Heart of the Dragon

Chapter 4

Heart of the Dragon

Chapter 4

It started with the dreams. Just feelings at first, terrible ones. Whenever Mal fell asleep, she felt a stirring from the depths of her soul, and at the center of it all, an eerie green fog. Mal could feel herself inching toward it with caution, but at the same time, intrigue got the better of her.

If she could just brush the wisps of the fog, see what it was like for a moment...

"Don't do it," Ben's cautious voice would deadpan, and Mal woke, her head pounding, heart racing.

Sometimes, like tonight, Evie would wake up as well.

"Is it about your mother?" Evie asked, rubbing her eyes.

"I don't know," Mal answered honestly. And Evie, none the wiser, soon fell back asleep.

Could Mal really go back to sleep with a pounding headache and a million thoughts running through her mind about Maleficent, her worries, her future?

She texted Ben a lot during these times, to the point when she was sure he was waiting up for her to contact him now.

"You still up?"

The response was immediate. "For you? Always."

Mal could feel herself calming, where she would go through their text history, lingering on the sentimental ones and re-reading them over and over again in his soothing voice.

"Can't sleep again," she confessed.

"Bad dreams?" he responded.

"I don't know yet," she admitted.

A few moments later, her phone lit up again. "Lunch date tomorrow?" he suggested.

A grin slowly spread across Mal's face. If she weren't sharing a room with Evie, she'd definitely call him just to hear his voice until she fell asleep again. "Definitely," she sent back, this time with her favorite emoticon: a purple heart.

"I love you," he assured, like he did every night, and after every date. If anything, he was saying it more often, as if... well, almost as if he couldn't believe the words, too.

Mal just sent the heart again. Then, after a moment, she left him with, "See you tomorrow, King BMOC."

Ben couldn't stand that nickname, preferring to seem more modest in his kingdom. But even Mal still had a bit of the power-hungry deviousness within her, and never failed to mention who her beau was when she met new people. Why not be proud?

With thoughts of Ben on her mind, Mal rolled over and fell back asleep.

--

"Pet, haven't you ever wondered why there were two?"

Pet. Maleficent always called Mal that. Her pet. Someone obedient who would follow her every whim. At the time, Mal had always thought of it as a term of endearment.

But those words were all she heard in her head, which had stopped pounding once her eyes opened again. Maleficent, when she wasn't completely trying to raise hell, could actually sound... soothing.

Evie, ever the early riser, had already left for... well, whatever would prevent her from getting wrinkles by the time she was twenty.

Mal rose, finding herself charmed instead of repulsed by the light and breeze coming from the flowered curtains. A simple clean up spell had put the room in order since she'd turned it upside down a week ago, and Mal sat up, stretching her arms over her head.