When Winter woke she found herself in a freezing, damp cell. It was dark, but her eyes had plenty of time to adjust. Winter's head was pounding relentlessly. She attempted to reorient herself, recalling the last events she remembered. The conference room, the tiny woman named Endora Della, and the letter. She rose her fingers to her temple but felt them yank on something. Winter looked down and noticed her hands were encased in metal and chained to the wall. She tried moving her fingers, but the her hands were fists and the space was too tight for her to move them. Winter looked around, "Where am I?" It looked like what she imagined the detention dungeon to look like. The cells across from her were unkempt and uninhabited. "Hello?" she called and it echoed throughout the space. No response. Winter's eyes skipped over her surroundings, absorbing every detail she could. She realized that there was not a single window. The area seemed to be underground, isolated. Not many students were kept here, or at least not in the area Winter was being kept. "The dungeon is probably much bigger than this. There's no way I am the only prisoner." She looked around. "But why was I thrown here? Because I got angry?" Winter scoffed out loud, "That's not why." She looked at her bound hands. "It's because of whatever called out."
She slumped against the wall. The feeling of eyes watching her never dulled. Winter made herself look weak, defeated. A few moments later Endora Della unlocked her cell and walked in. "How are you feeling?" Winter kept her head down and didn't respond. Della smiled coolly, "I know you are fine. The bindings on your hands monitor how well your body is functioning." Winter looked up, her face unreadable, "Why am I here?" Della studied her for a moment, "You still don't know?" Winter said nothing. Della reached down and grabbed Winter's arm. She pulled out a syringe and Winter smiled, "Drugging me?" Della shook the syringe showing there was nothing inside and Winter understood, "Why do you need my blood? I thought you said this metal around my hands tells you everything." She pressed the needle into her vein, Winter did not flinch. Della rose her eyebrows as she mocked, "Your mother was right about you being intuitive, I see." Winter tried her hardest to keep from scowling as Della went on, "What was it she called you? Her little detective." Winter held her tongue as Della finished getting the blood sample. She removed the needle from Winter's vein and tapped on the casing, "Don't worry. You'll be released soon." Winter scoffed.
Alone again, Winter let her mind race. "What was screaming inside of me before? Why did Della take a sample of my blood?" Instinctively, she tried to flex her fingers and then was reminded of the metal casings around her hands. "Why are my hands bound?" She sighed and tried to organize her thoughts, "There are multiple areas and probably different floors of this underground detention dungeon." She scanned her surroundings again. "I'm by myself in this area. Why? Because I am different somehow from the other prisoners." She remembered how her prior knowledge of the dungeon came to be and wondered how Jax ended up getting thrown in it. "It was because he got angry. But did the same thing happen to him? Is this what he meant?" She wondered how long he had to stay and if it was anything like where she was now.
Minutes turned to hours, hours turned to days, and days turned to weeks. Winter couldn't tell how much time had really passed because there were no clocks or windows. All she knew was that they were keeping her strong by feeding her two big meals a day and a few snacks. Her meals were sporadic in order to keep her unbalanced. Della came in occasionally to draw more blood samples.
Winter sat silently, creating a plan to escape the dungeon when Della came into her cell. "Must you really take more of my blood?" Della walked closer to Winter, "Don't tell me, my blood is some kind of cure to an extremely lethal disease I am unaware of?" Della pulled out the keys and removed the heavy blocks of metal around Winter's hands. Winter stared at her hands. She tried flexing them and they began to tingle from disuse. Della grabbed Winter's arm. Della's ebony eyes were stern as she said, "This doesn't come off, so don't bother trying." Winter looked down at the metal bracelet flushed with tints of purple, blue, gold and silver. She stood up and walked toward the cell door, "I'm being let out?" Della nodded, "Precisely. The stairs are on the hall to your left." Winter laughed inside, thinking that it was foolish she wasn't being blindfolded. She browsed the dungeon to her heart's content before making it to the staircase. She stood there for a moment longer, taking in the fact that the spiral staircase went both up and down. Della came up behind her, "The exit is up. Bruno will escort you." Winter recognized him as the younger looking man that accompanied Della in the conference room. Winter ascended the spiral staircase with Bruno in tow. The higher she got, the lighter she felt. At the top of the staircase was a door, Winter opened it. She was back in room five sixty seven. Bruno grunted behind her, a reminder to keep moving. She didn't have much time to study it but she gathered what she could. Winter made it out of the conference room and the door shut loudly behind her. She turned around staring at the black door covered in markings, inscribing it in her memory. After a few moments, she began walking to her friends.
She didn't know the time or what day it was but she meandered through the halls towards the general direction of her classroom. Suddenly, she felt that thing inside her begin to call out to her again. A single word came to her mind. Magic.