"And so they ran, three animals in starlight. A black otter. A tomcat. A rabbit.

Me, thought Will, I'm the rabbit.

And he was white, and much afraid."

- Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

A/N: This chapter has a rape mention, and a sort of graphic death. The creature encountered by King Adam in the other world is a Kath Hound, guardian of the Fae, and as far as I know, it's just a D&D monster.

As a side note, my writing style is very similar to/inspired by Ray Bradbury, who provided this chapter's quote. If you can, go read Something Wicked. It's a great end of summer book.

When Adam opened his eyes, he was alone. Still wearing the clothes he wore to bed. He rolled onto his back, and worked his way up to his feet. The room was pitch black, but in the darkness, he saw a line of thin light, like you'd see underneath the shadow of a door. The place was silent, eerily so. He wasn't in a dungeon - there was no sound of footsteps or creaking doors, or screaming prisoners, or dripping water. It was silent, and the walls were like dust. When he tried to touch them, he felt so unsettled, as if he had dipped his hand into black flour, getting all over him, and underneath his fingernails. He pulled his hand back, and shuddered. He could pass through the walls, probably, if the way his hand sunk in was any indication.

But the thought of that made him nauseous. He was certain that doing such a thing would end badly.

So Adam made his way to the door, and pushed it open. The texture felt like polished wood, and it felt so normal when compared to the wall, that he was relieved. Then the door swung open, and there was nothing but a trail, lined by fireflies. He felt like a man who was standing in a field, unprotected, with a lightning storm raging all around him.

He seemed to walk forever, in this place with no end, and nothing ever changed. With every step, Adam grew more afraid, because he knew, instinctually, that he was prey here. His thought was confirmed, when he saw a shadow at the end of the hall that seemed even blacker than the darkness around him. It solidified as he approached - coalesced into something resembling a four-legged beast.

Then, the creature's head pivoted all the way around like an owl's, and Adam jumped back like a burned man, because the face on the beast was his own. He screamed, stumbling backwards, and covering his head with his arms to protect himself.

The killing blow never came, and cautiously, carefully, Adam removed his hands from his face and glanced nervously at the place where the beast had been. It was gone, leaving Adam to wonder if it had ever existed, or had always been a figment of his mind.

There was a door where the creature had stood, and it was the only way to go, if not backwards to his black cell. So Adam went forward, and prayed that the creature was well and truly gone.

He entered into an obsidian throne room, and the girl he saw sprawled over the throne made his blood boil.

"You!" The former King shouted, lunging for Mal, who laughed heartily and secured him in magical binds with a flick of her hand.

"This is my domain, Adam. You are a guest here." Mal smirked.

"I should have known you were behind this, you witch." The King retorted, and with another gesture, he was gagged.

"As a good guest, you should be silent while your host is speaking." Mal sneered, and she leisurely stood from her throne and walked casually down to Adam's level, dragging him up to his knees so he could look at her as she taunted him.

"You know what's so ironic about this?" Mal laughed, just a little bit like her mother in a way she never would have noticed before now, with King Adam on his knees before her, a gag in his mouth, and silent - like the good boy he pretended he still was.

The former king of Auradon raised an eyebrow, and Mal was just a bit impressed by his patience. She'd expected him to lose his temper, like the beast she knew he still was inside. Or cry like an Auradon child, sent to bed without dessert. But Adam just looked at her, and somehow, Mal felt that it was better that way. She'd have to work to coax the emotion out of him, and it. Would be. Delicious.

"The most ironic thing about this, is that I could have been so many things." Mal smiled softly, giving the impression of bitterness (even though she didn't regret who she became). "If I'd grown up with my mother on the moors, I would have had wings. I would have had a happy childhood, provided that the bastard king Stefan didn't hunt my family for the rest of our lives."

A long-suffering sigh. She doubted Adam actually knew or understood the complex story of her mother and the royal family of Rosemore, so she didn't plan on taxing his poor brain too much with riddles and history lessons.

"Or how about this? If you took the children from the Isle as soon as they were born, I would have grown up here in Auradon. A sweet little girl, whose only difference was pretty purple hair and too-green eyes. You could have even adopted me yourself, King Beast." Mal smirked. Sighing as if she actually cared.

"You could have even killed my mother when you got the chance." She leaned in close, breath on his face, smiling with teeth, and magic. "If you'd finished what weak little Phillip started, I'd have never been born, and we wouldn't even be here right now."

Mal laughed then, and Adam started to go pale, to lose the color from his face as he realized her full implications. It was exactly what Mal wanted. She wanted him to know what he'd done, before she killed him.

"But no. Instead, you left me, and countless other children on an Isle of rapists, murderers, and the worst of them all." Her gaze turned steely now. "What exactly did you think would happen, king? That we'd sit around a fire and sing Kumbayah as we ate scraps and died from starvation and disease?

"Did you know Dizzy Tremaine was raped last year? She was eleven years old, you bastard. You put her there." Mal hissed, staring into Adam's eyes, and she was disgusted when he didn't even flinch.

He knew.

He'd always known what had happened on the fucking Isle, and he willfully turned a blind eye, like the selfish coward he had always been. Just the tarot card, Mal was death on the pale horse, and no one could keep secrets from death. She saw into his soul.

'What did you think would happen?" Mal hissed, and she snapped her fingers to remove the magical gag. Instead of replying, the man merely looked at her, terrified and angry, and helpless. Finally, he spoke, and it wasn't what Mal expected. There were no pleas for mercy, or groveling for a second chance, or stoic bravery. There was only the weak voice of a man who was so poor with relationships he still didn't grasp the full weight of the situation.

He was still the entitled young man he'd been when he was cursed.

"Why are you telling me this?" Adam asked, looking up with confusion.

"Because before I kill you," Mal answered, coldly, cruelly. "I want you to know that everything, from the destruction of your family, to the crumbling of your kingdom, is all your fault."

Then she laughed, and in Adam's mind, she glowed with triumph, arrayed in righteousness, a god in glory, walking among men. She kicked him, hard, and he felt it, even though he was between life and death, and he wasn't supposed to feel it. She kept kicking him, bound and helpless, and she spat on his body as she turned to leave.

"Burn in hell, you pathetic waste."

Queen Mother Belle awoke at exactly 3:00 in the morning, to the sound of her husband screaming, and his screams becoming slurred cries as he fought with his wife against an enemy who wasn't there, before he finally fell down dead. Belle screamed, and screamed, and Ben came running, falling to his knees in front of his mother, and pulling her into him to comfort her. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew from the moment he entered the room that his father was dead, and Ben's first job as King was his duty to his mother.

"Don't worry, mother. We'll call for Lumiere in a moment, and we'll get this all sorted out." Ben whispered softly into Belle's hair, and her wailing sobs quieted into hot, silent tears.

Lumiere was summoned, and then the royal doctor, and then the coroner. King Adam had died, not five minutes after the stroke of three (the witching hour).

"But he was screaming, he acted as if he didn't even know me!" Belle murmured, voice sore and eyes red from crying all morning.

"We won't know for sure until the autopsy, but I believe there was swelling in the brain." The doctor explained, kindly and patiently. "If that's the case, it wouldn't be uncommon for him to have hallucinations at the end."

Belle couldn't help it, hearing her husband spoken about so clinically caused her tears to return, and she cried into Ben's shoulder.

"Lumiere, please prepare a speech that I can read for the morning news. Rumors will get out about what happened, and fearful speculation is the worst possible thing right now." Ben slipped right into his King mode, as his life-long training kicked into high gear. "Someone wake Mal and Evie, and bring them here as well."

"I can understand Mal, Benjamin." Belle cautiously began, looking a little wary. "But do we really need to bring Genevieve into this?"

She was worried about bringing someone who wasn't (soon to be) family into such an intimate moment, but Ben was adamant. He really liked Evie, and their time together at the soup kitchen had showed him just how kind and diplomatic she was.

"Mal is my best friend, mom, and Evie is a P.R. genius. They'll both be invaluable to me during this time of transition." Ben explained with a reassuring smile. "The most important thing right now is the kingdom, mother."

Belle was so proud of her son. She knew little about politics, only what she'd read in books. She was born a peasant, and her husband had kept her out of the diplomatic arena, because he had very old fashioned ideas about gender roles, and thought he was doing right by her, when he kept her from the scathing comments of the council chambers. It was part of why Adam had such a deep mistrust of Mal. She was a part of everything Ben did, and especially of the politics. Even though she didn't have any authority until she married Ben, she read everything she could about the laws of the land, and whispered in her boyfriend's ear about new policies and agendas. Belle was almost certain that the new arrivals from the Isle were entirely Mal's idea, but unlike her husband, she didn't think that was a bad thing.

Evie arrived first, and wrapped Ben in a sympathetic hug. Then, to her surprise, she turned to Belle, and knelt down in front of her with a pretty smile.

"How are you holding up?" She asked kindly, and when Belle imagined the daughter she'd never have, she acted just like this villain girl in front of her, and even her hair was the color of the Auradonian flag.

Belle folded Evie into her arms, and held her tightly.

"Thank you for being here." Belle whispered. "Ben seems to trust you, and I think his trust is not misplaced."

"I'm glad to hear it, ma'am." Evie smiled gently. "We've gotten close lately, and I'm glad that he considers me a friend."

"And nothing more than a friend?" Belle asked as she saw the way her son looked at the daughter of the Evil Queen.

"Mal is my best friend, and like a sister to me. I would never take something that was hers." Evie replied softly. That was good enough for Belle, and she didn't even realize that Evie had never directly answered her.

Mal arrived, mere moments later, and Ben held her in his arms, closing his eyes, and steeling himself for the days to come. He was now well and truly the king, not a provisional ruler, not a boy-king with limited authority until his graduation. He was the sole monarch of Auradon.

From her place beneath Ben's chin and muffled by his shoulder, no one saw Mal smile, victorious.

Ben gave his address by the time Auradon was watching the news over their morning tea. He stood proudly at the press conference, with Mal beside him, and Evie respectfully behind, with Belle composed at last, but pale from crying.

"It is with a heavy heart that I inform all of you, citizens of Auradon, that King Adam Beast passed away at three o'three this morning. An autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause of death, but foul play is not suspected." Ben smiled at the camera and delivered the more personal part of his speech. "You were all aware of my father's declining health, and thanks to my coronation upon my sixteenth birthday, he made sure I would be well prepared to rule in his stead.

"My father will be well missed, not only by his people, and his council, but by those closest to him." At that, Ben looked toward his mother, and Mal squeezed his arm comfortingly. A cheer rang out from the crowd, and Mal couldn't agree more.

"The King is dead! Long live the king!"

Long live the king indeed.