2: Is This Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy?

The sun was pounding in my face when I woke up and it wasn’t the only thing pounding. My head was just cracking open. I blinked one eye open, trying to get my contacts situated. I was lying face down on a sandy dune. I had sand crusted to the side of my face and some in my mouth. I tried to spit it out but sand is very determined stuff. I raised myself up on my elbow and coughed up some creek water.

“That’s disgusting,” I spat. I turned over and sat up, “Where the hell am I?”

I was on a beach. I could smell the salt in the water. The sand was white and very painful to look at. The sea was beautiful though. Nothing but blue as far as the eye could see. The only problem was that I was on a freaking beach! The creek I had fallen into was in a land locked state!

There was a jungle behind me and on the beach with me were palm trees. I had never seen a palm tree. A crab scampered up to me and snapped his claws.

“I must be dead,” I looked around again. “This is heaven.”

However, my head was pounding like a marching band and in heaven you don’t feel pain.

Somewhere in the distance, I heard marching – or at least I thought it was marching. Then I saw something shining in the distance – something big. And it was moving fast towards me. At first, I thought maybe it was angels to take me to heaven. Then I realized that it was knights – like people in aluminum armor.

They stopped in front of me and boomed, “Who are you?”

“Ur…Hadley?” I coughed due to a little piece of sand.

“Urhadley where do you hail?”

“What?”

Another knight pointed a spear at me, “Do not play dumb hag?”

“I am from Springfield!” I yelped.

They all looked at each other, “She is patronizing us, Captain.”

“No, I am not!”

The one smacked me, “Do not respect the royal army?”

“What are you talking about?” I grabbed my now bleeding eyebrow.

The Captain beckoned for two knights to seize me. They grabbed my shoulders and pulled me to my feet. They ripped my bag off my back.

“Sir, she is a witch!” one announced pulling out the two bottles of strawberry margarita.

I rolled my eyes. Of course, they didn’t break. And of course, the labels had gotten washed away.

“I’m not a witch! They don’t exist!” I announced.

They pulled out my calculus book and flipped through it, “Sir, her tongue lies! She has a book of spells!”

“That is a math book!”

“Hush witch!” Captain ordered. “Tie her up! We take her to the king!”

“What kind of LARPing is this?” I asked.

They gagged me, “She is trying to curse us!”

They bound my hands in front of me and dragged me to the back of the marching line. Where there were three more prisoners tired and leashed up like dogs. They were also dressed weird. One had a long, brown leather duster on with black pants on and black boots on. The bigger one had a very real looking wooden leg, a tore up white shirt with suspenders on, and black pants. The very small one just had red vest on with tore up tan pants and little slippers on and red bandanna tied around his head.

I am in some sort of sex slave thing.

I got jerked to walk and I fell in line with the ‘prisoners.’

“Look boys we have a witch in our midst,” the leather jacket one whispered. “We may be saved yet.”

I started grumbling about how I am not a witch and did NOT want to participate in this weird sex thing.

“Here love,” he leaned over and grabbed the gag with his teeth.

I yelped and pulled away. The gag fell away to around my neck.

“Now say some sort of curse to free us,” the small one whispered.

“Didn’t you hear me say I am not a witch??” I hissed.

“There is no reason to hide if from us, love, we are not anti-witch,” the leather one said.

I shifted my hands around, “What are y’all supposed to be? Pirates?”

“Lady you are in the presence of Captain Skylar!” the small one exclaimed.

The leather one beamed proudly. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, “A pirate captain that got himself caught? You really shoot high in whatever sick, twisted game you are playing.”

“Witch, you do not play with the king!” the big one hissed. “You only get executed.”

“You better hurry up with whatever magic you plan to use, witch,” Skylar hissed in my ear, “because all witches get executed upon arrival.”

I rolled my eyes, “If I play along, will y’all let me go?”

“Oh honey, we are not in charge of that.”

I narrowed my eyes, “I am so done with whatever role play sex game this is!” I jerked on the tether without really believing that that would work, but the knight jerked backwards and let go of the rope. I stood there for a while in amazement.

Then I took off running through the jungle. I was gravely disappointed by the jungle. It always looked so easy to run through in the movies, but this crap was thick! I got slapped in the face with a giant leaf and my legs got tangled up in some sort of vine bush. Behind me I heard fighting and yelling, which was motivation to keep moving. I skidded down a ravine – and stayed upright to my surprise. I thanked my favorite pair of boots. Finally, I came to a spot where the botany was less dense. At first, I thought I was a good thing but the more I thought about it…I was exposed here.

As I was running full speed, my hands got pulled between my legs and I did a flip in the air and landed on my back. All the air blew out from my lungs and I could feel myself dying. A knight appeared over me without his helmet on. He had a beard which was filled with blood from his gapping lip.

“Winch!” he raised his sword.

“Stop!” the captain yelled. “The king will want to see her.”

“Why? She is a witch!” the knight snarled.

The captain looked down at me, “You know what he will want.”

They dragged me to my feet and led back to the beach where the other three captives were laying on the ground. The big one’s arm was slashed up and the leather one eyebrow – which was pierced – was busted.

“Some pirates y’all are,” I muttered.

“Well, you could have gave us a heads up,” said Skylar getting to his feet.

A knight came back and put the gag back on my mouth.

Skylar looked at me with his blue eyes, “I will never forget how you ran off and left me and my crew, witch.” And with that he was gagged too.

We were tugged along in silence until the sun started setting. And not once did they break from character. I was really impressed by how committed they were and also a little scared. I thought maybe it would end when night fell, but no we kept going. My heart started speeding up. Where were we going? How long was I going to be stuck here? Was I going to die?

A big ship appeared before us. It towered over us and it was quite of ways out to sea. I stopped in my tracks, but the knight just jerked me forward so violently that I fell down in the sand. I climbed to my feet before I was dragged or something. There were a couple of life boats dragged up on the beach. They loaded us all into one with Skyler sitting across from me. He kept his glare at me all the while we were being rowed out to the humongous ship. By ship, I mean an old timey ship. With sails and cannons.

We were thrown into the…brig, I guess it would be called. It was damp and smelled of moldy vegetables. They tossed us all into one and tied our leashes to the bars. After they had gone back up deck, I ripped my gag off with my fingers and stretched my mouth. I stared around, there really wasn’t much here. I grabbed the bars and shook them. Then I kicked them. Nothing.

I looked back at the pirates, “You could help.”

They had gotten their gags off too and Skylar snorted, “Oh now, you want us to help you.”

“What you think you are going to live when we get to wherever we are going?” I kicked the bars again.

“There is no point in doing that,” the big one said.

“Tommy is right. These bars are made from the strongest metal,” Skylar looked around, “there will no escaping for in here.”

I narrowed my eyes at them, “I really thought pirates had more balls.”

They looked offended and confused, “You think we carry cannon balls with us.”

“What?” I asked. “No, never mind. That’s not what I meant.”

I leaned against the bars and closed my eyes. I bet I was just still drunk and I was imagining things. In the morning I would wake up and I would just be in some redneck’s basement – which is probably worse than this, but at least it would make sense. Then I remembered that I had left the candle lit in the bathroom at the retail store. I was probably going to get fired, which in all honesty, was fine by me because then I would be out of there.

Somewhere along the way I must have fallen asleep because the next moment knights were stomping below deck. Two of them jerked us out of the cell while two more stood guard with their swords drawn. After putting our gags back on, they led us up to the deck. It was night time, but there was so much black smoke coming from the lanterns that I couldn’t see the stars or the moon.

“The king is waiting,” someone barked from the harbor.

“Keep your pantaloons on!” a knight growled.

Someone grabbed me from behind and picked me up. I screamed and strained against my gag. I kicked my legs only to make contact with their armor. Then I was tossed overboard. I landed on the dock on my right side. Again, all the air was rushed out of my lungs. The pirates were thrown down too. I curled up in the fetal position to avoid being landed on.

“Was that necessary?” the same voice barked.

“You wanted them in a hurry.”

There was a grumble, “Load them in the cart.”

I was hoisted up and thrown over someone’s shoulder. Their big shoulder bone was right in my diaphragm, making it impossible to get a breath. Next, I was tossed down like a sack of potatoes. The pirates were already in the cart and I was laying on the big one. I rolled off of him and onto the smaller one who groaned in pain. I looked at him and I rolled my eyes. Then I army crawled to the front of the cart where there was nobody. There was a whole where the wood had rotted away. I placed my face to it.

A castle appeared. My eyes widened. It loomed over us and the trees. It had black towers on each side of the short part that were shaped like spikes shooting up into the night sky; so far that clouds hit the tips. There were black windows all over the top of the main part of the castle. They reflected the flickering flames of the torches that I couldn’t see due to the giant, black, stone wall surrounding the entire castle. When I strained for a better look, I could see dozens of knights perched on top of the castle with crossbows, waiting for a threat or any reason to shoot their powerful weapons.

Large gates were open to allow us passage through the wall. We disappeared into a tunnel that was about twenty feet in length; that was how think the walls were. The courtyard was covered in lushes grass and hedges. We kept making turns and I realized that we were in a maze. I swallowed, but couldn’t look away. Then we stopped. The cart tipped upward and dumped us out. I reached out to grab the side of the cart, but I just got a bunch of splinters from the rotten wood.

I fell out, feet first, on Skylar. My legs crumbled and I landed with my hands on his face. He grumbled and tried to wiggle out from under me. Again, I rolled my eyes and managed to get to my feet. We were outside of the castle steps which held a row of knights on either side. On top of the steps, there was a guy in a blood red cloak, a black leather vest with matching leather pants, he wore a white shirt under the vest, and a crown on his head. He stood up when he saw us get to our feet, I had to admit he was rather attractive, but I had a feeling he was total dick. He threw his glass of red wine – I hoped it was wine – over his shoulder, which shattered into a billon pieces.

He took off the crown, “I hate wearing this thing.” He placed it on the back of his throne and sauntered down to us. He had a smirk on his face and was looking at Skylar.

Skylar stood next to me meeting the king’s gaze. The king stopped in front of him and they both stood there looking at each other. The king had black eyes filled with hatred and his black hair was flittering in the slight breeze. Skylar’s blue eyes were also filled with hatred, but not as dark as the king’s. His shaggy brown hair was matted to his head by all the blood and sweat that was shed during the journey. Along with his eyebrow piercing he had two earrings in his ear. One was just a diamond stud and the other one was a hanging one with different color beads and a gold sunshine.

The king drew his sword and held it up to Skylar’s throat. The he drew it upward quickly. I closed my eyes because I didn’t want to see all the blood.

“There, let’s make this a bit more civilized,” someone said.

I opened my eyes and saw that Skylar’s gag had been cut away, but he was still alive.

“There is nothing civilized about you,” Skylar said through clenched teeth.

The king chuckled, taking off his cloak, and twirling his sword, “That is funny coming from a pirate.”

“Pirates drink rum not blood, at least.”

My stomach turned and almost upchucked.

The king threw his head back and laughed, revealing his pearly whites. Then got really close to Skylar, tossing his red cloak around him and tying it around Skylar’s neck, and hissed, “Where is your pirate queen? Oh wait, I stabbed her in her right eye! Or was it the left?”

Skylar threw his head forward and made contact with the king’s nose. All the knights drew their swords, but the king waved them off. He was still smiling.

“My father was way too easy on you miserable pirates!” he spat. “And look where it got him? In a grave six feet under. He is probably dust by now, but his broken heart still remains.”

“No I am sure you ate that too when you killed him,” Skylar said at the king’s back.

The king stopped mid step and twisted around on his heel, “That is a strong accusation, Captain.”

“My apologies, King,” Skylar spit at the king.

The king chuckled and walked back over to us, “You never learn, do you?”

There was a flash of the sword and the sickening sound of it sinking into flesh. The big pirate screamed into his gag and fell to his knees, with the king’s sword pierced in his heart. Alarm flashed across Skylar’s face, but only for a minute. The king put his boot to the pirate’s chest and pulled his sword of his beefy chest. The pirate fell to the ground on his back. Blood bubbled out of the hole in his chest and his gag was turning red. He coughed and looked straight up to the sky, but looking past it. There was one more sound of him choking on blood then there was nothing. A sob was forming in the back of my throat. I tried to keep it down, but a squeaking noise escaped.

The king’s attention was immediately drawn to me. His black eyes held me very still, like maybe he wouldn’t see me if I didn’t move. He walked in front of me to look at me better. He twirled the sword that was still dripping blood.

“And who is this? Your new pirate whore?”

A knight approached and handed him my backpack. The king sheathed his sword and opened the bag.

“She is a witch, sir,” the knight told him.

He dug down in the bag, “A witch? I thought we had captured them all.”

“She is from Springfield.”

The king pulled out the two bottles of alcohol, “Springfield? Where is that?”

He looked at me as if he wanted me to answer, but I still had the gag on. He motioned for the knight to get the gag off, “Must I do everything, you inconsiderable twit?”

The knight marched over and untied the gag, “Speak witch.”

My voice was not working.

“Are you disrespecting me, foul creature?” the king asked.

I shook my head.

“Then speak!”

“Ur, Springfield, Arkansas.”

A knight pushed me from behind, “You will answer with respect!”

“Springfield, Arkansas, sir.”

“What? What is that? Is that like a road or something?”

“Um, no. It’s a small town in Arkansas, twenty miles north of Cumberbridge,” I choked out then quickly added, “sir.”

The king looked at his many knights and waved his arms around, “Does anyone know where that is?”

There was a murmur across the mass of indecision.

“Sir, it’s in the United States of America,” I told them in disbelief that they kept this going for so long.

“What the bloody hell is she talking about?” the king growled.

“On planet Earth, sir?” I tried.

The king pulled out my math book and flipped through it, “’Property of University of Cumberbridge’. So you aren’t lying?”

“Must be on the Dark Island,” a knight murmured.

The king ran his fingers across the front of the book. There was a red ring on his middle finger that seemed to be lit. He tapped his finger on the cover then looked at me. Slowly, a smiled crept across his face. My heart stopped. He looked like a monster – a hungry monster.

“Send the pirates to the dungeon! I will deal with them tomorrow,” the king ordered.

A knight grabbed my shoulders, “What about the witch, sir?”

“Take her to my quarters!”

I jerked away from the knight, “No! I want out of here! Let me go!”

The king grabbed my jaw, “Hush, witch, no harm will come to you.”

I didn’t look in his eyes, but I did jerk away from him. He laughed and grabbed the rope that I was tethered to. He jerked me up the castle steps. I looked back to see the big pirate’s body being thrown into the cart and the other two being dragged into the hedge maze. I looked back in time to see the castle doors being opened for the king. They were at least twenty feet high and had to be opened by six guards, three for each door. The inside of the castle was dreary, but unbelievably gorgeous. There were red silk sheets drapped across the ceiling, casting the hallway in red light. There was a giant portrait of an older man on one side of the hallway, which I guess was the old king. He looked way nicer than his son. On the other wall was a painted portrait of the current king. It was terrifying, but a great piece of art. The artist got the eyes right on point. They followed us all the way down the hall.

We came out of the hallway into a ballroom. There was still a redish tint to the room, but I could still tell that the columns on each side of all the hallways – there was about seven of them – were made from pure gold. Smack dab in the middle was a spiral, gold stair case. I looked up to see if I could see the top, but the red silk was in the way. Unfortunately, I would get to see the top because he led me up the staircase. We walked up and up and up. My legs started burning and my head felt light. I realized I hadn’t ate since I stopped at Sonic on the way to the liquor store.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” the king admired.

I raised an eyebrow and shrugged. It was beautiful, but could have been better.

“It took a hundred years to build this castle. My great, great, great, great grandfather died on the day it was finished. He was buried in the wall right where his portrait hangs today.”

That is freaky as f.

“Speak!”

I jumped slightly and almost tumbled down the stairs, “That is very sentimental, sir.”

“It was his dream to rule the entire land.”

“What land is that exactly, sir?” I asked.

“The land of Tarish! My father was too weak to succeed, but me, with the help of you, I will succeed.”

We finally made it to the top. It was basically a hole in the ceiling of the ballroom. We were in another hallway that had the black windows that looked out over the courtyard and the forest. I stopped for a second just so I could catch my breath. The knights on the steps of the courtyard looked like ants.

“How exactly will I help you, sir?”

The king gave me a toothy smile. His canines were sharp. I swallowed and looked away. He pulled on my leash and into a room. The room was lit by just candles and there was no red tint. There was a fireplace in the corner with a couple of red chairs sat in front of it. On wall was an entire mirror and the other wall had a huge bed. It had a red cover on it and red silk pillows.

“You sure do like the color red,” I muttered.

He shut the door and let go of my leash, “All the power we hold is held in our blood.”

He walked over to a table where a bottle sat. He poured him a glass of red liquid.

“That is what you want from me, sir? My power? And you plan on getting that from drinking my blood?”

He drank his…whatever, “No, of course I don’t want to drink your blood. I want you to lead me to this university of witches and I want to drink all of their blood.”

I started laughing uncontrollably, “What the hell?”

“Something funny, Hadley?”

“You read my name off my book. That is not magic because you can’t absorb power by drinking someone’s blood.”

He narrowed his eyes and crossed back over to me in three strides, “What are you not telling me?”

Suddenly, a lightbulb came on over my head, “Why would I share anything with you? I am dead either way.”

“Maybe not,” he brushed my bangs away from my face.

Okay, ew. “No, I think I will keep this tidbit of information to myself.”

He grabbed me by my throat and slammed me up against the wall, “I will torture it out of you.”

I choked, “Fine! Fine!”

He let go, “That’s a good witch.”

I coughed and massaged my throat, “You have to inject it straight into your blood stream, sir.”

He raised an eyebrow, “And how does one inject blood into another’s blood stream?”

“I can do it” he reached for me and I held up my hands “but I need equipment from my home.”

“On Dark Island?”

“Yes.”

He smacked me, “You will address me as sir!”

Holding my jaw, I nodded.

“What was that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Great!” he walked over to the fire place. “Tomorrow morning we sail for Dark Island! And you will show me where the island is or I will drink the blood from your veins while you are still alive.”

He doesn’t know where the island is. My heart plummeted to my feet. I was hoping that there would be someone on the island that could help me get back to earth. Now, he was going to realize that I was a fake and drink my blood. Unless sheer dumb luck just happened to waltz in my lap tomorrow morning. Of course, there was still a chance that all of this was a very elaborate game and I would just be…raped? Killed? Tortured? Either way, nothing good was going to happen come sun up.

I cleared my throat, “Sir, the island is very difficult to place. It moves around too often. I need my bag to track the island and an empty room to absorb the energy from the ground…please…sir.”

He turned his head to look at me, “Fine.”

There was nothing natural about the way he moved. He grabbed my bag in one movement and in the next he was grabbing my arm, twirling me out of the room. Briskly, we walked down the hallway and through a black door. Behind the door were more stairs. They twirled up into the darkness. The king placed his hand on the rail, but stopped and tapped his ring against the metal. The metallic clang echoed up the tower.

“Witch,” he turned to look down at me, “are you scared of the dark.

There was just enough light still creeping in through the closing door for me to see his face. His eyes were wide and his mouth was parted just enough to see the tips of his canine. Then the door closed and we were plunged into darkness.

I swallowed and tried to calm my heartbeat, “No, sir, I was not.”

“But you are now,” his voice confirmed somewhere in the abyss.

“Yes, sir.”