Hours ago…
Abi gasped as she woke up on a dusty floor in a very cold and dark room, or at least that was what she thought.
The last thing she remembered was having a conversation with Kelly before she was suddenly pulled behind a thick curtain near the veranda before she suddenly lost consciousness.
When Abi gained consciousness again, she thought that she was having a nightmare. The entire room was dark and even though her eyes were open, she could see nothing. Everything was pitch black that she couldn’t even see her own hands!
Abi started to panic. Her breath became shallow and her heart sped up in fear. Where was she? Where was Kelly? What was going on? How was she going to get out of here?! Abi forced herself to calm down and think. She needed a clear mind to be able to get out of here.
She put her hands down on the ground as she tried to get up and found that she was lying on bare ground – not tiles or wood or concrete – just plain dirt. Was she inside a cave or something? She crawled until she hit a wall. She ran her hands along the wall and noticed that they were made of bricks which meant that this place was somehow built by men.
As the thought crossed her mind, Abi started to think that she may be in a dungeon under the palace. That was very possible because of the man-made wall built out of bricks. This wasn’t a natural thing so she couldn’t be in some cave. Dungeon seemed more plausible considering the fact that she was just inside a palace before she woke up in this place.
“H-hello?” Abi said out loud and when she heard her echo, this gave her more evidence that she might really be inside a dungeon.
Abi started to tremble despite her resolve to keep calm. Was this real? Was she really inside a dungeon?
Abi prayed and hoped that this was just a dream, a nightmare she could escape from if she just woke up.
Forcing herself to think that this was just a nightmare, Abi slowly stood up. She kept her hand on the wall as she took a few steps forward. However, she had only taken half a dozen steps when, on the last step, she heard the sound of metal hitting against metal. Abi jumped backwards as soon as she heard it but not before she felt something sharp cut her thigh.
“Ahh!” she yelped and she felt something warm flowing down her leg soon after. She knew that the liquid flowing down her leg was her own blood.
Abi was terrified and her knees began to weaken. She had a hunch that if she walked any further, she might die. Who knew what else was out there! Abi stood frozen as she pressed her back to the wall, close to where she woke up from, and tears began to fall from her eyes.
Why? Why was this happening to her? What was going on? Why was she here?
As she stood there, feeling the pain from her wound, she realized this was real. She wasn’t dreaming.
“Hello?!” Abi forced herself to shout.
“Can anyone hear me? Help!!” she yelled again and again but no one answered; only her echo answered her desperate calls.
Was she going to die here? Was this the end?
Abi shook her head to desperately rid herself of those thoughts. She didn’t want to die yet, not in a place like this. She hadn’t said goodbye to her family, Kelly or Alex. Her wishes were still unfulfilled. She still had so many things left to do, to experience. How did things end up like this? What was she doing in this place?
Abi didn’t know why but in that moment of despair, Alex’s words suddenly rang in her head.
‘This is just a little taste of hell, Abigail. I told you, you can’t handle it.’
As those words echoed in her head, Abi felt her heart tear apart. She remembered Alex’s face so clearly in her mind when he warned her and a realization dawned on her. Did this incident have something to do with Alex?
As she thought about it, she couldn’t help but think that this incident might be related to him. The black dragons in the courtyard looked very similar to the dragon tattoo on his back. She also had a strange feeling of deja vu the instant she set foot in this country. This feeling reminded her of the cold aura that surrounded Alex like a shield. Of course she had shrugged it off at the start as just her imagination running wild but she couldn’t shake this feeling now, especially the moment she saw those black dragons.
She didn’t know how this place was connected to Alex. She really was clueless when it came to him. All she knew was that if this was the hell Alex was talking about, could she really allow herself to crumble down now? Could she really not handle this? Could she afford to do nothing but wait and die here? Was this the end? Was she really naïve in thinking that she could handle the hell Alex was talking about?
Abi’s tears stopped falling.
“No, I can’t die here. This hell, I can handle this! I will get out of here!” she told herself.
She would not be a helpless little lamb just meekly walking towards the slaughterhouse. She was going to fight this and get out of here! If this was a part of Alex’s hell, Abi was determined to face this head on and live. No matter what the result, no matter what was waiting for her, she would fight. That was the only choice she had left.
After all, she was the one who jumped into his life. She had to show him that she could handle being part of his world.
