Finding New Love

The Bridge

Ben didn't know what the bridge was. He didn't know how to get out of his predicament. And the water level was getting higher. It was up to his thighs now. He was at a loss for what he was supposed to do. He knew that he might be giving up too early, but being stuck in a room by himself with the occasional voice yelling out at him was getting him more and more frustrated. And if he had been taught anything, it was that when one got frustrated, they couldn't always think straight.

"Mal!" he yelled again. He didn't know what he expected out of her. He didn't know if he expected her to just poof out of thin air and save him. He didn't know if he expected her to just let him die. Although, he was more inclined to think the second option due to what had happened in the past.

He had come to the Isle to apologize. Uma had been using him like some puppet. He wanted to tell her that he was sorry and that he wanted her to give him a second chance. But he knew that it wouldn't happen. The traps had been her way to get back at him. He knew that. He knew that each one had been for one of her friends. And he knew that the last one would be for herself.

There was nothing else to say about his situation other than he was probably, royally screwed.

"Come on, Ben!" Mal shouted from wherever she was. "I would have thought that someone as great and powerful as you should be able to handle a little riddle. You should know this riddle."

"Mal!" he shouted again. This time it came out more as a moan than as a shout of anger. He was tired of all of this. "Stop this!"

He could feel her waver. He could feel it in her magic. He could feel it when the water seemed to pause its assault on him. And eventually, it felt as if she had disappeared all together. Ben couldn't feel her presence anymore. He couldn't feel her magic, but there was someone else.

"I will never understand why she loved you," Harry said as he walked towards the prince. The water sloshed around as he moved. "I will never what caused her to decide to spare your life. But I don't have to. Because I understand her more than you ever will. I understand that she has had so much hate and resentment in her life. I understand that she has an impossible time trying to express her emotions. So that day, when she walked into the bar, her face void of the emotions that I had been so used to seeing, I knew I wanted to kill you. But you weren't mine to kill. You were hers. Because she deserved so much more than you."

"What's your point, Pirate," Ben grounded out. If Harry's goal was to gloat and insult him, then-

"My point is, she's letting you go. There are no more games that she wants you to play. She wants you off the island before the sun finishes setting. And if you're not... Well, I'm sure you'd love to figure out what the last challenge was going to be," Harry said with the sadistic grin that he was known for.

Harry turned to leave. He took one step and paused. "By the way," he said over his shoulder. "The bridge," he said slowly, as if he was drawing every word out. "It might sound stupid to you, but the bridge was supposed to your memories of her. It's the only thing that connects you two now. This room is... Mal created this room when we were younger. It was a way to draw out certain memories or emotions. She wanted to know what yours were, but you never figured it out," he said shrugging. "And if you knew anything about Mal, you would've been able to figure it out. If you knew her, you would have known how precious each smile and laugh of hers was because when we were younger, those used to occur a lot, but as we got older- as her mother got stricter and greedier- those laughs and smiles disappeared."

Ben could only stare after the pirate. The pirate who had allowed Mal to use his father in her games, despite the feud that even Auradon knew about. The pirate who knew Mal from the inside out. The pirate who had been claimed to be heartless.

"Do you love her?" Ben asked.

The pirate stopped mid step again. "Yes. And even after you took her away and fell in love with her, I loved her. Even when everyone knew that she would end up marrying you, I loved her. And I never once resented her for leaving. Because when you truly love someone, you never hate them. Not for being happy."

Harry stepped into the shadows and disappeared.

Ben felt his knees give out underneath him. He had made a grave mistake, and he knew that there was no way that he would ever make it up to Mal. He knew that every word that Harry had said was right. He knew that there was no coming back from what he had done. And he couldn't blame Uma for the entire thing. It had been him. He had done this to her- to himself. He knew that he could never make it up to his friends again.

He left the room as the door opened and the water dissipated, feeling cold and pathetic. The car ride back was no better. It was quiet, and he hated it. But with the quiet, it gave him time to think.

He knew what he had to do.