Hellfire | Isle of the Lost

FOURTEEN: Bonds of Loneliness

Mal, Helena, Evie, Jay and Carlos haven't said a word to each other since their earlier confrontation with Uma, Harry and Gil. They just ran off, making sure to get far away from the sea-loving trio before falling back into a new formation - Mal in the front, Carlos and Helena in the middle, and Jay and Evie behind them. 

Quite frankly, they didn't know what to say to each other. They all had their varying relationships with Uma, Harry and Gil. But it was surprising for all them to see how close Helena seemed to be with those three. They all had questions about it but they would never dare ask Helena about it because if there was one thing they all knew about the Greek girl is that she did whatever she wanted. 

The path away from the village and toward the shore was smooth at first, but soon became rocky. Mal began to flag. Her feet hurt in her boots, but she soldiered on grimly, now leading the way and following the directions on the map. Behind her she could hear Evie's light steps, Jay's stomping ones, Helena's nearly nonexistent ones, and Carlos's tentative ones.

"Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work we go," Carlos sang under his breath.

Evie shuddered. "Don't."

"What do you have against dwar—Oh, right." he said. "Sorry."

"It's okay."

"So that was your mom the other day, huh?" said Evie.

"Yup, the one and only Cruella De Vil," Carlos said, bypassing some poison ivy and pointing it out to the rest of the group to avoid. "One-way ticket to crazy town, right?"

"She's not so bad," said Evie, who ducked below a low-hanging branch of a creepy oak tree. "At least she doesn't do this thing that my mom does, where she pretends to be a Magic Mirror telling me I'm far from the fairest of the land."

Carlos stopped in his tracks, and he and Jay looked at her, shocked. Helena had froze, whipping her head around and not even bothering to hide the shock that filled her. Even Mal turned around to stare at her.

"Really? But you're gorgeous," Jay said. "I mean, you're not my type, sweetheart, but you've got to know you're good-looking."

"Do you really think so?" she asked.

"Nah, you're mom's right—you're ugly," Jay teased.

"Shut up, Jay," Helena growled, the son of Jafar holding his hands up. 

"That sucks that she does that," said Carlos quietly.

"Whatever," Evie said nonchalantly. "It's not like I care."

"You really mean that?" asked Carlos.

"I mean, it's not like your mom is any different, right?" Evie pointed out. They were the children of the most evil villains in the world. What did they expect: love, joy, sympathy?

"I guess not."

"And your dad, Jay? Doesn't he only care about the shop?"

Jay brooded on that. "Yeah, of course. But what else is he supposed to care about?" he asked honestly.

"What about you, Helena?"

A confused expression came over Helena's features as she stared at Evie, "What about me?" 

"I mean, I know that we haven't known each other for very long, but I have a feeling you're not exactly an open spell book."

Jay scoffed, "That's an understatement." 

The daughter of Hades ignored Jay's comment, "What's your point, Evie?" 

"My point is that... I want to know what your father's like. I mean, I've never met him before and all I really know is that he tried to take over Mt. Olympus."