Wrath
They're running, faster than a they ever had...as if their lives depend on it. However, it is true...right now, it's the truth. If they stop..they can die.
Carlos is leading the pack, he's the fastest of them all. Right behind him is Mal, Evie, and Jay. Chad and Audrey are barely keeping up. They wish people ran more in Auradon.
"Stop! I told you!..Stop!!" Ben roared at the top of his lungs. "How dare you run from your King!" He shouts at them, chasing them while knocking down everything in his path. "You're dead people. So Dead!!!" With the last shout in his fit of rage, his eyes started to have a crimson glow. He is starting to look like his father...his father before meeting his mother, a beast.
How wrong they were. They totally thought the day for Ben will be much easier, considering that it's Ben. Ben is simply nice, so nice...the nicest of them all. They just can't help but drop their guard down a little bit...and this is how it turned out. Never have they imagined that Ben will be capable of doing this.
Audrey tripped. The night is dark and it's not that easy to run in the forest with all the mud, tree branches and rocks. She stumbled and fell. She just can't go on anymore. Chad saw this and immediately ran to her aid. With his shaking hands, he tried to carry her, but he himself already ran out of energy from running for hours, nonstop. In an instant, Ben the beast caught up to them.
Carlos also saw it and dashed back towards them. He positioned himself between Ben and them. His back towards the two while facing the growling beast with his shaking hands extended to the sides in an attempt to protect Audrey and Chad.
He's now rooted in his place, realizing that this is similar to how he imagined dogs are, before he went to Auradon.
Ben roared with an overwhelming force that almost knocked him out. But then Jay, almost out of nowhere, jumped over to Ben's back and tried to strangle him. But, Ben just shook him off easily...flailing his arms and sending Jay at a distance.
Jay may have failed in attacking him, but he certainly succeeded at getting his attention. Ben ran towards him and proceeded to shower him with punches, over and over again, no pausing, no stopping.
"I told you not to run little fella! Look how mad you made me!" Ben growled with a hint of a chuckle.
The rest of the gang remained rooted in their places, trying to suppress the violent shaking of their body as they watch Jay being covered with blood.
They mustered up their strength and rushed towards Ben for a synchronized attack with makeshift weapons (rocks and tree branches) and a spell by Mal, but all of them were simply sent flying by Ben's inhuman strength.
They were totally goners. They are all in pain, having at least one broken bone right now...and Jay, he is bathing in his own blood as Ben continues to punch him. But they can't give up, their story cannot possibly end this early...
"Of course not!" They heard a voice as if it just answered their thoughts. "Of course not! Ben would never- !" The voice continued as streaks of light appeared, illuminating the surroundings and showing Fairy Godmother desperately holding on to her wand. The lights flashed in colors, danced in the air, and wrapped Ben as it carried him off the ground, making him stuck in mid-air.
The voice actually belonged to (ex)King Adam or the "Beast", that's what he was known as. However, the beast right now is unmistakably not him but his son...Ben.
Former King Adam can't believe his eyes..blood is dripping from his beloved son's fist. Jay is covered in blood, and the rest of the kids writhing in pain. A group of imperial guards rushed to the kids' sides as ordered. They carefully carried them off, probably to the hospital, except fom Ben who is still violently flailing in the air.
Fairy Godmother is struggling to keep him restrained and afloat...but at last, after almost managing to free himself and after one last roar, the crimson glow in his eyes begins to fade. Former King Adam can't hide the very worried look in his eyes as Ben's life is seemingly leaving his body.
She immediately assured him that everything is fine now..for now. "Don't worry your highness, he might appear dead but he is not, and will recover just after a few hours" She assured him.
***The day after***
The night felt like it lasted forever. The kids slowly opened their eyes, covering them with their hands as the lights in the ceiling momentarily blinded them. All of them were kept in a huge hospital room.
They seemed to have healed from all of their injuries from last night except Jay who is covered in bandages still, but at least conscious. It seemed Fairy Godmother's magic was not enough to perfectly heal them all in one night after using a lot of it on restraining Ben... Jay will have to wait.
"I am so sorry my dear sweethearts. We shouldn't have let you leave the moment you arrived yesterday." Fairy Godmother almost teared up but she tried to hold it. She wanted to comfort the kids even for a bit and she thinks that showing her tears and worries won't help, so she held it.
The kids started to get up and shift their position into that of sitting. They were served breakfast in their bed by staffs who immediately left the room after bringing the food.
They don't really feel like eating but still did, knowing that they got a whole lot of things ahead of them. They gulped down their breakfast, toast with bacon and eggs, plus a glass of milk. They are now ready to listen, except Ben who is still unconscious and seems to be not breathing but is certainly still alive.
"So..what exactly do we do now?" Mal broke the silence. She sounded a bit sarcastic but worried and sincere enough.
"As what I told you yesterday, those marks that appeared on your body pertains to the Seven Deadly Sins. Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. However, it seems that those are not only some sort of branding and such...they manifest in ways we did not predict. Please take a look at your marks."
They were dumbfounded when they first saw it yesterday. Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay immediately decided to ask each other, and were surprised to find out that the four of them have it. At first, they decided to keep it to themselves but decided to ask Fairy Godmother when they remembered seeing similar signs in her book. They were later joined by Chad, Audrey, and Ben who noticed and decided the same.
All of them have 7 marks each. Each of the 7 differerent circles spanning only 5 millimeters in diameter.
Mal has her marks on her thigh.
Evie has hers on her hip.
Carlos, on his abdomen.
Jay, on his hand (good thing he wears those fingerless gloves)
Audrey, on her lower back.
Chad, on his chest.
And Ben, on his biceps.
They immediately noticed something. Their marks are now only made up of 6 little circles, not 7. Fairy Godmother went on to explain. "As you witnessed, the sign of wrath faded away after the manifestation of wrath with King Ben. This gives us a fairly good idea about the situation. We are doing everything in our power in this matter. As much as we don't want to, we are expecting each of your marks to undergo the same phenomenon."
"What will happen then? or once all of it are gone?" Chad blurted out while trying to calm his nerves. He's definitely not liking what he just heard.
"We're doing our best to gather more information. We have found some leads but we don't want to raise your expectations, so we'll tell you once it's verified. But I'm sure there's still hope and that all of you can survive it...somehow. For now, we'll let you stay here for your safety and protection..." They knew it'll come to this and they know that it is for other people's safety and protection, not theirs. They felt like they were just sentenced to imprisonment for being the victims.
They all understood that it was simply a logical course of action, but it didn't stop Audrey, Evie, and Carlos to jolt in chorus and exchange looks upon hearing their own words in different voices."Wait. You're keeping us here?!"