Tough Love - a Descendants Fanfiction

Chapter XXIII - Thorns and Tears

Jay's POV

"Yes mother, I am ready to fulfill my destiny."

Mal's words stung me, and made me realize what was going on. Even though I knew she wouldn't be able to hear me, I started screaming at her. "MAL! DON'T LISTEN TO HER! You don't need to do this!"

As I expected, Mal didn't hear me. Her mother held out her hand, and Mal took it, standing up and wiping her tears away. I started crying, until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up, startled. Carlos was standing behind me with Kenzie, Evie, and Summer. Their faces were white and ghost-like. The sadness on his face said everything. Maleficent had won.

"Carlos! What happened? How can I see you? You're dead!"

"Jay... Mal... She couldn't do anything. She tried to defeat Maleficent with a stone spike, but it was no use..." Carlos trailed off, motioning to a large spike beside his body.

Tears started spilling from my eyes. "H-how can I see you?" I stuttered, frightened by what the answer might be. A tear dropped from Carlos's eyes as he confirmed my fear by pointing over to a pillar. I walked slowly over to it, gasping in horror as I found what had happened.

Behind the pillar, my own body had been torn and ripped like the others' bodies. I'm... I'm dead...

We all watched as Maleficent unfroze everyone, locking them in by thorn walls.

"LISTEN UP! I AM YOUR NEW RULER! YOU WILL DO AS I SAY OR BE PUNISHED LIKE THOSE MAGGOTS!" Maleficent screeched, pointing at our bodies.

"Mal... Please... Don't do this. You don't need to. I know you are good, don't let Maleficent get to you," Ben prayed. He couldn't persuade Mal. Mal snapped her head back at Ben and grinned wickedly. Carlos, Kenzie, Summer, Evie, and I all saw that the last bit of goodness that was in her had left. There was no more hope for Auradon.

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"JAY!!!" Summer yelled, shaking me ferociously. I woke up feeling panicked, still in my bed from when I had fallen asleep. My face felt wet where streams of tears had run down. Summer hugged me, and I realized that Carlos, Kenzie, Evie, Mal, and Summer were all in my dorm, their eyes looking worried.

"W-what happened?" I stuttered, confused.

"Jay, you were screaming and crying in your sleep. I tried to wake you up, but I couldn't, so I got the others," Carlos explained. I realized that I had been sweating from panic while I was sleeping, and that the scene was only a nightmare.

But nightmares aren't that realistic... Why can I remember it so clearly? I could remember every detail of it, every moment, every word. Deep in thought, I was startled by Evie's hand touching my shoulder.

"Jay... Are you okay?" She asked. I nodded and sighed, trying to slow my heart rate.

"What happened? Why are you so worked up?" Summer questioned me, concern in her eyes. I pondered whether or not I should tell her about the dream, but decided it was probably nothing and I was just scaring myself. A nightmare can't possibly be the future... can it?

"It was just a nightmare. I'm fine," I lied. To be honest, I was still anxious.

"Jayyy, come on. I know you aren't fine. At least let me stay here with you," Summer probed. I smiled and agreed while the others left my dorm. We both laid there for a few minutes before agreeing to watch a movie.

I tried to enjoy the movie we were watching, but I just... couldn't. For some reason, my mind kept wandering to my nightmare. I guess Summer noticed that I was distant, because she started to squirm and waved a hand in front of my face, snapping me back into reality.

"Jay, are you ABSOLUTELY sure you're okay? You seem distant right now. Do you want to tell me about your nightmare?" Summer asked one final time. I shook my head and turned back to the movie. I could still feel Summer's skeptical gaze. In my mind, I could imagine her with one of her eyebrows up and her eyes narrowed. Sneaking a glance at her, I saw that Summer's face was exactly how I imagined.

"Jayyyyyyy," She growled.

"Summerrrrrrrr," I mocked.

"JaYYYYYY," She started getting louder.

Facing her, I imitated her. "SummERRRRRR."

We both broke down laughing. We don't know why or how this started. She lightly punched me in the arm before looking to the movie again.

Evie's POV

Jay really seemed out of whack... I wonder what's up with him. Anyway, I strolled out to the forest to go clear my head. Sometimes it's nice to go see all of these colors I never got a chance to find on the Isle. I was happily minding my own business when I found something strange. On a tree, a shape had been carved. I inched closer to it, straining my eyes to examine the odd carving. It looked sort of like... an eye.

"AHHmmrf" I screamed, my yelling getting muffled by a cloth in front of my mouth. Someone had snuck up behind me and was now dragging me back. I struggled and tried yelling again, but the stranger just said, "SHH!"

I was freaking out when the terrain changed. It became more rocky and I realized that the stranger dragged me into a cave. They let me go, strangely, but not before dragging me to the end of the cave, which had a torch, and slinking back into the darkness before I could see them.

I grunted and got the gag out of my mouth. As I looked around the room, I noticed something on the walls. Drawings. Red drawings, that looked like they were painted onto the walls. Pictures of people and monsters, chaos, and one large drawing in the middle. An eye. The same eye I had seen carved on the tree. Now that I got a better look, it seemed to be a reptilian eye... Several round balls of the red paint hung around the room, along with foods like bananas and meat.

The stranger lurked out of the darkness after a couple of minutes. It was a boy, around my age, with tribal clothes on and white hair with purplish-blue roots. His hair was spiked up, and he stared at me with his amber eyes.

"Why did you bring me he-" I got cut off as he held up a hand to my mouth.

"Listen to me. Trouble is coming, and it could change Auradon forever. I need you to do as I say."

A/N - Okay I'm FINALLY getting back on track of my original idea XDD.  Sorry that I got a bit off track there... Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter.  More coming later.  Stay tuned and hope you have a great day filled with random Spartan chickens!