Evie, Jay, and a boy with black-and-white hair who Ben suspects is named Carlos woke him up briefly when they slammed the door to the room after coming in from school. Backpacks hit the floor with thuds and then Carlos pulled a laptop out of his bag and went to steal the chair at the desk where Mal now stands, finishing her work. Ben kept his eyes closed and breathing steady. Just in case they wanted to talk about him with Mal.
He could feel when someone leaned down on eye level to check him and could feel fingers prop at his ear. "No more infection?" Jay asked, sounding surprised. "Huh. Maybe he'll pull through and then you can have your fun before he dies another way."
"Shut up or get out, Jay," Mal snapped from her place on top of the desk. He heard the sprintz of a spray can follow her words. "Something's wrong with him. He knows too much."
"Well, you kept him in your bedroom this last week instead of-"
"No, he knows about me!" Ben heard the rush of wind as she tossed the can onto the bed near his feet. "I'm not sure how he knows. At first, I thought he was insane. But he knows my name and Evie's name and he says that he and I have been meeting in his dreams."
"Sounds like an obsession."
"No, we're talking before this last week. As in, he knew me before I even picked him off the market. He thinks we've been having conversations in his head since we were twelve." He heard Mal jump off the desk with a thud. "He knows about me shattering my kneecap and dyeing my hair and he even knows that the only class I don't ever skip is art."
"How's that possible?" Carlos asked from the chair as he dragged it further away from the bed and used his toes to spin around in it. Ben listened to the sound of the screw spinning in the chair and tried to focus on keeping his breathing even. "Do you know him?"
"I didn't even know who he was when I bought him," Mal shook her head. "They announced he was the would-be king after I'd painted my symbol on him. I was just bringing him back for my mom because he looked like he'd be easy to break or at least useful in the palace."
"He's the would-be king?" Evie asked, voice high and shaking. "And he knows that you're-"
"He doesn't know who I am," Mal huffed, cutting Evie off. She stomped over to Ben's side. "Is he still…" She examined him carefully. Ben forced himself to keep moving his chest up and down slowly, keeping his eyes shut without squeezing the lids together. "He's still asleep. Keep your voice down."
"We need to get rid of him," Jay decided flatly. "You know we do, Mal. Especially now."
"Jay, I have no idea what's happening – he just appeared!"
"That's not what I'm talking about! Strange boy shows up from the bubble and knows you? Knows everything about you? There's got to be something deeper here – the kid is probably predestined for something like Briar Rose or Else or someone. We need to slit his throat and bury him in a ditch before that gift comes into play at all."
"I-I- We can't do that!" Mal protested.
"Why? Cause he's pretty?" Jay demanded. "Mal, you know how fragile evil reigns are. If something good gets out… any hope at all… everything Maleficent built will crumble. Are you really going to let that happen?"
"That's dramatic, Jay," Evie reprimanded. "Maleficent has her lands put together remarkably well. Sure, the people would like the king back, but so long as not too many of their children die and we can keep taking the hero children…"
"The heroes aren't having children anymore," Mal snapped bitterly. "Maleficent's talking about bringing some of them in to force them into servitude, but everyone's terrified about what will happen if we let them back in. It's easier to keep them all there… they don't inspire hope that way. No rebellion."
"Focus," Carlos snapped. "How does he know you? You never went with Le Feu, did you? Is there any chance he hallucinated you?"
"And knew all those things about me?" Mal snapped. "And he's completely convinced I was there with him! He's positive that I'm denying that I dreamt of him. I can't convince him, and if he happens to blurt it out where someone else hears him-"
"We should get rid of him now!"
"Guys!" Evie snapped and pointed at Ben's body. "He's awake."
Ben moved his hand across the covers, knowing his cover had been blown but that he could still fake having just awoken. He opened his eyes a crack and then glimpsed two piercing green eyes glaring down at him. He blinked up at her once, twice, and then burrowed further into the covers. He didn't say a word as he pretended to head straight back into sleep. Mal pulled the covers tight. He felt her eyes on him for several seconds longer as he began to regulate his breathing again.
"He hasn't remembered everything we've talked about around him the last few days," Mal whispered softly. "He's feeling better now, but there may be a chance he'll pass it off as a weird dream. Don't tell him otherwise. Don't take him anywhere. And for God's sake, don't let anyone hear him talking about me. If a rumor starts…"
"Just kill him, Mal," Jay sighed. "It'll be easier that way. Don't get attached just because he's clean and pretty. Just do it now and get it over with."
"Not yet," Mal denied. "We have to figure out about him first."
He was left alone for a long while. There wasn't anything for him to do, but there was some food on the nightstand. He ate and then began to tentatively search around for something to do. He opened drawers with great caution – he didn't want to root around Mal's clothes – but the room was drastically underused. All empty drawers with smooth tracks that were devoid of anything save dust.
He finally found a few somethings in the desk drawer. The desk itself was covered in spray paint cans where Mal had been painting on the wall. Ben was amazed to discover a painting of a gigantic palace towering in a city of green and purple-roofed buildings. Ben examined the foggy blue skies around the palace spires. What a talented artist.
In the desk was a pad of paper, two brand-new ballpoint pens, and a bible. Ben picked up the pad of paper and, after straightening out the covers, sat down to doodle. He wasn't nearly as artistically talented, however, so his doodles were comprised of sparse rhyming words and meandering notes on what he'd been feeling for the last few days. On a blank note sheet, he wrote a letter to his mother and father. Maybe when Mal returned, he could convince her to let him send it. He never would have dreamed he'd be able to ask his captor for such a favor but had a feeling Mal would begrudgingly allow it.
Ben had always been a fan of blissful poetry, and so he transcribed a few lines and then recopied the best ones with his nicer handwriting and that was how he passed the time until there was a yell down the hall that made him jump. He put the pad and paper down and walked towards the door moments before it was flung open. Evie, Jay, Carlos, and Mal were all huddled into the doorway. Jay shoved him back and, after everyone was inside, slammed the door.
"Shoes?" Jay demanded.
"Door," Mal snapped, shoving Ben back over to the bed and withdrawing a dirty rag from her back pocket. As she held it up to his face, Ben caught her wrist.
"What's going on?" He asked. Her eyes were wide and her hand shook in his grasp. "Are you in trouble? What's wrong?"
She slapped him. Slapped him so hard his ears rang. "Don't touch me!" She snapped. "Hands down – we're putting this on your face."
Jay appeared with Ben's shoes, which had been cleaned at some point since he'd come here. He knelt and began shoving Ben's feet into the shoes. Mal brought the rag to Ben's face, but her hand was shaking so much she could scarcely control it. Evie budged her aside and took the rag. "I got him," She assured her in a calm voice. "Go calm down. You still have to take him down."
Mal nodded and disappeared into the bathroom. Evie carefully began to smear the rag over Ben's face and neck. Jay finished with Ben's shoes and popped back up. "Should I punch him?" He asked and Ben blanched. "He might have some swelling and a bruise by the time he gets down."
"Let's not take chances," Evie shook her head. "She might notice that it's recent."
"What's going on?" Ben asked. "Where are we going?"
"Guys!" Carlos snapped from the doorway. "We have two minutes."
"Mal!" Evie called, dragging the rag over Ben's nose. It smelled like dirt and motor oil. "Come on!"
Mal reappeared. She looked even more frantic than before as she marched over and she and Jay yanked him up. They both took tight holds of his hands and pinned them to his sides. Mal set an arm on Evie's shoulder as they began to walk away. "Get some stuff," she commanded in a grim tone. "As much as you can!"
Carlos followed them out and down the hall. They practically ran. The palace started nice and orderly and clean, but then slowly things began to fall apart. Chips appeared in the sheetrock. Paintings were ripped and molding. Doors swung from one hinge instead of three and lights flickered ominously.
Mal shoved him into a hall and then Carlos dropped the backpack around his shoulders and withdrew several long chains. Ben gawked at them. "You're not serious!" He sputtered.
Mal gave him a truly apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Ben," she whispered. "You're going to have to wear these for a little while."
"Don't be a sap," Jay demanded, shoving her shoulder. "Just get them on. He's still a prisoner. If he doesn't comply, then you'll barbecue him." He glared at Ben to make sure he got the point. Then he quickly locked shackles around Ben's legs. Mal picked up one for his hands with a deep breath that Ben echoed without a second thought.
He offered her his wrist. She carefully clamped the cold metal around his wrist. As she took her hand away, he caught her fingers and squeezed. "I'm trusting you," he whispered.
"Well, then you're an idiot," Jay snapped, clicking the last one onto his wrist. He yanked on the chains, driving Ben forward, and they continued. Carlos stayed behind this time, vanishing into the shadows.
They rounded a corner and Ben could hear laughter. Laughter and jeering and maniacal screaming. He slowed his steps, but Jay shoved him forward to the large black door at the end of the hallway. Then he forced the chains into Mal's hands and shook her shoulders. "You do what you have to," he snapped. "You take him in and you make sure you get out alive. He doesn't mean anything."
"What's going on?" Ben asked. Jay didn't look at him as he turned and stalked off the way they'd come. Ben turned to Mal. "Mal?" he whispered.
Mal was becoming a statue before his eyes. She clutched the chains tightly and stared straight ahead as she raised a hand to knock on the door. "I'm sorry, Ben," she whispered. "Maleficent has requested to see you in person. If anyone asks, you've just come from the Evil Queen's lair."
Ben's blood ran cold. He finally understood – this was out of Mal's hands.
She knocked by banging on the door with the underside of her fist. A green glow overtook the doors before they slammed open. The room on the other side was one of the most horrible that Ben had ever seen. Pitch black walls and grey stone floors that were splattered with old brown and fresh red stains. Maleficent's court was arranged like a performing stage with the Mistress of all Evil standing in the center of the room, laughing as she turned to see her latest toy enter. Slumped against the wall of the colosseum-like setup was another person's body. Ben couldn't' tell if they were alive or not. Maybe they had come from the heroes – from the bubble – but he didn't recognize them. The stands behind the barrier walls were filled with villains. Some of them he recognized. Gaston and Le Feu sneered while Mother Gothel and Hans looked on in interest. Behind everyone hung bloodied weapons of war. Ben spotted a chipped war ax and felt like throwing up.
Well, what a spectacular way to die. Led to death by the girl of his dreams.
Mal stepped forward and pulled him in behind her. The smell of metal and sweat was so overpowering Ben wanted to throw up. Mal pushed him into the center of the room, letting out a maniacal laugh of her own before passing his chains to Maleficent. "Here he is!" she laughed. "As promised. The would-be King of Auradon."
The courts burst into laughter as Ben closed his eyes and dipped his head to the ground. He heard the shake of chains before he suddenly found himself on his knees in front of Maleficent with his knees stinging. He looked up long enough to watch Mal lean back with a nonchalant, amused smile at the show. Traitor.
Maleficent took his chin in much the same way that Mal had when examining him that first day and laughed so that spit flew into his eyes. "He looks just like his father!" She announced. "How fortunate! You picked a good one, Mallie."
Mal straightened up and smiled even broader. "He's a fun one," she promised, though she had no way of knowing that. "He's especially handsome when he's begging for mercy. So leave me some leftovers to play with." She ran a hand through his hair and it would have been comforting if Ben couldn't feel the scratch of her nails all along his scalp.
He knew her. He knew she didn't like this. But that was a different Mal. A Mal who knew him. A Mal who liked pretty rocks and sarcasm and not this.
He'd been wrong about her.
Mal curled her fingers in his locks and he took a sharp breath, screwing his eyes shut at the pain. "Promise me you'll leave him alive for me?" She asked the Queen of the Land. "I'd hate to lose my latest playmate."
"He'll be intact," Maleficent promised, releasing Ben's chin. "I can have my fun without killing him." She reached over and curled her fingertips down Mal's face in an act so intimate that Ben blanched away from it. "You did good, pumpkin," she cooed, and the waved her fingers to dismiss Mal. Mal turned and walked over to where Maleficent's legendary obsidian throne stood against the wall. Beside it was a smaller, silver throne of platinum. And there she sat, beside Maleficent's throne, with no crown on her head and no one else remotely close to the throne.
Oh.
Mal. Mal. Maleficent.
It took a moment for that information to sink in. Mal was the daughter of the High Queen. The same place Ben would be if his parents had managed to create Auradon.
And she didn't know him.
The details were a bit foggy until Maleficent's laughter brought him back to earth and he found out that, while he'd been staring at Mal and processing this new information about his childhood companion, the chains girding his arms had been strapped to the ceiling and his feet wrapped around iron stays on the floor. Ben looked around the crowd. Beside a man with a colorful red parrot sitting on his shoulder was Jay, stone-faced and arms crossed. Carlos sat beside a woman with curly black and white hair with dalmatian pelts covering her shoulders. Evie was nowhere to be seen, but Ben glimpsed a few empty seats here and there.
Maleficent took his face in a passionate manner than had him leaning back and gasping for breath. "You would have my throne, wouldn't you?" She cackled. "You would want the villains locked away, just like your parents? Just like how we locked you away?"
Never. Not now. No.
Ben took his eyes off Maleficent and cast them over to Mal, who was examining her nails as if bored. Intense anger flared through him. "Look at me," he demanded without a single word as hot tears stung his eyes. If he could communicate with her through dreams, there wasn't any reason he shouldn't be able to talk to her while awake.
Mal didn't look over. Because she didn't have his connection. She couldn't hear his thoughts.
Still, he repeated the mantra. "Look at me."
Maybe it was chance. Maybe it was because Maleficent had done something beside him that drew her attention. But either way, Mal glanced up and their eyes locked. He grabbed the chains that were binding his wrists for extra strength, straightened as best he could, and held her gaze.
The first blow fell. A heavy crack that forced a gasp out of his chest. He would have fallen forward if he could have. As it was, his spine absorbed most of the blow as Ben forced Mal to hold his gaze.
It was some sort of multi-stringed weapon that sliced the shirt Evie had given him open and left blood dripping on the floor. He could hear Maleficent's voice, but couldn't make out what she was saying. All he was focusing on was Mal's green eyes as she looked on the show.
A second blow fell. Then another. Good, old-fashioned whipping. At four, he was hanging by his wrists. He wondered how long until he passed out. If he would be allowed to pass out.
Maleficent quit after ten when Ben was already seeing stars, and Ben released Mal's gaze to close his eyes a moment. Maleficent was still screaming at him. He wasn't sure she was expecting a response or not. He caught things about his parents – his dad in particular – that probably would have stung a lot more if he was coherent.
Someone moved on the side of the room and Ben almost had a heart attack when he saw Chad step out of the shadows. His old friend was much, much thinner than Ben was, with grey patches on his hands and face as he reached for Ben's shoes(he assumed at Maleficent's order) and tugged both him and his sock off. Someone lifted a bloodied knife off the wall in the back and Ben turned to find Mal again. She had looked away and was hiding her face in the shadows, staring towards where Jay was shaking his head at her in the crowds.
Look at me.
She didn't glance over. Maleficent took the knife and brandished it into the air. She seemed drunk as she teetered around the circle, laughing her head off with her eyes clouded over in insanity.
Look at me.
Maleficent almost tripped on her way to Ben as she waved the knife. One missed slice and he'd be bleeding out.
Look at me.
Mal finally glanced over and he hardened his gaze as she froze beneath his eyes. It was probably inevitable that he would have ended up here at some point. From the moment this demented system had begun, it was inevitable that Maleficent would want to meet – and torture – the child of the people who'd conspired against her. And it was not Mal's fault that he was here now. If anything, she'd probably delayed the inevitable. He shouldn't be holding this against her.
But it was rather hard to convince himself of that when Maleficent bent down and chopped one of his toes clean off.
Don'tyelldontyell.
Ben squeezed his eyes shut and focused on the burning, stinging wounds in his back as Maleficent cut through the bones to free his pinkie toes from both feet. He clenched his hands, knowing they'd probably be next.
It wasn't though. Maleficent wiped the blood off her knife using his foot and then cut the remnants of his shirt off. The back, which had been cut into ribbons by the whip, had dried a little. When Maleficent yanked it away, she pulled away skin with it. Ben hissed in pain. Again, he sought out Mal's cold, dead eyes. Her cheeks were devoid of color as he searched her blind gaze for any ounce of comfort.
Maleficent sliced a thin line across his chest that wasn't even deep enough to draw blood before handing the knife to Chad and kicking his severed toes away on the floor. Ben saw Mal flinch away. He was so distracted by her trying to distract herself that he missed the motion where Maleficent dug her fingernails into the cuts she'd just made. Then she pulled and he yelled.
Sheets of what looked like leathery parchment paper were ripped straight off his chest with a sound like Velcro being ripped apart. She waved her hands back and forth twice. Ben thought she might be flaunting the skin, but no. It had gotten stuck underneath her nails. Oh, he was going to be sick.
Mal kept her arms crossed as she examined the ground. Part of Ben wanted to yell for her. Part of him never wanted to see her again. Oh, goodness, couldn't she just look at him?
She lifted her eyes as Ben felt his world catch fire. Literally. Maleficent had summoned a torrent of green flames at his bleeding feet. He screamed.
He was going to die here. Mal's mother was going to murder him. This was it.
The flames suddenly went out, and Ben took a literal sigh of relief as cool air brushed past his blackened skin. He looked over at Maleficent to see what was next, but then Mal began to speak from the head of the throne room.
"Mom?" She called, sounding annoyed and reprimanding. "Don't forget – I want him alive. If the shock kills him, I'll still be upset."
Maleficent gave a little smile as the rest of the court jeered and laughed at Ben. "Of course, darling!" she exclaimed, drawing a finger down Ben's chest and making him writhe a little more. "You know, he's not as much fun as you claimed. Too stubborn." She dug her nails into Ben's thin skin and drew blood as she raked them down his chest. Ben let out a few loud gasps that were padded by sobs. He hadn't noticed that his face was wet.
Mal shrugged. "Maybe he's getting used to me," she mourned, getting off her throne and wandering over to her mother. Maleficent released Ben as Mal – his owner – drew closer. She took his face in a false caress. "A few days alone should fix it. Right, Benny-boo?"
That nickname set off all sorts of alarm bells in his head. He pulled his head away from her hands. The last thing he wanted was for Mal to touch him right now. At the same time, the only place he wanted to be was in her arms with her fingers going through his hair.
The chains were dropped. Ben shouted as his feet hit the ground. Maleficent kicked his side without a care. "He's quite lucky he looks the way he does," she hummed. "Most of his friends don't leave this intact."
Mal didn't comment as she walked on past Ben, leaving him on the bloody stone floor, trying to keep conscious as Chad appeared, looking green, to pick off the two toes that Maleficent had cut off and put them into a basket hanging by the door. Ben could see a partially molding full arm before two people picked him up by the shoulders and began to drag him away. One of them was Jay. He didn't know the other but assumed they must be another villain child of relative importance. Mal left the room behind her mother as everyone else began to vacate the premises. Jay and the other villain kid dragged Ben out. He cried out as his feet caught and banged against stones. They took him down the hall and around a bend before Jay dismissed the other and pulled Ben into his arms. One more corner and Mal appeared. She swayed in and out of his vision as she ran a hand down Ben's cheek, examining his eyes.
"Shock," she told Jay and her voice sounded far away. "We have to get him to Evie."
"You've gone soft," Jay reprimanded. "What you did with your mom was risky. We ought to ditch him now."
"Evie," Mal repeated, even firmer. She cupped Ben's cheek and lit her eyes up, trying to keep his focus. "Ben? Ben? Can you hear me?"
Ben wrestled his pinned hands to put one over Mal's. She almost pulled away, but he seized her fingers. His wrists and arms were sore and stretched. He pulled her on her hand and twisted his neck carefully until he was able to press a kiss to the middle of her palm. His stomach twisted. Her eyes filled with tears.
There were no dreams.
When he woke up, his head was on Mal's lap. Her fingers were knit into his hair and she was crying softly. He couldn't hear much besides the occasional sniffle, but he could feel her chest shaking and felt his hair move with each tortured breath. He traced his fingertips up and down the outsides of her legs to alert her to his wakefulness and then kissed her knee carefully.
"Are you okay?" he whispered.
He listened to her consider the question. Finally, she shook her head. "I'll be okay," she promised. "I… I understand if you hate me."
Did he? Ben's fingers trembled a little on her leg. "It was probably inevitable she'd want to see me," he whispered. "At least I was given to someone who didn't let her kill me right off the bat."
Mal gave a dry, heartless chuckle as he buried his cheek into her leg. "Are you… in any pain?" she whispered.
Ben blinked at the question, remembering his burned feet and mutilated toes. He suddenly realized he couldn't move his legs and pushed his body up to stare at his lower body. His legs were still there, bandaged white, but he couldn't move them. "What'd you do?" he asked curiously.
"I-I just…" Mal shrugged. "We didn't want you to be in pain."
"Well, what did you do?" Ben asked, lying down on her again. He had the urge to wrap his arms around her legs like he would a pillow but felt that would be 'saying' a bit too much. Mal brushed all his hair to one side as she examined the texture of it carefully.
"Just a spell," she whispered. "Just a spell to remove the pain. We used to use it when we were younger."
"Ah," Ben nodded. "Yeah. You used to get hurt a lot."
Mal pushed her hands across his forehead as if she were slicking his hair back. "I did. Yeah. But apparently, you already know all that."
Ben looked up at her. There was this look on her face as if she were trying to learn everything about him. Not the way he looked, but just the way he was. As if she didn't already know every feature.
"I never thought you were real," he whispered. "Because I'd never seen purple on hair and because you weren't as nice as everyone around me. You got nicer, but I always thought you were just someone my mind created."
Mal stopped playing with his hair and played with the ends of her own. She didn't say anything though, and that led Ben to keep going.
"I used to try and turn your hair blue. Because I'd never seen blue before. Only in some books."
At that, Mal burst into laughter and leaned her head back against the headboard. Her hands buried themselves in his hair again. He wished he'd thought to have his mom cut it before he left because now it was too long. But she seemed to like it, so that was that.
"I guess that means you like Evie," Mal mused. "Maybe I'll consider dying my hair blue on a whim one day. Purple is my natural color, but hey, it's always fun to have sporadic changes."
Ben shook his head and reached up to twirl the ends of her hair. She withdrew, then apparently realized that if she was going to play with his hair, she should at least let him touch hers. He took the ends of hers and turned them around in his fingertips. "I like your hair," he whispered. "I was just being spoiled and ungrateful."
"Ungrateful? For my hair color?"
"For just… you. All of you. The culmination of you."
"You're a sa – poet."
Ben shrugged and let go of her hair. He made to lay back down, but he'd moved up enough that he was now lying on her stomach, not her legs. He paused, examining her carefully to see if she'd be comfortable with the new position, and when she didn't protest, closed his eyes to focus on the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.
"If I were a crayon, I would be blue, the rarest of all while stretching across the horizon. Untouchable while never out of sight."
The words were beautiful, but that wasn't the reason Ben pulled his head back off of hers and looked up at her. "I wrote that," he told her. "How do you know it?"
"You left your poetry on the bed before we left," Mal blushed. An actual blush that made Ben's mouth fall open. "I walked in and Carlos and Evie were reading it aloud while watching you. I should have known that you would be a poet."
"That one wasn't even one of my best," Ben shook his head. "It was just ramblings because I'm obsessed with blue."
Mal pulled her legs out from under him and swung them off the bed. "Look down," she recommended as she got up. Ben did, noted the blue pajama pants with a thrill of excitement, then watched her pull a little stack of notebook leaflets off the desk. She cleared her throat. "I fought an endless rebellion against death until I discovered you wrestling at my side. Now, I fight for life, and your absence is my only night."
She glanced over and examined him like she was seeing him for the first time. "Do you just think this up?" She asked.
Ben shrugged.
"It's not about sweat or tears or words; fighting, tearing, sweet remarks. Love should not be made with swords; and things you hate shouldn't leave marks."
"Do you agree?" Ben asked, trying to deny the anxiety entrance into his throat.
"Love should not be made with swords?" Mal repeated in a cheeky, amused tone. "That might be the sappiest thing I've ever read."
"So, you like it?" Ben asked.
Mal only rolled her eyes and shuffled papers around in her hands until her expression solemnized and she leaned up with a leaflet in her hands. "Your body is cloaked with my imprints; sketched out over your soul. Colorful hair dropping over my shoulder; a beautiful battle to become whole. There's no barrier of ambiguity in the depth of our pains. Throw your passion on my skin and let me trace my temper through your veins. I want to see the way you wish for me. Something deeper than feelings; more meaningful than homely. We color ourselves without explanation before anyone can see the marks on my heart. Our love is more than a random connection – more than the prints we leave when we part."
"You are a sap," Ben nodded, hiding a smile behind his fingerprints. "You like sappy, romantic things."
"As if," Mal snorted. She sat back down on the bed and handed Ben the pages of his work. He looked over the longest one – the poem she'd read aloud – with pride. He could see smudges of dirty fingerprints on the edges of the paper and was proud that they'd been liked. "Still, they're good. I'm surprised people who think like you still exist."
Ben shrugged. "My mother liked poetry. And she liked to read things out of the bible, so I know lots of fancy words."
"Belle," Mal nodded as if that made sense. Ben looked up.
"And Maleficent," he said in a rather pointed tone. Mal's face fell. "You never told me who you were."
"You never told me either?" Mal raised an eyebrow. "You're not entitled to knowledge about me."
"I was announced," Ben's mouth twisted at the corners. "Unless you're admitting now that you really do know me?"
Mal's expression turned from regretful to annoyed. She huffed. "Whatever, Prince Benjamin," she scoffed.
"Did someone tell you that Benjamin was my full name?"
"I assumed."
"Sure."
Mal twiddled her thumbs around each other with a deep breath to keep her calm. "I… do wish there was a way to dissuade my mom. She, uh, hasn't been the same since my father left her."
Ben hummed. "I didn't know Maleficent had a husband," he admitted. "Much less a daughter."
"She didn't technically have a husband," Mal shrugged. "She had a lover who she tortured just as much as everyone else now. But he got sick of the abuse, and so he left."
"I'm confused," Ben furrowed his brow. "Was he a prisoner?"
Mal shook her head and a blush sank into her cheeks. "No, no. He was just immortal and… well, this is weird, but I think he had a bit of a damsel streak. He liked being tied up and everything. But Mom had me, and she didn't like how… careful he was with me. She wanted me to be tough and he wanted to coddle me. So, whenever she saw him being gentle, she made sure to follow it up by knocking me around. And he left not long after that."
Ben exhaled. There was a lot of information there. "Were you okay?" He asked.
Mal gave him a weird look. "I don't really get attached to people," she replied, straightening her spine with a sniff.
Ben elbowed her with a snort. "For sure. Just prisoners from families that you know of from old stories. But, uh, that wasn't what I was asking. I was talking about… did she beat you after he left?"
Mal deadpanned. Her face looked a little green, which was odd against her purple hair. "She beats everyone, Ben. And I'm stronger because of it." She showed him her calloused hands. "I know some people think I'm broken because my mom hit me, but they really couldn't be further from the truth." An evil smirk lit up Mal's face and that blazing green color came back into her eyes. If Ben had been standing up, his knees would have gone weak. "Her plans worked. I am strong. Stronger than she thinks. Stronger than she is."
"If you're that strong, why aren't you in control?" Ben asked. "What's your role around here anyways? No one seems to talk much about you."
The light dimmed. Mal looked annoyed. She shook her head. "I don't want to explain it." She decided. "You don't need to know. I don't want to be lectured."
Ben sighed and looked down at his poems to shuffle them through. The stack felt much thinner than it had looked when he'd made it. And that's when it occurred to him that it was, in fact, thinner.
"Where's my letter?" he asked.
"Letter?" Mal asked, letting a look of calm pass over her face.
"To my parents."
"Parents?"
"Belle and Adam."
"Ah, them."
Ben waited. "Did you throw it out?" he demanded.
Mal shrugged. "Sort of," she hummed.
Ben stared at her. For a few seconds, he was too dumbfounded and angry to speak. Then he caught a spark of something in her eyes and leaned in closer to examine it. "You sent it, didn't you?" He asked.
Mal snorted. "You think I can send things to the bubble, Ben? That's flattering."
"I didn't get the chance to finish it."
At this, she dropped her front and sighed. "I signed it for you," she promised. "Carlos wanted to try out an invention of his, so we used your letter. No way to know if it reached them or not."
"Thank you," Ben smiled. "That's very kind of you."
Mal snapped away from him and looked as if he'd just spat at her. "Kind?" She repeated. "Did Maleficent hit your head while she was torturing you?"
"You are kind." Ben furrowed his brow up. "I'm not just saying that. I think that."
"It's amazing how you think you're the expert on me," Mal scoffed. "You think I'm kind and a romantic squish. You know how many people would laugh you off your soapbox?"
"You do like romance," Ben protested. "You like to be charmed. That's why, out of all the poems here I wrote about what's going on and what I think about the world and everything, you gravitated towards the few about you. Because you wanted me to talk about them. You wanted me to talk about you."
Mal was so surprised she sat back down and gaped for a few seconds. "I – I just thought they were the silliest…" She trailed off. "You wrote those about me?"
"Colorful hair dropping over my shoulder?" Ben prompted. Mal's face flushed.
"I knew I was just a good dream to you," She spat out.
"I was describing a hug."
"That's a convenient cover-up."
"Similar to you knowing my full name."
Mal shook her head stubbornly, staring at the wall. Her fists balled up against her legs. The tips of her ears were red. "Ben?" she sighed, digging her nails into her palms. "When are you going to accept that I have no idea who you are?"
Some sort of invisible demon with an icy grip wrapped its frigid fingers around Ben's heart. "I know you know me," he replied nonetheless and didn't bother to respond when Mal rolled her eyes and huffed in exasperation.
"We have to be careful," Carlos announced as he and Evie looked over Ben's burned feet. "If we do too much, Maleficent may catch wind of how quickly he healed."
"We've still got to be careful of how much we're suddenly using this room," Evie nodded. "And what we're bringing in."
Jay sits in a chair beside the bed, turning a jewel over in his hand. Ben hasn't heard the other man complain about how much care they're giving Ben for a while but suspects his feelings haven't changed.
Evie coats Ben's charred feet with a balm. Ben can't feel a thing. Mal's magic is still numbing all the pain. "So, Ben," she begins with a silken voice that reminds Ben of his mother reading poetry. "I've been wanting to ask you for a long time what you meant by Mal not yelling as much in her dreams."
"I met her in my dreams before I came here," Ben explained. All three look up with skepticism. "I didn't know she was real until I came here, but now I'm sure she knows me too."
"That's quite the claim," Carlos hummed. "Why?"
"Because she knew my name before I told her," Ben said. "And we had this inside joke… she said that I probably had a goldfish so we'd always joke about it dying. She reacted to it when I mentioned it."
"I think that was just the confusion," Jay shook his head. "Listen, man, we've been with her for a long time. I don't remember it, but my dad says I was right there when she was born. And she's never mentioned a reoccurring guy from the bubble in her dreams. I wouldn't read into your dreams too much."
Ben shook his head. "I think she knows me," he said. "I know her faces."
"You know a dream," Evie pointed out. "He's right, Ben. I don't think Mal knew who you are. She usually picks people for her mom… she probably was just trying to find someone and happened to land on you."
"She sought me out," Ben shook his head. "And right afterward, she saved one of my friends."
"Ah, the Aurora girl," Jay nodded. "Yeah. She's been helping out at my dad's shop. Cried a lot at first. Dad almost threw her out." He slipped the gem back into his pocket. "Listen, Ben, has it occurred to you that she sought you out because, and I say this as a mostly-straight male, you look good and you weren't whining? Because everyone else on the block was crying for their mommies and you looked bored."
Ben shook his head. "I don't think so," he said. "I think she knows me."
All three exchanged sighs. It seemed that they, too, had given up on arguing with him.
"We're going to be moving you out of here as soon as your feet heal," Mal announced, dropping a full backpack onto the desk. "Evie and Carlos say most of your skin should have recovered by next week. You'll have to be careful on your back, but there's only so much time I can pull the EQ excuse on my mom."
Ben pulled out the desk chair for her and she plopped down. He'd been sitting on the foot of the bed, resting. He couldn't move around much, but any new place was better than being stuck in the same bed he'd been in for almost three weeks. "How much longer?" He asked.
"Hopefully not long," Mal pinched the bridge of her nose. "If she gets suspicious, then all five of our heads will be on the block."
"Why do Evie, Jay, and Carlos stick around, if they could get in so much trouble?"
"Loyalty. Could you be quiet, please?"
Mal forced her eyes back open and began to unload her stuff onto the desk. Ben realized it was mounds of homework. Books with dozens of papers stuffed into the spines, worksheets stapled together, the whole lot. He'd never seen homework before. How interesting.
He leaned forward and dropped his chin onto Mal's shoulder as she dug for a pencil or pen. She made a weird face at him and started to draw away before he whispered in her ear: "I don't want to go back to the cells."
Mal's hands stilled. He could feel her labored breathing underneath him. "Well," she choked. "I'm afraid you'll have to go. You need to blend in with everyone else as much as possible."
"Mal," Ben whispered, turning his head so his lips brushed her ear. "Please don't make me."
Mal shoved the backpack aside and ran her hands through her hair in defeat before shoving the closest pile further away from her. "I'm beat," she announced. "I'll figure out that… mess tomorrow." Ben watched her climb to her feet and stalk towards the window. She ripped it open and jumped up, swinging her feet out. He wasn't surprised – Mal and Jay both had excellent climbing abilities.
"Mal?" He asked before she could swing away and start heading home – to her real home. "Goodnight."
Mal rolled her eyes and huffed before shutting the window and climbing down out of sight. Ben waited until he saw a glimpse of green light on the grounds below and then returned to sit at the desk. He had to be careful of his feet as he hobbled. At the top of a stack was the outline of an essay she was supposed to write. A pencil had clattered to the floor. He picked it up, started doodling, and then found himself pouring over the details of the assignment.
Mal was so lucky she got to deal with all of this. Ben had never even seen a school before, and he'd never had any homework besides the challenges his mom assigned.
Surely she wouldn't mind if he took over a few things, would she?
"Claude Frollo said my last assignment was really good."
Ben looked up from the bible, which he'd finally pulled out to locate a few of his mother's favorite verses, as Mal dropped her backpack onto the ground. "Is that our way of saying thank-you, or your way of saying 'I know what you did'?" he asked.
"Thanks," Mal bit out like the word was hard for her to say. Ben snorted. "You're welcome," he said. "I never had school or homework back in the bubble. It looks kinda cool."
"You're insane."
"If I am, it's your mom's fault."
Mal sat down on the desk and peered down over the top of the book at where he was. "The song of Solomon?" She asked. "What's it about?"
"Basically Bible smut."
"No, really, what is it?"
"I wasn't kidding. The Song of Solomon celebrates love, not awakening love until it's ready, and is this heated conversation between two lovers." Ben shut the book. "And for the record, I wasn't reading the Song of Solomon. Because it's biblical trash and my parents and I share a mutual hatred for the section. The only reason it's included in the bible is for historical reasons. I was reading the last chapter of Ecclesiastes."
"Ah, is that the foreplay to the Song of Solomon?" Mal kicked her feet against the bed as she raised her eyebrows at Ben.
"It was written by a completely different author who likely had no idea he'd get put in front of the most doctrinally useless book in the bible," Ben slurred as he rolled his eyes. "Nah. Ecclesiastes talks about knowledge and wisdom, opposition in all things, and death."
Mal recoiled from him with her lips twisting downwards. "You are not going to die," She shook her head. "Listen, if Jay's been talking crap while I've been gone, I want you to ignore it. I'm not going to let Maleficent-"
"I'm not concerned with it," Ben cut her off. "And for the record, it's not like you can keep me for years and years if the other villain kids don't survive as long. People will start to talk." He cracked the book back open and then found the page he'd been on. "And I wasn't focusing on my own death. I was just thinking of my mom. She has a theory on what happens after we die."
Mal hummed and hopped off the desk. Ben kept talking. "The dust shall return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. She thinks that there's a difference between the two parts that make up us. One is carnal and one isn't. But they're trying to work together here. That's why we have drives to do what's wrong, but our heads tell us to resist."
He stopped then and paused to see if Mal was paying attention. She was still listening, but it was clear she didn't have all that much interest in the subject. He sighed and closed the book again. "Anyways," he trailed off and then glanced at her schoolbag. "Can I look through your stuff from school?"
Mal picked it up, brought it over, and plopped it on the desk. Ben immediately started pulling things out. "I've been thinking," she sighed, turning away so he couldn't see her face. "Maybe… I mean… Mom probably wouldn't have as big a problem with me keeping you closer to me if I made it sound like you were my…" She trailed off.
Ben paused as he opened her literacy book and then glanced at her back. "Your what?" He asked.
He could feel her blush through her back. "A toy," she replied. "If you were my toy."
"You mean a lover," Ben realized, and color crept into his neck. "You wouldn't really…"
"No," Mal shook her head. "But it'd be a good excuse to keep you away from everyone else. Cleaner. I could put you in one of the servant's rooms down the hall… I can't do a big room like this but-"
"I'm used to small rooms," Ben blushed. "Would… would I have to come down here to keep up the lie? Like, at night?"
"I usually don't sleep here," Mal shook her head. "You know that. I just come to the courts during the day and do my own thing unless Mom wants help. It wouldn't be hard to make it seem like you're being used. And, uh, I could say other things too. Mom wouldn't care if someone did most of my work for example." She nodded at the open book in his hands. "You don't have to do it all, of course, but-"
She coughed then and her face turned purple. "I don't know why I'm offering you the choice," she laughed. "I mean, technically I could just make you do all my work. Most of my stuff never gets done anyway and the teachers can't do anything about it. It just feels weird to, like, boss you around."
"I wouldn't mind," Ben shook his head. He didn't know what the alternative was, but so far homework and hanging out with Mal didn't seem like a hard deal. "What else?"
Mal shrugged again. She seemed very uncomfortable. "Evie, Jay, and Carlos would probably make you do stuff too," she whispered. "And the others, if they see you. Just… try and stay away from them."
Ben nodded. "Okay," he whispered. "I can handle that."
Mal nodded, and that was that.
Ben started to learn more about the palace then, as he had to go from place to place. He still couldn't move as quickly while his back and feet recovered, but he was able to go places, carrying papers back and forth. It was interesting because before, he'd seen the maniacal side of Maleficent. Now, he was seeing the business side. The side that examined which area of her kingdom needed which resources and allocated as such. He was often summoned to bring her food, supplies, or to take away her finished work. He wasn't allowed to look at it, but Mal was, and so he'd often get caught up on it anyways. Agrabah needed hard lumber and Arendelle needed rock. Villeneuve, which Ben knew as his mom's old home, also needed rocks to build a larger winepress.
His room was three down from Mal's and two away from Jay's, which was in the next hall over. Carlos and Evie also had rooms in the vicinity, but none of the Core Four tended to stay there often. Jay had to help out with his dad's shop, Evie was heavily involved in the courts with her mother, and Carlos tended to escape everyone and build inventions all by himself. Mal… he didn't know where she went to. Sometimes she was needed in the courts alongside her mom. Sometimes she went to her classes at school(usually to bring him stuff back). But most of the time she was gone and he had no idea where.
Ben saw other servants here and there, but none that he knew and only two former inmates of the Bubble, which by now he had figured out was slang for the prison where all the heroes were kept.
"Ben," Carlos announced one day, opening up the door to his room without a greeting or anything. Ben was sitting on his bed and pouring over the things Mal had let him steal from her backpack(She was careful now, not letting him see certain notebooks or her sketchpad), so it's not a big deal when Carlos drops a mesh of wires and metal plating onto his bed and kicks the door shut. "I need you to do something important."
"Yeah?" Ben asked, sitting forward. He can't lean very well yet, with his back, but if he shifted his weight then his purpose can still be accomplished.
Carlos pointed to a clean slot on the side of his machine that was a place for something to be plugged in. "I need a specific connector to make this work," he whispered in a low tone. "And I need you to get it for me. But you can't tell anyone."
"What's it for?" Ben asked.
Carlos shook his head. "I can't tell you that," he whispered. "But I'm going to draw a picture and you're going to go down to Jafar's shop and see if he has it. I can't be seen with something like this, but if you are, then it won't matter. They'll just assume it's for something in the palace." He took Ben's pencil out of his hand and then grabbed a paper.
Ben watched Carlos detail the inscription that should be on the cord, the type of inserts it'll have, and everything else about it. Then he handed it over and Ben tucked it into his pocket before getting up carefully. "Do you know when Mal will be back? I wanted to try and finish this before then so she doesn't have to double around in the morning."
Carlos stared at the ground. "She's with her mom now," he confided. "It'll be a while. She should be out before midnight."
Something about that statement and the way it was said made Ben's knees quake. Mal was often with her mother when Maleficent went over things for the kingdom. She often supervised when Maleficent's sanity fell through and she pulled all her advisors to the old throne room to torture someone she was annoyed with. But this somehow felt different. He just wasn't sure how.
Still, he took the paper and kept his hand over it in his pocket as he stumbled down the halls and out toward where guards were. Carlos gave him a list of instructions and a stack of bills before he left about where to go and how to act and how long to take. One of the guards, upon hearing Ben had been sent for a personal, undisclosable request, was assigned to walk him to Jafar's shop. This wasn't a problem, even when the guards whispered their suspicions about him under their breaths.
Mal hadn't needed to lay the rumor down about the way she'd supposedly been abusing him. She announced he'd be down the hall from her and after declaring to the courts that he was hers, everyone "put two and two together". It's been somewhat exhilarating and humiliating and haunting to hear the whispers that follow him wherever he goes. People seem to think he must bend to her will easily.
They opened the heavy doors and let down the drawbridge to the castle. And then the light was blinding. Ben squinted. He held a hand up to shield his eyes from the sun. He stumbled over a rock with his numb feet. And then he glimpsed something breathtaking behind his fingertips.
The sky really was blue.
"Woah," he gasped, stopping in the center of the drawbridge as the horizon opened up before him. There were wispy white clouds here and there, but for the first time in his life he was looking up at an endless expanse of blue.
"You never seen a sky before, kid?" The guard snapped, ushering him forward.
"The sky inside the barrier is green," Ben mumbled as he walked forward. "I can't believe this much blue exists!"
The guard looked down with a frown like that wasn't an answer he liked and then pointed ahead. "Look there," he directed.
Ben did but wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to see. The castle was set on a hill, so he could see out over the tops of the houses and out toward where the land suddenly… ended. And then there was more blue, but a deeper color. And it looked like it might be moving. "What is that?" He asked. "Where did the land go?"
Was it alive?
"It's the ocean," the guard explained. "Can you smell the salt?"
He could. He could taste it too. And when he opened his hand in the air, it felt a little moist from all the water in the air. When he breathed in, he could taste salty water. The air inside the Bubble didn't have water in it like this.
The guard led him down the concrete path until the streets suddenly became cobbled. Ben stepped onto the stones, openmouthed, and then couldn't resist leaning down to brush his fingers against the path. A childish laugh escaped him. "I didn't think roads existed like this outside of books!" He laughed.
The guard was beginning to look sad. He walked behind Ben as Ben gawked at the shop signs hanging above painted doors with tiled roofs in many colors that reminded him of home. Reds and oranges and deep pinks. Most people spoke English, but Ben could hear some people speaking French as he walked by. "Is this Villeneuve?" He asked the guard as they walked past a bakery.
The guard nodded. He didn't say anything about Belle. Ben wondered if he was allowed to.
They finally crossed Jafar's shop, which was set up in a covered courtyard so that you could peer in and see things. It was basically a giant warehouse. An Arabian boy was behind the desk and it was him who Ben asked for help. He said he couldn't leave the desk, but that Ben could look around the front of the store while he called for someone who could help.
Ben bent down and examined lines and lines of jewelry hanging from curved hooks. One was a purple gemstone hanging from a long cord. It might have looked nice on Mal, but Mal didn't like much jewelry. He also found a gold ring with a beast on it that fit perfectly onto his right ring finger.
The guard cleared his throat. "Listen, kid," he began in a low, uncomfortable whisper. "I'm technically not supposed to do this, but you see that shop over there?" He nodded across the street to an open café. "I like their coffee and the lady behind the counter is an old… friend of mine. If you don't say a word about me leaving you here, then I'll get that ring for you."
Ben looked down at the ring. "Can I even wear it? Someone might ask." He snorted and put it back. "You can go to visit your friend. I won't say a word. And it's not exactly like I can run off either. Do you want me to wait here for you, or come find you?"
"Wait here," the guard commanded. "I don't want people recognizing you from barter day." He slipped off and Ben looked back down at the ring on his finger. Then he took it off and replaced it.
"That's a relic from the old times," a familiar voice said from behind him. "It was one of the small treasures of King Adam before the heroes were banished."
Ben turned around and stared. The person stared right back. "Audrey?" He asked.
He barely recognized her. She was a wisp of herself. Thin, with scraggly hair. Her eyes were sunken. Her cheeks were shallow. She had a cut on the side of her face.
"Ben," Audrey whispered, and her eyes raked over him. Her expression twisted. "Are… what are you doing here?"
"I've been sent on an errand," Ben admitted. "From the palace."
Audrey took a sharp breath. "That's what the dragon meant," she realized.
"The dragon?" Ben asked, furrowing his brow.
Audrey reached up and brushed his cheek. "That boy," she whispered. "The one who painted on your face at the auction. She put a dragon on your face to keep people from taking you."
"Oh, Mal," Ben felt his face flush a little. "She's a girl. Her name is Mal. She's the daughter of Maleficent and she's in charge of me."
"Maleficent?" Audrey's voice quaked. The boy behind the desk turned and gave them both a pointed stare. "Sorry," she gasped. "Let's… head back and get what you needed."
"Oh, yeah," Ben nodded, pulling the paper with the drawing out of his pocket. "Here. Can you help me find it?"
Audrey nodded and then reached down to take his hand as they walked. They wandered through racks of clothes, old television sets, and panned preservatives. Ben couldn't see any system to the mayhem. He trusted Audrey though. She was an old friend, even if she looked a little different now.
"You look so thin," he whispered, squeezing her bony fingers. "I thought that Jafar would take care of you."
"He's not so bad," Audrey's voice cracked as she talked. "It's just that the work is hard and I… I'm having trouble adjusting." She brushed her matted hair back. "You don't look too bad though. Did Maleficent hurt your leg?"
"My back," Ben shook his head. "She whipped me. Set me on fire. Did a couple of other things too." He traced the outline of her ribs through her shirt. "You look better than Chad, at least. He's in the courts and it's just… brutal."
"I'm glad you've seen him," Audrey turned back to look at Ben. "And I'm glad to see you." She kept her gaze on Ben's for several long seconds and then led him into a section with thousands of different electrical components on the wall. She examined the paper again. "This is a really specific one," she mumbled.
"Can you find it?" Ben asked, shifting his weight a little. Audrey nodded and began searching shelves. Ben waited, awkwardly twisting his hands, while she worked.
"I'm sorry about your owner," Audrey said after a while. "I can't imagine being owned by that evil… tart."
"I'm not owned by Maleficent," Ben shook his head. "Mal is her daughter. She takes care of me."
Audrey looked over, confused. "Surely she's not that different from her mom?" She asked. "I mean… I haven't heard of her, but she was raised by Maleficent."
"No, she's not," Ben shook his head. "She pulled me out of the dungeons and put me in a room beside hers. You know, I asked her if she'd take you, but she was afraid Maleficent would kill you on sight. So she asked Jay – he's the son of Jafar – to take you and hide you."
"I know Jay," Audrey whispered, pausing in her work to stare at Ben. "You… told them to bring me here?"
"I said I didn't want you going to any of the creeps who were surrounding you," Ben clarified. "Mal said Jay would take care of you." Audrey stared at him. Deep, intense emotions flickered through her eyes. Ben suddenly realized something: here he was, wed-fed, a little injured but not in pain, and walking around without a guard. Meanwhile, Audrey had been trapped here on his unknowing command.
"What's Mal planning on doing with you?" Audrey asked finally.
Ben cleared his throat. "Well… right now I'm just… a pet? Sort of? I run errands and finish work for her and…" his throat constricted when he tried to lie to Audrey, so he broke off about the part where he and Mal were supposedly having an affair. Besides, no one was around. The lie doesn't need to be kept up.
"Does she work for her mom?" Audrey asked, struggling to return her attention to the task at hand.
"Well… sort of? She has to help out in the courts, but she's still a girl like us," Ben explained, wringing his hands and then glancing through the shelves for the cord they're looking for. He'd been standing still for too long. "She's a friend."
"A friend?" Audrey spat, ripping her hand clean off the shelves and glaring at him. "What, so you're one of them now? Have you forgotten who they are? What they do?"
"No!" Ben protested. "No, I haven't forgotten. But Mal… she's different. She's… soft."
"It's all a lie," Audrey hissed. "She's lying to you."
"She can't," Ben laughed. "She can't hide anything from me. I… know her face." Every line. Every wrinkle. Every soft spot and every muscle underneath her skin. He knew her face like he knew how to hold a pencil and step forward. Learning her was like learning to breathe.
"You love her," Audrey realized, and the words grounded Ben with a weight that slammed into the concrete from above and left him stumbling as he stared at her for clarification.
"What?" He gasped.
"You love her. You're doing that… thing you do. When you talk about colors or your mom or books." Audrey's eyes filled with tears. "I can't believe you! You meet someone new and you forget all about us! All about your family and friends… You don't even care about what's going on in the bubble! You could have stopped it and you haven't!"
"What's going on inside the bubble?" Ben demanded. "What's happened?" A cold, sinking dread fell into his stomach.
"Audrey!" Someone snapped from down the aisle and they both turned to see Jay stalking up the row to them. Audrey flinched back before Jay smacked her cheek and Ben shouted in protest. "You were supposed to be done with this ten minutes ago and you're chattering about the crown!" he snapped as he dug up on the shelf for the cord and pulled one down. A purple one with the same inscriptions and everything. It looked new, too.
Tears rolled down Audrey's cheeks as she held the side of her face. Jay pointed down the way he came. "Scram!" He shouted and Audrey hurried away without an issue. Then, Jay seized Ben by the back of his neck and marched him away. Ben struggled to walk as Jay began to whisper in his ear with some bits of spit hitting his lobe.
"This is for Carlos, isn't it?"
"Yes," Ben gasped, reaching to claw at Jay's hand. Jay squeezed harder.
"And no one besides Audrey knows you got it, right?"
"The boy at the front…" Ben choked weakly.
Jay released Ben's neck with a hiss. "Get out and don't come back!" He whispered. "And don't let anyone know you have that!"
He shoved Ben forward and then disappears. Ben stumbled forward until he found himself holding onto the registrar's desk in the front. Jay was gone. Audrey was gone. The Arabian boy was drumming his fingers behind the register as he watched Ben catch his breath and Ben's guard was returning from across the street. "Yeah, he tends to do that," The boy said.
"I'm back, kid," The guard announced when he got close enough. "Find everything?"
"Yeah," Ben agreed, palming the cord to the boy, who rung it up, wrapped it up, and handed it back to Ben. The guard munched on a doughnut and sipped a coffee as Ben passed bills over. He picked up the ring Ben was examining before and offered it to him.
"You sure you don't want this?"
Ben hesitated as he pocketed the wrapped cord and then glanced at the boy behind the register. "What is this ring?" he asked.
The boy shrugged. "Keepsake from the old times," he yawned. "Used to belong to King Beast. Most of the treasuries went to Jafar after the takeover. We've still got lots of items lying around. "
Ben hesitated and then looked over at his guard. "If you would be willing to purchase it, I'd be grateful for it," he said. Without hesitation, the guard slapped a stack of bills down.
It was the first time Ben did something he wasn't technically supposed to.