We Belong - a Descendants story (Bal)

Chapter 12

Days crawl by. Every day the same as the last. Mal has maybe exchanged two words with people around her, she has just been living in her own world, constantly thinking about home and trying to figure out ways to escape this place. She purposely avoids conversations and actually just human interaction in general. She can't escape it all the time, that's for sure. At first people weren't really approaching her, but they got more and more curious and started asking questions. She tries to just give them a short answer or ignore them fully.

"What did you do to get in here?" a girl asks her, when they're on bathroom clean duty one afternoon in the second week she's there. Mal hasn't had to work with the girl before, she'd only seen her in the dormitory cabin a few times.

Mal shrugs her shoulders. "Got pregnant, I guess," she tells her, not even looking up as she continues to scrub the sink.

"Same..." she sighs. Mal turns her head in surprise.

"You're pregnant, too?" she questions, not believing it at first.

She nods. "About 15 weeks now, been here for 3 weeks," she says. "My parents were furious, I've never seen them so mad... they locked me in my room and then a few days later two men came to take me away. Couldn't even say goodbye to my boyfriend, he has no idea where I am or what's going on..."

"Mine doesn't know either," Mal says, although the letter they showed her is still in her head.

"Isn't your boyfriend the King?" she asks, not sure if it is wise to ask her this question.

Mal chuckles painfully. "Yeah... I'm guessing everyone here is wondering what I'm doing here, I can hear them talking to each other."

"They're just curious, you know. There isn't much entertainment around here, you've been the most sensation they've gotten," she explains.

"I figured," she says. "I don't care anyway, though. I get it."

"But like... I'm sorry if I'm asking too many questions, I'm just- genuinely curious; how on earth did you end up here?" she asks, looking at Mal.

"I got kidnapped, just like you, just like everybody here," she says.

"I get that, but- did the King sent them?" she hesitantly questions.

Mal swallows, trying to keep her emotions in check. Those damn pregnancy hormones. "I honestly don't know..."

"You were going to get married, weren't you?" she continues her questioning.

"We were..." she confirms. "We were happy together, had a future planned and everything... and now I'm here..."

"I wonder what the news outlets are saying about this," the girl says, maybe a bit to herself.

"I don't think I want to know..." Mal sighs. "I just want to get out of here."

"It's impossible, believe me, I've tried everything," she tells her.

"What kind of place is this anyway? Why would parents send their kids here?" Mal asks her.

"It's a therapy camp for troubled teens, parents send their kids here when they don't want to deal with them themselves anymore," she explains. "Parents don't even know how horrible these places are, though... I've heard about them before being sent here myself, this is by far not the worst, but it's still fucked up..."

"So, how long do people stay here?" she asks, hoping to get some good news out of her.

She shrugs her shoulders. "Depends... at least a year, I've heard from a few girls. For pregnant girls, parents often send them here until the baby's born, then they go back home and people at home won't know about anything."