Chapter Two

Samara

I fell asleep, hoping for a pleasant dream, but I should have known better.

When I opened my eyes, I was surrounded by walls made of jagged red rock, and the sound of two men in a heated dispute.

Holding off on the surroundings for a moment, I walked toward the two men. They were standing inches away from each other. One chained to a wall, his wrist holding him up as his feet just barely skidded the stone floor beneath him. The other stood free, hands behind his back as he rubbed his thumbs across the smooth part of his knuckles.

I watched the standing man curiously. He was clearly agitated but doing his best to hide this from his prisoner. He stood in front of his captive, lean and sinewy—his muscles clearly defined as they twitched beneath his fair skin within his sleeveless tunic. His blonde, shaggy hair gave him a boyish appearance, but his gray eyes were as hard and unmoving as the stone around them.

The man’s eyes revealed his frustration, but his thin lips showed sorrow.

How interesting…

I felt something looking at this man, but what I could not say.

“How could you still hold allegiance to her!?” His voice was much deeper and gravelly than I expected. “She’s GONE!”

He was clearly losing his cool, but within seconds, he realized this, and managed to find some sort of calm just before his prisoner spoke.

The man in chains stared at his captor fearlessly—a stone cold glare scrunching up his handsome features. “I have no information that will be of use to you.”

This seemed to break something inside of the standing man, and before anything more could be said, he snapped his fingers and in ran two creatures—seemingly made of stone—with giant wooden buckets. The contents of it sloshing around, but never spilling.

The standing man walked a few feet away then nodded his head at the creatures. With the signal made, the stone men dumped the contents of the bucket all over the prisoner. From what I could tell it was water, and freezing water at that. The man in chains shivered compulsively, gritting his teeth as he tried to stop the involuntary shaking of his body.

“Now.” The standing man said from the doorway.

In the entranceway was a shadow of a person. “As you wish.” I could sense a smile in her voice, but I could not see her face. What I could see, though, was that she seemed to blow a kiss into the room, and the entire area got colder. The water that now pooled on the floor beneath the prisoner’s hanging feet were ice, and every living being in the room—except myself—could see their breath.

The man was about to walk out, but one look at the shivering captive made him speed across the room, right up to the prisoner’s face. He whispered, feverishly. “You will tell me, or so help me, the next time I return won’t be so gentle.”

With that, he left, all his lackeys following dutifully.

I clutched my chest for a moment, my heart pounding sadly for this stranger. I stepped right in front of my fuming mystery man—watching him for a long while as I took in his appearance. He was sopping wet, making his clothes stick to his muscular chest, and his purplish brown mohawk-like hair flop over onto his skull. But even though he must have felt frozen within this icy chamber, he seemed to be reheating quickly as steam appeared to be floating off his dark olive skin.

“Well, that’s curious.” I muttered to myself.

I leaned in a little closer, taking a better look at his face. His amber eyes were downcast, and that perpetual scowl was right where I left it last. He really never seemed to smile—not that he was in a situation where he should be smiling.

“Who are you?” I asked him. “Why are you here? I mean, obviously, it’s for some sort of intelligence, but how could whatever you know ever warrant this sort of malevolence?”

Of course, he didn’t answer me. That would make sating my curiosity much too easy. As usual, no one could hear or see me, which meant I needed to figure out this mystery on my own. With one final look at my handsome stranger, I turned away from him—looking for anything that could yield clues to his whereabouts. But as I stared at the red rocks that surrounded us, I knew this was no place familiar.

I turned towards the doorway, but all I could see was blackness, and even if I wanted to, I could not go through the entrance. It would only lead me right back to this roughly carved out prison. Which, in a way, made sense. Since the person I was supposed to help was confined to this room, so were my visions.

I sighed and twisted back around to the man when nothing seemed to jog my memory. “Where are you?”

At my question, he seemed to look right at me. His handsome features nose-to-nose with mine. My breath caught at his amber gaze, but then, he spoke, and I realized we were no longer alone.

“Oh, goodie.” His velvety voice leaden with distaste. “You’re back, you traitorous swine!” he spat at the new stranger’s face, who was able to easily maneuver out of reach.

He was a noodle-looking man with a long face and limbs to match. His face was sunken, and he appeared to be fearful and regretful all at once. He held a stone bowl of soup in his hands, stretching his arms out towards the prisoner like it was a peace offering.

His eyes were shifting in paranoia as he spoke. “I-I’m sssssorry.” He told the man in chains. “I had no choice. He would have crushed me, or worssse.”

“Oh, yeah? And what do you think he’s doing with me? Having a spa day?” The stranger continued to do what he seemed to do best: fume.

“L-look,” The thin man said, appearing more unnerved by the second. “Thisss is all I can do for you. It’ll keep your ssssstrength up for the time being.”

The prisoner looked at the dish skeptically as if it was just another trick.

“A-are you going to take it or not? I’m not even ssssupposed to be here, and once I leave, I’m never coming back.”

The man in chains seemed to hate himself as he nodded and allowed the thin man to feed him the steaming bowl of soup. The mystery man seemed to have no problems gulping down what appeared to be scalding liquid but had issues with its freezing counterpart.

“Hmm…” I murmured, turning my attention to the new stranger in the room. I watched him closely, examining his face. “Well, I certainly haven’t seen you here before, but… you do look awfully familiar.” I thought on this for a moment, my expression brightening once it hit me. “I think I’ve seen you around town! But where…”

Before I could conclude anything else, I felt the ground shake from under me just as I couldn’t breathe.