already gone ///E. Grimhilde

Chapter 7- Facing Reality

"HEY MAL, Can you come over, we need to talk," Evie spoke hesitantly over the phone.

"Uhhh, can we talk later? Jay and Carlos are asking for me, and have been since before my meeting. And then I promised Uma I would go over to Isle to chat," Mal explained, twirling a strand of midnight purple hair in her fingers. "Tomorrow, maybe?"

"Okay, yeah, sure," and with that, the blue-haired beauty hung up the phone. Mal sighed and continued her walk across the great lawn, towards the enchanted lake, where she was going to meet Carlos and Jay. Just as she made it to the border between lawn and trees, her phone rang again, except this time it was not Evie.

"Mal, you need to come to Herkie and Gil's dorm, and quick," Ben spoke quickly and heavily, as if he just ran a marathon. After everything that happened with Audrey, and Uma and Harry moved back to the Isle, Gil decided to stay to go adventuring with Jay.

"Why, what happened?"

"It's Herkie, he's sick and is not waking up."

"Wh-what? How is that possible?" Mal turned tail and speed-walked back across the great lawn. It was nearly impossible for Herkie to sick because of his father being a God, but to have him not wake up was terrible.

"I don't know, but I'll meet you there." He hung up just as Mal made it to the grand archways right outside of the dorms. She paused for a second, before turning left, into the boy's wing. The right hallway led to the girl's wing. She knocked on dorm room number 350, and it was opened by Rachel, who looked like she was sobbing. Tear trails left tracks on her cheeks.

"Rachel, tell me everything," Mal demanded. The long haired brunette dragged the princess into the room, sitting her down on one of the oak chairs at the round table.

"Well, this morning, Herkie went out to practice tourney with a couple of his tourney friends like Aziz and Carlos. We planned to meet here an hour and a half later, since Gil was out on an all-day berry-picking expedition. So I came here, and he was just lying there and groaning. So I asked him what happened and-and," the girl just broke down and started sobbing again. Mal blew out air and pat her back, trying to figure out a way to find out what happened. She walked over the the boy and recited some spells she knew. Ben suddenly walked in, Jay and Carlos flanking him.

"Mal, we think we know what happened," Carlos began talking, all out of breath. Mal raised an eyebrow.

"I hope so, I tried several spells, but he just won't wake up. What do you think happened?" Rachel let out another couple of sniffs before calming down completely to listen.

"This morning, we saw Evie go into the locker rooms, so we tailed her. When we got into the locker room, she was leaving. At first, she looked surprised to see us, and when we asked her what she was doing, she said that she forgot her mirror in there the day that she and Doug broke up, because she was heartbroken and ran," Jay explained, pacing around the room.

"So? She forgot her magic mirror, there is no way our I-want-to-live-in-a-castle Evie was behind this," Mal thought hard, wanting to defend her best friend.

"That's what he thought, too," Carlos spoke up, pointing a Jay with his thumb. "But that's not possible because her mirror is in the museum along with your spellbook!" Mal suddenly couldn't breathe. "Mal, she lied, and was really good. We all know the last time she lied, she almost got killed. So this has to be something serious for her to turn to her last resort. That's why we wanted to talk to you!" Her vision began to blur.

"An apple. I caught her sneaking around, and she hid an apple behind her back, I tried asking her about it, but then Ben called me and she ran off." The princess shook her head, as if dislodging the horrible thought from her mind.

"That makes sense," Rachel finally spoke up from her seat on the earl gray carpet. "Right after the practice ended, he texted me and thanked me for an apple. I thought he was joking, because he jokes a lot, so I played along. Then, twenty minutes ago, he texted me, and told me that the apple must have been rotten, because he wasn't feeling so good. I would have thought he was joking, but he never takes a joke and extends it. And there are no rotten apples in Auradon. So I ran down here, and three minutes before Mal showed up, he fell asleep, and-and h-he isn't w-wak-king up," a fresh bout of sobs ripped from her. Mal took a step back before collapsing to her knees, a tear trickled down her face.

"No. Evie would never!"

"Mal, we have to face the facts," Carlos said cautiously.

"No!" Her eyes flashed a dangerous shade of green before her eyes closed, the last thing she saw was Herkie lying in bed, helpless.