Her sneakers made no noise as she walked out of the platform and up the stairs. The robed individuals downstairs behind her all continued to cry out the name “Dawne” in misery.

Who the fuck is Dawn? Salem’s face scrunched up in confusion.

The stairs were illuminated by more torches and at the top of the stairs was a door left ajar. Possibly by the first group that ran out. Everything surrounding her in this basement seemed straight out of a fantasy novel. The stone-like walls and stairs, the torches...

“Tsk.” Salem kissed her teeth before pushing the door open. A blinding light burst forth as the door opened wider, but what greeted her was an everlasting corridor. The floor was marbled and the pillars supporting the roof were sculpted intricately. It reminded her of the temples she once saw on her summer high school trip to Rome.

“Where on earth am I?” She mumbled as she took in her surroundings. There was no such temple anywhere in Texas that she knew of. The corridor was long, but the pillars supporting it showed her the outside. This was clearly a garden and not the entrance/exit to this dream realm.

With a heavy sigh, Salem began her sprint for the double doors on the other end of the corridor.

In seconds, she was in front of the new double door. Thanks to her history of track and field, this short sprint was nothing: even in her dreams. But as she was about to open the door, the doors burst open first.

“Oof!”

Salem fell back and landed on her butt at the abrupt motion. On the ground, she looked up to see who had opened the door. A very attractive person stood before her. They had long platinum blonde hair and gold eyes. Even from the floor, Salem could tell they were taller than her. She could not pinpoint a gender and could only stare dumbfounded by their aura. They wore a similar robe to what the people in the basement area wore, only far more intricate. There were blue embroidery and gold sashes all over the robe. This person also wore a head ornament similar to that of the Catholic Pope. Their hands were clasped in a prayer motion as they looked down at Salem in curiosity.

It was when she noticed the people behind this androgynous beauty glaring at her in disgust, did she come back to her senses.

“Here comes another one,” she grumbled underneath her breath. She rolled her eyes as she stood up and dusted herself off. It was then she registered the pain from falling flat on her butt.

“She is not a demon… but we cannot have the saintess of the temple of Dawne be someone with such an… ominous skin color.”

If not for the blatant insult, Salem would have turned to mush at their voice.

She immediately took a few steps away from them and the entourage of what she could now see were knights.

Salem’s glare could kill as the knights behind the androgynous person flinched. In fact, they seemed to be trembling. The only one not intimidated, remained this beautiful person.

“Even without a mana gauge, I can tell your magical power is endless. Your unrestrained aura is intense. As one would expect for a summoned one. We will just use your powers to try the summoning again.” They had a mocking grin on their face as they inspected Salem up and down.

“Excuse me?” Salem scoffed, “What the fuck have you been talking about?”

The androgynous Pope-like figure unclasped their hands and touched their chin gingerly.

“No need to explain ourselves to a power source.”

Salem flinched, not because of the comment, but the gold particles that seemed to rise around them. She could only gasp in shock at the beauty before realizing this was an act meant to harm her.

Salem double-checked that she could feel her duffle bag on her back, the sneakers on her feet, and never has she ever been more thankful to be wearing a sports bra underneath her t-shirt and leggings. Salem was prepared to sprint for her life, even if it meant crossing the garden to her left and jumping the wall. She did it before in school with the metal fences, she could and would do it now with a stone wall.

Determined, Salem narrowed her eyes once again before taking one step back, then another, and one more, before spinning around and sprinting to the edge of the garden.

Though she could no longer see them, Salem was certain they were not prepared for speed and actions as she heard the urgency in the voice that shouted: “Capture her! Alive!”

Salem's bag hit her back in rhythm as she ran from the marble building to the grassy field. The field offered no resistance as she ran and she could see the wall coming closer.

For a brief moment, she thought she caught a glimpse of her twists, but it must have been a trick of the light since her twists were a deep black with wine highlights, not white silver. She was natural but often put on wigs for work when she didn't want to do a silk press or waste a wash day. Salem looked down at her hands briefly. Thankfully she had removed her acrylic nails days ago. The heavy panting she was doing, the feeling of her bag hitting her back, the wind whipping past her face, the smell of her sweat and the grass, and the strain in her thighs and calves all told Salem everything she needed to know.

This was not a dream.

This was not Earth.

But this was reality.

The wall was a handful of feet before her. The closer she got to it, the more details she could point out. Vines were intricately and randomly grown along the wall, high above at the top of the wall she could easily spot the metal railings that had large arrow-like rods in every other space. If she messed around with her climb, she could easily impale herself. The knights who were chasing her were literally eating her dust. They were slow, probably due to the heavy-looking armor. Confidence soared through all the muscles in Salem’s body at that realization. Her heart pumped blood faster and faster as her legs stomped through the large open field closing in on the wall she was aiming for.

When she had finally reached a close enough destination to perform a jump, in a split second Salem crouched down ready to pounce on the wall to make her climb. This of course was halted when she felt a chill crawl down her spine. Salem did not even have time to be shocked or turn around at the voice behind her. She could definitely still hear the lagging behind knight-like figures far off, but how this voice had gotten right behind her, she had no clue.

“You're fast, summoned one. If not for your skin, you’d make an excellent Holy Maiden candidate. Your reflexes and instincts are phenomenal... Such a shame.”

With those words, the beautiful being grabbed Salem’s neck from behind and lifted her up. She was spun away from the wall and forced to face the oncoming crowd of knights and the blaring afternoon sun with squinted eyes. Her feet dangled in the air and her body twisted in protest even as she hung mid-air. The beauty was far taller than she had noticed at first and stronger. Salem’s entire body began to twist and her hands found their way to her neck to try and free herself only to fail.

“Ugh!” Salem struggled in their grip and coughed as she felt her airways being constricted. The last thing she saw was the other pale hand of the Pope-like figure covering her eyes.

Their last words were, “Sleep.”