5

Raki can never go back to Gaumont – to show his face, and receive the questions about his dead brother. He is a dishonoured citizen, sharing in the same evil of Maleficent's murders.

Except he does not see her commit murder.

The times he is with her – which is nearly all the time, she is his friend, his caretaker, his confidant.

She shows him how to dance, based off of what she's seen from the ravens who've peered into the royal halls whenever they celebrate. The most romantic dance, and they do it in the open fields where the over-matured grass caress their legs and swish under their feet.

To his ears, she sings a lullaby from a distant memory: "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream.. I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam.."

Raki easily allows the miseries of his past life to slip away, like fallen petals upon a flowing river. It feels he's woken up from the nightmare that was once ago, into a beautiful dream that he never wants to fall asleep from, ever.

He is 16 years old now, and he is in love with her.

At nights, she'd show him visions from her crystal globe, of other people who are unsuspectingly under her ravens' watch – families who indulge together in their fireplace's warmth, friends who get drunk and open their fleeting thoughts out to each other, lovers whose fingers and lips and bodies are intertwined, old couples who kiss each other goodnight for what might be their last time..

It isn't that she is lonely; it's that she regrets not living amongst the common folk, and live beautiful happiness as an ordinary person. She can only observe..

And during the days, she would take him to the exotic countries elsewhere – she'd have him hold her tight, and wrap her cloak around him, and fly off into the stratosphere of heavenly blue where she'd allow him to visit Denmark, Spain, Italy- Raki would not falter in making acquaintances with the locals there, and one of his best memories is greeting Leonardo of Vinci (he's quite a nice man, and an even more amazing polymath) during a gondola ride through Venice. All the while, Maleficent disguises herself as an old peddler, watching over her boy, and simply breathing in the atmosphere.

But no matter how much happiness Maleficent and Raki have shared together, one bitter memory still rattles in her heart like a dark pebble.

That of Charles and Odette, making off with each other – leaving her behind.

In Paris, it has been announced that the royal couple would be having a child. Everywhere, people have celebrated – the loud parties held through the towns and kingdoms after the couriers have delivered the news, lasting all the way to midnight with fireworks celebrations.

"When I saw them fondling each other in bed," Maleficent tells Raki, "I had a mixture of envy and fascination. My dearest Diaval saw it all for me, every detail of it. My sister's caresses of his cheeks and his bum, like she's proudly affirming her possession of Charles. The slut! And their forms, contouring beautifully against each other, as ecstasy escaped his lips – 'Oh!' – when he finally climaxed after what seemed like hours.." (She seems to shudder along with the remembering.)

She is showing Raki the globe, where Odette's belly has swelled, and Odette is standing by the balcony, a look of expecting a bright future as she gazes out upon the kingdom before her, and Charles – he's grown a beard now! – he holds her shoulder and tells how baby Aurora will be the fated heir to the throne, alongside the royal child from Versailles.. Derek.

"Urghghh-!" Maleficent fumes, cursing as she slams the table, the vision falling into its default haze. "She doesn't deserve royalty! Or that child she reaped together with him!"

"Maleficent!" Raki has never really seen her this upset; he's sensed though that there was always that something that's cracking through the allure, like a black rose that's suddenly emerged from the soil.

Her hands clasp, fingernails digging into her palms, before she relaxes.

"I wish this hate inside me would go away.." she says. "Every time I'm alone, and I close my eyes.. I can still see all of them.. tossing garbage in my wake. I can hear them jeering my name. Raki, I know.. I know I've made such a fool of myself at that time – I wish I could forget it all. Forget who I am, and forget my love for Charles.. forget that he's turned away from me, over Odette."

Raki pauses to think. "You have potions that bring you back from the brink of death.. why don't you just make a potion that will help you forget it all? Or at least the painful memories?"

"I just can't bring myself to.. I've considered that already, and I've decided that to do so would be to run away like a coward. There are tales of cowards who run away from their haunting mishaps, try and pretend like they are different people entirely, and end up in misery. I won't do that; as long as I breathe, I vow to right myself.

"And I am having something in mind for the likes of Odette.."

"Like what?" Raki asks.

"That child she's so proud of, who has yet to be born.. I will curse it, in such a way as to torment its parents with an equal degree of anguish!"

".. you're going to.."

"To hurt their child directly, depriving it of sight or a limb, it won't be good. Alors.. their child will only live to the premature age of 20, and then.. it will die."

"Wha.." Raki is stunned – even knowing her evil reputation. "No.. no! That's not right!"

"I imagine their pain would be as great as mine." She smiles. "After all, poetic justice must be accomplished sometimes by force of will from the wronged, or otherwise I would not be languishing under this hate."

"Maleficent.. this evil side to you," Raki goes, "I don't like it. Please.. I know you could be happy again. I want to see you smile, like you did when we were travelling. Let your hate go.. I'm sorry if you were hurt so badly by your sister's betrayal, but you could rise up above her pettiness-"

"And let bygones be bygones? That I will not accept, Raki. I know you've seethed yourself against your older brother's repression, and it was mainly when you decided to off him for my sake, that you were able to breathe freely."

"That's.. he was going to-"

"You could have shouted and dissuaded him like a truly good Samaritan. But in the end, you chose the pistol – an instrument intended for death. And here we are. I do not expect total happiness for myself, but my act of retributive justice shall level myself with them. Charles and Odette, and their child along with them will know my despair, for my name is Maleficent, and I will not be sullied in vain!"

No matter what Raki tries, it's impossible to go back to those carefree times with her.

And Queen Odette gives birth – it is a girl, who is named Aurora for the aura of innocence radiating from her petite being. Charles and Odette, they are crying; their souls are irrevocably united in their newborn child, who would be a continuation of their existances.

The entirety of France cheers for the good news, and a national holiday is proclaimed, so that all of high or low estate can pay their homages to the infant Princess. Thus, on this day, does all the kingdom celebrate Aurora's long-awaited birth.

And in the royal halls, where the crowd has gathered by the public thrones, King Charles and his Queen make welcome for their friends and associates.

"Her Royal Highness," the Herald goes, "Queen Uberta and Prince Derek!"

Derek is a strapping boy of age 7. He reluctantly carries to the petite princess a gift of beautiful dolls and fairytale books, and when he quickly turns back, his mother scolds him: "Derek! Uh-uh-uh!"

So he takes great, hulking steps towards Aurora in her cradle, and he is bending his head towards her attentive face, and when he pecks her on the forehead, he goes "Uaghhh!" and wipes his mouth – much to Queen Uberta's embarassment.

Little does Derek know that this is his future bride-to-be, and that his arranged marriage with her will unite the Frejordian kingdom with France's, for a new era of prosperity.

"Oh-hehehe," Uberta goes, in her typically coy way. "This is just one of Derek's moods – he'll learn to appreciate Aurora's beauty, as she blossoms into a wonderous woman like her mother."

Odette is flattered, and while Derek is off playing with his toy knights, she does a curtsy: "It's my honour to be conveying my good looks through her."

The next guests-of-honour arrive, not through the Castle doors upon the red carpeting, but from a ray of light, streaming down from a ventilation orifice – right in front of the King and Queen. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather; the three good faeries who wander the country and heal the deathly ill with their magic.

"Oooh, she looks so sweet!" Merryweather goes, as they are cooing over Aurora's cradle. They each bless the child's life with a single gift; one of emotional harmony, one of wisdom, and one of health.

It seems all is going well.

But Maleficent has been watching through her raven Diaval, who is perched upon a candelabra. She's in the forest, gagging her throat out at the cutsy antics that all the guests have been giving Aurora.

"Please don't do it.." Raki pleads. "Their child has not wronged you – she is just an innocent baby. If you condemn their child, I'll hate you, Maleficent, for as long as I live."

It makes her pause – something has pulled against Maleficent, and she gazes upon Aurora's face, deeply considering the fate of the child who is not hers. In her own heart that she's thought has become stone hard, there's still feelings of sentimentality that almost brings her to weeping.

As if the pure innocence Aurora has, it was once hers too. There must have been goodness in herself too, once long ago, even if she can't seem to recall it. A garden of Eden that she had been cast out of, at some point in her childhood, for if it were the case she was borne from darkness, there would be no pain entirely; no light to differentiate from the shadow, to give meaning to her suffering.

"I won't kill Aurora," Maleficent declares, her hand caressing Raki. "But there must be punishment given to their unbridled joy."

So, sucking herself through the globe, a thunder echoes through the entire castle, and a huge gale blows on a spot over the carpeting, before Maleficent herself appears in front of the man who'd turned away from her, nearly 20 years ago (and counting) – Diaval perching on Maleficent's shoulder.

The entire chamber falls still with apprehension.

Maleficent is fully aware of all their pressing stares; she holds back her own overwhelming feelings, looking upon the crowd, the majestic beauty of the halls, as she advances, step-by-step, towards the King and Queen.

Only a mere few paces away from Charles and Odette – she says, "Well! It's quite a glittering assemblage, your Royal Highnesses. The nobility, the gentry, the commonfolk.." She glances at the three faeries. "How quaint, even the rabble."

Merryweather especially flinces at the remark. "How dare you..!"

Maleficent ignores them. "I really am quite distressed," she goes. "I look around at all the people who feel welcomed here, and yet when it comes to my arrival, the celebratory air seems to have hissed away. How come."

"You aren't wanted," Odette tells her.

A beat.

"Oh..? Not wanted?" Maleficent dwells on her remark, like salt over a festering wound. She analyses Odette, wondering if there is a pang of recognition in her eyes – is Odette addressing her as the witch.. or her long-pushed aside sister? "It seems we have an awkward situation on our hands. Here in front of you Odette, is someone who's watched you play chime and chipper as you've grown, all just a guise for the vanity lying at your heart's core. Since you were a petite baby, I hummed you lullabies. And in that white carriage, you went away with Charles.. when you could have reached out to me instead of leaving me at everyone's mercy. And you tell me now, I'm not wanted?! Odette, my dearest little sister?"

And a collective gasp emenates from everyone; a few women who sigh and faint from the shocking revelation.

Odette's face is of revulsion. She's trying to recollect herself from having her dirty secret spilled into the open.

"Who are you..?" Charles asks, despite knowing the answer already.

"I am Maleficent. I took you with me once upon a dream, and I still remember the salty taste of your lips. The Maleficent today is the end result of your betrayal to your sister, and she would like to bestow a gift – two in fact, out of generosity – in honour of your sweet Aurora."

She walks up to the cradle.

"Now you shall listen well," she goes; "to spare Aurora a whole lifetime of living, I will cut her life short. On her 20th birthday, when the sun sets, she will die. It will be as if she is elderly, lying on her deathbed, her last breaths rattling in and out, before her heart expires. Forever."

Odette is sobbing already – she clutches Aurora, cradling her beloved baby.

"And to make sure you don't cheat yourself out of grief – Odette, my noble sister, I curse your womb to infertility; may you never bear another child, as long as you live."

(a nerve is touched)

"SEIZE THAT INFERNAL CREATURE!" King Charles points at Maleficent, and the royal guards lunge at her.

She blasts them away with an arm's swoop, and they tumble down from a gale of electrified wind.

"You will never touch me again, Charles," she goes, cackling with the same crazed laughter of that time, before she blasts herself (and Diaval) out a window in a swirl of charcoal, leaving the royal halls without firelight.