"The first thing Evie thought when the door unceremoniously closed with a bang behind her was that she had worn her prettiest dress for nothing..."
"Ok, Evie should worry less about her clothes and worry more about the fact that she's locked up in the closet!" Akio said, sounding panicked. "Lord knows what is stored in there!"
" She had been looking forward to the party all day, had run home to go through every outfit in her closet, holding up dress after dress to see which shade of blue looked best. Azure? Periwinkle? Turquoise? She had settled on a dark midnight-blue lace mini-dress and matching high-heeled boots. She'd been extremely late to the party, as her mother had insisted on giving her a three-hour makeover…"
Jane cocked a brow. "Ok, I understand that Evie was upset that she wasted her time looking for a nice dress to wear, but she needs to find a way to get out of that closet and fast!"
" Not that it mattered, because she was now locked in a closet alone. She wasn't just imagining it—Mal was out to get her, most likely for not having been invited to Evie's birthday party when they were six years old. But it wasn't as if it was her fault! Evie'd been just a kid. It had been her mother who hadn't wanted Mal at the party for some reason…"
"EXACTLY!" Almost everyone in the room chorused aloud.
Mal bit her bottom lip. Evie was right; it wasn't her fault that Mal wasn't invited to the princess's party, it was the Evil Queen. She sighed softly as she put her hand on her forehead, which was throbbing slightly because she was crying too much.
" In the end, the Evil Queen probably should have dropped her grudge against Maleficent and invited her daughter to the celebration. It certainly hadn't been fun being cooped up in their castle for ten years..."
"So true," Meg nodded.
" ...but so far, other than Evie being locked in this closet at the moment, nothing too bad had happened. Yet…"
Hadie frowned. "Yet?" Trepidation started to bubble in his gut at what was going to happen next.
" Besides, the darkness of the closet didn't bother her. Evie was her mother's daughter, after all, and used to the horrors of the night—to dark, hidden things with yellow eyes glittering in the shadows, to candles dripping over skull candleholders, to the flash of lightning and the fury of thunder as they rolled across the sky. She wasn't scared. She wasn't scared in the least bit..."
Snow gulped and sighed, cocking her head to the side and resting her pearly cheek in her delicate palm. "Oh dear."
Almost everyone in the room was on the edge of their seats fearful and curious about what was going to happen to Evie.
Evie, on the other hand, didn't want to remember this dreadful memory while still being paralyzed.
" Except…her foot just struck something hard and cold…and the quiet of the closet was broken by the loud, echoing snap of steel meeting steel…"
The moms' eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as they gasped. They were too shocked to say anything.
Persephone's heart skipped a beat, her hands began to tremble. For a moment, the goddess felt as if words were stuck in her throat before she resumed her reading.
" She screamed. What was that?! When her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw fur traps littered all over the floor, lying in wait for the next animal to wander through. There were so many of them that one wrong step would mean a trap would snap her leg in two. She turned back to the door and tried to open it, but it was no use. She was locked in there…."
Persephone felt lightheaded.
"D-don't tell me what I think it was in Cruella's closet…" Jane's voice trailed off, fearful that she might know the answer.
Doug's light green eyes landed on Evie, who wasn't moving as the trauma that she went through in that forbidden closet was reading right in front of her. He then became worried about her well-being.
'Oh Evie,' Doug thought.
" "Help! Help! Let me out!" she yelled..."
Persephone's hands were sweaty as she felt chills run up her spine.
" But there was no answer, and the band was playing so loudly, Evie knew no one would hear her, nor care..."
Most of the VKs, especially Diego felt guilty at the fact that Evie was trapped in that closet.
If only they had heard her cries…
" It was hard to see, so Evie felt her way tentatively in the darkness, sliding her left foot on the floor first. How many were there? Ten? Twenty? A hundred? And how big was this room, anyway?"
"Yeah, that's what I'm wondering too!" Emir said, breaking out of his shock.
Snow prayed silently, praying that Evie made it out of that closet in whole.
" Her foot came in contact with something cold and heavy, so she retreated. How was she going to get out of this place without losing a limb? Was there another door on the other side, maybe? She squinted. Yes, that was another door. There was a way out..."
"Oh God, I hope," Jane said, her voice soft as she bit her bottom lip.
" Evie shifted to her right, hoping to avoid the trap, to move around it, but her foot struck another, and she jumped back as it too snapped shut with a bang, springing into the air and barely grazing her knee. Her heart thundered in her chest as she slid around the next trap, careful not to strike the metal for fear that it might close around her ankle. As long as she missed the trap's center, she would be good..."
For a nanosecond, Persephone's heart had stopped. She wanted to finish reading this as she couldn't take any more of this torture.
" She could do this. All she had to do was move slowly, carefully. She edged around another one. She was getting better at this; she could find her way to the back of the room and possibly another door. She cleared one and then another, moving more quickly, sliding one foot in front of the other, searching for and avoiding the traps. Faster. A little faster. The door must be closed, then—
She struck a trap and it suddenly popped up with a snap. She jumped away, and as the trap fell on the floor, it hit another trap, which sprang up and hit the one next to it, all in succession—and this time, Evie saw that she couldn't move slowly but that she had to run…"
"Oh God Evie, please run!" The AKs pleaded.
" The chorus of snapping metal jaws rang through the darkness, steel blades against steel blades, as she ran screaming toward the back door. The traps slammed shut, BAM BAM BAM, one after another, one a hairbreadth away from her stocking while another almost caught her heel as she turned the door handle, left the room, and shut the door behind her..."
The AKs flinched each time they heard BAM BAM BAM. They can't imagine what Evie has been through…
Because Persephone trembeled so such, she dropped the book on the floor and took a step back. Her heart thumped heavily in her chest. She doesn't think she could finish reading this chapter. Nope, this was too much.
"Persephone!" Hercules and Zeus cried out as they sprung out of their beanbags.
Persephone looked up and saw her father and cousin coming up to the podium after she took the Isle book. Her hands trembled once as she held the book.
"Are you alright, my child?" Zeus asked worriedly as he wrapped his strong arm around Persephone's slender shoulders.
Persephone gazed up at her father with tears welled up in her eyes.
"I don't think I can finish this chapter, father," Persephone's voice cracked.
Zeus stared at his daughter sadly as he hugged her. "It's okay, my child. You'd done well."
Hercules rubbed the back of his head as he stood in front of his father and cousin. "If anything, I'll continue to read where you left off, Persephone."
Zeus's eyes lit up at the idea. "That's a good idea, son!"
Hercules gave his father a small smile as he gently took the book from his cousin. "I'll continue from here, Perse."
Persephone nodded slowly with a sniffle as she and her father stepped down from the podium to her seat where her family started to comfort her.
Hercules went behind the podium and opened the Isle book to find the chapter where Persephone left off. Once he found the chapter, Hercules cleared his throat and began to read the paragraph where Persephone stopped.
" …This was no bear…no monster. She was trapped in a fur coat! Evie tried to shake it off, tried to shrug it off her shoulders, but she was smack-dab in the middle of dozens of coats, all of them black or white or black and white, made of the thickest, lushest hides—there was spotted ocelot and dip-dyed mink, silky sable, and shiny skunk, all of them packed in like sardines, so full, so fluffy, so thick. This was Cruella De Vil's fur closet, her wondrous collection, her obsession, her greatest weakness…"
Hercules frowned. "Wait, if Cruella's fur closet is her greatest weakness, let's not talk about how she got those animals, what made Carlos?"
"A subhuman," Diego replied, although he mentally slapped himself for saying 'subhuman'.
But it was true, Cruella cherished her fur coats more than her son.
The moms were stunned by Diego's answer, but they couldn't say anything.
Hercules shook his head sadly before continuing to read.
" And those fur traps back there were her security system, just in case anyone got too close to the stuff..."
Nobody in the room commented. They could have figured that those traps were Cruella's security system.
" Evie finally managed to untangle herself and push aside the wall of fur, just as a hand grasped her wrist and pulled her through to the other side.
" "You okay?" It was Carlos..."
Almost everyone in the room breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Okay, that was….something.
" Evie took a deep breath. "Yes. I think so. Do I win the game?" she asked drily.
Carlos laughed. "Mal's going to be annoyed you survived…" "
'I'm not. I deeply regret locking up in there,' Mal thought as she sniffed and wiped away a tear from her eye.
" "Where are we?" Evie looked around. There was a lumpy mattress on the floor next to an ironing board and a washbasin, along with a vanity table that held dozens of white-and-black wigs..."
Hercules felt his heart dropped to his feet, as was everyone who had a heart.
" When Carlos looked embarrassed, she realized it was his bedroom. Cruella's fur closet opened onto a dressing room, where her son slept.
"Oh."
Carlos shrugged. "It's home…" "
Hercules paused, his blue eyes widened in absolute horror.
What the-
When the moms heard that this 'room' was Carlos's bedroom, nearly all of them broke down in tears. Especially Snow White, Ariel, Cinderella, Anna, Aurora and Merida.
Leah shed a tear. As much as she doesn't like the Isle, Carlos doesn't deserve this kind of treatment.
Tiana's blood began to boil as she stood up, hands curled into fists on both of her sides till the knuckles turned white and fury plastered on her face.
"What the hell is this?! You meant to tell me that this is how Carlos was treated?" Tiana asked rage filling her voice with a hint of sadness as if she wanted to break down and weep.
Diego turned to look at the queen of Maldonia. "Yes, Your Majesty. Carlos was treated like this ever since he could walk and talk."
"Imagine how Cruella treated him when he was a baby," Meg muttered while tears flowed down her cheeks. She sniffled as Herkie wrapped his arms around his mother, pulling her close.
"That's awful! No child shouldn't deserve this kind of abuse…" Tiana's voice trailed off as she broke down, sobbing. Naveen got up and gathered his wife in arms, hugging her tightly.
Tyrone stared at his parents when his ears perked up on a soft sound and when he turned to see where the sound was coming from, he realized it was his twin sister, Nina crying. He immediately hugged her tightly.
Li'l Shang wrapped his arms around his baby sister and girlfriend, pulling them closer to him as they wept. He closed his eyes and shook his head sadly. He could hear his mother sobbing and his father comforting her.
"Oh darling, we have to take Carlos as our son!" Anita told Roger, her voice cracked. "We have to do it and fast! And if possible, we need to take Diego as well."
Roger nodded. "I know, My Love, I know. We have to find a way on how to."
Blue Fairy cried silently. She knew that the treatment on the Isle was bad, but this was extreme.
It didn't take long for everyone in the room, mainly the Auradonians to compose themselves as Hercules resumed his reading.
" Even if her mother annoyed her sometimes, at least Evil Queen was obsessed with Evie's good looks; and even when she wasn't worried that perhaps Evie might not be the fairest of them all, she treated her daughter like the princess she was. Evie's room might be dark and musty, but she had a real bed, not a makeshift one, with a thick blanket and relatively soft pillows..."
"You know when Cruella is a real piece of shit when Evil Queen treats Evie better," Anxelin said, sniffling.
Snow White couldn't help but agree with Anxelin.
Harriet huffed. "Almost every shitty parent on the Isle treats their kids better than Cruella."
"…"
" "It's not so bad in here!" Evie said. "I'm sure it's cozy and, hey…you'll never catch a cold. You can just use one of her fur coats for a blanket, right?" It was drafty in the room: like her own home, Hell Hall wasn't insulated for winter…"
Diego tapped his chin. "That's the worst mistake Evie had ever made. To ask Carlos about using Cruella's fur coats for a blanket."
Mulan frowned at Carlos's cousin. "What do you mean?"
"You'll see."
" Carlos shook his head. "I'm not allowed to touch them," he said, trying to put the furs back in order…"
"…oh." Mulan sobbed again.
"That means Carlos has been sleeping in the cold for so long…" Cinderella wept, along with the other mothers.
"Mighty God of Daniel," Phoebus shook his head. "This is the worst case of child abuse I've ever heard."
Esmeralda nodded in agreement with her husband as she rested her head on his shoulder, crying silently.
Anita got up from her beanbag and went to the front where Evie and Carlos were sitting. She then found an extra beanbag and placed it beside Carlos's.
"Carlos?" Anita called gently.
As he heard his name, Carlos looked up at the older woman. Evie stared at Anita as well.
"Come here, sweetie."
Carlos's eyes averted from Anita to Evie, who gave him what appeared to be a tiny smile, signaling that he should go to the strawberry-blond woman.
With that said, Carlos slowly broke away from Evie's embrace as he got up from his beanbag and took a step towards Anita, who gently took his hand in hers. She motioned him to sit with her in the beanbag and when the two of them settled in the large beanbag, Anita wrapped her arms around Carlos, hugging him.
At first, Carlos was a tad bit skeptical of Anita and what her motives were but when she held his hand and hugged him, he felt more comfortable. He was longing for this; a mother to hug him and protect him from all his worries and danger.
For Anita, if she was honest with herself, hugging Carlos would give her closure after she accepted the fact that she was unable to bore a child between her and Roger due to having multiple miscarriages and learning that she was infertile.
The moms watched Anita hugging the small boy and they couldn't help but smile at the pair.
Roger smiled proudly at his wife. He's going to adopt Carlos (and Diego).
" Evie nodded. "This is all my mother's fault. If she hadn't tried to challenge Maleficent's leadership when they first came to the Isle, none of this would have happened."
"Your mother challenged Maleficent?" Carlos goggled. It was unheard of…"
"Wow, Maleficent is sure is power hungry," Emir noted. "But it makes sense what Evie said though."
" "Well, she is a queen, after all," Evie pointed out. "Yeah, she was angry that everyone on the island decided to follow Maleficent instead of her…" "
"Probably that's why she held Evie's 6th birthday party- to get back at Maleficent," Akio said, trying to put two and two together.
" "Mal will get over it," he said hopefully.
"Are you kidding? A grudge is a grudge is a grudge. She'll never forgive me. Didn't you listen in Selfie class? I thought you were so smart." Evie smiled wryly…"
"Evie…" Jay looked over at the blue haired girl, who was blushing intensely.
'I wish I never held a grudge against you, E,' Mal thought, feeling guilty.
Suddenly, Mal felt Ben's hand on her shoulder and she gazed up at him.
Ben stared back at her with an expression that she couldn't quiet read. Maybe he was upset? Concerned? Mal had no idea.
" "Hey," she said softly. "I have an old comforter I never use…I mean, if you get cold and you can't…Oh, never mind." She'd never had any siblings, so she had no idea what having a little brother would be like. But if Evil Queen had ever stopped looking at herself in the mirror long enough to have another kid, Evie thought it would be tolerable to have a little brother like Carlos..."
"Awww!" The AKs cooed. This was nice.
The Auradon adults found the interaction with Evie and Carlos adorable. They could tell that Evie would be a great older sister.
" Carlos looked as if he didn't know what to say.
"Forget I said anything," said Evie in a rush…"
"Of course Carlos had no idea what to say!" Jane spoke up. "His mother never loved him!"
Carlos flinched slightly in Anita's embrace.
" " No, no, bring it. I mean, no one's ever cared whether I'm warm or not," he said, blushing red as his voice trailed off. "Not that you care, of course…" "
Everybody in the room became silent. They, especially the Auradonians didn't know what to say.
" "I certainly don't!" agreed Evie. Caring was definitely against the rules at Dragon Hall and could turn anyone into a laughingstock. "We were going to throw it out…" "
Snow bit her bottom lip. She thought that these kids were severely brainwashed.
" "Excellent, just consider my home your Dumpster."
"Er, okay…" "
The Auradonians frowned, even with most of the VKs too.
" "Do you think you might have a pillow you were going to toss out too? I've never had a pillow." Carlos turned red again. "I mean, I've had tons of pillows, of course. So many! We have to keep throwing them away. I get so many pillows. I mean, who's never had a pillow in their life? That's preposterous…" "
"Oh sweet Carlos…" Cinderella's voice faded as she wept again, along with the other moms.
Hercules sighed sadly before he continued his reading.
" "Yeah, I think we were going to throw away a pillow," Evie said, turning just as red as Carlos, even as a warm, sunny sensation had taken over her chest..." Hercules finished. He knew that the chapter wasn't finished but after hearing what Evie and Carlos, specifically Carlos had went through, it was too much.
The room fell silent once more. The whole atmosphere throughout the room was somber and very emotional, despite there was a few good moments here and there. All in all, it was…sad.
So, it was best to take a break, just to get everyone collect themselves, because they definitely needed it.
