Always by your Side - A Descendants Story : REWRITTEN

Chapter 22

"I open it, and you quickly take it and then we run, okay?" Jay tells Lonnie.

She nods. "Guys, get to the trap door," she tells the others.

"Alright, here we go," Jay says, then breaks the lock, pulling the top off. Lonnie grabs the wand and then they make a run for it. The alarm starts to go very loud and very fast. Guards come running into the library as the group rushes to the trapdoor and disappear into the tunnels.

The pirates quickly follow them, screaming and yelling at them to "Stop right there!". But they keep running through the endless completely dark tunnels with the pirate guards right on their heels.

After a few minutes of just running in random directions, Mal's starting to feel so exhausted she could faint at any moment, but she keeps running. She has to keep running.

It's when they think they finally got rid of them, that they suddenly stand stock-still, not being able to even move a finger.

"Well, well, well, and who do we have here...?" they hear a very familiar voice say from behind them. Uma slowly walks to their other side so they can see her. "Oh, sorry, you can't talk of course."

She's smirking from ear to ear, looking more satisfied than ever. She's been looking all over for the people standing in front of her and victory has never felt so sweet to her... "Alright, playtime is over; bring them to the dungeons," she orders her crew.

It's a long way to the dungeons. We can't talk, we can't move, it's just all the panicking thoughts in our heads that are still making us alive. When they finally throw us in the dungeons, they lock the door and Uma lifts the spell, which Mal assumes she got from Maleficent's spellbook.

"Enjoy your stay," Uma says, and turns around to walk away.

Mal looks at her. "Why are you doing this?" she asks, not even thinking anymore.

"Because I like it," Uma says, looking at her.

"You like destroying all that is good and beautiful? You like making everyone's life a living hell? You like being pure and unreasonably evil like this?" Mal asks her.

"That about sums it up, yes," Uma agrees. "Why would I want to be good and weak and lame like you, when I can be all that? Right now, I have everything I've ever wanted, everything I've dreamed of my entire life. And then look at you; locked up in a dungeon for the rest of your life... I think I've made the right choice."

Mal looks angrily at her. Never in a million years did she think those pirates would actually be capable of this level of evil.

"Oh, and before I forget; give me back my wand," Uma says to Jay, reaching out her hand through the bars.

"I don't have it," Jay tells her, confidently.

"Don't even try lying to me," she warns him.

"I'm not," he insists.

"I can get you your own cell and let you be relentlessly tortured by my best pirates, let's see how long you can keep this up then," Uma threatens him.

Jay's heart is pounding out of his chest, knowing it's game over. He quickly takes the wand out of his inside pocket and hands it to Uma.

"That wasn't so hard, now, was it," she says, smirking, and walks away.

"What are we going to do now?" Jane asks, trying not to cry, but failing miserably. Carlos sits down next to her and pulls her close, trying to comfort her a bit.

Then a few guards walk into the cell and they each take a person to escort them to another cell. "Where are you taking us?!" Jay exclaims, trying to get out of the grip.

The guards don't say a word. They reach the other cell, push us in and then lock the door again. This part of the dungeons is quite a bit bigger than the other part, and when we turn around from the door we see that we're not alone.

"Oh my God, where were you guys all this time?!" Dizzy exclaims, running up to Evie to hug her.

"Dizzy, are you okay?" Evie asks her, concerned.

"Yes, yes, we're fine," she assures her. "But what about you? Did they lock you up somewhere else the past couple days?"

"No, we were able to hide somewhere and we had this whole plan to take back the kingdom, but we failed," she explains to her.

Meanwhile, the others are all catching up with one another as well. Ben's parents immediately want to know everything that has happened. Fairy Godmother tries to get her daughter to calm down, while Carlos explains to her what has happened. Audrey and Chad are talking to Lonnie and Jay, while Evie and Troy sit on a bench in a corner trying to come to terms with everything.

Mal is totally exhausted and sits down on a bench, catching her breath and trying to clear her head. She observes the room they're in; it's all grey, no decorations anywhere, only the necessities are here. There's about ten bunkbeds against the longest wall, in the far right corner is a toilet and a sink, next to it is a single shower with a stained shower curtain around it. In the middle of the room are a few tables with chairs around it and in the front of the room a couple of benches.

Ben sees Mal sitting alone and excuses himself to his parents and then joins her. "Are you okay?" he asks her, knowing it's a stupid question.

"Never been better," she says, sarcastically.

He laughs slightly, somehow trying to lighten the mood a bit, but she can't even manage to smile. She looks at him, tears welling up in her eyes. "Are we going to die in here?" she asks him, looking him in the eyes.

"What? No, no, Mal, of course not," he quickly tells her, pulling her close to him, while she rests her head on his shoulder and lets the tears slip down her face. "We're going to find a way out of here, to take back our kingdom, alright? It's going to be fine, we're all going to be fine."

Mal doesn't say anything. She knows he's just as scared as she is. None of them knows what's to come, and when or how they're even going to ever manage to escape.

After ten minutes everyone's just sitting spread across the room in silence. All exhausted and clueless as to what to do.