Ch 3:
(Warning: not sure if this warning is necessary or not, but I'm going to put it anyway. There is a flashback scene in this chapter that depicts child abuse and how Chloe got her leg in the bear trap.)
Everything hurt. And something smelled bad, almost strong like the alcohol her mother drank. Her leg felt like it was burning, was her mother pressing a cigarette to her skin? What did she do wrong this time?
A groan slipped from her throat and her head turned to the side. Instantly a bright light seared through her closed eyelids, making her clench her eyes shut and whimper at the slice of pain it sent through her skull.
A hand grasped hers and a jolt of panic shot through her chest.
"Shh. Chloe, it's okay. You're safe. It's me, Carlos."
Carlos? What was Carlos doing here?
Determined to see if her fever was causing hallucinations, Chloe turned her head away from the bright light and tried to force her eyes open. They felt heavy and like they were glued shut, but she eventually managed to slowly blink them open.
It took several blinks for the red, black, and white blur to become her brother.
"Carlos?" she croaked, her voice hoarse. Her brother grinned sadly in response.
"Hey. How're you feeling?" he asked gently, still holding her hand.
Chloe swallowed, trying to wet her throat. "Sore." she finally answered.
Carlos nodded before releasing her hand and propping her up a bit more against her pillow. He then reached toward the small table next to her head. He poured some water from a glass pitcher into a cup before carefully passing the cup to her. "Here. The doctor left this earlier for when you woke up."
"Doctor?" Chloe repeated hesitantly. The only "doctor" she knew was Dr. Facilier, their school headmaster. And she wasn't dumb enough to drink anything from him.
"He's a good doctor. Promise." Carlos assured her. "You're not on the Isle anymore, Sis." he explained gently, figuring she hadn't thought that far yet.
Chloe paused as the rim of the glass touched her lips. She then pulled it away and stared wide-eyed at her brother.
"What?" she whispered in shock.
"You're in Auradon." Carlos grinned.
The glass almost slipped from her hands, but she managed to set it in her lap.
"Auradon?" she whispered, her eyes moving around the room. It certainly was the cleanest room she'd ever seen. Nothing on the Isle was this pristine and white. And the bright sunlight pouring in from the window, she'd never seen light that bright. "How-? What-?" Her eyes traveled back to Carlos, silently demanding an explanation.
"How about we start with you?" Carlos suggested hesitantly. "What…What happened after we left for Auradon last month?"
Chloe swallowed a lump in her throat, glancing down at her lap. "Surely you can guess most of it."
"Probably. But please just tell me."
Chloe shrugged slightly. "Well, I had to keep doing all our chores. And Mother still expected them to be done in the same amount of time as normal."
"But it was only you." Carlos argued. "Surely she could understand that it would take longer for one person to do the job of two people."
Chloe gave him a look. "Really? You think Cruella De Vil would understand anything like that?"
Carlos grimaced. "Point taken. So, other than the chores, what else?"
"Well, without Mal and all of you I was all alone, so lots of people…well," she gestured to her face and all the bruises coloring her skin. "And I'd almost forgotten what the inside of a locker looked like."
Carlos winced. They both had intimate knowledge of the inside of a locker after the number of times they'd been locked inside one over the years. It was part of the reason he was claustrophobic.
"And that?" he asked, gesturing to her leg.
Chloe followed his gaze, momentarily confused. Her right leg was sticking out from under the sheet and was wrapped in a white bandage. It took a few moments before it all flooded back to her.
Flashback
Her shoulders and arms ached as she frantically scrubbed the marble floor of Hell Hall's party hall. She was supposed to do the dishes, the laundry, and scrub the whole floor of the hall within the afternoon and she was sure she was running out of time. Her pants were wet, her sleeves pushed up to the elbow, hair sticking to her face from both sweat and the soapy water, and blisters decorated her fingers.
She froze mid-scrub when she heard the familiar screech of tires outside the front door. She began to tremble. Her mother was home, and she wasn't done. She still had over half the hall's floor to scrub.
Panic spread through her chest, her heart pounding in terror at the thought of facing her mother's wrath again.
Her feet slipped on the wet floor as she hurriedly stood up and spun around, racing across the hall toward the closet door. If she could just get to her room, maybe she'd be safe. Maybe she could barricade the doors to keep her mother out until she calmed down. Maybe-
She skidded on the floor and into the door, which she yanked open. She rushed inside and shut the door before freezing. She tried to hold her breath as she pressed her ear to the door, listening to what was happening on the other side.
It was silent for a long moment, then she heard the familiar SLAM the front door made whenever her mother entered. Swallowing, Chloe slowly started to back away from the door, expertly avoiding the dozens of bear traps with her feet.
"CHLOE!"
Chloe flinched violently at her mother's shriek, her feet stumbling back a few steps.
SNAP!
It took a few seconds for Chloe's brain to register the searing pain in her leg, and then a strangled scream ripped from her throat as she stumbled forward, her hands slamming into the door she'd just been backing away from. She stood there, trying to breathe through the pain and make herself think, but she couldn't think past the agony.
The door was ripped open, causing her to stumble forward, catching herself on the doorway.
"What do you think you're doing, you ungrateful brat?!" Cruella shrieked, glaring down at Chloe as she grabbed her arm, yanking her out of the closet. Chloe stumbled, unable to put weight on her injured leg, and landed sprawled on the floor at her mother's feet. She caught a look at her leg and nearly threw up. The metal teeth of the bear trap were embedded in the flesh of her calf, blooding leaking from the wound.
"If you got any blood on my furs, I'll skin you alive!" Cruella continued to rant and screech as she desperately checked the fur coats hanging in the closet.
Chloe whimpered, forcing herself to sit up and cradle her injury with her hands. "Mom." she whimpered, tears leaking from her eyes. "Mom, please."
Satisfied her 'babies' were fine, Cruella turned and sneered down her nose at her daughter. Her eyes traveled down to Chloe's leg and she wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"It serves you right, not finishing your chores and then threatening my babies. I'll leave you with that on your leg. Maybe that will teach you a lesson."
With that, Cruella turned and stormed off, leaving her daughter there with the bear trap clamped on her leg.
Chloe sat there for a long time, taking deep breaths to try and calm down and ignore the pain. Finally, she forced herself to stand, leaning heavily on the wall. Not daring to reenter the closet, she took the long way to her bedroom, leaning heavily on the wall the whole way.
She finally reached her bedroom door, and her cat Beelzebub scampered in before she closed the door. The cat normally avoided the house because of Cruella, but she occasionally snuck inside.
Chloe flopped down on the lumpy mattress on the floor, flinching as it jarred her leg. Her fingers trembled as she tried to pry the trap open. She pulled and yanked, but she couldn't get it to budge. She tried for a while before giving up. She was just too tired and in too much pain to keep trying. She couldn't keep doing this.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she turned and laid on her side on the mattress. Beelzebub curled up next to her, a quiet purr rumbling through Chloe's chest in a comforting way, helping to sooth her to a painful sleep.
End of Flashback
Chloe swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to keep her hands from trembling. She took a few deep breaths, reminding herself that it was over, and she was safe now.
"I got my leg caught in a bear trap." she explained vaguely.
"Yeah, I got that." Carlos agreed sarcastically. "I saw your leg in the trap when we went to get you. What lead up to that?"
"I ran into the closet because I hadn't finished my chores in time, and knew Mother would be angry." Chloe started briefly. "I got my leg caught in one of the traps and couldn't get it open." She didn't want to explain everything in detail. She was sure Carlos felt guilty enough without the gory details.
Any response Carlos may have come up with was interrupted by a knock on the door. Chloe looked past her brother, who turned to look over his shoulder at the door. The boy standing in the doorway had a boyish face with golden-brown hair, hazel-green eyes, and a kind smile. At his side stood Mal, looking practically the same as when she left the Isle apart from having what looked like a newer outfit.
"Hey. Hope we're not interrupting anything." the boy greeted them as they entered the room. "The doctor didn't tell me you were awake." he added to Chloe.
"Oh, she just woke up a few minutes ago. I haven't gotten around to letting the doctors know yet." Carlos admitted sheepishly.
"Understandable." the boy agreed with a smile before turning that smile to Chloe. "I'm Ben. It's nice to officially meet you, Chloe." he greeted her, offering his hand.
Chloe looked at it before glancing at Carlos. Her brother nodded reassuringly at her, so she took the offered hand to shake, giving who she guessed was the Prince of Auradon a nervous smile.
"And in case Carlos hasn't cleared a few things up," Mal added, glancing teasingly at Carlos, "we tried to steal the wand at Ben's coronation, but we decided to choose good instead. Then my mom showed up because the barrier had temporarily cracked, and we had to fight her as a giant dragon."
"And Mal turned her into a tiny lizard." Carlos added, rolling his eyes slightly. "And for the record, I was going to explain all that before you two arrived. We hadn't gotten that far yet."
Chloe stared wide-eyed at the two for a moment before turning her eyes to Ben, who looked amused.
"Wait, so-You didn't throw them back on the Isle for trying to steal the wand?" she asked the Prince-wait, his coronation happened, so King- in surprise.
Ben shrugged casually. "They changed their minds. They chose to be good. And then they defeated Maleficent. I see no reason to send them, or you, back to the Isle."
Chloe stared at him in shock for a moment. "But-so-why'd you bring me to Auradon?"
"Because your brother explained a few things to me, and asked if I could take you off the Isle. So, I pulled a few strings and did just that." His smile turned a little sad as he glanced at her leg. "And it's a good thing I did, it appears."
Chloe glanced away awkwardly.
"You'll love Auradon Prep, Chloe." Carlos cut in, changing the subject easily. "There's a huge variety of classes, unlike only evil classes like at Dragon Hall."
"They even have some art classes." Mal added, smiling. "I suggested to Fairy Godmother that she put you in one."
Chloe smiled slightly. "Thanks. That sounds like fun."
AN: We finally get to meet Chloe officially! What do you all think of her? She just woke up in the hospital, so we didn't get that good of a look into her personality, but what do you think so far?
Also, I'm going to be including flashbacks like the one above every so often, mostly of what Chloe's life on the Isle was like. Most of them will be bad memories, but some will be good, like her memories with Carlos. Let me know throughout the story if there's any specific memories you want to see. I might try to include them later in the story.