This Town

023

it's been a week or so since the night of terror, and i haven't had anymore nightmares since then. i haven't self harmed, i haven't had any like mental break downs. also, i didn't see the black cloud anymore either, but i still heard the little voice calling to me. for most part i ignored it, i just continued to live my life normally. nothing too extreme was happening and that's all that matters. normal is what i needed, i'm just glad i've been going to those sessions with the counselor. audrey and princey have been really supportive, they're always checking in on me. it's like they're my parents, well okay maybe thats not the best way to put it as princey and i are uh you know, dating.

"hearts! wait it up!" i turned around and saw mal jogging towards me. what did she want? i haven't forgiven her yet so if that's what she's looking for then i'm sorry, but not really. "we have to talk, in private." yeah okay, no. "i'd rather not." i turned around and began walking away from her, sorry or whatever.

"i hear it too!" what did she say? "the little voice calling for you, i hear it too. it calls for me to-" i walked back and grabbed her by the wrist before pulling her away from everyone else. "yeah say it louder so we can get sent to an insane asylum, why don't you." i hate myself for letting her get to me, she's probably lying. ugh val you're an idiot.

"can we talk now?" i thought about it, i'm trying to forget the little voice but i also want to know why it's calling for me. or well us. and also where it's coming from. "fine, but not here." i looked around and saw the halls were getting crowded. "yeah let's go to my room, we can talk there." we made our way to her dorm, though i didn't feel sure about this. we made it to her room and she quickly shut the door and began making sure the windows weren't open.

"christ, what exactly do you know about this that i don't?" i asked as she looked around frantically. once she was sure we weren't being spied on, she decided to speak. "the voice, the laugh, it's my mother." her mother, as in maleficent? no, i don't believe that. "i know it's her, after all i did grow up hearing that laugh..." that doesn't mean anything though.

"well then why can i hear it? and how do you know i can hear it?" plus how can we hear it if her mother was turned into a gecko, lizard, whatever a reptile. "i don't know why you can hear it. i only that we both hear because the day of the tourney game, we both saw how the sky turned dark and cloudy, we both heard the thunder and the laugh. everyone else kept dancing and cheering, you and i were the only ones that saw it all happen. i don't know why, but we have to figure out what it means." so much for living a normal life.

"if i was on board with this, how would we even start? it's not like we can just go and talk to fairy godmother about it, she might think we're crazy." they already think i'm a threat to princey, this would just make everything worse. "we start by telling ben and the others, we can't keep this a secret from them. unless you've already told him." of course i haven't. "no, we can't involve him. we can face whatever comes, but he can't." after my dream, or well nightmare, i can't risk putting him in danger.

"we have too, whatever happens he can help us get out of trouble. we might have to break some rules just to find out what's happening." i don't like the way she said might. "what rules have you broken already?" i asked. she didn't answer my question, but she threw a book at me. i caught it and looked it over, it was her spell book. "well first of all, i still have this. second of all, i've been collecting everything there is about dark magic. and i just sent a group text, everyone's meeting here in a few." oh you've got to me kidding me. i groaned but didn't say anything, instead i just flipped through the pages of her spell book.

after a few minutes of standing around in awkward silence, the door swung open and the four teens barged in. evie and princey looked between mal and i before sighing in relief. what did they think was going on? "what, did you think i was going to kill her or something?" i asked closing the book. "yes." they both answered and i rolled my eyes.

"so why the emergency meeting?" jay asked as he closed the door. evie walked over to mal and checked her over, oh please i'm not a monster. i'm civilized. i took a seat on evie's bed, as i've been told they don't use this bed anymore, and went back to reading over the spells. "we have to talk." mal said once evie stopped checking for any injuries. "about?" carlos asked taking a seat next to the other bed. princey took a seat next to me and put his hand over the book. "val, what are you doing with this? you know how i feel about magic..." i do? i don't remember us talking about magic ever. i closed the book yet again and put it behind me. "sorry?"

"okay so before we say anything, you guys have to promise not to tell anyone. and also you have to promise not to overreact." evie and mal were now on the free bed, jay next to carlos and princey with me. "of course, you can tell us anything." yeah i don't think you're going to like what we have to say evie.

"so the day of the tourney scrimmage, hearts and i saw something the rest of you didn't. while you were dancing and whatnot, the sky turned dark, thunder echoed through out the kingdom, there was a voice and a laugh. a message. the voice, it belonged to my mom." they all looked at one another like they didn't believe us. "what was the message?" carlos asked.

"the forces of evil will reign down on auradon. the weak will not survive." i answered, those words haven't left my mind not once since then. "what? val how come you didn't tell me? is this why you had those nightmares?" oh come on princey! why did you have to bring that up? "nightmares? you've been having nightmares too?" i looked over at mal and nodded before bringing my knees up to my chest and hiding my face in them.

"what are these dreams about?" princey asked, though i wish he hadn't. "i don't think they're the same though who knows, but for me... well one involved me hurting... hurting evie. we gave everyone poisoned apples, but instead of going down like old snow did, they all turned evil." so not only are we hearing the same voices, but we're also having the same dreams? "is that all? you just hurt her?" i asked not looking up. "yeah, why?" val don't say it. "i... i killed princey. i ripped his heart out and decapitated him." i didn't want to look up and see their reactions. especially not princeys.

"val... val look at me. that was just a nightmare, nothing else. it didn't mean anything, okay? i know you'd never hurt me." yeah you say that now, but what if something happens? what if i go back to being all dark and evil? "val.." i felt his arms on me and i relaxed a bit. it was just a nightmare. i finally looked up and saw how they were staring at me. almost like they felt pity? "i had another one too, i was on the isle. uma was there, but it wasn't her. she was using celia's body as a vessel, and she said something was coming. a war. i don't think this and the voice are connected though."

"you're just saying that because you still see her as your friend uma and not 'she tried to hurt us' uma." seriously mal? "oh fuck off, she only did what she thought was right for the isle. why did you want the wand? oh that's right, to release your mother and rule over auradon. you don't care about the kids and it shows." mal scoffed and crossed her arms.

"oh please! you just have her on this high pedestal because you love her. you and the rest of her little pirate crew have her on some high pedestal, but the reality is she doesn't care about any of you. she just needs a crew to compete with me, she knows i'm so much badder than her." mal badder than uma? you wish! uma has and always will be like a sister to me, yeah she hurt me but it's not like she meant it! mal on the other hand did. "shrimpy is at the bottom of the food chain, you all were or well are."

"stop! enough! bicker and holler, squabble and squaw; twist her words when next she talks." as the blue dust, or whatever it was, hit mal everyone turned to look at me. princey in particular crossed his arms and gave me a look of disappointment. "bastard you oh little!" what was that mal? didn't quite catch what you said there. "hmm? i can't seem to understand what you said, mind repeating it for me dear?" carlos and jay burst out laughing while evie tried to make it seem like she wasn't laughing. "i you make will pay this for!" i shrugged and shook my head. "still no clue."

"val that's enough, undo it now please." ah but princey this is fun. "i can't, there's no counter spell. maybe eating will help, but what do i know? i'm just at the bottom of the food chain like the rest of the isle. i knew talking about this would lead to nothing. but hey, when we're all ready to discuss the real problem you know where to find me." i got off of the bed and headed to the door. talking never leads to anything good. "about what talk?!"

"whatever danger there is, it's connected to the isle. maybe we should rescue the kids before they get seriously hurt."