Courage || Carlos De Vil (Disney's Descendants)

Chapter 42

At first, everything was dark. It wasn't the darkness that is akin to a black phone screen or when the lights go out at a cinema. This darkness felt like being enveloped in nothing – the closest description would be closing your eyes right before falling asleep. Everything was numb too, and time seemed to pass by slowly and quickly all at once.

Just as fast as it all happened, it disappeared in an instant too. One moment, Meredith was frozen like a statue, and the next she was fine. She blinked her eyes and scanned her surroundings, finding herself still in the forest and in the exact same position she was in what felt like just a second and lifetime ago at the same time. The only difference was that Mal was nowhere to be found now, and something in the air – perhaps it was the magic, or rather, the lack of it – told Meredith and the remaining VKs that something had changed while they were out.

After wiggling her fingers and stretching her neck a bit to get some feeling back into her body, the first thing Meredith next was turn to Carlos. But he was quicker than her; before she could even look at him properly, he was standing in front of her with his hands grazing her face and arms.

"Are you okay?" he asked, looking for any signs of injuries. Despite knowing full well that they had only been frozen and were now back to normal, he couldn't help but worry for her.

"I am," Meredith said, catching his hand and holding onto it gently. He softened at her touch and relaxed. "Just making sure – we were all turned to stone, right?"

"Yeah. Felt weird."

"It really did." The two of them shuddered before exchanging amused glances at that. Then, Carlos opened his mouth, wanting to continue their conversation from earlier before they were cut off by the confrontation against Mal, not to mention them all being turned to stone. But he shut it just as quickly, feeling that the timing wasn't right. He wanted to tell Meredith why he was acting so weird and fidgety all day. He wanted to give his present, one that was supposed to only be a small token of his appreciation for her but now felt like such a massive deal after everything they had gone through together. There was truly so much he wanted to say and do, but nothing about the current situation was normal, and even more so romantic.

And so, Carlos chose to tackle the matter at hand instead. Remembering that things weren't over just yet, he said, "I'm guessing the spells have all been broken."

"Right," said Meredith. "That means that everyone's either been unfrozen or awoken, and that –"

"Mal must have beaten Audrey somehow."

The air was tense as the couple turned to their friends who had all finished checking up on each other as well. Jay sighed to himself and Ben still looked upset, almost like a kicked puppy. Meanwhile, Evie cleared her throat and placed her hands on her hips.

"The question now isn't if she defeated Audrey – it's how," the blue-haired girl said.

"That and what the repercussions are," Ben added. "I worry about what magic needed to be used if Mal had to do it all alone, and if she's okay right now – heck, I even want to know if Audrey's fine."

"Do you think Uma really left, though?" Meredith wondered, causing the others to pause and think about that possibility. "Given how powerful Maleficent's scepter is, I doubt it was as simple as Mal using one shot of magic to stop Audrey."

"I don't know... Uma and Harry looked really set on leaving," Jay shook his head. "And after what Mal told us, they don't really have a reason to save Auradon, you know?"

"There's only one way to find out," Evie said firmly. She eyed each and every one of her friends with a look of determination. "Are we all good?"

Meredith, Carlos, Ben, and Jay all nodded their heads in response.