Dark Descendants-Isle of the Lost

Evie the Sass Princess

"Mal, quit it!"

It was Jay. He had apparently just arrived soon after Carlos. Evie was confused. What had happened between the two boys? What did she miss?

Mal looked the same way, looking from Carlos to Jay and trying to figure things out.

"Why did you run?" he asked Carlos, who shrugged.

"I don't really know," the white and slightly black haired boy said. "I just had a bad feeling..."

"But-" Jay was cut off as soon as he started.

"Why didn't you punish him yet?" Mal demanded of the beanied boy. She looked furious that things weren't going her way.

He glared at her. "Because you're not my boss. Also, he already got punished, so I decided to help him out."

"Help him out?" Mal nearly screeched.

Evie thought she saw Carlos wince at the noise, and immediately wondered why.

"What is this, Auradon? Let's just hold hands and make flower crowns and skip happily in meadows, shall we?" Mal was getting louder and louder. People stared at them from the streets. "We're supposed to be lone wolves. Not sheep, who depend on their leader to do everything for them!"

Jay scowled. "Why? Why should we? Us islanders are all we got. No future, no hopes, no happiness. So why not have a little fun, why not work together?"

Mal quieted down.

Evie thought about what he said. Could that be possible? Could they work together to be happy, maybe even comfortable? Then she nodded. Yes. They could. They could redo their lives, why not? "He's right."

"Nobody asked you," Mal snapped, and Evie opened her mouth to reply with a snarky comment when Carlos shook his head.

"Guys, this is exactly what he means," Carlos pointed out. "See how unhappy we are?"

"Unhappy?" Mal snipped. "Do you even know what happiness is? I don't think so. So shut you're mouth and-"

"Actually, I do," Carlos said. "If only a little."

Evie perked up. "You do? What is it like? How did you get it?"

He smiled. It was a pure one, too, not an evil smirk or sneer. It was bright and made Evie feel something unfamiliar and almost light. "It was warm and cheery. I felt like... like I'd drunken a cup of the gross mud coffee, but with more sweetness to it."

"When was it?" Mal had a conflicted look on her face, like she was trying to determine whether or not she wanted to know.

"When Jay helped me out."

Mal's eyes softened from fiery green flames to blue ones. "Really? That actually..." They went back to green. "No. I'm evil. I'm ruthless, brutal, and cool. I'm mishevious and rotten and mad. I'm not going to change. Not now, not ever."

Evie thought she sounded like she was convincing herself.

Jay walked over to Carlos and whispered something in his ear, who shook his head no. Jay's eyes were pleading. As expected, he said no again. Then he sighed and nodded. "Fine."

Evie was curious. What were they up to?

Carlos took a deep breath and slowly turned around with his back facing Mal and took off his shirt. Evie's mouth flew open.

There, littered all over his skin, was bloody graffiti. Words like weakling, wimp, son of a Dalmatian, slave, and no son of mine looked like they'd been carved into his back with a knife. The rest of his back was covered with big long scratches that were oozing blood and old and new scars.

Evie couldn't believe it. Sure, everyone's parents here were bad, but this... this was just cruel and... awful. Just plain awful.

Mal looked like she was going to puke, and even Jay was shocked. Carlos was squeezing his eyes shut, slow tears sneaking out of his eyelashes. He slowly and painfully put on his shirt, then just stood there, shaking softly and taking deep and shaky breaths.

Evie suddenly felt something weird flow through her body, making her feel sad and lonely. But the weird thing was, this time it wasn't for her, it was for...

For Carlos.

She walked over to the son of Cruella De Vil and gently placed her hand on his shoulder.

His eyes snapped open, and instead of him flinching away like she expected, he ever so leaned into the touch. After a moment of silence, he asked with a choked up voice, "Why are you being so nice?"

Evie blinked. Her and nice didn't often go together. "I don't really know, actually."

He let out a soft laugh, then got serious again. He looked deep into her eyes. His eyes were brown as freshly turned earth, soft and warm. "Thank you."

She smiled. "You're welcome."

Then they heard a choking sound from behind them. Evie and Carlos whirled around, startled. Then they both rolled their eyes.

Mal and Jay were both pretending to gag, looking like cats upchucking hairballs.

Then the four looked at each other and spoke at the same time.

"Look, I'm sorry-"

"Carlos needs some bandages-"

"I need to get some food for my mom-"

"Your mom sucks-"

They looked at each other and began again.

"Seriously, I didn't mean-"

"I think there might be some at my shop-"

"Can we go to the dump really quick? I need-"

"Are you really going back to that monster's house? I mean, she's just-"

They glared at each other until Mal solved the problem by literally shutting their mouths. With her magic. It hurt.

"Okay, first things first. I'm sorry I tried to punish you. That was bad of me blah, blah, blah." She made a blabbing motion with her hand, making the other three's mouths open and shut repeatedly and painfully. "First let's get bandages from Jay's shop or whatever and then get Carlos's mom some food before she goes all wacko on him again. Good?"

They nodded quickly, mostly just to get her to stop.

"Good."

The hold on their mouths was released and they let out sighs of relief.

"Jeez, Mal," Jay muttered, holding his jaw. "You coulda just told us to shut up or something."

She smiled evilly. "I know. It was more fun doing that though. Let's go!"

The purplenette skipped manically, beckoning for them to follow.

The other three just gave each other looks and hurried after her.

And that was the beginning of their somewhat friendly friendship.