"What am I supposed to do? What do you suggest? She hasn't woken up for three days!"

"I get it, Carlos, but whining won't do anything. And she's breathing, isn't that enough?"

"No! Mal, her deadline has been shaved down to four days, and she's still out of it!"

"Wait! Look!"

I feel two people on either side of me. My brain feels like it's shriveled up inside me, trying to escape the painful noises and lights creeping in. I try to groan and find my throat feels closed off. I try to breathe and can't, but cough and air floods back in. My eyes jump open by themselves and I yelp at the light. I cover my eyes with my hands and sit up fast. That was a mistake, the floor tilts and I don't even have my eyes open. 

"Ellie, open your eyes slow." I hear Brit instruct softly. "It's hard to get used to but it goes away."

I do as she says and crack my eyes open as much as I dare. Slowly but surely, the blinding white goes away and I scan around to see we're in a white room with a cot that I'm on and an open door leading to an equally white hallways. 

"Where are we?" I ask, rubbing my head. My hand comes away with flecks of dried blue on them and I wince. "Let me guess. Uma hit me hard?"

Carlos nods. I notice he looks a lot paler than he normally does. "We couldn't get you to stop bleeding until it stopped on its own. She knocked you out hard. Also, we're in Auradon's version of a prison."

"White?" I complain.

Mal nods. "Come and look." She helps me and up and hauls me over to the open door. A long white corridor with hundreds of white rooms like mine are housing just about every Auradonian.

"So the villains finally did what they said they would?" I mumble. 

Mal takes me back over to my cot and sits me down next to Carlos. "Yeah. Uma and Harry are  basically in charge, and Gil helps. Frollo also demanded a spot, but they didn't give him one."

I look at Brit. "Wait, Gil came with you, and so did Madison and... why are you down here too?"

"Because my father is up there." She points shakily to the ceiling. "I thought I was done being afraid of him, but I was wrong. They gave me a choice, and I said no."

"Dizzy?" I ask. 

"She's with E." Mal says. 

"Where's Ben?" I ask. "Is he okay?"

"We don't know. Beast, Belle, and Ben aren't down here with us." Mal says. Her voice breaks once but she tries not to show it. 

"What about Fairy Godmother?"

"She's not here either." 

"What about---"

"Chad is up there with them."

"Wait, really?" I gasp.

Mal snorts. "Nah. Sera told me to play a prank on you."

"Wait is Se---"

"Eh, don't lose your head, Icy." Sera leans against my doorway. "There was no way I was stayin' up there, everythin' smells like seafood."

I give a weak smile. "So what are they doing up there? Just... looting around?"

Carlos sighs. "I don't think they know what to do. They've been dreaming of freedom so long, and now that they have it, they don't have any idea what to do with it."

"Harry and Uma? They say anything?" 

Everyone in the room exchanges a look. I glare. "Okay, that was not well hidden." I say. "What'd they say?"

They all look again then Brit pulls a piece of paper that's folded and taped out of her pocket. "Harry gave me this, said it was for you. He used Fairy Godmother's wand to make sure only you opened it."

I reach out and take the paper from her like it's a bomb. "Did any of you try to open it?" 

They all look at eachother then nod. "Yeah."

"Sneaks." I mutter. I pry the tape off trying not to rip the paper and open it up to find three words inside. 

Told ya so. 

"So?" Sera asks impatiently. 

"It just says 'told ya so.'" I say, confused. 

"Told ya so? What is that supposed to mean?" Sera demands. 

I look up at her. "I have no idea." I admit. 

Brit bites her thumbnail. "Had he mentioned to you that he was going to take over Auradon?"

"Well, yeah, he and Uma talked about it pretty often when they kidnapped me, remember?" I remind her.

She tilts her head to the side. "I remember. But I also remember Harry mentioning that you'd challenged him to do something, he seemed to think it was funny."

"Challenged him?" Carlos asks. 

"I didn't challenge him, that's---" I stop abruptly. 

"What?" everyone asks at my suddenly horrified expression.

"I did sort of challenge him." I say slowly. "He said something about Ben's job being easy, and I told him to try it and see how long he lasted. It was just me being stupid, I wasn't serious! But he said 'challenge accepted' afterward."

"So... this is your fault." Sera says pointedly. 

"Hey! He was planning to do it anyway!" Carlos says.

"I was kidding, De Vil. I like your girlfriend, I'm not accusing her." Sera says.

"You don't like anybody." Mal points out. 

"Well, she at least hasn't done anything to make me dislike her." Sera shrugs.

"Ooh, Ellie, you got her to like you!" Brit cheers. "There are currently only two others on that list! Me and Ar!"

"And you're close to being off." Sera grumbles. 

Dizzy pokes her head in. "Hey! You're finally up!" she says, coming in and hugging me. She yells down the hallway. "Evie! She's up!"

"What?" Evie comes in and sees me. "Ellie!" She runs over and hugs me like Dizzy did. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, other than a killer headache and annoyed at Uma and Harry." I tell her. 

She rolls her eyes. "I know. I can't believe Gil would go back to them. And leave Brit!" she whispers the last part.

I look over at Brit. They did seem to be good friends. 

"Meanwhile..." Evie smacks my arm.

"Ow!"

"That's for not telling me you were dying!" She says savagely. Then she leans forward and hugs me again. "And that's because... you know."

"Yeah." I hug her back then let go. "Where's the way in and out of here?"

Evie sighs. "There's one door, but it isn't what you think. They used the wand, we can't get within five feet of it. Neither can whatever powers any of us have."

I try to get up and the room swirls. I sit back down hard, clutchung my head. "Ugh. I've gotta get Uma back for this." I mutter. 

"Yeah, there's already a line." Sera says matter-of-factly. "To make sure I didn't use my destruct-O powers, she's keeping Ar up there. She told me if I used them she'd kill him. And Vice-versa so he doesn't use his powers."

"Yikes." I say. "Yeah, you get first place."

"Hey, don't forget me." Mal says angrily. "She still has Ben, too."

"Right. Twue wuv, and all." Sera says. 

"Oh, shut up." Mal says. 

"So you're sure there's no way out of here?" I check.

"Positive. Ben told me about this place once." Mal says. "There isn't supposed to be any way in or out but for the gate leading up there. Even if we broke through this," She raps the white wall, "It would let in a ton of dirt until you found a way to stop it. Or, it would eventually stop by itself."

"Perfect. Just perfect." I grumble. "I'm going to spend the last days of my life inside a blindingly white prison while Uma pillages Auradon."

"Well, this place ain't as bad as Uma's ship." Sera says. "This place has something that the ship didn't."

"What's that?" I ask dully. 

Sera spreads her arms wide. "We don't have to listen to Uma's whiny voice down here." She says blissfully. 

And we can't help it. We all crack up laughing. 

____________________________________

So this one was shorter, because I crammed a bit too much detail in and went back to change it. Hope you enjoy, next chapter will be longer!

Also, I just published the first few chapters of a new book, YES A NEW BOOK AGAIN, called Starlight, Starbright. It's not a fanfiction, it's something I made up all on my own and I've spent the last year working hard on. 

Take a look if you're bored waiting for this to update!