Descendants: Seasons & Elements

20. The Venus Trap

Mars gasped as he whipped around, along with the others, and put his hands behind his back. He frowned when he saw his sister standing (read: floating) on the other side of the hallway. Her dark eyes glared at the legged kids as she put her hands on her hips. Her gaze moved on to her little brother. "What do you think you're doing?" she growled, her voice raw and raspy. Chad quietly hid behind Jay, who pinched his shoulder. The prince tried not to yelp as he painfully rubbed the sore spot and glared at Jay.

Mars tried to look as innocent as possible by raising his eyebrows so that his Bambi-like eyes would look even bigger. He shrugged. "I'm just showing them around, " he lied with a straight face.

She chuckled. It sounded so low and devilish that even Jay got chills. Evie looked at Doug as he gently took her hand. He frowned deeply when he touched her; she felt even colder than poor little Olaf in wintertime. She frowned slightly and blinked while staring at their intertwined hands as if she didn't know why he took it. She didn't squeeze his hand like she normally did. She just stood there, her glance as emotionless as confused.

Doug looked away from her. He didn't understand a single thing about what was happening. He wished everything went back to normal. Oh, how much he would have given to live a normal day at school again; having lunch with his friends, taking a walk with Evie, plucking flowers for her when she wasn't paying attention, getting pushed into the fountain by Chad, trying to scold him for it but failing because of the stutter he got when he turned angry, ...

All of that didn't matter anymore, because, at that very moment, the poor limping boy was trapped inside an underwater castle, guarded by human-eating merfolk, a little boy being the only help he and his friends could get.

Venus raised an eyebrow and looked down at her brother. "Of course, you are." She crossed her arms as her smirk vanished and turned into a menacing glare. "It's 2 a.m., Mars, don't you lie to me!" Jay heard him gulp. He pulled the pale boy a bit closer. He frowned when Venus smiled at the sight. "Oh, I see. They don't know, do they?" she asked her brother. He shook his head as if he pleaded for her to leave them alone. All of a sudden, she swam towards them with outstretched arms and pushed Jay out of the way. He flinched when his back hit the wall with a loud thud. The girl was strong and if they hadn't been underwater at that time, he probably would have broken something.

He rubbed his sore shoulder as he looked back at the kid. Venus had grabbed his wrists. He tried to push her off, but she was too strong. Chad panicked and ducked against the wall, while Doug tried to get closer. Evie frowned when the girl turned her brother's wrists. Her eyes widened when she spotted the burnt outline of a heart on his left wrist. Venus looked him in his eyes and smirked. The four teens gaped at him. "You're one of them?" Jay asked him, still rubbing his bruised arm.

Venus looked at him. "Why, he is, " she whispered. Evie looked her up and down. She sounded a lot like Kaa, she thought.

As soon as his sister had gotten distracted by Jay, Mars took the moment to twist himself loose from her grip. He firmly punched her in her stomach. She groaned and bent over in pain. Mars stared sadly at the sight of his sister in pain before turning towards the teens. "I know you want an explanation, but let's get you guys to the land first, huh?" He sped towards the window, grabbing Doug on his way. Jay and Evie looked at each other. She noticed Jay still holding his pained arm. She took his other arm and the two of them followed the kid. Chad gasped. "Hey! Wait for me, you... You dumbbells!"

Jay frowned. "Why'd you call us that?" he shouted over his shoulder.

Chad shrugged, trying to keep up with the others. "It was the first thing that came to my mind with 'dumb' in it."

Jay rolled his eyes. That's when he noticed how cold Evie's hands were. It felt like his arm was inside a freezer. He looked at her. With a poker face, she swam quite fast, occasionally closing her eyes to calm herself down, Jay presumed.

Doug, looking over his shoulder now and then, noticed it too. His worried eyes widened when he noticed a neon fury racing towards them. "Uh... Guys? Do you think we could speed up a little?"

Jay glanced behind him, past a panicking prince. "He's right, people... Swim!"

Mars didn't waste any time by looking behind - knowing his cursed sister approached them - and fastened his pace. He could see the bright surface coming closer. It didn't relieve him, though. He might've been faster than her, she was terrifically strong.

As soon as they reached the surface, Doug grabbed onto the land and crawled out of the water. Mars gave him a push. He peeked under the water and stuck his hand out to Evie. She released Jay, to everyone's surprise, and took it. She pulled herself onto the land.

Jay frowned. Did she just leave him behind? He hadn't had the time to think because Chad pushed him toward the surface. Mars helped both of them out of the water. He heard his sister screaming in the distance.

"I'm sorry it went like this, " the kid started, completely out of breath, "we can't help it either. We're spelled. One by one, we start craving flesh and, after a while, human flesh."

"You're spelled yourself, how come you don't want to eat us?" Doug asked as if it were the most ordinary situation ever.

Mars shook his head. "It worsens over time. Yesterday, I ate my first fish, so I'm good for now."

"Why did the Queen spell you guys in the first place?" Jay asked.

"Mars! What did you do to our breakfast?!!" Venus screeched from below them.

Mars looked at the water while explaining. "I think the Queen is after you guys, but right now, you have to get out of here!"

The four nodded. "Thanks, kid, " Jay quietly said. Mars nodded before diving under, trying his best to escape his sister's wrath.

Jay crawled to his feet. He brushed off some dirt. Evie did the same. His face was blank, but you could see the hurt in his eyes. He considered the thought of Evie leaving him to die to be an accident, but he'd seen the look in her eyes. That cold, merciless glare she's had for the past couple of days. After a quiet minute of cleaning themselves up, he directly asked: "Why did you leave me behind?"

Evie didn't bother to look at him while simply answering: "What do you mean?" She tied her wet hair into a messy bun.

Jay was confused by her attitude. "He could've died back there, " Chad interfered.

She suddenly looked very annoyed. "Oh, come on, Jay, " she scoffed. "Don't be such a baby. It's just a bruise."

Jay took off his jacket to take a look at his shoulder. He pulled his sleeveless shirt back a little to take a better look. The joint that connected his arm to his torso looked purple, close to black. "Is it?" he snapped.

It's not like he wanted to act rudely towards her. He remembered what Fairy Godmother had told her about the blue gem. It contained a dark side. A cold side that was slowly consuming Evie. He knew it wasn't her fault and he had done his best to show understanding, but that was before he almost got killed by a singing fish stick. He never thought it to be so consequent, he thought it would just make her moody.

Evie exhaled deeply as she turned around. "Come on, we better get going, " she told the guys through gritted teeth.

"It's the gem, isn't it?" Jay cut her off.

She whipped around. "Can't you just accept the way things go, Jay? No, you always want to lead, don't you?" she spit, her voice menacing. She balled her fists. "If you're such a team player, you should be happy I helped you get up there in the first place." Chad and Doug looked at each other, the one scared and the other both scared and deadly worried. "So why don't you stop whining and let it go!" With each word, her voice got louder and while practically shouting the last one, she stamped her foot, creating a few icicles attached to a lump of ice. Their sharp points were less than an inch apart from Jay's eyes. He took a step backward as he stared at his friend in shock.

Evie blinked and seemed quite stunned herself before she turned around. "Are you guys coming or what?" she muttered loud enough for the boys to hear.

Chad and Doug looked as shocked as Jay was as the former helped the latter to get up. Doug's ankle got slightly better, but not good enough to walk at a quick pace. Jay put his hand on one of the icicles and frowned as his eyelids started burning up. Shit. Tears.