You Know I'm No Good

I could accelerate time so hours pass in minutes. I could slow time down, the world around me coming to a near halt at the blink of an eye. But I did not have the ability to go back in time and mend my mistakes. No, that is something that I had to face like everyone else. With sudden, lingering pangs of regret when I was reminded of what I'd done. With longing glances to the woman I knew needed space when I wanted nothing more than to be close to her. With stinging indents formed on my tongue from holding back everything I wanted to say. That's what everyone did, right? Wait until it's the right time to apologize, to explain my side of the story in the hope that she would understand at the very worst, forgive at the best. But even to someone who had all of the time in the world, it never felt like the right time. And, no matter how many times I imagined the conversation in my head, nothing I came up with sounded like the right thing to say.

Think carefully before you speak, Evelyn. To people beneath you, you need to appear intelligent and superior. Remind them of their misfortunes, but do so in a way that makes them thankful you graced them with your time. To the few above you, you must appear charming but intellectually dull and non-threatening. Tell them what they want to hear and do everything you can to remain in their favor.

Mommy dearest's voice constantly invaded my thoughts. No matter how far from The Isle I ran, she was always with me. It was so automatic at this point, sometimes I wondered if her old, cracked magic mirror sparked back to life and she was using it to speak to me. Other times, I felt as though it was just a weight I would always bear — a part of The Isle that embedded itself into my very soul after spending a year trapped in a castle with that cruel witch. And maybe I didn't deserve that imprisonment as a young, impressionable child, but after the things I'd done the second I stepped off that boat and decided I was grown, it seemed a fitting punishment now.

* * *

"Stop what you're doing, and pack all of your things," mommy commanded, throwing a couple of boxes onto my bedroom floor. She must have been serious because she even began to throw some of my clothing into a box, and she detested physical labor.

"Are we escaping?" I asked breathlessly, my heart pounding in my chest with a feeling I had nearly forgotten: hope.

"You are," she claimed.

I nearly fainted. My own mommy, organizing an escape plan for me and staying behind? It was almost too good to be true. "Really? Now?"

"Some very handsome Auradon men just came to the door and read from some very expensive looking parchment that the king himself requests your presence. You are to live in Auradon until further notice."

So much for selflessness. While I was frozen in place, mommy busied herself with cramming as much of my belongings into boxes as she could, as fast as her hands would allow without the use of magic. "Ridiculous how long these things take in this gods-forsaken dome now that our goblins have been banished. Absolutely ridiculous. Those goblins have served our family for centuries," she rambled.

"Mommy, when's the last time we saw a new face at our door?" I inquired, my stomach bubbling with uneasiness.

She huffed in annoyance. "I think I know enough about Auradon royals to decipher real royal couriers from nefarious imposters."

"I just don't get it; why would Maleficent allow them to reach us?" I pointed out. While under her banishment, we weren't allowed any visitors at our castle apart from her henchmen, ordered to deliver our food scraps every week. If the messengers were real, it would surprise me that they lived long enough to get to our castle in the first place. Hatred for Auradon ran deep here. If Maleficent didn't try to kill them herself, there were plenty of other people willing to do the deed on their own behalf.