LabyrinthineNyx

This is almost the longest thing I’ve ever written!

They watched as Mal gazed around. She was noticing the scarcely clothed VK’s as they took stock of their wounds. Coming out of the haze they put themselves in as the Auradon nurses did their exams and doctored them up downstairs, they were just now noticing exactly what they had endured. It was easier and less stressful to do it here rather than being boxed in one of the dorm rooms where they wouldn't see an ambush coming.

As her eyes touched them, they struggled to pull on clothes and grab whatever they had around them to cover up. She was looking for weakness, right? If that were the case then why did look disappointed and then shed her own shirt? They took in the deep scarring that slipped beneath her sports bra, but plenty more littered the rest of her as she bared herself to the crews.

There were so many unexpected deep scars and marks disfiguring her toned body. Knife wounds, claw marks, cuts, faded finger shaped bruises…she looked like them. They all paused in their clambering, stunned as her marred skin told a myriad of stories. That wasn't what got them though, it was a look in her eyes as she watched them panic. It was sadness. And behind it, there was a vulnerability she let show there, a crack in her armor that they had never seen before.

Isle kids didn’t show weakness; it was a rule ingrained in them all. Yet, here was Mal, the head of the Dragons prowling the hall and baring herself and her soul to them. They couldn't believe it when she dropped to her knees next to a small Isle girl who was huddled in a doorway in confusion and terror.

They pretended not to listen as she soothed her. Her words were heartbreakingly soft as she pulled the girl into her. Mal comforted the little girl with a voice they could only dream that a mother would give to her child…if mothers cared that was. The girl braved looking at Mal; she had heard of her like they all had. There was something in Mal’s words and some look in her eyes that got the child to trust her, and she melted further into her embrace.

(Excerpt)

Life on the Isle was hard . There was never any sort of guaranteed safety, and to let your guard down would end up in getting killed. The word ‘love’ didn't exist in the way that most people thought of the idea, because to get too attached would eventually lead to their own self destruction.

It was either ‘safe’ or ‘not safe’; there was no room to think of that beautiful, selfless word of the fairy tales. It was truly rare to love, but for some residents of the Isle, especially for four Isle kids, that word was a given for each other, just never spoken.

In their imprisonment, the adult villains had become even more ruthless and either used their children to do their bidding by means of abuse and torture, or used their power and status to lay ruin to those who defied them. The children mostly tried staying out of their way, because they had become even more angry at being trapped under the barrier.

No longer did these villains have their kingdoms, castles, or lands. All of the evil in the world was now trapped all in one place, and it wasn't uncommon to see bodies lying in the streets, or gutters running red with those who couldn't get out of the way fast enough.

Excerpt from Chapter 14: As Above, So Below

The entire time they worked, Adam couldn't keep from stealing glances at this girl. She was so strong. The things she had been through should have been enough to break her, but they only seemed to make her stronger.

Mal’s skin was painted a mosaic of colors, sewn together by threads that tried to keep in the nightmarish stories contained within. Closing his eyes and picturing her lying on the blood stained floor of the Dragon safehouse, he could see death hovering over her, waiting and clawing at her broken body as she kept slipping through its fingers.

He had followed these kids down dark streets littered with even more dark tales, knowing that they branched in every twisted space of the Isle; and he was at their source, feeding them to the darkness and keeping them rooted in hell. He remembered once, a long time ago, that he had once craved to be understood just like these VK’s were doing now. Once he was though, he forgot how to be understanding . He could do better; he would do better.