3 Ways

Dreamy Struggles

>_____<;;

Namjoo always left the bedside lamp on when she slept. She wasn't as fond of sleeping in the dark as Victoria. Nightmares had been a cliché for her when she was a child, they lessened when she got older, but even so she never slept without a nightlight.

Without effort, her eyes shut on her the second she laid down. Her earlier nightmare picked up from where it had left off.

Her lips quivered as a painful grunt eased out of her and she dropped onto her knees. She panted, but lost more breath by doing it.

"Give yourself up," the man on the horse ordered.

The pain was so overwhelming Namjoo couldn't listen to him, but her nerves and crying blood. She gripped onto the spear and clamped her eyes shut. The present Namjoo could feel herself panicking, but the one in her dream seemed immune to her thoughts. A deafening scream left her when she courageously pulled the spear out of herself and tossed it aside. She fell over on all four, but the pain quickly lessened when she began healing herself. Namjoo was utterly confused, but the one in her dream seemed to know what was going on, which made her even more confused.

"Go kill yourself!" Namjoo swiped up a patch of soil up into the horse's eye.

She listened to it shriek and jump onto its hind legs panicked. Making a run for it she continued dashing through the woods. Escape was near, she could sense it. Then without warning something shot at her and she tripped forward harshly. When she pulled herself up she spotted men on horseback armed with bows and arrows. A cry seeped through her lips when another one pierced through her shoulder paralyzing her senses. She watched one of the men get off his horse and walk over before slinging his fist across her face.

When she awoke to she was lying face down in a jail cell of iron bars on a pile of leftover thin hay that the horses had rejected. The first thing she recognized was that there was still pain in her body; her injuries hadn't healed which was strange when they should have. Namjoo half choked when one of the men who'd brought her there threw water at her.

"Finally awake?" he raised an eyebrow in a cocky manner. "About time, you little witch."

Namjoo let out a painful groan before opening her hand up to summon her fireball, but nothing happened.

The men laughed at her as if she were an animal playing a stupid trick. "We smeared those arrows with leech seed. Don't think your powers can save you this time. Your execution will be in 2 hours. Enjoy the last of your last breath. No one's going to save you this time."

He chuckled before getting up to walk away. An overwhelming sense of hatred and anger surged through her. The emotions were so strong; Namjoo couldn't help but shake from them. Her loose hair damp from sweat and grime fell over her face as she lie there helpless waiting for the last of her life.

2 hours passed by quite quickly when two officers came to haul her out of the jail cell. Her legs were weak and helpless to her. The arrow that had shot through her right leg couldn't move properly and she could almost barely walk. The officer to her right had to lift her through the whole walk until they came to the execution site.

Unlike most execution sites where there were headboards for her to slide her head through and wait for her head to be cut off, there was a long plank about three feet off the ground. Namjoo felt her heart race in fear when she realized that she really had traveled back to the Joseon Dynasty. Panic equipped her when she ran her eyes over the private torture grounds in the palace. There were stones that made up the walk to the large beautiful shrines and halls all around her. The only audience she was given were the personal body guards.