Chapter 15: Missing King

                                    

                                          
The Gang
"Uh, guys?" Carlos says as he notices the missing member of their group. "Where's Ben?"
"Ben?" Evie shouts as the group looks down the alley where Ben had walked off. "Ben!" Evie calls, and they see a shadow of a person walking closer to them. Evie sighs in relief, but Jay narrows his eyes. Ben didn't walk like that, and this person is taller than the king by a few inches. "Ben, don't scare us like that."
"Don't scare you?" Harry mocks Evie, happy to play with them as revenge for them hurting his Beasty. Their faces pale as they see the mad pirate come out of the shadow. This is worse than running into Uma, and they wish it was her that had walked up to them instead of him. "But that's my specialty." Carlos moves Evie behind him as Harry grins at each of them, looking from one face to the other. He laughs as he imagines punching the boys, and kidnapping Evie for his girlfriend to handle.
"Harry." Evie shakily says, Harry's eyes snapping to her. Evie flinches at the amount of anger in the boy's eyes. Running into Harry is bad enough, but an angry Harry is worse. He becomes unpredictable, and that scares the group even more.
"What did you do with Ben?" Jay snaps at him, trying to seem unafraid of the pirate when he clearly is. Harry's eyes narrow at Jay, and Jay's resolve starts to waver. He hasn't been gone long enough to forget that Harry will actually hurt them if he wants to. The group prays that he didn't hurt Ben, or worse, actually kill him. Harry has several pending murder charges already, yet no proof he's actually done anything.
"Hmm, Ben, Ben, Ben." Harry says tapping his chin. "Hmm, I don't recall knowing any Ben's. What's he look like?" Harry asks and Jay nearly lunges at him. Carlos grabs Jay's arm to keep him from doing something stupid and getting himself hurt. "Oh, wait! That Ben! Yeah, we nicked him." Harry says grinning.
"What do you want?" Evie asks him, knowing that the pirate has the upper hand, even if there is three of them to his one.
"If you want to see the little king again, have Mal come to Fish 'n Chips. Alone." Harry says to them. "Uma wants a visit." Harry grins before turning to Jay and laughing. "Aw, Jay." Harry pouts. "Looks like you've lost your touch."
Jay lunges forward and his two friends hold him back. Harry tickles Jay under the chin with his hook before laughing and turning around. Harry whistles a random tune in his head thinking about his lass as the three teens behind him race up the stairs to Mal.
Getting to the top, Mal is presented with her three friends frantically trying to talk over each other at the same time.
"Silence!" Mal shouts, and they all stop. "One at a time. What happened?"
"Uma took Ben. Harry just delivered the news." Carlos tells Mal, and Mal seethes. Idiots! This is why she never wanted him to come here in the first place.
"If you three would have never brought him, this wouldn't have happened!" She yells at them, and they sigh. Evie shakes her head.
"He would have come with or without us. We just wanted to protect him." Evie explains and Mal rubs her temples.
"Yeah, well, we totally blew it and failed." Carlos says, throwing his hands up as Jay falls onto the couch with a sigh.
"Well, what are we going to do?" Evie says as she looks between the group. This is their fault, and they should be the ones to fix it. They were to keep an eye on Ben, and they failed.
"'We' are not doing anything. This is between the pirates and me. And now, because of you three, I have to go get him. How could you let the King of Auradon get kidnapped?" Mal asks angrily. She's afraid of what is happening to Ben because of how angry Rose had been with her earlier.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. No, Mal. You'll still have to make your way through the crew. Not to mention Harry, which is already terrifying enough." Carlos says, and the other two quickly agree, Jay sitting up.
"Yeah, you're going to need us, Mal." Jay tells her, and Carlos nods. Evie watches her best friend and notices she isn't telling them something.
"Mal, what did you mean by 'pirates'? Isn't it just you and Uma?" Evie asks, and the boys notice the look on the purple haired girls face. Mal shakes her head, and sighs.
"Rose is on the Isle." The other three start shouting questions over each other and Mal's eyes flash green in stress causing them to stop. "It's not what you guys think. It's worse. God, it's so much worse." Mal cries as she bites her lip to keep from sobbing.
"What is going on, Mal?" Jay asks, worried about their fire tempered friend. The three can't believe that Rose had been here the whole time. Is she in trouble too? Where did she stay? What does she do? Has she gotten hurt?
"First off, she's co-captain with Uma." Mal says, causing the others to stare at her in shock. Rose is part of Uma's crew? How did she manage to get Uma to share the captain title? "Yeah, and that's not the worst part."
"There's something worse? She's joined Uma! How can anything be worse than that?" Carlos asks Mal, and Mal sighs before looking them all in the eyes.
"She's Harry Hooks girlfriend." For a minute, it's silent as they process what she said, then they all start shouting questions as Jay leaps off the couch. How did that happen? When did it happen? Is Rose with him willingly or is she going through a different version of her parent's story? "Silence! Look, all I know is that they're dating. From what the word is around here, they're scarily possessive of one another, and threaten anyone who goes after the other. Where Harry is, Rose isn't far behind, and vice versa. I ran into them earlier today, and that was the most terrifying thing I had even seen, but..." Mal trails off.
"What? What is it?" Evie asks and Mal shakes her head. She knows what it is, but she refuses to admit it. There is no way that what they have is 'True Love'. She refuses to believe that, even though deep down, she knows that's what it is.
"It was weird. I'd never seen Harry like that before. When Harry seen me, the anger in his eyes screamed murder. He had been mocking and taunting me, but the minute I snapped at him, Rose is in my face forcing me to back off. She screamed at me, and even shoved me against the wall."
"What? Rose did that?" Evie asks, stunned as the boys shake their heads, trying to wrap their heads around everything. Yes, Rose has a temper, but why is she so angry at them? They're her friends, so why is she fighting and threatening them?
"Oh, yeah. She's angry at us, and I mean angry. Like Harry angry. Her temper is in the sky, so watch out for her while you're here. But see, that's the thing. The minute she started to get physical, Harry had grabbed her and stopped her. She had yelled at him, which made me fear for her, but instead of getting angry, Harry held her as she broke in his arms. He calmed her down and comforted her. Then he told me that if I ever came near her again, he'd kill me."
"Harry?" Jay asks, face not believing any of it. "Mad pirate Harry who likes to hurt people for fun?" Mal nods her head, and Jay shakes his own. Carlos just stands there and Evie smiles.
"You don't think it's-"
"No." Mal cuts Evie off. "It can't be. There's no way." Mal shakes her head as Evie gives her a pointed look. "Anyway, Uma said to come alone, so that's what I'm doing." Mal tells them as she heads to the door.
"Mal, come on." Evie says to her friend, not wanting her to face everyone alone, and Carlos throws himself on the couch next to Jay.
"She said to come alone. I know one thing; I'm not going anywhere." Carlos tells the girls, and Evie sighs as she sits down on one of the chairs.
"We'll be here when you get back." Jay calls out to Mal even if it's the last thing either of them wanted.