I hope you're still interested in this story, because the end is closing, and I want you to see it. Enjoy.
Once again, Mal is trudging through the woods with only one thing in mind: find her mother or Merlin. After nearly an hour of fruitless searching, she gives up and sits down next to a tree to collect her thoughts.
"Remember what Merlin said, Mal. A calm mind can help you. Just calm down. Just calm down. Just calm down."
Mal takes a few deep breaths before closing her eyes.
"What is wrong with you, Mal? This isn't the darkness in your blood, and you know it. Maybe just seeing my mother helped me remember what's at stake, and I let that stress me out again. I don't know anymore. I yelled at Ben, I fought with my friends, and put Chad to sleep. What is wrong with me?"
"Looks like someone needs an attitude adjustment," said a familiar voice.
Mal knew it was her mother. "Show yourself."
Maleficent teleports in front of Mal. "Hello again, my dear."
"You took Merlin, didn't you?" guessed Mal.
"I did, but I'm not telling you where he is," said Maleficent.
Mal chuckled to herself. "I know you won't. I'll just find him myself."
"Good luck with that," said Maleficent sarcastically. "Why haven't you brought down the force field yet?"
"Like you need to know," sassed Mal.
"You want the sundial, don't you?" said Maleficent in a sly voice. "Why not go for it while everyone was asleep last night?"
"You got to them first last night," retorted Mal.
"Well, I had a plan to put into fruition," said Maleficent.
Mal started thinking about her mother's mysterious intentions. She came to a realization. "You want me and my friends to turn on each other. You knew they would see me as a traitor for what you did. You wanted us to stray from our mission."
"I guess I don't have to keep secrets anymore," said Maleficent.
"My friends may have left, but I'm not going anywhere," said Mal. "Ben was right. Something isn't right here. Everyone, including me, was acting out of character."
"Well, they thought you were a traitor and you're not a big fan of other people throwing their attitude at you," said Maleficent innocently.
"You cast a spell on me, on all of us," realized Mal. She looks in her spellbook. She found the page that tells of a rare magical flower. "The Magic of the Middlemist Red. It's essence can be used to raise one's level of aggression to its maximum. No known cure. Only the one who cast the spell can remove its effect on one person. No wonder I felt different."
"So now what? You plan to tell your friends?" asked Maleficent. "They still think you tried to abandon them."
"What I'm going to do is force you to lift your spell on my friends after I defeat you," said Mal.
"And you plan to do that right now?" guessed Maleficent.
"You'll probably just disappear if I so much as blink, so, no, not now," said Mal. "But I will stop you."
"You won't, but I like to see you try," said Maleficent.
"Heroes never give up," said Mal.
"Neither do villains," added Maleficent before disappearing.
Mal remained standing in her place. Now that she knows what her mother has been trying to do and what is the matter with herself, Mal realizes that she must save her friends from Maleficent's spell, but she knows their is no way her mother will willingly help her. She decided to start by looking for Ben. First, she will apologize to him for her behavior, and then she will ask him to help her.
On the other side of the woods, Evie, Jay, Audrey, Lonnie, Chad, who is still asleep, Jane, and Doug decided to sit down and rest after exhausting themselves from a long walk. Lonnie places Chad next to a tree.
"All of this walking is torture," complained Audrey.
"Please stop, your highness. We have enough problems without your personality blocking us," sassed Evie.
"Do you really want to start another one, beauty queen?" retorted Audrey.
"Guys, please, let's be civilized," pleaded Doug. "I swear, it's like you guys want to fight. We're supposed to be friends."
"The world isn't all rainbows and sparkles, Doug," said Jay.
"Watch your tone, thief," replied Jane.
"Jane, you know better than to insult someone," scolded Lonnie.
"Enough!" yelled Evie. "Mal was right. This island is making all of us edgy and distraught."
"What do you propose, daughter of Evil Queen?" questioned Audrey.
"Well, first, let's stop with the name-calling. Second, relax," said Evie.
Soon enough, everyone was doing, or trying to do, what Evie said. Evie just looked in her mirror, Jay and Audrey try to have a friendly conversation, Lonnie just stayed beside Chad, waiting for him to wake up, Jane is pacing around constantly telling herself "stay calm," and Doug is studying a rare flower.
Chad started to wake up. "What happened? Where are we?"
"Mal put you to sleep," answered Lonnie. "And we're still on the island, just somewhere away from Mal... and Ben... and Carlos."
"Well, if I find Mal, I'm gonna give her quite a talk," said Chad.
"Chad, I know you're feeling edgy, but you need to relax. We all do," said Lonnie. "Didn't you notice that we were acting different back there?"
"Perhaps," replied Chad.
"Let's just sit here and enjoy the moment," said Lonnie.
Evie takes a look at everyone. It seems that everyone is finally starting to calm down, including herself. Now that her mind is relaxed, she remembers something, or someone. Carlos. She remembers what she did to him. She yelled at him, pushed him, and made him cry. Feeling the guilt surge within her, she feels the urge to get back out there and find him.
She stands up and prepares to leave.
"Hey, where are you going?" asked Jay, noticing her departing.
"To find Carlos," answered Evie. "I need to apologize to him."
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Ben is still looking for a certain white-haired young man, but he was nowhere to be found.
"Carlos! Carlos!"
Ben decided to sit down on a log and calm his mind. "This island is huge. How am I supposed to find him?"
As if the universe was answering his question, a bubble shows up in front of him. There was a lilac inside the bubble. The lilac is color purple, and Ben knows one person whose favorite color is purple.
"Mal."
He touches the bubble and it started floating away. Ben guesses that it is taking him to where Mal is, so he follows it.
After another long walk, the bubble pops. Ben catches the falling lilac. He found Mal standing next to a lake, holding a blue rose in her hand.
"Hey, Mal," greeted Ben.
"I see you got my flower," said Mal.
"Speaking of flowers, isn't that rose Evie's?" asked Ben.
"Yeah, it is," answered Mal.
"I thought she wears it all the time," said Ben.
"Not since she broke up with Carlos," said Mal, spilling the beans. In case Ben would question, Mal just said, "Yeah, that happened."
"So she gave him the rose?" asked Ben.
"And he still kept it, but he just left it here," said Mal.
"Whatever Evie did to him, it must be terrible," said Ben.
"Speaking of Evie, I figured out what's wrong with her and the others," said Mal.
"What?" asked Ben.
Mal takes out her spellbook and shows Ben the page telling of the Middlemist Red. After reading it, Ben wondered, "Why didn't Maleficent cast it on me?"
"I guess she was counting on me to break us up. She knows that I can be temperamental, and the flower's magic was just the boost I need to complete her plan," said Mal.
"What plan?" asked Ben.
"My mom was trying to tear us apart," said Mal. "She wants all of us to leave her alone so she can carry on with her plan without interference, and she thinks the best way to do that was to make us turn on each other."
"Framing you for casting a sleeping spell on us was part of the plan," realized Ben.
"But that didn't work well enough for her. So, she decided to use magic to motivate us," said Mal.
"What about Merlin? Do you know where he is?" asked Ben.
"No," answered Mal.
"Well, don't worry, Mal. We'll get through this... together," said Ben, taking hold of Mal's hand as comfort.
Mal looked at Ben and smiled. However, he smile dropped.
"What's the matter?" asked Ben.
"Ben, there's something I need to tell you. Something I've been hiding for a long time," said Mal. "I just didn't know when to tell you, but after seeing what this mission is doing to me, I think now is the time."
"I'm all ears," said Ben.
If you've read my previous stories, you may guess what Mal is going to tell Ben.
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