I kept running throught the endless halls in a daze, my breath ragged, my mind still screaming it's real , my life is real, I yanked open every door I came across desperate to find an exit, a way- any way to escape this twisted place. Then I opened a heavy iron, door and froze.
The room was dark, cold and eerily silent. A wave of dread washed over me. Just a few steps ahead, a massive crater opened up in the ground like a wound, and at the bottom were skulls and skeletal remains- dozens of them-scattered lifellessly. My heart skipped a beat. This wasn't some illusion. It was a nightmare carved into reality.
I staggered back in horror, my feet fumbling beneath me. That's when it happened I slipped. A loose pebble rolled beneath my shoe, and I teetered backward, the gaping pit looming behind me.
Panic exploded in my chest I was going to fall.
But just as the void seemed ready to swallow me whole, an arm wrapped tightly around my waist and yanked me back with force. I gasped ready, clinging to whoever had pulled me.
"Whoa there," a familiar voice said beside me.
I turned my head in disbelief, it was Jason. He was smiling, as if we weren't standing inches away from death itself.
"Jason!" I cried as he pulled me back from the edge.
"Hey," he said breathless. "I'm glad to see you're back home, safe and sound."
"Home?" I repeated, stepping away from him.
"This isn't my home."
He sighed brushing off dust from his clothes.
"Let's leave here first," he said taking my hand and leading me away from the dark pit of bones.
I glanced back one last time. "What.... what was that place? I asked, dreading the answer. "Why were there so many bones?"
Jason didn't even flinch. "That's our torture chamber," he said flatly. "Where we keep the bones of our former prisoners."
My blood ran cold. prisoners? My legs felt weak, How many people had suffered and died in that room?
He smiled faintly, "Anyway, I'm really glad you're okay. The king was worried about you.
If you had stayed in that illusion any longer, you would've died for real."
I stopped in my tracks, anger boiling in my chest. "It wasn't an illusion!" I snapped. "it was my life-my family, my friends, my everything! And I don't care what any of you say. I'm going home!"
I turned and started running again- but Jason was faster.
"Whoa, easy now," he muttered as he caught me and tossed me over his shoulder like a sack of flour.
"Let me go!" I kicked thrashed,screamed "Put
me down Jason!"
"Sorry," he said tightening his grip. "But I can't. You'll just run off again and get yourself killed- or worse."
He carried me, struggling and furious, through the dark stone halls until we entered a large, ominous chamber. And then..... I saw him.
The man from my dreams.
He stood tall, regal, his silver hair glowing in the torchlight. His eyes met mine- and they were filled with sadness.
"Still trying to run away from me, huh?" he said softly.
My heart twisted. There was a strange pain in my chest when I saw his eyes. I looked away quickly.
"Who are you people? let me go!" My voice cracked "I just want to go home"
He walked toward me slowly. "Serena" he said gently "this is your home. I know it's hard to accept now, but once your memories return..... everything will make sense"
"No!" I shouted.
"Jason" he called.
"Yes your highness?"
"Take her back to her room. Lock the door post a guard there- she must not leave again"
My eyes widened in shock. "You can't do that to me!"
He came closer, brushing a hand against my cheek. This is for your own good, Serena he whispered. "You'll understand soon."
"NO!" I screamed as Jason grabbed me again. "Don't touch me, let me go!"
I looked back tears spilling down my face, and saw him watching me. The sadness in his eyes were deeper now... Like he didn't want to do this- but he chose to anyway.
Jason carried me into the room I first woke up In and gently set me down.
"I'm sorry" he whispered.
Then the door slammed shut.
Locked
"No! Please let me out!" I pounded on the door. Let me go! Please-please- I want to go home!
But no one answered.
And finally, I sank to the floor, sobbing.
The tears wouldn't stop.
They screamed down my face like a storm that wouldn't end. Every sob shook my chest harder than the last, as memories of my mom, Lucien, my dad- Julie- flashed through my mind like ghosts I could no longer touch.
I was scared.
No, I was broken.
What if I never saw them again?, what if I never felt my mother's warm hugs, heard lucien's teasing laugh, or sat through Julie's endless chatters again? What if that life was gone forever?
But the worst part
The part that truly shattered me....
What if they were right?
What if none of it was ever real,
What if I had been living a lie all along- wrapped in an illusion, dreaming a life that never existed?
If that were true....
Then there was nothing to go back to.
No home.
No family.
No past.
Just emptiness.
And that thought-
That one, cruel, devastating thought-
Was what finally broke me.
I curled up on the stone cold floor, sobbing into the silence.
I didn't know who I was anymore.
And worst of all....I didn't know what was real.
As I kept sobbing, feeling like my world was collapsing piece by piece, then suddenly heard a farmiliar voice- gentle warm and impossibly real.
"Clara...." the voice called softly
I froze. My breath hitched.
I turned around slowly, barely daring to believe it-
And there he was.
Lucien.
standing right there in front of me.
In that instant, all the pain, the fear, the heart break I'd been drowning in just moments ago vanished. I ran to him without thinking, the tears pouring even harder, but this time from something else-relief.
He caught me in his arms and held me tightly, like he'd never let me go again.
"Lucien," I choked out, my voice cracking.
"It's okay, Clara," he whispered, running his hand through my hair. "I'm here now I've got you."
And I broke again- but this time, in his arms.