Princess of Hearts

Panic Attack

We finally approached the hideout. Jay threw the rock at the sign that would open the door. We guided Ben towards the entrance. "Wish me luck," he said.

"All the way up," Jay said, motioning to the many flights of stairs Ben would have to take.

As Ben began climbing, Evie went over to the entrance. "Good luck," she said.

All of us waited patiently. However, two girls began walking our way. The four of us quickly hid so we wouldn't be spotted. "Hey, where did you get your hair done?" one asked the other.

"Oh, at Lady Tremaine's Curl Up and Dye," the other replied.

"Don't you usually go to The Queen of Hearts' salon?"

I began to tense up, and I could tell Evie could tell. Of all the times, now had to be where my mother is brought up.

"You know what she's gonna do when she hears you've been seeing the competition."

Both girls began to laugh. "Off with your head!" they both mocked. As they left, the four of us came out of hiding.

Suddenly, memories of my mother just began to swarm my mind.

Who's been painting my roses red!

Off with your head!

My heart began beating really fast; it came to the point where I couldn't breathe. I tried to calm myself down, but nothing was working. Tears began falling, and I began hyperventilating. "E-Evie," I said.

"Oh no," she said.

Suddenly, the feeling in my legs begin to go numb. I began to fall over, but Jay caught me before I hit the ground. "She's having a panic attack!" Carlos said.

"Don't you think I know that!" Jay replied with me in his arms. He crouched down so that I was sitting on the floor.

"You two aren't helping!" Evie yelled. "In order to get her to calm down, we've got to stay calm!" Evie rushed to my side and grabbed my hand and placed it on her heart just as she did in the dorm room. "Copy me," she said calmly. She took deep breaths to help me. I also felt Jay's heartbeat against my back; it was rather calming as well. After a few seconds, my breathing returned to normal. "You're fine. She doesn't know we're here, so you are safe," Evie told me.

"Do we know why she has these attacks?" Carlos asked.

"You want me to tell them or do you wanna?" Evie asked.

"You," I whispered, not really wanting to talk about it.

Evie looked up to the boys. "Whenever she thinks about her mom and all the terrible things she has done to her, she begins panicking. It makes it really hard for her to breathe, and tears begin to fall. They can get as bad as to make her pass out. Luckily, it was just her legs going numb and not the full on passing out."

"Can you feel your legs now?" Jay asked. I nodded as Jay lifted me back up to my feet.

"Why did you come if you knew what was the cause of your panic attacks?" Carlos asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I just wanted to be there for Mal I guess."

Suddenly, Ben came back down the stairs. "So?" Evie asked. Ben didn't answer. It was then we noticed Mal wasn't with him. "Where's Mal?"

"She's not coming back," he replied solemnly.

"What?" Evie said.

This isn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. I thought to myself.

"I'll talk to her," Evie said, walking over to a pipe that connects to another one inside the hideout. "M?" she began. "Mal, it's Evie. Let me just talk to you for a second. Mal, come on."

"Go away!" Mal yelled back.

"Let's give her a couple of hours to cool off," Jay told Evie.

Great. I thought. How am I supposed to survive a couple more hours on this island?

"Guys!" Carlos said, getting our attention. "Where's Ben?"

We all walked over to the alleyway where Ben was standing. "Ben?" Evie said, searching for the king. We then saw a figure walking towards us. "Ben!"

"Ben, don't scare us like that," I said.

"Don't scare you?" the figure replied back. It was most definitely not Ben. "But that's my speciality."

"Harry," Evie whispered.

Harry was the son of Captain Hook. He was someone on the Isle I avoided at all costs; he was truly scary to me. Of course, he is not 'you know who' that we were talking about earlier. Carlos pushed me behind him knowing that I was not comfortable with the pirate.

"What did you do with Ben?" Jay asked.

"Oh, uh, we nicked him," Harry replied. "Mmhm, yeah, and if you want to see him again, have Mal come to the Chip Shop tonight. Alone. Uma wants a little visit." Uma is 'you know who' by the way. "Is this one still a little, scaredy cat?" He then walked over to me and touched the ends of my hair. I began to tense up just as before, but Carlos pulled me back. Harry then looked over to Jay. "Aw, Jay, seems like you lost your touch."

Jay was about to beat up Harry, but Evie stopped him. I could tell he was being a little overprotective of us, especially me. Harry then barked like a dog at Carlos. If this was six months ago, Carlos would have been running for the hills. Now, his fear of dog was no longer existent.

Harry finally then walked away. Thankfully. We all looked at each other knowing we had to tell Mal. We were going to hate it, but we had no choice. We all began to scale the side of the building so we could get up to her.