Chapter 10: 1.19K
Chapter 11: 1.15K
Chapter 12: 1.27K
THAT is how many views the story received on the days that those chapters were published. On the first day I was COMPLETELY blown away, since I had only hoped to get 800 views. The next chapter, I noticed the count slightly lower, but I was still exited for it to be above 1000.
You don't know how happy I was when I found out the last chapter day view count was 1270. That is the MOST views I have ever received in one day for a story, that is including my 'Raised on the Isle' series. Thank you so much.
Just a warning: there will only be one chapter this week. I have a nine-paged essay due on Wednesday when I only have three completed, I have the epilogue for Welcome to Reality to work on when I haven't started yet, and then debating on whether to continue Kore since hardly no one seems interested again.
Anyways, with this chapter, I hope to exceed the last view count for one significant reason. In this chapter, you will see the incident with the apples and the goblin AND my version of what happened at the birthday party.
As for the reason, I made a reference to what a certain actress said about a certain actor. The only hint I'm going to give is that I cried when reading what other actors and actresses said while finding hers and remembering what happened. Hell, I cried while typing this paragraph. If anyone can find and state that reference word for word in this chapter, I will attempt to post FOUR chapters next week and gladly dedicate those chapters to those who answered correctly.
Enjoy.
The days passed on with the villains on the Isle of the Lost falling into the same repetitive routine every single day. What else are they supposed to do when they can't go anywhere?
The villains found some amusement on the days that they decide to care for their children. Most couldn't see how Hades and Maleficent were able to raise their daughter with such ease. From what some have seen, Mal never acted out in public, no matter how much troublemaking her friends were doing. Quite a few wondered if her parents were raising her to be a villain like everyone else was.
One day, they received their answer.
It was about a month or so before her sixth birthday when this incident occurred. Five-year-old Mal was harmlessly walking through the marketplace, holding her mother's hand while her mother had her other arm entwined with her father's. Some days Mal would have her dad carry her to change things up a bit.
From the corner of her eye, Mal noticed some of the older kids tripping an innocent old goblin, who fell with a small thud. The goblin's basket of bruised apples spilled all over the ground, causing the children to laugh at its— his? —misfortune.
Except for Mal.
Breaking from her mother's grasp, Mali hurried to the goblin for aid, much to the surprise of her parents and all the spectators in the marketplace. One by one, the little girl gathered the apples to place back in the basket, but not before wiping the dirt off each with the skirt of her dress.
After a few moments, Mal finally noticed the silence of the usually bustling street. Peering up self-consciously, she discovered that every single person was watching her, completely baffled by her actions. She sheepishly gazed at her parents, who stared at her with a certain look in their eye that she's never seen before.
"Why did you stop?" Hades wondered softly as he untangled his arm from his wife, who momentarily leaned against a nearby stand for support so he could walk to his daughter. "When you help someone, you have to keep going until the task is done. Watch."
Kneeling so he was about his daughter's height, Hades quickly swiped the remaining apples, cleaning the dirt off each, and placed them in the basket in less than a minute. Once he was finished, he quickly swooped his daughter into his arms as he stood, blowing kisses on her cheek until she started giggling.
"Don't doubt yourself when you make a good decision," Hades advised wisdomly. "And a queen, like you will one day be, should always try to help those who are in need. Do you understand, Mali?"
Mal nodded briskly, happy to know she wasn't in trouble for what she did.
-0-0-0-
It was with great excitement and no small fanfare that the island gathered for a one-of-a-kind event: a six-year-old girl's wickedly wonderful birthday party.
But not for the girl you are expecting.
It was the second most magnificent celebration the island and its banished citizens have ever seen; second only to Hades and Maleficent's wedding. Still, this lavish occasion transformed the ramshackle bazaar and its rotting storefronts in the middle of the island into a spookily spectacular playground, full of ghostly lanterns and flickering candles.
A few weeks before, a flock of vultures had circled the land, dropping invitations on every shabby doorstep and hovel so that all the children from every corner of the isle could partake in this enchanting event.
Every little urchin on the island, that is, except for one little fairy.
Whether her invitation was lost to the winds, or devoured by the hungry buzzards themselves, or never addressed in the looping royal scrawl, as was suspected, but we will never know.
But the result was still the same.
A tiny princess sat on her rickety throne, her haired dyed to be the color of the ocean, eyes as dark as night, and lips as pink as roses. Her hair was pulled back from her face in a pretty V-braid, and she laughed in delight at the array or marvels before her. The princess possessed a darling giggle that was so entrancing, it brought a smile to haughty Lady Tremaine's face. For old times' sake, Captain Hook bravely stuck his head between Tick-Tock's open jaws, if only so he could make her laugh and hear that lovely peal again.
The princess could somehow make the most horrible villains smile.
The children gleefully tore into their baddie bags. The crumpled containers held a variety pf evil sidekicks to choose from—pet baby moray eels akin to the slinky Flotsam and Jetsam swimming in tiny bowls; little spotted, cackling hyenas who were no quieter than the infamous Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed; pouncing and adorable black kittens from Lucifer's latest litter. Their badly behaved recipients screamed with excitement.
As the party escalated in feverish merriment, someone finally noticed the absence of a naturally purple-haired girl and her parents.
Pushing through the crowd of party-goers, Cruella de Vil practically dragged the Evil Queen aside to speak to her privately. "Where's Bertha?"
Evil Queen cocked her head to the side as she questioned with mock unfamiliarity, "Who?"
"Mal," Cruella practically snarled. "My god-daughter! Where is she! Where are her parents!"
Grimhilde's eyes gleamed with jealousy as her jaw clenched in aggravation. "Not. Here," she spat venomously. "Why would I invite someone who publicly humiliated me in front of my daughter?"
"That was nearly six years ago!" Cruella argued quietly, so she didn't disturb the other guests' fun. "Evie won't even know what you're talking about since she was a week old! Besides, you can't take your anger out on an innocent little girl for something her parents did."
"You weren't there," Evil Queen argued arrogantly. "Remember?"
"Because I was taking care of my god-daughter," Cruella retorted bitterly, "while coping with the news of being pregnant so my closest friends could confront the bitch that was trying to split them up, again. Remember?"
While Grimhilde was silently fuming in rage, Cruella decided to use the speechless to her advantage. "I'm gonna take my dearest Carlos," she informed forcefully, "and go. And you better hope that this little act of rebellion doesn't come back to bite you in the ass."
Guess what?
It came back to bite the Evil Queen in the ass.
Above the tumultuous bazaar, up high on her castle balcony, six-year-old Mal pulled on the locks of her thick purple har and pursed her lips as she observed the festivities below. Mal sighed with green-eyed envy. Why wasn't she invited to the celebration?
"Mali?" Her father called as he approached her, peering over the balcony to get a look of the party. "What's going on here?"
"It's a birthday party," sniffed Mal, trying to keep her emotions together. "And I wasn't invited."
Hades appeared completely surprised by the news. "That's odd. Whose birthday is it?"
"Aidoneus," Maleficent chided from the kitchen to get her husband's attention. With a soft sigh, she reminded, "It's November. The child born this day has the only parent that despises us, specifically me. That women is—"
"Grimhilde," the couple announced in unison.
Hades shook his head in disbelief. "Why take her hatred out on our baby girl? We are the ones she has a problem with, not Mali."
As Maleficent was about to answer, Cruella came barging through the door—as usual—with four-year-old Carlos in her arms, looking particularly sad about leaving the celebration so soon. Upon seeing the family's expressions, the single mother realized they just found out about the party.
"I just came to tell you about the celebration," Cruella insisted, "but it looks like you already know. Grimhilde didn't invite Bertha because you two supposedly humiliated her in front of her daughter, even though Evie was only a week old."
Maleficent sighed in annoyance. "I'll handle this."
"Malef." Her husband stepped in front of her to halt her travel. "What are you going to do?"
"She wants me to be a villain," the wife insisted as her eyes flashed a bright vibrant green, "so I'll be a villain."
Maleficent stepped to the balcony's edge, where she could see out to the whole island, all the way to the sparkling lights of Auradon. She raised herself to her full height as thunder and lightning cracked and boomed. Since there was no magic on the island, this was just pure coincidence.
The party came to a halt, and the gathered citizens were paralyzed at the sight of their leader glaring down at them with the full force of her wrath.
"This celebration is over!" Maleficent declared. "Now shoo, flee, and scatter! And you! Evil Queen and your daughter! From now on, you are dead to the entire island! You do not exist! You are nothing! Never show your faces anywhere ever again! Or else!"
Just as quickly as it had gathered, the group dispersed under the wary eye of Maleficent. Mal caught a last glimpse of the blue-haired princess looking fearfully up at the balcony before being whisked away by her equally terrified mother.
Even though the mother-daughter duo had just been banished, Mal had a strong feeling she would see them again and sooner than expected.