I struggled to break free from the man restraining me, but it was no use. The harder I fought him, the more he tightened his death grip.
As the man in front of us removed the key from the secret lock, another person stepped to his side and helped him push the wall inward, revealing a private entrance hidden beneath the town.
“What the fuck is this place?”
Dead silence.
We stepped into a cramped passage that smelled like mildew, salt, and earth. No one even breathed as we rounded a corner, then another.
I tilted my head to the side to look at the stone walls with iron lanterns built into them, the dim light casting a soft glow. Symbols etched into the walls. They looked like markings you would see in a Masonic temple.
Except these were scary.
Skulls with knives driven into the bone. Knight helmets with blank faces and the eyes of a demon. A knight in full armor holding the Scales of Justice. The weight was unbalanced, dipping to one side with a giant serpent holding it down, slithering up the arm of the knight.
A few minutes passed before the man in front of us opened a door. We stepped into a massive room with a high ceiling that seemed impossible this far underground.
My captor set me down, and I staggered to the side, forcing me to grab his arm before I fell on the hard floor. He moved behind me, fisted my hair in their hand. Straight ahead, two thrones sat atop a dais. A man dressed in a long black cloak sat on one of the thrones, a hood covering his face.
I blinked a few times to clear the sleep from my eyes. Men in black cloaks hid under their hoods. The man before me rose from the throne, tall and imposing, with his cloak fanning out around his ankles.
I stared up at him, attempting a glance at his face, but his hood covered his eyes. He stepped off the dais and moved in front of me. The man behind me forced my head down, holding my hair.
“What do you want from me?” I asked, my voice sounding distant.
Two more robed men surrounded us, creating a circle to trap me inside. My breath caught in my throat. With my heart hammering out of my chest, I could hardly function, on the verge of a panic attack.
Were these men going to kill me?
Rape me?
Torture me?
I had no fucking clue.
“You brought me here,” I muttered. “What do you want? What is this place?”
No one spoke.
Was this all a dream?
Wake up, Alex.
I dug my fingernails into my forearm, clawing at my skin to help me wake up.
This had to be a dream.
A new version of hell.
I raked my fingernails up and down my vein, trying to free myself from this prison. “Wake up, wake up,” I whispered, repeating the same motion.
Why wasn’t it working?
Not real.
Not real.
Wake up, dammit.