Treasure

(Tuesday Night- Wednesday Morning, July 23rd- 24th)

"Everyone's staring," Mal whispers, when they enter the theater lobby.

Evie smiles, "Since when do you care about what other people think?"

"Since what others think determines if we get to stay here," she strains a smile in return, before they make it up to the food counter. "I would like caramel milk duds, the cookie dough pieces, and… does soda have water in it?"

"It's mostly water and syrup," the girl with the blond ponytail honestly replies.

Mal turns to Evie, "And we're not allowed to bring our own food in here."

"She can't drink water," Evie explains.

"Sorry," she unsurely apologizes.

"I'll take an ice water," Evie cheerfully continues.

Mal hears a guy snicker, "Take a look at that." before she sees someone in her peripheral vision reach for Evie. She takes his wrist and spins his arm up. "Ow."

Her eyes widen, "She's mine. You don't get to touch her." before she grits her teeth. "Understand? Or do I need to make it more clear?"

He winces at her tighter grip, "I'm clear. I'm clear."

She glows her eyes, "Never touch anyone without permission."

"Mal," Evie places one hand on her shoulder and the other on her upper arm. "It's okay."

"He was going to hurt you," she stressfully breathes.

"No one's hurting anyone," Evie reassures, and she feels Mal shake. "M. Let go. Please."

Mal notices pain in his face, as his friends stand in fear. She slowly lets go and murmurs, "Sorry." before shutting her eyes.

Evie turns back to the concerned girl, "You can skip our order." before she guides Mal towards the theater room number. "Mal. We're safe here. You don't need to worry so much."

"I know." She shakes her head, "I don't know what I was thinking."

"I'm pretty sure I know," Evie quietly remarks, as they go to sit near the back. She faces her, "But no one here is going to try that. And they wouldn't get away with it."

Mal slightly nods, "I know." before she partly smiles, takes Evie's hand, and lifts the hand up to kiss it. "I'm so glad to have you."

Evie smiles, "I'm glad to have you too."

There's a knock on the door, as Belle announces, "Evie. It's me."

Mal feels Evie try to leave, and she holds her tighter, "Ignore it."

"If I ignore it, she'll come in," Evie reminds her.

"Is Mal in there?" Belle concerns.

"We're naked," Mal calls out.

Evie stresses, "Mal. We're not naked."

"She doesn't need to know that," Mal concludes, before she kisses Evie's neck. "Another three hours like this, and who knows—"

"You have a minute to get dressed," Belle warns. "I need to speak with you two."

"Ugh," Mal complains, before she lets go of Evie, grabs her long-sleeved shirt from beside the bed, and pulls it over her black sports bra. Evie grabs her wired push-up, maneuvers it under her tank top, and clasps it in the back. Mal sees the time, "It's only eight."

"So much for beauty sleep," she complains.

"Coming in," Belle warns, before she enters the room and shuts the door. "Did you two have a nice night?"

"Best in weeks," Mal fakes a grin.

"Good," Belle seriously states, before she tosses the newspaper to them. "Because, the people seem to think so too."

Mal takes the newspaper, "Holy Hades."

"That's a phrase for it," Belle agrees.

Evie sees the picture of Mal kissing her hand, as she whispers the heading, "Dragon Mal fiercely protects her treasure."

"It won't be long before people come up with some conspiracy theory about you using magic on the king to harbor you two here."

"What do we do?" Mal questions.

Belle takes a deep breath, "Well, Ben has enough to answer for after Chad's not-so-discreet confession, so I'll just have him answer for this while he's answering for that."

"Meaning you're not giving him a choice," Mal points out.

"I'm not making him do anything," Belle reassures. "I'm merely going to suggest it."

She scoffs, "Right. All you have to do is smile and touch his shoulder, and he will do literally anything you want him to."

She hesitates, "Have you and Ben spoken about me?"

Mal's expression falls, "No. Why?"

"Oh. No reason." Belle continues, "Anyway, I'm sure when Ben clears up his thing with Chad to the reporter that they will want to know about you too."

"And you're okay feeding him to them?" her brows raise.

Evie whispers, "Mal. We're guests here."

"I don't care." Mal faces Belle, "He can barely speak English, and he doesn't even know what happened last night. How is he supposed to explain this?"

Belle folds her hands in front of her, "I imagine in the same way that he admitted to assaulting you on live television with little repercussions."

Mal squeezes her hand and takes a deep breath, "Ben is not going to talk to a reporter about how the girl he assaulted— and another girl— are breaking the law in his own home."

"Like you said," she evenly expresses, "he will if I ask him." Mal's mouth gapes, and Belle glances down, "I just thought you should know your secret may not be secret anymore."

When Belle starts to leave, Evie speaks up, "What's going to happen to us?"

She stops, hand on the doorframe, "That depends on how Ben spins the story." before she turns back around and offers them a solemn look. "Believe it or not, Mal, I really did like you, and whatever happens, I would really appreciate it if you could stay quiet about anything you've seen or heard this summer."

Mal takes a moment, "Like what?"

Belle strains a smile, as her pitch raises, "Oh. Like everything." Mal blankly stares at her, and she points to the door, "I'll just be leaving now."

After Belle awkwardly exits and shuts the door, Mal's jaw drops, "That was not okay."

"She's stressed," Evie informs.

"And that makes it okay for her to do this to Ben?"

"He's used to reporters," she reminds her.

"Yeah," Mal agrees, "but it's not like he's used to explaining why two of the people he got out of the Isle, one of which is the girlfriend he broke up with and then attempted to assault, are now together and breaking the law under his supervision."

"We're not breaking the law if we're not having sex," she counters.

"People will think we are," Mal asserts, "and Ben's going to be the one who pays for it."

"Because getting sent to the Isle would be nothing," Evie murmurs.

Mal takes a deep breath, "Evie. I didn't mean—"

"I know," she shakes her head. "You're just worried about Ben."

"It's not right that his mother has so much power over him," Mal explains. "She has just as much power over him as my mom did, and she doesn't even need to hypnotize him."

"Belle doesn't try to hurt anyone," Evie defends.

"She knows she's hurting Ben." Mal sighs, "But you're right. It's not like Ben minds it, so she's not technically hurting him."

"Actually," Evie meets her jade eyes. "I feel like Ben does mind." She eyes down, "He gets stressed around her, and when he's close to her, he can get sad."

Mal moves the hair from Evie's face and sees her crying, "Evie?"

She shakes her head, "He's been trying so hard to set boundaries with her, Mal, and now she's just going to go and talk him into what has to be the most uncomfortable interview ever?"

"We can't call Emergency Services." Mal sadly laughs, "I mean, what could we say. Ben's mother is using his feelings for her to do whatever she wants?"

"The school year will start soon," Evie thinks. "Maybe things will be better then."

"Until the school year ends and Ben graduates," Mal contemplates.

- Posted: 11/05/2019

- So, I'm pretty sure I messed up the calendar again. On like all my coordinated stories, so don't mind any inconsistencies. I started showing dates for author purposes anyway, so it shouldn't have too much of an impact on the readers... unless I miss someone's birthday, change the date of a major event, or something stupid like that.

- Megan Thank you, and I'm glad you got better. I'm so glad you've connected with the characters on a personal level. That will make it that much better when I kill them off. JK... maybe.

- Darthamster12 My YouTube is claiming you're a hamster, not a dark master. I apologize. Lol. Thank you for subscribing. I can guarantee I will not be flooding your notifications, although I do hope to add a video at some point. The project I'm thinking of requires me to find a free recording software, though, and I don't have internet at home. If anyone can recommend a video/sound recording software that will record sound while earbuds are in, that would be great. I hate making any noise at all. As far as your question that you asked on Side Problems: In the Pack, I was doing my best to avoid werewolves just because of Ben's beast nature; however, someone requested a fic where Lonnie was dating a werewolf, and it got me inspired (WAY TOO INSPIRED). I've explained in these fics that vampires and werewolves have different strains of the Acuti Retro Virus. The idea I laid out in Side Problems is that Ben's grandfather had a brother, who had a son, who had another son (Ben's cousin). The grandfathers had the werewolf virus, but one of them traveled to the Arabian desert, "bonded" with a lion, and then found the lamp in the Cave of Wonders. He used one of the wishes to turn the lion into a human, but because he hadn't returned the lamp to the cave yet, the wishes started to revert back. This lead to a carnivorous "human" with a lion's roar, who then mated with the human with the werewolf virus. Ben's father had a problematic puberty, so his parents made a deal with the enchantress so that Adam would take the physical form of whoever his chosen mate was; however, the magic couldn't remove the retro virus that had already changed his DNA. Because Adam's species wasn't exactly human, the virus had to adapt to the few lion genes he had inherited. This is why when Mal was "making out" with Ben, that the virus didn't pass on to her (not that it could anyway). The virus Ben inherited was mutated for his unique species, whereas the regular werewolf virus had evolved to infect humans. This is why Ben wouldn't be able to unknowingly infect anyone. The only way the virus could pass on is to a beast-like offspring. So, is Ben a werewolf? Well, in this universe, werewolf is a derogatory term, so no. Lol.

- If anyone feels like they're not getting enough content from me, I just posted a horror story to FictionPress… I could have sworn I already had an account, but apparently not. The story is called "Ashland Horror", and I'm going to have it as a compilation of short horror stories. Feel free to comment on the first "chapter". I promise it will feel very Ben-esk (feel free to correct me if I used or spelled -esk wrong.)