do know that whatever spell it was is broken now. He's now battling the after-effects of the magic, and as far as we can tell, they're pretty serious. If he can get through them, he should make a full recovery. If not…"
Mal frowned. "What?"
"His life could be in danger," the other healer explained.
"Well how will we know if he's recovering?" Mal asked.
"If he wakes up, his body should be able to recover quickly," Healer John said. "It is exponentially more difficult to recover from the after-effects of strong magic when one is unconscious."
"Can't we wake him up with magic?" Mal asked, even though she already knew the answer. More magic would make him worse.
The healer said just that, and with that they left the room. Belle and Adam spent a few minutes with their son as Mal stepped out of the room to greet the other teens.
"How is he?" Doug asked, pushing himself off the wall that he was leaning against.
Mal shook her head, trying her best to suppress the tears that were threatening to spill onto her cheeks. "He's asleep right now," she told them, and that was all she could get out. The others asked no further questions, and patiently waited until Belle and Adam appeared. Their faces were solemn, and Mal could tell that the former queen had been crying, even though she was trying to hide it.
"We're going to get some rest," Adam said, wrapping a protective arm around his wife's waist. "Mrs. Potts will be here shortly to watch after him, but take your time in visiting him. Call for us if there are any issues at all."
The teenagers all agreed, and with that Ben's parents left. Mal could hear Belle's muffled cries echoing off the empty walls, and tried not to start crying again herself.
The others made their way to the door and filed into the room. Evie, who was the last one in line, turned to Mal.
"Are you coming?" she asked gently, and Mal shook her head.
"You guys go ahead," Mal told her. "I'll be right in."
Evie nodded, and shut the door behind her as she went in. As soon as that door closed, Mal sunk to the floor, burying her hands in her face and letting her tears fall silently.
Ben was in there and fighting for his life. After being gone for months, he was asleep, and it wasn't certain that he was going to wake up. She felt like someone had ripped open her chest and was stabbing her heart repeatedly.
Mal felt a cool hand on her shoulder and looked up. She was instantly met with Mrs. Pott's plump face and once-twinkling blue eyes looking at her with sympathy.
"Come here, dear," she said, opening her arms.
Mal stood up and sank into the woman's embrace, burying her tear-stained face in the woman's frilly apron. She sobbed brokenly into Mrs. Potts's shoulder while the older woman rubbed her back soothingly, whispering comforting words to her.
"Are you ready to go in and see him?" Mrs. Potts asked after a while.
Mal nodded, and took a few steps to the door. Through the door, she could hear Evie's melodic voice saying, "She needs you, Ben. She'd never admit it, but she does. We all do."
Mal pushed open the door, wiping the tears from her face.
Four of the other teens in the room looked up, but the one whose eyes she craved to see stayed asleep.
"We'll give you a moment," Jay said, and collectively the others stood up and left, leaving Mal alone in the room with her lover.
Tentatively, Mal made her way over to his bedside and took the seat that Evie had previously occupied. For a few minutes, she simply looked at his sleeping figure. His skin was sallow and had many cuts and bruises littering it. Mal could see a bandage poking out of his shirt, which was loose on him even though it had been too small for him only months ago. The bandage was evidently for the gashes that she had seen on his chest when they had first found him in beast form.
"Ben," she managed to choke out. "You have to wake up, Ben."
She reached out and took his hand, his human hand, in hers, giving it a tight squeeze. "Please," she begged. "For me." She brought his hand to her lips, pressing them against his knuckles.
Mal reached over and pushed his overgrown hair from his face. "Evie was right," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I need you."
A knock on the door caused her to look up, but she didn't loosen her grip on Ben. Evie poked her head in.
"Hey, Mal," she said. "The others are here."
Mal stood up as Lonnie, Jane, and Audrey stepped into the room, resting their eyes on the unconscious Ben.
"Hey, Mal," Lonnie greeted softly, walking over to the purple-haired girl and wrapping her arms around her.
Mal closed her eyes, leaning into the embrace.
Then Jane came, doing the same thing. Then Audrey, who took a quick glance at Ben before looking at Mal.
"You know, I was always jealous of you," Audrey said. "You somehow captured his heart in a way that I never managed to. And it was up until now that I thought you didn't deserve him. But you saved his life, which is more than proof for me that you two belong together. I am so sorry you have to go through this, Mal."
Mal smiled gratefully, and extended her arms to the girl who was once her rival. "Thank you, Audrey," Mal told her as they hugged. "It means a lot."
A sharp knock on the door interrupted them again, and this time Jay and Carlos were the ones to come inside.
"Guys, I hate to interrupt, but we have a problem," Jay said. He looked out of breath. "Crimson and Jack are attacking the village."
Hey guys, sorry for the delayed chapter. I was really busy yesterday.
Anyways, please tell me what you think about this chapter, I'd love to hear it.
See y'all next week!
~SmartyPants210
