I Know You

17

It felt real, and at the same time, it felt like a dream.

Aurora blinked hard for a reality check, but still found herself standing... well, she wasn't quite sure where she was standing exactly. But she knew she was in the moors.

She tried to move, but she was rooted to the spot as images moved quickly before her eyes and away again, as if she were in the middle of a zoetrope.

Finally, the scenes in front of her steadied somewhat, and Aurora squinted in the dark to try and make out the figure of a man gazing up at the sky.

"Maleficent! Maleficent!"

Her father.

A much younger version, no doubt, but Aurora recognised his voice.

She watched in confusion as the fairy landed in front of him.

"So... How's life with the humans?"

The man sighed in relief.

"Maleficent. I've come to warn you. They mean to kill you. King Henry will stop at nothing. Please, you have to trust me."

Aurora watched the fairy's face soften. Maleficent looked almost sad, for a moment.

"Godmother! You can't trust him!!! You can't!" she called.

But Maleficent couldn't hear her, and before Aurora could do anything else, the image in front of her melted away and was replaced with another.

Aurora watched in horror as the man – her father – handed a deerskin flask to the fairy.

"Are you thirsty?"

Maleficent took the flask and drank from it.

"Godmother!!!! No!!!" Aurora cried, though she knew by now that neither of them could hear her.

Maleficent's head lolled against Stefan's shoulder, much like it had done against hers in the cave a day earlier, and Aurora felt sick to her stomach as she watched the man reach up his hand and stoke the fairy's cheek.

And then everything was spinning again, and Maleficent was lying on the ground with Stefan kneeling over her, holding some kind of iron-clad chain.

"STOP IT!!!!!!!" Aurora screamed, choking back a sob. "STOP IT!! PLEASE DON'T!""

The hissing of the iron against Maleficent's skin was more than Aurora could bear and she clamped her hands to her ears.

She tried to close her eyes but found that she could not.

There was more spinning, and then Maleficent was screaming and it was blood-curdling and so utterly heart-breaking that Aurora could not take it a second longer.

"Stop it! Please, stop it!" she sobbed.

Only this time, she wasn't calling to her father, or even the version of Maleficent she could see in front of her.

Ω Ω Ω Ω