Walking up to the big oak doors of the castle was like a dream. I couldn't believe what was happening. Everything that had happened these last few weeks had led to this moment. I held my breath and lifted a shaking hand before I straightened my shoulders, bucked up, and shoved the doors open with all of my might. Mustering up all of the courage I could, I began to walk into a scene that I couldn't have anticipated. Not in my wildest dreams. Mal stood there, wand in hand, just like we had planned, but instead of turning it on to the prince and his royal family, she was pointing it at... her mother. I had to will my body forward, every instinct in my gut screaming at me to turn my heel and run the other way. But I didn't listen. I couldn't. Instead, I continued forward, my feet shuffling against the plush blue carpet. I took a breath and scanned my surroundings. The hall was filled with people, all in their best dress, waiting with anticipation to see Prince Ben crowned king. But as I shuffled on, I noticed something odd. They weren't moving. No one was. Instead, they stood there, their faces twisted and contorted with unshakable shock. I turned my attention forward. The scene was the same. The royal court was frozen as well, Queen Belle and The Fairy Godmother were flanking The King and Prince Ben as they stood there, their bodies frozen in a stance that could only be described as offensive, and territorial. Their teeth were bared and Ben's crown stood awkwardly tilted on his head as if it had been knocked askew when he pounced. The reception hall was chaos, the energy, and panic were palpable in the air as I moved forward to the center of it all where my best friend was standing toe-to-toe with a giant purple dragon whom I could only assume was her mother, our friends standing guard at her back. Throughout all of the havoc, no one had heard me coming. They didn't have a clue that I was standing there, watching along as Mal took a deep breath and started to speak.
"Leave my friends alone! This is between you and me mother."
I swallowed hard, inching closer as Maleficent growled.
"The strength of evil is good as none when stands between four hearts as one."
I shook my head, watching in disbelief as she repeated her words three more times. She couldn't. She wouldn't. I know that the relationship between Mal and her mother had never been fluffy and easy, but I had never imagined that it would end like this. I watched on with bated breath as Mal stared into her mother's eyes, both glowing a brilliantly bright shade of emerald, green. It happened so fast that if you were to have blinked you would have missed it. All of a sudden there was a large cloud of black smoke emanating from the spot where Maleficent had once stood. When it cleared, she was gone. There was no human, nor a dragon instead, a teeny tiny purple lizard was left in her wake.
Mal looked on in shock as the fairy godmother snapped back into reality and ran forward towards Mal, Jay, Carlos, and Evie as they headed forward towards the lizard to get a better look.
"What happened?"
"Did you, do it?"
"What is that?"
"I don't know."
I could see Mal's shoulders tense the way they always did when she knew that she had made a mistake.
"No, no, no, your mother did."
Fairy Godmother soothed, coming to a stop in front of the group. My group. My friends. I should be up there with them. I lifted my foot, trying to take a step, to will myself forward and stand there with them, in my rightful place, but I couldn't. I physically couldn't move. It was all wrong. For weeks I had schemed and plotted, hoping and dreaming that it would all pay off, that when I was finally standing in the same room as my friends, the worry would subside, and I could melt back in. I would grab Carlos's hand and stand there, shoulder to shoulder with the people who knew me better than I even knew my shelf, that I would finally be home. With my family. But as I stood there, watching this strange lady look at them with warmth and love, talking about how Maleficent had shrunken to the size of her teeny tiny heart and awarding them all with an A+ in something called a goodness class, but when Mal handed her the wand, and she handed Mal Prince Ben's ring, I couldn't take it. Suddenly I realized that I didn't belong here anymore. I looked at the group of people I used to love more than anything and felt nothing but hatred in the pit of my stomach.
"What did you do?"
My voice wouldn't go higher than a menacing whisper, but as Mal turned on her heel, I knew that she had heard me anyway.
"Elda."
There was something in the way she said my name. She didn't revere it anymore. There was no sense of love or adoration in her tone. No instead, her words were coated in a fear and pity so thick I'm surprised they even made it out of her mouth. I don't know if it was the disappointment in her eyes, or the shock on our friends' faces but either way, something made me move. Something pushed me forward through the shaking in my knees and the rage in my soul. Mal moved to the front of our friends, waiting as I made my way to them.
"What are you doing here?"
It was Carlos who spoke up this time, a sense of disbelief and fear in his voice. I chuckled, or at least I tried to, but the noise that came from my throat was one that I hadn't heard myself make before, it was somewhere between a scoff and a growl as I moved closer, finally bridging the gap between myself and the purple-haired girl I hardly recognized anymore.
"I came to finish the plan."
My voice was dripping with acid as I peered over Mal's shoulder and looked at the reptile that used to be her mother.
"But it looks like you don't need my help after all."
I looked back up, staring into Mal's eyes, searching for something, anything that would spark a change, a revival of the girl I once knew. I stood there, waiting for a feeling of hope to rush over me... but it never came.
"Who are you?"
My voice came out weaker than I had expected, even trembling a bit towards the end. The look of pity that appeared on her face was enough to make me want to vomit.
"I'm still me Elda."
She smiled a little.
"In fact, I feel more like myself than I ever have before."
I physically stumbled backward. her words came like a slap in the face, a wound that hurt more than any stab wound I had ever received. All of the blood left my body as a rush of realization dawned over me.
"You left me."
I felt like a child as I stumbled backward again, increasingly becoming more and more desperate to get to those big heavy doors and run somewhere, anywhere that wasn't here.
"I didn't leave you, Elda."
Mal shook her head.
"I left the Island."
I swallowed hard, feeling my stomach clench as I looked at her through wet eyelashes.
"The island is our home."
"No. It's not. It never was. It's a prison our parents were sent to that we got roped into. Don't you see that, Elda? I mean come on, wake up! Do you really want to stay jaded forever?"
There it was. All it took was one little question to open the floodgates of rage back into my heart.
"Me jaded? Really, Mal, that's how you want to play this?"
She looked exhausted then, rubbing her temples as she closed her eyes.
"I'm done playing games Elda. Seriously. All we have ever done is play games. And what has it gotten us? I mean you have been stabbed how many times? Jay used to be beaten on the regular, Evie lost sight of how beautiful and smart she truly was, Carlos was an anxious wreck, and all I ever did was resent my best friend in the world because I thought my mother loved her more."
My hands started to shake as she took a step closer to me. It was growing harder and harder to see where she was wrong, I mean the number of times I had to bandage a wound Jay via a retaliation beating from a shop owner or held Carlos during a panic attack, or had to tell Evie that she was drowning in makeup that she didn't need because she was truly beautiful, or fought with Mal over a comment her mother had said was just about daily towards the end.
"What are you saying?"
She reached out a hand and grabbed my shoulder.
"I'm saying... look around."
She chuckled.
"Look at what life can be like Elda. I mean we have everything we could ever want here. Evie is selling the clothes that she makes to the girls here at school, Jay is on the tourney team, and Carlos is happy, but he misses you..."
"I do!"
That made me smile.
"And I..."
She grabbed my hands and held on tight.
"Need my best friend."
My heart beat a thousand miles an hour as I looked around the room, only vaguely listening as my friends rattled on and on about sports, makeup, dogs, and something called strawberries. It felt nice, knowing that my friends had missed me and that they still wanted me in their lives, but as I looked around, I could feel the giant walls of the castle start to close in on me, I couldn't focus on all of the nice and fluffy amenities and anecdotes they were throwing my way. All I could see were the people around us, still frozen in fear. All I could hear was the screams that had no doubt filled this hall only moments earlier. That's when I saw her. Queen Belle. She had her hand on her son's arm, pulling him back from the danger. From us. The fear on her face was so intense I could feel it in my bones. She wasn't in fear of her son's life, she was scared of us. She hadn't changed. Auradon would never change. They would always be scared of us.
"I... I can't do this."
My breath was a lump in my throat as I shoved Mal's hands off of my arms and fell backward.
"What do you mean?"
Her face was confused and hurt.
"They haven't changed Mal."
My voice was panicked now, looking from face to face before I settled on hers.
"Look at them! They were scared of you! They were scared of your mom... of who we really are! I mean come on Mal! What happens when you screw up again? When you start another riot at a family day? Do you really think a spell to change someone's hair color is going to save you?"
I could see it now, the realization unfolding on her face. The fear of the unknown.
"Come home with me Mal. Please. we can regroup, we can find another way off of the island, one that doesn't force us to change who we really are!"
She was breathing heavily now, taking a look at all of the faces I had noticed right away. She stepped towards me, and I could see her eyes. She knew I was right. She was going to come with me.
"Mal, it's not true."
She spun to look at the Fairy Godmother as she spoke but when she spun on her heel, that's when she saw him. Prince Ben.
"I can't leave him."
She whispered. There it was again. The anger.
"What do you mean?"
She shook her head, the fog of confusion clearing her eyes as she stepped towards him.
"You Can't be serious?"
I spat.
"I love him."
The scoff that left my mouth was one of shock and disbelief.
"Love? Mal, look at us, we don't know how to love."
But then I took my own advice, and I looked at her, like really looked at her for the first time since I arrived in the celebration hall. She was dressed in a beautiful gown, one that we couldn't have even dreamed of on the isle, and her hair was piled on top of her head in a way that we used to make fun of in rooms years ago. She looked like a real, living breathing princess. I was just trying to wrap my head around this when all of a sudden, everyone in the room around us snapped back to life. Including her prince. Life was moving too fast. Everyone was screaming and Mal was looking at him, so goony eyed, the world stopped spinning. My body was in fight or flight mode and apparently, my autopilot was stuck on fight. Before I even knew what was happening, I was pulling my mother's dagger from my back pocket, grabbing Mal by the shoulders, and pressing the blade to her throat. The room went so quiet I could hear Mal's heart beating.
"Elda, stop. You don't want to do this."
The blade was shaking as I stared over at Carlos.
"Step back Carlos."
He held up his hands and took a step backward, bumping into Evie as they all stared over at me in horror.
"Elda, think about this. This isn't you."
Fear coated Mal's voice as it floated up to me. Ben stepped forward cautiously, his hands raised in surrender.
"Elda right?"
My breathing hitched. I was not expecting him to know who I was.
"Go away."
I whispered.
"I just want it all to go away."
He nodded and took one more step closer. I freaked and held the knife tighter to her. blood started to trickle down my fingers.
"Stay back."
My voice wobbled and he stepped back.
"Elda. You don't want to do this. You don't want to hurt your best friend."
I took a wobbly breath.
"You don't know me. You don't know what I want."
He shook his head.
"You're right. I don't know you, but Mal talks about you all of the time."
That was enough to make me loosen my grip.
"She does?"
He nodded.
"She says you two are really close."
He stole a glance at his father, and when I saw him inching closer, I knew exactly what they were doing. Without thinking, I took the knife from her throat, dug the tip into her bicep, and dragged it down to her elbow. I had drawn blood now and telling from her screams, there was no going back now. Ben and the king stumbled backward, almost falling over themselves as they did so.
"Okay Elda, we get it okay. We're not going to hurt you, but we need you to drop the knife."
I brought the knife back up to her throat and pressed hard.
"Not gonna happen. I just... I want... I just need..."
Ben nodded.
"What do you need Elda? How can we help you?"
I scoffed.
"Help? If you really wanted to help me, you wouldn't have taken the only people who have even given a damn and locked them in a castle while you left me behind!"
Ben took a deep breath and nodded.
"But that wasn't her fault, Elda."
That's when it dawned on me. He was right. It wasn't her fault. She wasn't the one who took everything from me and turned my life upside down. Ben was.
I shoved Mal away, vaguely registering our friends running to her aide, and set my sites on Ben. I was charging towards him, knife in hand when the dagger suddenly went flying through the air. I looked at Fairy Godmother who had her wand pointed in my direction. So much rage flowed through me then. I couldn't stop it even if I wanted to. I started running towards Ben again when I felt it. Every single ounce of energy in my body was flowing to my hands. I was three steps from the prince when I heard the gasps reverberate through the hall, and it hit me to look down. There they were again, the blue flames shining hot and bright from the palms of my hands. I stopped then and smirked, raising and hand and flicking it forward. My aim was off and instead of setting the prince on fire, a banner behind his head burst into flames. I shrugged and laughed, raising both of my hands. I was determined not to miss this time. I had him in my sites, ready to aim and fire when the world went dark.