A long week had passed since Jaden's supposed suicide attempt. Brooklyn had in the meantime apologised to Malibu about her behaviour towards Ken and the two had ended their little argument as if nothing had happened. The pair had continued to stay by Jaden's side most of the week, tending to her wounds and taking care of her basic needs whilst she rested. Although, they did have to stop her from leaving the bed a few times, as the mage was becoming restless from doing nothing but lying in her bed all week, feeling sorry for herself.

However, Malibu and Brooklyn couldn't be there all the time. When both Barbie's were away tending to other business, Jaden was once again left in the company of Ken, who was currently sat at the edge of her bed, watching her like a hawk to ensure she wasn't about to pull anymore stupid stunts.

When Jaden sat herself up in bed, Ken sat beside her, wrapping an arm around Jaden's shoulders as he softly kissed her neck, the gesture seeming innocent enough if you didn't know his true intentions for the mage. "How are you feeling, Jaden?" He asked her conversationally, almost like he was asking her about the weather.

"I didn't realise you care…" Jaden spat, not falling for his tricks.

"I don't," Ken shrugged, before continuing on. "But if we're going to announce our relationship to the rest of the valley, then I better start acting like the caring boyfriend. So, I'll ask again, how are you feeling?" The question was more posed as a threat than an act of concern and Jaden knew that. If she didn't comply, then who knew what he had in plan for her?

Jaden sighed. In the past week that she had been bedridden, Ken kept going on and on about making their 'relationship' public. Jaden understood that it was nothing more than for Ken to get back at Malibu, to try and make her jealous that Jaden had moved from her to Ken. This deal between her and Ken was going to ensure her silence on the situation, no matter how much Jaden wanted to shriek from the hilltops that none of it was true. As if this could actually be called a relationship! She was hoping more than anything for Malibu to come to her senses and realise that something was not right here.
Gathering her breath together for Ken's question, she finally replied. "I'm fine, considering both my legs are broken and I have a dickhead for a boyfriend…" She couldn't help but add that jibe in. She had to pick her battles on when to be difficult, it was the only thing keeping her remotely sane.

Ken rolled his eyes at her snarky remark, resisting the urge to smash her face in. "Think you can actually get out of bed and make breakfast before that annoying mouse comes in here?" He chose to ignore her comment for the time being. If he was going to be seen with Jaden out in public, he couldn't risk giving her any more injuries, not with that bitch Brooklyn watching his every move.

"Ah, good to know I'm not the only one who finds the mouse annoying. But, I can at least try and get out of bed." At least we can both agree on something, I suppose. Jaden remarked to herself, shaking her head in denial.

Much to her surprise that she tried to conceal, Ken at least had the decency to help Jaden out of bed and get dressed. His movements were gentle as he softly held her in his arms, so very unlike his normal behaviour. She had to remind herself that these were the very same arms that had broken so many of Jaden's bones and was the causer of so many of her bruises. For all his kind behaviour was now, at the end of the day he was still an abuser, plain and simple.

"You know if you didn't disobey me, you wouldn't be in this much pain." His voice brought her back to reality, her earlier inward comments confirming that he was still a very dangerous man, that his attitude towards her had still not changed. Of course it hadn't.

Now it was Jaden's turn to roll her eyes. "As if I'm just going to obey your every command. I'm not your puppy." She muttered that last part under her breath, though loud enough for Ken to hear.

Completely disregarding his earlier reasoning for not wanting to hurt Jaden, Ken pulled out a knife from under Jaden's pillow and drove the blade into Jaden's knee. The action caused her to cry out in pain and as she went to punch him in the face, Ken caught her fist in his hand before she could hit him.

"So much for the caring boyfriend act, huh?..." Jaden spat through her pain.

Ken glared at her for a few seconds before he finally let her go, twisting the knife in her knee before pulling it back out. He then shoved Jaden towards the door. "One day you'll learn not to disobey me. For now, just go and make breakfast." He ordered sharply, his voice brooking no argument.

Just when it appeared that Jaden wasn't going to follow orders, she seemed to think better of it, limping towards the bedroom door so she could make her way over to the kitchen. Just as she stepped out of the room, she saw Mickey walking in through the front door, no doubt wanting his breakfast.
"Ah, perfect timing, Mickey. Sit your ass down on the sofa and I'll make breakfast." She told him, attempting to put on a cheery voice before walking into the kitchen.

Mickey nodded, not saying anything as he did as was told of him. He noticed as he was walking past that Jaden's wound on her knee had opened up again, the blood trickling down onto the carpet. Making sure that Jaden wasn't paying him any attention, Mickey decided to ignore her instructions and instead followed her into the kitchen to check up on her.

Jaden, unaware that Mickey had followed her, was leaning against the kitchen counter as she tried not to break down crying. She knew Ken was right, that she was only making things more difficult than it needed to be by disobeying him, but she also didn't want to make this easy for him. If he wanted a willing slave, then he would just have to break her. She just didn't want to admit that he was achieving just that.

Mickey watched this sudden change in behaviour from a distance, his head poking around the corner of the doorway. Seeing her in such a terrible sight, from the trembling of her body to the distraught, hopeless look in her eyes that were shining from unshed tears, he had to wonder what was wrong with her. It had to be something to do with the suicide attempt, although he decided not to question her, knowing she wouldn't answer him. "You shouldn't be out of bed." He stated simply, making Jaden jump at the sound of his voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were my doctor." She snapped at him before taking a deep breath to calm herself, surprised at the harshness of her voice. She hadn't meant to snap at the poor mouse, he was only trying to help. "I'm sorry, Mickey…" Jaden began, her voice turning more soft, "but I feel fine enough to get out of bed. Staying in bed for a week has been driving me crazy." She started to push herself back and forth against the counter like a restless child as she couldn't pace around the kitchen, not wanting to further injure her legs.

Mickey then walked over to her. He had seen her do this a few times when she was forced to stay inside her house for two weeks to recover from the house fire he started. In those two weeks they had spent together, he knew her fears better than anyone in the valley, or so he liked to believe. He had seen the things she does in order to remain calm and collected, which consisted of her mostly moving around, almost like she was a trapped animal in a zoo.

Wanting to at least do something to help, Mickey came up with an idea. "You know, I can make breakfast whilst you go and rest up. You shouldn't be on your feet like this." The mouse told her as he marched over to the stove.

Realising what he was just about to do, Jaden quickly grabbed him by his large, pointed ear, digging her nails in as she pulled him away from the stove. Memories of what happened the last time he was near a stove came flooding back into her mind. She didn't fancy a missing arm today. "Not going to happen, mouse. I've got enough to be dealing with, and I don't want another house fire to be added to my list of problems." Her voice was demanding and harsh as she let him go, but not before unintentionally stunning him with a small electric shock.

She smirked as the mouse rubbed his burning ear, his face twisted in a brief sense of agony. Jaden for the most part, enjoyed witnessing the pain spread across his features before quickly feeling disgusted at herself for it. She was starting to become fearful of what she was slowly turning into, the reminder of her deal with Goofy pushing itself into the forefront of her mind. She had only helped him out with one victim, so far. If killing one man made her like this, then what would happen if she continued to kill even more people? She didn't want to know the answer to that, but if she had to guess, then this valley probably wouldn't be left standing for much longer. If it was down to her, not a single soul would be left alive. This thought alone terrified her, but she knew she couldn't back out of the deal with Goofy now, she was already in too deep. She'll just have to make sure that she can manage to control herself so that would never happen.

But at the end of the day, she was a violent woman with a very short temper, who could only just manage to deal with her anger when she gave birth to her two girls. It took some time of course, once she realised she could vent all of her anger out onto Leo, her husband instead of the kids and she felt more happier with herself. But in Dreamlight Valley, there was no Leo to use as a punching bag. The abuse from Ken wasn't helping matters at all. If she wasn't careful then she was going to one day snap and end up killing him in a fit of rage. That thought, whilst somewhat pleasant and relieving to her, also filled her with a sense of dread and despair. Whilst she hated the man, she also didn't want to see him die either. There was a huge difference between wanting to see the man suffer for what he had done, and wanting to see him dead.

As soon as Mickey managed to recover himself, Jaden gave Mickey a hug and kissed his forehead as a way to apologise. "Go sit down and I'll make you some breakfast." She spoke kindly as she let him go.

Mickey nodded his head in understanding and left the kitchen silently, making his way over to the sofa and sitting down patiently.

Fifteen minutes later and Jaden stepped out of the kitchen with two plates in her hands, one for Mickey and the other for Ken. She didn't bother in making something for herself, she didn't feel like eating anything. When she made her way over to the sofa, she saw Mickey and Ken were both sat on the sofa at opposite ends to each other, both sitting in complete, awkward silence. It wouldn't be the first time this happened, but seeing it never failed to make her feel tense, as she waited for Ken to explode at any moment. She handed the pair their plates, Mickey thanking her with a pleasant smile whilst Ken just gave her a silent nod.

Without saying a word to either of them, Jaden headed to the bathroom to take a shower. After locking the door behind her, something she rarely ever does, she striped off her clothes, her hands shaking with difficultly as she winced in pain. By now her entire left leg was covered in blood from her knee injury. She was somewhat grateful for the fact that she was used to pain, so it didn't bother her as much as it should. She grabbed her flask of whiskey from her jacket pocket and stepped into the shower.

As she scrubbed her hands through her tangled hair, she mentally ran the plan she had thought up earlier this morning through her mind for the final time. Her plan was to get drunk for when her and Ken go to the Dreamhouse this afternoon. She didn't want to announce that she and Ken were dating, not just for the fact that she didn't even love him, but because she knew the only reason why Ken wanted to announce it in the first place was so that everybody knew that she was wholly his. Not that would stop Jaden from doing anything behind his back. She had gotten pretty good at having sex behind her husband's back, even when he had insisted on having cameras put in her room at the Tavern she ran so he could watch her have sex with other people.
She typically wasn't a cheater and if she actually had feelings towards her husband, she wouldn't dream of going behind his back. But that was the point; She didn't love him. She never wanted to marry him in the first place. In fact, she never wanted to get married at all. If her marriage had taught her one thing, it was that if she was willing to cheat on her husband, then she was definitely going to cheat on Ken. Not that she would actually consider it cheating, of course.

After Jaden had showered and poorly rebandaged up her wounded knee, she got dressed and met Ken in the living room, who was ready and waiting for her so they could head to the Dreamhouse. Ken held out his hand for Jaden to take, his facial expression communicating itself perfectly to her. If she didn't comply, then it was more than just her knee that was going to be causing her pain. Jaden took it with no further arguments, trying not to give in to temptation to break his wrist when his hand grasped hers in a tight vice.

The pair then made the short journey to the Dreamhouse, the pair walking side by side together, looking very much like the typical happy couple. The short journey felt ever-the-more longer to Jaden however, as her heart raced inside her chest and her head began to sway with dizziness due to all the whiskey she had consumed before leaving the house. She was going to have to make sure to play it cool here, she didn't want Malibu, or Brooklyn especially, to see through Jaden's bullshit. She had to make this seem genuine as possible, she couldn't afford anyone to rouse any suspicions. This was all for Malibu's safety, Jaden reasoned with herself. Nothing more and nothing less.

When the pair had arrived at the Dreamhouse, Malibu answered the door with a big smile on her face. She hugged both Jaden and Ken, inviting them inside with a wave of her hand. Her smile faded however, when she saw how rough looking Jaden was. Her breath stunk of alcohol, her clothes were all rugged and although her hair looked clean, it was mattered and unkempt. She only hoped that Ken was looking after her properly. Malibu knew just how much of a handful Jaden could be at times.

Jaden allowed herself to be pulled by Ken's hand into the spacious, pink dining room, that was filled with all of Malibu's girlfriends. She turned her head towards Ken, who had a sly grin on his lips. He must be thinking how this was the perfect way to make his announcement; In front of an audience full of gossiping women who would no doubt spread this piece of information around the valley like a wildfire.

Seeing the disturbed look on Jaden's face, Ken wrapped his arm around her shoulders, clearing his throat loud enough to get everyone's attention. "Good afternoon ladies, I hope everyone is doing well. If I may, Jaden and I have quite the announcement to make!" He paused for a few seconds to let everyone in the room to murmur amongst themselves, trying to guess what Ken was about to say. When he felt the suspense had played its part, he dropped the bombshell, his voice loud and confident sounding. "We're together."

Jaden shoved Ken's arm off of her, unable to bear the humiliation any longer. She leaned against the wall, drinking her whiskey. She was already a little tipsy and she intended to absolutely hammered by the end of the night.

"Together as in?" Renee's voice sounded from the back of the crowd, her eyes narrowing in confusion.

Ken rolled his eyes in annoyance. "We're dating." He clarified with an irritated sigh. God, these bitches can be thick as pig shit sometimes. He supressed the urge to snap out loud.

Excited chattering arouse from the crowd, some of the girls started squealing with delight at this wonderful news, whilst others made the effort to approach Jaden and Ken, giving them both handshakes and hugs. Ken seemed to be basking in their praise, putting on a fake smile and thanks for their congratulations.

Jaden however, didn't look happy at all. She was struggling to hold back her tears as the enormity of the situation hit her square in the face. These girls were happy that she was with Ken, and whilst she was glad that her plan seemed to be working, she was also angry at the fact that these ladies couldn't see what was right in front of them. Jaden was mentally crying out for their help and nobody seemed any the wiser. These women would be supporting their relationship from the side-lines. Jaden had never felt more truly alone in her entire life.

Whilst almost everyone was happy for the couple, Malibu and Brooklyn however, weren't too keen on the idea. Both the Barbie's knew that the two didn't exactly get along, so where the hell did this sudden attraction towards Jaden and Ken come from? Nothing seemed to be adding up at all, especially on Jaden's end, who had never said a single positive thing about the man.
Malibu shook her head, deciding that enough was enough. Jaden had to be hiding something. She walked over to where Jaden was leaning drunkenly against the wall, her whiskey flask still in hand. "Isn't it a little early to be drinking?" Malibu attempted to joke, earning just a shrug from Jaden. Malibu sighed. "Can we talk?"

"Sure." Jaden nodded with a dizzy head.

Malibu lead Jaden into the living room, away from any prying eyes and ears so that they could talk in private. Maybe Jaden would feel more inclined to open up if she was away from Ken. Malibu turned to face Jaden, her eyes betraying her sorrow. "Is everything okay?" She asked Jaden with a deep concern.

Jaden took a final sip of her drink before placing her flask back into her pocket, suddenly hugging Malibu tightly. "I'm fine…" She whispered, hoping it at least sounded convincing.

Malibu looked her over and saw that she clearly wasn't doing fine. In fact, the last time she saw Jaden fine was back when they had their first date, a little over a month ago. Even on their second date, she could tell something was wrong with Jaden. And now the mage was drunk, going by the heavy smell of whiskey on her breath and the crazed look in her eyes that told Malibu that possibly drugs were involved too. She looked down and that's when she noticed the blood running down Jaden's leg. Her knee wound must have reopened on her way over here. She shouldn't be here right now, she should still be resting!

Malibu gently guided Jaden over to the sofa and sat her down. She knelt down in front of the mage and pulled out a first aid kit. She was about to pull off the bandage when she noticed just how poorly it was done. "Your handy work, I take it?" Malibu asked her, resulting in a sigh from Jaden. "I hope this isn't how you treat your patients, because my God, this is bad." Malibu scolded her, though her voice held a kind nature to it.

"Don't worry, I treat my patients a lot better than I treat myself. I actually care about my patients, while I don't care about myself." Jaden assured her as she took out her flask and started drinking the whiskey again.

"You know, I'm starting to think you might have a drinking problem." Malibu said as she peeled off the bloody bandages. A further inspection told her that this wound was new. "Jay, what happened?" Malibu's voice was near to tears.

Jaden sighed. "I stabbed myself…"

Malibu repeated Jaden's gesture. She should have expected this. All she could do was to help Jaden in cleaning the wound. Before she could even say a word, there was a knock on the door, followed by Merlin walking in.

He smiled when he saw Jaden and Malibu. "Ah Barbie, would you mind if I have a word with Jaden?"

Malibu looked up at him, noticing he was carrying a piece of paper in his hands. From what she could briefly glimpse at, judging by the photo slap right in the middle of the poster and the big bold letters on the top and bottom, she could see that it was a missing person poster. She nodded at Merlin and was about to stand up when Merlin stopped her, realising that she was in the middle of cleaning Jaden's knee. The wizard shook his head at the blonde woman, apologising for interrupting and let her continue her work whilst the wizard handed Jaden the poster.

Jaden immediately recognised the man on the poster, her heart hammering inside of her chest. This was that man called Miles, who she had tortured and later Goofy killed. She stared at the poster with wide eyes, trying to look innocent. Did Merlin want her to investigate his disappearance? Jaden took another large sip of her whiskey whilst Merlin spoke to her, his voice sounding far away.

"He went missing last week and I want you, as leader of this valley, to investigate."

"You do know I'm a doctor, not a detective, right?" Her voice turned cold and snappy, "but if you say he's been missing for a week, then I'm afraid he might be dead. But don't worry, I already know who did this." She wasn't about to out Goofy or herself, but there was one person she could put the blame on.

She stood up and walked up to Merlin, the wizard detecting the cold look in her eyes. If he had to guess, she was also a little drunk. She took another sip of her whiskey whilst she burned the poster with her magic, the flames crackling under the shocked silence of Merlin and Malibu.

Malibu quickly stood up and snatched the flask out of Jaden's hand, a little confused and concerned by the sudden change in Jaden. What had suddenly brought this on? Malibu put it down to the drink getting to the mage's head and nothing more.

Merlin watched Jaden for a moment and before he could question her, Ken and Brooklyn stepped into the room, Brooklyn frowning at Ken for having followed her.

Ken wrapped an arm around Jaden, playing the concerned boyfriend. "What's going on?" He asked no one in particular.

"Someone's been missing for a week and I was simply asking Jaden for help." Merlin answered him.

Without any hesitation whatsoever, Ken spoke, his voice low and gruff. "Jaden did it, she killed him. I mean, she did force Barbie to have sex with her, who's to say she wouldn't murder someone?"

Jaden shoved off his arm, completely outraged by the accusation, even if it was right. "Wow, some boyfriend you are!" She spat. "First of all, I never forced Barbie to have sex with me and second, I don't murder people. What proof do you have any way!?"

She was about to punch Ken when Merlin grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her away from him. His grip on her tightened as she struggled against him.

Malibu finally spoke up, hardly able to believe what Ken had just said. "Ken, I don't know how many times I've had to tell you this, but Jaden never forced me to have sex with her and I seriously doubt she would have killed anyone. Jaden isn't that type of person." Her voice was cold and her face was scrunched up in anger.

Merlin had a hard time holding Jaden back. She was clearly in a drunken rage. Was she simply angry at Ken's accusations or was there something else on the mage's mind? And did Jaden just call Ken her boyfriend? Given what he knew of the two, he found it a little strange that they would start a relationship. But he wasn't going to question it, it wasn't any of his business even if he thought Jaden was making a huge mistake. And besides, there was more pressing matters at hand. A young lad was on the missing list and it was their duty to find out what had happened to him.

What he couldn't let go however, was Ken blaming Jaden. Now that was strange. "Perhaps you and I should go for a walk, Jaden. You need to calm down." Merlin told Jaden. He would have let her walk on her own, but given her condition, he wanted to keep a close eye on her. She had the knack of passing out when there was nobody around.

Brooklyn placed a hand on Ken's shoulder, stopping him from following the mage and the wizard. "We'll keep Ken here for the time being." Brooklyn stated with a certain smugness to her. When the pair had left the room, Ken slapped Brooklyn's hand away harshly, earning a sharp protest from Brooklyn.

Merlin dragged Jaden towards the front door, a little too forcefully, causing Jaden to groan in pain. However, before the two could leave, Malibu caught up and handed Merlin Jaden's flask. The wizard thanked her and gently pushed Jaden out of the house, being mindful that she had two broken legs.

Once they were far enough away from the house, Merlin let her go and fell back behind, letting Jaden walk on ahead, keeping a bit of distance between them. They walked for about an hour through the meadow until they reached the plaza where Jaden sat down on a bench as the pain in her legs became too much for her to ignore. Merlin sat down beside her, watching as the mage struggled to light a cigarette as her hands started to shake violently. He cautiously brought a hand over to her back, rubbing it in an effort to comfort her.
His sudden voice caused her to jump slightly from fright. "You know, I don't believe you are responsible for that man's disappearance. I think that Ken was only trying to cause trouble." He told her outright, hoping to put her at ease.

Jaden's reply was quiet and shaky. "Really? You think I didn't do this?"

Merlin shook his head confidently. "You are the leader and saviour of this valley, Jaden. After everything you've done for us, I highly doubt you would do something like this."

Jaden raised a brow at this but didn't say anything. This man clearly had a lot of faith in her. She almost felt guilty for lying to him. She held her head in her hands, the oncoming headache causing a sharp rift of pain shooting through her skull.

Merlin waited for her to lift her head back up, treading cautiously with his next statement. He didn't want to scare Jaden away. "So, you've mentioned that you already know who did this. Would you elaborate on that?"

Jaden sighed, taking a puff on a cigarette she just lit. "Well, there's only one thing that could have done this, and that's the Dark Entity. You know, the one going around cursing the valley? I mean, why would it stop at just curses?"

Merlin appeared to think about this for a few moments, stroking his long, white beard in the process. "You may have a point, Jaden. If that is true, it may be harder to look into this. But perhaps you should go home and rest. You clearly still need to heal that knee of yours."

Jaden looked as if she was about to argue, but clammed her mouth shut, nodding her reluctant agreement and tossing her cigarette onto the ground. Arguing with him would be pointless, the stubborn bastard that he was, she wouldn't put it past him to drag her back to her house himself if she didn't comply. And besides, she really wanted to sleep off this headache whilst Ken was still at the Dreamhouse. Perhaps Merlin would cover for her by saying she was out for a walk alone.

So, without another word to the wizard, she got up and walked back to her house, pondering on whether or not she made the right decision on blaming the Dark Entity on Miles' disappearance. Half of the battle was over, now all she had to do was tell Goofy of her plan.