Descendants: Seasons & Elements

7. Cages

Ben slowly opened his eyes. He only saw black. Nothing else than black. He noticed he sat down on something. It was a bench. Ben wanted to stand up to look for his friends and his parents, but the pain shot through his body. It felt like he was attacked by a teaser. He sat back down and hissed in pain. He coughed.

Meanwhile, his eyes got used to the darkness. Ben saw steel bars in front of him. He frowned. Where am I? Where are my friends? Where is Mal? "Mal? Mal!" he tried. No response.

Ben carefully stood up again and tried to ignore the headache he instantly got. It only took one step forward to collapse onto the cold, hard ground. Ben screamed. "So... Much... Pain..." There was no other option than crawl to the bars.

A few minutes later, Ben finally reached the steel bars. He used them to pull his painful body up. He leaned his head against the bars and tried to see something between them. "Hello? Is anybody here?"

He jumped when he heard somebody cough. "Ben? Ben, is that you?" a familiar voice asked weakly.

Ben almost laughed in happiness. "Jane! I am so glad I can hear you! Are you okay?" he exclaimed. Ben glared through the bars. He saw another cell a few meters from his. And another cell, next to that one. He also saw candles on a wall between every cell. "Jane? Where are you?"

He heard heavy breathing close to him. "I'm over here!" Jane shouted from another cell. She moved herself to her bars and took the same position as Ben. Ben saw that Jane sat in the cell next to the one in front of him.

The two jumped and Jane let out a small yelp when the candles started to burn. Their sight became clear: Mal laid in the cell before Ben's, Carlos in the one before Jane. Ben saw Audrey in the cell on Mal's left. If Ben could see farther, he saw that Lonnie laid in the cell next to Jane.

"Mal?" he called. "Mal!" Unfortunately, Mal didn't wake up. Darn it! Jane inhaled deeply before collapsing onto the ground. "Jane!" Ben screamed worriedly. "Hello? Can somebody hear me? Mom? Dad? Help us!"

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A creaking door. Peep. Creaking floors. Crack. Heels. Click. Clack. A clock. Tick. Tock. That was all Beast could here. He opened his eyes to see that he sat in a cage, all tied up. He felt something on his lap and looked down. "Belle! Belle, sweetheart! What happened to you?" Beast looked around and sighed. "What happened to all of us?"

He wanted to awake his wife, but how was he going to do that with tied up hands? There was no other option: he had to wait. Meanwhile, he looked around. Spider webs. Dirt. Dust. A black book with a heart on it. Wait... That book... I saw it before...

Beast's thought broke when he heard a roar of laughter. Oh-oh. He knew only one person with that low and evil laugh. That couldn't be true. Could it? He looked up when he saw a shadow that covered him. It was exactly who Beast thought it would be. And he wasn't very pleased...