The Modern Fairy Tale Town Book 2: The Price of Magic

Chapter 6: The Crocodile

The next morning in Storybrooke came rather quickly for the Gold residence. Ben stepped out of his room, rubbing his eye before he walked over to the door to the guest room and poked his head into the door, trying to be quiet and stealthy. The door creaked a bit, though inside, Mal was sleeping soundly before Ben then nodded and he gently shut the door to let her stay asleep so that he wouldn't disturb her. He then yawned and went over to the kitchen before flinching a bit once he saw that his mother was already up and in there, seeming to be sitting and waiting for something.

"Ben?" Belle greeted softly and wearily. "I didn't hear you get up."

"I didn't hear you get up either..." Ben said softly. "I woke up before my alarm."

Belle nodded before her maternal instincts told her that something was eating her son up deep inside somehow. "...Benny, what's wrong?" she then asked.

"Nothing... It's okay..." Ben said before he walked over and decided to sit with his mother. "Well... Something, I guess."

"Care to share?" Belle asked her son delicately.

"Well... I was just thinking... Especially since I'm the son of Rumplestiltskin..." Ben started to say.

"Oh, Ben. You're not worried that your father will go back to the way he used to be, are you?" Belle asked, almost as though she could feel the same feeling.

"What? No! Nothing like that..." Ben replied with a sheepish chuckle as he shook his head before sighing and trying to explain himself to her. "I guess... I'm just thinking about... Well... The other descendants."

"Oh?" Belle asked. "Like your friend Mal?"

"Yeah... She's the daughter of Maleficent... Ever since Day 1, people have been judging her as bad news, but maybe there's more to her than that," Ben replied softly. "I just feel like the descendants of the villains in The Enchanted Forest should be given a chance at a better life. Every time I see them or run into them in the hallway, I feel like they've been abandoned."

"Well... It isn't easy... With the children of our sworn enemies living among us, Benjamin." Belle replied gently.

"I know and I understand, but I feel like they deserve a chance. Besides, not everybody's like their parents," Ben defended. "Like... You found the man behind the beast in Dad even though he was once known as The Dark One... You guys had me... You believed that true love could break his curse."

"Yes, well, that didn't work out too well for me..." Belle replied softly as she sighed. "He threw me in the dungeon after I tried to kiss him to bring him back to his old self... All because I listened to a rather dark and greedy woman."

"Well, Mom, that was in the past and you should learn to let the past go, even if it hurts," Ben then said. "I think I know what I have to do for the descendants of Storybrooke. I'm going to try to befriend and help out the villain kids in this town so that they don't have to follow their parents' paths. They told us that everything was waiting for us and that everything was set in stone, but now I feel like they need a different ending. Sometimes you just have to find stuff like that on your own."

Belle looked a little thoughtful, but still a bit unsure.

"I just think that it might be good for everybody, but I'll take it one step at a time with the others, especially since we don't know who Jay or Carlos' parents are yet when they thought they were on the son of Baron and Baroness von Hellman or Abdel Shahryār. Besides... Abdel is a lot more inferior than Dad based on our cursed memories."

"...And who was he?" Belle then asked about Jay's alleged father in Storybrooke who actually never existed in The Enchanted Forest.

"Supposedly he runs a more rundown shop compared to Dad's and he would have Jay go out and steal things for him to compete with Dad's business," Ben explained. "The point is, I'm going to help them. Jay, Carlos, Mal, and since she was my best friend since first grade, Evie too."