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I walked down the stone steps before I could think better of it and turn and run screaming into the night.

My heels clicked against the stone loudly the whole way down. I counted the steps and there were only fifteen of them.

I held my palm up high as I spun around in a circle, searching and scanning the space. The walls down here were brick and surprisingly not covered in dirt and grime like the room I'd just left had been. The walls looked to have been whitewashed recently, they were white and a stark contrast to the darkness down here and the stone floor.

The room was entirely empty and across the space there was another open doorway that led to darkness.

This seemed familiar to me, as if I'd been here before.

He was close, so, so very close, I could sense him.

Just through that doorway.

I hoped he was real, otherwise this all had been for nothing.

My shoes clacked against the stone as I walked briskly across the floor, and without hesitating, through the open doorway.

There he was, but he looked different this time. His body had been beaten and covered in cuts and bruises that hadn't been there in the dream. His face was swollen almost beyond recognition.

And his hair...

His long, red hair that had been so nasty looking in the dream that it had almost looked brown and was covered in a messy tangle of knots that had hung all the way down to his hips, was now gone. It looked to have been shorn away sloppily, and was now cut down closely to his skull with chunks missing and bald patches all over. His beard had been cut away too and there were bloody gashes all over his chin and swollen cheeks.

Had he been like this the whole time, but I'd not been able to see it in the dream?

"Romero?" I called out in a loud whisper. "Please tell me you didn't die on me."

I couldn't tell if his chest was rising and falling from here. I took a step closer to check his pulse when his head jerked forward and up, the chains around him rattling loudly.

His eyes snapped open and he whispered, "You. You came back."

Tears flooded my eyes as I jerked my head in a nod.

"I swore to you that I would, and I always keep my promises."

His lips moved slightly in what I imagined was supposed to be a smile, but looked more like something out of a horror movie with his face being beaten to shit and covered in cuts and blood.

He was alive. And that was all that mattered to me.

Chapter Nineteen

My Son Was Stabbed?

"You look like shit."

His body racked with silent laughter. The whole thing looked painful, and I told myself I wasn't going to make him laugh again until we got out of here and he'd been healed as much as possible.

"Have you looked in the mirror lately?" he rasped out. "You aren't looking so hot yourself."

I walked over to one of the torches on the wall and touched the flame to it. It lit to life brightly and I was able to close my palm again to snuff out the flame in my hand. I wasn't sure how much of my energy I would need to use for magical purposes to get us out of here, and I wasn't taking any chances.

I walked right up to the bars on his cell and placed both my palms against the bars. I closed my eyes and whispered words that would unlock the door. The lock on the door exploded and the door swung open. Bingo, baby.

I slid the open robe from my shoulders and shrugged it off. The naked man before me needed it more than I did. I looked down at my dress and saw what he did, and why he thought I didn't look so hot myself.

At the beginning of the night my dress had started out being white in color, and it's safe to say that it no longer remained that way. It had been stained red by the blood that had covered my body when I'd slipped it on. The blood covering my skin had stuck to me and dried, but now flaked off all over the place. My hair was still a wet mess stuck to the back of my head and the skin on my face felt tight all over, so I knew the blood was dried and crusted all over my face as well, likely flaking off in places just like the rest of my skin.

I probably looked a lot like how Carrie did after she had that bucket of pig’s blood dumped all over her. Only difference was, I didn't have a crown, and I'd willingly signed up for this shit.