already gone ///E. Grimhilde

Chapter 11- First Truth

EVIE WOKE Gasping for air, drenched in ice cold water. Her wrist was throbbing from the cuts there. She sat up and looked around, settling her glare on a slender figure standing over her with a now-emptied bucket and a smirk on her lips.

"Claudia," she greeted, not warmly. Claudia bowed and set the bucket down, her mane of curls shrouding her face. Evie took the time to study her surroundings. To her severe disappointment, three cement walls closed in on her, and the fourth wall was mostly iron, with a small wooden door in the corner. Evie was lying on the cold concrete floor, her elbows propping her up. Claudia sat up on the upturned bucket and glanced at something on her wrist. At first, the bluenette didn't see anything, but the longer she looked, a gold-strapped watch seemed to shimmer out of thin air. Her mouth fell open a little and the brunette glanced up, her eyebrows raised.

"Staring is considered rude, don't you know," Claudia teased. Evie quickly closed her mouth and averted her eyes. "Oh, Hayden! The princess is awake." She said in a sing-song voice. In a quick blue flash, the heir of the underworld appeared, a coin flashing in his fingers. His hair was artfully tousled and now brown, and his skin seemed more tan than it was when they first met. He waved a few fingers, dropped the coin, and in a stomach-sickening moment, Evie found herself back in the little old cottage. She was still lying down, but quickly scrambled to her feet, not wanting to be put into another forceful situation. She shivered and looked around quickly, Claudia was tipped all the way back in a wooden stool, and Hayden sat in a large comfy chair. His eyes flashed a little as he looked about the room, muttering under his breath. His flittering gaze finally settles on the trembling young woman before him.

"How is your hair brown now?"

"I can shapeshift, and I'm partial to brown hair. I do apologize for what Charron did to you, he is impossible to control at times, let me fix that wrist for you," he consoled, and the letters on her wrist disappeared, her skin transforming back to how it originally was, minus the little scar . "You're going to want to take a seat for this."

"Wh-what are we doing?"

"I'm going to show you a story."

"Ooo, I love stories," Claudia deadpanned, dropping the front legs of the stool.

"What kind of story?" Evie asked.

"Mine. Now sit down," Hayden began to lose patience. As soon as her rump hit the cushion of the wooden chair conveniently placed there, the gut-wrenching sensation came back.

Not a moment later, she found herself sitting in a living room, Hayden to her left and Claudia to his left. The dark stone walls all rounded at the top. In the room in front of her, the god of the Underworld sat in a dark blue armchair, trimmed with a hazy smoke. He had a newspaper rolled up in one hand, black Isle coffee in the other. His gaze was fixated on the clock above Claudia's head. A moment later, someone called for him. He stood up and walked towards Evie, who scrambled out of her chair to get out of the way. No sooner had she moved than Hades walked through her overturned chair, and Evie stared with her mouth agape. Claudia snorted before rotating on her stool. Hayden glanced down at her, a little smirk on his face.

"Get up, this is a memory, so no one here can see, hear, or feel us. In a way they are like holograms to us," Hayden explained, not unkindly. He stood up, and the brunette followed suit, walking towards the door that the god had walked through moments before. He opened the door and mockingly bowed for Claudia, who curtsied back. He then motioned for Evie to hurry up, and she quickly got to her feet, walking crisply through the door. What she saw made her mouth almost drop for the third time that day- luckily she caught herself. Before her was Maleficent, sweating and lying on top of sheets, holding two babies, one in each arm. One with blue hair, and one with purple hair. Hades smiled and reached out, taking the purple-haired baby from her arms.

"Mal and Hayden." Maleficent said decisively, "you take the boy and I take Mal. They see each other once every other year-"

"Wait, so you- you and Mal are twins," Evie asked incredulously, drowning out the sound of what was going on in the memory. Hayden nodded, twisting the ring on his finger that Evie had not noticed before. He then took it off his finger and dropped it, and the bluenette braced herself. Instead of the sickening trips they had taken earlier, this time, the memory became engulfed in a hazy smoke before clearing an image of the docks. Mal and Hayden stood feet apart, staring each other down. They looked younger, but Evie couldn't place just how old.

"I love this one," Claudia commented, yawning. Hayden just watched the scene unfold before him.

"I cannot believe this. You're leaving the Isle to go to Auradon? The place we were raised to hate? You're leaving our mother-"

"She wants me to go," Mal interrupted.

"Our father-"

"He has you."

"All of the children-"

"They don't need me."

"And worse yet, you're leaving me." Mal did not respond, instead looking down at her shoes. When she looked back up, her eyes seemed greener and shinier. And young-Hayden was heaving breaths.

"I'm not going for me, I'm going to set the Isle free," Mal said quietly. "Good bye, brother." With that, Mal walked off, leaving her twin to stand there a seethe.

"Enter me," Claudia stated, watching intently. Just then, a younger Claudia walked in, and attempted to put her hand on his shoulder, but he threw her hand off his shoulder with his own, before stalking off. Hayden dropped a necklace on the wooden plank. A moment later, Evie found herself back in the cottage, sitting on the little wooden chair again. Hayden stared at her.

"I have a bone to pick with dearest Mal, too."

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words- 1046

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Blue