A month had passed since the deal between Jaden and Ken had been agreed on and Jaden was now hard at work on the completion of Barbie's Dreamhouse, with the help of Goofy pitching in for the more complex aspects of carpentry. This last week alone had been particularly exhausting as the finishing touches were being put into place. Jaden had wanted it to be perfect and just when she thought she'd drop dead from fatigue, Barbie's younger sisters Skipper, Stacie and Chelsea had got wind of the new house being built. They were all too eager to help contribute to the cause, insisting that they helped by fitting all the furniture into place, something that Jaden was very thankful for.
This past month had been absolute hell for Jaden, who had barely stopped to take a single break since the construction of Barbie's house begun. The house was to be built on a beautiful location right on the north side of the beach, just as Barbie had requested. As soon as you stepped out the front door, you'd be walking straight onto sand, staring at a gorgeous sunset that dipped below the horizon of the calming, lapping waves of the nearby ocean. The scenery was unlike any other and Jaden was glad that this was the sight Barbie would be waking up to every morning.
But despite all of the beauty, Jaden ran into her first roadblock. When the work had only just begun, Jaden had caught Goofy giving Barbie a stare of interest, something that caused Jaden to feel uneasy and left her on edge about the blonde woman's safety. She knew exactly what Goofy was capable of and had a rough idea on what he must be thinking, or worse yet, what he was planning. So, Jaden did what she thought she had to do. She had approached Goofy with an air of confidence about her and her guard up. "Think again. You can have anyone else in this village, but Barbie? She's mine."
Goofy hadn't said anything in reply, only giving her a nod of understanding that got his point across and the matter was never discussed again. After laying down her ground rules, Jaden assumed this project was to be smooth sailing from here.
However, that was clearly not the case. Jaden still had to deal with the consequences that was the deal between her and Ken. The abuse she had to face on a daily basis hadn't helped matters at all, that she was surprised he hadn't killed her yet. Though she guessed it would benefit him more to keep her alive rather than to outright kill her. Unfortunately the stab wound he had given her from the poisoned knife didn't seem to be speeding things along either. That was the intention when she poisoned the knife in the first place. She was starting to think that maybe Merlin had tricked her and if he had, she wasn't sure what to make of that.
Jaden and Goofy stepped out of the Dreamhouse early that morning, with Jaden taking her much needed smoke break. This caused Goofy to frown, knowing this was like the twentieth cigarette in the past hour. Judging from the tenseness of her shoulders and from what appeared to be a fearful glint in her eyes, he could tell she was on edge but he couldn't comprehend why. The fact that she hardly took any breaks, aside from the occasional smoke break that is, plus working herself to the bone didn't go unnoticed by Goofy. He rarely saw her eat a decent meal, or anything come to that. The closest he could think of was eating half a sandwich and even that was rare. He had even tried to convince her to take a damn break every once in a while, even threatened her at that but she still wouldn't listen.
But what had bothered him the most was her clothing style. For the past month he had noticed that she was wearing more clothing than usual, looking and smelling more like a homeless person than the saviour of this valley, as Merlin kept trying to point out to him. Usually Jaden's outfit would consist of a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a jacket. On the rare occasion he had even caught her walking around naked. Those days seemed like many decades ago, now her entire outfit was made up of a long sleeve t-shirt, a purple hoodie with the hood up, a leather jacket and jeans that barely fit her already thin frame. In fact, all her clothes seemed a bit too big on her nowadays. She was either losing weight at an alarming rate or she was buying clothes that were far too big for her on purpose, almost like she was hiding something.
Avoiding his gaze from her slouched form that was leaning against the wall, Goofy sighed. "You should go home and rest now, Jaden." He told her, knowing he was wasting his breath, but he had to at least try. Truth was he couldn't bear to look at her like this anymore, it was more than enough to put a damper on his already low mood.
Jaden shook her head. "There's still a few things that need to be doing and I've got to meet Malibu and Brooklyn." Her voice was slow and drawn out, almost resembling that of a zombie.
Goofy bit back his growing temper, knowing in his heart that losing his patience with her wasn't going to help matters. Not if he wanted Jaden to open up to him that is. "You can barely stand, you silly cow. Seriously, you should really go home. You're no use to anyone if you kill yourself." He was hoping that maybe the honest approach would snap her out of whatever she was thinking. However, judging from the same point blank expression she was giving him, Goofy realised that no matter what he said to her, it was all pointless. She wasn't going to listen to a damn word he told her. Sighing, he walked away, giving up on trying to talk sense to her and headed back to his house in the meadow.
Once Goofy was out of eyesight, Jaden paced back and forth. Her head had started to spin but try as she might, it was getting harder and harder to ignore. That was until she found herself hitting the ground face first into the sand, her eyes beginning to close not long after that.
When Malibu and Brooklyn arrived at the nearly finished Dreamhouse an hour later, they found Jaden lying unconscious in the sand. Both girls were in complete shock, both not knowing what to do for a few seconds. Malibu was the first one to snap out of her internal panic. She cautiously rolled Jaden onto her back and checked the woman over for any injuries. Thankfully, she couldn't find any aside from the stab wound to Jaden's knee which from the looks of it, was reopened, blood soaking through Jaden's jeans. Malibu searched through Jaden's pockets, looking for the small pocket knife she knew Jaden always carried around. Once she grasped a hold of it in her hands, Malibu used it to rip apart the end of Jaden's jeans, using the material to wrap around Jaden's knee.
Hyper focused on her job, Malibu heard Brooklyn utter a small gasp of horror. Malibu turned her head to look at her girlfriend, who was pointing back at Jaden. Malibu turned her head to see Jaden choking on her own blood. Malibu acted fast, pulling down Jaden's hood and quickly turning the woman onto her side.
Once she was sure it was safe, Malibu carefully lifted Jaden into her arms, noting just how light the woman was. Without another word, she and Brooklyn made the journey back to Jaden's house.
When the two Barbie's had entered Jaden's house, Malibu gently laid Jaden onto her bed, carefully taking off her bloodied, ripped jeans and gingerly peeled off the soaked bandages. Upon seeing the damage of her wounded knee, Malibu wanted to be sick at the gruesome sight, with the knee completely ripped apart with part of the bone sticking out. Swallowing down the bile that was rising in her throat, Malibu cast a glance at Brooklyn, who was sitting on the edge of the bed beside Jaden, gently holding the woman down in case she started to struggle through her pain. With one look at her girlfriend, Brooklyn shrugged and shook her head, clearly wondering the exact same. How on Earth did Jaden manage to walk around like that, let alone build a house?
Gathering herself together, Malibu took charge of the situation. "Brooklyn, could you get the first aid kit, a bowl of water and a cloth please?" Malibu asked her girlfriend, to which Brooklyn nodded and got off the bed, running to the kitchen in search of the supplies.
A few short minutes later and she returned with the supplies. She placed the bowl onto the bedside table and gave Malibu the first aid kit. Brooklyn sat back down on the bed and held Jaden down as Malibu cleaned her knee, resulting in a cry of pain from Jaden as she thrashed against Brooklyn's strong hold.
"Easy there, Jaden. Malibu's just cleaning up your knee." Brooklyn whispered soothingly.
Before Malibu could say anything, she was suddenly hit by a blast of magic from Jaden, knocking her across the room, landing right by the door. Brooklyn jumped from the bed and ran over to her girlfriend's side, taking her into her arms and checking her over.
"I'm fineā¦" Malibu groaned, reassuring Brooklyn as she rubbed at her shoulder where she smacked into the wall. "But clearly the pain was too much for her." Malibu directed her gaze back to Jaden's weakened form on the bed.
"What do you think we should do? We don't want to risk hurting her further and then have her hurt you too." Brooklyn questioned, worry evident in her voice.
"You can go get Merlin while I try and finish up cleaning her leg." Malibu suggested.
Brooklyn narrowed her eyes. "Do I have to tell you to be careful?"
Malibu smiled at the protectiveness of her girlfriend's tone. "Don't worry, I'll be careful." She gave Brooklyn a kiss before Brooklyn let her go and left the house in a rush.
Please hurry, Malibu thought with an increasing dread she felt in the pits of her stomach. I don't know how much more pain Jaden is going to be able to take.
